Handbags & Gladrags – Confessions of a Recovering Spendaholic

savingholmes

I need to make my OH a decent tea too - as he is cycling home 15 miles!!!!

Swinstie73

Hi peeps (and new peeps), it's good knowing it's not just regulars I'm boring senseless with my random ramblings, ha!

Will be posting a semi-mega post tonight (will write it in Word in case of disasters), or tomorrow cos rather busy today! I have a PLAN, couldn't sleep last nite trying to get it right in my head.

I love the start of the month!

Sun_Addict

Hi Swinstie

You sound just like me - I think of all my best plans in the middle of the night then can't get back to sleep. My last brilliant idea was to clear my debt by Christmas and I'm actually putting it into place for once! I was trying to calculate today how I could clear it by the first week of December to tie in with this 12 week challenge thing I'm on but I think it would be too much to do in too little time - but you never know. Look forward to seeing your plan!

savingholmes

we'll look forward to reading your latest instalment then!

Swinstie73

Had a bit of a sleepless night last night trying to come up with a more ‘organised’ plan for my finances. I usually refer to myself as Organised in a Dis-organised Way! I’m like that at work too, but I always get the job done (eventually)! :rolleyes:

I love when it’s the beginning of the month, cos not only do most of my direct debits come out and I can update my signature (was early this month as was too excited), but also it feels great to be at the start IYSWIM.

So the plan is as follows:

3-Monthly Plan – Part 1: Oct til Dec 2009
From today until the end of the year I am giving myself 3 Challenges. I currently do the 100 Day Challenge (run by Magni) where I vowed not to buy toiletries or clothes. I am going to continue this, as it’s great posting when something is used, or confessing when bought something, BUT I am going to do Swinstie’s Mini-Challenges til the end of the year as follows:

1) I am going to use up as many toiletries as possible without buying anything. My only exception is toothpaste, as I seem to run out of this quite often (or anything I truly run out of). In the middle of updating my huuuuuggggeeee list! This challenge will probably run through all of next year too!

2) Lose 9lbs by the end of the year. I was at 142lbs when I weighed myself a few weeks ago (probably still the same); think 3lbs a month is more than manageable. I’m happy at 9 and a half stone so that is my aim!

3) Not to buy ANY clothes, unless it is on my Need List (still to write that up). I will be making one purchase in November (using birthday money), as every year I put it towards a credit card and I think I deserve to buy something with it – hope you agree!

As far as Christmas is concerned, I have £230 saved (aiming for £350) and have only bought one present so far! The £30 from December salary will be my last spend and will get any choccies required then, if I get them earlier, I will eat them!

3-Monthly Plan – Part 2: Ongoing til Dec 2010
Working in 3’s again, I plan to reduce my debt from £8500 to £7000, therefore paying off £1500 (£500 per month). You can see the pattern forming, must have had a dream about the No. 3, weird. In the New Year, I’m going to work on equal monthly payments of £650 per month, reviewing it quarterly. This amounts to £7800 over 12 months, as although my debt will be at £7000, I’m under no illusion that over the year I will probably add to it, through either frivolous spending or necessity spending and/or interest/things I’ve forgotten etc. I’m hoping it is NOT frivolous spending, ha! So I am giving myself £800 as a contingency plan.

3-Monthly Plan – Part 3: Ongoing
I haven’t been on the Flylady Thread since before the holidays, and really need to get started again cos I’m sick of living in a hovel, one minute the house is tidy the next it looks like a hurricane has went through it. So another challenge is to have the house gutted, all repairs done, clothes boxed for charity etc., before the Christmas tree is put up! The place is so cluttered; I don’t even think I’ve got room for a Christmas tree! Could be a miniature one for me this year, ha!

I’m going to continue this in the New Year, working 3 months at a time. Hoping to do 3 new challenges each quarter but with the toiletries (and you know how much I have), this will probably run from now until at least December 2010, and I’m not joking!

The Finance Challenge is a given, so only really need to think of 2 other challenges (or 1 as I’ll no doubt continue with the toiletry one). I’ve not thought through any other challenges – ideas anyone?!? Maybe things like for 3 months, I MUST go to the gym 2 – 3 times per week, unless I am ill, dead, in jail, or all three! ROTFL

Or I MUST take lunch to work everyday. I have managed it the last 3 weeks, so surely I can continue.

Sorry for the ramblings peeps, but it’s good to get it down on paper as my head was buzzing last night.

One last thing (and this is what started it all off), my car insurance is due this month, AA membership in November and MOT in December, so I have budgeted £450 for all 3 (being optimistic my car will sail through said MOT). I currently give my sister £10 a month (since April, I think) for MOT, so by the time it is due I will have £90 towards it, meaning I need £120 per month to cover everything else. It’s the annual payments I sort of over-looked when doing my budget before so I am going to add them in for next year.

So that will be:

Road Tax (I also give £10 to sis) – due March (approx £120)
House Insurance – due July (approx £150)
Car Insurance – due October (approx £240)
AA – due November (approx £70)
MOT – due December (approx £50 + any work required)
Bin Cleaning (£30 yearly, can’t remember when due)
Window Cleaning – (£32.50 yearly – paid every 4 weeks)

Will budget £780 annually (£65/month) but will be running it as and when i.e. car insurance Oct – Sept.

This all made sense in my head last night; don’t know if it sounds practical now it’s written down. Will plug the figures into my budget and if I come back later to edit, you’ll know it’s all gone wrong, :eek: Going to re-post my SOA too. Wish me luck, think I’m gonna need it.

Swinstie73

Ok, SOA updated, just realised the annual payments will probably come out of the £800 contingency money, as they usually would be paid on credit card, to avoid fees for paying monthly, so it’s not working the way I imagined, argh! Why are finances so flipping complicated?

Monthly Spend:
£195.00 Mortgage - £275 at the highest
£145.56 Personal Loan (used for car) – still has 30 payments to make but savings will pay it 18 months early
£75.00 Council Tax/Rates
£65.00 Gas/Electricity
£60.00 House Phone/Line Rental/TV
£12.00 TV Licence
£21.50 Gym (go to 3 classes a week so getting so saving loads)
£250.00 Savings to pay loan/Holiday etc.
£120.00 Food
£80.00 Petrol
£20.00 Clothes/Catalogue
£10.00 Hair/Toiletries
£10.00 Mobile Top Up
£10.00 Road Tax
£10.00 Car Maintenance/MOT
£100.00 Entertainment
£30.00 Odds & Sods/Xmas/Birthdays
£350.00 Credit Card Payments
£1564.06

Annual Payments:
£150.00 House Insurance (approx)
£240.00 Car Insurance (approx)
£80.00 Bins/Windows/Misc
£70.00 AA
£540.00 / 12 = £45

Grand Total: £1609.06

Take Home Pay: £1450.00

I have a deficit of around -£160 each month but have/had a part-time casual job which can earn approx £50 - £100 per month (just need to call them again). Some of these figures are approx. as I could spend more or less on stuff like food/petrol etc. I also get approx £900 a year (paid quarterly) for Disturbance Payment.

Debt at 1/10/09
£8,500

Think I should go to sleep now and forget the dreams of being debt free

Swinstie73

Me, again!

Worked through budget and realised that thought was spending £150 a month on food just because spent that 2 months out of 9! Have re-calculated and it's more like £110 per month on average, so have rounded up to £120. Most figures are rounded up, could be more or less depending on the month. For instance have had 3 NSD's the last 3 days and been taking lunch to work, eating in, baking etc., so the plan could still work. Also phoned part-time job place to let them know back from hols, hoping for some work soon.

Ok, gonna finish updating budget and have a cuppa with the tv. Nite all x

Kerfuffle

Hi Swinstie,

What can I say? Wow!! You've been doing some major planning. It all looks totally brilliant, you've highlighted my deficiencies regards to my own planning, lol.

Good luck with the new plans, the 3-monthly timescales is a good idea as then you only need to focus on the shorter goals, then before you know it you'll be focusing on the next shorter goal. Good plan.

urg123

Okay missus - I need to ask you something: What's the point of making payments towards savings if your budget is in deficit?

You need your SOA to break even - any extra money you make through your PT job can be overpayments.

I hope I haven't missed anything!

urg x x

laura2481

Hi Swinstie- that's some good planning there...
Don't forget with all your bath stuff etc that any 'good' stuff could be ebayed and net you some extra spends if you think you might not use it.

Like you thinking re the no3- reminds me of the series 'Charmed' and the 'power of three'