fendi-bag-lady sorts out her life (hopefully!!)

fendi-bag-lady

My wee car had its MOT today...£165 :mad: I only budgetted £150. Didn't manage to get to the post office today so will need to do that tomorrow. Still haven't got birthday present for my freind and I'm supposed to be seeing her tomorrow night so will need to go to the shops in the morning.

Did 1 hour overtime at work today (£6), sold a book on Ebay (£3.45) and 20p on scratchcard!! Also got £5 in both of my Halifax Reward accounts so thats also been added to my £1250 challenge plus £1.35 I got in my account from Quidco. Also got another 12 items finishing on ebay tomorrow and doing more overtime!!

xx

fendi-bag-lady

Sold most of the items on Ebay today and made £41.72. Also did more overtime at work (£27) and made 10p on bingo!! Too tired to write anymore but I'll back tomorrow with an update on whats been going on

xx

fendi-bag-lady

Did another 6 hours overtime at work today (£36) and got 10p on scratchcard. Doing more overtime tomorrow but finish early so I've got a list made of things I'm going to do as I feel I am letting the moneysaving slip a bit as I've had so many other things on at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting than the last few days!!

xx

Lemon_Tree

you're doing really well with all the overtime, hope you don't tire yourself out. It's going to be helping the debt free plans though.

fendi-bag-lady

Hi everyone :hello: I completely fell off the wagon a few months ago but I've got myself together again so hopefully I'll be back posting on here on a regular basis. Some things have changed since I last posted so I'll briefly try and give an update.

I'm still at college at the moment and have been awarded a student loan of £418 every month. However I have been advised I need to pay for my fees this year (£1,400) as I have done this level of course before and therefore have had my tution fees paid. I haven't, I applied twice previously but never actually began the course so no fees have been paid. I'm currently trying to sort this out but it is taking forever. So I am saving at least £200 of this every month in case the worst comes to the worst and I do have to pay the fees.
I am also working part time (19 hours) a week at a job I hate but I get paid more than I would get elsewhere but I'm on the lookout for a new job however I am becoming more and more tempted to take a paycut as I'm not very happy where I am. Without overtime etc I probably take home about £600.

Another thing that has changed is that I have consolidated all my debt by taking out a new personal loan. This is the only debt I have now (other than the student loan) and managed to get a great interest rate (6.4%). I know consolidation isn't right for everyone but I do feel that I have done the right thing. I pay £253.09 every month over 6 years and the total is £18,222.48 (including interest). I'm not able to make overpayments on this so will throw all spare cash into a savings account and then make a large one off payment at the end to pay it off.

I'll post an up to date SOA so we can see where I'm at.

L x

fendi-bag-lady

Here is the SOA:

Income
Wages: £600
Student Loan: £418

Outgoings
Loan - £255
Tution Fees - £200
Rent - £105
Mobile - £35*
Car Insurance - £20
Loan Insurance - £7.10**
Petrol - £80
Bank account fee - £6.25
Food - £60***
Everyday - £200****

* I will check if/when I can reduce this as it is a contract
** I'm thinking about cancelling this as my savings pot will be growing and if I had probs paying I could dip into that??
*** I live at home so get most of my meals provided for me but I'm always picking things up for my mum then can't ask for the money as I'm only paying £100 rent to her every month anyway.
**** This covers everything else clothes, entertainment, toiletries, going out etc etc

The above things don't change every month. Any money I have left over or gain throughout the month then gets split between my savings accounts:
Car (tax, mot etc)
Christmas/Birthdays
Loan Overpayments
Holidays
Emergency pot

If I didnt have sufficent money in one of these accounts (eg repair costs for car, I would try to take the money from my everyday account but as a last resort take money from another savings account)

Feel free to make any comments/suggestions as to how I can improve on this!!

Lx

fendi-bag-lady

Hi,

I've got college all day today then working tonight and taking all food with me so aiming for a NSD!

Set up a standing order yesterday for £25 a week into my regular saver account. I'm not including this when I work out my budget for the month so this is forcing me to find extra cash from somewhere throughout the month as the last few weeks I've not been doing anything extra like ebay etc. First payment came out this morning and I have enough in that account for the next two payments but I'm going to really start paying extra funds to this account so that I can hopefully increase the standing order. This regular saver is also the account I pay my tution fees into and so my main aim is to put as much as possible into this account every month. (Limit is £500 but I don't see that ever happening!!)

Today I'm going to:

• [STRIKE]Check all online bank accounts[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Free scratchcards[/STRIKE] - 10p
• [STRIKE]Check for any surveys[/STRIKE] - nothing :-(
• Update spreadsheet with transfers and any spends I unfortunately incur
• Take lunch & dinner to college & work
• Have a look on the up your income board to see if theres anything else I could be doing!
• Have a NSD!!!

Have a good day everyone!!

Lx

Lemon_Tree

sounds like you're making good plans and positive action. Hope college is going well.

fendi-bag-lady

Hi Lemon Tree, college is going really well, don't have the time for much else though!!

I've been keeping my spreadsheet up to date the last few days (I actually love getting into bed everynight with my spreadsheet and my calculator, is that sad??) it's definately an eye opener!! I spend a lot of my budget on food that's for sure. I'll really need to have a good sit down and see how I can reduce this or maybe pop over to the old style board and see if i can get any tips from there.

Today should hopefully be a nsd. Going to my college placement 12-5 today then straight home so shouldn't be spending any money!!

Have a nice day everyone
Lx

Lemon_Tree

No you're not sad with your spreadsheet and calculator, i sit and look at mine at the very least each night. I was exploring the other boards yesterday in a desparate attempt to find a way to find an extra £250 each month. I'm still looking though.