Riding the wave

Keep_Buggering_On

Last year I started a debt-free diary that really helped keep me on track, unfortunately I then realised that my username was one I had used elsewhere and with a bit of Googling, someone might be able to identify me and use my personal details. I have now got rid of that profile and started afresh- and not a moment too soon as I really need to get my CC debt under control again. I work in HE and have already been made redundant three times in the last five years, so there is always that possibility floating overhead that was unheard of ten years ago! Whilst I am not expecting anything on the horizon, I do want to get ahead of things, especially in the current global/political climate where all certainties are gone. I want to clear my debts and build up some financial resilience so that if the worst were to happen, I am not snookered. Luckily I will have been in my current job for two years come June, so at least at that point I will be entitled to redundancy if that were to happen!

About me- 42 year old bloke, living in deepest darkest Yorkshire. Married, wife and two children, son of 13 and daughter of 10. My wife is unable to work, so we survive on my wage and some U/C. One cat (shortly to be joined by a kitten), and one guinea pig who thinks he’s in charge and bullies the cat mercilessly. I mostly work from home, which saves a fortune on travelling and does allow me to help out with school runs etc. if my wife is not feeling up to it. My current state of affairs:

Debts

PayPal Credit Card- £3776

Capital One Credit Card- £3673.25

Klarna- £129.14

Savings

Help to Save- £900

Holiday Fund- £735 (this goes up and down as I add money in and take back out to buy things for our holiday like tickets etc.)

Emergency Fund- £20 (not good, but it’s a start at least!)

My Monthly Bills:

Income- £2205

Joint Account to cover the Bills- £750

Wife- £200 (goes with her U/C and is used for most of the shopping/kids expenses etc)

Holiday Savings- £250

Help to Save- £50

Capital One- £300

PayPal- £250

House Insurance- £18

Kid’s Pocket Money- £20

Phone Bill- £5

Klarna- £65

Hair cut- £10

‘Big Shop’- £100

Emergency Savings (in theory)- £50

Total bills- £2068

Left over to do family things, pick up things I want, presents, hobbies etc- £137

In the short term, I am looking forward to clearing the Klarna in a couple of months time as that will free up £65 a month, but we are going on holiday to London in August and although we have taken full advantage of all the U/C discounts we can, going self catering and have already paid for a lot of the activities, its still going to be a big strain on my finances until August and I have both kids’ birthdays and my wife’s birthday before then. I feel we are pretty well off really- we have a roof over our heads, always have full bellies and go on holiday once a year- but it always feels like a bit of a slog!

Hopefully this diary will help keep me on track, I can pay down the debts and start building a bit of a financial cushion!

Keep_Buggering_On

Off to a mixed start, and only been a couple of hours! A colleague who lives in the next village has popped down with a rhubarb crown, some nabrisia (I think thats what its called), a load of plant pots and some spare seeds for me. Our neighbours removed the massive ten foot high hedge on their side of the property, as it grew four feet over our side as well, the garden feels enormous now. I dug over the area at the weekend and removed a rubble sack of roots, trimmings and general waste and I have been left with a flower bed 20ftx4ft which now needs filling with plants! I have found some old packs of annuals I have sewn in pots in the workshop and hopefully they will sprout, but I mentioned it to my colleague and she has dug up a few bits from her garden for me which is lovely of her. I know nothing about gardening, so I am aware I have taken on a bit more than I can chew, but hopefully if I plant up some things I will get some colour and make the garden look a little less like a wasteland, I am going to raid my Mum's flower beds at Easter for things I can divide and add to the flower bed…

On less good news, I got tempted by a new model railway engine on pre-order. I can pay in instalments so its only £15 a month, but not really what I was planning to do today… I need to remember I am trying to save money, not spend it and I don't need to buy toys for my hobbies, but no promises!

Blackcats

hello and welcome back. As you know there's lots of support and great hints and tips on here.

A trip to London is exciting. There are lots of free and inexpensive things to do while you are here. The museums in Kensington are free and fabulous, The National Gallery, the royal parks, Southbank, Changing of the Guard.

Keep_Buggering_On

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81938902#Comment_81938902

We have a full week planned out, the kids are very excited- We got the U/C discounts for the Tower of London, London Zoo and Cutty Sark (think that saved about £300+ on the full prices), plus planning to go to the National Maritime Museum (I'm ex Royal Navy so thats on my list of places to go) and the British Museum (my wife loves anything about Ancient Egypt) which are free. The two things the kids really want to do are the Harry Potter Studio Tour and Madame Tussauds, neither of which are cheap. We have pre-boked these so at least they are paid for and we have told the kids that we are having packed lunches and eating in the flat we have booked for breakfast and tea- my theory being that they will remember the fun days out in twenty years, they won't remember where they went to eat! My diary is full up with times and activities for pretty much the whole week already, but we wanted to get them sorted now before all the discounted tickets went.

Some of the prices are really set up to gouge you. If we got the direct coach to the Harry Potter Studios from central London it would cost about £150 for the four of us, or we can get a train to Watford Junction for around £25 and there is a free shuttle bus out to the studio! I guess its set up to take advantage of foreign tourists who either have more money than sense, or don't know how to do it the alternate way…

Keep_Buggering_On

Friday round-up: went into the little Morrisons across the road from me this morning to see what bargains they have on offer. I am a little annoyed as they used to have a dedicated reductions place so it was easy to see what was reduced, now its dotted all around the store next to the full price items so takes much more hunting to find the yellow sticker items! I did however come back with some hot cross buns down by 75% to 45p a packet- these were already on my list as the kids decided they wanted them for breakfast over the Easter holidays, so that was a good find. They are usually fine for at least a week after the sell by date and even longer if you toast them. Also picked up a couple of packs of fresh tortellini, again 75% off so 63p each. These will go in the freezer alongside some ready made tomato and mascarpone sauce I picked up in the chuck out earlier as a quick go to meal for lunch for me an OH when we don't have time for anything else. I am popping into the village on my lunch hour to pick up Easter eggs for the kids, some shrubs for the garden and some fence paint as painting the fences and sheds (all three of them) is a project I have set myself for Easter- I gave in and bought an electric spray gun from Amazon as I would be there all week with a paintbrush!

Looking ahead to the weekend, if the weather holds I am going to dig over the flower bed again tomorrow and get those plants in, plus get some more seeds sown in pots so they can be germinating to plant out in a few weeks time. I also need to get a big bake done to refill the cake tins for after tea next week. I am having a day out on Sunday with a friend to one of the local model railway club's open day. Entrance is free so its just bus fare I need and I will take a packed lunch and a little bit of spending money from my pot to see if there are any bargains on the swap stall- always a lot cheaper than the big sellers online, plus you are putting some money back into the club's coffers so they keep going!

weenancyinAmerica

The Imperial War Museum also has some great exhibits if you have a little more time.

Keep_Buggering_On

Well its been a topsy-turvy few days. On Friday, we noticed the piggie had a bit of a head tilt which is never a good sign in guinea pigs. My wife rushed him to the exotic vets we use and they think the most likely thing is an inner ear infection (which is much better than what we were fearing it might be!) and prescribed him some antibiotics. Happily this seems to be working and he is a lot better, however between the consultation, tests, antibiotics and taxi fares it was £165! He needs to go back on Wednesday and will probably need a full course of antibiotics (piggies need two weeks and they only prescribed 5 days to see how he went on with them before he went back to see how it was working). Not good on the financial front, but he is a member of the family and we look after all members of the family, both two and four legged members! I also picked up the train tickets for London in the summer- £200 return for four of us direct from the station in the next village into Kings Cross, which I thought was a good price. It was an expenditure I was anticipating, but the fact it came on the same day as the vet’s bill was a little disconcerting.

On Saturday I managed to get some baking done, including a prune loaf using up some prunes I had left over from the Christmas puddings I made at Christmas, it is actually very tasty! I got the plants in before the rains came and popped into the village. I was very pleased to find Top Gun Maverick for 50p on DVD in the charity shop which is a film I have been wanting to watch since it came out so I was very happy to pick it up. My plans for Sunday changed (OH didn’t feel well so I gave the model railway show a miss), so I ended up watching the film in the afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am now on countdown until Thursday when I finish for a full week which I cannot wait for. We have a few things planned for my week off and budgeted in including a cinema trip and a meal out for my nephew’s 21st which should be good.

Keep_Buggering_On

On count down to 4pm tomorrow afternoon and a week’s holiday. I get an extra day for bank holidays (no idea why but most of the HE institutions in my city do), so by taking Wednesday-Friday next week (3 days) I get 10 days of leave! I have a fairly busy week off, but money has been allocated for that. Me and DD are up to see my parents on Saturday- its three buses and they don’t line up properly, but as my Mum is terminally ill and not doing too well, I am trying to get across as often as I can at the moment. I am going to do a batch of baking on Friday so I can take them some Eccles cakes (dad’s favourite) and some Easter biscuits. In return I am hoping to raid Mum’s flower beds for some plants to help fill my enormous flower bed. She has some London Pride which is growing rampant so I am sure I can split some of that!

On Sunday, one of the village pubs is dong a children’s Easter funday, so we are taking DD to that (DS says he is too old/cool for that!) in the afternoon. I have a breast of lamb in the freezer so we will have a good old fashioned Easter roast dinner before we set off and as I have found a packet of marzipan in the cupboard left over from Christmas, I am going to attempt a Simnel cake to go with it. Tuesday is the dentist for the kids, so I will take them across to the next town for that. I have been going to the same dental practice for over 40 years since I was a toddler and although it is a bus ride away, NHS dentists are like gold dust so I am hanging onto this one for grim life! Thursday we are having a more fun day out a we are off to the cinema to see the new Mario film (not my choice!), with lunch out in Maccie D’s. Not healthy and I hate their burgers, but the kids love them and the wraps are passable plus it is about the only place left where all four of us can eat for £20. It should be a nice family day out and we need a little treat at the moment.

Finally a week on Saturday we are off out for a curry for my nephew’s 21st. The local curry house is excellent, not too expensive and has free corkage so we can bring our own beers/wine. I can’t believe he is 21- when I first met my wife he was still in a carry-cot! It’s a busy old week off, but things are budgeted in and I have some spending money left after not going out on Sunday so if I see anything I have a few pounds I can spend without feeling guilty.

joedenise

Sounds like a well planned and budgeted week off.

Blackcats

enjoy your week off. I'm pleased the guinea pig is doing well.

don't forget to find the platform 9 3/4 Harry Potter photo opportunity when you arrive at King's Cross.

Bringing your own booze to the Indian restaurant can really help keep the costs down.

Keep_Buggering_On

Well it was a somewhat mixed week off work. On the positive we had the planned for days out which were very enjoyable, and I built some model kits from my stash which was relaxing and didn’t cost any money as they have been in my store to build for a while. On rather less good news, on Wednesday night we noticed the piggie was making a noise every time he had a wee, which meant a trip to the vets in case it was another bladder stone. It turned out, however, that he had a massive growth over his kidneys that wasn’t there eight months ago when he had surgery for a bladder stone. The fact it had grown so fast meant it was almost certainly an aggressive tumour, so we had to have our little friend put to sleep. There were lots of tears from all of us, and there is a big gap in our hearts, but it was the kindest thing to do. On the money saving front its wiped us out- the last of my holiday savings and I had to take out £120 of an overdraft which hopefully I can pay off when I get paid at the end of the month. We are going to have to be super careful now as we have no reserves and we still need to save up around £1000 for the rest of our holiday by the end of June. Its doable, but we are going to be church mice for the next few months!