Getting shut!

chevalier

just in case you thought you were talking to yourself you do have lurkers. congrats on the pay riese and the promotion. Well done. Have you got enough room in your current budget to automatically put the pay rise away in another account for emergencies. That way it doesn't get swallowed up into day to day living?
chev

DD265

chevalier wrote: »

just in case you thought you were talking to yourself you do have lurkers. congrats on the pay riese and the promotion. Well done. Have you got enough room in your current budget to automatically put the pay rise away in another account for emergencies. That way it doesn't get swallowed up into day to day living?
chev

Thanks for the support. I don't so much mind talking to myself - mostly it's good to just get these things written down, but it's nice to know that others are reading.

My plan was to try and keep the pay rise to one side, but initially I'd be using it to pay off debt. I reckon I'll have £250-300 more per month so I'm looking to snowball my credit card, then my loan, and then my overdraft.

I'm also conscious that my car insurance is up for renewal in October. Last year I had to pay in instalments (was unemployed at the time) which are over £100 a month - obviously I get shafted in interest here. I'd like to be able to pay it up front next time.

My credit card is currently at £612 out of £1000 limit. Mom owes me £90 of that (cats vet bill!) and she also has a cheque for £218 clearing in her account which is for the transport costs. So in a week or so I hope to have taken it down to under £300 - I'll pay the difference to hit that target. The interest rate goes up at the end of June so that's my deadline for a 0% balance.

Edit, I do now have a surplus at the end of every month, and I'm not being quite as careful with my spending as I could be. So in theory there's no reason why I couldn't continue to survive on my current wage - I'd like to pay off my debt and then build up the savings I keep telling my parents I have!

DD265

Well I've finally gotten around to updating Quicken - now I need to keep it that way!

One of the irritating things is that the way our pay days are set, I got paid twice in March, and as of yet I've not been paid in April, so it skews the statistics that it posts. However it does show some of my spending habits up - obviously that's useful for keeping an eye on them!

I've not made the big payment off my card yet. £100 of the money for that has gone into my Main Account, as I've been buying things for other people which I'll get paid back for (got a cheque in my pocket) and I would otherwise be up at my limit. But I'm looking forward to seeing a big chunk of debt vanish!

DD265

Well I've not been on here for a long time! Mostly it's because my PC is broken, but I've also been very busy.

I can't say that my finances have changed much, but I have a new kind of awareness about them which is making me feel more in control. I can't remember May at all, but in June I burnt through £1000 in a week. That included my loan/insurance/card payments, plus the horses rent which are my regular monthly "big" outgoings. I finally put the new bumper on my car and spent about £80 in Halfords on paint etc as well as some oil and light bulbs - I gave the car a real tart up and it does look pretty good! I realised that my front tyres were no longer road legal and so replaced those at £120, and the remainder went on bits and pieces including petrol and the horse had his feet done. I found myself with £150 left to last the month and panicked. But you know what? I did it.

I'm in the same situation this month, more or less, due to making a bigger card payment than normal and also having to fork out £130 on road tax. But I'm cool with it - all other expenses are paid and what I have left will do me for petrol and anything else which will be kept to a minimum.

I don't seem to be making progress on the debt payment front, but I think that my mindset is changing and that perhaps the change needed to happen first. I know that I'm going to slip up because I'm only human, but I'm hoping that my slip ups will be smaller and less frequent!

My PC needs a new motherboard; it's cutting out or sometimes won't boot up at all. I'm using my laptop, which was a university gift from my parents, bit slow but does what I need it to. The PC would be £110 to fix or I'd be looking at £350-400 for a new one (if I were buying a PC I'd want a gaming one with a decent graphics card, which bumps the cost up) and the old me would have had the repair done, or a new PC on the card, but the new me has said that I'll just use my laptop. :beer:

Edit: I don't have Quicken any more, but I did get my new diary for the upcoming year (academic diaries start in August) and that has a budgeting section which I'm looking forward to using!

DD265

I've been thinking this morning about procrastinating, which is kind of (well no, completely) what I'm doing right now.

In... April? My horse had a treatment and I have the invoice but I haven't sent it off to the insurance yet - that's basically £55.00 cash sat on my desk that I can't access! Today I'll be getting that sorted.

I've bought quite a lot of clothes recently, but aside from a pair of shorts (£10 from Asda) and a pair of work/evening shoes (£40 from Dorothy Perkins) they've all come from Ebay, a mix of brand new and used. I cottoned on to a brand of jeans which really fits me well so I spent about £30 and got 5-6 pairs in varying styles. I also managed to snag myself another dress and shirt for work and a couple of skirts which I'm able to wear more in my new role because it's warmer in that office!

In practise my pay rise wasn't as big as I expected. I definitely have a bit more money but I'm sure that's mostly because I manage it better rather than anything else. I certainly haven't had the extra £250-300 I was hoping for, as my tax eats most of this up! Unfortunately whilst I haven't been demoted, or had a pay reduction, I'm back in my old job at the moment because they fired somebody. They've hired two new starters but they need training, so I'm not getting the opportunity to do my job, get good at it and then ask for a further rise! Just having to bide my time.

DD265

It's funny how I can stretch my income more when I need to!

At the start of this month I began paying rent to my parents - that's another £200 a month (and potentially an additional £50 in 5 week months) on my fixed outgoings. I had my usual initial panic of "can I afford this?" as although I don't think it's in the least bit unreasonable, the timing wasn't amazing! However the money left my account earlier this month and I'm OK.

My current focus is my car insurance; the renewal date is the 1st October. Currently I pay monthly and it's just over £108, but my insurance should drop to about £800 (I did a search online) this time, so I'm hoping to pay in one or two instalments. I am 99% sure that I will not have that money together in full, so I'm planning to put it on my credit card, paying off everything that I can straight away and then larger repayments than the insurance company's schedule would put me on.

On the credit card front, it's still got quite a bit on it but I got a cheque through from HMRC for over £500 that I'd overpaid in tax last financial year - infact I have about £3 more than the outstanding balance on my credit card! I'm going to post elsewhere on the forum just to double check that it is the best move to make, but I'm hoping to pay off the credit card in full this week using that money.

I did have to buy some new trainers today as mine were totally past it, but I managed to get some in the sale for £40 - I need full support and the last pair (which I had for about 15 months) cost me £95 but I wasn't particularly impressed with the value for money. I'm back to trying to spend cash where possible, and at the end of a day all change (including notes) goes into my piggy bank.

Now I have about £80 left on my overdraft, and £80 in another account which I try not to touch so I'm aiming for a quiet fortnight until Pay Day.

DD265

I'm still alive! No mean feat after I set the smoke alarm off earlier this week :rotfl:

I did pay my credit card off and I haven't used it since which has felt great.

I have started hunting for my car insurance. I have been looking at fully comp and third party - there's about £20 between the two with third party coming in at £770 and fully comp at £790. I only have one year (and 351 days) no claims bonus so my main concern with any policy is whether it'll allow me to build my no claims. I'm planning to do some ringing around at the weekend to check.

I have a massive vets bill looming - I don't know how big yet though. There are at least 4 call outs (£25 a pop) plus 3 injections (probably £20 a pop) and examinations so I reckon £200 or so.

On top of that I put my car into the garage and they did £200 of work - it needs another £200 to pass it's MOT in December. I'm glad that I know that though, it means that I can be prepared and although I may struggle to afford everything outright, I know what I'm aiming for.

Last month I was so good at not spending and I've slipped a little after pay day as I always do but I think that I'm quicker to stop spending now, and also wiser when it comes to finding the best prices etc.

DD265

Car insurance down to £631! :j

I've rung Tesco (unsurprisingly they couldn't match it) and cancelled the renewal. I'll pay the new insurance later this month (the quote is valid until December).

It has just occurred to me though that I don't know whether Tesco will automatically send my proof of no claims through, so I'd best contact them later/tomorrow (got to pop out) and check.

DD265

This is what I am posting on the main forum, keeping it here for the record.

I live at home with my parents, so no mortgage or house related bills, they provide my food, but I do pay rent to them. I am very much independent from them financially otherwise so I haven't included any of their details in this.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1194.84
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1194.84

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 200
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 60
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 10 - paid up front last June
Car Insurance........................... 60 - paid up front October
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 8
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Gym (Personal trainer).................. 50
Horse's Treatments (e.g. physio, feet).. 40
Horse's Feed/Supplements................ 25
Horse's Rent............................ 282
Total monthly expenses.................. 1000


Assets
Cash.................................... 340
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 840

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Bank Loan......................4814.42...125.6.....9.9
Student Grant..................1830......10........0
Overdraft......................1500......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........8144.42...135.6.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,194.84
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,000
Available for debt repayments........... 194.84
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 135.6
Amount left after debt repayments....... 59.24

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 840
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,144.42
Net Assets.............................. -7,304.42

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Some of it I found quite hard, like the car expenses. I'm really not putting anything to one side for these, just coping with them as they come. My tax was paid up front and due June, my car insurance was paid up front in October. My car passed its MOT on Friday but has had about £600-700 spent on it over this year so I made that figure reasonably high.

Clothing wise I tend to splurge seasonally - like I just bought some new work stuff (new boots, ebay for trousers) - and the pet insurance/vet bills are dealt with as they come. He's an older horse and retired with a disability so his visits from the vet are pretty frequent.

I know I spend way too much at Tesco buying random crap. I am very good at taking lunches into work but have been popping out more frequently. Presents and stuff again I tend to spend when they come up. Mostly around December/Jan/Feb, then one in April and two in July so that figure might not be accurate.

The gym is a luxury - I go once a week with Mum and we see a personal trainer. We split the cost so I pay for two sessions a month. I will not give this up (it is my stress relief!) and would prefer to make cuts in other areas.

I put the overdraft in as a solid -£1500, in reality I'm usually starting the month at -£300 and working my way up, but never in the black. It is interest free (graduate account) but I will be charged on the last £500 come August. The Student Grant was paid to me by the council then they asked for it back. I said I'd only repay £10 per month, but again there's no interest on it. Originally it was £2k and the repayments started last August. I also have a student loan but don't make repayments against this out of my account (they come straight out of my salary before it's paid).

What I want to achieve:

1. I want to pay off my overdraft - it's interest free so not the most important debt but it bothers me the most.
2. I want a buffer. At the moment I have £300 in a savings account. It was £600, but I keep having to dip into it because I do not manage my money well. £300 does not feel like enough, ideally I think I'd like £500 and then £1k.
3. I am doing my Duke of Edinburgh award and have to finish in 2012. I need to do a residential and ideally want to go sailing - I expect this to cost about £500.

I guess the bottom line is that I go through phases of splurging and phases of being really good. I am struggling to keep in the good-with-money mindset. Problem is I never get frustrated/disappointed/embarrassed enough to really stick at it!

DD265

Gosh I'm dreadful at keeping this up to date!

I'm not convinced that my situation has improved at all, but I feel like mentally I'm beginning to come to terms with what is required.

I have a tendency to feel "rich" when I get paid. I feel like I have a lot of disposable income - and in reality I guess my disposable income is pretty high - so I spend some. But I can't stop myself at just spending some, and instead I have a spree. A week to ten days after Pay Day, I'm usually beginning to stress that I won't have enough money to last the month.

I have decided that I am better with money when I don't have it. So my plan is to live on an increasingly tight budget for the next few months and that means throwing the bulk of my disposable income at debt repayments immediately, rather than thinking "I'll see what I have left in a couple of weeks". I can spend sweet FA if I need to, so I think that if I get rid of my money in this way, I won't get into the usual spree trap.

I did book my residential for DofE - the actual cost was £56 (inc board and food) but I might need a small amount of equipment and I need to travel to Wales for it. Going to restore canals! Not quite what I wanted originally but I'm very much looking forward to it. I think that I'll enjoy a week working outside and expect to learn a lot of useful skills.

At the moment I have £300 on my credit card. I knew that the clutch on my car was going to need replacing this year, and when it got to the point where holding the car on a hill was hard, I thought that I'd best book it in. I did the maths and although I didn't have the money outright I could put it on my card, then pay it off before the next statement because I get paid between now and then. I'd planned on taking a loan repayment holiday if possible for this, but could cope if the bank said no.

And then... I got the mother of all vets bills. Horse developed itchiness last July, rubbed himself raw and infected and I had the vet out several times August through Feb. I had paid the outstanding balance in October so I thought that I probably owed another £200 ish but the vets are rubbish at invoicing and their records are usually not up to date when I ring. The bill I got was for over £600 (including the £200 I paid previously). What I paid covered August and part of September - we did blood tests (which can be expensive) and for some reason they put the bills for those down as being paid by insurance, despite me saying that I wasn't going to insurance because it isn't covered on our policy.

So I had a bit of a stress about it and then spoke to the accountant at work. I'm going to give it to them in installments (by writing a letter and enclosing the first cheque, sure it'll be fine they're really nice!) because a) I can't afford it and b) it was their administrative error. If I had been invoiced for each month as it happened I would have paid it all up to date no problem. It's just the lump sum I can't manage!

I have also been selling on eBay. Had one NPB and opened the case earlier today, but otherwise it's gone well. I made about £80 (inc postage) from 6 sales so pleased with that. It has meant that whilst I have about £17 to last the next week, I was able to pay for a horse supplement out of my PayPal balance without worry. He goes downhill without it so I can't really risk it running out, but given I get paid a week on Monday, I had planned to wait rather than put it on the credit card. I do not need to build that up any higher than it is now!

Bank offered me a £500 increase on the credit card, I said no. I rang them up to ask them to stop because it's an opt out, so automatically done if you don't get back to them. They've taken the automatic increases off my account now, but I always have the option of ringing up. As he pointed out, it means that my credit rating is good. As I pointed out, I have quite enough debt already without giving myself the potential for £500 more!