My 2 year battle to try to keep our home

ladyholly

We have been putting off filling the car but it has to bedone this week as DH is off to Lincolnshire for a festival and we live in the west country. I am not looking forwardto the bill especially as he has another one in acouplle of weeks in North Wales. The peaceful house will be good though

elsien

Petrol is coming down again in this area, thank goodness. Still ridiculous but not as bad as a couple of weeks ago. 

Tiredbutdetermined

I am glad I am not the only one putting off the petrol station visit. I use a tank a week when I am at school so at least I can feel smug that I save a fortune in the school holidays. I might just put 10l in rather than a fill up until prices come down further. My area seems to be very slow at passing on reductions in price.

I updated my budget planner last night so it was good to get that done. 

I have cancelled my TV license and requested a refund. Not sure I am eligible but I honestly can’t remember the last time we had BBC on as we are a Netflix binge family. 

My son is finally out of contract with EE so I have downgraded him to SIM only. That takes us down to £44.76 a month, which I think is decent for 4 of us. Last May we were paying £175 a month for 4 phones and a watch!!!  I love how much our habits have changed

I have splurged on stickers for my teacher planner but they keep me organised and happy!

Sarahwithlove

Petrol is slowly coming down but not everywhere only certain petrol stations I am finding who are running out quickly! 

Floss

Tiredbutdetermined said:

I let him keep his pension so there is no pension sharing order. Hopefully all will be fine.
Can you remember how long it took for your order to be finalised after submission @Floss?

I'm sorry, I can't...and I ceremonially cremated the correspondence earlier this year! If you check on the website for whichever regional Court is handling your divorce that may say, or I found them really helpful on the occasions I rang them.

savingholmes

I think mine too between 4 and 6 weeks.

Tiredbutdetermined

Thank you @Floss and @savingholmes.
I guess it is out of my hands now so I need to (try to) stop stressing about it. At the end of this week my solicitor is on holiday for 2 weeks so it is unlikely I will hear anything until after then

I bit the bullet and had to fill up with petrol yesterday. I had run it to 0 miles so my 40l tank cost me £73.52 but at least it should last a while without going in to work every day.

Today is child benefit day and the kids wanted a subway. It has been nice being able to say yes because I had enough reward points on the subway app for a free 6inch sub.

Hoping not to have a spendy day tomorrow as I have the hairdressers on Thursday!

satchmo1

I know you've already filled up your petrol tank, but in order to squeeze every inch out of your fuel it is actually better to just half fill your tank, as the weight of the fuel makes a (slight) difference --- each of those slight differences adds up.

Another tip is to empty the car of unnecessary heavy items. A bit obsessive, but if there aren't any young children travelling, then neither should their car seats/booster seats be

Hope that helps someone?

RosaBernicia

You are braver than me - I worry at less than 50 miles as I don't trust the estimate!

Tiredbutdetermined

I have been stressing about the finance order but gave my head a shake last night as my solicitor doesn’t work Fridays and is going on holiday for 2 weeks so I committed myself to stop worrying over what I couldn’t change. The order only went to the judge last week!.....

...you can imagine my happy tears at my solicitor email this morning saying the order has been approved and I am am done and dusted (except for the whopping bill to pay). I am so relieved and excited that I am responsible for our success and finances from this point on  

The next week or so is going to be very exciting!


In other news, now the house is mine I have started thinking about trying to neaten up and tidy it up. I went to The Range on Tuesday and planned out some bit to make the tiny front garden look a little bit less unloved. We blew £80 on the first half of the improvements but the soil has become to hard under the slate so the little fence wouldn’t go in. We ended up roofing some stuff returning the £80 stuff for a refund and buying some hydrangea to hide the wheely bin store mess. Frugal but I am happy it looks a little different and better. Next step is the front door. I painted it last year but couldn’t be bothered to go a few miles for frenchic and tried somewhere just up the road with a different brand. It hasn’t lasted well so needs sanding and redoing. Last year I went with a dark teal so I would like to go somewhat more muted. I also need a new letterbox.

Off to the hairdressers in 10mins so looking forward to a bit of a pamper