Raychee's DFW diary - cutting back to move forwards

Raychee

beanielou wrote: »

Will you be under the 4k point then?

I think I will! :beer:

Raychee

At the end of another week... I have £3.06 to last me till tomorrow evening. Can't think of what I'll spend it on... I'm doing my pub shift tonight AND tomorrow afternoon, so no spending there, and then I'll be able to get my weekly £40 out on Sunday morning to go shopping with.

Did cheat a little yesterday though, by persuading OH to buy the top-up groceries (well, it was HIS friends coming to dinner...) and the loo paper! Even then, adding together the £32 I spent on groceries and the £15 he spent, it's not nearly as much as we used to spend. (Yeah, I know, we used to go a little overboard... :rolleyes: ) Groceries should be pretty cheap next week as OH is away for work Monday to Friday. As much as I miss him, I can manage on less than half of what I normally buy, and I can eat stuff that he doesn't like, so don't normally make. (I can see something with lots of mushrooms in it coming my way... ) However, my car is running on empty, and I know I have a mile-heavy week next week. That'll be £40 then. But my car is pretty economical, and I only fill up twice a month.


Beanielou suggested that I update my signature as I go along. Which yes, I would do, but until I get my backside into gear and change my CC to a 0% interest one, I don't know the ACTUAL balance. When I get my statement, I can see how much I've paid in inter**t (ewww, hate that word!) and what my totals actually are. I have, however paid £110 over what I normally pay on the CC this month, and have another payment planned for next week. :j

Another good thing is that by the end of the month, I will have reached my monthly supply teaching target. I worked out that there were 17 available working days this month, and I need to do 12 days per month to pay off what I want to (anything extra is brilliant!). I have reached 12 days, and still have a day in hand incase anything comes up. It sounds like I don't work much, but some days I only get a half day booking. I also do 6- 12 hours weekend work in the pub, and I do voluntary stuff too. I'm not quite as lazy as I sound...

Sorry, another long and waffly post. When I had to write some stuff for my social worker, he complained that I'd written so much, there was nothing left for him to write! I'll try and keep it shorter next time! lol

lunar

Well done on your progress so far. Im keeping my fingers crossed for your BIL.

How far down the adoption path are you? I had started looking into it last year, before i had my last fertility treatment. im keeping my fingers crossed for you there too. Hopefuly your little addition will join your family soon.

Olderbutnotwiser

Nowt wrong with a bit of waffle, and it's nice to keep up to date.
Well done you:T

Primula

Just read your whole diary so far and it brought a lump to my throat. Fingers, toes and everything crossed for your BIL.
And good luck to you with your money saving/paying off debt and of course adoption. You sound wonderfully focussed so keep up the good work. I will be reading with interest.
P
x

Raychee

lunar wrote: »

How far down the adoption path are you? I had started looking into it last year, before i had my last fertility treatment. im keeping my fingers crossed for you there too. Hopefuly your little addition will join your family soon.

We are in an odd place with the adoption process. We first made enquiries in Summer 2007 and met our social worker in October that year. After doing the initial course, we were told that we needed to wait until Summer 2008, as then I would officially be 5 years cancer-free. However, when OH's brother became ill in spring '08, we chose to postpone until we knew his prognosis. Around September, we decided that we couldn't hold off the process much longer, and really needed to go for it!

Things have been slow - but that's our choice. Our SW would like to take us to panel in April, I would like to hold off until July. They have 8 months from official application to take us to panel. Because of various things, even though we have done alot of the work, our official application went in earlier this month. It's hard work, adopting! So much paperwork, heart-searching, opening up to near strangers (though our SW seems to think we're pretty great! ) and working out where to put all our junk when child arrives! We know the hard work is worth it though.

Raychee

OK - Now for money issues...

Took £45 out for this week - have £4.73 left! :eek:

However, shopping is done for the week, and also for at least 3 meals next week. (Offers on sausages etc) Would have been less, but OH wanted a little beer, we bought some lock boxes for lunches, and a few bits that we only get every few months. I wasn't impressed that we went £13 over budget... and I think OH realised that. But he seems to think that £25 - £30 a week is too low to spend on 2 people's food. (This does included 1 bacon breakfast, and sandwiches for the week.) I think I just have to make sure I do the weekly shop with out him! That way, I won't have this CHILD!!!!!!! wanting to stick extra stuff in the trolley! :rotfl:

When my wage hits my account on Thursday (so long as I remember to post my time-sheets today) I have to be extra careful. I need to pay at least £40 on CC to hit my £300 a month target, I also have £72 teaching union subscription due this month, and all my direct debits come out in the first couple of days of February. However, I think that I can do all that, and still lower my OD by a few pounds! :dance:

Will also update signature when CC statement comes in, which should be in the next week or so. BTW - I realised that my signature doesn't make sense - I'm so bad at doing the maths!

Raychee

Well, my credit card bill came today. I actually opened it willingly, only to find that I hadn't paid off as much as I thought (only £219.45 this month) and that I had forgotten the fuel I bought using it, when I picked up the wrong card as I went out of the door, AND the interest. :mad: I'm so gutted because I thought it would be under the £2000 mark, but I KNOW that it will be under that amount in the next 2 weeks...

Also, my OD is not as low as I'd hoped. However, I do get paid on Thursday for my teaching, and Friday (hopefully) for my pub work. I know that this is going to be a tough week, and don't expect much change to my totals in the next 7 days, so I'm prepared for that. If I can get teaching work for Friday, that will make a BIG difference to me, so I'm going to nag my agency every day between now and then.

On the positive side, I suppose I have paid off £351.33 since I started, and that it wasn't THAT long ago since I decided to go for it... :T I have to stay positive and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, and that debts weren't paid off in a 2 week period!

By the way, I've just done PROPER calculations, and found that I was £250 out on my initial debt. In one way it's good, because I've paid off more than I thought, however, it means that my debt was higher than I originally calculated! ARGGGGHHHHH!

lunar

It can be hard the first couple of months after your LBM as it took me a bit to really work out the balances of my debts and how much interest cost every month. Your making good progress, your overpayments will really make a difference over a couple of months. Are you paying much in interest on the CC and OD? If you are it might be worth seeing if you can transfer to a 0% card. virgin and bt let me do cash transfers to get rid of my loan. Might be worth a look, there is a 3% transfer fee though so check if it is worth it first

Raychee

Thanks Lunar. I know that while I have a large CC and OD debt there will be more paid out in interest (iykwim) and I do need to work out whether it is worth putting it on a 0% CC. I will try to do the sums

I now know how much my teaching wage is this week, and have worked out that I am paying £157.29 in direct debits between Thursday (when I get paid) to the following Thursday. That is my heaviest week of the month, though I know I am paying either the next electricity or gas bill - not sure which yet...

Am happier than I was an hour ago!