Champagne Lifestyle Lemonade Budget (My attempts to get debt free by April 2010)

Claw_back_money

Does having OH around mean you are having some nice things happen inside your house for a change?
Two months tomorrow for that holiday (I'm counting down with you - its the nearest I'm going to get for the next few months :j)

Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi beanielou and Cbm

OH has been doing the ironing and cleaning up so at least I don't have anything to do when I get home from work. 8 weeks on Monday until we go on holiday. Thank goodness we paid for it before Christmas, however, still have the spending money to save up! If I hadn't been so rash in booking the August flights before Christmas I wouldn't have been so skint now. Still I'll be glad I did it nearer the time.

I really hope this snow would hurry up and clear off, it's getting to be a real pain now. I can't remember it being this bad for a very long time. It's driving OH mad being at home all the time and not being paid. We won't need that much money to survive on this month but still need him to earn a bit more this month to cover the bare essentials. If the worst comes to the worst there is something to fall back on that I really didn't want to do unless absolutely necessary and that is my Virgin card has offered me a 0% balance transfer until October. If I have to I could always transfer the balance on my Goldfish card (which gets paid off in full every month) for this month and this would give us a bit of breathing space. I added up how much I spent on it that was really unnecessary and it came to a shocking £227.45!! I know this means putting off my DF date yet again but if needs must. We do have a small amount of savings but I'm loathe to let go of them if there's another option. One thing that we really must do this year is start seriously saving as I'm very aware that we don't have a lot to show for all our years at work, apart from the house, and time is ticking on towards retirement and nothing is in place. A chunk of the mortgage gets paid off in May, covered by an endowment that has actually made a profit so we will also get a lump sum of possibly £5k. Then at least our payments will go down but they are very low anyway so it probably won't make that much difference but at least we'll be better off. The remainder of the mortgage finishes in 7 years time but the endowment on this has lost money so this will need to be sorted out at some stage.

Just realised how much I've been rambling!

beanielou

Why dont you just continue to pay the same amount to your mortgage?

Sun_Addict

Thanks beanielou - we're going to see what we can sort out in May when it all happens. Been thinking about changing to repayment mortgage for the last 7 years and keeping the endowment as an investment. It depends how much the repayments will be. Can't believe it's 25 years since we took the first part of the mortgage out! Scary!

I've been thinking about our spending and on the whole we do tend to live slightly beyond our means. What we should do is wait until the end of every month and see what we've got to play around with and then make a budget for the month. As OH is self employed and his income isn't a regular amount it's hard to budget in advance IYSWIM. What we're doing at the moment is spending before we've got the money on the Goldfish Barclaycard and then settling it up at the end of the month. Up until now we've fortunately had enough in the pot to do this but when you get a month like this one it throws everything out of the window. So this year I'll be working towards doing that and aim to be a month ahead of myself as soon as I can. Really need to start saving at least 3 months outgoings as well. As soon as I can get budget sorted properly we should be able to make some savings. The only thing I can really do at the moment is not to put anything else on the Goldfish. Really we should only be using it for stuff like OH's diesel and the online big shop or anything else you can't pay for in cash. For now I'm only buying necessities such as food and staying away from all temptation. To be honest because I now we're short at the moment I have no interest in shopping anyway - hope this lack of interest lasts!

I've joined the 1 debt vs 100 days challenge to get rid of the £299 and the weightloss one as well to get rid of 5lbs I put on over December before my March holiday. Unfortunately I'm unable to walk to work due to the very icy pavements so OH is giving me a lift. However, I'm still running on my treadmill at night and using the Wii Fit but really miss my walking 3 miles to work everyday (could only do it twice this week). I'm still able to go for a walk at lunch break as the pavements in the city centre are mostly clear.

Friday at last! Hope everyone has a great weekend. :beer:

Swinstie73

I suppose it is a bit scary not knowing when the money is coming in, don't worry about the holiday though, you'll probably need it by the time it comes round.

Have a great weekend SA!

Claw_back_money

Getting a month ahead of yourself sounds like quite a big ask, especially at this time of year when OH can't work, and you've got hols coming up. Is there anyway of breaking that down into something more managable?

Having said that, all the money for bills etc comes from our joint account, and that has spent the last 9 years in debit - in fact at the time of our LBM it wasn't going into credit at all, our wages just made it slightly less overdrawn and we were having to put food, diesel etc onto CC for the last week of the month. Our LBM led us to some really harsh decisions about spending (or - not!!) but the OD was the hardest thing to pay off as there is something that is needed for the house/car that is 'essential'. What this rambling post is trying to lead up to is that in December 09 we managed to keep the account in credit, so when the salaries went in at the beginning of this month I could then see where the money would come from for all the bills. I'm not sure this counts as being 'a month ahead' but the feeling is absolutely incredible that the money that is in there is completely ours! Also, that overdrawn account cost us (*refers to geeky spreadsheet* £993.34 in charges since Jan 08, which was a mega incentive too!

Cheers
Cbm

beanielou

Thats fantastic

Sun_Addict

Monday again:(

Had a really lazy weekend lounging about in front of the fire as the weather was so horrible. Dreading getting gas bill as heating has been on 24-7 at the moment. Hate being cold I'm so nesh!

OH has got cabin fever. It's his 4th week off work. He's hoping to be able to do something this week as the snow appears to be thawing. It would be great if he was able to at least earn a bit of something towards the end of month budget. I've had a tot up and we're going to be £300 short of the bare minimum we need for February if he doesn't earn anything this month. This means only paying the minimum payment to the debt and we won't be able to put anything towards the holiday spending money this month. I'll see what's what in a couple of weeks time.

Cbm - re getting a month ahead - it wouldn't mean saving that much up just the stuff we usually bung on the CC like petrol and work stuff that OH bungs on the card. I'm probably looking at a maximum of £500. I'm planning to do this when things pick up in the spring/summer. I'm afraid it's just small steps at the moment. We are already on the first rung of the ladder by not buying anything non-essential and certainly not putting anything on the CC. If we don't have the cash for it then it doesn't get bought.

Pleased to report I've lost 2lbs this week. This is mainly because I'm back at work and back on the treadmill and leaving the Christmas excesses behind. :j Walked to work this morning now the snow is clearing and really enjoyed it. I've missed it the past few days while the pavements have been too slippy. Made a huge batch of root veg and pearl barley soup in the slow cooker yesterday which will last me all week for work lunches (and beyond there is that much of it!). It's more like a stew it's so thick and is really scrummy! Veg stir fry and noodles tonight after I've run 3 miles on the treadmill.

Claw_back_money

Soup sounds scrummy! I sorted through the freezer yesterday and found some odd portions of soup - I had carrot and lentil yesterday and there is some pumpkin for today.

Congrats on the 2lb.

Cheers
Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi Cbm - pity the weight loss is recycled from the weight I lost before Christmas!

Good news is OH should be going back to work tomorrow IF it doesn't snow again tonight as forecast. He has a job to start next week as well so fingers crossed he will be throwing some money in the pot for the end of the month. It all depends on the snow!

Walked to work again this morning, had my soup for lunch and tonight's delight is haddock, sweet potato wedges and veg. Will be doing 30 minutes on the Wii Fit when I get home from work.

It's DD's 23rd birthday today and I'm so glad I bought her prezzies well before Christmas or this would have been another expense. I'm doing really well staying away from all unnecessary shops and resisting temptation. However, as I've only got £10 of personal spending money left to last me until the end of the month then I don't have a lot of choice. There is no way anything is going on the CC! I hope I'll be this strong throughout the year when things pick up. My danger time will be immediately before we go on holiday as that's when I tend to buy all sorts of stuff. I really don't need anything so I have to resist.