****Littlekel's diary - Getting on the right track :-) ****

OrangeFairy

I have decided a diary on here might be the best way to go to log our progress

I can often be found on the 'small things' thread as well as the ebay challenge.

I am 25 and i live with my OH and our two daughters who are 7 and 4. My other half proposed to me at his work do in december so i desperately want to clear debts asap to save for a wedding. He works as an IT manager and i am the Administrator/Accounts for a small company 3 days a week.

Bit of background. I met OH when i was 18. He had LOTS of debt. He was only 22 but had 30k of debt on cc's and loans but had nothing to show for it. He also had a son with a 35 year old who is a little psychotic as ex's go! We became pregnant quite quickly (unplanned!) and so moved in together. Though OH's wage was spent all on debt repayments and £200 CSA a month. He had about £100 left over so i pretty much paid for everything. When our daughter was born i struggled with money and a lot of clothes went on catalogues and then OH really wanted to go to florida with his parents. After it all i ended up with a loan and catalogue debt. The OH went through with an IVA! This changed our life a lot as his payments of £800 a month went to 230 for 5 years. We managed to pay it off a year early and he has now come off the insolvency register. I will add that he is pretty good with money. Good most of the time until it is something he really wants like going on camping trips with his mates. I have changed my loan since to cover one of my credit cards.

So now we are trying our hardest to pay off our debts.

In the last couple of months we have.......

• sold loads on ebay from around the house
• With ebay money we managed to pay off my £525 next account saving us £50 a month.
• Changed DD's swimming to one my mum takes my bro and sis to which means i save £28 a month on bus fares!!!
• OH managed to get a 0% for 9 months credit card and transfered my balance to his. Now rather than pay £100 a month to it and half paying off interest the whole amount will come off the balance,
• I am sorting out paying duel fuel by DD. We never used to budget for this so was always a lump sum we had to find when we got the bill. (need to do the same for water)
• Planning to start collecting post office saving stamps towards car tax. Then it can't be spent if we needed it
• Doing the grocery challenge and trying to eat more economically
• cut down on price of birthday cards i buy from arounf £2 each to about 50p! Also buying cheaper paper rather than the £1 a sheet i used to get
• I have applied for a second job at Mr Ts. Only for 3 hours a week contracted but have a chance for overtime to make exra money. In my job in accounts i don't really have chance for overtime!

I will do a SOA when we hear back about our tax credits. OH has been dropped to 4 days at work losing us £200 a month :eek: So waiting to report this to tax credits and keep my fingers crossed we get a bit extra to cover the drop. My wage has been put up by the £50 i lost in a pay drop since sept. So only £150 to cover really.
But then CSA have got back in touch to say we should be paying £120 a month. When our second DD was born they stopped CSA saying we werent earning enough. It is going to be staggered so we pay £5 a week this year, £10 a week next year and so on until we reached £28 a week. I do believe child support should be paid. But am a little miffed that he is allowed to have financial responsibility but not any other kind. He doesnt have proper access....he sees his son twice a week at his sons house for 2.5 hours! He is not allowed to leave the house and his Ex is downstairs. His son has never met his half sisters either. Not ideal. The whole system should be a bit more fair.

Right that is me for a minute

Got to try and sort out payal today. Trying to raise the remaining £100 - ish to pay off my eon account before i set up DD's for the rest of the year!

Off to a free easter afternoon at a local church with the kids. Free lunch , cooking and crafts. Sounds good to me!!!

Kel xxx

josiebabie

Hi Kel, just popping to to say hi, will subscribe!! Happy easter.

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi, some good ideas there sounds like you are really motivated xx

pixiechick99

Hi Littlekel - just another one dropping in to say hello:p
You sound like you're getting very organised. I'll trot off and subscribe now......

Triangle

Good luck with it all lovely

T
x

OrangeFairy

Thanks all!!! :):):)

Well today has been a NSD! Woohoo.

The kids loved the free easter celebration. For lunch they had hotdogs and chips for free with as much juice as they needed. So that was a bonus as tonight they just had sandwiches making their mealplan last a day longer! I also got a free cup of tea - a very DFW afternoon. The kids made bookmarks , necklaces and sock puppets and had a little boogie with disco lights at the end!!!

Sold 4 more things on ebay which gives us £34 after fees. A third of the way towards eon

Tonight i am deciding whether to list my craft items on ebay. I have like 100 12x12 scrapbook papers and loads of bits and bobs. About £60 worth of stuff which i got on sale. Would like to have the time to do my scrapbook but realistically i will not get round to doing it. Start my final AAT year in september so more studying. The money would be more handy right now!!

A good day all in all!!! :D:D:D:D

Choc-addict

Hello,

Just popping by to wish you lots of luck, you seem super organised! Take care.

OrangeFairy

Well turned out to be a good easter sunday!

Went to MIL's for a bbq.....smirnoff outside in the sun felt a bit more summery!!! (forgetting about the cold wind!!) OH wouldn't let me buy anything for the kids for easter so i felt a bit bad this morning that they hadn't got an easter hunt planned Though went to my mums who put on a mini hunt. All in all they have about 14 easter eggs and lots of little ones between them. As well as extra sweets....free 'pudding' and treats in april!

Another NSD for me!! - I have decided today i will not class ebay postage as spends as they are paid for by the buyer , also i am not classing paying for ballet or bills as spends as they are budgeted. I am classing food as spend days as it does stop me popping into the supermarket whenever i feel like it.

Just sold some OU maths books on ebay for £30 so i am pleased with that. Will cost about £10 to send. So £20 for books i will never use again and have been sat in the loft for 4 years! :T

Tomorrow will be a spend day as i will be buying a present for my Dad. The plan is to keep it at about £15 or under if i can. (he and my step mum give me £10 for my bday) So off to see him which the kids are excited about

Also checked tesco reciept for the other day to see that i have received 100 points for each of the 4 cartridges i sent to them! :j 4.00 of tesco vouchers gives us a meal out for £18 or pretty much the amount of tokens needed to go the the Big Sheep adventure park!! I work in office equipment and customers give them to us to recycle. I send any i get handed to tescos!!

Been a good day all round...with the exception of not doing too much housework. Still have 2 days off but the 4 i have had have gone REALLY quickly!!!

josiebabie

Come on missus, I know you've been on, we need your random jib! This is a virtual kick up the a55 x

OrangeFairy

LOL Josie!! Thanks for the virtual kick up the a55!!!
Didn't get a chance to come on last night!! OH moans when i am on the computer!!!

Well yesterday went well! The xbox game i got my Dad for his birthday came in at £14.99!!! So i succeeded in keeping under the £15!!!

Today my canvas print it being picked up by Next!!! Fingers crossed!!! I am too scared to go to the toilet in case i miss the driver!!!!
So today i am planning on crafts and baking with the kids while keeping a watchful eye on the front door!!!

Went food shopping yesterday and in total we have spent £160 of out £240 grocery budget!!!! :eek: AAAHHH So when i got home i started getting panicky and started writing lists of what we need to complete our meal plan! We have everything we need for the next two weeks with the exception of about £7 of lamb , some pasta sauce and some potatoes. Then in these two weeks i am making a number of meals which have enough to freeze half for the meals in the last two weeks of the month! So looking at my meal plan we only need to buy about £15 worth of items to complete the meals for the rest of the month Leaving us around £50-60 for milk , yogurts and lunch bits for the last two weeks! I am really pleased with this as we kept our budget the same as last month yet this month was a 5 week month. We also bought £8 of cheese yesterday which will last the whole month and maybe 1 week into may!

Money is a little stretched at the moment. Always is at the beginning of the month. I have to pay the nursery for DD2 in full at the beginning of the month yet i get tax credits for childcare each week. So i pay for 3 weeks of nursery fees before i get the funding for them

so........(kinda stealing idea from Josie!)

Now
Bank £35.62
Cash £123.00
Total £158.62


Weds 7th
Paid in - weekly tax credits £80.82 (bank)
Paid Out - Council Tax £118 (cash)
Pay nursery £93 (bank)
Pay work lottery £1 (cash)

Bank £23.44
Cash £4 :eek:
Total £27.44

Thursday 8th
Paid Out - Cousin birthday £10 (bank)

Bank £13.44
Cash £4
Total £17.44

MMMMM not too good.

Though after this all i have is £11 content insurance to pay out
I get £80.82 TC every weds but have to pay out £25 to the childminder. This means for the next 3 weeks i will get £55.82 a week.

3 x £55.82 = 167.46

So i reckon after bits of food i will have about £150 left this month! So not too bad. Also waiting to see if TC increases our payments with OH's wage drop. So may work out a little better.
Also if needs be i can use any ebay money

Eon progress - owed £314
Last night paid £180
Transfered paypal of £62 to my account

So Eon - £134 - £62 pending. = £72 left. I will probably just set up a D/D and that £72 with just get added to DD amount over the year. Pretty pleased with this.

Sold a nice amount on ebay over the last couple of days. :T

Well what a long post!!!!!!!

josiebabie

Glad you're back!!! You seem to be doing OK! I get a bit freaked out when the money figures are low but when you sit back and think about it, if you've got everything you need food wise and bill wise covered, then what's there to worry about? You keep it in check well m'dear! x