Time for a new start

savingholmes

Well done on the dentist trip. Sorry about the cost and the wages loss. Hopefully the year will improve from here on out.

lucielle

Hope you’re not too sore and stop prodding the hole!
L

Drawingaline

So much for my new years resolution! 

2024 continues to be the year of crap. The budget is in shreds, and it doesn't look to be improving anytime soon.

I paid £120 for a tooth night guard incase I cracked my own tooth by clenching my teeth at night. (A perimenopause symptom) No idea if it is working but its easy enough to use.

The girl needed a filling replaced as the metal one was causing sensitivity. So £120 for a private appointment. But was a good job she had it done as there was decay under the current filling. And she said it has helped the sensitivity. But it was an expense I wasn't expecting. 

The boy got a new job, mostly working lates, but at least he is doing 5 shifts a week. He doesn't overly like it, but he found it and chose it, he has friends who work there already and is managing to save some money so as he says it will do for now. Unfortunately he is having a flare up of a skin condition which has got very bad. He now has a rash over his torso which we think is a secondary infection. He has a doctor's appointment next week which we are hanging on for, but I must admit I have been researching private dermatologists in the area as it's that bad. Unfortunately trying to get actually seen by a doctor face to face is so hard around here atm and it's the kind of thing that really needs looking at properly. I am hopeful it's a secondary infection that is easy to treat, otherwise it is most likely a huge allergic reaction to something. If it is I have found a clinic that does proper skin !!!!!! testing quite close, but being private it is around £300. There is a small possibility the skin problem is down to gluten, which would mean massive diet change. However he is in pain, the itching is horrific and he is barely sleeping and all the creams that have worked in the past are doing nothing. So money has been spent on creams and lotions and special scratching things (which are helping) and bath stuff. He has asked me to attend the appointment with him, which means I will lose an hour's pay, he is 18, but I think he wants me there to ask questions, which I am happy to do. He is so down atm and grumpy and upset and stressed. It's affecting me and my sleep too, I am so worried about him. It's nothing major, but the discomfort and itching is affecting everything he does right now. 

The other two are doing ok, the smallest is flourishing at his school, and the weird one sat his year 10 exams. Not expecting him to have done brilliantly but he did do some revision for them so fingers crossed he gets some marks. We have now visited bothe the local sixth form colleges and he will be going to the more vocational one, he seems keen to maybe do a level 2 in Animal Management as they have some reptiles, he really loves snakes etc. so we will go back around that one after the summer to check which course he might be best applying too.

In other financial news we lost two fences at the end of march. We are replacing them both and moving a gate which helps with keeping the cats in the garden when we sit out with them. We are using someone who did the fences in the old house but he jas had to postpone it twice, hopefully it will be done on Monday. The cats have been less than impressed about not being allowed out. 

Will leave off for now, but plan to post again soon with a breakdown of what is owed and the plan to pay it all off.

Drawingaline

So breakdown of the credit cards and debtas follows

£660 on MBNA at 0% until 6/12/24. This is my contribution to the boys car insurance, will be clear by the end of the 0% period.

£820 on Lloyds CC. 0% unti6/12/24. This will be clear by the end of the 0% period. This is the boys car insurance, he is paying off £30 a week. 

£1816 on Lloyds CC. 0% until 03/12/24. This is the girls MacBook. Split 50/50 between us and her. Balance will need transfering at the end of Nov. 

£500 on Lloyds CC. 0%. This is my debt, it will be gone by the end of October and the payment will be rolled onto 

£815 on N/W CC. 0% until Feb 2025. This is my debt. It will need BT at the end of Jan 25.

£1430 on Virgin CC. 0% until 31/01/25. Will need to BT what is left in Jan 25. 

It's not great but there is a plan to pay off MBNA, the boys insurance and the £500 on the Lloyds card by the end of the year. Then I will probably use the MBNA to BT what is left on the Lloyds and then put the balance from Virgin and NW onto the Lloyds one. 

We also own around £1800 for the fence. However I am trying to avoid a CC for this and will do some inventive accounting to cash flow it. There will be some debt, but hubby has just had £100 a month pay rise so will be using this to pay that down asap. 

Hoping to end the year with around £365 on the NW card, and around £1000 on the Virgin card. And then just the balance for the MacBook on the Lloyds card. 

So all on all, not great tbh! However the girl has signed for a house that is way cheaper for next year, so that will free up some cash flow to throw at it all. 

But it all depends on how 2024 carries on, if it doesn't ease up we could be worse off in a month's time!

lucielle

At least you’ve got a plan. Hope the rest of the year behaves. 

L

Drawingaline

Got paid today 

So £60 off MBNA, my contribution to the boys car insurance.

£50 off Virgin balance

£50 off Lloyds card, my contribution to the girls MacBook

£25 off Nationwide balance.

Moving in the right direction.

I lost my Santander card yesterday, very frustrating as I use this cc for everything and clear it in full. Because I am cash flowing the fence (which was completed yesterday) the bank accounts are low, am hoping the new one turns up quickly. Maybe the sliver lining might be I can't spend anything 😆

In other news a family member has received some bad health news. Luckily something caught early so should be dealt with easy enough, but still a concern. 

The boy is still struggling with his skin, his doctors appointment has been moved, luckily the same day, but an hour later, which is more awkward for me, but really hoping the issue is what we think it is, he can get a prescription and it will start to ease. 

savingholmes

Hope  the prescription sorts the skin out. Sounds like it's quite debilitating. 

Good luck with the getting out of debt part. It's difficult but you've succeeded before.

Have a good win.

Drawingaline

The boy finally saw a doctor last week. One look at the all over rash and diagnosed what I thought it was. Hard core tablets needed. So frustrating, if he had managed to get an appointment a few weeks earlier it could have all been sorted with a cream 😏 also gave him a strong steroid cream for his massive eczema flare up, and talked about what to do if it didn't work. The doctor was brilliant and really listened, and offered some things to do to help everything, and also discussed the limitations of his role as a GP and where a dermatologist would be needed. 

I have booked him an appointment at a nearby private hospital for allergy testing. It's £280 and he is being seen in mid June. He was going to request being referred for it by the GP, but tbh we can stretch to it, it's with a proper allergy doctor (well known one apparently) and I have a worry that he is allergic to the cats. If he is we can work around this, with a variety of strategies, but until we know I don't want to implement things that could cost quite a bit of it's not needed. I did reassure the GP that it wasn't an online test thing, or sending off some hair, it was a proper skin scratch test in a hospital with an allergy expert. 

This does mean I have to take a day off work to take him though. It's about an hour away, so not too bad, and I already have a doctor's appointment myself that morning so it made sense to just do it all in one day.

I also have another hospital appointment for my shoulder. They wanted to do another MRI this year to check the weird thing that was found when I dislocated it back in 2019. When I received the appointment it is at 9.15, so I was, great drop the kids off and nip to the hospital, to realise it's not in our local one it's in one a half hour away. So the smallest won't be able to get to school that day! And more time off work. 

Finances ticking over. Our grocery bill just keeps climbing and the energy bill doesn't seem to be coming down at all. Everything just costs so much more right now, we are lucky that we can cover it all, but I feel that we had finally had a year of having a bit of money to do fun things, and we are back where we were a decade ago! Hubby said the same to me, think he is feeling a bit down about it too. Like no matter how hard we work, we will never make enough to be able to plan some fun things. I also worry about the girl entering employment after uni, and the boy is doing ok, but only on minimum wage, and we aren't in a position to help them massively.

And then I remember that we have enabled the girl to pay her rent this year (£400 a month has been going to her) and in October this will massively drop-down, so I am hoping to be able to save some money towards doing some bits to the house. Our ensuite shower needs replacing, and the garden could do with a bit of a professional make over too. And some more towards the debt. 

Need to stay positive. Maybe I need to stop reading the news!!!

savingholmes

The news isn't helpful at the best of times... 

I know what it's like to feel on that kind of treadmill. You'll get there. 

Hope the hospital trips for both of you are helpful.

Drawingaline

The boy has been on a trip north to stay with friends. He arrived home yesterday and he was just so happy and cheerful! Hasn't been like that in months. His skin is so much better, it's bonkers how a week of the right tablets and cream have completely turned it all around! At least now we can recognise what the infection looks like (doctor said he may be prone to it) and I also bought something for him to use a couple of times a month that the doctor recommended as a prevention. He is back in work tomorrow though, so will see how long the cheerful disposition lasts 😂

The girl has finished her work placement. She has learnt loads with it, and her project related to it is due in on Monday and then she is done for the year, second uni year completed! It's flown by tbh. We discussed how she will move to her new house in August, I will have to go up and help her at some point as she has some bits of furniture to shift, but told her she can start moving some stuff herself. They have a week overlap and it's not too far, last year she moved from the west of London right over to the East with a one day overlap so it was much more awkward. Although I will have to take a day off work as we are on holiday then weekend she has as overlap. Typical! 

Half term has been quiet here. I have worked extra every day making up the hours I lost on the bank holiday, feel sorry for the small two as they haven't got to do much. The smallest is off to scout camp tomorrow though, so he will have an action packed weekend.