£12k in 12 months!!!

mrsspendalot

choogirl wrote: »

Good Luck

I'm aiming to have paid off £13k in 15 months and hopefully should be debt free by December 2011 :j so I will be rooting for you.

Congratulations on baby, just a quick thought - don't try to be too strict with yourself though as it does get quite hard going sometimes and you need some sort of treat occasionally.

As for the budgetting for clothes, shoes etc - we have a budget of about £80 per month but that covers DH, 2 kids, and myself - school uniform, shoes etc, it could be cut down alot but clothes are a weakness of mine.

Good luck xxx

I'm trying to make sure we can still accommodate some 'treat' money too. We have a family hobby that we enjoy, so I budget £35 a month towards that. That is enough to keep us going all year round. We don't smoke, drink or gamble - our only vice is Sky TV . We usually go camping once a year, but we aren't going this year due to the baby coming. By the time we would normally go next year, we will hopefully be debt free

I currently budget £50 a month for 2 adults and 3 children (all at school). I'm thinking I might need to increase this to take into account higher uniform costs for DD at secondary school, and the new arrival. Plus I will possibly need some new stuff once the baby comes until I fit back into my usual clothes, and I can sell my maternity wear. DH has loads of clothes and shoes (hence part of the debt ) so he doesn't need anything at the moment other than socks, which seem to go into holes as soon as they see his feet :rotfl:

mrsspendalot

Well, it's payday .... and I haven't been paid what I was expecting so that's thrown a little spanner in the works :mad::mad::mad: Not the best start to the day, but luckily it's not going to mean essential 'start of the month' bills won't get paid as they are already budgeted for and the money is sat in the bill account ready for Tuesday. Email gone to payroll for clarification on what has happened, so we'll see if it's their mistake or mine

It is going to make May even tighter now than it was already though, so whether or not we'll manage £1k this month in debt repayment, we'll just have to see.

In the meantime, my Orange mobile contract has now expired so I can cancel it, saving £30 a month :j Just going to go on PAYG now.

MoneySpendingExpert2011

Hi Mrs SA,

Sorry to hear about your tough start today.

I am guessing that it has got to do with the new tax year and recent changes in personal allowance plus maybe a claw back of tax through the tax code! That's what someone who works with me got told! Annoying nonetheless.

You will be back on track in no time. Chin up!

mrsspendalot

MoneySpendingExpert2011 wrote: »

Hi Mrs SA,

Sorry to hear about your tough start today.

I am guessing that it has got to do with the new tax year and recent changes in personal allowance plus maybe a claw back of tax through the tax code! That's what someone who works with me got told! Annoying nonetheless.

You will be back on track in no time. Chin up!

Nah, it's to do with occupational/stautory sick pay entitlement. I've been off sick with pregnancy complications and was dropping to half pay this month, plus SSP, according to my contract - but I seemingly have only been paid half pay going by the amount in the bank. I've queried it in case I have misinterpreted my contract.

mrsspendalot

Well, progress made today =

• called Orange to cancel my contract and request PAYG Sim. Advisor on the phone offered me a rolling monthly Sim-only deal for £5 a month, including unlimited texts, 100 free minutes and some free internet usage so I said 'yes please' as that is cheaper than £10 a month on PAYG top-up
• written a letter to student loans company to request a refund of £60 which was deducted from me due to one month's earnings exceeding the repayment threshold, even though my total year's earnings for 2010/11 did not
• received £100 in M&S vouchers through the post which we got for upgrading to Sky+ HD from standard Sky+. I know Sky TV is not very MSE, but we don't go out drinking, smoking, gambling or anything else, so this is our entertainment. We don't have the full package so it's not an absolute fortune

Still no response from HR regarding my pay, but read the wording to my mum who agrees with my interpretation of the policy, so hopefully they have made a mistake and will rectify it, and I will get paid the difference soon. I bet everyone's on annual leave

Feeling quite stressed now, as my blood pressure really doesn't need this! Need to think about something else to take my mind off it, like the fact I'm having a baby in 9 weeks :eek:

Oh, speaking of babies, I need to find a decent sized holdall to take into hospital .... that might distract me for the time-being ....

mrsspendalot

Well the BH weekend has passed without much cost. We had a BBQ yesterday at home for tea. Had 2 last minute children's parties to contend with, so that is the only unbudgetted expense incurred. However, I did really well with the weekly shop yesterday and it came in £15 under budget, so that covered the additional expense without really having to find any 'extra' money :T (although it would have been nice to have been able to feel £15 better off )

What do other people do regarding kids party presents? Do you buy loads of things in when you see real bargains and then store them up for when the invites roll in? My kids don't get invited to as many parties nowadays as they used to - probably because more people are cutting back. I have a stock of cheap cards in a drawer because they are cheap to buy in bulk in certain places. But with a mixture of boys and girls parties, with ages ranging between 11 and 5 it always seems hard knowing what to do regards planning for the expense of presents. Or do you incorporate a certain amount into the birthdays/christmas spends budget to cover the cost?

Today has been a total no-spend day which is great

Oh, and £200 has so far been paid off the £1000 debt target for May :T

choogirl

mrsspendalot wrote: »

What do other people do regarding kids party presents? Do you buy loads of things in when you see real bargains and then store them up for when the invites roll in? My kids don't get invited to as many parties nowadays as they used to - probably because more people are cutting back. I have a stock of cheap cards in a drawer because they are cheap to buy in bulk in certain places. But with a mixture of boys and girls parties, with ages ranging between 11 and 5 it always seems hard knowing what to do regards planning for the expense of presents. Or do you incorporate a certain amount into the birthdays/christmas spends budget to cover the cost?

Hi, I used to buy things in the sales when I saw them but now that my 2 are abit older they don't get invited to as many parties so I tend to budget £10 a month for birthday party presents and then when they get an invite I'll go out and look for a bargain - maybe in a supermarket or look to see if there are any sales on. I've got quite tight though and try not to spend all the tenner but still try to buy an impressive looking present with as little as possible. If they don't get invited to a party that month the tenner goes to repaying debt off.

joess

Good luck with the quest of paying off the debt.

I keep an eye out for bargains for kids presents. Argos do some great sale items plus they also do 2 toys for £15.

mrsspendalot

Right, that's another £190.45 paid off debt today :T rolling total for May so far = £390.45 out of a target of £1000 :beer:

Still no word on my pay mess up, chased it up again today.

Didn't spend any money yesterday at all and so far today (other than debt repayments) I haven't spent anything either, and don't plan to

mrsspendalot

Pay query has been sorted - I was underpaid (as I thought) and will have the difference made up with May's salary :j

Another £40.45 paid off debt today :T taking May's rolling total to £430.90 - almost half way to the £1000 target :beer: