Starting again ... again

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

Hi all, been an eventful few days money wise. 
- sorted new home insurance, saved £30 off the renewal cost

- bought glasses for £300 (2 pairs and I'm extremely short-sighted so they had to be thinned). Should get £225 of this back through work health insurance hopefully

- booked two weeks summer holiday club for DS1 which I paid for with leftover childcare vouchers

- paid £35 for DS1's swimming lessons which are thankfully starting again tomorrow - had £16 in credit left from last year so that's something

- paid YNAB renewal

- didn't call about the washing machine in the end because it turned out it was our fault haha

And the biggie - should have gotten £600 UC this month but got a big fat ZERO because they didn't include our childcare cost for some reason. Got to phone them tomorrow. In the meantime, I had to empty my savings account and do a money transfer from my credit card to make sure I have enough to cover bills, gah!
Should manage to pay back most of it when the glasses money and child benefit get paid, but it's so annoying we were left short. Teaches me to not rely on UC coming in until it's actually in my account. I hope I'm right and they made a mistake and we get the money back paid asap. 

So we'll try and have a super frugal month. Sell a couple of bits if we can, though we don't have much to sell. 
Just feeling quite depressed about it all. 

Seasidegal58

I hope you get your money sorted out soon. Try not to get too down about it. 

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

So I've just heard back from the UC people and I was right. Not only did they owe us more than £600 for this month, but they've been underpaying us since February and have said they actually owe us over £1900 which they will pay into my bank account asap! 
I am so relieved! Will be enough to top up this month's budget pots to liveable levels AND pay off the Barclaycard. I'm thrilled. 

Parkyp

Omg that is absolutely shocking no wonder people are left struggling, On a plus note brilliant that they are paying ASAP and hopefully you be able to have a rough idea how much you should be getting from now on in . 

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

Thanks @Parkyp! Yes it is shocking! It's really hard to understand your entitlements but I know what to look for now. I'll scrutinise every single statement from now on!
The money has actually cleared already which is great!
Have paid off my Barclaycard (which was my goal for August), topped up my budget categories to last us the month (£300 for groceries) and added £100 back into the emergency savings account. 
I'll still get the insurance payment for the optician costs and child benefit later this month, should be able to put most of that into the savings too. Should hopefully mean I'll be able to reach my goal of having £1000 back in the emergency fund well before the planned date of December! I might even treat myself to my first haircut since late 2019 at some point lol. 

WinterWarrior

That’s amazing news ⭐️

Parkyp

That’s really great that you’ve got your barclaycard paid a couple of months early. Go on treat yourself to a hair cut you deserve it 😀

Seasidegal58

Fantastic news!  Here's to the emergency fund being topped up before time. 👍. Yes - and have that well deserved haircut!

BalanceBy50

So pleased to hear UC was sorted out and in your favour 😁 x

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

Hi MSE people! 
It's been a while since I've last updated this. It's all been very hectic around here with work being ridiculously busy and various periods of self-isolation! Currently have DS1 home AGAIN until next Monday! 
Financially, all is going sort of well. Husband had his bonus today which amounts to £1k after tax so will see how that impacts UC next month.
In the meantime, they have scuppered this month's UC AGAIN and it's showing as £0 payable when it should be around £500, because they have yet again calculated the childcare element incorrectly. I've messaged them so hopefully they'll sort it as quickly as last time. I do have enough money to cover all our bills and we have a house full of groceries, so we should be ok. 

Apart from that, we were well within budget for everything in June so I'll call it a successful MSE month!

We're getting a big chest freezer tonight from my MIL, so hopefully that'll be a big help in terms of grocery bills and avoiding takeaways as I'll be able to batch cook more. I'm really looking forward to trying to use up a good amount of my cupboard stores and filling the freezer!

Hope everyone is ok!