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

HairyHandofDartmoor

Saramond wrote: »

Popping I to say hi, love your diary HH, glad you got your tax rebate!

We had to ask my Mum to guarantor my daughter when she moved to private accommodation for Uni as we live outside of the UK. Big thing to have to ask, ultimately we would have paid though, not let it to my Mum.

They had someone stop paying for their rent mid tenancy and it was taken out of the remaining 5's deposit along with any damages/redocoration that were in communal areas. Any damages to their own bedroom was taken out of their personal deposit. £500 without bills really isn't bad unfortunately, student landlords make a killing.

Encourage your son not to put his name on the utilities, just to pay someone his share each month. He'll end up having to chase everyone for the money each month and could easily end up out of pocket despite how good friends he may be with everyone. 1st year or of halls was a huge leading curve for my DD.

Hi Saramond :wave: thanks for popping in on my diary .

I will definitely encourage DS3 NOT to have his name on the utilities, that sounds like a nightmare :eek:. Good advice thanks .

His housemates seem to have taken the lead in finding the house, etc, so hopefully they'll put the utilites in their name!

It is an expensive area .

HairyHandofDartmoor

We've asked DS3 some more questions. The guarantee would just be for the rent and not the utilities.

DS3 said that if we're refused as guarantors due to our low income, then he would have to pay six months rent in advance :eek:. He reckons he could afford that once he got his loan through next year, but he would have to pay it six weeks in advance, so would have to borrow £3000 from someone for six weeks :eek:. DH and I don't have that kind of money, but he thought he'd ask DS2 if he would lend the money to him.

Anyway DH has sent a copy of our tax return to the letting agents. They may fall about laughing and say we can't be guarantors, so we'll have to wait and see.

If we are accepted as guarantors then they'll send us the agreement and we'll read the small print very carefully and get SIL to check it for us too.

We could do without all of this stress but we don't want to let DS3 down .

System

That makes sense now the deposit thing being 6 months , that what one of my friends did for her son. Rather than be guarantors they paid all the deposit. That's ok of course if you have plenty of spare cash.

Is DS3 working , he may need to if it's £500 plus utilities?

Hope you had a good day otherwise .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks Cumbria .

No he's not working, but he's getting the full loan and is fairly frugal so he seems to think he can afford the rent. It's the same as he's paying for his uni accommodation but he'll have bills on top.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I did the weekly food shop at Mr T and spent far too much £90 :eek:. But I did spend £5 on coffee, £2 on hot chocolate and 2 x £1.35 on cereal that we didn't need but was on offer. Also DH wanted razor blades which cost £8 for four and we needed R3nnies which cost £3.50 :eek:.

So I must do better next week and get it back down to £60. No more stocking up, I must only buy what we actually NEED :mad:.

In the afternoon I popped into town with DS1 to go to the bank and we had a quick coffee together .

It's hard not to feel distracted by the stress of DS3 asking us to be guarantors but I need to try not to think about it. I've got volunteering tomorrow so that will help to distract me. I've done zero housework today so I need to do better tomorrow. It was nice to spend a bit of quality time with DS1 though .

beanielou

Always good to have quality times with our DS's.
Food for the soul

teafor2

Hello HHD, here I am saying hi :wave: I'm going to start at the beginning of your diary in a few days but for now I'll be looking at the most recent posts as we're in the same position with our DC's and the guarantor situation.

I don't know what your DS is like but sometimes it's like pulling teeth getting information out of DD which makes things even more stressful at times. 3 questions seems to be about her limit so I have to choose them wisely :rotfl:

I've subscribed and look forward to reading your story. xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou wrote: »

Always good to have quality times with our DS's.
Food for the soul

Yes it is Beanie .

HairyHandofDartmoor

teafor2 wrote: »

Hello HHD, here I am saying hi :wave: I'm going to start at the beginning of your diary in a few days but for now I'll be looking at the most recent posts as we're in the same position with our DC's and the guarantor situation.

I don't know what your DS is like but sometimes it's like pulling teeth getting information out of DD which makes things even more stressful at times. 3 questions seems to be about her limit so I have to choose them wisely :rotfl:

I've subscribed and look forward to reading your story. xx

Hi TF2 I'm glad you've popped in :wave:. It's going to take you a long time to read my diary as I can waffle and blather on for Britain but it's nice of you to want to read it . I'm going to start on yours too as soon as I can .

We do seem to be in a similar situation with regard to the guarantor situation.

DS3 is terrible at giving information. I'll message him three times asking questions and I'll just get a thumbs up in reply, or he'll just say "yh" :mad:. He only answered some questions today because I said we wouldn't sign anything unless he did :rotfl: :mad:. I think three questions is DS3's limit too. Children exist to delight and infuriate us in equal measure :rotfl:.

Hopefully we can help each other to avoid any potential guarantor pitfalls. Good luck with your DD .

HairyHandofDartmoor

I feel like I've had a hectic day today! I had volunteering in the morning which I enjoyed, although it was a bit chaotic because three staff were off sick :eek:.

When I got back I had a whole list of things that I wanted to do which included:

[STRIKE]-Fill in and post a PPI follow up form[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]-Ring tax credits and tell them about the tax rebate[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]-Drop off my new proof of income at the training centre[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]-Collect my blue jeans from the shop where they'd been delivered[/STRIKE]
-Iron my smart navy trousers
[STRIKE]-Put some laundry on to wash[/STRIKE]
-Hang up laundry
-Wash my hair

I did a few things on my list and was about to go out when DH came home from a meeting and said he'd drop me in town as he needed to drop off DS2's tax forms off at the accountants and pay their bill (with money from DS2). I did my chores and then because DH couldn't find a parking space I ended up doing his chore too :mad:. It's amazing how long these things take!

We still haven't heard back from the rental agency as to whether we're suitable as guarantors, which is annoying because the stress of it was keeping me awake last night .