The Ultimate Hard and Fast debt clearing mission

clearmydebts

Birdie85 wrote: »

Nice to see you Poddle!

Leaving super early tomorrow so I'll say goodbye now! :wave:

Hope everyone's seen some great fireworks!

Have a brilliant holiday xxx

davidflora

Thanks for give the good review !!

Dinah93

wendz86 wrote: »

I have seen the oyester before and they are really nice, hopefully it will work out better for you.

When are ypu hoping to go to new york?

LOVING the oyster, considering it's about 1/3 the cost of the icandy I wish we'd just got this the first time around.

We haven't really discussed when yet. It'd be the two of us and Grace would have a week with her gran and grandad, so it needs to be in school holidays. We have my cousin's wedding in May which is in Greece, and then the plan atm is a family holiday to Italy in late July/early August. So I guess either the very end of August, or next October half term?

We have a lot of life plan for next year we need to nail down before we can make any certain decisions on holidays and lots of other things. I have to admit it is really tempting to try to find a way to return to work and go two days a week, but use holiday time for the other 3 days so still get a full time wage, fall pregnant again towards the end of the year and end up with a 2 year age gap, and a full time wage but only have one day a week childcare to pay for.... this is never really going to be possible as I can't work out a 'safe' form of childcare for Grace, but would be lovely if I could have dragged my wage out for another year and a second lot of maternity pay.

Birdie85 wrote: »

Gosh, 61,000 points to get to NY?! How much is that in real money? Do they do extra points deals that you can take advantage of? Shame not everywhere takes Amex.

I messed up the numbers. I thought I got 2000 bonus points, when it's 20,000. So we only need about 43,000 points. Which is technically a £41,000 spend. Or £20,500 on groceries and petrol as it's double points. However Tesco vouchers also convert to virgin airmiles, and we have quite a few of those, enough for about £36,000 points.... so we really only need to spend £5000 or £2500 on fuel and food to get the tickets - VERY doable! I'd like to use some of the Tesco vouchers for the actual hotel stay in NY though as you can use them towards Hilton hotels, so will have to try to get as many Amex points as I can so we use fewer Tesco points.

Have to admit my inner moneysaver is really flourishing again as my wage has gone down, we don't seem to be living any differently, but bills still balance and I just seem to be working harder to find better bargains. I got a very pathetic thrill of glee on saturday when buying some more supplies on ebay for my craft stall - quidco cashback, nectar points automatically through ebay, and paying via amex for airmiles

To do list today is a bit pointless, Grace is in a merry place where she screams pretty much constantly. It's only calmed slightly by my carrying her and walking, and sometimes the buggy. So that's the plan for today. She's dozed off now, but I don't imagine I'll get much longer until it all starts up again. Would like to get the place a bit tidied, the month's budget balanced and moved about and also 3 ebay listings and my first crafty bits finished so they can go on etsy. In dream world I'd like to get the quotes on the car insurance for both cars too.

Managed to get a few bits listed on ebay and amazon last night. Not loads as it was in between screams but a little less clutter and a few more pennies. I'd love to get our debt under £5k by new year, but between having £1.5k or so in insurance to pay, 2 MOTs, possibly a tax, and £500 to actually buy the second car, plus my maternity pay ending, I'm not sure this is overly do-able.

wendz86

Glad you are getting on well wth it. Our pushchair was quite a cheapy one really but worked well although i would have prefered something a little less bulky. We have a stroller now which is a lot smaller and easier to control!

Sounds exciting with all your holiday plans!

That would have been good if you could have done your plan for going back to work but the childcare situation does cause issues.

I am looking forward to when we have paid off insurance and aa this week as can then concentrate on wedding savings. Still think the majority will be coming from my inheritance but we will do what we can.

I managed to ebay a couple of things last night, every little helps...

Cinny91

Great going on your car insurance, Wendz! I saw the festive jumpers in Primark, I'm determined to get myself one at least. I doubt OH would wear one, he's such a grinch.

I think it would be good to set yourself a debt clearing goal though Dinah, maybe under 6k by the end of the year? If that's a bit more realistic!

Did everyone have a nice weekend? I didn't do a lot bar hug Lotso and sleep in between that and walking Ryder, we just watched all the Omen films and didn't do a great deal of anything even remotely productive!

Really not happy with my job at the moment. I think with working for another company I've seen how employees are meant to be treated and it's not how my family treat me. Overworked and underpaid springs to mind! And after getting told by someone I'm "completely replaceable" I'm pretty much done here. I've had my wage cut two times in as many years, but still taken on extra work to help cut costs and make myself (what I thought was) more valuable to the company. There's been talk at my second job of wanting to take me on full time, and put me on the payroll too. But honestly, I'd quit today if I didn't need this wage for bills. Never felt this way about my job before

Have fireworks for tonight though, that should cheer me up a little

wendz86

I'm not surprised you feel like that Cinny after how they are treating you. I somehow don't think they will find someone else who will work the extra and get paid less like you have been doing so will be their loss!

Fingers crossed for the second job and going full time.

N.I.M

Cinny91 wrote: »

Really not happy with my job at the moment. I think with working for another company I've seen how employees are meant to be treated and it's not how my family treat me. Overworked and underpaid springs to mind! And after getting told by someone I'm "completely replaceable" I'm pretty much done here. I've had my wage cut two times in as many years, but still taken on extra work to help cut costs and make myself (what I thought was) more valuable to the company. There's been talk at my second job of wanting to take me on full time, and put me on the payroll too. But honestly, I'd quit today if I didn't need this wage for bills. Never felt this way about my job before

I got a little lost on this one Cinny, is it your family company thats saying you are completely replaceable and cutting your income and the other place treating you really well or the other way round? Either way its assey but if its the family firm then I'm angry for you.

Tete_en_l'Air

Hi all, just a quick one as I'm on my phone and have been awake for about 28 hours now Thanks for all your lovely thoughts while I was stranded- was nice to have an extra few days TBH (not so much for the girl with the one-year-old back home tho!) but we did find we were struggling for things to do by the end - lots was closed or inaccessible. Hopefully BA will refund the extra nights in the hotel but if not the special Sandy Rate means it shouldn't be more than £350 each for the extra 6 nights.

Shrimpy- SO pleased to hear the outcome of your scan, my heart was in my mouth as I caught up. Hope all goes well with the op and fingers crossed for the house too.

Ruby, hope the trip goes ok and you are able to reach a conclusion whatever it may be x

Dinah sounds like you're really back on the wagon now- very inspiring as I need to take myself in hand now!

Birdie- I downloaded a free Sims game to play on my phone during the storm- totally addicted!!! I can see why you love it so much! Enjoy your hols!

Hi everyone else!

Cinny91

Glad you're home safe, Tete! Must have been a unique experience to say the least? From what I've seen on the news it looks like it's brought out everyone's good side - like people opening their houses to people who need rooms, letting people charge their phones when they have electricity. Bar Sandy, did you have a nice time?

N.I.M wrote: »

I got a little lost on this one Cinny, is it your family company thats saying you are completely replaceable and cutting your income and the other place treating you really well or the other way round? Either way its assey but if its the family firm then I'm angry for you.

Sorry! It's the family firm. There's always been banter, which I get and brush off but there's a line and over the past 4 months it's been crossed on a nearly daily basis. I ended up ringing acas yesterday, to talk through things and see what my rights are as for what's being said to me (apparently it's harassment, boarding onto gender discrimination?) so I've been given a list of motions to go through, like giving informal and formal complaints and starting to keep a log of things that are said. All seems pretty heavy. But I guess they need to know I'm serious and want it to stop.

N.I.M

Cinny91 wrote: »

Sorry! It's the family firm. There's always been banter, which I get and brush off but there's a line and over the past 4 months it's been crossed on a nearly daily basis. I ended up ringing acas yesterday, to talk through things and see what my rights are as for what's being said to me (apparently it's harassment, boarding onto gender discrimination?) so I've been given a list of motions to go through, like giving informal and formal complaints and starting to keep a log of things that are said. All seems pretty heavy. But I guess they need to know I'm serious and want it to stop.

I had my suspicions, have you taken anyone aside and just said "Look I get banter, thats fine, but a lot of whats been said recently is cutting a bit too close to the bone for my liking" or something? I'm not defending a single thing they've done but these questions will be asked at a later stage.