DFSD's five year plan... and all it brings along the way

debtfreesomeday

This afternoon I have been trying (not for the first time either!) to estimate how much money we will have and what we will be entitled to when I go back to work after 9 months maternity leave.

I have used various budgeting/tax credit/benefit calculators and all are giving me varying answers which doesn't help at all. Why can't these things be simple?!
I have a sneaky suspicion that we won't be entitled to tax credits and very little in Child tax credits as our normal full time salaries for the previous year (ie. this year) would be around £43K combined. I am desperately hoping to go back to work part time as the thought of putting our 8 month old baby into full time nursery upsets me greatly, but I just don't know if we can afford part time wages combined with the cost of childcare. I have been trying to find out more about the Childcare voucher scheme our employer offers, but again, we won't be a lot better off in the long run. I know I shouldn't be worrying about it yet, but I am.

So tonight, hubby and I have had a good old chat about the financial plan for the next few years until the debts are paid off and we've vowed to be as positive as we can about it. We won't have a lot of money, but we shall cope. We also realise we are in a much better position than many others too.
We started off tonight's positive money saving with making a yummy cous cous salad for our lunch tomorrow!

I've managed to get two loads of washing done tonight as it's a lovely evening, hopefully it will all dry outside without the need to use the tumble dryer.
I also got back into the competition entering today and entered lots from the comps board. I did quite well when I was doing it regularly, so it doesn't hurt to try again.

Hubby's Christmas present was also delivered this evening so I need to wrap that and hide it whilst he's out. I also have another for my Mum which I can wrap whilst I'm at it. I have finished Christmas shopping for hubby now and most of the friends we buy for, it's just immediate family that I need to concentrate on now to spread the pennies.

DFSD

wantabetterlife

Well done on the Positive Mental Attitude DFSD . I am 30 weeks pregnant with our third child and am also dreading the childcare expenses and the prospect of still having to work full time :mad:.
As regards the tax credits you will get a small amount until the start of april- think its around £70 a month for a child under 1, but in april the threshold for tax credits is lowering and with a combined income of 43k,like us, i dont imagine you will qualify.
I dont personally use the childcare vouchers but for every £100 you pay in childcare it actually only costs you £80 (roughly) as you dont pay tax on the deduction and it comes straight out of your wages. So its a saving of £20 per week for 52 weeks which is roughly 1k over the year. As far as i know both parents can get childcare vouchers, depending on their employers so you could possibly save more. Hope that helps.
I also found that except for childcare, babies arent expensive, unless of course you want to dress them in designer clothes..,which i doubt...lol. At least you have the nursery all ready and all the main things have been bought, which of course you can use for any further babies. Glad the scan went well, take care. Xo

Chocforever

Oh, 20 week scan, so half way - how exciting . I am delighted that everything is going smoothly.

I hope you can sort out some part time work to make life easier and see more of your child. It is also easier to save money if you have more time and, of course, it is lovely to have the freedom of extra time. I'm afraid I know nothing about child tax credits and vouchers; why are these things so complicated?

My parents gave me a thousand pounds yesterday as some savings of theirs had matured, which was very nice of them. This could make the difference to me reaching my target so it has spurred me on a bit. Still only one bid on my ebay things, but quite a few watchers so fingers crossed a few more will go. The lady that bought the clothes I sold last week was pleased with them, so that all went smoothly and got me £35 for two things I had no hope of ever getting into again!

Have a lovely weekend DFSD and enjoy the wedding.

debtfreesomeday

That's lovely of your parents Chocs, and pleased to hear its spurred you on a little too. I'm sure you'll more than reach your savings target with money to spare.

debtfreesomeday

We had another lovely weekend and managed not to spend any more than we had already put aside which is a huge positive at the moment considering the state of the bank account. :eek: I'm glad we get paid in a couple of days as we're overdrawn by quite a lot. I want to get our budget plan in action so that we're not overdrawn next month. I also need to pay some money off of the credit card when payday arrives, as well as stashing £500 into the maternity leave savings.

I'm a bit worried about my job at the moment. All is not well there and there could be staff cuts in the not too distant future. I really dont know what we'd do if I lost my job, I'm unlikely to get another in this are that pays as much as I currently earn. I guess all we can do is sit and wait.

Tonight I have been trying to think of other ways to make some more money. I don't think we have anything suitable left for ebay and I have mostly exhausted the music magpie route. I stopped doing the scratchcards a while ago as it was too much effort for pennies and took forever to pay out. I have done a few more surveys lately but nothing worthwhile - I'm really stumped as to what else I can do.

Talking of surveys, I chased up one reward voucher today that I ordered at the end of August. I'm also only 45 points away from another £10 voucher which hopefully won't take long to gain. I'll be using those vouchers towards a Christmas present - a free £20 will definitely come in handy!

debtfreesomeday

I planned on updating again last night but I managed to break the power cord to our router, so now have no internet access at home! :mad: I'll buy a new one at the weekend, hopefully it won't be too costly.

So, with no internet last night, and feeling a bit annoyed with myself, I forced myself to be productive. I sorted out lots of paperwork and shredded a bag full for recycling, leaving our documents in a better state of order. Shredding another loan agreement (the sofas) was liberating! Just two more (the big ones ) to go and then our 'loans' section of the box file will be cleared - apart from my student loan which I doubt I'll ever earn enough to have to repay. The day that section of the file is empty will be a GREAT day!

I also worked out the budget for next month, taking into account the ridiculous overdraft we have (£225 :eek:) and working in cut backs to try and repay that. I have about £100 left once everything has been paid - I'll try and get a couple more Christmas gifts with this and the rest is usually used for 'incidentals' which crop up during the month. We are going to try withdrawing cash for the month's groceries again and only buying with cash, as that has worked well for us in the past.

Petrol also needs to be conserved - I was planning on visiting a town about a half hour drive away at the weekend but have decided against it. I don't really need to go, I'd rather save the money.

We don't need to buy much else for the baby now, our families have been very generous and my folks have been buying 'supplies' nearly every week! I don't know what we'd do without them. We need a mattress for the crib and a few other bits of clothes, but that will only be about £30 max and we have months left yet, the spending can wait.

In 4 weeks we can claim the £190 HIP grant which will either be put into savings or used to pay off the credit card/overdraft if it's still there. I know it's meant to be for healthy eating in pregnancy but I do that (more or less!) anyway and don't need £190 worth of fruit & veg! :eek:

Last night I also sorted through all of my loose recipes as I have loads that have been given to me / cut out of magazines over the years. I found some really nice ones for Christmas gift ideas, so will be utilising those nearer the time. I love baking and find it very relaxing, plus who doesn't love receiving a home-baked gift, beautifully packaged?

I cooked extra food last night to cater for hubby's lunch today. He's gone off to work very happy, with a roast chicken dinner for his lunch! I've got some homemade carrot soup which my lovely Mum made me in batches - I'm running low of it actually, so may make some more at the weekend to freeze in portions for packed lunches.

I also tried to find a few things to ebay last night, albeit unsuccessfully. I did find a few bits for the charity shop though - a few baby bits which have been passed on to us that we won't use/have multiples of - a moses basket, changing mat and electric bottle warmer(?!). I'm not bothering with a moses basket as we have a crib for night time for the first few months and the baby can nap in the pram carrycot downstairs during the day. We already have a changing mat and I really can't be faffing around with electric bottle warmers - it has no timer on it so you have to remember to remove the bottle after an allocated number of minutes - I can see all sorts of disasters occurring with that! (Hopefully I'll be able to breastfeed anyway = healthiest and cheapest option!). Anyway, someone may be glad of a bargain in the charity shop, so I'll drop those down at the weekend.

Best get back to work...

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

Thanks to Chocs recommending some sites, I've registered with a few MS companies and have been allocated two jobs already. One I've declined as it's a bit too far to travel, but the other is local to us and won't take long. That will earn us £7 - it's a start! The other one was £11, but probably would've cost £5 in petrol and would be a bit inconvenient, so wasn't really worth it.

Thanks for the heads-up Chocs, you're a star!

Chocforever

No problem - I hope it goes well. I imagine the October jobs will start appearing soon so you can try a few out and see which suit you. I am no expert, but after a year or so of MSing, I have found the jobs I like doing best and I am mainly sticking to those for an easy life. As you say, some are more hassle than they are worth and I think my stress levels went down after I stopped working for a certain agency whose poor questionnaires drove me mad. It will be interesting to see how many I do when my challenge is over. I quite like the whole game of getting jobs and I love shopping so suspect I will keep up a few of my favourites.

I should go to the gym tonight. I have been good at going swimming and to exercise classes, but I am supposed to make it into the proper gym bit at least once a week to do more specific exercises. It will only take an hour and yet, as you can no doubt tell, I don't want to go and I'm not really sure why. Probably just thinking about it too much and it will be fine when I am there.

Your signature is looking good - you must be proud of how far you have come.

Chocforever

I had a nice surprise tonight - a you've sold an item on Amazon email. I didn't realise I still had anything on there.

And then there was the panic that maybe I had got rid of the item!

But now found and wrapped - hurray! I wish I had more things to sell on Amazon; it is so much easier than Ebay.

I am about £100 short this month. I have 3 items on Ebay which end on Sunday. None have bids, but one has lots of watchers so should sell. We'll have to see on the others. I might go hunting for some more things to list this weekend. I have also accepted a few MSs. A bit of a distance away but they are paying for my petrol to get the jobs done this weekend so that's OK.

It should be a nice weekend. I have a couple of concerts to go to, a meal out, catching up with friends, my MSs and I could do with getting some work done for the charity. Have you got a weekend at home?

debtfreesomeday

Your weekend sounds lovely Chocs, enjoy! Yes, we have a weekend at home for the first time in ages, I'm actually quite looking forward to it. We have plans for a daytrip on Sunday, with friends, which should be lovely; Saturday will be a nice 'catch up on things and chill out' day for me.

Well done on the Amazon sale too, it's really exciting getting those emails! We don't have anything left on there now as I took the rest to the charity shop, but it was good while it lasted!