Chapter 2 - Pulverising the Post Office - one debt at a time

StressedSteph

Morning Housework Fairy.

Hope hubby gets on ok at the Dr's today. Think positive, hopefully it will be fine .

Shame about the pension. You made me think about my old work pension. I paid into one for 7 years, just assumed that it will pay out when I retire. but I ought to make sure they have my current home address etc. Thanks for jogging my memory.

Hope you day goes well. xxx

Housework*Fairy

Thanks Steph

Doctor wasn't worried about the heart rate at all! He feels it's down to anxiety. The ECG was completely normal (apart from the fast heart beat) so he's given DH some anti-depressants to help with the anxiety and sleeping problems and see how he goes on. So that's a blessed relief.

DH: "woo-hoo, now I know I'm not going to suddenly have a heart attack, I'm going to live life to the full!"
Me: "after we've paid off our credit cards you mean...":rotfl:

mooomin

WEMBLEY!!!

Hehe, was so excited for you when I saw the score When's the second leg?

Housework*Fairy

Grocery/Petrol Fund: Was £500 – is £312.34 ( Spent £10.74 on deductable groceries last night which takes us up to and includng Friday night's tea).!

Cash-in-hand situation:!
Money in purse £0.76
Money set aside for fire repair: £73.74
Money in change box (A) £27.18
Money in change box (B) £22.42
Money in bank: £200.01
Grand total: £323.45
Days left til payday: 20 (I think - why can't I count?)

(Jeezus, still three weeks to go until pay-day) HOW? WHY IS THE TIME PASSING SO SLOWLY?

Reduction since yesterday £26.51

Where did the money go?
£6.10 on non-deductable groceries. (this was in with the grocery shopping but items that are not household groceries, so a bottle of non-alcoholic wine for DH, multipacks of pepsi max for me at work), however I forgot to buy spuds, so had to send him on a separate shopping trip with cash, so I've deducted the spud money from what I am reimbusing out of the money left in the bank).
£2.97 – this was DS1 and I calling in at the Tesco express to get pop and crisps for Tuesday night's game.
£10.00 – cash (DH).
£1.00 – DS1 bus fare
£6.44 – Not sure, DH admitted taking a fiver in the morning (as well as the £10 cash which he said he needed to pay £5 work's lottery money) but I don't know where the other £1.44 has gone, maybe I have miscounted as there's an awful lot of change in there.

Obviously if you read last night's update DH now has been prescribed anti-depressants so he had to go and pay for a prescription charge (which he paid for on the bank card so it hasn't actually come out yet). Hopefully these will do the trick and help him.

So, I should be able to pay the money from the holding account to the Post office but with my team facing a trip to Wembley, and I haven't a clue how much tickets would cost, I'll just keep it in there until I know (I'm reckoning £315 for 4 tickets + transport). I'm also going to try and not touch the money in the other account that I'd set aside for the fire repair.

No debt busting today or any extra income to report. Still haven't had my £50 from doctor lady. If it hasn't come by Saturday I will send her an e-mail.

Housework*Fairy

mooomin wrote: »

WEMBLEY!!!

Hehe, was so excited for you when I saw the score When's the second leg?

22nd January. It was another amazing game and I'm so proud of my lads. It made all those freezing cold, bucketing down with rain, Tuesday nights and Saturday afternoons I spent watching us lose worthwhile. We're not going to the away tie though because - cost aside - it'd mean I'd need to cancel one of the day's annual leave that I have booked for Feb half-term (I only have 5 days left), have the afternoon off to be able to finish work 2 hours early to catch the coach, and then go in and work for just half a day in the Feb half term. I'll enjoy watching it on the telly-box instead. Not often we're on the telleh

Housework*Fairy

Cash-in-hand situation:!
Money in purse £0.00
Money set aside for fire repair: £73.74
Money in change box (A) £24.28
Money in change box (B) £14.59
Money in bank: £200.01
Grand total: £312.62
Days left til payday: 19 (I think - why can't I count?)

Reduction since yesterday £10.83

Where did the money go?
£3.59 McDonalds - I treated myself to a breakfast before a training course I went on.
£2.00 - DS1 Althletics
£3.00 - DS2 - football
£1.00 - DS1 bus fare
£1.24 - not accounted for

Finally had a Quidco payment of £4.08 (woo hoo) so that's gone to my holding account for the Post Office / Wembley. I wont move any money across to the PO just yet until the second leg has been played on 22nd January and we know whether we are Wembley bound.

DH asked yesterday if he can buy a 'cheap' suit. His work are having a new website with glossy photos of the staff in action (i.e. not just head and shoulder shots) and his suit has seen better days. It's happening on 22nd January. If Doctor lady's cheque turns up (still no sign of it) he can use that towards it. I'm a bit miffed he's asking actually because he has £3+ every day on bloody cigarettes. Luckily there are lots of places round here we can buy cheap suits at, but even so, a cheap suit will still be £50 minimum

mooomin

Not sure if he's up for it, but Mr Mooo hasn't had a ciggie for a week now (a minor miracle as he's been smoking since his early teens!!) thanks to one of those electronic cigarette thingies. The one he's chosen smells of forest fruits

The initial outlay was about £49 I think, but given that his ciggies were approaching £8 per packet from our local shop, it's money well spent.

Housework*Fairy

mooomin wrote: »

Not sure if he's up for it, but Mr Mooo hasn't had a ciggie for a week now (a minor miracle as he's been smoking since his early teens!!) thanks to one of those electronic cigarette thingies. The one he's chosen smells of forest fruits

The initial outlay was about £49 I think, but given that his ciggies were approaching £8 per packet from our local shop, it's money well spent.

Well done MooMin Mister! DH does have one of those ciggies from his last foray into non-smoking but, believe it or not, the doctor on Wednesday suggested DH doesn't give up smoking just yet whilst he's trying to get his anxiety under control. I would never have believed it if I hadn't have heard it with my own ears! :eek:

Housework*Fairy

Grocery/Petrol Fund: Was £500 – is £266.65

Went to Home Bargains first to stock up on snacky stuff/treats – spent £23.81 in there and got 38 items. It wasn't all sweet treats, I noticed that packets of microwave rice were a lot cheaper, breakfast waffles, and mugshots too, all of which were on my Tesco list so I got them on there. Spent £21.81 in Tesco (Jeez) on sandwich stuff, and evening meals for the weekend including £4.75 on a kilo of chicken breasts. Got a shock when I saw Cravendale is now £1.90! I'm sure it used to be £1.58. !

I reckon DH and I will probably spend another £80 on petrol, which will leave us plenty in the budget for food as there's only 2 weekends left

Cash-in-hand situation:!
Money in purse £0.00
Money set aside for fire repair: £73.74
Cheque still to bank: £50.00
Money in change box (A) £18.18
Money in change box (B) £10.50
Money in bank: £161.61
Grand total: £314.03
Days left til payday: 19 (seriously, is this right – I can't count! Get paid on 31st and today is 12th)

Money in separate account for PO/Wembley: £64.72

Reduction since yesterday: +£1.41

(it is actually £48.49 spent, but doctor lady's cheque arrived yesterday so that's wiped it out, but of course DH is getting a new suit out of that)

Where did the money go?
£20.00 – weekly pad to Post Office / Wembley account
£18.40 – Exam fee
£3.00 – DS1 football
£ 7.19 – packet of fags, and bottle of alcohol free wine x 2 for DH.

I don't think I will be able to make all of my planned PADS this month. I'm padding all money into a separate savings account anyway and I will dip into it if I have to. January and February are proving to be expensive months due to 1) road tax 2) DH needing a new suit 3) DS2's birthday 4) DH's birthday 5) that damn beloved overachieving league 2 side of mine. At least if I can manage to make the minimum payments this month and next and resume over-paying with a vengeance from March that'll be okay.

Have had to cave in and put the heating on constant for today. It is zero out there and feels the same indoors! Will make sure it goes off through the night though. However last night was freezing, even DH commented on it. I was wearing my slanket all evening on the sofa and stillfelt cold. I put my electric blanket on to warm the bed up but didn't know if it was safe to leave on all night so switched it off, and it soon became cold!

Right, off to colour hair. Got warned yesterday that we are going to have our photos put on our website as part of a 'meet the team' page BLEURGH. Oh well, at least they gave us notice.

Housework*Fairy

Grocery/Petrol Fund: Was £500 – is £262.15

I'd forgotten coffee and sugar, and DS2 had a friend sleeping over, so we got them two cheap pizza's in for tea.

Cash-in-hand situation:!
Money in purse £0.00
Money set aside for fire repair: £73.74
Cheque still to bank: £50.00
Money in change box (A) £14.68
Money in change box (B) £10.54
Money in bank: £157.61
Grand total: 306.57
Days left til payday: 18

Money in separate account for PO/Wembley: £68.72

Reduction since yesterday: £7.46

Where did the money go?

DS's should have had athletics yesterday. Only DS1 went but when he tried to hand his sub money over, the coach told him to hang onto it saying the school hadn't sent anyone to collect their subs so we might as well keep them! So the £4 that we should have paid for that, has gone to my Wembley fund.
I'm assuming the £3.46 has gone towards cigarettes.

Been doing some sums last night and I can no longer afford to count my pay rise as a snowball. My new wage, and new outgoings just about breaks even, so it seems daft transferring my payrise to a credit card, only for the spends money to then have to cover the bills account shortfall. Hopefully when I've paid off the fuel debt, and maybe the April tax-change gives us a bit of extra I can review it.

Kids had an athletics competition today and I was very money saving packing up a packed lunch so they wouldn't be pestering for the cafe or the vending machine. Unfortunately I'd packed the coffee up before they had footie in the morning and DH asked if he could take it to footie. When we got it to the ground, I promptly put it on the ground and then kicked it over accidentally and it smashed, so I havd to go and buy a new flask which I was hopping mad about. I bet we'd have spent less in the cafe/vending machine.