Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

HairyHandofDartmoor

carbootcrazy wrote: »

At least 90% of OH's clutter (and that's a conservative estimate) which fills 2 big sheds, a massive garage, half a greenhouse, a collapsing caravan used as a shed and most of the loft are ''in case'' items. I'm always asking him when was the last time any of this junk was ever useful and he always mentions an afternoon when someone from the far end of our village (who we barely knew) came asking if he had such a thing as a piece of chicken wire that he needed urgently for a repair he was doing. Apparently OH's reputation has spread:rotfl:. After a lot of rummaging and dragging all manner of stuff out of various storage places he found some. He didn't shout ''Eureka'' exactly as he triumphantly held it aloft but he might as well have done. The man had said it was urgent but by the time it was found and he went away with it the sun had already set. This was years ago and OH still mentions it:rotfl:

This is the exact same nonsensical logic that DH and my stepdad spout if anyone mentions clutter to them :rotfl: :mad:. You can't reason with them, but it is tempting to sneak some of their clutter off to the charity shop when they're not around. I'm convinced they would never know it was missing as they don't know what they've got anyway :rotfl:.

doingitanyway

HH, It makes sense to buy at 50% off even if that takes you a bit over budget.

The car journey sounds good MSE wise.

Sorry you are still not 100%

Carboot the stories of your husband are making me LOL :rotfl:

Have a good evening HH

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

This is the exact same nonsensical logic that DH and my stepdad spout if anyone mentions clutter to them :rotfl: :mad:. You can't reason with them, but it is tempting to sneak some of their clutter off to the charity shop when they're not around. I'm convinced they would never know it was missing as they don't know what they've got anyway :rotfl:.

I agree with it being tempting to sneak some of it off to the charity shop, although it would probably be to the tip for most of OH's stuff:eek: (says she who could clutter for England:o)


As for not knowing if anything is missing though I'm not so sure. Just my luck to get rid of something OH could put his finger on in an instant. He certainly knew he had that chicken wire 'somewhere':rotfl:. It must have been years since he stashed it away if its location right at the very back of a shed and buried by masses of other stuff was anything to go by.


OH has booked a local handyman to re-roof 2 sheds. He always does that type of job himself but he did some damage to one of his thumbs and has to have a type of splint on it for a few weeks and the job needs doing before any heavy snow falls. Last winter really did a lot of damage and most of the sheds leak now:(. The one that needs most work needs a lot of replacement woodwork done not just the roofing material attached and the handyman said it would make his job easier (and presumably quicker and cheaper which appeals to OH;)) if it was mainly emptied first. It will be interesting to see what gets dragged out of this shed (the other one being repaired is my own shed and can be fixed completely from outside:j) and where he plans to store it in the meantime. I'll be doing a lot of the dragging and lifting as OH is really struggling with that thumb. It's annoying him so much not being able to do all he wants to do. He's like a bear with sore head (or thumb) at the moment:eek:

HairyHandofDartmoor

Our oven was playing up a bit yesterday so I really hope that it's not about to go wrong :eek:. Otherwise we'll be eating microwave food until we can get some money together to get it mended .

Now that Christmas, new year and DS2's birthday are over we can finally focus all of our efforts on earning money :money:.

One expense I forgot to mention is that we decided we'd better renew our breakdown insurance before our long journey on Sunday. It cost £55 for roadside assistance, recovery and home assistance, which is a good price but we could have done without spending the money right now.

We've had an expensive autumn what with the car insurance, car tax and mot all being due a couple of months apart, then we had to have repair work done on the car too. After that, of course, it was Christmas and DS2's birthday. And now the breakdown insurance. So a very expensive few months .

I would love to build up pots for these expenses next year, so we need to focus on earning more and spending less in the coming months.

The next birthdays that we'll need to spend money on are mine and stepdad's, but those aren't until March. We can spend less on food and electricity now that DS3 is back at college.

I'm going to focus on surveys to build up a bit of extra cash. If DH can bring in enough to cover our bills, then it would be good to use the keep money we get from DS1 and DS3 to build up an emergency fund. But so far we've had to put it towards expenses as we've had such an expensive few months lately.

One possibility is that we may get a tax rebate this year, as we paid a LOT of tax on the pension money. If we do, and I really hope that we do, we could use that money to pay our vat bill.

Another possibility is that we haven't yet tried to reclaim PPI. We may not be eligible, but we should try just in case. So I really need to get onto that before it's too late.

All the more reason to get shot of this horrible cold :mad:.

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

One possibility is that we may get a tax rebate this year, as we paid a LOT of tax on the pension money. If we do, and I really hope that we do, we could use that money to pay our vat bill.

Another possibility is that we haven't yet tried to reclaim PPI. We may not be eligible, but we should try just in case. So I really need to get onto that before it's too late.

Please get onto doing a PPI claim as soon as you can, HH. Lots of advice on MSE and elsewhere. I recouped about £3500 in all over 4 small policies. I didn't usually take out PPI so was surprised I even had it on 2 of them. What I got back all went towards my debts then but you'll be in a better position because it will be yours to do as you want with:j. The PPI reclaiming deadline is in a few months time so don't leave it too late. It's easy to do it yourself, please don't pay one of those companies that do it for you. I think they take 30% of whatever you are awarded.

[Deleted User]

doingitanyway wrote: »

Carboot the stories of your husband are making me LOL :rotfl:

He's beyond a joke sometimes, doingitanyway:rotfl:

HairyHandofDartmoor

doingitanyway wrote: »

HH, It makes sense to buy at 50% off even if that takes you a bit over budget.

The car journey sounds good MSE wise.

Sorry you are still not 100%

Carboot the stories of your husband are making me LOL :rotfl:

Have a good evening HH

Thanks DIA . It does feel sensible to stock up when something I buy every week is half price and we do have a big freezer luckily to store it all.

carbootcrazy wrote: »

I agree with it being tempting to sneak some of it off to the charity shop, although it would probably be to the tip for most of OH's stuff:eek: (says she who could clutter for England:o)


As for not knowing if anything is missing though I'm not so sure. Just my luck to get rid of something OH could put his finger on in an instant. He certainly knew he had that chicken wire 'somewhere':rotfl:. It must have been years since he stashed it away if its location right at the very back of a shed and buried by masses of other stuff was anything to go by.


OH has booked a local handyman to re-roof 2 sheds. He always does that type of job himself but he did some damage to one of his thumbs and has to have a type of splint on it for a few weeks and the job needs doing before any heavy snow falls. Last winter really did a lot of damage and most of the sheds leak now:(. The one that needs most work needs a lot of replacement woodwork done not just the roofing material attached and the handyman said it would make his job easier (and presumably quicker and cheaper which appeals to OH;)) if it was mainly emptied first. It will be interesting to see what gets dragged out of this shed (the other one being repaired is my own shed and can be fixed completely from outside:j) and where he plans to store it in the meantime. I'll be doing a lot of the dragging and lifting as OH is really struggling with that thumb. It's annoying him so much not being able to do all he wants to do. He's like a bear with sore head (or thumb) at the moment:eek:

But even if he knows he has chicken wire, the fact that he can't find it wouldn't prove you'd given it away. You could just say "Well I'm sure it's in there somewhere, if you didn't have so much stuff in there you'd be able to find it." :rotfl:.

You should invite Marie Kondo around to go through OH's sheds for a big reveal, now that's a programme I would watch :rotfl: :rotfl:.

HairyHandofDartmoor

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Please get onto doing a PPI claim as soon as you can, HH. Lots of advice on MSE and elsewhere. I recouped about £3500 in all over 4 small policies. I didn't usually take out PPI so was surprised I even had it on 2 of them. What I got back all went towards my debts then but you'll be in a better position because it will be yours to do as you want with:j. The PPI reclaiming deadline is in a few months time so don't leave it too late. It's easy to do it yourself, please don't pay one of those companies that do it for you. I think they take 30% of whatever you are awarded.

I know I must do it. When is the deadline? I would hate to leave it too late . I'm going to make a firm commitment to myself to do it on Monday. I feel as though we may have had it for something, because I remember thinking at the time that I wondered if we were really eligible for it because of being self employed.

What if we don't have the paperwork though? I may have chucked it away in a decluttering frenzy .

We have had about seven credit cards between us in the past and our old mortgage was with the H@lifax, so it's possible that we may have paid PPI on our old mortgage.


How do I actually claim the PPI? Is there a standard letter that I can just send to all our old creditors?

please-let-me-be-lucky

I was just coming on to tell you about the coke offer and I see you are one step ahead :T Xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

I was just coming on to tell you about the coke offer and I see you are one step ahead :T Xx

Ha ha yes I was straight on it Lucky :rotfl:. Thanks for thinking of me when you see reduced diet coke :rotfl:.