Debt, debt go away (and don't come back another day)

System

Hello.
Still waiting to find out what's happening with my car - tomorrow the assessor will be here so keeping my fingers crossed!
The hire car I have is amazing - heated steering wheel and seats - very spoilt. Still suffering from whiplash, thought it was getting better but been worse today.

Money wise - I don't want to look at our debts and how they are not going down. Actually have gone up a bit as we've had to spend a fair chunk on house stuff. Total head in the sand...not out of control, but I just need to not fret too much as this will all get cleared when we sell the house.

Good news is that Mr Taxman has reduced our payment on account to zero so we don't have to pay last years tax bill plus 50% of current bill - Yay! So we've now paid £700 of it, and have £627 to go, with two more pay days. All possible.
Christmas is all bought and paid for.
DH's van MOT may be the spanner in the works, but I do have an EF, and I have £100 saved towards this - and it's not due until Jan.

Move news - we're getting to see the house we are moving into on Tuesday and also visiting nurseries and childminders so that's very exciting. Have total expectation that it will be in a state, as there were lodgers in with loads of pets, and it looks a right state from the outside. The bonus news is that we don't need to move in until beginning of Feb, so we can do bits and pieces (but really the priority needs to be finishing our house). DH works up in Dorset 2 days a week, so I think he'll at least be able to do a bit each week.

Getting very excited about Christmas! but not excited enough to write my christmas cards....

TTFN Ramble x

Poor_Single_lady

Ramble I hope your whiplash subsides. Sounds like you have been in the wars. You should write your Christmas cards. Its going to be here before you know it. You sound like you are doing so well. Do not fret about the debt going up because you have a solid plan and thats the difference. xxx

System

Wow - where has the time gone. Dramas rumble on in the ramble household but I am still mostly smiling. Worse things happen at sea.

Car has been written off - waiting to find out how much they will offer me - still got hire car but probably not for much longer. Got super busy week next week so bound to all happen in the middle of that - hire company is a 2 hr round trip, work 2 hour round trip in opposite direction. Started looking for cars (sigh - my least fave thing) and having the usual 'discussions' with DH about what to choose. (Please imagine me with my hands over my ears singing la la la) as that's generally how I feel when DH starts debating pros and cons of any car!!
The other slight complication right this minute is that I can't find the key for it (and have no idea where it is!!)

We got access to the house we are moving into for the first time last week. I really don't know what to say. The lodgers have clearly NEVER cleaned and it is truely disgusting and run down. So we will be doing DIY in both houses now - but first it desperately needs to be cleaned. To give you an idea of scale of the issue, DH is probably going to replace both toilets!!! and when I used a dustpan and brush on the stairs, one step half filled the pan with hair and grimness! I just don't understand how they lived like it....and we think they may have lived there without heating?! DH reluctant to ask grandparent to fund anything too...sigh.

Moving in first weekend of Feb - was aiming to have our lovely, spic and span house on sale from 1st Jan, but need to get realistic - now need to get the new house habitable, and then finish off this one to sell.

Anyway, enough moaning from me. The new house will be fine, when it's clean and we've freshly painted it everywhere. (I just can't let my mum anywhere near it until it's looking better!!) We don't need to pay rent to begin with (or perhaps at all TBC - classic DH not willing to properly sit down and discuss things) so we can put a little in to sprucing it up, and long term, if we pay no or low rent, it will help us clear down the debt.

Plan for weekend (and beyond!)
1) Tidy, sort and pack a little. Find key.
2) do paper filing
3) finish Xmas cards & start wrapping.
4) finish painting radiator cover and wall in kitchen.
5) woodwork painting in kitchen
6) do some work work.

System

oh and final thing - check I have done all Christmas shopping!

louby40

Oh my goodness you've got so much on!

Good luck with your de-cluttering, packing, cleaning etc etc, I suppose the one good thing is that you can move out slowly from one house to another.

Remember to relax though and enjoy your Christmas

System

Thanks Louby! 2 days of Christmas will be enforced rest, so definitely looking forward to that.

Successful weekend. Found keys, did some cleaning and tidying. Packed a box or two. Checked on xmas shopping status, and bought final few today so I am shopped out. Did filing and wrote Christmas cards too.

Nearly cried when I counted up xmas cards - 30! Even with 2nd class post that's going to hurt!

DH spent weekend cleaning the 'new' house so much love scummy so progress being made all round.

Here's to my last week of work this year (be kind to me!)

X Ramble

Poor_Single_lady

Very inspirational Ramble. How is your shoulder.

I would imagine your last week at work would be ok with it almost being christmas. Everyone's in holiday mood where I work (except me). No ones doing any work, its all party planning and drinking so hopefully yours is similar. (i am however annoyingly flat out busy). I imagine they are going to miss you loads and are poorer for your parting.

Hope its not too stressful with the housing. Sounds like you have it all wrapped up. Will be sending you good thoughts for the house sale and the new house spucing up and everything else. xxx

System

Hi PSL.
Shoulders not too bad but not right either. Hurts when it's above my head, or when I pick my DD up. Got an assessment on Friday to see what's what.

Had an offer for my car from the insurance company - mine - starting to realise i probably shouldn't have used them, but just gone via the lady's insurance company instead. They are offering £2000, then taking off my excess of £250 - even though it wasn't my fault, and then taking full payment for the years insurance out of it!!!!

Arrggghhh. If I had gone through her insurance I guess this wouldn't be an issue! Not too unhappy with £2K - think it's worth £2.2K so have gone back and said it should be £2.2K and that they should be charging the excess fee back to Tesco insurance. We will wait and see what happens next.
sigh.

System

Morning all. Positive progress in most areas.

I am on holiday YAY!!!! :j:j:j

Insurance company came back and offered me £2300 (£100 more than I told them I thought it was worth £2200!!!) Still bemused about that! Of course I accepted there very nice offer. They also confirmed that I would get the £250 excess back at the end, providing the other person admitted liability (which I know they already have) and that as it wasn't my fault they wouldn't take the rest of the insurance payments up front. So I will get £2300 in total - not bad considering car was 10 years old, and I bought it for £2500 a year ago!

Also have now bought a new car after a very MSE moment. We went to our closest garage as they had a VW Passat estate that DH was interested in, it was originally up for £2200, but they had dropped the price to £1950. I checked out online what other vehicles of similar price were retailing for with similar mileage and went in very hard, and they agreed to sell it to me for £1500, with a brand new MOT - definitely a good deal. Did feel very guilty afterwards as I was definitely a bit bolshy - and I still walked away saying I would think about it as I wasn't sure it was that good a deal. Rang up today to say we'd take it and definitely got a bit of a cold response!! oh well, happy with what we are paying!

The change from buying the car will go into the EF, and then if needed will help to pay DH's tax bill - £670 to pay by 31/01 (probably will be needed as he has had very little work this month)

Christmas shopping all done, and just a few more things to wrap.
Got to sort out the Christmas games and quizzes as I am the Games Master as usual. Got lots of good prizes all ready.

We're taking down the green house and asbestos garage today - will be putting on the PPE for that! Fun and Games!
Also had the blown double glazing sorted this morning (£420!!) on CC.

Moving in the right direction. Hoping 2017 is going to be a calmer year. I am definitely going to refocus on the finances and keep coming on here more - going to set some targets.
if we sell the house, we could effectively clear the debts, but I don't want to do that - I want to save as much of the profit as possible, and pay off 50% of debt to help take the pressure off - and then hit it hard. Perhaps the challenge could be to have 75% gone in a year?!!

TTFN Ramble x

louby40

Ramble that's amazing about the car insurance and then car purchase.

I too sort out the games for Christmas day. It's a challenge as the youngest child is 7 and the eldest 17. Taboo is always a hit.