Debt and Budget (Reset) plan

Keedie

You're doing so well @shell16 and I'm so proud of all that you've achieved in the last year despite some life changing challenges. I've subbed to the paying off debt by Christmas thread and I'll join now, I want to clear £10,000 this year, so I'll love a challenge to help me be accountable.

Congratulations on your payrise, 5% is great increase! Especially considering that is more than double what you got last year. I hope that you're feeling better soon and you too @LittleMissDetermined.

shell16

Keedie said:

You're doing so well @shell16 and I'm so proud of all that you've achieved in the last year despite some life changing challenges. I've subbed to the paying off debt by Christmas thread and I'll join now, I want to clear £10,000 this year, so I'll love a challenge to help me be accountable.

Thanks @Keedie, im proud of myself too of how far I have come and as you say last year wasnt particularly great for me in terms of family.  

I do have a situation which has risen with regards my eldest daughter.  She is 13 and has been on a waiting list to see a dentist regarding braces for the last 2 years!  She is in her 3rd year at high school and I have absolutely no idea when I can expect 'her turn' on the list to have these fitted.

I added both my girls onto my dental plan via work in April last year with the hope that if any work would be needed that I had some cover.  I need to call them today as my daughter got referred to a private dentist by my dentist.  Huge problem in that the cost to have her teeth sorted will be a staggering £4555!

As a parent I am torn, I know that part of me thinks why am I even thinking about this, but the other half is saying thats a blinking huge amount.  I think I can claim around £865 from the dental plan, and I can likely fund to around £3265 in total with this, leaving £1290 to find.  I can go with an interest free loan for 12 months via the dentist.  

The NHS is truly broken for us and our children, yet my daughter has to go to school and is picked on due to her teeth.  She has to have 4 teeth out and then braces fit, when they are eventually removed she will need to wear a retainer for quite a while during the night.  The whole process will take around 2 years.

The dentist explained that the NHS assigns a number from 1 to 5.  The 4s and 5s bypass everyone on the list immediately, the 3s stay on the list with the hope of an appointment coming up and the 1s and 2s will likely not get treatment at all.  This is really unfair especially where children are concerned!  It makes me so mad that I work every day pay into the system and then cannot access the services I need, the country seems well and truly broken!

To put the tin hat on this, my other daughter will need braces too this year or next!  Her teeth are nowhere near as bad as my eldest but I will have exactly the same issue.

Its 1 step forward and 2 back!
Shell x   

LittleMissDetermined

@shell16 this morning's post has brought back some haunting memories from being bullied at school. My teeth are and have always been awful and I was bullied throughout school which has mentally scarred me.  I hate smiling and at 44 I am still hugely conscious that people are judging my teeth when we are in conversation. 

I would say that if you can afford it, pay for her treatment. It will make a huge difference to her life, not just in school but forever.

Clearly it's not just as simple as that and there will be many factors you need to consider but I thought I would share my experience for context.
LMD x

Keedie

Oh @shell16 I'm so sorry to hear this. Life really does have a way of derailing our plans doesn't it?

£4,555 is a lot of money! But if it was me, and I had the health plan and my son needed the work done and he was being harassed because of it, I would die a little inside and have a private cry, but then do the interest free loan with the dentist. I'd spent a similar amount on my son's online schooling and that doesn't have guaranteed results, at least this will transform her life.

I'm not sure about your second daughter in terms of timing. Can they quote hers now so you know roughly what you might be dealing with? Hopefully, you won't have to have two loans at the same time. Or you might be in a position to get together part of a savings pot for your second daughter once your original debts are cleared in the summer? You should check if you can clear the dentist loan quicker as well, and then you might be able to snowball the amount you're paying for your current debts. So that way, she still gets the treatment, but you're not in debt for that much longer, but you then start to save so that when your younger daughter starts treatment, the loan if required, is much smaller.

MissPennySave

@shell16 another one here that doesn't smile showing my teeth! In actual fact one of my goals once I am debt free is to get the looking a bit nicer! I wish I'd had them fixed when I was younger.  I hope you figure out the best thing to do. But I agree with LittleMissDetermined and Keedie, if you can afford it, and any you can't is on 0% then I would 100% go for it.  Being a parent is hard sometimes isn't it. MPS.xx

EssexHebridean

It's a tough one Shell - and I really feel for you. 

I'll present a slightly different story - when my "adult" teeth came through, the front two upper ones emerged slightly crooked - the left one overlays the right very slightly so there is a little "bump" between the two at the bottom of them. It didn't bother me until the school dentist started being very pushy about saying I needed to have braces fitted - I didn't want them, but I was quite self conscious about the very thing (which had never bothered me before) purely because it had been pointed out. My parents debated, and came to the conclusion that there would be potential for teasing one way or the other - either for the braces or because of the tooth thing. They took it down to pure hard facts in the end - would it affect  my life in any tangible way to NOT have the braces fitted - the conclusion was that it wouldn't as the issue didn't cause me any problems eating, or with speech etc, and the school dentist was politely told to "go away and stop making our daughter self conscious, please".  In fact the teeth are barely noticeable as I've "grown into" them of course, and now I rather like that little imperfection - it's part of "me" and I'd sooner have that than the perceived "perfect lineup" of teeth that so many of my generation have - many of which now carry marks from the braces they were fitted with. I appreciate that your daughter's situation sounds as though there are sufficient issues that mean it might well affect her physical health and wellbeing, but regardless, then hopefully that at least might help you to have some balance from another side of the equation in the case of the younger one anyway.

Whatever you decide will always be with their best interests at heart - I've got no doubt about that - but cut yourself a bit of slack as it is entirely natural to be concerned about the money aspect too - after all, having to incur debt also affects them as it curtails things like holidays, days out etc. Lots of different aspects to weigh up - and I don't envy you any of it. You will find the right solution for you and them though - trust yourself on that. 

Keedie

Very well said @EssexHebridean! 

shell16

Hi All 

So following on from my last post, although I can get all the cash together (This will take everything we have) I think we are going to try writing to our MP and see if they can do anything with regards seeing where my eldest is on the waiting list!  Its nothing lost and waiting a couple of weeks or so wont harm.

My dental insurance said I could likely claim around £833 this year and then If I renew again in April which I will be doing, I can claim a further £475 in the new policy year and possibly another £475 the year after.

Lots to think about and thanks to @LittleMissDetermined, @MissPennySave and @EssexHebridean for your insights too.  Really appreciated and gives us as parents alot to think about.  Just need to do whats best for her really in the long run.

Still on track to become debt free by 18th April 23, Im sending everything I can thats spare to debt to make the final payment less.  Currently around £256 so im going to remain focussed to getting that down.  I cashed out from Prolific this morning £5.20 and sent £5 to Lloyds CC and the 20p has gone to my SPC. I again have enough to cashout form prolific after completing a good paying survey today of £6.75, but will need to wait until tomorrow now to remove and send to debt, likely Lloyds CC as this is the only card with interest albeit its very low at 3.9% until 2024.

All totals updated below.  Just over a week until payday and the start of my new budget year in my new Budget planner.  Spent some time doing this at the weekend.  I think Im going to add a further cash category for Toiletries rather than have virtual.  Spending quite a bit at the minute so want to try and reign in spending going forwards and just get what we need!

Thats about all for now!
Shell x

shell16

Morning

A quick update from me, its a windy rainy day and I'm going to see mum this afternoon as its my half day working.  Cashed out prolific £9.35 and sent £9 to Lloyds CC and 35p to SPC. 

Prolific is at zero with no pending, so would like to see some surveys today whilst I'm working.  Load of washing on and another to put in when that's finished!

Right off to make a brew and start my day!
Shell x

shell16

Morning.

Another quick update from me, PAD made today of £7.42 to Lloyds CC, after adjusting balance as I pay a small amount of interest on this card at 3.9% and have now received my statement.  Made an extra payment too to get this figure below £1K so visually its more appealing

My weekly cash budget will reset on Friday.  As it stands I still have £10 left in fuel and £24.80 in my Grocery Envelope.  I just need to get some more milk and Bread rolls today and that's it.  Hoping for £30 leftover minimum and will send that to my 2nd EF and any change to the SPC.

Looking forward to getting paid so I can send some extra to debt to remain on target to be debt free by 18th April which is 97 days away.  I'm thinking of sending around £200 in addition to my usual DD's for this paycheck month but this should see Virgin CC paid in full by the first week of February when my usual DD comes out!  

Prolific is very quiet indeed and I have done no surveys at all so far   Will keep checking though and will try some of the other sites I use too and try and do some quick surveys albeit will be low paying ones and usually time out.

That's about all for now.
Shell x