Rennovations and the price to pay..

mallimay31

Hi,Im new to the forum,would anyone know how much a bedroom partition would cost  2partion walls 2 doors ,appreciate your help 

Pengwern

It has been a while but life has been throwing some curve balls towards us.  the CC debt repayments continue at a slower pace than I would like.  The husbands pay remains 25% lower than it was and that is now a permanent move unless the business finances dramatically improve.  the renovations have continued very slowly depending up the cost.   The food bills are coming in under budget each week, not by huge amounts but the little savings help.  The CC debt total is now just over £21K and I aim for it to be £15K or under at the end of the year.  lets hope I can make that happen.  I am so close to paying 1 CC off it stands at £300 left. 

Pengwern

2 weeks staycation is coming to an end financially a positive 2 weeks but I switched energy suppliers and so have had to pay the final bill from the old supplier. That was £300 so the money earmarked to pay off the cc has gone to this. The cc will have to wait till next month so long as nothing else crops up.  It’s also new school uniform time which is going to squeeze things this month.  I am due a very small pay rise from work paid in September but backdated till July, I am hoping that will cover the uniform bill but maybe not.  Still struggling with the Covid restrictions and the impact that is having on our life and my mental health,  we are here in this space for the long term so I need to find a way to make my mental health better.  Working from home is great and I was a full time home worker pre Covid, I did however travel most weeks and it is surprising how not doing that travel has affected me.  I used to dread it sometimes but now I miss it.  I have found some more items to sell and will be doing that once the holiday is over.  I keep managing to generate the odd £40 through selling things and it has been great as it has meant I have not withdrawn cash from my account since March.  I know we are using card everywhere but the local village shop only takes cash and that is the only place I am visiting at the moment.  So my milk, bread stamps, cards sugar etc is being covered through those little sales. I have not totted it up but it all helps I guess.  Can not wait until I get under the £20k mark, I was hoping it would be by October but it’s more likely to be in December now.  That’s £6k paid off this year which I am really pleased.  If I can snowball the monthly payments I am hoping it will be more next year, so we should have it all paid off in about 4 yrs max.  

Pengwern

Hi
It has been a few months since my last post and it has been ok financially (I say that very quietly in the hope nothing negative happens).  What I have been able to do is to pay off 1 credit car and balance transfer another as to extend the 0% period, you can see below that is over £5k paid off since I last did this update (Feb 20) and I am very pleased to see it set out like that.  I have also moved the monthly payment from cc4 onto cc5 to up the payments.  I have chosen this one as the current monthly payments on the other cc will pay off the balance by the end of the 0% deal.  CC5 needs some help if I am to pay it off without doing another balance transfer.  my goal now is to get under £15k, I am so tempted to just pay off the loan and CC1 but it seems silly when the monthly payments will do that without incurring any interest charges.  
What has helped is the lockdown, it has slashed my husbands income but we have saved money on petrol, lunches, sports clubs, childcare, clothes and food.  We have meal planned every week since March and it has meant I bring in the weekly food bill in budget and that includes toiletries, washing powder and cleaning supplies.  I buy these little and often to smooth out the impact on the budget.  I give myself £100/week limit and the last month I have been averaging £60.  I know it is not a lot but it has made a difference.  
Wow I really cannot get over that reduction in 7 months.  I thought I was doing ok but I am really feeling a boost now.  
I have holes in my jeans but I think I will just repair them and save the cash.  I don't go anywhere as I WFH and I can cope with the school run and not being part of the daily fashion show!  I have brought 1 jumper since March and sold lots of clothes I don't wear anymore.  Still do not have space for the clothes that are left, so I have plenty to wear and obviously some more to get rid of.  

cc3 £5100 now £0
cc4 £2600 now £0
cc1 £2700 now £200
cc2 £8200 now £5878
cc5 £9000 now £7470
cc6 £6200 now £5862
loan £179
Total was £25,229 now £19,589 = £5,640

remote_control

Well done, that all sounds great. I like your idea of a £100 a week limit, I think I might do the same with my weekly shop and make sure I never spend over £100

Pengwern

remote_control said:

Well done, that all sounds great. I like your idea of a £100 a week limit, I think I might do the same with my weekly shop and make sure I never spend over £100

Hi remote control 
the £100/week limit has revolutionised my food shop. It’s enough to cover a week and if I go over I remove items from the list. I’ve stopped buying things just because they are on offer, it’s not a bargain if you can’t afford it! Good luck hope it helps you too

remote_control

Thank's, I'm so excited to start this! I don't know why I didn't think of it before...
It won't mean we are exactly £400 or £500 a month as I also count cleaning and bathroom products in my grocery category which we pick up in Boots occassionally. And obviously there is the odd pint of milk but no other top up shops really since Covid. 
I'll let you know how I get on!

remote_control

SO hard to get my shopping under £100 but I did it. I looked back at my online shopping and it's actually been under £100 every week for the past 5 weeks. But this week I needed dishwasher tablets, shampoo, deodorant and some bits to send to my sister abroad (worth about £10). So I only bought what I needed and didn't stock up on anything. I'm interested to see how this will pan out!

Pengwern

Well done I am pleased you managed to make it work for you.  The cleaning and toiletries items are my challenge too, trying to spread out the items across the month is hard.  

remote_control

I either buy them when on offer or when we run out. It will be interesting to see how it works out over the months. I'm hoping this is a really simple way for me to keep shopping spending in check. I plan on adding a Christmas present each week and so will use up some of the food in stores if needed to keep it under £100. Thank you!