We will get this debt down & the savings up

Blackcats

I'm with you on the one step forward, one step back attempts to make progress!
I love homemade pie!  

Makingabobor2

Just a quick update, although nothing much to report.  Things are ticking along. My dad finally got his phone appt with Drs surgery, it was just from a nurse, who has prescribed 28 days of medication and see what happens. He was offered an investigation, but on balance, at his age, and what the test consisted of, he declined and my sister and I are in agreement. Its a risky procedure, and at his age, even worse, and even if it is something bad, they are unlikely to do anything at his age.  Nurse thinks it maybe something less serious and hence the medication.  So we'll see, 

Yesterday I went for a free gym session, £5 a time as I'm over 60. So I may give it a go and see how I get on. Not 100% sure yet, as I don't want to give up the dancing class, and I'm not sure if I should be spending money on both. I know they are both beneficial and what price can you put on health and longevity, etc etc, but I am conscious of us still having debts to pay, and P/fc & other survey sites have been a bit slow this month so far. Still, we'll try for a bit and see how it goes. Its not like I am signing up to anything, and can stop at any time. 

Garden is still producing tomatoes,  raspberries and carrots. Courgettes seem to have stopped at the moment, although there are some more flowers coming.  Got some winter seed potatoes and put it, and actually still have some autumn carrots, that say sow up to July, but wondered if its worth chucking them in tomorrow and see what happens.  I need to read up a bit more on strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, so I know how to tend to the plants in the autumn.  

I made blackberry and apple crumble with the foraged blackberries, and a banana loaf cake with some very over ripe bananas.

Washing blowing on the line after a quick 30c wash

Sold another item on V*nt*d, only £3, but it all adds up. 
Passed on a bag of puzzles to my friend and also gave him a few tomatoes, as we can't eat them quick enough. 
 Tomorrow I need to take another bag to the charity shop, as its been sat in the wardrobe a while now.  

That's about it for now. need to get dinner started. Chicken fillets tonight...big enough to get 2 meals from 2 fillets. 

Makingabobor2

Been AWOL for far too long. Just seem to be so busy lately and had a couple of disasters that ended up costing bit of money. 
Managed to scratch the car the other day driving it up the alley to the garage. Next door but one were having a tree chopped down and the workman's van was in a precarious place by the garages and I thought I had more room to get round the end of the fence, than I did!  Ooops.....Anyway, So far DH has managed to do it himself, although he keeps saying its not good enough and should be resprayed. It really wasn't as bad as he's making out, but you know what men are like.   
Then the other week I had to go to the dentist, not sure if I mentioned it before. A wobbly crown. Anyway, he managed to recement it, but over this weekend, it actually fell of.  He tried to get it back but says it won't work as bit more of the tooth has come off and there isn't much tooth there to start with. So its been covered with whatever it is they cover it with, and he says its fine to leave it at the moment, but in time will need to think about dentures as I have a couple of other gaps up there as well..... .  I said it makes me feel old, but dentist says I am not old and even young people have dentures these days!  He did mention implants!  But I said no way, firstly its too scary for someone like me who has a real dentist phobia, and secondly its wayyyyyyy to costly.  So we are leaving it as it is for now and see how things go, and what I decide. Obviously if I have dentures, the little bit of tooth that is left will have to come out!! 

Anyway, enough of my tooth moaning.   Yesterday DH started clearing out junk form the garage. I had no idea he was going to do it, don't think he knew when he first went out there either. Anyway, I wasn't going to stop him and went to help. 152 items decluttered!  Couldn't believe it, some to CS, some only fit for recycling bin or landfill and a big boot load to the tip.  Problem was when we got to the tip, we were able to dispose of the small electricals and the old car oil, but apparently their metal skip was full and we had to bring it home again!  So its now all in a big bag in the little plastic shed and we'll have to take it another day.   There is still a lot more rubbish in garage he could get rid of,  but at least my decluttering total is looking good now. Still a long way to go if I want to get to 2025 items this year, so need to hope he does some more. I still have quite a bit more stuff to go   through as well, so hopefully that number will start to rise. 

Today is the start of next budget period, but I haven't had time to sit down and sort anything out today, what with the dentist this afternoon and this morning DH had a half day as we were having new fence panels delivered, (should have come Friday, but that's a whole other story....LOL), and the 2 eldest GKS came round to help him.  They are 16 (twins) now and very tall, so they were a great help as it wasn't the easiest of jobs. Since we had had the original fence put in over 18 years ago, we had planted an Acer tree and also got a bigger shed, so much more difficult to get to the fence from inside the garden.  But the made a good job of it.  He just has the gate to put on at the weekend, and then in a few weeks we are going to order the rest of the panels for the bit along the bottom  Decided to do it in 2 halves to make it easier to pay for and not such a big job doing it all at once. 

Need to go  through the cupboards and freezer and see what we have left, so I can write my shopping list and meal plan and will get this period's budget sorted and report back on any exciting bits. Definitely need to do a lot of money saving and debt reduction this month

Anyone else having problems with P/fc today?  Can't get into it, it keeps saying Error and Bad Gateway???

Right off to hoover the car where Dh took the old fence panels to tip this morning and then it will be dinner time.  Using up a big portion of chicken stew thing that was lurking in the freezer. Think there might be some frozen dumpling mix as well... can I use it by defrosting? Or do I have to thaw it first?  Will have a look...

Have a good evening all

joedenise

I was having problems with Prolific so I deleted the app on my laptop and then reloaded via the website and it seems fine now.  I've actually had a few surveys today.  Not had much this month at all but think that's probably because of the holidays.

Sun_Addict

Sorry to hear about the crown ordeal. I had mine on a gold pin and post screwed into my jaw for a similar reason to yours. This was several years ago now and it’s still going strong. 

Makingabobor2

Sun_Addict said:

Sorry to hear about the crown ordeal. I had mine on a gold pin and post screwed into my jaw for a similar reason to yours. This was several years ago now and it’s still going strong. 

My pin wasn't gold, but the crown must have been at least 25 years old, so it had done well...lol

Makingabobor2

Happy Bank Holiday Monday.  What a lovely sunny day, and very unusual for a BH in this country. This last week has been a weird one, felt a bit "off" and couldn't work out why to start with. I seem to have not exercised as much, I ate too much chocolate, not slept as well, and several things going wrong. 
After a lot of thinking ( or maybe overthinking), I came to the conclusion that I still don't think DH is quite on the same page as me regarding debt busting and its starting to annoy me.  If I try and talk to him he gets sarcastic and narky about it.  After we overpaid and cleared the mortgage last year, I thought we could start to clear the other debts a lot quicker.  yes, we have increased the amount we pay each month, and we did clear a couple of small ones,  but we seem to be making slow progress....although any progress is better than none.  I was hoping to throw the whole amount of what we used to pay for the mortgage, at the debts, but DH wants more in certain saving pots and keeps coming up with things we "need". So I have told him I am redoing the budget and we need to save more towards the debts. He can't understand how it makes me feel still having debt at my age. Yes, I know we were stupid in our younger years, but we had the lightbulb moment quite a few years ago and yet we still have debt.  Yes, its all interest free and most companies are slowly offering F&F settlements, but we still need more money saved to be able to take advantage of these. So this week I am re-budgeting and hopefully we'll get it sorted sooner rather than later.  Yes we still want to have a life, as nobody knows what's round the corner, and I would hate to think we never did anything or went anywhere, but we need to get rid of these pesky debts.  So today is the day I get things moving better. 

Gas/electric tariff renewed on the 22nd, and new payments are £6 a month cheaper. Also we got the first water bill since we had the meter put in...although they said it was estimated and not actually read.  No idea why??   Anyway, they are putting our DD down by £5 a month.   So there's an extra £10 a month I can allocate to the debt pot, straight away. I'm sure if I look harder I can find a lot more to allocate as well. 

Wanted to get the housekeeping budget down, but food seems to be shooting up, so not sure if that will work. I currently allocate £260 a 4 week period for 2 of us, with no pets to buy for.  If DH wants beer, he pays for it from his personal spends, as he doesn't really buy that much. So not sure there is much room for reduction there. 
Because we both wear glasses and need prescription sunglasses as well, we need to save a lot in our eyes/teeth and general body pot, so can't see any savings being made there. In fact I need to make my eye test appointment this week, as it is now over 2 years overdue, and I can tell when I look at screens etc, that I need a new prescription. I'm trying to save a bit more in that pot as well, as I am pretty sure I really should go and try out the hearing aids again in the future. 
Anyway, enough of my rambling, I need to get on and actually sort it out.  My plan is to have it all cleared by the end of 2026! 

In other MSE news, yesterday we went blackberrying again and got another good haul. Also found some apples from a tree in the woods where we remembered we had got some a couple of years ago. So will be making a crumble later, and try and tie it in with having to use the oven for something else as well. 

Decluttering is still continuing at a reasonable pace. I have decided to start again with the kitchen cupboards and bedroom stuff, as despite thinking I had had a good clear out, it still seems messy and I have things I still don't use. 

So off to make a start on things now. DH is at work until 12 today, so need to get him doing something when he gets home, as he spent all yesterday afternoon playing his guitar! 

Have a good day everyone, and apologies for moaning. 

Sun_Addict

If it’s any consolation Mr SA was never on the same page as me when I was trying to debt bust. It was all entirely down to me chipping away at it while he kept adding to it. Any attempts to talk about it were met with angry responses and days of sulking. So frustrating! He would still be the same now if it hadn’t been for his brain tumour. 

Blackcats

MrBC has no interest in our finances which in one way is good but on the other hand he has no idea if we have the money to pay for big items of spending.  

Makingabobor2

Sun_Addict said:

If it’s any consolation Mr SA was never on the same page as me when I was trying to debt bust. It was all entirely down to me chipping away at it while he kept adding to it. Any attempts to talk about it were met with angry responses and days of sulking. So frustrating! He would still be the same now if it hadn’t been for his brain tumour. 

Well at least DH isn't adding to our debt. We only buy what we have the cash to pay for. Its just his attitude towards the speed that we clear it, that makes me cross. He says let them wait for their money as they allowed us to get in debt! I said no, it was our fault & we need to clear it ASAP before we get any older.