Keeping our options open

becky170

That's quite true savingholmes, it is more than many can manage. 

I've only realised today that we won't be paying council tax this month and next, which was nice surprise, especially with all the bills to pay. We also have our home insurance renewal next month and I've already seen people of Facebook saying that their home insurance renewal quote has doubled so I'm not looking forward to that coming in! I will shop around of course 

On a more MSE point I've traded in my tesco clubcard vouchers for an annual pass to Twycross Zoo, so hopefully we'll manage a couple of visits over the next year

Aimingforthegoodlife

Oh Twycross zoo! I have only been once, when we were holidaying in that area, and it was a lovely zoo! Great use of vouchers! I was pleasantly surprised when reminded about the council tax, feels good to not have that money going out for two months. Well done on Jan OP, even if it isn't to plan, every OP no matter how big or small, adds up!

savingholmes

I do a spreadsheet which shows monthly and annual bills so I rarely get those kind of surprises but also mostly avoid shocks.

Good use of vouchers. 

becky170

I've been comparing prices for our home insurance. What I can't get my head around is that when I get a quote for Churchill via confused.com it's £100 cheaper than if I do a quote through the Churchill website itself, even though I appear have put the same details in. In fact the prices confused.com comes up for other insurers is cheaper than other comparison sites. It seems to good to be true but maybe it's correct. Just don't want to be stung in case something isn't quite right. 

becky170

I ended up going for direct line in the end and I've saved £130 compared to what my auto renewal price was with my last provider 

savingholmes

Well done on getting a better price. I've had similar with Av*** in the past as you did with C

becky170

Well our overpayments for 2024 currently stand at £249 so we are a bit behind schedule to make £4000 this year. To be honest we're going to scrap our target of £4000 as we have taken the decision to pursue a private autism assessment for my son as after a year being stuck in limbo on the NHS waiting list we want to move on and get some more support in place for him. He's really struggling at school and the thought of him moving to secondary school in two years, as things currently stand, is making me anxious. His current school have been great but our local secondary school are less than nurturing and I don't think it will be a good fit for him, so I need to progress getting an EHCP in place. So for now we are going to concentrate on saving so that we have a cushion if we need to buy things to support him. At the moment it's just bills bills bills so we're not doing much saving but there's always next month! Well I can live in hope anyway 

savingholmes

Good on you for pursuing the diagnosis - it can make such a difference and potentially even be life saving the difference between having support and not. The transition to high school is very hard for some - as is the spike in pressure that comes with exams.

becky170

savingholmes said:

Good on you for pursuing the diagnosis - it can make such a difference and potentially even be life saving the difference between having support and not. The transition to high school is very hard for some - as is the spike in pressure that comes with exams.

Thanks savingholmes. I know we have done the right thing going private, I'm just anxious in case it's decided that it's not autism as I'm not sure where we will go from there. I think we need to focus on resilience as a family so that we are in a good place for transition. The past couple of years have taken a huge toll on us and we need more in the tank to be able to get through secondary school transition. I'm just not sure where you magic up resilience though   

I'm currently counting down the days until payday as our current account is very depleted with paying off the holiday spending on the credit card and £300 worth of vets bills. I do want to make a mortgage overpayment next month as we only have 6 months left on our low fix now. I should probably see what our new expected repayment will be and start overpaying by that amount so that it doesn't come as a shock in January! 

Aimingforthegoodlife

Sounds like a good plan, can be really beneficial to have a diagnosis moving forward, even if it isn't Autism, an assessment may be able to identify what is going on, so may be beneficial regardless. Hoping mortgage prices may get a little better over the next 6months, that would be nice, less of a shock!