£29,303...Enough is enough!

WelshKitty85

Another £6 sale. Current balances £35 cash & £18.92 PayPal = £53.92/£145

WelshKitty85

Yesterday was a spend day:
Weekly shop £44.86
Christmas £6.08

Attended a first birthday party so the children were all entertained and fed (and I even nabbed a spare ice cream that was going to waste).

DD has another birthday party today (better social life than me!).

Hitachi loans payment has gone out today, so nice to see the numbers coming down. I'm looking forward to getting this one below £11,000.

WelshKitty85

DH has had a last minute call asking him to work tomorrow, which is obviously great news for the budget, BUT has left me feeling physically sick at the thought of going alone tomorrow to take DC2 for his op. It's a fairly routine procedure (he's had it done before but the problem reoccurred) and I know he'll be fine but I'm dreading sitting in the hospital alone while he's in surgery.

Done a small top up shop (£2.59) for DHs lunch supplies since we weren't expecting him to be working. Must prep his lunch and some supplies for the hospital tonight as it's an early start tomorrow.

I have also spent £5.99 on an item (reduced from £25.99) to put away for DC1 for Christmas. PA balance is currently just over £22 with £4 pending, so more than covers the Xmas spends so far.

We have had some good money news today. We complained to the Ombudsman about our estate agent when we moved. Our complaint was upheld and £100 compensation has been paid today. I also complained to the company we had our sofas from. We returned them as they were faulty but had 4 failed collections. I requested compensation for DH having to take time off work (he had to take the window out) and they have emailed today to say they are sending £150 gift voucher.

WelshKitty85

DS has had his op. The hospital staff were amazing (he even had a visit from a therapy dog after the op) and he was home the same day.

Sold a few more items, but have also purchased school shoes using nectar points and PayPal balance, and a nearly new school jumper using £3 cash, so need to add up the pots again. Still got a way to go to earn enough to pay DDs performing arts fees, but I do have nearly £30 in PA (that I was saving for Xmas) that I could transfer over, then start Xmas savings over next months. Will re-evaluate next week and make a decision.

DH has had 2 more days work confirmed which is always a relief.

WelshKitty85

Weekly shop done yesterday. Grocery spend this month is currently £117.32. This is a bit higher than I would have liked, thanks to a few top up shops. Will need another top up this week for toilet rolls and bread towards the end of the week, so will need to be strict with the next 2 weekly shops to stay under my £200 budget for the month.

A bit of a lazy day today as we had a difficult night with DC3 and differing views on letting him 'cry it out'. Hoping tonight will be better. Have managed to list a few items on eBay, though still have lots more to sort.

Kitten868

Hello!

Trying to remember who it was but one of the threads on here she downgraded her hp car and she was elated. Might be worth a read. I'm not nagging you, just thought you should get to read the other perspective. It's so hard to know what to do. We got totally mugged off with my last car- he didn't tell me it was written off (must have been a hideous crash) and it didn't even have the engine screwed back on right so I panic bought a brand new car. I know the feeling... And the debt dodgy cars bring. And summer holidays/mat leave - you're never going to find a better time to be carless.
Have you considered task rabbit or similar for your oh? Just to get the money in.
I'm in awe of your low grocery spend. I can never get mine low.
Keep up the great work. Houses are so expensive. We are currently doing my kitchen in bits as we can't afford it all. Total nightmare. Such hard work living in a building site. With sofas i just love ikea. X

WelshKitty85

Kitten868 wrote: »

Hello!

Trying to remember who it was but one of the threads on here she downgraded her hp car and she was elated. Might be worth a read. I'm not nagging you, just thought you should get to read the other perspective. It's so hard to know what to do. We got totally mugged off with my last car- he didn't tell me it was written off (must have been a hideous crash) and it didn't even have the engine screwed back on right so I panic bought a brand new car. I know the feeling... And the debt dodgy cars bring. And summer holidays/mat leave - you're never going to find a better time to be carless.
Have you considered task rabbit or similar for your oh? Just to get the money in.
I'm in awe of your low grocery spend. I can never get mine low.
Keep up the great work. Houses are so expensive. We are currently doing my kitchen in bits as we can't afford it all. Total nightmare. Such hard work living in a building site. With sofas i just love ikea. X

Hello & thank you for your suggestions

Being without a car at the moment isn't an option primarily due to DC2 & DC3s medical conditions and hospital appointments. The nearest hospital is a 30 minute drive away. Plus my mat leave is due to end next week (I'm waiting to see if some annual leave to extend it has been approved). And in all honesty I love my car! It's practical, fuel efficient and reliable. I don't smoke, very rarely drink, we don't eat out much etc. My car is my treat.

I hadn't heard of task rabbit so thanks for mentioning it. I've just looked it up quickly but will have a more in depth look tomorrow. DH has done ok for hours so far this month and the agency have mentioned the possibility of a more regular contract in his preferred area of work, so fingers crossed something will come of that. But it's always a good idea to have other options available to him.

Our grocery spend has always been relatively low. I cook most things from scratch and get a lot of yellow stickers bargains ( well red actually in Ald!). My MIL spends well over £100 on her weekly shops then around £50 on top ups. I honestly don't know what I would buy with a grocery budget that high.

The house has cost us a fortune. At one point we found a leak so bad that we'd had to take the plaster off the inside wall and the cladding from the outside. We were temporarily renting the house directly opposite and I could have cried looking across the road and being able to see straight into DC2s new bedroom! Thankfully the house is pretty much done now so apart from a fire surround and plants for the garden we are not anticipating many house spends for the foreseeable future.

That was a bit of an epic post. Can you tell I'm sat alone, bored and lonely?? :rotfl:

JonW1984

Well done with your debt busting, sounds like you have a tight rein on the spends. Did you have any joy with the misdescribed car refund in the end?

WelshKitty85

JonW1984 wrote: »

Well done with your debt busting, sounds like you have a tight rein on the spends. Did you have any joy with the misdescribed car refund in the end?

Thank you. We had a letter last week asking for further information which I replied to the same day. So it's a waiting game again now.

WelshKitty85

I think I mentioned already that we received a £150 voucher as compensation for the failed collections of the sofa we returned. DH & I decided there was nothing we really wanted to buy with the voucher so we have sold it for £125. That means we now have more than enough to pay DDs performing arts fee and some left over to go into Xmas savings etc. DH is pestering me to get my hair done (yes it looks awful but Ive been putting off the spend). I think I may compromise and book into the hairdressers for a cut before I go back to work, but colour it myself.