Trying to get back in front

dottyanne

Hi, I wonder if anyone else has the same problems as me?

At the moment (as it always seems the case) I am struggling to keep up payments on thisgs and then find myself playing catch up all month, I dont mind this to a certain extent as i now have learned (the hard way!) :eek: the REAL value of money (look after the pennies etc...).

However my real dilemma is that for the past 3-4 months (i dont really know why) i never have enough at the end of the month to pay my DD's i.e. Mortgage etc - this is causing me real worries.........

Any advice would be really appreciated - i will try anything??

illmonkey

This might not be a great help, but i setup all of my DD's for the day after i get paid, so as soon as i get the money, its back out the door.

This way i know what i have left. Unfortuantly i havnt got ALL of my DD's for the correct day, and it throws me off somewhat.

dottyanne

samgoffe wrote:

This might not be a great help, but i setup all of my DD's for the day after i get paid, so as soon as i get the money, its back out the door.

This way i know what i have left. Unfortuantly i havnt got ALL of my DD's for the correct day, and it throws me off somewhat.

Hi thanks for the advice, this WAS the case when both me n hubby were employed and there was never any problem, now both self-employed so no monthly wage paid in - i do get set weekly amounts but as I said, if I had no other DEBTS!!! (yuk :eek: ) i should be fine. My problems is that i am in arrears on some things (bith personal and business) so am always paying stuff off through the month - really need to at least cover my mortgage payment as this has been late for the last 3 times..

GOAL for April - make mortgage payment and all other DD payments ON TIME for a change!!

skintchick

Dottyanne - you MUST make the mortgage your absolute priority, otherwise oyu could lose your home.

Can you add up what all your must-pay bills are, then deduct that from what comes in, so you know what's left, then work from THAT figure for the rest of your spending?

I mean, say your essential bills (mortgage, gas, leccy, water, council tax) are 500 and you get 1,000, then you have 500 to play with, and only 500. So you don;t even think about the bills money because it's allocated already.

If you have paid your mortgage late three times then you might already be possibly in trouble, so you must make it your priority.

D&DD

Hi Dotty we went through a really bad patch last year when the same thing happened I altered the dates of some of our DD's and it seems to have sorted out the problem..so far..(crossing fingers and touching wood )
I thought in my wisdom it would be easier for everything to go out at the same time...how wrong was I..As hubby gets paid weekly at the beginning of the month when all the dd's went out there was never enough money so we always went over the overdraft limit.I phoned a few people changed the dates around and this month thanks mainly to ebay we now for the first time since we got married have no overdraft even!Might be worth a try??
Also can you change your mortgage DD to the account where you get your tax credits paid into so its always there?I found I had to have two accounts one for our money and one for the DD's to help me get straighter..

dottyanne

skintchick wrote:

Dottyanne - you MUST make the mortgage your absolute priority, otherwise oyu could lose your home.

Can you add up what all your must-pay bills are, then deduct that from what comes in, so you know what's left, then work from THAT figure for the rest of your spending?

I mean, say your essential bills (mortgage, gas, leccy, water, council tax) are 500 and you get 1,000, then you have 500 to play with, and only 500. So you don;t even think about the bills money because it's allocated already.

If you have paid your mortgage late three times then you might already be possibly in trouble, so you must make it your priority.

Thats what im really worried about - need to find £600 by Friday !!! :eek:

D&DD

Re the overdraft thing Fortunately this month we have an extra weeks pay(5 payday month) plus I found time to list a pile of my fabrics on ebay (I've been selling on there for years and have quite a good band of regulars ) I also flogged anything that was literally not nailed down :rotfl: You really would be surprised what people need..definately give it a shot Dotty.I normally list for 7 days but tried some 3 day listings and they flew so will be doing that again this month (april) with a new target..
Have you much food in the house?? I know its a weird question but when we have really 'skint' weeks I just make do with what I have in store..which owing to the way my mum brought me up is usually half of Tescos!!!!
On the old style board you can tell them what you have in and they will literally plan a weeks meals with it! They are fantastic :T

dottyanne

D&DD wrote:

Re the overdraft thing Fortunately this month we have an extra weeks pay(5 payday month) plus I found time to list a pile of my fabrics on ebay (I've been selling on there for years and have quite a good band of regulars ) I also flogged anything that was literally not nailed down :rotfl: You really would be surprised what people need..definately give it a shot Dotty.I normally list for 7 days but tried some 3 day listings and they flew so will be doing that again this month (april) with a new target..
Have you much food in the house?? I know its a weird question but when we have really 'skint' weeks I just make do with what I have in store..which owing to the way my mum brought me up is usually half of Tescos!!!!
On the old style board you can tell them what you have in and they will literally plan a weeks meals with it! They are fantastic :T

:A D&DD youre my angel - you always sound so positive - i really am determined and think i could succeed if only i was up to date at the moment. some things are really behind and ive got red letters for oodles of things too!! how do i get on top of this situation...........??

climbgirl

skintchick is right - you need to work out exactly what your 'must-pay' bills are and pay them first. Mortgage, utilities, etc. Then you work with whatever's leftover for food, entertainment etc.

It strikes me from reading your post that you don't really have a handle on your bills and how much they are going to be every month. You need to sort out a budget and account for everything, that way there are no 'surprises' when the car insurance bill comes in, for instance.

Once you know what you need to pay each month/year, you can start making sure you have enough to cover it. Divide your annual bills by 12 and put aside the money for them each month so it doesn't hit as hard when they do come in.

dottyanne

Thanks for that - i know if everything was up to date i could make a start on this - but what do i do about the things that im well behind on??

skintchick

What exactly is the situation?

How much money do you have right now?

When is payday?

Apart from the £600 for the mortgage, what else do you need to pay for before payday?

Let's try and get you sorted