Second time lucky... debt free diary.

Mumoffourkids

I feel your pain re the shoes. We have an under stairs cupboard with the shoes in but no matter how many times I sort them out, there always seems to be more in there! I swear they multiply when I’m not looking. Good luck on sorting out the budget and I agree with cherry, the new hours may be helpful with saving money on your food bill. Good luck with sorting out before the boiler man comes and hopefully you will have it fixed today.

charlies_tribe

Just a quick update. Got up early yesterday for the boiler man, waited all morning and they never arrived! Went to work and then to watch DD in her swimming lesson. Had no contact from boiler man.

Slept way too much this morning and woke about 10.45 and made a coffee for DH still in bed and at 11 the phone rang. The boiler man said he was ill yesterday but could come now. Mad rush before he arrived and he was here 10 minutes said he couldn't replace the part as it would put more pressure on already leaking parts and to replace everything that needed replacing could be £600-700! And some parts may not even be available anymore. He said there's also a leak upstairs as it's running down the pipe. At one point we thought he was going to condemn it bug he didn't. He put it back together and gave us his card for when we've decided what to do. Luckily he didn't charge for coming out.

So looks like we may have to add to the debt cos there's no way I can cover almost £2000 yet for a new boiler.

Right better get ready for work and seek out the overtime book while I'm there.

Cherryfudge

Oh crumbs - not what you want to hear, though I'm so glad it didn't need to be condemned. Mum's old house still has very limited hot water as part of the system won't stand be used and has had to be shut off for now! So are you still shower-less?

Time to start making a cunning plan I guess, but all the work you've done so far to be MS will make a big difference even if you do have to put the boiler on credit.

P.S. Not that it's much comfort, but finding the leaky pipework before it floods is a definite bonus. That would have been a whole other level of expenses.

charlies_tribe

Thank you Cherryfudge. Yes, still shower-less at the moment. One of the times I wish we had put in an electric shower rather than the fancy looking thermostatic one. We could of managed until we had the money then.
Definitely need to empty our room and find the leak. Your right that it's probably saved us a lot of money in the future.
Still not sure what to do, take quotes on a finance boiler or to do it with a 0% money transfer from one of the cards. My report is good so may even get a 0% purchase card offer.

No change to the bank this morning. At work later. Will catch up on diaries when I can (still reading them all) as I told the children yo tidy up so DS has taken his laptop and put it away. I struggle with the screen on my phone.

charlies_tribe

Not a lot to post. Bank about the same this morning. Because of 2 payments of tax credits this month i think there will be about £800 to transfer to the house emergency account putting it at about £1500. We need to do the fence first but shouldn't be long before we could do the boiler if we can manage till then. DH managed to get a warm shower yesterday by turning on the cold tap so hopefully we can manage till then.
Did my last midnight shift last night. Checked and there isn't any overtime available at the moment. DH has gone to fetch a few bits of shopping with DD while i waited for a delivery, that arrived as soon as DH pulled off the drive. So i could have gone to do it, we could end up with all sorts.

Need to pay the council tax. The yearly funds account was looking so good at nearly £2000 I don't want to pay it till i really have to, I'll be sad to see it go but really pleased i managed to save it and not use it. Should leave about £600 for all the car bits that are due at the end of may (insurance, tax, MOT). Water and TV are due too, i'm wondering if i could add them to the yearly account too and put it into a savings account for a bit of interest. As there will be 2 more payments to go in before the car things are due i think i could pay the tv and water and the use the monthly payments to top it back up.

DH back at work tomorrow so will catch up properly then.

brizzlegirl

Hi :wave:

I have just read your diary from start to finish.. a great read. You have been so strong and committed in dealing with your debt and getting the totals down all the while managing a load of responsibilities and lifestuff. Youre amazing.

Have subscribed and look forward to cheering you on your way

Brizzle x

charlies_tribe

Thank you for reading Brizzlegirl, hope it didn't bore you to much, sometimes my posts just seem to be getting the rambling out of my head.

Yesterday i used some of our Christmas money to buy us some new bedding and the sheet wont stay on the bed, think it's made for a much deeper mattress. I was hoping a second set would make changes easier with working different shifts.

Just checked the energy monitor and we have used £93 gas and £62 electric this month (£155 in one month, eek!). Just checked online and the new gas meter they fitted in feb still isn't showing and it won't let me put in the new numbers as they don't match the last reading as it's still the reading from the old one. So need to phone on tuesday to sort it again.

I'll be back in the morning with my monthly update as struggling to concentrate tonight, think i'm just tired after getting up for work at half 5 this morning and running next weeks shifts through my head with a new bed time routine for the children.

charlies_tribe

Month 12 update

Loan: - £0!
mbna1: - £0!
lloyds: - £0!
mbna2: - £7453
barclay: - £8869
tesco: - £7272
sofa: - £3305

Total - £26899

£6655/£33554 (19.8%) paid.

I think the figures are correct.My word subscription has expired and it wont let me alter it so i've just put the figures straight on here. I'm sticking to minimum payments at the moment to build up the house account so not much has been paid this month.

charlies_tribe

Well a whole (almost, on the 7th) year since i started the diary and tackling the debt. It's been a long year and things have changed a lot from those first posts. We have paid off £6655 in that 12 months, we haven't used a credit card in over 15 months!
I've had to do quite a bit of juggling of the budget but we have accounts sorted and have even managed to save some money for yearly bill and a home/emergency fund.

Due to my drop in hours, this year is going to be a lot tougher and i don't think we will pay off anywhere near as much but as long as it isn't going up i'll be happy.

Today will be a NSD. DH is in bed so children are planning on staying in PJ's.

I didn't post much about last months spending as it all went to pot but i'm making a fresh start for April and hoping to stick to it.

Food £0/£750 (5 Sunday shopping days at£150 each)
Pets £0/£100
Fuel £0/£100
Entertainment £0/£100
Clothing £0/£100 (Hoping to stick to this but DS1 needs school shoes and DD3 needs school jumpers and they are all ready for summer clothes)

In the budget, i've set swimming lessons/gymnastics slightly higher each month to cover anything needed. Girls really need new swimming costumes and I need to pay for their gym exam in May. I've budgeted £110 for all lessons but they only total £80 this month so hopefully cover anything else they need in it's own budget.

Well i'm being shouted, better go sort some children, i'll be back later.

charlies_tribe

I'm not sure where my energy has come from this morning but I've done 2 half hour cleaning blocks. The first was the clothes mountain in the room and from the airers/ dryer. Folded and sorted in to piles and the children have taken them upstairs (and put on their bedroom floors no doubt) and sorted through some of the shoe pile still on the floor from last week. I carrier bag in to the bin and another to clean and sell/charity bag.
The second was sweeping the layer of dog hair that's covering the room and hall that I could see without moving furniture, they malt 1 after the other and I can never seem to get on top of it. Cleared the fire and hearth from all the junk/receipts that are thrown on there and I've got the children to take anything I'd put on the stairs and put it away.
Now having a cup of tea and I'll do another half hour.
It's only little things but it's things I've just done half hearted over the last few weeks. Hoping that's the tablets kicking in and it continues and I might find a few bits to sell along the way too.

Forgot to put the beef in this morning so it'll be a chicken dinner today and beef tomorrow. Need to sort a meal plan with some cheap, healthy meals as hoping to get back on the weight loss from tomorrow.