I Wanna See the Light

Seasidegal58

Hi Mysteek

Congratulations in your fantastic progress. You and OH must be so pleased. Loved your poem as well.

It's good to hear your dad is making progress and I hope he enjoys his time with his friends. Perhaps this might be the start of a regular thing for him. Try not to feel guilty. You're doing as much as you can for him and I'm sure he knows this.

As you said - here we go again for the next month,

Mysteek

Just doing a test post as the last 3 I've attampted to do from work have crashed out!

Mysteek

Yippee! It worked!

Hi Ali-Ok and Seasidegal, thanks for popping by its nice to see you again.

Hi also to Ninno820 and welcome. Yes it seems we will be retiring around the same time, we'll have to support each other on our journey. Although I can draw my government pension in 7 years time I really want to retire before then. I'd love to do it now but unfortunately have too much debt to clear off first. I just feel 'ready' to pack work in now, you know what I mean. After 40 years of working I think I'm starting to lose the enthusiasm and motivation and just want to do other things and have a hankering to be just a plain old housewife (joke, no offence intended lol). Oh well I'll have to keep plodding a bit longer unless, of course, I win the lottery. Might help if I actually did it but my dad does and I'm sure he'd share if he won. I'm in a premium bond syndicate at work so just keeping fingers crossed each month! At least with premium bonds you still have your stake money and can draw it any time, so I look on it as a savings account.

I'm glad you liked my poem, it just came to me the other day. I'd love to write a book, I already have an idea but a) I don't have any time to write it and b) I'm not sure I'd be any good at getting the ideas out of my head and onto paper in a way that's interesting for other people to read. Anyway I do want to give it a try one day even if its just for me.

Paid another £100 to CC1 yesterday from DH. Think this will start to taper off a bit now due to work dwindling (it tends to be a bit seasonal) and also stuff like tyres, car test, tax, insurance etc. are going to rear their ugly heads over the next few months. DH car is his work so he can't really do without it. And we have the dentist this month and also opticians for me. Its never ending isnt it.

Yes Ninno820 I agree, we should have a worry and debt free retirement and its this goal that keeps me going when I have any 'down' moments.

Mysteek

Just in a bit of a quandary. We subscribe to Audible and listen to audio books all the time. We have an annual subscription of £109.99 which enables us to have 24 books over the year. We have used this years allocation of books up and the subscription is due for renewal in November. We've cancelled Sky, Unlimited Cinema cards, don't drink or smoke and haven't been out for ages. We've not been buying clothes, cds, dvds etc. over last 2/3 months so have been really good.

My quandary is, do I renew the subscription as £109.99 is a lot of money but it would cost several times more if we bought individual books.

On the one hand my head is saying NO! this money should go to debt.

On the other hand my head is saying well its the only thing we have left that we haven't cancelled and we do listen to them a lot. After looking at a computer screen all day I don't really want to read books, it gives me migraines. I can listen to books as well as doing the ironing, cleaning, crafting or whatever and its something we both can do. The books we buy can be read by both of us, we both have the app on our phones.

Decisions, decisions. Well at least I have a couple of months to think about.

Ninno820

can you put a little by to offset the big payment - then put £10 a month towards it so that next year its all paid for?

Mysteek

It can't be a week since I last posted! I've been so busy I didn't get chance and I don't like to come on when DH is at home cos he doesn't know about my 'private' diary.

Hi Ninno, yes I could do that but thats not the problem really as I can always divert any extra payments meant for CC1 to Audible. Its just that I'm getting really mean with money (yay finally!), I just hate seeing money going out of my account I get really irritated. Will have to give it some thought over next couple of months as its going to be the only thing left that we have for ourselves. If we renew in November then I might put £10 away a month to pay to renew next year and then I won't even notice it. Good idea Ninno.

Update on financials:

£310 extra paid to CC1 yesterday from DH, just hoping the good work carries on as long as possible. Got things coming up over next few months that he needs to pay for so maybe not too much extra to come from him for a while.

£76 from Ebay to CC1, had better luck recently and have got bids on more items so should be able to pay more in next week.

Sky finishes on thursday, last payment made last month so will cancel the DD end of the week.

2 magazine subscriptions coming to an end in next month or 2 and these will not be renewed.

Have had to increase weekly food budget to £30 as it was getting difficult to manage as cleaning stuff, dog food and gluten free food also came out of the £25 per week. I don't buy much GF food but I do need a few things like GF porridge oats with is £3 a packet! Am still taking lunches to work, instead of sandwiches sometimes I cook myself something the night before and heat it up in the microwave at work. Then I don't want much to eat when I get home in the evening. My tummy hasn't been as bloated lately either, another lovely symptom of being a Coeliac!

Work front:

We've heard that altough there will be some redundancies there will be none in the UK for now (the operative words being 'for now') so just keeping going. Will be lots of disruption though over next few months due to being cut out of our existing company and joining with a part of another company to create another company. Phew! hope that makes sense.

Family News:

DD2 and fiance are planning to get married end of next year. I said I would buy her dress so better get saving!

DGD is still super gorgeous!

Oh well lunch time over so better get back to the grindstone and I'll try not to leave it so long before posting again.

Mysteek

By the way, has anyone noticed my updated signature :j

Mysteek

Ok, decision made on the Audible subscription.

I'm going to use money from my Eb*y sales to fund it. With the bids I have at the moment I have more than enough to do this, the remainder to wing its way over to CC1. DH says that because I'm selling my beloved craft stuff then I decide how the money is spent. Then I'm going to put £10 a month away so that I can renew next year without having to find the money from somewhere.

Sorted! Feeling calm and in control.

Mysteek

Well that was a delicious lunch! NOT!! The one I had lovingly prepared last night, salmon steak, new potatoes and mixed veg, is still sitting in my fridge at home. Yes I forgot to bring it! DH was talking to me so I'm blaming him for distracting me lol. So I've just eaten some gluten free instant porridge (yuk!) and 3 dry rice cakes (bit like polystyrene roof tiles).

On the plus side I've been invited to DD2's for tea. DGD has an ear infection, poor little mite, so has been a bit poorly. I'll just have to give her extra special cuddles tonight.

Most of my Eb*y items finish tomorrow and they're doing quite well at the moment so hoping for a good profit when fees etc. have been paid. This will be used for Audible and some extra payment to CC1.

DH had a refund from EE of £27.40 cos when he took out a new contract he paid 2 months payments, one from his old contract and one from the new. Think some of this will be used to pay for overdraft interest as its now gone up to 11.9%

Just cancelled the Sky DD so just have the free channels now but tbh we haven't been watching much telly lately. The other night we got out our records out (oh dear I hope I haven't just let my age out of the bag!) and record player and had a lovely evening listening to records. I did have to get up and have a bit of a dance (or prance) but it was good exercise. Really enjoyed it. There IS life after Sky!!

Just trying to resist going to the chocolate machine to buy something as I'm still hungry but I must save myself for my tea to be cooked by my lovely and thoughtful DD2.

Suppose I have to get back to work now .... sigh

Mysteek

No, can't be 2 weeks since I last posted!! Where have I been. Must be aliens kidnapping again!

Just to update:

Made nearly £250 on Eb*y so after paying Audible subscription, I had nearly £140 to pay to CC1.

£325.50 from DH last week due to an invoice for July being paid a little earlier woo hoo! No more of these unfortunately as this company has changed their method of payment to debit/credit cards, so DH has had to invest in a card reader. At least we'll get the money through a bit quicker instead of sending an invoice each month and then waiting another 1/2 months to receive payment.

CC1 coming down nicely now.

Didn't manage to put anything to CC1 from DH's last weeks wages as our freezer and cupboards were empty apart from an odd tin of beans. So had to go and get stocked up a little. Also, promised I'd buy DGD a travel cot so when I look after her she has somewhere to take a nap. Only £30 so not too extravagant. So after all that, nothing left to put towards debt

What's got into me, I HATE spending!!!!:mad: