It's time to begin.....

Chrystal

That was a lucky escape, and better to fall in the night than when someone was standing near when it happened!  

Kakiste

Have booked the tickets to the trampoline park today. Went in to the centre to do it and really pleased I did as there is a lady who works there who I know from....somewhere. (I think she and I went to baby groups together but I'm not 100%) My daughter was busy telling her that the tickets were for her birthday and she gave me a 20% discount! So I've only paid £30 for them. Husband has said that if I sort out the party bags (I reckon about £6 in total) then he'll cover the food, drinks and buy the kids a slush each

Kakiste

Also! LOOK at this beast of a quiche. I've never made one before (I don't really like them but husband loves them) so I'm super proud about how it's come out. 
red pepper, bacon and spring onion quiche

PommeVerte

Ooo recipe please !

Kakiste

So recipe called for a pre-made savory pastry case (which I got for £1 at morrisons) Made 2 quiche in total so the below ingredients would need to be halved if you were making 1) 
I cut up a 2 spring onions, 4 rashers of bacon and a red pepper, diced them into small cubes. 
Put half of the above ingredients for each pie into the bottom of the pastry dish and cover with 1 cup full of grated cheese.
Whisk 6 eggs with 3/4 of a cup of milk and add salt and pepper. 
Pour the egg/milk mixture over the cheese in the pie dish. 
Add the rest of the pepper, spring onion and bacon.
Grate some more cheese on top. 
Put in the oven at 190 for 35-40 mins. 

Husband has been taking pieces of the other quiche to work for lunch and has been happy with that. I meant to use the rest of the bacon up in the chinese noodles last night but forgot so I'm going to add it to the chicken wraps tonight and do crispy bacon, chicken and salad as the filling. 

greensalad

Oooh quiche sounds lovely. You may have inspired me to make some... I always love quiche for lunch (I'm veggie) and it's such a good way to use up what's left in the fridge.

Kakiste

Had a budgeting chat with husband the other day. My pay rise is in effect from this coming payday and he's agreed for me to pay £100 less to his parents (- I was about to up it to £500 from £100 so I will now pay £400 out of the £500) as there was a large discrepancy between money left over once household bills were accounted for.
Now I don't mind it being uneven as I earn almost double what he does and also because my debt is my problem and he doesn't really use my car (it seemed fair to me) but it was leaving me with pretty much nothing left over. 
We don't count my car costs towards the household bills (long story) and we also haven't previously considered my debt repayments it meant that he was left with £520 after paying for our rent and daughters ballet and gymnastic classes. After you take away my household bills and also my car costs and debt repayments I was left with £46. Which I've managed to supplement with surveying and sewing to cover additional costs (just had to buy my daughter 4 new pairs of shoes; school shoes, trainers, wellies and school trainers as she's shot up 2 sizes during lockdown!) and so he's said he'll take up £100 of the repayment to his parents to give me a bit more leeway. 
Which I'm relieved about as I've got my car mot coming up in October and also need a molar fixing as it cracked a few weeks ago. 

greensalad

Sorry if I'm speaking out of turn here, but as a married couple would it not make sense to take the load equally? Sorry I don't really understand married couples with children still having "I pay for this, you pay for that" etc. 

My partner and I have been together 10 years though we're not married and no kids... but we went joint this year and it's worked great for us. It's meant we can align priorities together much easier, choosing what is most important for both of us and working towards that. For example, my partner has more debt than me now, though he previously had less. I've been able to pay off a large chunk of high interest debt and now we have his low interest debt to work with.

Another way to do it might be to look at what percentage you contribute to the household income and using that as an indicator of how much you spend. For example when I was on a much lower salary than my partner I contributed 30% towards all bills.

I understand the feeling of "my debt, my problem", but if you look at your household finances holistically it can make sense to work together to pay off debt because it opens up the opportunity of putting towards shared goals after. If you both pay off your debt, then you can both save up for, say, a house upgrade or a dream family holiday after you're done. It all evens out in the end.

Kakiste

I do understand that way of thinking @greensalad but when my husband found out about my debts he managed to raise an incredible amount of money in a really short time which cleared a guarantor loan I had and our old joint account that i had a big OD on. So given that he fronted the money to settle my overdraft and the one loan that prevented me from starting my DMP, especially that he didn't know about any of the debts in the first place, I don't really feel it's fair for me to split ongoing debt payments down the middle. 
Though once everything is paid off then we'll most definitely rebudget everything by percentage and split it fairly. 

Chrystal

I know that we all have our own way of 'sorting things' and whatever works for you is the way to go, but, I'm not surprised that he could come up with the money in a short space of time, as he appears to have over £6000 a year spending money.  He certainly should be able to save some of that.
Were 'your' debts spent on the house or yourself?