Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

All those lovely plans made in my post above have had to be scrapped. I logged on to view my payslip on Thursday to see that there has been another c0ck up with my car tax and with DH getting no bonus this month we are about £700 down. I could have cried . It’s not like they will stick it all back in next month either as I do have £1500 tax to pay.

I am sick of lurching from one financial mess to another :mad: Most created in the past by us I admit but it is so frustrating when I was so looking forward to making my first OP to the debt this month and to start getting ahead. I have told DH that I want the next 12 months to have a huge focus on paying down the debt so we must keep our spending to a minimum.

DH, who is planning on doing Stoptober, has christened this month Skintober :rotfl: and were planning to do what we could not to use the CC or the EF. I rejigged the budget and thought we might just scrape through the month. I then got 3 requests for money from DS school on Friday for a total of £99! There is no wriggle room in the budget for that and I need to pay them all this week

I have checked the Ll0yds CC statement and they keep putting my payments to the smallest interest free balance and not the interest bearing bit :mad: I have queried this before and just got a bog standard reply about how interest is charged. This means I have £600 ish at 19.44% and less than £200 on the smallest 0% balance bit. I could BT it but they did the same allocation when I did the last BT.

I have listed the contents of the freezer, done a meal plan and have spent under £50 on food/booze this weekend. I have cut back on snacks, bought no sweets/choc etc for me and am planning on baking instead. The heating hasn’t been on. I also got a birthday gift well under budget for a kids party, used a card and wrap I already had in and used a £10 Argos voucher (in my purse since December) for an item DS was buying so swapped it with him for £10 cash.

I have had to buy a new clothes horse (to avoid using the TD) as the legs have snapped of ours and new kitchen scissors but got both from Wilk0 for £12

I bought DS an accessory for his Halloween costume cheaper than the one I had seen on line, ignored DH when he wanted to buy a prentendy zombie weapon to play with and didn’t buy tickets for a show I want to see when we received an early booking invite. It will be on again sometime I am sure

I am currently sat with a fleece on and wrapped in a furry throw so I don’t have to put the heating on and as DH is fine and DS is sat in shorts and a T shirt :eek: its only me that’s cold.

DS has had another good training session this morning. Not so good for the parents watching as it was chucking it down.

Any teachers reading who can recommend strategies to help DS (yr 5) with his poor handwriting and reluctance/lack of confidence to complete his English homework? It isn’t that he doesn’t understand it and I sit with him to do it. He will confidently whizz through his maths unsupervised, can score highly in a spelling test with minimal practice and is a great, if somewhat reluctant, reader. I did buy him some handwriting practice books to do over the summer holidays but we didn’t get very far. I may have a word with his teacher if she is in the yard on Friday when I pick him up and see if I can arrange a meeting.

I am concerned as there is a good chance he will be taking the 11+/common entrance exam next year and I don’t want this to scupper his chances.

apple_muncher

What sort of pen does he write with? I teach some kids with atrocious handwriting and have taken to giving them a fat-nibbed pen so that they have to slow down and make their letters bigger. But I also tell them that when they do that, I do not expect them to write much - I just want to be able to read it!

XSpender

He usually writes with a biro or gel pen. Slowing down would help I think. His letters are big but not all on the line or formed well and sometimes it is difficult to read what he has written. If he makes an effort he can write legibly.

Honeysucklelou2

Sounds silly, but check his pencil grip. Next check that he is forming his letters correctly from stating point to finish. Sometimes children can slip into bad habits when they form letters in the way they think it should go, which can involve lots of circling. Watch as he writes just to check formation.

XSpender

Honeysucklelou2 wrote: »

Sounds silly, but check his pencil grip. Next check that he is forming his letters correctly from stating point to finish. Sometimes children can slip into bad habits when they form letters in the way they think it should go, which can involve lots of circling. Watch as he writes just to check formation.

Thanks for the tips. We are practicing spelling this evening so I will watch how he holds his pen and forms his letters.

XSpender

I’m a getting really p’d off and fed up with our debt :mad: I have 5 weeks before we get paid again and I can chuck some money at it. The good news is DH believes he should earn an additional bonus this quarter which will enable us to pay the 3 smallest balances off by the end of the year. My bonus is due end of Jan and we can pay another one off then.

I have had to use the CC to pay for 2 out of the 3 bills I had from school for DS.

I have been crunching the numbers today to see if it is at all possible to get rid of it by the end of 2020 and the answer is not without at least 1 of us (that will be me then:cool:) getting another job with a better salary. I have applied for one today that is 3 miles from my house! How good would that be? I could bike it if there wasn’t such a massive hill to navigate back home. I am no good at hills on a bike.:o

The only thing left to cut is our food and booze spending. We start Stoptober tomorrow:eek: I am pleased with how little we spent over the weekend for this week’s food and I have meal allowances to use this week I can use towards some non perishables. I have not bought any crisps I can eat nd am looking to reduce the amount of food i eat. Might help with losing my flab too :cool:

I have put myself on a clothes ban until 2021. Apart from tights for work at some point and a pair of jeans/jeggings which I will ask DH to buy me for Christmas I don’t need anything. If i lost a stone I could probably double my available clothing I have a pair of leggings I bought a few weeks ago from M&S that I would need to buy a new top and trainers to wear so I am going to take them back. I am outside 28 days and don’t know where the receipt is but hoping I can get a credit note towards some PJs for DS.

I am flexing my frugal muscle and have baked this weekend using what is in store. White chocolate and raspberry blondies and chocolate puddle pudding. DH, who isn’t much of a pudding person, loved the chocolate pud and has asked for this for Christmas day as he doesn’t really like Christmas pud. I will eat his share as I love the stuff.

One load of washing done on the line and finished on the clothes horse and 1 draped all over the banister and the radiators.

Right, best go and test DS on these spellings.

brizzlegirl

Nice advice above.

So sorry to hear its two steps forward and one back....but you will get there I promise. We have had something similar this year with unexpected bills and its tough to take even when its largely self inflicted. It feels like the universe is just not listening...

But no heating, frugal food plans, not spending a fortune on holidays and booze....it all helps. We have had to spend loads on things like new safety gear for OH for his bike ( a functioning bike helmet is a necessity) and a lighter bike for DD2 as she is now being persuaded to cycle to school rather than take the bus..but overall came in at a spend of 72.5% for September which has still meant a lot to throw at the debt. Dont much like the restrictiveness of it all and the fact that it can't be invested and its going to pay off debt but thats where we are. Like you XS I want to be DF and clear of all financial stress by my big birthday which is late next year...

Onwards and upwards XS Sending hugs and energy (and the odd glass of wine ) :beer:

Brizzle x

brizzlegirl

Ooh our postings crossed. Puddings sound yum. Sounds like you and me were both cutting and recutting the budgets today..amazing what one can do in between the conference calls :rotfl:

Good luck with those spelling tests

XSpender

I spend more time than I should fiddling with spreadsheets when I am working from home, trying to squeeezzee a bit more off the spending or a couple of months off the debt free date.:o I won’t make it by my big birthday next summer so am aiming to do it before my next birthday, even better would be to clear it before DH big birthday+1 which is 6 months before mine in early 2021.

I’ve got a dentist appointment to fill a hole in my tooth this week that I haven’t budgeted for but can’t be put back as I need it doing. It’s never ending!

DS may have the opportunity to do the C2C with DH this year but DH will need a new bike to do it. He’s already got 2!

Suffolk_lass

You're a bit quiet. Is everything OK?