Snaggles's Debt Diary - Car Loan Challenge

Sea78

Snaggles - did you get Harry Potter in the end?

Sea xx

Snaggles

Yes, I finally gave in to temptation and bought it the other day - I'm so tired at the moment though, I keep falling asleep after reading a couple of pages! I'm dying to find out what happens as well - it's so annoying!

I may send Stu, Ryan and Natasha out for a bit later and have a sneaky hour or two to put my feet up and read a few chapters.

Snaggles

Just wanted to say as well:

AAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH......AGROS, PLEASE GIVE ME MY DAMN SHED!!!!!!!!!

Now, after numerous phone calls, it will apparently be here on Wednesday :mad: - although we have managed to get free delivery and £30 compensation for all the hassle! (They offered us £30 in vouchers, but we told them we weren't really in the mood for buying anything else off them at the moment :rolleyes: so they're sending a cheque!) :beer:


Edit - oh lol, look how I spelt Argos - quite appropriate really considering the aggro we have had!

Snaggles

I've had an offer through from Boots baby club for a 30 day LoveFilm free trial & £20 Boots vouchers - I wonder if I will be able to take it up - Stu has already had a free trial with them, and I'm not sure if they will let you have two at the same address. We do have separate email addresses though, so I might give it a try. If so, that would be £20 to spend on nappies, and I can transfer the equivalent £20 from our shopping account to our car loan savings.

Sea78

Hey Snaggles - I just got a card today saying that Tesco are having a 1/3 off ALL nappies from 6-14th August - I'm off to stock up!

sea xx

Snaggles

I've had that through the post today too - and yes, I think I'll be poppinng by as well! We normally get the Boots ones, but I know I few people on here say the Tescos ones are good.

Sea78

I think the Tesco ones are ok, but will probably be buying branded at a third off:o

Snaggles

We bought some Huggies there the other week, because you were supposed to get a free basket of baby goodies - except they didn't have any, and still haven't! Grrrr.....very annoying. I might have another look today.

Snaggles

Hellooooooo!! Sorry for not updating, I haven't had much news....lol.

Anyway, just in case you were wondering (I'm sure you were :rolleyes:), we now have a shed! :T

I will take a photo when I can find my camera, but I've finally got the use of my kitchen back, so I've just celebrated by making a lovely quorn bolognaise, with loads of red wine in, and am now working my way through the rest of the bottle!

Anyway, I have made a bit of a decision today, after much soul searching. Basically I don't really like my job, but from a financial point of view I can't really leave. I have sharesaves that will, over the course of the next few years, start to make life much easier for us, and it's actually a great place to work - I just don't like the particular job I do.

So....I'm going to cut my hours down to 16 hours per week :eek:. I'm going to see if they will let me do two evenings a week (5 hours each) and Saturday (6 hours). I think they will probably agree to this, because they are always short of people to work evenings.

The advantages will hopefully be:

I can spend more time with my family at the weekend (pre-Natasha I worked 9.5 hours on a Saturday, lunch time until late night).

We wont need any childcare at first.

If money gets tight, they are usually pretty good about letting you work more hours.

I will have more time to devote to Ryan, who I think will need me around more and more as he gets older, due to his behavioural difficulties.

During the day, I can have lots of time with Natasha, and on the evenings I'm working, Stu will be able to have a bit of time alone with the kids.

Because I'll be free through the day, I can volunteer as a parent helper at school, to see if I like it. (I will need childcare for Natasha if I do this, but I think I would get an increase in tax credits which would help with this, and if I didn't like it, or it was too much of a strain on finances, I could give it up). I would really like to work with children, so this would be a possible way in.

I'd appreciate any advice or thoughts that anyone has on this.

hypno06

Sounds like an ideal set of circumstances. Getting that work/life balance is so important, and your points seem to cover all important elements!

Go for it!