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Battling the Thread-debt and Improving the Weyr

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Hi,
So diary time...
First a bit about me, us and where we are:
I am in my late thirties, married to the most amazing man for nearly 5 years although we have been together for 16.5 years. I love reading, especially sci-fi and fantasy and Anne McCaffrey is one of my favourites - hence the diary title!

My husband, henceforth know as WM (weyrmate), works full time but unsocial hours. This means a car is a necessity where he is based there is no public transport when he is due to start. The unsocial hours also meant that for a long time I couldn't work easily as someone needed to be about for the kids. I have started volunteering at a school now though and hope to train as a teaching assistant.

We have 4 weyrlings - 2 are nearly fully fledged and 2 are still in training, and one feline that takes up most of the bed/sofa/floor/wherever he has chosen to make his current bed.

The weyr (house) is a disaster zone. We need a new heating system, the roof needs attention and I want to see the consumer unit updated. There is a complicated issue surrounding the weyr that I may go into at a later point.

Our 'month' is four weeks as WM is 4 weekly paid, as is the tax credits and child benefit.

The car is what really brought everything into focus. Ours failed its MOT, not on things that WM could fix (he is VERY practical) but a complete engine rebuild is a bit beyond fixing in the street. Panic ensues as we have zero savings and he has to get to work. My mother offered to help us out but I HATE borrowing from family, I feel like such a failure so I said maybe, all the while hoping we will sort something out.

As is happens we do, the scrappy we took the old car to sold us a little run around. It is dirt cheap but it is something and WM can now get to and from work. We know this car will probably not last more than the 6 months 'til the MOT so we HAVE to get some money behind us to buy something more substantial. If we can keep it going longer, then bonus!

So what we have done since 4th October:


Dropped WM's mobile contract to payg
Cancelled W2's mobile contract as he has broken his phone and is now out of contract anyway
Cancelled wuaki tv - I have meant to do this for aaages as it isn't used
Cancelled Genes reunited - WM doesn't use it and didn't realise he still had the subscription running
Car insurance is now £1 a month cheaper with the new car (cheaper next year without admin charges if we can keep it going)
Swapped from sky to virgin and saved ourselves £5 a month
We will be getting 5 months tax back from the old car when the DVLA get round to refunding it
We sold the old car for scrap and got £130
Filled in the forms to get the deposit back as the dates have changed for W3 and 4 Brigade camp and they can no longer attend
Started proper meal planning - I have made a 2 week plan that we will follow twice to get 4 weeks from
Started a spreadsheet that is updated daily


Well W4 has just got home from school so I shall be back later to add things I have forgotten. I need to keep this updated else we will slip and I am determined not to lose everything.

Comments

  • Dragonsquest
    Dragonsquest Posts: 3 Newbie
    edited 17 October 2014 at 2:13PM
    I so very cleverly didn't mention our debts, just a minor oversight!

    We have:
    Credit card 1 - £250 min. 6.77 a month
    Credit card 2 - £650 - we pay as much as we can off this one a month
    Loan - £1149.88 12 payments of 156.43 left
    Overdraft - £1250 I pay just under £17 in fees a month

    We also just made a f and f payment on a loan from a long time ago that was accepted last week.

    This is month is mostly a 'get through without racking up any more debt and get your head in gear' month. So far we seem to be scraping by. Our biggest expense will be petrol but even that is going to be less with a smaller car.

    I did a big online shop based on the meal planner and we bought our meat at the butchers. I spent a lovely afternoon dividing it up into portions for the freezer. We won't be buying bread until I run out of either yeast or strong flour. Everyone prefers my bread anyway and I seem to have ALOT of flour to use.

    Plans for today:

    [strike]Sort kitchen cupboards
    Bake bread and/or rolls
    Make sausage spaghetti for dinner
    Update spreadsheet[/strike]
    Don't spend any money!!
  • Dragonsquest
    Dragonsquest Posts: 3 Newbie
    edited 17 October 2014 at 3:32PM
    Afternoon everyone!

    Yesterday was going so well.

    I sorted out the cupboards, we can finally get everything in them! Threw away a lot of stuff that was either years out of date (2008 grapefruit anyone?) or the container appeared empty (just why was it put back in the cupboard?!). I now know exactly what tins we have, what herbs and so on which will only help the budget and meal planning.

    I made some rolls. The kids love them and WM takes them to work for lunch. Well I say lunch but it appears they don't make it passed about 10am, which I suppose isn't as bad as it sounds seeing as he gets up for work at 3am. It means he doesn't buy expensive junk or not eat at all which is a bonus. I also made the dough for a loaf of bread, which I baked this morning. We'll see when the weyrlings get in just how good it is.

    The spreadsheet is updated but we had to spend some money *pouts* WM put £55 fuel in the car and filled the petrol can, the last tank lasted 12 days so we shall see how we go. And we spent £23 in the supermarket but unless I think of something very, very urgent we shouldn't need to go near the place again until Saturday week bar for some milk.

    So today - W3 got her remarked maths GCSE through -it's a C. She took it a year early and is re-taking it this year. The school now expect an A. She is also taking statistics in a year. Hopefully they will have sorted out her using the laptop in the exams soon. Her form tutor said she has been on to the SENCO but I shall write a letter soon to check up. W3 already gets 50% extra time and a reader in exams due to her Mears-Irlen and dyslexia and uses a laptop in lessons so she can change the background to a more suitable colour for her.

    We also received the tax back on the car we scrapped. We had such problems last time round with the DVLA systems being delayed for months before updating and sending us out fines despite us having the COD that we really weren't holding our breath on how quickly it would come through. Amazingly, it has only taken 12 days! I shall enjoy depositing that into WM's account tomorrow.

    I hope we will get back the deposit for the W3+4's camp tonight. That will up the coffers by another £40 and shall be placed in my account to be transferred to the car account.

    We opened a joint savings account that is for all car related expenses. I worked out how much we need to save per month to be able to pay the insurance, parking permit, tax and MOT out right each year - then doubled it for the MOT and tax as they are due in 6 months. So far this month, I haven't managed to put it all by yet. There's still time though, only 13 days, but there is still time.

    I have to keep reminding myself that we are doing well considering that 2 weeks ago I was panicking that we wouldn't have a car, we would have to borrow from Mother, we would be so broke this month existence would be horrible. Instead we picked a cheap car that WM can mostly look after himself, we didn't borrow from Mother and we have budget that is working - so far *touches wood*.
  • Many newcomers post a Statement of Affairs: an outsider can often immediately see where reductions in spending could be made.

    I have not read those books for a long time, but I always wanted a clutch of eggs from the tiny dragons for myself!
    Who having known the diamond will concern himself with glass?

    Rudyard Kipling


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