Getting it together...one £ at a time!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Unfortunately, property maintenance is a necessary evil and you’ve done well to put up with the chilliness so long.
We looked at grey windows, but it is a lot more so we stuck to white!

Homegrown0

Hooray to the powers that be listening to your desire for surveys. £2.50 is not to be sniffed at! Long may they continue

My gramps is ok thanks, I brought him home earlier but he's still in a lot of pain. Hoping the meds kick in soon.

The pay day thing is frustrating tea but we manage. I get paid monthly and he gets paid weekly on a Tuesday (but realistically anywhere between Tuesday and saturday). Its the main reason i haven't cancelled out overdraft altogether. Its good to have a buffer for things like this.

Ohsh!t, thanks for stopping by. You're right it is a necessary evil and it's another reason I'm not too upset about temporarily increasing the debt. It needs done.

Crazy that they can charge so much more for a different colour isn't it? Our house would look good with either so I'm not bothered.

Today has been insane. I did manage to go for my massage and facial which was lovely but I did so much running around that it totally negates the relaxation. It was great while it lasted though!

doingitanyway

Homegrown0 wrote: »

Hooray to the powers that be listening to your desire for surveys. £2.50 is not to be sniffed at! Long may they continue

My gramps is ok thanks, I brought him home earlier but he's still in a lot of pain. Hoping the meds kick in soon.

The pay day thing is frustrating tea but we manage. I get paid monthly and he gets paid weekly on a Tuesday (but realistically anywhere between Tuesday and saturday). Its the main reason i haven't cancelled out overdraft altogether. Its good to have a buffer for things like this.

Ohsh!t, thanks for stopping by. You're right it is a necessary evil and it's another reason I'm not too upset about temporarily increasing the debt. It needs done.

Crazy that they can charge so much more for a different colour isn't it? Our house would look good with either so I'm not bothered.

Today has been insane. I did manage to go for my massage and facial which was lovely but I did so much running around that it totally negates the relaxation. It was great while it lasted though!

Glad your grandad is okay. These things take on an extra dimension when they are old doesn't it.
Your post helped me today as I am thinking of taking on a debt for necessary work on the house. My only concern is I get fed up at work, quit and then can't repay the loan. I hate debt but as you say sometimes it is necessary...

Homegrown0

Thanks DIA - you're right about it being worse when they're old. The slightest infection could so easily be fatal when combined with other health issues so it's always a worry. Doesn't help that he has the typical older generation male reaction to doctors/ hospitals and tries to put it off until he can't bear it anymore rather than seeking help in the first instance. I'm so lucky to still have them both and i'd like it to stay that way for as long as possible!

The debt thing is a tricky one - I think it's natural to have the mindset that debt is bad (all debt), particularly when we've been in the situation of having far too much debt. However, i firmly believe that there can be positives for having debt in select circumstances.

A lot of our debt can be attributed to just casually overspending then not bothering to pay any more than the minimums, combined with two maternity leaves (one unplanned while we were moving house) and not cutting our cloth to fit our new circumstance. However, putting that aside, if you can learn from your budgeting lessons and take out specific debt for something that you can afford and that doesn't have a negative impact in terms of spiraling you into the 'sod it' mentality then i think it can be helpful.

My plan is that any extra debt that we take on in the future will only be for home related things. We won't be truly debt free for a number of years because of this. Our house needs done up - all bathrooms need replaced (39 years old and original to the house), we need new windows and doors (39 years old!), we need a new kitchen (39 year old casings with probably 10 year old doors on the front), we need to decorate every room including plastering (we painted every room white when we moved in to make it liveable - often over orange wallpaper or purple floral paint). Our back garden is borderline death trap because it's in such bad disrepair. Our electrics, although old, are acceptable but given my husband's job, we need a full rewire when we begin doing work on the house.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's a LOT more needs done underneath the surface to get the place the way we want it.

For us, we are clearing our current debt to ensure we're in a good position to make all of these things happen. We both earn a good salary, are in good secure employment and want to make a nice home for our kids and for us.

We can afford the debt that we already have, and we could pay it off quicker, but we want to have a life as well as paying off our debt as well as doing up our house, so it's a hard balance but we're trying hard not to go 'all in' on all three because that's a recipe for financial disaster.

Once we have cleared the decks, likely early/mid-2020, then we will be planning to take out a sizeable loan to do all the ground floor renovations (kitchen, dining room knock through, new kitchen, roof on conservatory and insulate it plus all finishings. The payments we will commit to will be sufficient that we will still have a chunk of spare income that can either be saved or put towards overpaying the loan to bring the term down. I know it's the sensible option and am happy to commit to this. I don't feel guilty for getting into debt again because it has a purpose, not just mindless spending.

Wow - what a ramble! I just think i wanted to share my views that not all debt is necessarily bad debt.

Homegrown0

I just cashed out £5.56 from PA (sick of waiting on it getting higher since surveys are thin on the ground at the moment) so that's being thrown at the CC when it arrives in my account.

Today is the day that most of the big DDs come out of the account so it's always a bit shocking when I check the account but it'll all look a bit better through the month as my husband gets paid weekly.

I just heard from the solicitor this morning and the mortgage is due to complete today, so i'll just wait on an update later. I'll need to hear from them about what happens to the mortgage payment that came out today (I was told not to cancel anything) so I assume we get that back at some point? Hmm...

As soon as I get confirmation that this is done, i'll be looking at what the best BT deal is for our CC and getting the ball rolling on that.

In the mean time, i've got loads of work to do so much get cracking!

redofromstart

Sounds like sensible debt to me. And far better than paying an inflated price for windows to get an interest free deal.

Homegrown0

Thanks redo - I'm hoping so! Just need to get him out to look at the place - i need to know whether this is financially feasible or not before i get too suckered into it.

Why is there always something to bloomin' pay for?

My son had his taekwon do grading at the weekend (£30) which we only found out about last week and I got a call yesterday to remind me that my car is due its first MOT (£39 + any work that needs done). I feel like rolling my eyes because every time i think there'll be a quiet month, stuff always comes up!

Also, o2 had the cheek to send me a DEFAULT NOTICE letter on my account to the tune of, you guessed it, £40! The amount they billed me for roaming (that I didn't use) then agreed to refund me, then forgot to refund me, then DID refund me after I chased them and wasted an hour explaining to them...and NOW they're claiming i owe them £40 for an underpaid bill! Anyway, i called them to discuss and they said not to worry about it and just ignore the letter but i'll be checking on my billing date that all has reconciled. It was a horrible letter, not just a late payment thing (and this was the first communication about this) so it made me pretty mad.

Husband's night shifts have kicked off so things are all topsy turvy in our house. Nothing major, just out of sync a bit because we're not getting up at the same time.

We were treated to a lovely lunch yesterday by husband's aunt and uncle and the kids had a great time too. I'm just super tired these days and pretty lethargic. I think i need to be a bit more kind to myself - get to bed a bit earlier, up my water intake, stop procrastinating on stuff I need to do... it'll all help.

Put £3 in our sealed pot this week, just loose change when I've managed to snaffle it. The tin has a bit of weight to it so it's nice to feel like progress is being made. Still not sure what i'll do with this (possibly holiday spends in June; possibly a lump sum towards windows if we go ahead with that; possibly emergency fund).

CB paid in today and husband is due to be paid tomorrow (haha - place your bets now!) but no movement in cash - this is all going to sit in the account waiting for the next raft of bills to come out. We won't see any of the night shift extra cash until next week's wages.

Did some shopping yesterday, just spent £36 but it was just picking up things that we needed in the fridge rather than a full meal plan and shopping list. We have a few days worth of meals in and I'm not in the office at all (and husband doesn't really eat when he's on night shift) so I didn't want to go to town on our usual shop. I'll see what the rest of the week brings and if i need to top up a couple of bits, i will.

Hope you all have a lovely Monday!

teafor2

Firstly, well done to your son on his taekwon grading. DS did karate for a while but tbh I think he just wanted the suit and the nunchucks. We spent 6 months ducking and grabbing ornaments :rotfl: Was glad when he'd outgrown that particular phase.

There is always something isn't there. Literally, never a month where something doesn't crop up that involves money. The phone saga must be so annoying. It's not just the money, it's the time spent sorting stuff like this out that really irritates me.

I admire how you recognise when you need to be kind to yourself and make a point of doing something about it. I know they're just little things like more sleep and water but you're thinking about yourself and that's good. It's easy to forget what with work and family.

I shall wait with baited breath to see if your hubby's wages come in on time, but if it's all the same to you I won't bet on it xx

Homegrown0

I don't want blood on my hands tea, if you hold your breath waiting on the ever-late wages! Sensible to expect the worst and be surprised if it's any better, in this situation especially

My son has been doing it for 2 years and shows a real aptitude for it, although he of course has to work hard. He seems to love it and his little brother is keen to start so that'll be happening this month i hope (yet more money!!).

I talk a good game when it comes to self care tea - I have had 900ml of water today which isn't as much as I'd have liked. There's still time to bring it back around though! I'm aiming for a 10.30pm bed time tonight which is when my husband will leave for work. That's 2 hours earlier than last night so would definitely be an improvement!

On the night shift front, it looks like my husband will get five full shifts this week, meaning he'll get 10 days worth of wages Won't count my chickens just yet but that would really boost our holiday spending money savings!

Managed to be semi-productive with work today but as usual, so much of my time was wasted on annoying calls that overran and were of little use to me. My enthusiasm isn't great at the moment, but I get like that at this time of year. Everything is a struggle/ an annoyance.

teafor2

I really like those sort of sports, where you have to show discipline and self control etc. I think it's brilliant grounding and character building for children. And yes, you don't just automatically move up, you do have to work for the gradings so every one your DS gets is a massive achievement.

Hubby had a job where he was on emergency call out and I used to love his pay packet coming in. :rotfl: It was always nice to know our wages covered the bills etc. and then the extra could be used for the nice things like holidays.

Hope you manage to get your early night and feel the benefit of it. xx