Floozie's Lightbulb Diary

Intergalactic_Floozie

My Tesco credit card came today

Last month: £2717.66
This month: £2692.43

Reduced by £25.23, not much but at least it hasn't gone up.

Tomorrow I get paid and the budgeting starts in earnest. I am going to separate cash for:
Shopping / Petrol - £320
Personal - £120
Other - whatever is left over

I've also stuck to doing my spreadsheet for a whole month!!! So I will definitely keep that up next month.

I've also discovered that HSBC are NOT reducing my overdraft! They said they would be reducing it by £120 per month inline with my payments, but the overdraft limit is still the same as it was on 1st November when I made my agreement with them! Still - at least the balance will be paid off soon, about six months earlier than I planned.

First Post Office account statement came today - that was quick!

Verbatim

Great! It all seems to be going well. All power to your elbow IgF

Intergalactic_Floozie

Have been a nerd and have analysed my spreadsheet for last month! Am a bit shocked to be honest.

£497.53 in supermarkets - Some of this is shopping with cash back but I don’t know how much. Also some of it is Christmas, I remember going to Tesco and buying some last minute Christmas presents so it’s not all food but I do spend too much money on food anyway.

£260 cash withdrawals (although it probably would have been more if I hadn’t got cash back from supermarkets) and a lot of this was to put in birthday and Xmas cards.

£261.37 “other” which includes £30 lent to DH cos he ran out of money!!!! Other items are Xmas Dinner at school / Clothes for me / a PSP Game for DS1 for Xmas / some clothes for DS2 / Some trainers for DH (Xmas present) / Xmas presents from Primark / a McDonalds for me & DS2 / £10 to Littlewoods Pools / Christmas cards for next year in the sale at Woolworths / Cheque for £30 for my friends 2 x kids at Xmas, and 1 x Birthday / a bra for me / new school uniform for DS2 / a Book DS1 is having a poem published in (which seems to me an excuse to get the parents to cough up) / Trainers for DS1 / A memory stick for DS1 – see, the little blighters are bankrupting me!!!!

Targets for next month: Reduce spends on shopping // Keep a spending diary


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15/01/09 - Cash withdrawn £60

£20 for myself, and £40 for "other" - the other money has gone in a drawer at home so I am not tempted to spend it. I hate handing over money so if I try and keep my debit card at home as much as possible that should combat a lot of the impulse purchases I make in shops.

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Groceries:
£2.99 - M&S
£32.56 - Farmfoods
£ 3.49 Co-Op
£39.04 (still have to go to Morrisons)

Personal Spends:
£6.95 - Slimming world (class fee / book / raffle ticket)

Other:
£2.00 in a collection at work

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Didn't get any post today offering me 0% balance transfer, but I paid another £120 off my overdraft (balance now £393) and paid £30 off my Additions (£60 left to pay).

Bad news that overtime has been knocked on the head for the foreseeable future but it's not surprising in this economic climate and I am just glad I have a job.

natsplatnat

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

Bad news that overtime has been knocked on the head for the foreseeable future but it's not surprising in this economic climate and I am just glad I have a job.

You and me both... I used to get 2 Saturdays a month in overtime (worth £60 gross each) ... now nothing except the 1 I am doing tomorrow.

Can I ask what job you have?

Good luck with the budgeting!!! Nats x

Intergalactic_Floozie

*sigh*

I had a letter from MBNA saying they needed some more information before they could make a decision, so I rang them today and they've knocked me back. I can see why, but I am still disappointed. Oh well, onwards trying to pay the existing debt down. At least with the credit cards that I have outstanding the minimum payment does more than cover the interest added and a bit off the balance too. I guess I had better not apply for any more credit cards as it looks like my rating has taken a battering.

So - first week at a proper budget and I have come under (just) in all three areas although shopping/petrol will still need to be kept under control.

Shopping / Petrol
Budgeted: £77.19
Actual:£73.11
Underspent: £4.08

This could have been better. I didn't actually need any petrol this week so this is all food shopping, however, I must admit I have loads left in the fridge so if I do some proper meal planning I should get away with bare minimum this week. I also had to buy washing powder and washing up liquid so it's not all food. I went to the Farm Shop for fruit and veg that will last (yes Mr Morrisons, I am looking at you!), I went to Farmfoods for cheap frozen stuff, and Morrisons for everything else, I thought I had done quite well til I added it all up!

Personal Spending:
Budgeted: £20:00
Actual: £19.00
+ winnings: £4.10
Underspent: £5.10

My money went on: Slimming world (subs / raffle / book), Saturday's newspapers, a couple of bets (£5.60 spent on bets), my usual two magazines that I can't live without, my lottery entry at work, a chocolate bar and a stamp. I like to have a flutter at the weekend and I only lost 50p.

Other:
Budgeted: £45
Actual: £44.94
Underspent: £0.06

This was quite an expensive week and was mostly spent on the kids! There was a collection at work for a 40th birthday (£2), £2 for a theme day at DS2 school, DS1 goes to two lots of footie practice (£8), I also made him get his hair cut as it looked like he was wearing a hair helmet (£6), he went to play snooker with his friends (£2), I owed him £10 that he'd got for Christmas off someone, which I promptly put in my purse and spent (hoping he'd forget lol) and then £14.94 on a present and card for my friends little girl. I wouldn't normally spend that much on a present but I really wanted to get her some roller skates and went to a local toyshop, and the manager asked if he could help me, so I asked for roller skates so he took me to some and hovered....and then I felt tight walking off, and thought should support local retailers etc so bought them....

The interest on my HSBC current account has been added for this month and is a piddling little £7.83! I remember when I started back in November and the interest was £23.....Balance of HSBC account now is - 358.33 so not long before that will be paid off. My balance on 21st December was - 685.09 so I have paid off £326.76 in a month!

HSBC credit card balance is now £926.77. This time last month it was £950.53 so that's reduced by £23.76

Just waiting for all the other statements to start rolling in yet.

Intergalactic_Floozie

I've just done an updated snowball calculator for the credit cards / catalogue / overdraft / British Gas and if I carry on paying £387 per month I can be debt free in 26 months. If I prove to myself that I can carry on surviving on the budget (as above) there's no reason why I cant carry on doing it...1 week down, 106 to go!!

natsplatnat

Well done Floozie!!:T

I am with you on the interest on HSBC OD. This month I am paying £7.28. Previously this would have been more.... and extra charges as well! (I cannot believe I paid those charges for sooo long!) I cannot wait until the end of Feb when interest on my OD will be £0-00!!!!

Intergalactic_Floozie

How much have you still got outstanding on your overdraft Nat? We must have pretty much the same amount then?

I've adjusted my Quidco settings to pay out this month so at the end of January I will probably have an extra £25 to pay off of it.

I had no post today, I was almost disappointed that there was no credit card statement for me to pay!

I'm christening this my "Austere Year", I turned down a work's night out today (would have been nearly £13 + drinks for the meal) because I didn't want to break my budget! They were all feeling sorry for me but I want to build up my "other" fund before I start wasting it on nights out.

natsplatnat

Hi Floozie!!

My OD kinda goes up and down in weekly waves but when I get paid tomorrow it should reach a high of -£240ish and theis week shouldn't have gone much below -£600 (or so!) I am hoping to be at £0 permanently by the end of Feb. Then I am going to stick money aside until August when my CC 0% ends. Then depending on whether there is another 0% deal to be had or not the money will either go to loan or CC - Well, thats my plan!!

Intergalactic_Floozie

DH got paid today £11.78 more than I budgeted for, so I have transferred that over to the HSBC Overdraft which now stands at £346.55 with £7.83 interest still to be added (£354.38).

I also found £3.25 in the toilets at work today. I am wracked with guilt about pocketing it though and did think about putting a notice on the e-board asking if anyone had lost a small amount of money to come and see me....I didn't though because and I really am torn in two about it. It's such a small amount but I keep thinking if it had been me who had popped it on the toilet cistern while I 'did my business' and then remembered where I'd left it and came back to find it only to find some thieving git had pocketed it, I'd have been really mad. However the other half of me justifies it by saying I was in the cubicle for a long time, and no one came into the toilets at all during the time I was in there, so it's not like they'd realised it was missing straightaway....anyway I have pocketed it for the time being. If any one wants to come and assuage my guilt, feel free.

However some bad news in that DH had an accident in his car today. Thankfully no one was hurt or killed and it wasn't that serious and our car is still driveable (but will need repairing, a new bumper and side panel by look of it). We can't fathom out who is at fault for the accident (him for overtaking, or the other party for deciding to randomly do a u-turn without indicating) so it's having to go through the insurance, and I hate insurance companies with a passion and can see a rocky few weeks ahead of me.