A packet of 10 and a 2 litre bottle of diet coke please

mammamia2

morning

Its not going well

after getting 2 weeks wages deducted I am struggling :mad: !
I have only £60 left in the bank after just being charged £28.00 and i still need to pay

RENT £215.00 I am lucky that my landlord is family so they understand the situation I am still waiting for a payslip to come through the post so i can hand it in to get some housing benefit

COUNCIL TAX £105 I am waiting to see if i qualify for council tax benefit .Hurry up payslip

GAS BILL £25.00 will pay this from weekly child tax credit already paid £20.00

ELECTRIC BILL £53.00 can only afford to pay £35.00 this month

WATER £40.00 dont think i can afford it at all

trying not to use the mney in the bank for utilities as i might need to top up council tax and housing benefit .

things like food and petrol will have to come out of the weekly working tax credit i get so that is alright .

although things are not really good money wise and i have failed a bit there is a few things i am pleased with

managed to get a really good deal on daughters nintendo ds £129.00 for an all important pink one with all three games that she wanted . My friend lent me the money to get it and i will have to pay her back when the christmas club money comes next week !!!:T

And i have a job interview on wed .hope it goes well it is less hours but that means more time at home with daughter and also I will have a set wage and no commission based work so i will know where i stand with all the benefits i get instead of them changing all the time :T


Ithere is no change on the diet coke situation :rolleyes: or the ciggarette situation:rolleyes: I need to stop smoking then i would feel like a millionare

mammamia2

me again ,

well i am a bit worried !

I still have all the above bills/amounts to pay and my head is spinning as to what to pay first with what money !!!

I have 23.30 saved to pay off the electric bill so that will be gone in the next few days :j

I am hopefully getting £80 in the bank on saturday so this will be put straight towards rent ! still leaving me a bit to owe .

Have no money for council tax but hoping for some benefit towards this as wages were considerably lower this month Plus i got a payslip today hurrah but it said that i was paid £15.17 which was put into my account today have not got one to say was paid £400 but i did hand in my bank statement showing i was paid £400 to housing ben people.I also handed in todays payslip of £15,17 so fingers crossed that they think i only got paid £15.17 and adjust benefit accordingly ( hey I can dream )

errm as for the rest of what i owe on gas I was going to pay out off tax credits next week but school photos have invaded the plan at 10.00 for the photos and 6.50 for the frames :eek: well when i am cold at least photo of dd with half her lunch round her mouth and her hair looking like she has been dragged through a hedge backwards will cheer me up !!:rotfl:

not sure about the rest of rent ,council tax and water rates .:rolleyes:

had a job interview today i hope it went well !! as the hours are fantastic and there is a set pay at the end of each month so i will know where i stand financially in regards to housing benefit .would be able to start straight away (walking out of current job ) Only one slight problem i would miss november cut off date and will not get paid till december . obviously by walking out of current job and not working my notice i will not get paid by them in november either . how ever i think i could manage as i will still be getting housing ben , tax credits ,child ben and child matinence ,Just means i would be behind in paying bills and cancell direct debits to payplan untill decembers wage comes .confusing and brain ache

I do know that it is not ideal to walk out but i just want out of current job for my sanity and I do not want to miss out on the new job as it is ideal ! fingers crossed that i get it

Off to a free firework display on fiday and then off to see the lord mayor show on sat planning on taking a packed lunch and will treat us to a hot chocolate or the like from starbucks .the cost of this and train fare to get there to pay but i have got money put away for this and any left over will go towards a bill but to be honest i dont know which ones to pay first !!:o

Cant seem tp think about the bigger debt at the moment not till this sticky patch has ended and regular money starts to come in .

On a good note i have discovered white vinegar,stardrops and soda crystals (im in love ), I have only used tumble dryer once this week for bath towels and to top it all i have made three yes three meals out of the left over roast chicken we had on sunday even though i did burn it a bit (shhh don't tell anyone )

bye

paybacktime2008

Hi there. Have you tried www.spendingdiary.com ? I've filled it in for 4 days and already it is giving me a massive push to stop smoking as I appear to have spent more on smoking than food! They have groovy little pie charts and it's helped me see it all a bit clearer.

Good Luck

lilly81

Hiya,

I think firstly you should be proud of yourself for being a single parent and working. Im in a similar situation, I have a 6 year old boy, but only got off benefits and started working 2 months ago. :T
I see from your SOA that you have no childcare cost, would it really be worth finding another job if you have to pay childcare?
Also if you earn below £15,200 you should get free prescriptions.
Do you pay your council tax over 10 or 12 months?
Also in your £5 per day, what do you spend it on?
are fags n diet coke included in groceries?

I found this site back in August and it has really helped :j

Check out the freebies board, I have ordered free bit for my son and free samples for me to fill up our xmas stockings :money:

Hope that all help
xxx

mammamia2

With regards to child care my mum has dd while at work but new job will mean i am working when she is at school and home when she is home except for school holidays .

Diet coke and fags are not in the grocery budget but they do come out of the £5.00 a day eeeekkkk

council tax is over 10 months it is normaly only £90 but i missed a payment so paying arrears on top every month .

I do get free prescriptions but the £15.00 is for contact lenses every month .
thanks for your replies

also no news on the new job yet

Smashing

Ok, I drink enough diet coke to drown a small family, so the best thing I ever did was to switch to own brand - it's an acquired taste and they do vary between supermarkets, but now the 'real' stuff tastes odd to me.

I can't stomach the value stuff, but the best own label one I've found is Lidl - 39p for 2 litres. Not a fan of the Tesco stuff, will drink Asda own if I can't get to Lidl. Try some different brands - I can't believe I used to pay over a quid for a bottle of fizz beforehand.
Definitely fill old 500ml bottles from the large one, the price of those things is outrageous.

mammamia2

you sound like a hard core diet coke drinker just like me and on your recomendation i will try lidl cola ,mind you this week i did buy pepsi as it was on offer so i could be swayed !!!

Cinny91

My friend was addicted to diet coke, we'd sit down to watch a movie and by the end she had about 5 empty cans around her,and I wish I was exaggerating! She only stopped when she went to canada for uni and couldn't afford it anymore. Have you tried reading about the dangers of aspartame to put you off? Worked for me! (made me very cranky for awhile but it worked..)

mammamia2

I cant stop thinking about money .I think it is on my mind a bit especially as i have got immediate bills that need paying as soon as possible ! think this may be the reason i am not sleeping well aaarrrggggghhhh.

I got some house ben today which i am going to use on council tax dont really want to be behind with that and i have paid off the £45.00 electric bill so a bit less to worry about .

I am still waiting for the decision on whether i am entiltled to more house benefit since my wages were less this month !! as soon as that has come through will pay the rest of my rent .

Just had a red letter bill to pay water £28.00 less than i expected i thought it was £40.00 so i will pay that on tues with this weeks tax credits .

I did manage to save money today and came home with £10.00 due to the fact that me and mum went halves on a family train ticket as it was cheaper was originally quoted £17.00 for just me and dd but it was £20.00 for a family ticket so will put the £10.00 towards the water bill too .

been thinking about the bigger debt the £11,000 debt and i would like to concentrate on paying off the smallest £3,000 but i am on a dmp with payplan and not sure if i can do this on my own and let pay plan deal with the remaining debt will have to look into this after christmas .

If i was to bung any extra money I have to pay plan would they split it between creditors instead of just giving it to just the one! and by giving any extra I have to one creditor is it likely i would be debt free sooner ??? and how would i go about giving any extra just to one company is it advisable or would i just start up all the letters and phonecalls again ???? all theese questions something to look into after christmas is out of the way

also seriously starting to think about giving up the fags !!!

mammamia2

I am just sitting down for a rest and to de-stress !

I have cleaned the bathroom kitchen and scrubbed and scrubbed the oven and grill pan . I have cleaned my bedroom and de-cluttered it even found four things to e-bay :j .Cleaned dd bedroom while she was downstairs painting and making a general mess ,Wanted to de-clutter her room too but i walked in and could not face it so I just tidied . I think there is more ebay bits in there . debating whether to ebay old school uniform or hand it into the school .

As i am sitting here i can hear dd upstairs in her room pulling evrything to the floor so looks like i am gonna have to start again . It just gets me down in the dumps that i am trying to have a clean home and she just makes mess mess and more mess and i dont get time to spend with her just playing dont know where to start .

was meant to be a no spend day but i am so p'd off that i have brought fags and diet coke and we needed butter and milk

just not a good day today