Friday 6th May - What small DFW things will you do today?

make_the_change

Thanks HelleBelle and Legomum.

I am going to have a good think. Need to consider the long term impact of it all and £1300pm is a LOT of money for a young family who doesnt earn very much. Even with me going back to work FT where I got semi-decent pay, its a lot of money! I dont want to feel even more restricted every month and at the moment I always find things a struggle.

Hope you are all having a lovely day, nearly halfway through!:T

foxgloves

Bob - Sorry to hear about your poorly son. I used to get loads of tonsillistis when I was a child & all through my teens & early adulthood. Last dose of it was aged 29 - a really bad 'do', septic on both sides & I was delirious every night! Oddly though, that was the end of it. Touch wood, I've never had it since! I never got a rash with mine, but always felt very poorly. Hope he picks up soon.

MTC - I don't feel I can really advise on the house. I just can't get my head around London rents!! That's such an absolutely outrageous amount of money & I feel genuinely angry that ordinary people are expected to find that sort of cash or are 'looked down on' by some landlords for needing housing benefit to pay such extortionate amounts! So, I suppose my 'advice' for what it's worth is to have a serious think about what the extra cost would look like in terms of the impact on your monthly finances. Is it manageable? Will it leave you so short that you are having to make unsustainable cutbacks on other essentials such as food, etc. Will you still be able to pay your essential bills? If the answer is that you would be tighter financially but still ok, I think it's worth going to have a look at the house. If it turns out to be better than you expect, you might decide it's worth it to be able to move on from your current situation. If on the other hand it's more money AND not very nice, you may think it isn't worth it. Awful about the waiting lists for council housing. I make no attempt to hide my left-wing views on here, so it will come as no surprise that I was most definitely NOT a fan of the Thatcher government, but I do think that selling off the country's council house stock was one of the worst things they did. While it allowed some people to get a foot on the housing ladder at the time, I think a large proportion of ex-council houses are now owned by private landlords & very little new local authority housing has been built to help house ordinary families who don't have a chance of buying. It makes me very angry. I still really hope that something will come up for you from the council list, but you've been waiting for a long time.
Anyway.......if it's manageable & not unsustainable in terms of your budget, it can't do you any harm to go & have a look. I think that's what I'd do. Good luck with whatever you decide.
f x

make_the_change

foxgloves wrote: »

MTC - I don't feel I can really advise on the house. I just can't get my head around London rents!! That's such an absolutely outrageous amount of money & I feel genuinely angry that ordinary people are expected to find that sort of cash or are 'looked down on' by some landlords for needing housing benefit to pay such extortionate amounts! So, I suppose my 'advice' for what it's worth is to have a serious think about what the extra cost would look like in terms of the impact on your monthly finances. Is it manageable? Will it leave you so short that you are having to make unsustainable cutbacks on other essentials such as food, etc. Will you still be able to pay your essential bills? If the answer is that you would be tighter financially but still ok, I think it's worth going to have a look at the house. If it turns out to be better than you expect, you might decide it's worth it to be able to move on from your current situation. If on the other hand it's more money AND not very nice, you may think it isn't worth it. Awful about the waiting lists for council housing. I make no attempt to hide my left-wing views on here, so it will come as no surprise that I was most definitely NOT a fan of the Thatcher government, but I do think that selling off the country's council house stock was one of the worst things they did. While it allowed some people to get a foot on the housing ladder at the time, I think a large proportion of ex-council houses are now owned by private landlords & very little new local authority housing has been built to help house ordinary families who don't have a chance of buying. It makes me very angry. I still really hope that something will come up for you from the council list, but you've been waiting for a long time.
Anyway.......if it's manageable & not unsustainable in terms of your budget, it can't do you any harm to go & have a look. I think that's what I'd do. Good luck with whatever you decide.
f x

Thank you lovely.... When I was reading the paperwork we got regarding voting for yesterday, it makes me generally frustrated that parties want to build more homes and make it easier for first time buyers. Or offer those home at what they consider 'affordable rent'. I know first time buyers need help but there seems to be a massive pool of people stuck where they cant afford to buy, or become first time buyers but also cant afford to rent at such prices and end up living in cramped conditions to ensure they keep a roof over their heads. It seems that people like me (and there are many more worse off than me) have been forgotten about. We recently had a very large, run down council estate demolished and re-built, with a proportion of homes going back to council tenants, but the majority being sold or rented out. The rental prices of these flats is absolutely extortionate! Of course, the original residents of that estate have been moved onto other places and this great big area has been built for those who can afford such ridiculous prices. To me, that is doing nothing to really help people on council waiting lists at all.... Its very frustrating :mad::mad:

My sister is due to get married soon and has just bought her first place with her partner, part rent part buy. They have no intention of starting a family anytime soon, if at all. But affordability wise, I think if they had wanted children, the opportunity to buy would have slipped away due to the cost. I, on the other hand, decided to start my carerr and put it on hold for my children, but actually leaving me financially troubled for big future changes. I traded those choices for my children but I wouldnt have done it different. x

La_escocesa

Hi guys :wave:

Thanks for all the well wishes for my hubby Felt sooo good dropping him off this morning.

MTC - last year my rental house was similar rent. All I'll say is that it totally knocked us off track with debt busting/ate away at our house deposit and we didn't properly factor in all the other bills - council tax band F, extortionate water rates (before we moved onto a meter). But in saying that, you need to think about your situation now and where will be good for you to live right now, trying not to panic about the future. Go and see it anyway and then you'll be in a better place to decide. And happy birthday for the weekend! :beer:

xxx

make_the_change

La_escocesa wrote: »

Hi guys :wave:

Thanks for all the well wishes for my hubby Felt sooo good dropping him off this morning.

MTC - last year my rental house was similar rent. All I'll say is that it totally knocked us off track with debt busting/ate away at our house deposit and we didn't properly factor in all the other bills - council tax band F, extortionate water rates (before we moved onto a meter). But in saying that, you need to think about your situation now and where will be good for you to live right now, trying not to panic about the future. Go and see it anyway and then you'll be in a better place to decide. And happy birthday for the weekend! :beer:

xxx

Thanks lovely x

determined_new_ms

Hi guys quick post for me as am waiting for oh to return home anytime so I can go off to work. Received good news yesterday that the crisis cafe has accepted my request to withdraw my resignation :j it's a pittance a month but it's better than nothing! (about 180-300 a month depending on how many shifts I have. After paying my petrol costs contributing *something* to living expenses it really doesn't leave a lot but like I say it's better than nothing )

Small things of the day:

* spent a good few hours in the garden - dug in some fertiliser to my biggish bed - put vermitude in as that's what I had!
* dug some well rotted manure into the small bed
* potted on chillis, aubergines
* put a pot of salad in the compost as it had run to seed - this freed up a pot!
* sowed radishes, carrot, basil & more lettuces
* put tomato plants in the greenhouse (rather than windowsill in lounge)
* NSD :j
* car not used until going to work in a bit
* decided to have a garden day with dgd, got her paddling pool out and dollies and she was as happy as larry for ages :beer:
* as we stayed in dgd had a lolly from the freezer rather than buying one while we were out
* had 1/2 a enchilada left over from last night for lunch
* will take a couple of crumpets & some fruit with me to work so I don't eat loads of carp.

Ok gotta go! x

Bobarella

Hi All

Make the Change I too have seen that happen with estates and tenants. The Heygate is a good example I think. In Elephant. I have now seen bits of it remarketed as Elephant village. Try not to laugh too hard. It sounds as though Khan has the mayor down latest counts 36% to Goldsmith, 46% Khan. Perhaps this will do some good?

Thank you all for the kind wishes for master Bob. He is generally ok now just grouchy but understandably so.

I hope you all enjoy the sunshine. It is just glorious here.

Bob

crazy_cat_lady

Evening all :wave:
I'm pleased to report a bit of a lift in my anxiety. The meeting went well this morning, and the Head said I wasn't to bring any marking home at all this weekend. So just a bit of planning to do which shouldn't be more than a couple of hours thankfully. Still anxious about dh but I can manage one when the other is going ok. Thanks everyone for the well wishes.
MTC - did you look at the house in the end? I can't get my head round £1300 for rent. That's 3x my mortgage on a semi detatched house. When I lived down south many years ago me and dh paid £800 a month then on renting a flat. It just wasn't sustainable once we'd decided to start a family. I am with foxgloves well and truly on the left... Have a fantastic big birthday :bdaycake:
Speky - enjoy the stag do :beer:
Pleased to hear that ds is a bit better Bob.

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

[STRIKE]:shocked: check banking and PAD[/STRIKE]
:shocked: aim for nsd nope - did the top up shop in between ferrying the kids to various clubs
[STRIKE]:shocked: meeting with the Head (during my 1 free where I have a classroom to work in :mad:)[/STRIKE] Pleased with how that went.
[STRIKE]:shocked: try and get 10000 steps today as I haven't managed to get that all week [/STRIKE]:j
:shocked: sort marking to bring home just planning
[STRIKE]:shocked: make good use of my free time[/STRIKE]
:shocked: minimal housework wrote a list for the kids to do over the weekend.
[STRIKE]:shocked: get dd to cheer then gymnastics[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]:shocked: get ds to footy training[/STRIKE]
:shocked: make my very best effort not to start an argument with dh no matter how rubbish I feel by 8pm. It's not 8pm yet and dh is not home.

allydowd

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YORKSHIRELASS

MTC £1300 would pay for a mansion around here, I feel for you, what a tough decision. I suppose my advice would be that however your budget looks on paper remember it is always slightly harder to make those numbers add up in reality. But yes go and view the house anyway and good luck with whatever you decide.

So so tired tonight. In fact I have been tired all day and my boss is eagle eyed when it comes to me arriving at work looking like death warmed up. He knows I am working two jobs and I have to convince him its not a problem.

So I downed tools at 3pm today and have done nothing since - but I will have to work tomorrow. And like CCL I am battling anxiety too, although I have not been too bad this week. Mealplan to do, finances to look at and a decision to make about whether to go camping for a couple of days at the end of the month when I have a week off.

But an early night calls I think.