DD's accountability thread

beanielou

Hope your cat is ok. 

DD265

Thanks Beanielou. He's over the worst of it; waiting for an update from the vets, but everything was looking positive this morning.

Currently having a disagreement with OH about how to pay the bill. He wants to ask if they'll do split payments, whereas I'd prefer to pay the vet in a lump sum, particularly as they aren't our usual vet. We have (we think, don't know the total yet) enough cash in the bank, though appreciate that if there was a second emergency then we could have issues. It's not as though we're going to be rolling in it when we get paid!

I think the compromise will be to put it on my Barclaycard (no balance, but not interest free either) then pay it off in full when due, regardless of if/when the insurance pays out. My next statement date is 11th May, so the payment would be due at the start of June. OH's credit card is interest free until July but I'm not sure if he's got enough room on it; will depend how big the bill is.

Making the payment will be further complicated over the phone, as for such a large amount, I suspect the bank/credit card companies are going to block it, and I don't fancy my chances of getting through to them on the phone today!

DD265

Moglet is home but not 100% still; he's obviously a bit uncomfortable when he does urinate, and takes a 'little and often' approach then immediately cleans after each one. We're looking at 'lifestyle changes' rather than medication, at this point. Currently watching him use the litter tray (poor boy) but I'm going to wedge the door mostly closed once we're confident he's not having difficulties. Considering another water source, possibly in the conservatory (where they'll spend a lot of time over summer, but it gets quite hot) and then switching him to urinary biscuits as he doesn't eat the wet food. I'm really not impressed with the meat content of the urinary ones, so it might be a bit of research and a hunt to find some.

Budget is up to date, our vets bill is at £1927.74. I've submitted a claim to PetPlan already (easy, once I found the online form; think the vets do most of the work!), though appreciate it could take a couple of weeks to be processed. It went onto OH's credit card so there's a bit of time before we'd have to pay it off. I do hate seeing the credit over spend in YNAB, but I don't want to put the PetPlan pay out in, until we know for certain that they're actually going to pay out. Our excess is only £80; less than it would've been on a horse policy!

It has demonstrated to me how far off being able to self insure we are. There are so many big savings goals I'd like to achieve that it all feels a bit insurmountable, for example:
£9.5k to pay off MBNA card (car purchase)
£2.6k to pay off family member loan (house purchase)
£19k to cover loss of pay during maternity (if we go down that road)
Big mortgage overpayments...

The immediate focus is saving as much as we can whilst Covid-19 is causing trouble (and for the aftermath), then back to a focus on paying off debt.

beanielou

Blimey, that is some vet bill.

DD265

Yup, it escalated quite quickly! Suspect we were charged a premium with it being an emergency veterinary practise. Another £50 coughed up yesterday for pain relief and a urology diet cat food. The way PetPlan claims work is a bit less convenient than when I'd claimed with NFU for horse-related things, so rather than making extra work for everybody submitting several small claims, as we can afford to do so, I will build them up into a larger bunch.

I'm still on holiday and things are starting to feel a bit surreal, and I think I'm beginning to get bored. Part of that is feeling like I need to relax and de-stress from work (i.e. have a holiday) rather than running around doing loads of chores. I think I'll possibly feel better - albeit probably under a lot more stress again - when I start working on Monday. For a start it'll put me back into a proper routine; got up to give the cat his meds at 7am then went back to bed this morning!

The plus side to all this is that our discretionary spends are a lot lower than normal, but pay day still feels like a long way away. It is in fact 2 weeks today, for me. We managed to get some hand sanitiser and a thermometer on Amazon - probably a lot more expensive than pre-Covid-19 - which I think is a sign things are calming down, but who knows? I'm expecting lock down to continue for quite some time, and the biggest fear is us both losing our jobs, so I keep telling myself that saving is the most important thing right now. For the time being, we're OK!

DD265

Good news - PetPlan agreed the claim, and the money is back in our account. We'll pay the amount we put on OH's credit card, then the rest will go back into the vet fees pot. We have another bill to pay for more medication (which we'll claim back), but after urine tests yesterday there have been positive changes and moglet is much happier.

I'm pushing OH to pay off his credit card in full - there's about £370 on it, apart from the vets bill. As he's furloughed, in the budget I split out 20% from the pay he received at the end of March - this practically covers the £370, and I've suggested we use that. I think it's a good idea to reduce our obligations where possible. I'm not making any additional payments to the MBNA card, however. I intend to pay £100 a month (more than the minimum) and save the other money I would put towards it. The budget category will have 'car' on it, keeping it separate from emergency funds, but then it's there if we need it.

I was back to work this week and it took a while to get into the swing of things. I'm on holiday today (and next Friday, then the one after is a bank holiday) as we were pushed to book our holiday. As it stands I'm not reducing to 4 days a week, though it'll probably be re-assessed regularly. On the one hand, it would be nice to have the extended weekend, but rationally I know it's best to bring as much money in as possible for as long as I can!

DD265

We were paid the week before last - not too much less than normal for OH due to holiday he had booked meaning he was 'full time' for a couple of weeks. His credit card was paid off which leaves us with just the MBNA card and a family member. MBNA is at £9400, and I'm paying off at £100 a month but setting aside the other £250 from my car allowance take-home in savings. As the credit card is interest free, and times are uncertain, that feels like the safest option right now. The family member is owed £2500, which isn't going down as fast as I would like. OH and I discussed it however and agreed that we'd boost the emergency fund to £2k - OH is now contributing £100 a month to savings as well - then the £100 a month from OH will be saved towards paying the family member off in a lump sum. It all feels like rather slow progress!

We had a socially distanced cul de sac bbq recently and it highlighted our total lack of garden furniture. We had some pallets that we'd originally thought about using but gave those away; I am very pleased as they weren't really what we wanted and the garden seems a lot bigger again now. We've bought a couple of very large outdoor bean bags from Wayfair - in the sale at £52 each - and one of those will seat two people when needed. We're still working out our long term plans for the house, and garden furniture isn't that cheap generally, so we were struggling to justify dropping £100 on a table and chairs set when it wasn't what we wanted. The bean bags fit with the longer term vision and are a lot more versatile, so we're happy with our purchase and looking forward to them arriving.

I signed up to Swagbucks with the MSE £10 extra and have put a lot of effort into playing a couple of mobile games for points. One of them gave me the Swagbucks, and the other is still a WIP, but I am frozen out of my Swagbucks account and I don't know why. I basically got a 'we can't log you in, contact support' and then when I did I got a response from the compliance team and had to send in ID. I don't know whether it's a routine thing - in which case why freeze my account without contacting me? - or they think I've done something dodgy, but I fail to see what/how. I've got over £30 worth of points though and it has taken hours leveling those games, so I shall be cross if I don't get access to the funds.

DD265

I was eventually let back into my Swagbucks account last night after I chased it. Not sure what they were doing. Promptly ordered a £50 Mastercard giftcard with the MSE points and the points from the first game. I'm waiting on the second, which is complete, and those will clear on the 22nd. In the mean time I've picked up another game for 500 points, and I have ~1000 in my account; I'm hoping to get £35-50 more out of it.

I also cashed £40 out of Prolific this week, and have another £5 sat there already, so that feels to be going well. I do prefer Prolific, but find it difficult to sit all day watching for surveys when I'm working, and if I turn my PC on so I can have it on that screen constantly, I find myself getting distracted.

Alas, the items I was planning to purchase with this 'free' money are both out of stock! That's what I get for being good and waiting until I have the money to spend it... For now, I'm not rushing to spend it on anything else. This is my 'fun money', hence the effort to obtain it, so I don't have to feel guilty spending it. There are a couple of small businesses I'd like to support, but I need a bit more for any of those so I'm saving up a bit more. I've got a voice in my head going 'spend it, spend it, spend it' so I'm trying hard to ignore that in the mean time.

Our bean bags arrived today - 5 days early - and they're absolutely fab. I love them, and it was very difficult to leave the garden and return to work! I think we'll get a lot of use out of them, but to help them last longer, I'm considering getting a couple of picnic blankets to use underneath them on the patio, and maybe a couple of beach towels (we don't have any!) to put on top for when it's hot and we're sweaty, or they're getting warm from being in the sun. I think these are all items that could be quite versatile and travel with us, although the bean bags will take up almost the entire back seat of the car 

We've spent another ~£40 at the vet today, so I need to put our next claim in with PetPlan at some point. The budget is looking reasonable, though the weekly £100 my sister is giving us seems to disappear quite quickly, and I think our weekly shops are almost twice what they used to cost. We decided to use what we could out of the freezer this coming week, so no trip to the butchers required, though the supermarket was still £69 - it's normally nearer £40 for two of us. Part of the issue is that I'm planning meals for 3 and cooking for 4, so something that we maybe got two evening meals out of, now does one and a lunch, so I think we need more economical, scaleable dishes.

Wunderlist is no more, so we (I mean I) moved everything into Google Keep, which ties in with our Google Home devices. That's all free, at least! We've got shopping lists, to do lists and recipes all in one place, shared between OH and I, then my sister has access to the supermarket list so she can add anything she needs. Heaven forbid any of us should have to speak to one another. I like being able to say 'hey google, add foil refill to supermarket list' when my hands are full cooking! The other lists that I have include my workouts and a few personal things, but also things to do around the house, whether free by us, needing purchases - like a blind - or by tradespeople. We've agreed the plumber will be the first port of call after this, as OH wants the water tank in the loft checking over, and I'd like a quote for plastering (what a useful chap) and a ballpark for a new boiler. We fixed the leaky tap ourselves which felt good!

DD265

Our cat is hospitalised again, though this time at the regular vet rather than emergency, after we noticed he was having difficulty urinating again. Thankfully on the second attempt, they were able to get a catheter in, which has bought us time to wait for the test results. There may be nothing that can be done, but we're hopeful that surgery is an option. Whether the insurance will cover it all.. to some extent it doesn't matter, but of course we don't have unlimited funds.

Just before this happened, the company confirmed that they'll be paying my March bonus; over £1100 before tax. Obviously all our money is now set aside for vets bills. Likewise the money I've cashed out from Swagbucks (£100 now) and Prolific (got another £13 ready to withdraw) isn't going to be used for any frivalous spending until we know what's what. Our balance at the vet is already £700, and we only had about £5k left on the insurance.

For now it's a waiting game. Fingers crossed the test results come back in our favour; I'd rather max out the Barclaycard than lose him.

beanielou

Positive vibes. 🐱