And so the long slog begins.....

MummyDrusilla

Hi Chevalier,

Thanks for the link. I've done loads of work since January on my SoA so it needs a bit of updating but it's definitely a great idea to put it up. Thanks.

I've just done my May budget plan and seem to be £133.14 in credit after all outgoings and my scheduled debt repayment amount. That doesn't include the car payment so I'll have to make sure we're under budget for the food this month. I'm sure we'll do this as we were under budget last month for both food and fuel. Unfortunately I put this towards the OD before finding out about the car. Typical eh? I suppose I can use the OD if I need to but I'll wait till we get to the end of the month to see how close to the line we are. I'm avoiding withdrawing from the OD as much as possible.

Good news too, the cheque I wrote to open my new savings account has been banked. Which means that hopefully I will get the paperwork soon with log in details for the account and I can start monthly payments for our car tax. As we start to pay off other costly debts, I can increase the amount I pay into this to include mot/servicing and insurance so I can pay the insurance premium in full at the beginning and pay less overall.

MummyDrusilla

Some paperwork came through for the savings account but no log in details yet. Little bit frustrating but never mind. It'll son be here.

We've had a lovely DFW weekend with my sister and her boyfriend. They came to us, we went for a walk/climb and a picnic in the car and we didn't even have to buy any booze, though I did drink my fair share!!!

Back to the grind today though and have been paid. :J

I didn't mention above that I was going to a meeting with the bank on Friday. An out of the blue phone call from one of the advisors who told me she reckoned she could save me some money with my debts with them. I had a feeling it was going to be an offer of a consolidation loan but thought I'd go along anyway just in case they can help me out and also to get some free advice.......it was just as I thought. We went through every penny (she was most impressed that I could tell her every dd figure that goes out of our account off the top of my head - she has no idea :rotfl:). She couldn't offer me any advice I hadn't already heard and she quoted me for contents/buildings insurance but could only save me £2-3 per month. Which isn't to be sniffed at but I'm not sure of the level of cover and so if I feel we need to make further savings, I'll look into this. Anyway, she's rung back today to tell me that unfortunately there was no point going down the consolidation route cos the system had quoted me 18-19% interest and I'd be paying out more per month than I currently am . And that's on a 5 year loan - my debt free date is in 4yrs and 2 months :pale:.

Back to my own plan I think.

Aamberle

:money:Keep Going Mummy - I know it is tough, but you seem so organised, it will be no time at all..I will be following with great interest.

PinotGrigio41

Morning,

I will be subscribing if thats ok. It seems as though you have a grand plan to shift this debt and would like to join you on your journey if I may !

Sorry to hear abotu the cat and the car and hope both are on the mend.

Pinot x

MummyDrusilla

Hi Aamberle and Pinot! Thanks for joining me. This makes me happy

The car saga is ongoing. It's got to go back tomorrow morning for a couple of hours for an electrician to look at the wiring. It seems as if the part that was replaced on Tuesday isn't the whole problem and there's some wire that's frying it but my garage man isn't confident with wiring at all so he's had to organise his leccy to give it the once over. The bill's up to £150 so far incl labour but we're not certain if this includes VAT. So worst case scenario so far is just under £200.

As for the cat, we took him on Weds night after I got back from work. he wasn't at all happy and was walking along really tentatively. So sent DH with him and as he was driving along, the cat's armpit exploded! (it wasn't that dramatic I don't think ) He had an abscess, probably from fighting or catching himself on a barb somewhere. So 1 slow-release antibiotic injection later and we had to cough up £46. Luckily we already had some anti-inflammatories at home from a previous escapade so we didn't have to pay out as much as we might have done.

This is an expensive month so far and it's only the 4th .

Never mind, onwards and upwards. This is what we get for having cars and animals and not putting anything aside. I'm glad I haven't paid that insurance money into any debt account yet. I have a feeling we may have to dip into it.

Oh and £1 to the OD - DH didn't use the tumble on weds and actually hung the towels on the airer :shocked: :T

MummyDrusilla

Oooh I forgot to say, I had the rest of the paperwork thru for the savings account. I had to send back a slip of paper with my password on for them to set it up. I'm not sure how secure it is and would hope that as it's got no identifiable information on the same slip of paper apart from a barcode that presumably a machine will scan with my password and do it's magic, it'll be secure enough. I'm glad it's not going to have any major sums in there or my wages going in!

Exciting trip this weekend - we're going to get DS's feet measured for the 1st time now he's been toddling around for a few weeks. First shoes.......the beginning of major expenditure :eek:

Aamberle

Mummy - How exciting first new shoes. How did it go? From my understanding they either hate it or love it..lol. Anyway sorry to hear about cat and car - but hey it looks like they can all be sorted, even if you cant add to the insurance pot. ( I am truly not that organised to have one, so you are way in front of me :-) ).
Good Work on the tumble Mummy DH -see it all adds up.
Catch up soon x

Aamberle

Hi Mummy, Havent heard from you in a while... How is the DFW journey going??x

MummyDrusilla

Hi Aamberle! *waves*

I've been busy busy since I last posted with work, weddings and travelling! We had my cousin's wedding last weekend and were much more DFW than we previously have been when we go to weddings. We stayed with my parents who live an hour and half away from the wedding venue, I bought a dress off ebay (I don't fit into any of my other dresses), DH wore an old suit he now fits into after losing a stone in weight (without trying - pah!) and DS wore an outfit he already had in his wardrobe, just smarted up a bit. We didn't give them a gift which I feel really crappy about but they wanted money for their honeymoon and we just can't afford anything this month. I'm hoping the pics we took and sent them make up for it.

Since I last posted the car has been fixed to the tune of £350 - ouch. Not as expensive as the garage guy was predicting but still very ouchy to us esp as it's had to be paid out of my claim money. But the car's fixed and is running as good as new.

We had a bit of a saga with DS's shoe fitting. We went to an independent shop after a recommendation, thinking we'd support local business. I totally regret going in there. The woman was rude, arrogant and insulted DH and me, as well as mums generally. We walked out of her shop pretty swiftly and went to Clark's the next day and got some lovely little shoes for him along with a pic and height chart. Much nicer service and nicer shoes too. I'm trying to block the first fitting from my mind.

As for DFW bits and bobs, I've not anything new really. Trying to use the washing line when I can but we've not had much opportunity unfortunately. Food shopping was very low last week for our fortnightly big shop as we were at my parents' last weekend and we're going to my friend's this weekend so just had to buy for meals in the week. I suspect we'll pay more in fuel than we've saved on the food shopping. It's all swings and roundabouts isn't it?

I've not actually heard anything back about that savings account. I'll dig out the paperwork tonight and see if I can log into it.

MummyDrusilla

What a cr*ppy month.

We've been so busy with our weekends here and there so I've not been able to update all my spreadsheets and things so I feel like I'm fumbling in the dark a bit. Our wages haven't stretched anywhere near well enough this month but I think it's cos we've been spending on pre-booked spends but I haven't transferred out of the pots they should have come out of cos I've not had time and then forgotten. So it's come out of my savings pot and that's led to spiralling drip-feeding of savings into the joint account to fund more spending. I've had a bit of an awful mindset of 'this month's ruined so I might as well keep on spending'. I won't tell you how much I spent at the supermarket on 2 top-up shops this week - I'm really beating myself up about it. I think it's been stuff that we needed and would have bought eventually but why did I need to buy it this week before we've been paid and so meaning I had to dip into savings AGAIN which is just killing me. Urgh.

So i need to curb it. DH gets paid tomorrow and I'll get paid sometime next week so I'll draw a line under it and move on. The weekend spells the start of a new wage month and trying to recoup some of the excessive spending. I've almost got £50 in my pp account which I'll transfer and help out the current ac or if that's ok, then it'll go to the OD as previously planned. In fact I might cheat and transfer money into it so I can then transfer out without accruing charges.

Still haven't checked out that savings account but I will do this weekend when I do my monthly budgets and do all my monthly money transfers into various accounts.

Despite feeling wretched about the over-spending, I'm really looking forward to getting back into it and on top of it. DH even said to me that we need to sell more stuff to keep on top of things as 'weve done so well so far, that it's stupid not to carry on'. So that's a big thumbs up to me!!!!

He is talking about me increasing my hours which I know is the right thing to do. As much as I don't want to do it and want to spend the time with our son, it doesn't make sense when I earn so much more per day than it costs to send DS to his childminder per day. I just need to ask my boss if he's got any more hours right now. Don't think he has at the moment but it'll put the idea in his head to think of me when stuff crops up.