Cutting up the cards and saving for a house - one debt at a time!

stokegal

Nurseries are soooo expensive! I had a childminder with my son 11 years ago, she only charged £20 a day from 7.30am - 5.45pm! We have stayed in contact ever since having my son and she actually moved onto the same estate a couple of streets away a few years ago. I enquired about a space for a friend 2 years ago and her day rate had gone up to £25 so I’m hoping if she’s put it up again it will be no more than £30 a day 🤞
OH mother is so excited to be a grandma for the first time and retiring this year and has already offered to have the baby as much as possible. She lives about 20 miles away but not far from OHs work so we probably ask her to have the baby once a week (she would do more but I don’t want to put too much on her)

Frustratingly I’ve only just come out of the computersave vouchers at work for DS as he’s just moved to high school so was in before and after school. My understanding is that I can’t re enroll so I’ll have a look to see if there is an alternative - is this something that you do? Did you go back full time too? My workplace doesn’t offer part time work and we barely get through the work without working over our full time hours (the joys of sales) so I have no idea how I’ll cope when I go back - but I’m sure I’ll figure a way!

Thanks for the compliment on the stickers - I have sold them on Etsy and eBay too but have scaled back since being pregnant as I can’t seem to find the energy to do it night 🤦‍♀️

savingholmes

The stickers look fab. 

stokegal

Another NSD here - whoop!

It was my first day back at work as well as my first day homeschooling - the two did not mix well 🤦‍♀️

No more debt busting today though. I did call up and cancel one of my credit cards that I have recently paid off. Cutting that card up was liberating!
We were due to be going to Venice on the 27th February but as EasyJet have moved our flight day to the following day they have offered a full refund. I requested this and should get this back within a couple of weeks - the flights cost £47 each and that will go straight into repaying the OD. My only concern is that the refund will be going onto a card that has been paid off leaving me with a positive balance - I’ve never requested a refund of a credit from a CC and didn’t know if that was even possible. If not I’ll just use this card to pay for our food shopping for a couple of weeks and use the money I would normally transfer over to other off OD.

Tomorrow’s goal is to take meter readings and look at changing gas and electricity providers and they have just increased the DD again to £113 a month - it use to be at £50 a month so this is a huge jump!

savingholmes

You can get a positive balance refunded no problem. If you still have a DD set up - they can use that in reverse - otherwise they should send a cheque

rocks+mountains

So now instead of childcare vouchers the Gov run something called Tax Free Childcare. Its through their website and basically you pay 80% of the fees you are due to pay and the Gov top up the remaining 20%. The limit is 2k a year from the Gov but unless it's full time and quite expensive you shouldn't go over that.

It's great as well for you if you have a childminder so close and such a good price! We ended up at nursery as it was just so awkward trying to sort childcare out given everything last year and not being able to go in places and everything. DD is in 4 days a week and one day with OH. I'm hoping my parents will have her one day from the summer cutting down nursery but at the minute it's just too much with everything. It's great if your OH mum can have them as well one day.

And yes you can get a CC refund, I've only ever just used the money for shopping personally to clear it but if there is nothing else it's unlikely you can spend the exact amount so maybe best to ask for refund. And yay for cutting up the card!!!! I've got 400 left on one I'm hoping to pay off this month so can hopefully do the same soon!!

WelshKitty85

I used childcare vouchers with DCs 1 & 2 (now aged 12 & 15). When DC3 started childcare 2 years ago, I was able to log back into the account and opt back in, so worth checking. They work out better for us than the tax free childcare.

stokegal

Afternoon everyone! Hope you have all had a good day yesterday!
Yesterday was a good day 

• I sold the lego train for £81 and that was collected and paid for.

• I opened a Santander 1 2 3 account and will be transferring some of my DD across to benefit from the cashback available (They offer 3% cashback off water bills as mine has just jumped to £85.50 a month I thought this would be an ideal tie to benefit!)  Based on their calculations I should get approx £7.50 cashback a month - £2 monthly fee so £5.50 for nothing! (Plus they offer 15% cashback off purchases on just eat and co-op which we use more than we should!)

• It was another NSD here - that's my 10th this pay period - I'm aiming for 25 in total (over 35 days) and have 18 days left so its really helping me focus on not spending every day and making me wait until I have a food shopping trip scheduled to spend money.
• I got the maternity pay policy from work and found out that I qualify for 16 weeks full pay - not 90% so that has boosted my expected earnings by a minimum of £200 a month whilst I am on maternity leave (more dependant on if they include 
• I checked about the childcare vouchers and I am still eligible to re-enroll as I have made a payment within the last 12 months - I also checked with the childminder I used for DS1 and she accepts them and has advised that she currently has space from Jan 2022 (but I can reserve a space until the baby is here) - her fees are £30 a day 7.30 - 5.30 and she is an amazing childminder!

Today I MUST get my latest gas / electricity figures and shop around for a better deal and I really need to sort through my office / DS old room to sort out another 5 things to list!

Hope everyone has a good day!

stokegal

rocks+mountains said:

So now instead of childcare vouchers the Gov run something called Tax Free Childcare. Its through their website and basically you pay 80% of the fees you are due to pay and the Gov top up the remaining 20%. The limit is 2k a year from the Gov but unless it's full time and quite expensive you shouldn't go over that.

It's great as well for you if you have a childminder so close and such a good price! We ended up at nursery as it was just so awkward trying to sort childcare out given everything last year and not being able to go in places and everything. DD is in 4 days a week and one day with OH. I'm hoping my parents will have her one day from the summer cutting down nursery but at the minute it's just too much with everything. It's great if your OH mum can have them as well one day.

And yes you can get a CC refund, I've only ever just used the money for shopping personally to clear it but if there is nothing else it's unlikely you can spend the exact amount so maybe best to ask for refund. And yay for cutting up the card!!!! I've got 400 left on one I'm hoping to pay off this month so can hopefully do the same soon!!

WelshKitty85 said:

I used childcare vouchers with DCs 1 & 2 (now aged 12 & 15). When DC3 started childcare 2 years ago, I was able to log back into the account and opt back in, so worth checking. They work out better for us than the tax free childcare.

Thanks for this information - Childcare will be full time and approx. £480 a month - I'm a 40% tax payer so this would not have been half as good as the previous system.  Such a shame for working parents who are trying to juggle finances as well as the working parent guilt (or is that just me??)

Luckily I have been able to log back in and I can restart my payments as it has not been 12 months since I stopped, I'm going start paying in the minimum £50 a month so that I will have a pot built up for when the baby starts in January 2022 so it wont be as painful going back but not earning commission straight away

savingholmes

Glad you've been able to get it sorted. Great that your maternity pay is better than expected too.

rocks+mountains

That's great for your maternity policy! Really good of your company to offer that much. I was lucky to get decent enhanced but for people who only get minimum Statuatory it must be so hard. And really good as well if you can still go through the old childcare system. It is something with this new system but like you say not as great as what it was and it does make it really awkward trying to juggle everything with the cost of nursery fees etc on top. We can manage but it's pretty much the disposable income we have is gone so nothing nice for the next couple of years until we get the free childcare hours once she is 3! 

I think parenting guilt is a very real thing. I have gone back full time but toyed with part time etc as I felt bad. Going to see how it goes and how I feel in a few months. I like my job though and worked hard to get where I am so don't really want to go backwards. So tough!

On your bills, your water one seems really high! I know you said it was a leak etc but Is that on a meter or just standard rate one? Hope you remembered to do your other readings! Reminded me I need to do mine as they're due soon!