It's not just about debt anymore. It's about living better too.

PiggyBankShaker

Well, the interview was non-existent. They had appointed someone by the time I arrived. I could be annoyed, frustrated etc, but I've decided to just let it go. Their loss, not mine. I'll deploy me energies elsewhere.

Had a couple of spends. £13 on diesel, £6 on groceries (bread, bananas, buckwheat, strawberries, lemons) and £5 on iTunes. ATSIJS spent £28 on DIY supplies.

Yesterday we made a good start on painting the house. We've opted for a lovely pale lilac colour (formerly dingy cream) with dark matte purple sills and frames (formerly dark green). It looks really pretty, very lovely and original. Just looking a it cheers me. It also makes me happy for us to be expressing our individuality. Most of the houses in our area are very plain and conservative, we don't fit that mold and I'm glad we're finally nailing our colours to the mast (as it were)

Going to finish painting the children's playroom today and ATSIJS is going to lay the carpet. Then we can tick that room off our 'to do' list.

Hope everyone is enjoying their bank holiday weekend.

PiggyBankShaker

Update from ATSIJS:

I've transferred both my credit card debts to my Barclaycard with the 0% for 25 months. The card has a 2.25% minimum monthly payment so my monthly payment starts at £72 and obviously goes down a little bit each month.

The starting point today (after the transfer fee is added) is £3218.85.

Making only minimum payments, the balance at the end of the 0% period (Jun 2015) would be £1864.25.

That equates to saving £75 a month between now and then to have it cleared. Or, £116 a month if we don't start the extra saving until march next year when we will have finished the payments for the windows.

banwa

Sounds like you have it all under control. :T

I am always in awe of people who can spend £200 per month on groceries. That's less than I spend on 2 of us.:A

PiggyBankShaker

On the 'better living front' I've restarted my running. I've been out twice with the 'couch to 5k' app. I enjoyed it both times, and looking forward to when I can do the longer distances again. ooh, which reminds me... I spent £5 on iTunes updating my running music collection.

Also in the wake of the murder of the Woolich soldier last week I wanted to 'do my bit' so I did a bucket shake in town for Help for Heroes. It was lovely to collect £225, which I sent off on Friday.

PiggyBankShaker

banwa wrote: »

Sounds like you have it all under control. :T

I am always in awe of people who can spend £200 per month on groceries. That's less than I spend on 2 of us.:A

Hi Banwa and welcome!

Well, we are vegans, so we don't buy any meat (which is expensive) and we use lots of dried pasta, rice and other grains. We buy these in bulk. We also buy very little in the way of confectionery. We buy value / smart price labels and shop at different stores depending on which is cheapest for each product.

But the main reason is that ATSIJS (DH) has a spreadsheet and monitors everything with the eye of a hawk.

banwa

You sound so healthy. I keep asking my husband to eat more vegetarian food, which he agrees to (I'm not fussed about meat really). Then when presented with it, he looks at me forlornly and asks me to rustle him up a few sausages *sigh*

Excuse my ignorance but what does ATSIJS mean?

killerpeaty

Hello, I just wanted to wish PiggyBankShaker the best of luck with debt busting and getting another job. : ) It's a shame that the charity didn't work out but maybe you could approach carehomes? Most of the ones I have been to have had huge immaculate gardens for their clients and their families to enjoy.

Banwa, it is short for her husband's username AllThatStuffIsJustStuff I believe. When my dad was alive my mum used to use a spice or herb that is common in sausages in her veggie stews and my dad never knew that some days he was a veggie. :rotfl:

PiggyBankShaker

killerpeaty wrote: »

Hello, I just wanted to wish PiggyBankShaker the best of luck with debt busting and getting another job. : )
Banwa, it is short for her husband's username AllThatStuffIsJustStuff I believe. When my dad was alive my mum used to use a spice or herb that is common in sausages in her veggie stews and my dad never knew that some days he was a veggie. :rotfl:

Hiya killerpeaty!

Thanks for the good wishes And welcome! What a clever Mum you have!

ATSIJS is indeed AllThatStuffIsJustStuff; he used to post on here more often. I wish he would pop in a bit more, a diary isn't the same without him...:cool:

PiggyBankShaker

Rang up Barclay Partner Finance, who have hold the debt for our windows. Urgh. I thought the debt was coming down nicely and that we only had £1700 left to pay BUT they have added £547 interest. Obviously I knew they were adding interest but when we took out the finance we were told that the 5% we got back after six months would cancel out the interest making the finance essentially 0%. Has it tosh. So now we owe £2247 not £1700. Bummer. :mad:

Nothing else to report on the money front. Spent £1.49 on iTunes on a learn French app for DD. Also spent about a Tenner on some diy/gardening supplies. Other than that been resisting the temptation to spend.

The next door neighbour has really annoyed me. After we spent all day Sunday painting the house, he started knocking off his render on Tuesday and has made a total mess of the front of our house in the process. He saw us painting and didn't think to say, 'you might want to hang on a few day as I'm going to be totally renovating the front of my house in two days time...' The cement dust from his new render mix has stuck hard to our window sill. I hope it will just need a good scrub to get it off.

ATSIJS had taken the landing and stair carpet up, so Now we need to add renovating them to our ever growing list of DIY projects.

PiggyBankShaker

The house painting continues. It's looking lovely now, but some parts still need second coat and the trimmings need painting in the dark purple. The weather is meant to be gorgeous all week so hopefully we can finish before the weekend.

The other good thing about the weather is that we can dry the washing outside and not put the tumbler on

We took DD and DS to the local park yesterday afternoon. The playground part was crazy busy but the woodland was lovely and quiet. It was so peaceful. I watched a robin singing in a tree. I could have stayed there all day frankly. We also saw some tadpole in the pond much to DD's delight. We've promised tt go back with a net so she can have a closer look.

Not spent much money. £3.80 on a roller head. ATSIJS spent £20 on paint stripper. I'll need to put fuel in the car today. Probably just £15 or so.