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

BalanceBy50

Just catching up HH and I am so pleased for you and DH. This has made my day and so very richly deserved ☺. I am sure you will sleep well tonight xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thank you BalanceBy50 . It is fantastic news .

in_need_of_direction

Brilliant news about ppi. Well done. I’m sure the emergency fund will be such a relief

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks INOD .

[Deleted User]

How lovely to see so many new posters and delurkers coming on here specially to congratulate you. HH:T. Your trials over the past months and the way you've always coped with them have inspired so many of us:A. As someone said, this latest good fortune couldn't have happened to a nicer person and we are all absolutely delighted for you and DH:j:beer:. It was good to hear that you treated yourself to some new clothes too. Essentials nonetheless but it must have been a nice feeling to know you could just go in and buy them without worrying and feeling guilty that not spending on something else would have to compensate for them.



I'm amazed at how quickly the money was available for you to use. Two different banks who awarded me money firstly wrote to me with a breakdown of what they were paying and how they'd worked it out. They both enclosed a form which I had to sign to accept their offer and return by post. They also said the payout would take up to 14 days after they received the acceptance back and in both cases it took 13 days! Both banks sent a cheque which had to be banked and cleared before I actually had the money available to use. All in all, just shy of 4 weeks from receiving the initial letter upholding my claim to the day when I could actually spend any of the money:eek:. Yours seemed to be done and dusted in the twinkling of an eye:j:j:j


I hope you have a lovely Sunday, that's if the weather isn't as awful as it is here. Rain, rain, rain is all we seem to be having lately, with strong biting winds thrown in for good measure:(. It is still early March though so I don't expect I should be too surprised:rotfl:.

Willowtree222

Have you come off the ceiling yet?

So happy for you still. I am also thinking you make do a celebratory shopping trip and fill your cupboards with some little luxuries. xx

jwil

Wow, that's an amazing result with the PPI, congratulations :T :T :T :T :T :T

HairyHandofDartmoor

carbootcrazy wrote: »

How lovely to see so many new posters and delurkers coming on here specially to congratulate you. HH:T. Your trials over the past months and the way you've always coped with them have inspired so many of us:A. As someone said, this latest good fortune couldn't have happened to a nicer person and we are all absolutely delighted for you and DH:j:beer:. It was good to hear that you treated yourself to some new clothes too. Essentials nonetheless but it must have been a nice feeling to know you could just go in and buy them without worrying and feeling guilty that not spending on something else would have to compensate for them.



I'm amazed at how quickly the money was available for you to use. Two different banks who awarded me money firstly wrote to me with a breakdown of what they were paying and how they'd worked it out. They both enclosed a form which I had to sign to accept their offer and return by post. They also said the payout would take up to 14 days after they received the acceptance back and in both cases it took 13 days! Both banks sent a cheque which had to be banked and cleared before I actually had the money available to use. All in all, just shy of 4 weeks from receiving the initial letter upholding my claim to the day when I could actually spend any of the money:eek:. Yours seemed to be done and dusted in the twinkling of an eye:j:j:j


I hope you have a lovely Sunday, that's if the weather isn't as awful as it is here. Rain, rain, rain is all we seem to be having lately, with strong biting winds thrown in for good measure:(. It is still early March though so I don't expect I should be too surprised:rotfl:.

Thank you Carboot . I still felt a bit guilty buying the clothes but it was very enjoyable .

I think the money came in quickly because the refund was from B@arclaycard and my bank account is with B@arclays. It was certainly an incrdible surprise to get the letter and then I noticed the letter said "We have paid blah into acount blah" and I thought surely the money won't be in my account already, and it was :T.

I'm still in shock but very pleased and anxious not to waste this windfall.

We have sunshine again today, so I hope it heads up in your direction soon .

HairyHandofDartmoor

Nicnak wrote: »

Have you come off the ceiling yet?

So happy for you still. I am also thinking you make do a celebratory shopping trip and fill your cupboards with some little luxuries. xx

Thanks Nicnak . I'm still in shock and have to keep reminding myself that it's real .

I already feel quilty for buying clothes but DH and I are going to go out for a meal to celebrate my birthday in two weeks time. .

jwil wrote: »

Wow, that's an amazing result with the PPI, congratulations :T :T :T :T :T :T

Thank you Jwil . I still can't believe it .

HairyHandofDartmoor

I've got £3,500 in my savings account right now .

But I'm going to give DH £400 for a laptop and I've given DS1 £100 in cash as I felt he deserved it as for being so supportive and helpful all the time. So that money will go down to £3,000.

We have £1,700 left from the tax rebate which will be more than enough to live on for the rest of March and that should leave plenty to celebrate my birthday in two weeks time too .

We have our final VAT bill at the end of March and I may have to use some of the money to pay that, but it should be less than £1000 as we haven't earnt that much this quarter. On the last day of March DH and I can calculate it and find out exactly how much it will be. We are going to deregister so this will be our very last VAT bill, thank goodness :T.

So that should leave at least £2,000 in my savings account :j.

If DH can bring in enough money for us to live on in April then that £2,000 can stay intact. So hopefully he will bring in enough.

I can save my earnings too which should be around £200 and which I will receive some time towards the end of March. I'm not sure exactly which date I get paid or how much the deductions for the pension will be.

My aim is to keep at least £2,000 in my emergency fund which is a month's living expenses. So we need to earn as much as possible and keep our spending down in order to achieve that.

We didn't get £200 from DS2 for March, because he's going to be away for a month, but then he won't be here eating food and using electricity.

I'm very much hoping we may get a refund from DH's RBS Adv@anta card as we know he had PPI on that for at least four years. It's just whether they admit it was missold, but he was self employed during that four years, so hopefully they will agree it was missold.

We still need to take our packaged bank accounts refusal (on the grounds that they were out of time) to the ombudsman, so we need to make time for that.

Also if I can get more hours at work then that will help us to cover our expenses. Without earning enough to live on, windfalls like this whilst extremely helpful, are just a band aid covering up the problem of us not earning enough. But as I said to DH, we just need to bring in £1000 a month each and we'll have enough to live on. Surely two adults can be capable of that!