Minty's incredible disappearing £700 thread...

mintymoneysaver

Morning all! Bright shiny new thread here, and I hope some of you will join me on my journey.
So, I'm Minty, female, husband, two teenage girls, working part time. We have a problem though. I'm in charge of the money in our house, and it usually works quite well. We have a 'bill account' that we both pay money into and it covers all household bills, food, petrol etc. We then keep some money for ourselves, his pays for football, golf and nights out. Mine pays for my shoes, clothes and other things for me!!!
Then what's left ( usually £700) goes into what is euphemistically called the 'savings' Only trouble is there never is any savings! This £700 seems to magically disappear every month, to the point that over time we have ended up with a £3000 debt!
Now, due to circumstances at the moment I have transferred this to a 0% card in my name and am aiming to pay that off as soon as humanly possible, but it will be out of my money.OH doesn't know about this debt, he thinks we've been managing okay and at the moment I can't have him know any different. So the first point of this diary is to try to get rid of that, and I'll update you as it goes down.
The main point though, is where does this £700 go?:mad: It pays for any birthday, Christmas presents, clothes for the girls, meals and trips out and it's supposed to pay for holidays too. In theory it should be enough but it never is! It doesn't go overdrawn as we get charged £5 a day if it does, but it's always a month behind as we also have a family credit card so the first thing it has to do is pay that off, and it almost always gets paid off in full. What I really want to do is to build it up so there's some cash in there, so we don't keep using the card and then paying it back!
So my main aim is for you to help me out with telling me off if I waste money on it, and just to be able to tell someone about it all!:rotfl:
The current situation then is that there's £42 in there, but that's only got to last till next weekend when OH gets paid and his £350 goes in there.
Next month so far we have got a £161 credit card bill currently, £100 for daughter 2's ski trip, £50 for daughter 1's allowance and £25 DD for the credit card. So that's £336 gone before we even start! Plus the car needs a service (£100?) and we are off to Centerparcs at the weekend ( present off my Mum!) but we will want bikes so I think that'll be £60! Depending on the way the credit card falls the bikes could actually go onto next month's bill so wouldn't need paying till the month after, but we'll have to see!
There is a possibility that there will be an extra £500 in there soon as OH is due a bonus but we still need to buy some driving lessong for daughter 1 for her birthday in November so we need to save some money for that!

If you've got this far thanks! I know we're not in dire straits, so I hope nobody minds me being here, but I just thought it might help.
So here we go....:j

purple_butterfly28

Hi Minty

Just read your post.
Like you i'm not in as dire straits as some people, but feel i have lost control of my finances quite a bit.
Know what you mean about the disappearing money.
I put it in the savings fund every month and by the end of the month it's been dipped into here and there and !!!!!! like a Genie it's vanished!
If only there was a magic money saving Genie oh hang on there is he's Martin Lewis.... but doesn't grant 3 wishes just is more of a wise Yoda with advice :rotfl:

I'm aiming to keep a spending diary this month to see where money is frittered away, and practicing do i really need it, can i get it cheaper somewhere else mantra.

Good luck with tracking down the £700. I shall subscribe and keep you company!

mintymoneysaver

Thanks for popping by. Just read your thread too,a nd will follow. I,unfortunately, will never get into a bikini again but am attempting to also lose some weight ( got a lot to lose!) Got a free exercise bike a few weeks ago so attempting to do 15-20 minutes on that every day.
The credit card has already!:eek: gone up a bit as yesterday had to spend £10 on a gift card for a friend's birthday and £10 in WHSmith for a folder for school for daughter, and then bought a pinboard she'd been wanting for ages. No spending from that account today though.
I also need to save some money up for next summer's holiday. Always have a week away with my mum and some friends each summer. Hubby doesn't come so I pay half of it out my own money and half out the 'savings' There's never any saved though so my aim is to save £50 a month in another account so that it's already there next year and I don't have to worry about it. Will leave me a bit shorter on my own spending money but I waste loads of that anyway, and with trying to lose weight I hopefully won't spend so much on chocolate!
Off to do the exerise bike now, done my competitions for the day ( every win helps!) and then need to tidy the bedroom. Then off to my mum's for lunch, and to plan our menu for Centerparcs!

mintymoneysaver

Don't you just love weekends.... I've been to Sainsburys as I had a voucher for £12 off a £60 shop which finished today. Unfortunately took the girls with me so even with the money off I still managed to spend £74! Got a nice bottle of wine though, so looking forward to a glass of that with X factor tonight.:j

Had to spend some money yesterday as we need some new ink for the printer, so £14 out of my account, but my win of 5 dvds arrived, none of which I was desperate to keep so I stuck them on Amazon and have sold the first one for £10 already, so they almost cancel each other out!
Ordered a t shirt on ebay today for a friend's 40th so that will be another £12 on to the credit card, he'll love it though!
Can't wait for payday so I can try and account for things, and know how much we have left to play with!
Currently
£57 in my account
£42 in the savings account
£200.83 to pay on 'family'credit card
£1390 on joint credit card
£3000 on BIG credit card ( 0% for 16 months)
£0 in holiday fund

mintymoneysaver

Got a lousy cold today, but some Ben and Jerry's ice cream is helping me feel a little better! Looking forward to Centerparcs at the weekend. I'm treating myself ( from my own account) to a Hopi ear candle treatment. Sounds a bit weird but apparently it's really good for blocked noses etc. I wonder if it'll stop me snoring?
Haven't put anything else on the card, so hopefully that will be it on the statement. Just waiting for payday to come so that I can get on with sorting this all out!
Hope everyone else is doing well, and had a good day. Off to o some competitions now, got a few to catch up on as the site was down last night!

gilligansyle

The situation you found yourself in is similar toone I was in several years ago.
OH and I had a joint account into which we paid the same amount; in theory, we then had our own accounts to spend money out of. I had my son to pay for, he had a dog. When we started out we earned the same, but he eventually was on 3 x my salary, but still paid the same amount into the joint account. In order to meet bills, I used credit cards. I have no idea what he did with his spare money, but it amounted to over £2,000 a month :eek:Before meeting him I had no debts, mine weren't horrendous, but they were getting me down and once we split up I couldn't manage at all.

I am now well on the way to being clear of them all, and wish you luck.

mintymoneysaver

gilligansyle wrote: »

OH and I had a joint account into which we paid the same amount; in theory, we then had our own accounts to spend money out of. I had my son to pay for, he had a dog. When we started out we earned the same, but he eventually was on 3 x my salary, but still paid the same amount into the joint account. In order to meet bills, I used credit cards. I have no idea what he did with his spare money, but it amounted to over £2,000 a month :eek:Before meeting him I had no debts, mine weren't horrendous, but they were getting me down and once we split up I couldn't manage at all.

I am now well on the way to being clear of them all, and wish you luck.

Thankyou. Thankfully we do still earn a relatively similar amount. We used to be so open about money with each other, but unfortunately it is not that way now! He does earn more than me, so keeps more for himself, I know that, ( even though he thinks I don't!) but having said that he buys his lunch every day whereas I take my packed luch out of our food account, and he has to pay for travel while I have the use of the car so I don't begrudge him that.

Today is a lovely, bright morning here. I am loving my new class in school so there are some things to feel good about! On a very positive note OH got the bonus/ shares from work yesterday that we had agreed would clear the credit card balance from our holidays off, so that will be wiped out ( This unfortunately isn't the card in my own name!) Hopefully there will also be enough to pay for the car service, and daughter's birthday present of some driving lessons. This will ease the burden on my precious £700 greatly!:T Depending on the exact amount it could also clear most of the balance for the skiing trip for Daughter 2 but that may be asking a bit much....

Not quite sure why Daughter 1 desperately wants driving lessons, as there's no way we can actually afford to insure her to drive our car! But she did really well in her GCSEs so she'll get a few more lessons than if it was just for her birthday, as I always set a £100 budget for their birthdays. Daughter 2 wants a laptop for Christmas!:rotfl:( In her dreams!)

Anyway, off to work. Hope you all have a lovely day x

purple_butterfly28

Hi Minty, sounds like you may get a little bit of relief with the OH bonus/Shares situation.
Although the card isn't in your name do you pay off the interest from your money. If so that will help a little each month.
As for driving lessons. I learnt just after my 17th bday and am glad now that i did. It's so much easier when younger. Still trying to convince the OH to learn as he has the money just not the motivation and apparantly it doesn't get any easier/cheaper the longer you leave it.
Plus just realised i read something in the news about them planning on making the test harder/more expensive. Will prob work out cheaper for you and her if she learns now...
Insurance isn't too bad for a learner but once you've passed your right there's no way most people can afford the insurance lol
Christmas really isn't too far away is it!! saw the stuf in Boots this weekend already!

mintymoneysaver

Hi, the minimum payment was coming out of the £700. so it will certainly ease the burden on that, as £50 was automatically going towards that. In a funny sort of way, I feel happier now the minimum payments are going to be coming out of my money. I don't feel like I've got to explain myself to anyone that way....
You're probably right about the driving lessons, makes me sound ancient but 'when I was her age' you just didn't learn till you had a job! It was a very rare sight to see someone at Uni with a car...

keelni

Hi Minty, well done for starting your new thread. Hope you don't mind me joining you as I am in a similar situation not in dire straits but seem to be heading that way if I don't start taking control of things. Like you in theory we should have around £400 left at the end of the month but at the mo we are spending more than we earn. As for dd learning to drive I do personally think the earlier the better. My ds is only 14 but I will be encouraging him to learn at 17. Hopefully if we can get on top of our finances I can start saving now.

mintymoneysaver

Welcome keelni! You do wonder where it all goes, don't you...:rotfl: