Chasing the debt free daydream...

Winnie_in_Pooh

l.m.hart wrote: »

Life is a bi*ch isnt it

....and then you marry one, as I'm forever telling DH :rotfl:

Well I'm feeling 100% carp today. Bloody doctors gave me the wrong antibiotics for my infection two weeks ago so I'm on different ones now and they are not nice! Plus I've seen 4.30am for the past four days running... *big yawn*

Aaaaanyway, have managed a couple of NSD's :j unfortunately not achieved by will power, achieved by empty bank account but hey, I'm claiming a small victory because I didn't go fishing down the back of the sofa for change lol!

SSP day on Monday so I'll be stocking up on food then if I'm mobile. DS is off camping with my sister this weekend then off to his dad's for the week on Monday so I'm going to attempt to feed me and DH on £15 for the week. Should be doable. The freezer is almost empty but the cupboards are pretty well stocked. I might even make it an Iceland week rather than a Tesco for no reason other than I haven't done that for a while

I think there is something afoot at DH's work. He's usually bursting to tell me about his day but this week he has been unusually quiet and not forthcoming about things (very annoying considering I live vicariously through him these days :rotfl:) but anyway, I don't think its anything to worry about, I think there might be a promotion in the pipeline...mmm, watch this space!

Oh, on the tumble dryer question I was pondering last week, I think Eon have made my mind up for me by sticking their prices up today so we can't afford one (unless DH is being promoted to CEO )

never_too_old

my house looks like a chinese laundry sometimes, i refuse to use the tumble drier ( i have a washer drier) my dishwasher stopped working today:eek: so back to handwashing:eek: will have to get it sorted at sometime as i have a huge stockpile of dishwasher tablets:)

Good news hopefully for dh.
my dh was home today he couldnt work,he has work for next week but its gone a bit quite which is worrying.I have lost another customer this week:eek:. Thinking of going to job centre next week to see if im entitled to jobseekers allowance or something as im not having much luck on the job front.

ive been getting up bright and early this week as dd2 has just got a job at a very well known burger chain and during the school hols shes doing full time. shes been starting at 6 am and ive been taking her. You take care of yourself and lets hope the new antibiotics work.:D

Winnie_in_Pooh

I haven't felt much like posting over the past few days - have been feeling very sorry for myself and very unmotivated and didn't really want to put negative things on here as I really want it to be a positive record. I've been very worried about the rioting too - fortunately it hasn't spread as far south as us and I haven't got any family/friends in the affected areas - but its so sad and unnecessary.

I woke up at 3am this morning (bit of a change from 4.30am *roll eyes*) worrying about money. And I haven't done that for a long time. And I didn't like it. And I don't want it to happen again.

I figured that we are actually very lucky to be paying no interest on the majority of our debts and we are in a good position in that DH's job is safe, we know what my income will be until April and we didn't loose out on tax credits so they can be relied on until April as well. So realistically, I shouldn't have that much to worry about. But I would feel better if I had more of a solid plan rather than the loose arrangements that we currently have. I do function much better when I know where I am and what I'm doing.

So I'm going to go away and work something out. Or at least try. I can never really work out where to start, but I'll have a good think and come back later and hopefully get some feedback from you wonderful peeps, if thats ok?

In other news, the ceiling is being fixed next week "sometime" but hopefully Wednesday so the plaster can dry and we can decorate the following weekend and then we can actually get into a bedroom! That should make me feel better but it will certainly cheer DH up because he'll get the living room back and his xbox lives in there and he's missed the poor little thing *biiiiiig roll eyes*

Anyway, I'm starving so need to find food. Haven't been mobile enough to go shopping though so this could probably be more complicated than it sounds :rotfl:

Hovel_lady

Sorry you've not been feeling well. Like you I wish we had a more solid plan but we, like you, are dealing with it and sometimes there's nothing more you can do. Which is very frustrating I know.
Happy to help with feedback if you like. We all care and will help if we can.
We had some minor trouble here last night and it does make me feel a little unsafe.
Glad the bedroom is almost usable again
Hope you found something nice to eat.
((Hugs))

never_too_old

Look after yourself and the little one not too much longer to go...
We all get very impatient and want the debts paid off asap, i know i do.I emptied my change tins today knew they were only half full but patience wasnt my virtue this morning, £13 in full bags so im going to pad that later to one of my debts i wanted there to be more in both but ive got to get a bit more coinage to complete a few bags. Hope you found something nice to eat and take care:D

Winnie_in_Pooh

Thanks ladies

I found a large bar of Galaxy and ate the lot not the most nutritious breakfast but it was either that or nothing so I think DH might have to be sent to a shop on his way home, which makes him moan like hell even though he has to drive directly past two Tesco's and a Morrisons on the 3 mile trip home! It does make me feel incredibly useless because I know he hates it especially after a hard day at work but I struggle to walk down the hallway to the kitchen never mind round an enormous supermarket . We do have tea in for tonight though, nothing exciting just pasta bake with hot dog sausages so if I can get that on the table (for table read knee :cool:) by the time he gets home hopefully that will take the sting out of it a little.

Still got to nag DH about cancelling Sky and ringing the car finance people about the 38p they keep charging us. Anyone got any advice on how to get men to actually DO something they've already promised to do? At the moment it seems the more I ask him to do it the less inclined he is to do it! Men :mad:

Anyway, part one of the financial side of the plan is going to be reclaiming the PPI. I've been warbling on about doing this for long enough but now I really have to knuckle down and do it so once I've finished this post I'm off to read up about how to go about this. Please feel free to kick my backside into action if I'm found procrastinating around the boards!

Winnie_in_Pooh

Right, I've downloaded the reclaiming letters and saved them in a folder on my desktop called "DO THIS NOW" so I have no excuse to ignore it

Just need to dig out the paperwork for CrapOne and the Black Horse loan, get DH to fix the printer and fill in the blanks on the letters! I even already have stamps and envelopes

Also had a quick look through the guide to reclaiming bank charges, and now I'm fairly sure we could get something back on both Santander accounts and the HSBC one under the financial hardship criteria. It looks a little more complicated than PPI reclaiming but also could be much more profitable.

I would say at first very rough guess we could get up to £2500 in PPI and perhaps somewhere in the region of £5000 in charges. I'm sure we won't get the full amount but anything would be so wonderful! I'm not sure how it would work seeing as we still currently owe on all of the accounts I'd be claiming on, I guess they would just knock whatever they offer us off the outstanding balance? Or perhaps write the balance off altogether? Oooo wouldn't that just be wonderful

*Winnie wonders off in yet another daydream*

Winnie_in_Pooh

K, daydreaming done lol and I've just had a tube of Opal Fruits for lunch doing really badly today on the food front!

I've been wondering about stepping away from using our debit cards and moving towards a cash economy. I used to do this when it was just me and DS before I met DH and it really did work.

Now neither DH nor I tend to spend money on ourselves and as such we don't have "pocket money". Anything we do want (rather than need) such as a trip to the hairdressers for me, or a game of golf or a bit of computer for him, is always discussed between us and usually done on payday. I'm wondering if we would benefit from perhaps instigating some personal spends money - in case he wants a bought lunch for example - or if this would just encourage us to spend money?

Our paydays are also a bit all over the place so working out when in the month to withdraw the cash will be key to a cash economy. We currently receive our tax credits payment of approx £70 every week on a Thursday, child benefit of £20 a week on a Monday, DH's salary is paid on 15th of the month and my SSP is paid fortnightly on a Sunday. The maintenance payment from DS's dad goes to a seperate account and turns up whenever the CSA decides to send it so I ignore that and don't rely on it In theory therefore we are never that far away from a payday of sorts. All of the direct debits are paid on 15th when DH's salary goes in, except for two which go out on 1st, so in theory whatever we have left is ours for food/diesel/additional debt repayments/savings throughout the month.

So on the 15th we have £1260 going in and around £1000 going out. We also try to put at least £100 into our savings pot. So DH's wages get consumed pretty quickly and I don't think this would be a good time to withdraw any amount of cash. I try to do our weekly shop on a Thursday using the tax credit money which seems to work quite well, although I usually end up in the supermarket on a Sunday at some point to buy any fresh stuff we need for the week. I only meal plan for one week at a time because a lot of what DS has to eat is either fresh or has a very limited shelf life.

I think I may have just talked myself out of the cash economy idea. What do you guys think? How do you run things on a day to day basis? How would you do it if you were me?

Hovel_lady

We have a cash economy but it's straight foward as we only have money going into the account (OH's wages) once a month.
All bills are paid are paid DD with the exception of the cc'c - we set up payments for them to leave the account on payday.
On payday I get out money for housekeeping and my pocket money. OH gets pocket and petrol money out. And that's it at the moment.
Anything else we need is discussed first to make sure we have the money (mostly not at the moment) and then we get extra out/pay by card depending on the amount.
I much prefer cash - concentrates the mind wonderfully When it's gone it's gone so I really think twice before I buy anything at the moment.

Winnie_in_Pooh

I do wonder if we could get the tax credits and child benefit paid monthly at the same time as DH's salary which would definitely make a cash economy more realistic. Two reasons I haven't done this are 1) its quite helpful having a small cash injection every week just in case we do overspend and 2) I really haven't got the patience to spend an hour on hold to the Inland Revenue on a premium rate number!