We are about to pull the purse strings soooo tight!

Alice_in_Poorland

Well what a week. DS is home, it's so good to see him. :T:j

Last Sunday one of the oldies fell ill so having been doing hospital visits and making sure the other oldie is ok on their own.

Haven't spoken to stepchange re going alone. Thankfully I hadn't posted the letters. We will have to wait until 1st July, not ideal but with so much going on its just not going to work at the moment....And I need to it to work!! I'm disappointed but family have come first this week.

Spends have been a bit out of control, we had a family meal Saturday and then we had everybody round yesterday for a BBQ. Have put DS on our car insurance and given him £20 'pocket money'. He should start working temporary next week which will help. 'We' need to save for his return flight £800 approx too.

DS2 has picked up some work for the summer too, so that helps. He has said he doesn't need his pocket money now. Both kids are really trying to do their bit. I'm really proud of them but it still makes me feel bad we got into this position.

My friend has gone to c0stc0 so have given her our list and money.

Car instance renewed, did comparisons and was cheaper to stay with t3sco.

Car in garage next for repair, should be £55.

I've done 2 quite expensive trips to the supermarket over the last 4 days. Plus have put £50 petrol in the car.

Trip to the barbers for OH and DS cost £16.

Should have a quieter night tonight so can update spending diary budget.

Xx

Verbatim

Glad ds1 safely home for the summer. Sorry to hear about sickness in the family.

brizzledfw

Glad you have your boy back. Best of luck with it all..we are rooting for you Alice..thought of you as I pegged out 4 loads over weekend !;)

Xx

Alice_in_Poorland

Verbatim wrote: »

Glad ds1 safely home for the summer. Sorry to hear about sickness in the family.

Thanks V, it's so good to have him home and the 'oldey' is on the mend. Chucked my dummy out over lack of help/support from their family but heyho.:(

Xx

brizzledfw wrote: »

Glad you have your boy back. Best of luck with it all..we are rooting for you Alice..thought of you as I pegged out 4 loads over weekend !;)

Xx

Hi brizzle, its great to have him home, and wasn't the weekend great for pegging out. If it wasn't nailed down it was washed this weekend just gone.

Xx

Alice_in_Poorland

Things are a bit more settled now, DS is settling in, it's like he's never been away.

Our elderly relative that was poorly (the oldey as I affectionately referred to in my other post) is much better. Should be back home by the end of the week and some help will hopefully be sorted.

Car cost £70 in the end. I also bought some new pillows £20.:eek:

Not sure how many NSDs we had last month but today at least was a NSD.

C0stc0 stuff came to £54.

Going to be tight this month again. Thinking about going self managed, the date the DD to stepchange left the account was the 10th of every month, but they didn't pay out until later in the month. I'm thinking would we have to stick to the same date or came we pay over the month?

Play date arranged tomorrow, cost will be £10 :eek: It DSs half term treat.

Xx

brizzledfw

Please to hear it Alice...

Am not sure and EE will no doubt advise, but don't see why you can't pay over the month..and amounts as and when you can (unless you have prior agreed to a precise date in a plan) Am sure SC do that for ease? Theirs not the creditors?

X

Eager_Elephant

Alice_in_Poorland wrote: »

Going to be tight this month again. Thinking about going self managed, the date the DD to stepchange left the account was the 10th of every month, but they didn't pay out until later in the month. I'm thinking would we have to stick to the same date or came we pay over the month?

Xx

Hi Alice


Once you go self-managed you set the rules so if you want to spread your payments over the month you can do this.


In the letter you send to explain about your new self-managed DMP you can either tell everyone they will get payment by last day of each month (and then you can send payment when you like within that month) or you actually state a date to each creditor (which fits in with when you want to pay).


Hope you pillows were nice and comfy - we go through loads of pillows and I got some new ones a few months ago and they are useless. Have checked some reviews and a lot of expensive pillows - £50+ get great reviews but I am reluctant to spend that in case they are just as bad as the cheaper ones!!

Alice_in_Poorland

Thanks brizzle and EE, that is great news, that will work much better for us although we're in big 'trouble' now......as we have a full house at the moment it's difficult to do anything private.;) Whilst I was out with the kids today OH called step change and arranged for us to go self managed....immediately.:eek:

They told him to cancel the DD and they would let the creditors know. Which means I have to write to the creditors straight away and pay them this months payment directly.:eek:

He was supposed to just check what the procedure was. Maybe it's a good think as we've got to go for it now. We don't have a working printer at home so need to sort something out about the letters.

We can do this!!

On other news,still only had 1 NSD. There isn't a DD set up for the council tax so looks like I will pay it through online banking (at the moment anyway). Today's spend were £2 car parking at the park in the town, and £2 on ice cream for DS.

We had a chippy tea tonight, £15.:eek:

Need to do meal plan and shopping list.

Things just got very real here, I must keep my head and get all this info together. Feeling very stressed.

Xx

Eager_Elephant

Well done Alice's DH:T:T


I agree that it is best just to get on with it, the more you think about stopping the DMP the more you worry and not do anything.


The letters will be fine, use the ones from the Step change website - I could print them for you if you email them to me and then post them in a pack to you for signing and sending on? Or failing that could you pop to the local library and print them?


YOU CAN DO THIS:j:j

Alice_in_Poorland

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Well done Alice's DH:T:T


I agree that it is best just to get on with it, the more you think about stopping the DMP the more you worry and not do anything.


The letters will be fine, use the ones from the Step change website - I could print them for you if you email them to me and then post them in a pack to you for signing and sending on? Or failing that could you pop to the local library and print them?


YOU CAN DO THIS:j:j

Thank you so much EE, you are so right I just needed that push. Ironic that it was OH that did the pushing:eek:

Just had a heart stopping moment, tried to log into stepchange to check the balances and 'access was denied'.:eek:

EE, I'm going to try and print the letters at work. Like you say I could go to the library but that would have to wait until next weekend. If I can't work anything out I'll let you know. Thank you.

Although I feel excited I do feel that our safety blanket has been pulled from under our feet. No going back now.

In other news, went shopping spent £16 in £1 shop and £70 in @ldi. Put £30 petrol in my car. Got £30 cash to pay for drinks tonight. (Hoping for a max spend £20). Also got dog food £20.

Need to get a special birthday present, looking at max £15 spend. Party in the next few weeks.

EE forgot to mention pillows are fab. Haven't had much luck with cheap pillows in the past. Hopefully these will be worth the money.

Pegged out 3 loads today. Must do meter readings!

Xx