Hugglemonster hits the debt hard!

savingholmes

Good meeting. I found the analogy of wanting to end the year with a profit helpful... 

hugglemonster

Good evening, a nice relaxed first day back at work. Need to remember to delegate rather than do all the time and that worked well today.

Planned spends today for ds DofE expedition, only one more payment to make for this in June. He's going to see about some volunteering tomorrow evening, he's quite nervous as not particularly outgoing with new people. Need to start guiding him to do more things otherwise he'll not get the experience and confidence.

Also ordered brother's birthday present, free delivery straight down to him.

No spends from shopping budget today, all meals from home.

Bit boring waiting for next money shuffles! 

In good news, dh has had he letter about annual pay rise and he bonus. Pay rise starts from 1st April and his bonus will be paid on 1st May. Bonus will be split between a bit for each of us and the rest I can do what I want with so will split again between debt and savings. 

I'm earning some extra pennies over Easter, a colleague is due to be on call until Monday when I take over but she's going away Friday so I've agreed to do the additional days. I get a fee per day so it's all good and not going anywhere anyway.

Enjoy the sunny evening, H x 

pennywisepoundstupid

HI Huggle, hope all is well with you and you areenjoying the summer xx

hugglemonster

pennywisepoundstupid said:

HI Huggle, hope all is well with you and you areenjoying the summer xx

All good thank you, yes have this week off :-) Proper update below!

H x

hugglemonster

Well hello everyone, long time without posting but I have been reading. Life has been extremely manic the last few months but I have a week off and after seeeing pwps posting I thought it would be good to get back into the swing of things. I also haven't had a computer or laptop I could use and using my phone is a pain. Dd has let me borrow one of hers.

Right where to begin, maybe with family as that will give a good picture of where we are, then work, then finances.

Family

Dd has finished school, we have 17 days until she gets her A Level results and then fingers crossed she's got into her first choice of Uni. Lots of madness will then ensue sorting the finances, finalising accommodation and getting her down there. She's getting nervous now, I really hope it's all good for her.

Ds will be going into Year 11, has a few GCSE results to come through this year then finish of next year. He's all good.

DH work is going better for him, the senior managers are finally sorting out the unless counterpart which is great, he's finished his first year of his Uni course with a very good overall result. He's in a much better place than the beginning of the year.

Me - Work has been extremely busy and recently many things have come to a head, but they needed to. Poor performance had been overlooked for so long and it's my job to manage that, unfortunately you get some difficult individuals and so we're going through a challenging patch but can see the benefits will far outway these next few weeks. I'm still enjoying the job though!

We're all packing as we're going away tomorrow to stay with friends for a few days, then we're back for 3 weeks and then pop up to Scotland for a few days too. It will be great to get away and chill out.

We've also been sorting out family needs as a relative was very ill and sadly passed away before she could go home, I've been helping Mum with the arrangements, sorting the house and currently sorting Probate. It's over 250 miles away so I've been driving Mum there and to the funeral as I don't like her driving that far on her own these days. We have another trip to do in a couple of weeks to clear the rest of the items, we've found some lovely things but unfortunately can't keep them all. The house will go on the market after Probate cleared and Mum has said we will get some money but don't know how much yet as obviously there will be fees, and due to the price of the house there will be inheritance tax to pay. I realy don't see why hard working people have to pay the tax, seems unfair to me!

Finances

We have really enjoyed earning a bit extra this year, we have been able to do little extras such as sending overpayments to the mortgage, we finally got carpet in the attic, and I have been overpaying dh computer. We have also paid for dd and ds DofE fees and ds is going skiing in December, there's just one more payment to make in September.

However we have been overspending too and need to rein this in, still spending lots on food this is a big area to control. We have had to change the car as the other was well and truely on the way out, with our planned trips and then the extra trip to south England it was very much needed. It's a nice car and we will put up with the monthly payments.

Yesterday we had the final windows changed to double glazing and also the patio doors in the lounge are now beautiful french doors. There's a couple of bits to finish but oh my goodness what a difference, we were so worried that the original ones would fall out so we're glad it's done. We did however get a loan for them and a couple of extra things.

Debt and plan of action

We have a few bits of debt and need to reduce some of these before we save for the next room in the house to be completed:

DH credit card 250 (used to pay for Scotland accomodation) 0%

My credit card 1050 0%

DH computer 1100 - making overpayments which reduces interest too

Kids computers 4500 - just started making payments, will make overpayments when dh's finished

Loan 4500 - this will run for now

I'm not including the car at present.

So plan is to pay off dh card and continue to pay off his computer. Then to work on my card and kids computers.

No big projects in the house for the rest of the year but there's lots of little things in the house and garden that can be done cheaply.

August is our expensive month so we'll ride it though and have a better outlook from September.

Wow that's a lot, best get cracking! H x

 

lucielle

All sounding good. Enjoy your trip away. 

L

pennywisepoundstupid

Good to see you back Huggle and sorry to hear about your relative passing.

Sounds as though everything is going well and have everything under control. Looking forward to further updates xx

savingholmes

Welcome back Huggle.

My condolences on your loss. 

Hope things improve for you soon.

hugglemonster

Good evening, we got back from our break yesterday afternoon. Blimey it was a long drive and very busy on the roads, we had a nice time catching up with my best friend, we were trying to work out how long it had been since we had seen each other and realised that it was at least 4 years!

It's good to be back and as we stayed at their house we only spent on a bit of food, we cooked 2 nights at their's so was very cost effective. Fuel was really economical also, only used 1/2 a tank each way.

Today I have been busy, my brother and his partner have been up for a few days but went back today so popped round to my parents to say hi. I've also been cooking, made a lovely stack of ribs, fresh coleslaw and homemade rolls. I also went to pick up new curtains now that the patio doors have been changed we decided to smarten up a bit. Really happy with them and they lift the room, they look fantastic! https://www.marksandspencer.com/velvet-hummingbird-blackout-thermal-eyelet-curtains/p/hbp60596829#intid=pid_pg3pip40g4r1c2

I need to update the finances, had a boost early this morning I play 2 free games on a bingo site and usually win 25p every now and again. I woke up at 0400 and decided to go on and use the little bit I had to play 3 cards on the bingo. There were only a couple of hundred people in the game and I only went and won the full house £137!!! I'm going to use it in a minute to pay another bit off dh computer.

So back to work tomorrow, count down until our next break in 3 weeks time.

This week I need to sort out niece's birthday present, get out in the garden and crack on with a busy few weeks at work.

Hope everyone ok, H x

savingholmes

The new curtains look vibrant and cheerful. 

Nice to have another break to look forward to.