Conquering Debts Once and For All...

Box_of_Fluffies

What a naughty girl I have been, it's been a whole week since my last post. Work was good this week, not too busy and as it was Easter we had a couple of egg hunts. Great fun.

Our underfloor insulation was installed on Thursday. Yay! :j We now have a new, fully functional garage door. So Friday was spent loading up the trailer with all the rubbish that we haven't been able to move out of the garage for the past 18 months. So we are now able to park one of the cars inside.

DS2 is 15 on Tuesday and as it's the lonf weekend and school is not back until Wednesday, he has friends over for 3 days. Yesterday was just a couple of friends, but today is main celebration so there will be 6 of them. Pizza for dinner today.

Hope you're all having a good Easter. Will try and catch up on diaries later.

grannyx2

Happy birthday to DS

Granny x

Box_of_Fluffies

Well, DSs had a lovely birthday weekend. He is happy with all his presents and has sworn the shirt we bought him for the last two days.

Came home to water on the toilet floor tonight. Not a massive amount but there was a big puddle in the toilet itself but the carpet in the hallway is wet. Just wondering if the insulation people disturbed a pipe under the house last week. Fortunately, one of DS2's friend's is a plumber and is able to come and look at it for us first thing in the morning. Fingers crossed it's easily fixed.

Spoke to dad tonight, he was in good spirits and looking really well. It was nice to see the sun shining through his kitchen windows. Looks like spring has finally made an appearance in the UK.

grannyx2

Yes agree its so nice to see the sun at the moment, it seems to have been a long harsh winter this year. It's still blinking cold though.

I'm currently on my own in the house so have 4 layers on as I don't want to put the heating on. Bet it'll go on as soon as OH gets home though Right now I'm wishing I did have that onesie everyone threatened me with last week.

Hope the plumber friend finds the problem and its an easy quick free job.

Granny x

Box_of_Fluffies

Hope the plumber friend finds the problem and its an easy quick free job.

The good news is the source of the leak was traced and the valve has been replaced.

The bad news is
(a) the reason the valve was broken was due to a blockage in the pipe. This turned out to be a lot harder to fix - the roots of a nearby tree have managed to embed themselves into our sewage pipe and part of our back garden had to be dug up.

(b) when the insulation people put in the insulation last week they managed to knock out the connecting hose under our shower tray and for the past week our waste water has been going through under the house. This has also been fixed.

(c) the sewage pipe from our toilet running down to the main sewer was fit by a cowboy plumber (long before we bought the house) and they have connected two pipes that are the wrong size and only sealed with silicone. This is how the tree roots got into the pipe in the first place.

Result: We have to find approx $1000 to pay for this initial repair. Then in the next 3-6 months we need to remove the tree from the back garden (if we don't the same thing will happen). We also need to dig up some concrete outside the toilet so the sewage pipe can be replaced properly!

I just don't know how we're going to be able to pay for all this work. On top of this we have Mr F's mum coming to stay with us for 2½ weeks in a couple of weeks time. We're not going to have any money to go anywhere. I'm gutted. I know she's coming to see us but we were hoping to go Auckland for a couple of days and see a few of the sights that she has not yet seen and we'd like to see again!

Sorry for the long gloomy post. I'm sure things will look brighter in the morning.

brizzledfw

Balls. That's carp. Feel for you.

Hope you can get some money together to see some sights. Waiheke, Poor Knights, Coromandel...blimey wish I was back with you all now!!:D

Hope it sorts itself. Keep posting. We miss you x

Box_of_Fluffies

Thanks Brizzle. Have received the bill for the plumbing works - $920. :eek: Will pay this next week. Leaving my money in bank until 30th so I can at least get the interest. Not a great deal of money but we need the extra few dollars.

MIL been here for a week and so far have managed to keep within budget. Fortunately she doesn't expect us to pay for everything. Which is a huge relief. I even managed to pay for us all to go for a meal on Mr F's birthday (which was on Thursday). :j

Have to find approx $1000 by 7/5/13 for our final GST return from the business but have this covered too! It will pretty much clear out all our savings but at least we can pay it.

We have only done local trips so far, as it has rained pretty much every day since MIL arrived. So far have visited Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton Museum, had a couple of pub lunches, been to the cinema to see Trance and visited a couple of markets.

Next week we are heading to Auckland for two days. Will do the Musuem on Wednesday, meal out on Wednesday night and then a trip to Rangitoto Island on Thursday. MIL is paying for the hotel and Island trip as a combined birthday present for DS2 and Mr F.

I might, just might manage to make ends meet this month without putting anything on the cc. :j

PinotGrigio41

Theres alot going on there Mrs F, but it sounds as though you have it all under control.

Really hope you all enjoy your trip to Auckland, sounds wonderful and lovely of MIL to pay as well, I am sure you will enjoy it all the more without worrying about the cost as much.

Take Care xx:D

brizzledfw

Enjoy Rangitoto...am jealous!! :-)

Box_of_Fluffies

Big decision made during the week and I'm now pleased to say we are back to being a one car family! The decision was made easier as a result of Mr F and I working at the same place and car sharing and the fact that Mr F's car was 17 years old and had the engine had started to cut out.

It has been into the garage a couple of times to be checked out and they think the diesel fuel pump was on its way out and that alone would cost over $2,000 to fix. :eek: The car isn't worth that much!

So on Wednesday we put it through the car auction and it sold! Just above the reserve price. Cash is now in the bank. :j

With the money we'll save from on road costs and fuel etc. we should be able to pay my car off, which was purchased for the business, a lot earlier... may be even by the end of of June which would be a whole 9 months early.

Visit to Auckland was brilliant. I don't think my feet/legs have recovered from all the walking we did. :rotfl: Rangitoto Island is amazing. The weather held out for us too.

Last full day of MIL's visit today and we're trying to decide what to do, as the rain has set in again!

Have a great weekend everyone.