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Home > Archive: September, 2014

Archive for September, 2014

this and that

September 30th, 2014 at 09:23 pm

A quick update. I'm on my phone.
Mil got in touch: total owed is 364 I think hubby said. 20 this month then 60 each month till March. I didn't offer to pay half like hubby expected although I will probably reign in spending. Going to try and sell more on fFacebook and I tthink he should do some overtime.

Thoughts please

September 27th, 2014 at 09:28 am

I meant to post about this last year, but, well life got in the way.

Before Christmas last year, hubby really wanted to get a PS4. He knew the only way that we could have got it was either from our catalogue, or planning it out and saving it up in advance. Saving up for it was the best option as far as I was concerned and clearly we hadn't done that. Well, one day while I was at work and hubby was at MIL's to get SG he joked with her about her paying for half for his Christmas present. She agreed, they spoke about it. He told me about it later and I wasn't happy he was agreeing to more debt. I think he said it would be fine. At some point later, mil told hubby that his brother wanted to contribute something towards it as his Christmas present. In the end he put £40 towards it and I MIL paid the deposit then put money towards it. I think this was eighty pounds cash. The rest she put on her credit card. Hubby wasn't pleased that she was putting so little towards it.

Now, no-one should have agreed to this since clearly none of them had the money. Well, she put it on her card and I ended up in hospital having emergency surgery. Hubby was off sick taking care of me, I was off for months. So, they agreed he could pay it later. Hubby asked for her credit card details to pay it. She said she wasn't willing to give them. She transferred it to a 0% card.
Hubby still hadn't paid anything to it.

Well, they fell out last month. Yesterday she text asking about when he could pay it since her 0% deal runs out in March. She said she could transfer it to one of our cards (which aren't at 0% interest) Hubby phoned me on the way home from work askinf if I could look at 0% credit card balance transfers. I told him I would apply in my name since my credit is a lot better than his, but not fantastic.

I had a good look and found one for either 33 or 34 months at 0%. I thought there's no way I'm going to get that since my credit rating isn't that good. Well they accepted me. During the application process it said that you can only transfer balances in your name. So I transferred Capital One (cc1), less some pennies although this month's interest hasn't been added yet.

So, now I have transferred my balance on Capital One. I checked my statement and it was in the eight hundreds. They charged me £25 for the privilege of the transfer. So my balance will be 900 and I have 33 months to pay it off.

My questions are:

- what's the best way for me to pay off debt now I have a 0% card (in five-ten working days)
- how would you deal with MIL? The debt must be about £300 I'd guess. We don't know actual figures.

Update

September 25th, 2014 at 09:19 pm

I've been plodding along since payday last week. We've done two separate shopping trips this week - hubby was in town with SG so they went and got some things then we all went together. Ideally I'd like it to last us a few weeks. Our fridge is jam packed but our freezer isn't.

Hubby went back to work today after having a holiday for his birthday. While he was off I done all the night feeds for the entire holiday to give him a break, make him feel like it was a holiday you know? For future reference, I am never doing this again. He sent me for a nap today because I was falling asleep on the couch while holding J. I'm so tired and possibly at my least productive in a while.

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. No plans other than hubby doing the night feed. A full night's sleep is the best gift ever at this moment.

Too much spending

September 21st, 2014 at 02:45 pm

Friday was payday, and hubby's birthday. He's still not talking to his mum or brother so I was feeling bad about that. Add that to the fact that I never had a gift for him to open (although I did buy him game credits months ago) We went into town to go to a cheesecake place that I've walked past a few times. Well it's smaller than I thought. We wanted to sit in but there wasn't enough space for us plus SG and J so we bought four slices - two each to try - to go. That was £10. Yep, 2.50/slice.

Then I decided i was hungry so we went to a cafe. Hubby only wanted a coffee, but that was another ten pounds.

Later that day, hubby went to Tesco while I stayed home. £69 later.

On Saturday we bought SG new boots. 24.99 She needed them and we were at the shopping centre anyway.

I also spent £18 in Asda on new tights and jeans for SG plus some toiletries and snacks for SG.

Oh did I mention that I made hubby a cheesecake for his birthday? Crazy that we still went out and bought some. Sigh.

My bank balance is abysmal. More money is going in tomorrow but I'm just feeling so depressed. I've paid extra to CC1 so I'm not slacking off with debt repayment but I still feel bad. There's more bills to pay. Part of me thinks I'm worrying for nothing but I doubt I am. Either way, we've been in worse situations so I'm sure we'll cope.

Daily Life

September 13th, 2014 at 02:22 pm

Not much happening here. I'm still in the process of using things up. Bought a whole chicken from Aldi for £4.xx and so far we've had quesadillas and italian chicken from it. I was wanting to use the leftovers for a stir fry but hubby bought in a frozen cheese pizza and wants to add it to that. I'm now thinking I could slice a pepper and add that too, maybe a tomato. Well that's tonight's dinner sorted then. SG will have the cheese and vegetable pasta that I made yesterday. I've also got some ready rolled pastry to use up so I'll use that today.

Our kettle stopped working. I've never been so happy to have the Perfect Prep machine for J. We'll get a new one when we're paid next week.

Speaking of J, he slept from 10.20-5.20am this morning. I actually started feeding him at five then realised he was still sleeping so I could have left him longer. I would have had a great sleep last night if SG hadn't woke up between eleven and one.

It's hubby's birthday next week. His request? The ultimate cheese toastie that Jamie Oliver made in his new show, and a cheesecake. I'll buy the stuff in to make both next week. We don't need to worry about what to do for his birthday since he isn't talking to MIL or BIL. So no need to work round other people, we can do what we want. I think he might want a takeaway though since we usually get one for his birthday.

Another Update

September 7th, 2014 at 08:16 pm

Tonight I turned leftover bolognaise into lasagne. First time I've done that. There's still some left for tomorrow. I just need to buy some chicken in this week so that I can use up an italian chicken sachet which expires this month, and chicken enchilidas too. It's taking ages for me to make a dent in the cupboards. I can use a few other things in the cupboard when I make the enchilidas - well, that's the plan anyway.

I posted a few more clothes on Facebook's selling pages. A couple I put up because I had kept them aside for hubby's friend but she never responded. Well, she responded today. Would you take them off in case someone's interested or just leave it? I've not had a lot of interest in my posts, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I've updated my sidebar to show my new credit card balances. Still more than I'd like but at least it's decreasing.

update

September 6th, 2014 at 09:09 pm

I've almost sold my first item on Facebook: one of SG's Christmas dresses. As long as the girl picks it upon Monday. Ironically, this was the item I was going to take off because I thought it might be too early. I've added some more clothes and two Moses baskets so I'm hoping for some luck. I'm actually finding it quite addictive but decluttering is taking longer than I'd like.
I've got two bags of SG's old clothes to donate, a lot more to sort through too.
stills using up what food we have.

this and that

September 3rd, 2014 at 09:26 pm

Spent 9.99 in Aldi today. Got nappies, washing powder, fabric conditioner and juice for SG.

Posted my first items for sale on FB a few hours ago. One item was a Christmas dress - too early for that? No-one's been in touch yet.

Had fish fingers, potato waffles and macaroni for dinner: everything that needed using up.

Cleaning and organising

September 2nd, 2014 at 06:23 pm

I cleaned out my cupboard today. That was an enlightening experience. Less than half a pack of cous cous, cocoa powder, two bags of pasta which are practically finished and a nest of noodles are all waiting to be used up. I've got plenty of stock cubes, spices and herbs (some not even opened) No tins of chopped tomatoes, one carton of passata, one tin of mushy peas (for hubby, I hate them) and garden peas. Plenty of tins of fruit. I've also got soy sauce, a tin of sweetcorn and at least a dozen packets of angel delight - half can be made into ice cream. In addition to this, there's microwave rice and risotto, and sachets to be used with meat and fish. I'm going to have to buy some meat to use some of this up.

spam :(

September 2nd, 2014 at 01:28 pm

A pointless entry cos I noticed the spam. I'm on my phone. Will update properly when I get the chance.

Using things up

September 1st, 2014 at 01:44 pm

Yesterday I used the packet mix of berry cookies, which went out of date months ago and was sitting in the back of my cupboard. I actually enjoyed them though.

Today I'm making macaroni and cheese for dinner. We've got a lot of pasta to use up, and a lot of plain flour too. I'm also going to make corned beef hash - not one of my favourites - for tomorrow's dinner. I've got all the ingredients in for it, and the last time I made it we enjoyed it more the second day. Lastly, I'm going to make some oaty biscuits since there's no treats in the house for us (that are already prepared, I mean)