The Road to Financial Security

Pushkin

Couple of impulse buys this weekend - not sure if I'm doing it as some kind of reaction to thinking about being made redundant - a kind of get the spending in now approach. Still feel guilty about it (to clarify total cost of the purchases is £38).

Still think having a frugal September would be a good exercise to see how it feels to live on half my current income.

Playstation is still broken, DH and I now weighing up idea of buying a new one rather than getting it repaired, its about 5 years old, is certainly well used so not sure how much life it has in it. Big stumbling block for me (apart from the humungous cost :eek:) is the message it sends. Wish this had happened in Nov/Dec but too far away to make him wait until Christmas but way too much for a random purchase.

I suspect we'll end up buying one, saying its his Christmas present and then I'll have to work really hard not to spend a lot on him at Christmas. hmmmmm

Pushkin

We switched tariffs few weeks ago and just received the £50 @m@zon voucher which was the incentive for doing so.

Still haven't taken money for gas this month and no idea why!

Just had confirmation from MM for the cds I'm selling to them - amount due is £8.38 - rejected a few discs for 'damaged artwork' - I do wonder if they ever accept 100% of discs. Still it's less clutter and a few pennies to us :j

amycool

Really glad to hear that your dog is recovering. It sounds like you've also made some money of late - typical of the playstation to break though!

It's funny what you say about spending more money knowing you may be made redundant. I've got that mindset too!! It sort of feels like, we have money now, we won't later, so I'm buying loads of stuff. I know logically that's nonsense though!!

Pushkin

amycool wrote: »

It's funny what you say about spending more money knowing you may be made redundant. I've got that mindset too!! It sort of feels like, we have money now, we won't later, so I'm buying loads of stuff. I know logically that's nonsense though!!

Hi Amy - so glad its not just me, it's perverse isn't it? I seriously think my income will drop and I have the urge to spend!

Goldiegirl

The thought of redundancy does strange things to you.

I was made redundant in 2009, when they shut down our office, so 250 of us all went at more or less the same time..

It had been on the cards for some time, but the axe finanally fell in June, and most of us had gone by December.

It was a strange time - I'd go from not wanting to spend anything in case I never found a job again to spending freely on the basis I might never be able to do it again!

But it was a catalyst for great change, and for most of us a change for the better.

Regarding trying to work out how much you'd earn if you went part time.

When I first did my 'back of an envelope' calculations, I assumed that if I dropped my hours by 50%, I'd bring home 50% less.

But, if your income drops, due to the tax allowance now being quite reasonable, you end up only paying a small amount of tax, so you get to keep a lot more of your money, and end up better off than you first thought.

I hope it works out ok for you - it usually does in the end, but getting there can be a bit painful!

Pushkin

Hi Goldiegirl - food for thought, its very interesting and valuable to hear feedback from other people. I'm not good with decisions like this and naturally of a very cautious nature. Of course the decision may be made for me but still no further news from the company on that - 13 weeks now since the initial announcement :mad

I've been looking at local jobs on the internet, the salaries aren't great. I don't want to go to another global IT company so have been looking at general jobs - therein lies the problem I guess in that they are entry level.

If I go it will be under VR or CR so I figure with the speed of the process I've got until at least October so my plan would be to do some temp work and this would be a good time of year to do that (near Christmas).

I know I need to get my confidence back, I've been at my current company for 18 years, work at home, need to lose weight etc etc. I think a few months temping would help with that, I could assess what kind of income I need and apply for permanent jobs on the side.

Wish I was the sort of person who had a career dream - have thought of retraining but no idea what in.

The pension side does bother me but I can't let that dominate my decision.

DH actually wants me to be made redundant - his stance is whatever other job I did I couldn't be as fed up as I am now - this stress and despair must affect my mood with family outside of work - something which I probably don't consider enough.

On a money note awoke at 5.30 today suddenly remembering that my cc bill was due (over £3k) and I hadn't transferred the funds into my current account. Had to get up to address it and was nearly £2k overdrawn :eek: I think I've caught it in time to avoid overdraft charges but am mighty annoyed at myself, don't mess up like that very often but still seem to do so every few months.:(

6 days left to work until our summer holiday :j

Pushkin

Found another oversight money wise last night, checked an account i haven't looked at for months only to discover an unrecorded interest payment (just over £100) which was paid in April:eek: So it's all good but a little annoyed at myself that I'm not keeping on top of finances.

DH and I have ordered a new games console for DS, every bone of my body screams this is sending him the wrong message but what do you do, he absolutely loves playing these games and is my only child. Have told him not to expect lots for Christmas but we'll see how good my memory and discipline is come December.

Pushkin

Work was indescribably awful today - had a bit of a melt down this morning, floods of tears - poor DS didn't know what to say or do

Resisted urge to email a manger & say I want to apply for VR - goal is to hold it together and take my holiday to think things through so whatever I do is rational and done with my head not my heart.

On a positive note took dog back to vets - red blood cell count up to 34, steroids reduced to 2 half tablets a day and she is looking and acting a lot perkier. :j:T:T:T:j:j:j:j:j:

cookie9

Hugs Pushkin. Hope you are feeling a bit better now. Great news about your dog. Re the games console maybe you could get son to "work" to pay off some of it. eg car cleaning. It is hard not to spoil children. My son is an only child and does enjoy his treats.

Pushkin

Hi Cookie - yes totally agree, we have already told him his new job is to empty the bins every week for the dust lorry. New console arrived yesterday and he is a child transformed - a week of moping around and now he can't stop grinning.

From a money perspective this kind of ruins my idea of a frugal September in that my credit card bill is now huge.

So new plan I think is to not let it get high. It's rarely less than £600 and often over £1,000. Its a vicious circle as I end up paying on cc when current account starts go get low but of course the main reason the current account is low is because I've paid off the previous month's cc. So next month I will try and break the cycle....