"A Cheap Ticket to Happy Land Please...."

BaillieRiley

Hello Everybody! I have been reading through diaries for the last couple of weeks (better than Eastenders some of them!) and have come to the conclusion that I need one!

A bit of background about me - I am 27 and currently on Maternity Leave after having DS who is 4 months old now (OMG how time flies!) - I also have DD who is 2 and a half going on forty :rotfl:, I work for the NHS part-time and am due to go back in February.

My credit cards as of today stand at

BANK OF SCOTLAND £1316.26 (with 11.5% intrest rate)
SANTANDER £1948.01 (0% till June 2011)



Not as bad as some I know - but still a pain in the bum!

I have been through my SOA and have cut down most things - I am in the process of swapping from Scottish Power to EON as USwitch thiks I will be better off (Lets hope so!). Also Mr Quidco is offering me £55 for the switch! Thankyooooo :T

One thing on my SOA that won't be cut is my £50 SKY bill :silenced: OH refuses to give up Sky Movies and Sports :eek: Men!!

I have a budget of £260 a month for online food shopping (works out so much cheaper doing this - I'm not tempted and seduced by all the goodies!) and I have a £60 a month budget for bread,milk and other "emergency groceries" during the week. Going to keep tally of this as of next pay day to see how I do .

Going to keep a spending diary - and also keep track of any money I make from Surveys and Ebay and big humongous lottery wins (:rotfl:I don't even play). Hopefully I have a nice wee amount left at the end of the month to pay of Mr BOS (First card to be assassinated!)

PLAN OF ACTION

1. Get rid of these cards

2. save as much as I can towards moving to a bigger house (in ?5 years)

3. Baby no3 (:eek: Did I just say that........??) :rotfl:

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

BaillieRiley

I'm becoming addicted to doing online surveys Every time I have a new email I nearly wet myself with excitement! I've only been at it 8 days - fully expecting the novelty to wear off :rotfl:

Thanks to the lovely pennywisepoundstupid :beer: I have joined numerous sites in the past week - already clocking up an impressive £6 withdrawal to paypal with Lightspeed!

Also I think tonight I may hit my first 80,000 points with Toluna :j Voucher here I come

Soooooo Exciting!!!

I also have 1 item listed on ebay ending tomorrow ( not massive but a start )

*...........off to check inbox*

BaillieRiley

Just logged into Toluna and my points have been updated - 83,274 :j

Ordered a £15 Amazon voucher

BaillieRiley

Morning!

Sat last night and did my online weekly order for Asda to be delivered on Sunday - It came to £60, however I did have to get nappies and Huggies are 2 big boxes for £18. I save money in the long run buying 2 at a time.

DD has dancing today - I pay £17 at the start of the month for this so it has already been paid for :T.

It's really miserable here today so looks like I may stay in and make some headway on the housework - or at least try .

Booked up for 4 nights at Haven 1st-5th November - only £79 as it's the last week of the season - also £4.54 back through Quidco :money:. Money has come out of our "Holiday Fund" - OH and I put £100 a month into this pot to cover holiday expenses ( Important not to miss out this quality time I think). I will budget another £120 from this as spending money for the week - so not too bad.Our first and last holiday of the year due to me having DS. Hope it's not a total washout!

Chicken noodle soup for lunch & chicken curry, rice and Pappadums for dinner - sorted!

My 1 item on ebay finishes today (no bids so far ) and I just read on grabbit that it is free listings this weekend so going to list a few more - hopefully have some better luck (not holding my breath though :rotfl:).

BRx

BaillieRiley

My thing on ebay sold! 99p into the pot! ......well it's more like 60p when you take off all the fees - Grrrrr!

Added a couple of more things - going to try and do 2 a day - can't be annoyed with the evils I get of the Post Office man when I go in with 3 million parcels at once :rotfl:

6 days and counting till payday :T though I have no idea how much I will get due to mat leave pay - I think it's half pay plus SMP but who knows!

BRx

BaillieRiley

Mortgage statement arrived today - not much equity in the balance I recon :mad:, Stupid recession! We must have bought at the worst possible time.

I have added Mortgage to my ticker as £13,139.04 of our mortgage is unsecured and I have decided to embrace this into my debt and try to pay it off ASAP! We need to move from our 2 bedroomed house before we expand our little family - and I hope to do this in the next 5 years

Need to start whooping some debt butt! In a way I wish I was back at work as pay is good, plus I get added shift allowance which I don't get sitting at home feeding the baby.

Going to list a few more things on ebay today - free listing :T

Need to tidy up!!!

BRx

BaillieRiley

Just back from the local Morrisons - walked down with my mum with DS in the buggy (DD at her other grans). Met my wee nana there too so I decided to treat us all to a drink and a pancake in the cafe - £5.29

Spent nothing in Morrisons - but headed across the road into Aldi to get 3 cartons of fresh apple juice and some lemons - £2.55 Sooooo much cheaper in there!

Off to pick up DD soon - hopefully they made cakes to tide us over till payday

5 days to go!!

BRx

BaillieRiley

Forgot that I bough DD a Halloween Trick or Treat bag for 50p in Morrisons - she's dressing up as a witch

Olliegami

Hey Bailie~! Sounds like you've got a good thing going~! I find it so helpful to post pretty much every day, as it keeps you in the right mind set!

Have you posted an SOA recently, then?

BaillieRiley

Thanks Ollie for reading - will need to have a peek at your diary!

Here is a breakdown of my SOA (As a single wage so all bills have been halved)

My monthly income is very varied depending on my shift allowance - what I have stated is a minimum


Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1250
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 178
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1428

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 342.3
Management charge (leasehold property).. 4.5
Council tax............................. 60.5
Electricity............................. 29
Gas..................................... 33.5
Telephone (land line)................... 5
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 6.2
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25.5
Internet Services....................... 6
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Car Insurance........................... 34.58
Other child related expenses............ 40
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 13
Other insurance......................... 22.28
Holiday................................. 100
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1042.36



Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly
santander......................1948.01 50
bank of scotland...............1316.26 20
Total unsecured debts..........3264.27


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,428
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,042.36
Available for debt repayments........... 385.64
Monthly Unsecured debt repayments....... 70
Amount left after debt repayments....... 315.64


Of the £315 minimum I have surplus I have to buy things as they come up (birthdays, hairdo etc) but hope to pile loads onto debt. OH pays for all car thingimibobs apart from the insurance - that's mine. Luckily though we have one of those Astras with a £30 a year road tax :T

Going to get DD into bed and sit and watch X-Factor with a tub of Ben & Jerrys Cookie dough (2 for £3 in ASDA!! :money:)

BR x

beanielou

Happy shiney new diary
Keep posting