Wishful thinking?

tinypawz

Hi All


Gonna do this again.....New Year, New beginnings.

Since I last posted I hae converted to tesco own cat litter and tesco premium food. Cats aren;t too impressed.....but at least I still have them.

I'm going to try to get them to start 'going' out side. I have a little patch of mud/weed tyoe thing aroung the oil tank that is next to useless...so maybe I can convince them to use it as a bigger 'litter' box.

SOA Updated 1/1/09

My income : 1255
Benefits : 80
Tax Credits: 194

Total : 1529

Outgoings
Rent : 525
Oil : 50
Electric: 50
Tv licence: 12
Sky 27
Landline 25
Mobile 35
Childcare 120
Travel 90

Total 934

Loan 1 £15k @ 4% - 276mnthly
Loan 2 £3@7% - 60monthly

Choice £50 - 2 months at £25odd
Studio £55 - 2 months at £28odd
Other £40 - 2 months at £20odd
Nat Close £25 - 1 payment
Daddy £600 - to be paid back at £100pm J/F/M/A/M/J

Leaves - Jan - £53!!! but freezer and cupboards are full. Just need to get fresh fruit, veg and milk

Feb - £86.....hope the freezer and cupboards can cope for 2 months! not sure about that at all

Mar/Apr/May/Jun - £159. I hope to be able to be able to feed me, toddler and cats for £100....£59 for clothes (ebay), days out etc

Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec - £259. £100 straight to saving for Xmas. £159 as above.

hypno06

Hi there and welcome back.

It is good to see that you have switched to cheaper alternatives for the cats and clothes shopping, but I notice that your new SOA shows catalogues etc which didn't appear on the first one - is that because they have crept in or because you just didn't include them last time?

If it is because they have crept in, then you must nip this in the bud right now - close them off and don't use them again - they really do have a habit of increasing steadily with things you think you "must" have.

The other big thing that I notice is that once the loan to your dad has been repaid, you are intending putting £100 away each month for Christmas - this is a huge amount and I would suggest £30 or so a month and the rest to go against your debts or giving you an emergency savings pot which in turn will hopefully reduce the need to go asking Dad for a further loan later on. £1200 for Christmas presents each year is a heck of an amount.

anyway, glad you are giving it another shot, and I am sure the good advice you received before will continue.

Happy new year.

chevalier

good luck with your endeavours this year
chev

can-almost-see-the-light

Hi there

I also have 2 cats and trying to wean them from the litter tray to a "mud patch" outside is a nightmare but if you stick with it - very possible. Mine now use the mud patch but it took about a week of solid convincing. I found that pouring the bag of cat litter over the mud patch and keep plonking them on it for about a week really helped. They understood that I wanted them to use this as the toilet. Once they used it the first time, I made a huge fuss of them and gave them some treats. After that, apart from a couple of incidents, they seemed to get it!!!

Hope this helps and good luck x

MrsTinks

Definitely try and wean the cats gradually to clean dirt from outside maybe start by sprinkling a little on the existing litter and gradually increasing the amount of dirt vs litter. Then move the tray closer to the door and eventually leave it outside the door... It CAN work

Food... I feed my two Arden Grange which I buy online at 7.5kg a time - costs about £22.45. That was delivered on about the 25th of November and looking at it we have enough to last to the end of January near enough... That makes it £11.23ish per month for 2 cats (one of which is a gannet!!! greedy sod lol) - if you can wean them off the litter tray indoors then you could afford the high end cat food and still pay less than you are now

Human food: go and spend some time on the Old style board They are a mine of information when it comes to making meals from nothing

Also Ebay... I have a rule in this house that for every item of clothes that comes in, one must go out! If it's worn out then it's bin, otherwise it's Ebay. Most of the stuff can be sold on Ebay so it kinda pays for itself The strangest things will sell and sometimes for more than it's worth! Other things you would have thought would fetch well don't get any bids - sods law!

tinypawz

hypno06 wrote: »

Hi there and welcome back.

It is good to see that you have switched to cheaper alternatives for the cats and clothes shopping, but I notice that your new SOA shows catalogues etc which didn't appear on the first one - is that because they have crept in or because you just didn't include them last time?

If it is because they have crept in, then you must nip this in the bud right now - close them off and don't use them again - they really do have a habit of increasing steadily with things you think you "must" have.

The other big thing that I notice is that once the loan to your dad has been repaid, you are intending putting £100 away each month for Christmas - this is a huge amount and I would suggest £30 or so a month and the rest to go against your debts or giving you an emergency savings pot which in turn will hopefully reduce the need to go asking Dad for a further loan later on. £1200 for Christmas presents each year is a heck of an amount.

anyway, glad you are giving it another shot, and I am sure the good advice you received before will continue.

Happy new year.

Catalgues have crept in.....buying something, planning to pay off immediately, which of course never happened. Will NOT be doing that again.

Also £100 for Xmas is from July onwards. £600 for Xmas total including all gifts (I buy for 11 adults and 8 children......I also tendto over compensate for my lo having only 1 parent and buy her enough toys to do the whole year), food, treats, new clothes for lo etc.

In my SOA, I forgot to add £15.50 for contact lenses (I think I'll stop this.....maybe), £35 for A'level course I'm doing, I think there are 5 more payments. I'll repost a 'new' one......I'll get this thing right eventually

MrsTinks

Hun... there is a credit crunch going on... stop buying other people christmas presents! The amount of people who have said to friends that maybe just buying for the kids this year and have been met with "GREAT - we were thinking that but didn't want to say..."

tinypawz

SOA Updated 1/1/09 @11am ish

My income : 1255
Benefits : 80
Tax Credits: 194

Total : 1529

Outgoings
Rent : 525
Oil : 50
Electric: 50
TV licence: 12
Sky 27
Landline 25
Mobile 35
Childcare 120
Travel 90

Total 934


Loan 1 £15k @ 4% - 276mnthly
Loan 2 £3@7% - 60monthly

Choice £50 - 2 months at £25odd
Studio £55 - 2 months at £28odd
Other £40 - 2 months at £20odd
Nat Close £25 - 1 payment
Daddy £600 - to be paid back at £100pm J/F/M/A/M/J
A'level £35 for J/F/M/A/M

Leaves
Jan - £26!!! but freezer and cupboards are full. Just need to get fresh fruit, veg and milk (THIS IS GOING TO BE NEAR IMPOSSIBLE NOW)

Feb - £61.....hope the freezer and cupboards can cope for 2 months! not sure about that at all (see above)

Mar/Apr/May - £124. I hope to be able to be able to feed me, toddler and cats for £100....£24 for clothes (ebay), days out etc

Jun - £159. Again £100 for food, £59 for other expenses

Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec - £259. £100 straight to saving for Xmas. £159 as above.

Contact lenses definitely must go....will call SpecSavers tomorrow

MrsTinks

As I'm afraid must Sky... you can use it as a freeview box once you have cancelled the subscriptions
And GET EBAYING I bet you can easily raise £50 on there which will make the month a lot easier

tinypawz

MrsTine wrote: »

Hun... there is a credit crunch going on... stop buying other people christmas presents! The amount of people who have said to friends that maybe just buying for the kids this year and have been met with "GREAT - we were thinking that but didn't want to say..."

I might do this next year.....the extra could then go to over paying one of the loans.

Both loans were arranged via work both at a preferential rate in Feb 2008 and are due to be paid off Feb 2013.

I MIGHT ask to get these 'consolidated' into 1 loan when the total balance is £15k exactly and keep the payments at £336pm. Although the hassle of this (the millions of hoops that have to be jumped through to get a 'Staff loan' is ridiculous) might outweigh the benefits.

I have also contacted the CSA about trying to get some money from my ex-h. I used the calculator thingy on the CSA to find out what he SHOULD be paying. £54pw thats £2808pa!!!!!:eek: I won't hold my breath for this.

I personally think the man should be dangled upside down by his ankles and shook until he has paid me back every penny that he 'borrowed' .....on my CCs!!!!!! (rant over)