*sigh* this may take a while

ohdearhowdidthathappen

More painting today, I'm getting so very bored of it!! I'm doing some today, OH is doing some Sunday and I guesstimate we need to do another 1-2 days before carpets are fitted at the end of the month.

Was planning on a NSD but saw some bargains to top up my present cupboard, so spent £30 on 8 gifts; lego sets reduced right down and some girly nik naks too. The kids go to so many parties I find it good to keep a stash of gifts that cost £5, but look like you've spent £10-15 :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

I'm always on the look out for those "spend a fiver, look like you've spent more" presents as well, they're the best!

savingholmes

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

Yes, the current one we would pay interest if we didn't pay it off in full. I could look at transferring it onto a 0% card, but then there'd be a transfer fee.
Our overdraft fee is tiny, not sure what the % is, but whenever we've dipped into it it's been pence. I'm still hopeful we can rein the CC use in slowly.... if I don't manage it by new year, I might revisit the 0% CC idea

One of our accounts charges £1.50 a day plus up to 17% or more apr if we go o/d. We moved that debt to a 0% interest card with a 2-3% transfer fee it paid for itself within a month or two and gave us a fresh start and chance to stick to budget. Just a thought - only worth doing if you both commit to no new debt - full stop.

You are doing well at setting up your Christmas fund. Well done too on taking on an extra day a week's work and making a £600 dent in the debt. It all helps.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Ouch , that's a lot! Ours was 28p last time we went overdrawn for 2+ weeks.
Feeling tired tonight, I always feel sorry for myself on a friday night.... most are looking forward to a weekend whereas I just have work in front of me. Boo hoo, right?
Still, only this weekend, have next one off, yay!!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

It was so cold at work today, side hustle is in a supermarket, so often is chilly, but today was mega cold. Even with gloves and thermals on, I could barely bend my fingers as they were so numb. I finished work 7 hours ago, had a warm shower and I still don't feel like my internal thermostat has reset. I will not miss that side effect of the job!!
NSD today which is good. While I was at work, OH fitted new door handles (bought ages ago) to the landing doors I'd spent my days off painting. They look great! Still one more door to paint and then the stair treads... OH is going to cut away the carpet at the sides so should get a good finish. The end of the endless painting is in sight! (ish)

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Uneventful day yesterday, more painting and a NSD.
Will be doing chores today, getting ready for work (Tues-Thurs) this week. It's my first week of working 3 days in my current role, so I'm a bit 'meh' at the thought, but the extra money will come in handy.
Quick break planned midday to have a quick catch up with a good friend, looking forward to that!!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Hmmmm, so two financial moral dilemmas:

1) our hoover has dies, completely !!!!ed. It's old, completely out of guarantee. Not impressed at having to spend money on doing a boring chore! However, needs must and will need to replace. Any bargain knowledge gratefully received
2) cars (slight rant coming up).... we have 2 cars, 1 we own outright and the other on one of those agreements where you pay a chunk upfront, 4 years payments and then a balloon payment at the end. Now this car is an irritant for me as I wanted to get a finance deal where after the 4 years you own it.... 0% interest, no deposit, no final payment. OH put his foot down and insisted on a fancier car. We're 2 years through the deal and got a statement today. I think they frontloaded the interest! We've paid £210 for 2 years plus a chunk (£3K) up front. Going by the statement we've only cleared £4K!! !!!!ed off to say the least. We've got another 2 years at £210 and then a payment of £9K at the end. Grrrr. The car deal I found originally was £200pm for 4 years and then you were done.
Anyway, the moral of this rant is the car we own outright is the family car, big monstrosity to heave all 7 of us around. It's 11 years old and is !!!!!!ed, a mechanic friend has said it'll cost us much more than it's worth to get it through it's MOT in November
We can either
1) lease
2) get a loan
3) put car through MOT to get another year out of it, but be throwing good money after bad at it
I'm erring on the side of a lease, really don't want more debt and we can't afford a car outright.
Suggested to OH we look to hand back the smaller car at the break point of the deal (next month), but he's not keen and I'm not sure we could manage on 1 car with 5 children and jobs to get to. Ho hum

enthusiasticsaver

PCP which is presumably what you have at the moment is a really expensive way of buying a car and it sounds like your husband should have listened to you. Once you are tied into these deals it is difficult to get out of it as you never have an asset to PE for the next car.

Leasing can be expensive too though so I would advise you look at all options even if it means borrowing but don't go for a new car which is a total waste on a massively depreciating asset.

savingholmes

I would look for a car at least 3 years old as a minimum just so that more of the depreciation has already happened. Given that you and I have had similar debt levels - I would also suggest that you consider buying another older car - of similar age to the one that has gone bang - while you continue your debt repayment... However, you have more kids than me so age of car and reliability could be a bigger deal... as you know we've just bought an 06 car with the hope it lasts at least a year - which would take us to CC debt freedom....

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Tricky though as I really don't want any more loans or credit cards and we have no savings.... :(:(

I had a mini rant at OH earlier about it all, we earn very good money and yet seem to have created a lifestyle where we're still skint. Big house = big bills... we have (need?) 2 cars etc etc

There must be a way of streamlining. We could move to a cheaper area where our £375-400K equity would buy us a decent house outright, one of us could use public transport so we could lose a car etc, but we don't do it, we seem to plod along in this endless cycle of expense.

Some of it's for the future, the house is part of our pension pot, but some of it is just expectation.
Not sure... just feeling reflective I guess!