And so the long slog begins.....

MummyDrusilla

Hiya hun,

My week's been long. First full week of 4 days having been used to 2.5 days per week and it's exhausted me! I went to bed at 9 last night with a hot choc and toast and was asleep by 10. Should have got to sleep earlier but was faffing around on fb.

I'm really struggling this month and we're going to have to live on credit for the rest of the month . I'm so so gutted and upset with myself. The thing that's killed us has been the extra childminder fees (for the extra day per week), the fact that we had to pay the replacement CM with real money rather than vouchers (our normal CM was on holiday for a week) and the car service at the beginning of the month. An extra £350 paid out this month. Perhaps we should have foreseen it but the extra hours at work happened very quickly. I think there was 2-3 weeks between my boss asking me and starting them. So nowhere near enough time to save up for it. We thought we'd be able to absorb the costs of the service by scrimping this month but definitely couldn't absorb the costs of the extra childcare.

It'll all even out when I get paid but until then, we have no cash and so the cc is going to get a flexing. Unfortunately, I've completely forgotten the PIN to my cc so can only use DHs. Which means that the way forward is internet buying or dragging him everywhere (never going to happen!). Or I could use my OD but we'll pay interest on that whereas the cc is 0% on purchases till december.

So debt busting is on hold for the moment. And it feels crap.

squidgychesspiece

Hi Mummy,

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time of it. We've been there too buying food on the credit cards (and praying they wouldn't be declined!!) but it doesn't sound like there is anything you couldve done differently - just one of those times when life kicks you in the !!!!
Not sure who your cc is with but if it helps I know that with mbna you can call up, go through security and they'll reveal your pin to you over the phone (not the person but they put you through to an automated line). Quicker than waiting for one to arrive in the post if you need it urgently.
Anyway, hope you have a better week :)

Squidge x

MummyDrusilla

Thanks hun. My CC is with natwest and tbh I want to avoid finding out my pin cos I prefer not knowing it. We've managed ok this week and have only had to put 1 tank of fuel and a small sainsbury's shop on OH's cc.

Thankfully we're nearly on the other side of it now. The week is almost over, we've done all the buying we need to do before we go camping on saturday and the only spending we'll need to do on the cc will be for getting into places while we're away and I doubt we'll do much of that cos we'll try and go for free things to do or cheap ones. I've also managed to keep enough cash for the odd ice cream and stuff.

I'm trying to think of things that have happened since I last posted. I'm struggling to post regularly again with my increased hours, but I'm really really enjoying the extra hours. I've got some brilliant surgeries. About half need improvement and half I'm just maintaining good practice but all of them are really keen and seem to value my input which is a far cry from my previous life doing the same job (pre-DS!).

I just can't wait to see that new figure in my bank account in 10 days!!!! It'll all be so worth it! However, I do have a 'to buy' list.............:o

squidgychesspiece

Ooh so what's on your to buy list mummy? Glad to hear things are looking up a little

MummyDrusilla

Morning all,

Well we're back from our week of camping in Wales in the glorious sunshine and back to reality and the rain. Good news is, I've just had my first wage on the new hours :j. Did all my sums last night and we've got leftover money of £850!!!!!! I'm amazed! It's all gone into a 'holding' account so it's out of the main account where all the bills/food/fuel come out. Out of that, I've not paid anything extra to debts yet, we need to take the troublesome car into the garage tomorrow for the brakes to be fixed, the breakdown cover needs renewing and I need to start getting a few bits off my 'to buy' list (more nappies for DS now he's in childcare more and I'm struggling to keep on top of the washing a bit, another wetbag and more wipes for the same reason). But I'll have a decent amount leftover which will go into savings to enable us to have another little person. We've decided to focus on saving the £4k I'll need to supplement SMP rather than debt busting as that's going to take so long. I know that's not really the ethos of the majority on this forum but you've got to do what's right for your family and your situation don't you? And with that amount leftover, we should be able to save it in about 5 months.

So I'm not sure how much I'll be contributing to this as my debt figures won't be going down by much more than the minimum amount every month before christmas but I'll probably keep dipping in and out. I'm struggling to post with the extra work too but hopefully things should calm down a bit now that lots of deadlines have passed so I should be able to sneak on at work more.

Hopefully IT won't block the site

Aamberle

Morning Mummy, Wow you sound very rested from your trip.
Did you have a relaxing time?
Wow great news on your extra money - have you formulated a plan yet? Even a little payment a month is a month in the right direction is how I see it. How exciting your life is going to be with a plan for another little one.Mr A and I don't have any at the moment, but hoping that will change next year, so we are doing all we can to clear as much debt as possible before then.
Anyway I digress - what have you been upto?have you managed to catch up with all the HW and washing, got yourself into a little routine yet? i know it is really hard but hey you will get there, and then you will have so much time on your hands you wont know what to do with yourself..lol ( a dream i know)..
Anyway take care and catch up soon xx

squidgychesspiece

Hey mummy,

That's great about your new wage, quite a surplus :jI know what you mean, the majority of people on here are trying to cut back to an absolute minimum to clear the debt as fast as possible but it's not the right way for everyone. To be honest, we could cut back even more if we absolutely had to but i think I'd rather live a teensy bit more 'normal' and it take a wee bit longer.

Anyway, hope you are still enjoying work and it's not too busy!

Aamberle

Morning Mummy How has your week been? X

MummyDrusilla

Aamberle, I wouldn't say we had a rested time! We were tent-camping with another family who have a little boy the same age as my DS and the little monkeys were like a tag team waking each other through the night so we didn't get very much sleep and I also had an emergency trip to the GP there as I came down with tonsillitis at the beginning of the hols! So I had antibiotics throughout the whole week which thankfully did the job and made me feel more human by the Tuesday. The other family also managed to get a bit of food poisoning on the 1st day from some dodgy fish and chips!!! So perhaps not as relaxing as it could have been but enjoyable despite the mishaps!

We're very very nearly up to date with the laundry. Damn the summer rain making me use the tumble. Can't avoid it tho. I have to get through the washing mountain before next weekend when we're off to the in-laws. Not sure if we've got into a routine yet. I had to draw up a rota for HW to make sure than DH helps and knows what needs to be done (10 years of living together and he still can't work it out. I don't think he ever will!) so it doesn't always fall to me to do it or nag him to do it. It's kind of working but we're still debating whether to run ourselves ragged and get rid of the debt quicker or ease back a bit, get a cleaner and just lose out on £10 a week. It's £500 a year tho so we're a bit torn which way to go.

MummyDrusilla

Morning all,

Hmph hmph hmph. The illness continues. After having antibiotics for my tonsillitis on holiday, I've now got oral thrush. And DS seems to have it too. I'm also not sure if he's got his molars coming through cos he's so dribbly right now, it's literally pouring out of him. So we had the night from hell last night, it was like having a newborn again. I left DH in bed after telling him to ring work and say that he's got to stay at home with DS cos there was no way I was going to send DS to the childminder after last night. If he was so poorly that he wasunsettled all night, it's best to keep him at home where he can sleep as much as he needs. But of course I'm in work cos I've got deadlines to meet this week and I'm absolutely hanging! I'll try and get as much done today as I can so that if I have stay at home on Thursday I can do.

Anyway, MSE talk. I'm thinking about getting a new current account to separate our bills from everything else we spend. But I'm not sure if I'm doing it just to be doing something proactive in this period of inactivity or cos it's the right thing to do. It would be good to Just have an account that all the bills come out of that I don't need to worry about so much. The bills are all the same every month and so I'd just need to transfer a slightly rounded up figure from our wages to that account and not worry about it cos all the bills would just come out when they need to. Then the rest of our wages is used for food, fuel and then whatever's left the day before payday gets transferred to debt/savings. It's good in theory but not sure if it's worth the hassle. And I fancy one of the accounts that pays you for banking with them. Was looking at the Santander 123 account and I don't think I'd get as much from it as I would a Halifax reward account. Not sure what others are out there? Also whether to get one that pays a monthly amount or a one-off introductory amount?