Second Time Lucky

amycool

In other news, OH will get his new pay from September. Looks like it will be about £100 extra per month and we'll still get full child benefit for now.

debtfreeoneday

Good news on the pay rise. I keep meaning to look at the NI situation but I'm assuming if you get till DD is 12, I would to? I do have about 27 full years contributions..

amycool

debtfreeoneday wrote: »

Good news on the pay rise. I keep meaning to look at the NI situation but I'm assuming if you get till DD is 12, I would to? I do have about 27 full years contributions..

Yep, I think everyone does, as long as you are claiming for the child benefit. It sounds like you'll be fine. Over 10 years you get a proportion of the full pension so I will get something, even if I never manage to go back to work.

amycool

Some good news. After contacting 9 plumbers, I finally got the magnetic filter put on the boiler today!

Next job is to order the new ceiling light for the bathroom, then measure up for the new internal doors. We've decided to just do upstairs for now.

ElmoR

Hi Amycool



Sounds like we are/have been in a similar situation with National Insurance contributions. I am short of years because I was a student, worked abroad and had Maternity decreases.

You can login to the NI website and find out exactly which years you did make enough contributions to count and also if there are any you can still top up (you get quite a long time to be able to do that). As a teenager I worked a lot of part-time hours to save up for college etc. Amazingly, many of those years I did actually contribute enough for them to count. So things might not be as bad as you estimate.



Strongly recommend you get yourself a login to the website and find out for sure. Knowledge is power!


ElmoR

debtfreeoneday

Thank you ElmoR - I just logged in and all is good to date.

amycool

We are 93.3% paid off as of today. If we didn't have the bathroom to pay for next month I'd probably pay it all off. It felt like we'd spent a fortune this month but we had just enough to overpay another £1000.


I've already spent loads this month and we're only on the 2nd. My new niece came into the world yesterday so I've bought some lovely monogrammed booties. Also for the teacher gifts I've bought a World Vision School dinners gift. Also new school shoes in the Start Rite sale. Was hoping to get boots again but they don't seem to do them anymore.


Still need to get the new doors and handles (if I keep putting it off will they magically get cheaper?)

Home insurance renewal this month too.

amycool

I haven't written for ages due to the school holidays.

We went away (in the UK) for a week and actually spent a lot less than I expected as we were really lucky with the weather so mostly went to the beach and took picnics.

Unfortunately, the bathroom refurb has been really stressful. Despite being promised that it would be done in 2 weeks, it took 3 weeks and still has stuff that needs fixing. So disappointing to spend the best part of £8k for peace of mind, and then we had to live with family for a week, plus had to be out of the house all day for another week, so lots of expensive days out.

Once we've paid and everything is done I shall put it behind me!

So no overpayments for a few months but hopefully back on track soon.

debtfreeoneday

Sorry it's been a bit of a nightmare. x

amycool

Stayed in all Monday afternoon as the installers were supposed to fix everything. Arrived after 4 and said he hadn't brought the right equipment.

Told they'd ring. They didn't. We contacted them again. Said they'd sort everything Thursday afternoon.

I've been stuck in, waiting, unable to get any shopping. It's 2.30pm and they're not here. Need to collect my daughter from school soon!

Lies upon lies. The heap of rubbish should have been cleared 2 weeks ago.

It's all very stressful and giving me health problems. Sigh.