Diary of a 30-something idiot

dawnybabes

I prefer cotton tights, they don’t feel as restrictive as opaques and you can get pretty colours.  Today I’m in dusky pink ones ! 

Debsnewbudget

Hi 
how is the budget holding up this month ?

Are you managing to keep to the planned spends? 

You really need to try, as it could be months before you actually move, and I worry that if you loosen the reins now you will be in even more debt and that will affect how much money you have left.

wantabetterlife

Please pay off the debt when the sale goes through. Don’t convince yourself you need a new van, new wardrobes or whatever the next thing is. 

You need to stop living in this cycle of madness. Insanity is repeating the same thing over again and expecting different results.
i really do wish you all the best going forward. 

warby68

You can probably arrange for your solicitor to repay the debts without the surplus equity ever hitting your account, which I can't help but think is a really big risk given what's happened before. 

It might help with your offers if the lenders know there is a limited amount (no need to say how much) from a property sale definitely coming as a one off 

I really do wish you the very best with this but it would be awful if more inheritance slipped away.

Dredge up as much will power as you possibly can.

foxgloves

Ditto what @warby68 posted. You are really going to have to be Ms Will Power of Will Power City on this one, @foxandflowers. This is what is going to make the difference between a fresh new financial start & more of the same but in a smaller property. Too much of your inheritance has already disappeared into the ether. Please don't lose any more of it. This HAS to be the time that things are done differently.  
Wishing you all the best with it. Don't start making a mental shopping list of all the stuff you need to buy for the new house. Manage on what you have or make do until those debts have been repaid, including those to your friends. Then you can budget each month to buy household necessities gradually. This, after all, is what people had to do before the explosion in availability of consumer credit.
F

Crazycatlady2

Not been on for ages due to life circumstances so just popped in to see how you getting on.

Drastic plans afoot it seems with moving and wanting to change jobs, hope both go well

My father in law passed away in August and we inherited a big house so it's been very busy here but we moved in Friday and have got into debt making changes for us to move in but our house goes up for sale asap so fingers crossed sells quickly and we pay off the debts asap. People seem to think it's great and we lucky to have this opportunity but we lost my husbands second parent in 3 years so it's been very hard on us 

foxandflowers

Hi everyone

It's been a very busy week, what with one thing and another. I had my first Work From Home day on Tuesday and it was an resounding success. I got more done in the first 2 hours than I normally do all day in the office. I'm doing one day next week, and then hopefully the following week it will be 2 days. Hurrah. We are now in the main council offices, and it is not fun. I don't own enough smart clothes to dress appropriately, and everyone seems much less talkative. My two friends have both handed in their notice and left so it's very strange now. At least the views are nice, and in a fortnight I can hopefully have 2 days a week at home and that will do me wonders.

I had to fire my solicitor because the receptionist was very rude, and he was not communicative. I feel like basic courtesy dictates that if you receive a memorandum of sale, you at least acknowledge it. It takes 30 seconds to be like "Hi, received X document, will be in touch in following week". New solicitor is BRILLIANT though, I rang her on Tuesday, she emailed me straight away, and by Wednesday morning I had all the fixture and fittings forms and ID checks and everything else. Those all are done, signed off and sent back. Things are moving in the right direction. Took Mini Fox to see the new house. She loved it. There's an olive tree in the garden, and an apple tree, and passionflora growing all the way around the patio. 

My boiler broke at the weekend, but luckily one of my friend's husband is a heating engineer so he came to have a look. Turns out the storm we had at the weekend had blown lots of rain down my condensing flue (which is supposed to be straight) and that's why it was leaking - the actual boiler was fine! Such a relief. My buyers came back on Tuesday, were very pleased, have handed over their paperwork and have returned to France. Apparently we won't be seeing them now until they come to pick up the keys. 

Rumour has it pay award has been agreed - but it hasn't gone up officially on the intranet yet. Either way, definitely means backpay in November's pay, which will go a long way towards sorting out Christmas if we are still in this house at that point. If not, it can go towards paying the debts! Still 100% my priority. Even if absolutely nothing else comes from moving to the terrace, there is enough money to pay them off. If I can get F&F offers, then that will help me with thrifting furniture etc for the inside. Big big push towards building a solid emergency fund once the debt is gone. I'm looking forward to being solvent for the first time since I was 18. And being able to afford therapy.

Sarahwithlove

That's good news about working from home. Have you had an occ health referral as our team only have to go in one day a week and we have several team members who don't have to go I'm at all pending a occ health referral. 

Good news about the new house and glad the boiler was OK. Sounds like your new solicitor is doing a good job as well. I like it when they do things within a reasonable time frame. It's like not asking for much just a bit of communication. 

We had confirmation today that our pay award has been agreed at the initial offer, why couldn't they have just accepted it in April! Been told it will be paid in Decembers pay

birdsfoottrefoil

Hi Fox, good to hear your WFH days have gone well. I’m guessing you work in a similar work world to me, as our pay award has just been agreed at a flat rate unless your on a higher pay bracket where you get a % increase (which never seems fair on middle and lower incomes!). I’m surprised they don’t allow you more flexibility as some of our finance team are 100% wfh. Are you in your union at work as they should provide some support? 

I was thinking about how is your budget going to be once everything is paid off to prevent you getting back into debt? Was Mr Fox working then or were you just one income? I do think that you need to consider taking on a small second job to make sure you get a really decent emergency fund built up. Perhaps something on the run up to Christmas, so you have some extra money to move with and don’t start afresh with debt? I feel a bit mean suggesting this as it’s putting more work on you, but I think that is the only way you are going to prevent debt accumulating again. 

Hope all goes well with the sale though!!

ET22

Hi, ive just caught up with your diary. Lovely moving to a new house especially if he debts are paid of but if i were you I would see it as the debts beung paid off but not being out of the woods yet. I think you could easily think because the debt is gone everything is ok because the clock has been reset so to speak.

Try and keep in mind that following a move you still wont be out of the woods until you are able to manage kyour money properly and that seems to be a while away. Please dont think im being negative, Ive had a wobble myself the last 3 weeks, more of a different perspective. Good luck with the move x