My Dubious Attempt at being a Grown-Up

Lina_T

Hello DFWs :j decided to start a diary, my other fell by the wayside a few months ago due to general life getting in the way. Not strictly a debt free diary as not in debt, more of a "trying desperately to stay out of debt as I'm on the edge" diary. But this is my favourite part of the forum so I thought I'd post it here.

Current situation is:

Moving into first home with boyfriend. Mortgage secured, and expecting to complete in about 2 weeks (although we don't have a date as of yet). Enough to pay solicitor fees, deposit, moving van and monthly bills but not much else should anything go wrong.

Yesterday my car started to play up. The clutch has gone really stiff to shift in and out of gears, and the garage quoted me £300 over the phone to fix the problem they think it is. Taking it in later for a proper diagnosis.

Obviously these things always happen at the worst of times, and is going to leave us with zero wiggle room for the finances.

Neither of our salaries are good. I could probably get more money somewhere else as I have decent qualifications. If I got another job in the city, I'd be able to sell my car, so it'd effective be a double pay rise. Reluctant to do this at the moment because I like my boss and my colleagues and feel comfy in my job, but I may eventually have to jump ship due to necessity.

Meanwhile I'm trying to save money where I can and set up a couple of additional income streams. Have trialed and error-ed a lot of ideas from this forum including writing an ebook, blogging, comping, survey sites, ebay etc. Just trying to figure out what works best for me.

I have my best friends hen party coming up in a couple of weeks and her wedding in about 6 weeks so that's going to cost. Hoping my cash-back funds become payable before the wedding as they've asked for a monetary contribution to their honeymoon as a present.

I'm aiming for a money neutral Christmas this year, putting winnings from comping away, collecting through nectar adpoints, taking advantage of sales etc. It's our favourite time of year, and we want to have a good one without putting ourselves into money trouble, hence the early start. I have all wrapping paper, most cards, and a few pressies put away. :xmassmile

And when I move into my house I'll be coming on here for lots of house-running money saving tips :money:

Lina_T

Bad news at the garage on Friday, my car definitely needs a new clutch. Booked in for Thursday and going to cost me £300. The BFs just messaged me to tell me he'd got a punctured tyre too. Wonderful!

I've booked the day off on Thursday so I'm going to use is as productively as I can. A mixture of comping, ebaying and packing for moving house.

I've also dug out a dress for my friends hen party at weekend. Pre-MSE I would've thought nothing of going out and buying a whole new outfit, but the tickets/hotel for it has already cost me a lot and on top of moving costs/badly-timed car repairs, so I'm trying to claw back some money this way. :money:

Done my Nectar Adpoints for the day, hoping the amount at the end of the year will cover some of the Christmas food.

t2rry

You sound like me only a couple of months ago - I am where you end up if you don't keep new house spending under control!! Good luck with the move it's always very exciting! Best of luck in your journey

Lina_T

Thanks t2rry. :beer:

Thankfully I've been putting stuff away for the last couple of years and have most of the stuff we need, right down to cleaning products and extension leads. My parents are giving us money for a washing machine, and his are giving us money towards a fridge freezer. We're having his parents old sofa and coffee table and we already have both our own double beds. We're quite well prepared in that sense.

The oven is broken in the new house, but until we're in there we don't know to what extent. So we'll likely need a new oven.

Other things we still need are wardrobes, small table and chairs, [STRIKE]microwave[/STRIKE], [STRIKE]kitchen bin[/STRIKE], [STRIKE]ironing board[/STRIKE], [STRIKE]laundry basket[/STRIKE]. If anyone sees any good deals I'd be very grateful for the link!

Hopefully all things we can muddle along without for a while (except the ironing board of course!) and we can pick up a cheap plastic kitchen bin and washing basket in wilkinsons until we can afford posher ones. :cool:

t2rry

That's exactly the position we were in sadly, we had beds/dining furniture/sofas (too many actually so got to sell 1) / fridge, freezer & washing machine were included with our house so no massive necessary outgoings but it still added up and I'm still clawing my way back from it!

You sound like you have it under control though so that's really good. The little things you have put away will make a huge difference I'm sure!

Funnily, we also have a broken cooker but given that I don't cook and I control the purse strings (my OH is much worse with money than I am, which is itself worrying!) he's going to have to manage with it for probably another couple of years

Oh...and we managed to pick up an ironing board for around £10 (good quality too from Dunelm) We also live without a microwave - you wouldn't think it possible, I certainly didn't think it possible when all I know how to cook involves a microwave, but it is! At least whilst there are other priorities!

Lina_T

Sorry I've been awol. It's been non-stop with the house move but we're settling into some sort of order now. We got the keys last Wednesday, moved a lot of the boxes up in our cars, Fridge freezer and washing machine delivered and working by Thursday. We hired a van for the bigger stuff on Saturday.

Took a lot of cleaning, the house was filthy. I truly don't know how people can live like that. We had to rip the carpets up straight away because they made the whole house smell musty.

Couple of teething problems so far

We could smell gas on Sunday, so had to have the national grid out and then a gas engineer on Monday. No idea what that's going to cost, anxiously awaiting their invoice.

Slight hiccup with the tv, previous owners had a wall mounted television, so all the cables are on the wall and can't reach our freestanding television. We'll probably get a wall mounted one ourselves quite soon but I'm buying an aerial extension from Argos later and seeing if that will reach for now.

To do list for the next few days

[STRIKE]Assemble wine rack - priorities[/STRIKE] :beer:
[STRIKE]Go to Currys. We ordered a new oven and hob without even measuring or finding out if the people who fit the hob will be able to change it from gas to electric. We need to go in to measure and talk to someone[/STRIKE]. Spoke to the help desk and they don't change gas hobs to electric, so we had to order a different one. Problem with getting the exchange to go through the tills so I'm getting a call back today and might have to go in again later. I really want both in for Saturday so fingers crossed!

Clean the two bins which got emptied today with Jeyes Fluid.

[STRIKE]Pick up tv aerial extension from Argos.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Phone council to order a new brown bin - ours is missing.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Pick up Father's Day presents for our dads[/STRIKE].

Buy and prepare buffet food for fathers day/housewarming get-together on Sunday.

Lina_T

To do list for today:

[STRIKE]Set up TV License by direct debit[/STRIKE]

Buy world cup football stickers (for my 54 year old dad :rotfl:) [STRIKE]and some bread from the local.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Order a new lunch bag.[/STRIKE] Got this one. Came to £4.90 with delivery but I had £1.97 gift card balance so it came to £2.93.
[STRIKE]
Probably have to go to Curry's again to sort out the oven situ.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Visit Oh's parents, give father's day present and card.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Make packed lunches.[/STRIKE]

Lina_T

Went back to Curry's yesterday and cancelled our whole order, they were trying to add even more money on top for installation which we had already paid for and we got sick of getting messed about.

Went home and ordered the same oven and hob from ao.com cheaper. Going to get someone independent in to fit them so fingers crossed that was the right move. Delivery still for Saturday

Still can't get our tv working either, we think it might be an aerial problem, so might have to have someone out to look at that as well. Will try to get someone who could do all of these jobs together. Would've been nice to have our tv set up in time for the world cup but hey ho, we can always go to friends/families houses or to the pub.

TV licence set up, phone & bb being connected in a week and a half and tv package not until July 12.

Managed to suffocate my plants in the conservatory because it was too hot for them yesterday. I've moved them to a cooler spot inside and am trying desperately to revive them. I'm like the Kiss of Death to any form of vegetation.

To Do List for Next Few Days

[STRIKE]Buy & prepare food & Drink for Father's Day buffet on Sunday.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Text people to bring a buffet contribution.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Change bedding.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Run through the house and clean for people coming round (empty bins, clean bathroom, clean work surfaces, sweep and mop floors, shake n' vac the rug etc)[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Put any washing through.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Go to opticians appointment tomorrow morning for contact lens review.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Empty out the blue bin. The previous owners just shoved everything in there and as a result the bin men won't take it away, so we're going to have to delve in and get it all out into bin bags. Take rubbish to the tip that has accumulated and started to smell due to us having no bin space. [/STRIKE]_pale_

Lina_T

Our Father's Day party went well & everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially Dad who was chuffed with his new professional darts board and home-brewed ale. It's a bit weird hosting in our own house. I normally fade happily into the background at parties and let everyone else do the majority of the hobnobbing

My brother brought a portable tv aerial round to try in our tv, which worked. Good news is, we have a tv for the world cup. Bad news, it's the aerial that's the problem and needs fixing in the next couple of weeks (before talk talk come to connect us up). Plus our living room looks like a NASA control station, wires and antenna all over the place :rotfl:

Anyway back to the grind.

To-Do List for Today

[STRIKE]Hire someone to come fit our new hob. [/STRIKE]Coming tomorrow after work, used that rated people website, quick callback and good quote so we'll use it for other stuff if this goes smoothly.

[STRIKE]Pay council tax bill.

Reconcile bank accounts.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Cook tea.

Write list/do the weekly food shop.

Do some ironing.

Prepare clothes & lunches for tomorrow.

Water plants & hanging baskets.[/STRIKE]

Lina_T

To-Do List for Today

[STRIKE]Oversea the gas man fitting our new hob. [/STRIKE]Correction, oversaw electrician fitting new oven, all went well. Gas man coming tonight.

[STRIKE]Cook tea (chicken fajitas if all goes well with the hob)[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Buy bread & milk.[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]
Do some ironing[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]
Prepare clothes & lunches for tomorrow.

Water plants & hanging baskets.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Do some pampering for wedding on Saturday (I'm being best friend's bridesmaid.) [/STRIKE]Tanned & Face-Masked!

[STRIKE]Write card & put money in for wedding.[/STRIKE]

Do a little bit of unpacking. Nope, ran out of time unfortunately!

[STRIKE]Pay OH back £25 that I owe him.[/STRIKE]

[STRIKE]Phone mum & tell her we might be a bit late for tea tomorrow if gas man decides to turn up.[/STRIKE] Bumped into her in the shop, so told her then.

Updates: Done Nectar Adpoints for the day, filled in a claim form for our ao.com £25 cashback for ordering more than one item. Withdrawn a £5 Amazon voucher from my Neisen Mobile account. Not had much chance to do any comping.

Gas man cancelled tonight for putting the hob in, said he's ill and will come same time tomorrow. Benefit of doubt but if he cancels again we'll get someone else. Luckily I managed to get an electrician out later to fit our oven, so not going backwards productivity-wise.

I might try and get someone out on Sunday to look at our TV aerial but we'll see how things go and how busy we are.

We also need to order a home phone, as Talk Talk are coming to connect us up on Monday. Booked half a day off for that.:)

t2rry

I envy your to do lists.

Actually, I envy the fact that you actually do the things on your to do lists!

I usually spend all my time making the list, then feel better and have a cup of tea! :coffee: