Hugglemonster's homemade happiness diary

NelliePie

Try to take the positive that your mindset has changed - you're not willing to throw any payments on credit card unless its a last resort and you're finding better ways to find more money and make it work for you! SO WELL DONE!

It's obviously a tight month this month, so maybe reassess your budgets and see what you can tweak for next month. You're going in the right direction, just keep going!

hugglemonster

Thanks NelliePie, I'm definitely trying to avoid using the card as I want to get rid of that not add to it. The thing is it shouldn't be tight, we spend far too much money on food and I suddenly get an email to say dh is bidding on yet another book on ebay! That's what needs to stop, I know I can talk to him about it but it's hard when he says we never have any money, what's the point of going to work, I only get a few things etc. But that's what I keep trying to say - well if we didn't spend so much on food then we could... pay off debt...finish ds bedroom...have carpet on the stairs! :mad:

Trying to be positive today:
* Washing out on the line
* Should be getting some money back tonight for a t-shirt I've paid for at club
* Income for business is slowly trickling in, not enough to pay myself back yet but getting there
* Only need a cheap tin of potatoes for tea to go with mince taken out of freezer
* I have a wonderful family and after my best friend's Mum passed away at the weekend I realise how lucky I am.
* Getting all the info ready for mortgage meeting tomorrow, even if we can't change as yet at least we can get some info.

H x

hugglemonster

OOh don't you just hate jobsworths! Went into ds school this morning as I was presenting to the assembly about one of the events I run, anyway we had messages yesterday from school to remind us not to park in the main car park as this was for teachers and visitors. That's fine but as I was a visitor and also bring several large boxes of kit for them I went to the main car park only to find it locked. I phoned reception who told me it wouldn't be unlocked until 0910 and even though I explained about the boxes and needing to be there they refused. So drove around to the other car park and one by one carried the boxes from the car through the playground to reception. By which time I was fuming and had to sign in, overheard the head and caretaker talking about it so I told them it was ridiculous - I fully understood the reasons why but as a visitor with boxes they could have let me in! The caretaker stood there and sneeringly said I'll be opening the gate in a minute, yeah thanks but I would be late, and he shrugged ooh that got me mad :mad: so I got really annoyed and said 'do you think shrugging is OK!' Anyway the head rather falsely apologised for today even saying I should have got there early! The kids go in to school at 0850, why do the gates need locking until 0910?

Right rant over ha, ha!

Today I received a refund from an event that was overpaid so £25 back in the bank, plasterer had to go to another job and I'm not home until next Friday during the day so I'm going to use some of the money for that for food and fuel this week.

I've resent some business invoices that haven't been paid, plus I've had another enquiry from an old work colleague so hopefully another booking.

Mortgage meeting this afternoon, fingers crossed for some good news.

Had 'the chat' with dh last night, he stated that we're never going to have any money, never be able to pay off the mortgage and our pensions are going to be shocking. I explained well we will never have any spare money if we spend £900 a month on groceries and spending! He is very much the pessimist whilst I am an optimist so the best way for me to show him is to just keep plodding on, but I know I need to be tougher and also to make him actually physically look at the budget and what needs paying for each month as he is very much part of this as I am.

Right surveys time, H x

hugglemonster

Good afternoon, hope everyone is having a good weekend. Up early this morning for our volunteering duties then home for a little lunch and dh is making fabulous meatballs for tea tonight - yum!

Some positive initial information from mortgage adviser yesterday, showed us some rates, terms and offers that would be suitable for us and they were coming out with interest rates that were half the amount we have now and lower monthly payments. The best was knocking 3 years off the term, reducing the interest rate massively and still paying £100 less than we are a month! The only drawback with this is the company want £399 fees. So I have contacted our bank this afternoon which was one of the good rates on the list from yesterday, and definitely need to change as letter through the post today that our current interest rate is going up to 5.03% :eek:

Discussion with bank was great, interest rate significantly lower fixed for 2 years, reducing term by 2 years and also over £100 saving a month. Plus no fees and £300 cashback. We have an appointment on Friday to go through the nitty gritty so fingers crossed :undecided

DH has agreed to do a sit down budget overhaul tomorrow, I do hope this is the beginning of getting sorted.

H x

beanielou

Hope meeting at the bank goes well

Treadingonplaymobil

My DH can get a bit like that with chats about money too - he is the main breadwinner and he sometimes gets a bit down when I point at that no we can't afford another £20 here, there and everywhere. Two things that have improved his relationship with reality slightly are agreeing to input his own transactions in the budget app we use (YNAB in our case) so he can see the pots depleting, and has to make it balance if he overspends, and sitting down for five minutes once a week and just whizzing through the budget to see if there are any glaring problems. It's not perfect, but it's a massive improvement on where we were.

hugglemonster

Thanks for your comments beanie and ToPM, I think definitely sitting down at least once a week to go over what is planned/needed etc will keep us on track.

I've been using the cash for plasterer this week, I will give him a cheque when he comes on Friday as I get paid on Tuesday. Not ideal but hey ho we live and hopefully learn. Spoke to mortgage adviser from bank today as a pre-check to Friday's appointment, not likely to reduce our mortgage term but hopefully still will work out to better monthly repayments and interest rate. He needs to speak to DH before then to check it's OK to speak on his behalf, I hope he doesn't reveal that I have a credit card!!!!

Everything just holding together before payday, still no sign of expenses, need to collect a refund whilst at a meeting tonight, first session of new business starts on Tuesday and I have a few spaces left.

Am feeling on edge with everything and busy days at work, luckily an event tomorrow has been cancelled so I can work from home!

H x

hugglemonster

Well it's 5 days until payday, we still need food, I need to pay for school dinners for the week on Sunday, I need fuel on Saturday but not much, and dd is due to go back climbing sessions tonight.

Hmm where to start food we just need to do a very cheap menu, school dinners - dd has enough in her pot probably to last until Tuesday and ds if I need to I can just pay for the one day for Monday and then top up on Tuesday. Fuel I think I can get away with £10 as not going very far over the next few days. Climbing will just have to wait until next week!

Tried to pay in a cheque this morning but banks computers are down and online banking is not working fully so will try again later.

Trying to will myself to get the house tidy today, coffee first then will start.

H x

hugglemonster

Well today has been epic, most off it good though but I am shattered from everything!

Have been on the phone to mortgage adviser for most of the day and we have got a provisional offer for a 17 year mortgage (so 3 years less), £100 less per monthly payment and an interest decrease of 2.89%. Just need to read through paperwork, get valuation done and probably a few more bits. That was fine, it took a while but it was fine.

The problem was when adviser asked hubby to just update his phone number on the current account so he could send the e-sign code, well oh my goodness you'd think that we asked for the world. Main bank adviser (not mortgage chap) said he couldn't do it on the phone but needed to register for online banking or go into a branch :mad::eek::mad: what the actual f***!

Honestly it was ridiculous, even spoke to an supervisor, after 3 phone calls baring in mind hubby went through many security questions to prove it was him, he hung up really fed up. I emailed mortgage chap and he is going to send the documents in the post! bloody crazy, I sent a private message to bank's twitter uk base and guess what they sorted it out no problem.

By that time head was spinning!

Still on the bright side the worst is done, we passed the credit check and also ds room has been plastered today and paid for with a cheque. Still no sign of expenses though :rotfl:

Had to pick up ds from school during that as apparently he wasn't feeling well but he's fine. No volunteering in the morning so might actually get a lie in and both dd and dh are out tomorrow which leaves ds and I to chill out.

Hoping the rest of the mortgage goes OK, H x

beanielou

Hope all goes well with it