From debt to freedom...

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Sarahwithlove, SH, Lucielle, Dawnybabes and peb.

The car failed it’s MOT, which I thought was likely to happen. It needs new rear brake pads and something to do with a bush on the driver’s side. Since the only bushes I know are the ones that  grow in gardens, I have no idea what that means mechanically speaking but the upshot is I am car less until it is repaired.  Thankfully a colleague lives in the nearest big town so if DD3 or DD2 can get me there , she can take me to work. The problem of living and working so rurally! Job 2 is in walking distance from home so no problem there.

Had an email from the mortgage conveyancers to say they had received my signed mortgage deed...I posted it 2 weeks ago! Thank you Peb for what you said about the RX4. I think I need to ring the conveyancers and talk to a person rather than this online platform malarkey because there is no way to ask questions unless I email and then it takes a week to get an email back acknowledging receipt of the email and saying they are experiencing  high volume! Just can’t ring in school hours because I can’t stay in a phone queue for hours! 

Only did 3 shifts at Job 2 this week so I feel more human today than I did last weekend. I’ve been put down for extra shifts over the Christmas period which 
I am going to have to pace myself with. Split shifts on Boxing Day and NYE, on top of normal shifts, doesn’t sound helpful to family life or energy levels so am going to see if I can negotiate.

£30 paid of a debt so it’s  slowly going downwards! I’m trying to discipline myself to use £30 a week from my Job 2 wages to chip away and focus on one debt at a time. This payment brings the focus debt down to £345.

Lucielle - I have no idea what to expect at Christmas!  For many years we didn’t know where the ex lived, so it was me, the children and my parents. Last year was the first Christmas we knew his whereabouts, so it was more split last year. This year, I have my parents and the children that live with me, but my adult children now have girlfriends/ boyfriends/ fiancé so I know that they will want to spend time with their families too. Equally I hope to have time with SO, so can’t quite figure how that will look but am going to cook lots and have a good time with whoever is here😄.

One more week at Job 1, so will start on Christmas things then. No time  with both jobs on a normal week!

Have a good weekend everyone 🙂.

Sun_Addict

Sorry to hear the car failed its MOT 😞 I can remember mechanics talking about bushes when Mr SA had a car but no idea what they are. 

Everywhere you ring nowadays want to hold you in a queue and are experiencing high volumes of calls, drives me nuts!

Hope you have a nice weekend despite the frustrations life is throwing at you. 

savingholmes

Sorry about the MOT. Hope it's not off the road too long

@peb - I think you were one of my guides when I was doing my form as the conveyancers had done it wrong. So thank you.

Cherryfudge

You continue to do an amazing job, @Honeysucklelou2. Well done on the debt payment plan - that £345 will whittle away and at this rate will be gone by spring.

I didn't know about bushes in cars either but I found this: apparently it's something that provides cushioning in the suspension. I hope the car gets back to good health soon!

I take heart from your Christmas plans as I'm not prepared either, but there's something anti-commercial about preparing nearer the time. It puts the focus more on what's important to you, and less on the trimmings, nearly all of which seem to involve a cunning plot to part us from our cash, with a side effect of stealing peace of mind! (Cynical, me?)

As you know, we are also at the stage of sharing adult children with their significant others and/or jobs. It makes any time together doubly precious, and at least we now have video calls if we can't be together. We spent a little bit of last Christmas being shown round my sister's house on the Equator! Your SO sounds so nice, I'm sure you'll find time to be together in person.

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you SH, SA & Cherryfudge.

Cherryfudge - I like that thought of being anti-commercial and just doing what is important. 🙂

I’ve had a lovely weekend...bizarrely not having the car has meant I couldn’t rush around being anyone’s taxi so have had a quiet relaxing weekend. Unfortunately DS3 went down with a tummy bug last night, so he has needed plenty of rest and TLC , which a quiet weekend has afforded us. It’s been productive too so the Christmas cake is now cooked, a batch of brownies has been baked, the last of the Autumn leaves have been swept up and put into bags to take to the allotment for leaf mould, the ironing of the bedding has happened and 5 loads of washing done! We got the Christmas decorations up, which was a great team effort...lots of simple pleasures.

Job 1 is closed tomorrow as the smaller lanes at the home end and work end are simply too treacherous. Thankfully the younger DDs school is also shut so we can all be at home and stay warm🙂. Very, very thankful that I don’t have to risk the lanes. Last time it was this bad, a colleague crashed trying to get to work.

Stay warm and safe everyone.

savingholmes

Glad there was an upside to being without your car. 

Hope DS3 recovers quickly. 

Great that Job 1 is closed. Do you have to WFH or is it just a non-school day?

Cherryfudge

So many unexpected blessings in (temporarily) not having a car! And perfect timing for your DS, but I hope he's better soon.

I don't know if yours is a traditional fruit cake for Christmas but a colleague told me you can speed up the maturation by freezing it. Wouldn't work for me as there's not room in the freezer.  

Your family sounds very snug and cosy.  

enthusiasticsaver

Hope the mortgage application is all going through ok. You sound very organised re cooking brownies and Christmas cake.  DGDs are going to help me bake a gingerbread/chocolate cottage and decorate with sweets this weekend. 

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you SH, Cherryfudge and ES.

SH - it was a work from home day so the teaching just went online for a day. It was quite a reminder of how lockdown used to be!

Cherryfudge - thank you for that tip…not heard that before. Will have to play freezer Tetris to see if I can fit it in. 

ES - I love making gingerbread houses…such a lovely Christmas activity to do!
Finished Job 1 for Christmas but still going on Job 2. This week is normal hours but next week I seem to have crazy hours. I have asked for the split shifts to not happen. I can’t go back to Job 1 in an exhausted state. Still waiting for the mortgage paperwork to go through. Not quite sure what the hold up is. 

I’m trying to get Christmas bits and pieces done. I did get a fair bit of the food shopping done today but am finding it quite a challenge to get gifts on a limited budget. I haven’t been able to do any extra debt repayments this week but it was satisfying to get this months statement and see the difference focusing on one debt is doing. Hoping that I can start to make inroads again after Christmas.

Spendless

Don't worry about the gifts, most are now old enough to understand and they don't tend to remember them anyway. I asked my 2 (now 22 and 19) this very question recently 'what are you childhood memories of Christmas?'. They talked of seeing family, baking sausage rolls with my Nan, DD talked of a favourite childhood book of hers where we tried to match as many activities in it - sing carols at the church, look at Xmas lights displayed round the houses. When I asked about presents, neither remembered anything much beyond opening stockings together and again it was the activity rather than the contents remembered and interestingly enough the Christmas Eve hamper, now DD always loved hers and when I took it away last year because she was 18, she asked for it re-instated (she even offered to forfeit her  stocking in exchange). What has really surprised me though is DS was around 10 when I started it and unlike DD outgrew it after a couple of years, but this year in his own place with his fiancee, he has decided to do one for her. 

I introduced it as 'what Santa needed them to do Christmas Eve' (read settle down so I can get on with prepping veg and last minute wrapping  ls) so had PJs, bubble bath, hot choc and a dvd in. That's really simple to do with things they already have, nothing needs to be newly bought . Bundle together their favourite PJs, twist some hot choc powder into a plastic bag, cone if you're creative and don't have any sachets in. If you have things like Santa stop here signs or mince pie plates add them.  Give them a sweet treat you've baked yourself and bundle it all up with a note from the elves. If we did Christmas Eve late Church service I'd have incorporated that too, got their items, warm clothes etc together and then their PJs for when they got back in. Enlist the older ones help if you're working lots of shifts, they'll find it fun too.