Mrs PG's Hopes & Dreams for a debt free future !

PinotGrigio41

brizzledfw wrote: »

Liking the income generation opportunities there:) Sterling work, Mrs PG.

Free cinema tickets sound good..I rarely look and should do more frequently.

DD2 working with OH at the moment on Maths..she will definitely miss her big sis when she goes..wherever...its quiet even now as she is out babysitting. Its either full bedlam in our house it seems or freakishly quiet... nothing inbetween

I try Mrs B, although there's not much left to sell now !

Take a look at the cinema tickets, there were still a fair few available in lots of locations and on different dates yesterday.

Our house seems to be the same as yours, there's no in between. DD1 said last night how its becoming a bit odd now having not seen us for two whole weeks. Cant wait to pop up there on Saturday as long as it all goes to plan and spend the day with her. DD2 is missing her so much.

Glad your DD2 is able to get help from OH with her Maths, we are still paying for a tutor for DD2. My maths are nowhere up to scratch to be any sort of assistance to her and although Mr PGs are, hes not around enough at the moment to assist. DD loves her tutor though and cant wait to get there, so its a blessing really as shes very enthusiastic right now and actually enjoying doing maths ! Crazy child !! xx .

PinotGrigio41

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi PG,

Yep my dd got her first choice which is about an hour in the car or 2 hours by train. She has settled really well and came back this weekend to spend my money, for me to do the washing and take her to the cinema and lunch..we had a lovely few days and although I felt a little sad her leaving again knowing she is happy makes me feel better!

I have actually reduced my dmp down to token payments for the rest of the year to save the difference to pay the rent for the next year! The loan doesn't even cover that, there is a total £1600 deficit and that's before she eats!

Good luck with it all....will your dd2 also want to do uni... best start saving now..!!!!!!

Love Puzz. x

Oh god the rent, I'm having nightmares about that !! We are just under £3K short on the rent plus living expenses. The software that she needs is £15 per month in addition to all of this.
It will be worth it though Puzz I'm sure of it :rotfl:

I woudl love to start saving for DD2, she knows exactly where she wants to go and what she wants to do, has done for the last three years I think ! Sadly while we are paying for DD1 there's nothing spare for DD2, so we will just have to fly by the seat of our pants as we do with most things !

Sounds as though you had a lovely time with DD at the weekend, and its lovely she is fairly close. DD1 has informed me she is attempting the laundry tonight as she has run out of knickers, this could be interesting !! :rotfl::rotfl:

PinotGrigio41

Nothing much to report today, other than made an overpayment to the loan of £20 as I had an unexpected cheque arrive from a bank where we once held an account pre DMP. Apparently they had overcharged us interest somewhere along the line so sent us a refund cheque for £20, so I have given that to the Predators.

Work looks as though it could be picking up with a potential contract until the end of the year. So we are keeping everything crossed . Mr PG is due back tonight, so I am hoping he may have heard something more during the day today. If it comes off we will have a little bit of stability at least for the next couple of months which will be nice.

Right thats it for now, off to rustle up some dinner before collecting Mr PG later tonight from the station. All is calm and quiet here this evening, for once DD2 has no homework (she has had 26 pieces in two weeks, a little excessive in my opinion ) . She completed her first GCSE Drama Assessment today which apparently was 30% of her final GCSE, so that's done and dusted and some french was completed yesterday. Roll on July when its all over and that's us and GCSEs over forever !! Whoopee !!! xx

Honey_Bear

Lovely Martin :money:was on You and Yours (12.15 R4) yesterday talking about how parents are expected to contribute to their children's living costs at Uni now, as part of the way student loans are structured. It might be worth listening on iplayer if you didn't catch it when it was on, because there are hundreds of thousands of parents in the same tricky plight as you, sadly.

PinotGrigio41

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Lovely Martin :money:was on You and Yours (12.15 R4) yesterday talking about how parents are expected to contribute to their children's living costs at Uni now, as part of the way student loans are structured. It might be worth listening on iplayer if you didn't catch it when it was on, because there are hundreds of thousands of parents in the same tricky plight as you, sadly.

Thanks Honey Bear, that's really interesting, I will try and have a listen.

We expected to contribute, but its a little higher than anticipated but cest la vie ! She needs to have software at £15 per month as well in addition to the other expenses, plus obviously books and equipment so it does all start to add up. I guess once you have put one child through Uni at least you know what to expect by the time you get to number 2 !
DD1 is more than happy to find some work, but her workload is immense already and she has a full timetable which changes weekly, leaving it pretty difficult to get employment. I think the plan is to pick up some shifts at the pub she worked in throughout the summer when she comes home which will top her up a bit. x

PinotGrigio41

Yesterday was a lovely day.

Mr PG and I had a meeting close to DD1 and managed to pop over and see her for a few hours. Mr PG hadn't seen her for months as he was away in the summer, so it was great to see them together ! Sadly DD2 couldn't come with us so we are taking her there Saturday still so they can catch up. Its an easy journey traffic permitting.

DD looked so grown up though, but very very happy and bubbly albeit full of cold and pretty tired. Shes been burning the candle at both ends working into the night, so she can free up some time to bond with her flatmates in the evening. She said its been lovely,they often all take their laptops into the kitchen and work together bouncing ideas around which is always helpful. She ended up selling some of her freshers tickets, wasn't really her thing and seems happy to pop out occasionally ( just not every night ) and have movie nights at the the flat.

Shes doing really well with her money and eating well. I think having so many lovely shops close by is going to be a test of her willpower though, as she adores clothes and is living with a fashion student, so they have whiled away a few hours admiring the autumn clothing appearing in the shops, so far no purchases have been made !!

So onto today, this morning I have paid 54p TTs to the loan, so am feeling smug :rotfl:

I have to take the car to the garage as we had to limp it home last night, as all power dropped and it wouldn't go above 35 even with our foot to the floor. It happened a few weeks ago but then righted itself. We think we know whats wrong and it could be pricey. I have just had it serviced and replaced the tyres, so another bill isn't what we were hoping for. Infact we only spoke at the weekend and said we would sell the car before it started costing us money , but we cant do that now we know there's a problem, that wouldn't be fair.

Other than that we will continue to try and drum up business, work on the accounts and tackle the four black sacks of washing I brought home from DD1 last night ! They have three washing machines for the entire building and two are broken which isnt ideal. So it looks like its a job for mum !! :rotfl:

Have a good day xx

brizzledfw

Hi Mrs PG :wave:

How's things?? Glad DDs are doing well...you haven't posted for aeons so hope all continues to go well

Xx

PinotGrigio41

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hi Mrs PG :wave:

How's things?? Glad DDs are doing well...you haven't posted for aeons so hope all continues to go well

Xx

Aaaargh Mrs B, you are right it has been aeons and aeons since I last posted although I have been dropping by quickly to keep the signature updated.

Lovely to see you though, I will do one of my mammoth updates now and hope not to send anyone reading to sleep !!! ..........

JustAboutThere

Good to hear from you again. Looking forward to the update.

Take care.

PinotGrigio41

I know I say it every time , but I have no idea where the days, weeks and months seem to disappear to these days. I'm not liking it much though, life seems to be whizzing by.

So ........ first off for anyone out there who may still occasionally drop by on this diary I wanted to wish you all a Very Very Belated Happy New Year !

We are beginning this year, as most of us are, trying to knuckle down and try and kick the PG National Debt into touch.

LBM was just over 5 years ago now and we started on the DMP January 2012. In that time we have repaid £60K :eek: ( £2500 was unenforceable and thrown out of court and another £10K we are currently in the middle of a Court Case over. I am confident we will win, there are errors on their part all over the shop and forged signatures galore on their paperwork !

I think repaying £60K is worthy of a small celebration although there was alot of stress and tears along the way. Last year was a another "funny" year for us. Work was literally all over the place, wasn't at all what we expected and we had no security whatsoever, other than a longish job over the summer. Its become clearer and clearer that we need to diversify and we are currently working on a new project until mid February. It does take Mr PG away from home ( but not abroad) Monday to Friday each week. Its not ideal, but there is at least some stability. Its a quiet household now, with both Mr PG and DD1 away , but DD2 and I enjoy each others company and Mr PG is home each weekend . DD1 is also home often , bringing her sacks of dirty washing with her :rotfl:

We are struggling a little with effectively running three households. Mr PG needs to stay in hotel / B&B or more recently @irBNB to keep costs down while he is away. Sadly the job does not cover his accommodation or living costs and neither does it really pay any extra to compensate for those, so not only do we run the family home we are needing to budget for Mr PG to be away and of course help DD1 out at Uni . I think I mentioned before her Student Loan only covers half of her Rental Costs and we also pay all of her living costs currently. Its a hard slog, but DD1 is currently looking at accomodation for next year and we are hoping that we will only need to put a minimal amount towards her accommodation for her second year which will help us out immensely. She also thinks her timetable in year 2 will be such that she may be able to find some work to help out with her living expenses, so possibly by the end of this year things will get a little easier.

DD2 is now in Year 11, the GCSE stress is mounting, but her Mocks Results were good. She has chosen her A level subjects and has decided to stay at the sixth form at the school, not the college where DD1 went to , which some may remember was an absolute debacle. By her staying at school we also wont have commuting costs for her and also come June we will no longer need a Maths tutor, so I am confident that as 2017 progresses, unless something comes back and bites us on the backside , our expenditure will decrease leaving us more money to throw at the National Debt. :T

In money news, last year as I mentioned brought us the win in Court against PRAT and this year we begin it once more with the same battle ( PRAT again ) but for much more money. Sadly once they have added interest and costs it cannot go to Small Claims and is going to be Fast Trak which essentially means the losing party pays each others costs :eek:. Advise states we should get a solicitor involved but at this stage I don't feel we need that, but will have to bear it in mind possibly at some stage. It is pretty stressful and time consuming but I am fairly confident of a win with this one, but I may eat my words , you never know.

We also managed a reclaim of a Packaged Bank Account with NW last Summer amounting to approx £1700 which I must confess went on a much needed holiday after the loss of my mum at the end of the previous year. After finally selling my parents house and tying up lose ends I was fit to drop, so we escaped for a break rather than putting this money towards the debts. It was definately the right thing to do.

We once more had major Tax problems last year, but managed to finally get that all sorted once and for all in November, so for the first time ever we are actually ahead on the tax payments and I have next years bill accumulating in a savings account which will NOT be touched , however desperate we are.:o

So thats a brief rundown of what happened last year and plans for 2017. Heres to 2017 being kind to us all ! :beer:

Hope everyone is well and happy .

Take Care

Mrs PG xxx