Mortgage Free by 50???

Sarahwithlove · 10 March at 11:41AM

Is your other half not entitled to a disabled bus pass? Have you looked at disability benefits again for them?

Following purchasing the dvds, do you have any you could sell on Ebay? Or if not them maybe something else?

hatch_five · 17 March at 9:51AM

Feeling completely heart broken this morning, our wonderful little cat was hit by a car this morning. Someone took him to the vets, but there was nothing they could do. He was only 18 months old, and such a sweet loving lap cat. OH is very upset as he was very much a 'mummy's boy' and used to curl up asleep on her all the time. The kids are going to be devastated as well when they get back from school, especially DS as he was very close and him and the cat would wind each other up all the time. I keep bursting into tears (not very manly I know, but I loved that cat)- house rabbit keeps hopping up to check I'm okay.

Sarahwithlove · 17 March at 10:11AM

Sorry for your loss. It's never easy losing a beloved pet, it's totally OK to be upset about it.

Debtfree2026 · 17 March at 1:54PM

Oh gosh I'm sorry - it has been nearly eleven years since our first cat Charlie was knocked down and killed and I still remember how absolutely devastated I was. I've only seen my husband cry twice in our 21 years together and that was one of the times. I'm so sorry.

katsu · 26 March at 7:53PM

Maybe encourage your other half to go back to the surveys? You don't have to do them for her. If she does them, great, and if she doesn't, it will not matter so she can dip in when she's feeling up to it. Maybe she can aim to make some vouchers towards Christmas for eg as she's got long enough to get a few quid.

Also what about receipt apps like Shoppix? Again maybe aim for say £20-50 a year towards Christmas.

hatch_five · 28 March at 10:58AM

Brief update- payday today so I have moved money around and paid a bit more off the credit cards. Its going a lot slower than I had planned, but it is going down so that is something. Things keep happening, like paying for the vet after the cat got hit, that mean the credit card has needed to be used for the odd thing I hadn’t planned for. On the bright side, the emergency fund has recovered slightly since it disappeared on an emergency electrician so there is a little bit of headroom in that, and if we can avoid any more emergencies for a few months, it will grow a bit more! The Help to Save account is building nicely- to the rest of my family, £300 is loose change, but to me it represents six months of being sensible and it’s the longest sustained saving I have ever done so I am quite proud of my achievement!

I have paid the last instalment for DD’s ‘sleeping with the fishes’ trip next month- its not some Mafia thing! She is having a sleepover at an aquarium with Cubs (I’m quite jealous, it sounds fantastic!). DS will potentially be going to the same aquarium with school for a daytrip later this year, just waiting to hear if he has one of the places, so that will be another one to pay for, but to be honest although it always involves juggling money to cover, I want them to be able to go on as many of these things as I can afford and make memories. I do get annoyed with a lot of the secondary school trips though- despite him going to a state school, they run annual trips that cost hundreds, if not thousands of pounds. If it were a private school, fair enough, but they have to know that 50% plus of the school can never afford to go on these trips and it just seems to be unfair and elitist as there then ends up with a clique of kids whose parents have deep pockets (or credit cards) who go on all the trips, whilst the poorer kids are left behind. I went to a private school (assisted place, my parents could never have afforded the fees) and you sort of expect the really expensive trips abroad, but I had assumed it was a little more inclusive at state schools, I was quite surprised to find it really isn’t, at least at DS’s school! Luckily he is very understanding and realises that we can get a week's holiday for the whole family for the price of the school trip for one so he isn't too upset at not being able to go, but it does annoy me.