Keeping up appearances.......

brizzledfw

am following you around the diaries Granny..stalking

Box_of_Fluffies

Hey great to see you back. You've been missed.

Sorry to hear DD hasn't recovered as quickly as you'd hoped but good news on her getting on to teaching course. Fingers crossed she's fully recovered by then.

I think you've done a fantastic job of debt busting given the events of the past few months. Congrats on the new signature :j

PinotGrigio41

Lovely to see you back Mrs Happy.

I am sure Miss Happy will still look beautiful in her 21st Birthday Photos. I hope you all have a lovely weekend. The course is great news and hopefully will help boost her recovery.

Take Care xxx

Fortune_Smiles

Best wishes for DD's recovery. Good to see you back.

Fortune x

Honey_Bear

Good to see you posting again, and congratulations to Miss Happy on her good news.

poohbear59

Brilliant news on DD getting a place on teacher training course.

And :j:j:j:j:j:j to reducing your debt so much.

Do you think either of us will be debt free by 60?

Box_of_Fluffies

Just popping in to say I hope DD is on the road to recovery.

chevalier

Hi Happy Now hope things are progressing nicely for you. Well done on the debt busting. That must have been such a psychological boost for you
chev

HappyNow

Look who's back !

Sorry for not posting earlier and thanks to everyone who has dropped by. It's been yet another difficult couple of months. I've struggled a bit with real-life and just haven't had the time or enthusiasm for diary-keeping. But time for an update!

1) Little Miss is still ill, although she is finally seeing a slight improvement. She decided a few weeks ago that she needed to suspend her studies for this year as her chances of coming out with a good degree (or any degree at all really) were getting slim. Uni have been really supportive and she will take her entire third year again starting Sept 14. This means she has had to delay her teacher training for a year too. She is my absolute heroine because she has stayed so cheerful through all this and is counting her many blessings rather than wallowing in the unfairness of it all.

2) Granny Happy is still very content in her nursing home and has exceeded her predicted expiry date by about six months now .

3) Master Happy has completed his degree and has moved back home. I'm not sure whether that's a or a ! He really wants his independence but until he finds a well-paid job he can't afford a place of his own. He is contributing towards the food bills so he's not particularly a financial drain, but the house just seems so small now he's back!

4) The finances are not good! Two months ago I mentioned that our unsecured debts were finally lower than our mortgage, but that's no longer the case. When Miss Happy suspended her studies her student finance stopped abruptly. Her rent and other living expenses, however, didn't! I have done a lot of research into what, if anything, she is entitled to and it's not a lot. We have applied to the Student Finance Discretionary Award Team and for an Access To Learning Grant and we're awaiting a decision from both, but in the meantime we have had to support her ourselves. Including rent, it's cost about £550 per month, which of course we didn't have. Anyway, the worst is over because we can end her tenancy soon and this month is the last rent payment.

So, I need to roll up my sleeves and get the money-management back on track. I have already made a few significant changes, but that's for my next post.

HappyNow

OK, the money stuff. List of changes I have recently made:

• Got rid of our land-line. That was a hard one, but we all have free minutes on our mobiles and made maybe one or two calls a month on it. We can't use it for internet access due to our rural location (we use mobile internet) and it barely rang other than for sales calls. So, it's gone! Saved about £12 each month.
• Cut Sky down to the basic package. Saved about £10 per month.
• Mr Happy's death insurance has expired, and we've not looked at renewing it. He's over 55 now and his private pension would pay a lump sum if he died. That, along with selling the rental property, would mean I could cope financially if the worst happened. That was £19 a month.
• The biggie. I have changed bank accounts. We had a fee-paying account with Barclays. We didn't particularly use the 'perks' like phone insurance and breakdown cover, but for our £17.50 we got a cheap-ish £5K overdraft. Barclays are changing their overdraft charging method in June from a % rate to a flat daily fee. It would increase our total monthly charges from about £50 to over £100!! So, I have paid our overdraft off by putting it all onto a '0% until Sept 15' credit card which incurred a one-off fee of £250, and bought breakdown cover for £40. We now have free banking, and will break even on the costs after 3 months (under the new charging methods) or 6 months (under the old charging methods). It made me nervous, but I really had no choice. For the time being we are staying with Barclays free banking, but I will be looking soon at switching to get a £100 incentive from another bank.
• Ebaying. I haven't actually done any yet, but it's going to happen this weekend.

If I don't re-focus, our debt-free date will slip way into the future and I can't let that happen, so I've got to get back into the zone!