The Final Push - Getting Rid of the Last Loan and CC

WelshWoofer

Well just as you think your budget is working and its all going well the flipping vacuum cleaner dies a death!

Have had to order a new one to pick up tomorrow - £50 reduced from £100 in Comet.

Poo!

Otherwise, everything else seems to be going to plan - was within the food shopping budget this week and I've been quite good with the other bits of spending - no blow outs!
I've been sticking to meal planning (good for the diet and wallet), taking food to work, not drinking much and trying to be careful generally.

The bummer is that my student loan went out of my wages for the first time this month and I think the yearly subscription fees to the GTC went too (hope so as it was £70 odd). So I need to really think about what I'm spending if I'm not going to dip into the £150 savings I've put away this month.

The emergency fund now has £550 in it - the target was £500 by April payday so I'm well pleased that I acheived it:j:j
The untouchable savings account has £3000 in it and I have no overdraft and only £40 on the CC (the AA renewed the policy on teh card without me realsiing it).

The loan is now also under £13,000 - it started off at £16,800 in August so that's not going too badly either and its the only debt I have.
My aim is to have it as near to £10,000 as possible by Xmas.

I'm due a "golden hello" of £5000 before tax so about £4000 in hand in the summer so the plan is to put at least £3000 of it in the untouchable savings making it up to £6000 ish - a nice little security blanket.

The next little target is to get a quote for redecorating the hall and stairs and save for my half of that (OH can pay the other half). I must ask the bloke who did the bedroom to pop round soon so I know what to aim for.

Anyway, better get on and make tea......

Its good sometimes to just write things down to get things straight in my head!

WelshWoofer

Just a quickie - been to get the half price vacuum cleaner - a Vax - and have tried it and its really quite good, well worth the £50.

Had a LSD otherwise - a fascinating day cleaning and marking exams:o

WelshWoofer

Just a quickie to update things....

I managedto spend a total of just under £40 on the shopping yesterday between the greengrocers and Tescos - the budget was £45 so quite pleased with that.
I also have stayed in all over the bank holiday so far and so no big spends - I took £20 cash out yesterday and still have £12 left that will have to last as long as possible into the coming week - the spending so far was mainly on hayfever meds - an essential I'm afraid.:(

The woodwork on teh front of the house is now all done thankfully and cost a total of just about £500 for labour and wood, paint etc. :eek:OH paid half so I had to cough up £250 from my savings - at least I had them! So the emergency savings account is now back down to £300 - still ok but not as much as I'd like it to be.

I've realsied that my wages were down by about £70 this month too due to the GTC having to be paid - its a one off (I hope) so next month it should be better. It will be good to have a "normal" pay month as I'm not sure what my basic take home pay is now that the student loan is being taken out.

So it means that I have about £30 left in the current account to last until payday - its not going to happen! Shopping costs about £40 a week and I also will need some cash.
It's damage limitation time I'm afraid and I'm going to try to stick to being no more than £50 overdrawn by payday - I need some petrol this week but will put the bare minimum in and try to squeeze the food shopping a bit next weekend.

£50 overdrawn is nothing in comparison to what I used to be and will be paid straight back on payday. :A
I would have been ok without the hoover dying (another £50) but never mind.

The next goal is the decorating of the hall and stairs and downstairs loo - the elusive decorator has gone AWOL though and I still haven't managed to catch him to come and give me a quote so I know what to aim for savings wise. My attitude has completely changed towards things like this - in days of old I would have just put it on a card and not worried about it but I'm determined to save for it (like the woodwork) and not add to the debt.
I expect it to be about £500 again so need to get cracking with the saving.

The diet seems to be going ok too - no gains at all and only one maintain. I only want to lose about another 5 or 6 lbs so almost there (that'll be 1.5 stones in total).

The dog had a letter from the vet for a check up and booster jabs - he can hang on until payday - only another week or so. I'll phone them to see how much it costs (can't remember) so I know what to do with the budget for May.

It's all money isn't it!?

WelshWoofer

In the spirit of being extra good in May I have rejoined the NSD thread and gone for 8 NSDs in May - 2 a week - should be doable?

Off to renew library books online before they charge me and ruin a NSD for me!

WelshWoofer

Well it seems that I haven't updated this since May 1st! How slack of me!

I have had a bit of a torrid month - very big OH problems (our relationship is on the verge of collapse) and my focus has been elsewhere, definitely not on moneysaving and trying to be debt free.
But, I am determined to get back on track if for no other reason than I have to protect myself in case the home situation doesn't improve.

On the postive side I have lost 20lbs and am much happier with my appearance. I'm going to have my hair cut quite differently in two weeks time so the transformation will be almost complete then!


Moneywise, here's what the current sitaution is (getting paid on Weds)....

• £3000 in untouchable savings
• £280 in emergency everyday account
• Will be £150 OD on payday
• £40 on CC (sneaky automatic AA renewal on old card)
• Loan is at £12500 (paid £4300 off since Sept:T)
• £60 on Next account

So this month's aim is to pay off the overdraft, pay £20 off Next and £10 off the CC (more if possible).

This months outgoings are

• Direct debits - £1195
• Food = £45 x 4 = £180
• Petrol = £40
• Cash = £40 x 4 = £160
• Total = £445

Total outgoings = £1195 + £380 = £1575
Incoming is £1880
Surplus cash = £1880 – 1575 = £305
Extras to budget for:-
Vet £30, Haircut £30, Next bill £20, council tax £60, dog hair cut £25 Total = £165
£305-£165 = £140 left over to pay back the OD

So, its a tough but doable month, I think I've thought of everything that going out but we'll see...
I'll try to economise with cash spends and food money to try to claw back a bit here and there too.

Fingers crossed xxx

WelshWoofer

A teeny bit of good news...

I have £80 extra cash than I expected and OH has paid this month's council tax saving me £60.
That means that I can pay off the OD, have paid £20 off Next and have squirrelled £50 into the savings account already - not to be touched if at all possible.

Just have to stick to budgets now!

WelshWoofer

I with drew £20 cash yesterday and managed to post the Father's Day stuff at last. I also put £35 worth of petrol in and the car still isn't full:mad:

Shopping day tomorrow, I have written a list and am going to try shopping at Aldi, Mr S, the green grocers and the pound shop to see if I can reduce the spend for this "little" shop. Think I'll withdraw £40 cash and see how little of it I can spend - will be interesting!

There's a £10 note left in my purse now so anything left out of the shopping money can join it!
Will report in with the damage

WelshWoofer

Well my shopping expedition was a mixed success (I think).
I took £40 out in cash and started off going to a few shops that I don't normally go to....
Farmfoods - £1.19
Quality save - £3.80
Pound shop - £3
Aldi - £9.20
Wilkos - 90p
Then staggered into Mr S and managed to spend £38.50:eek:

That makes a total of £56.59:(

BUT I did buy lots of stuff that will last a few weeks - cleaning stuff, laundry stuff, toiletries etc. So even though I spent more than I anticipated I have bought lots of stuff and got more for the money than I would have if I'd just gone to the supermarket.

Then we went to an amateur dog show in a local pub (my dog just watched the "pros" and then rolled in poo - typical!) and I spent £10 on lunch and a drink.

To make up for it I'm staying in tonight ......