Missy Moo's Pregnant! The race is on to pay off the debt and get my life sorted!!

missymoo81

OK so, post said before I lost it, damn computer!!!!!!!! That after much complicated working out I think I can just about have it all paid off by my pay in September:T. Although I will officially be on statatory maternity pay, it starts off at 90% of your wages.

This will be through lots of hard work scrimping and saving and not buying stuff along with me being extremely lucky and very grateful that OH is paying all of the mortgage and bills and all I have to pay is my petrol, union and phone. I forgot when the summer holidays start, my petrol bill wont be the whopping £200 it is at the moment, it will be more like £70/£80:T as long as I drive carefully. One of the massive changes has got to be my spending though , to the point of I think I have left myself £50 until 21st July (payday) as it is all I will have left. Although this is just literally for spending on whatever, it shouldnt include food or toiletries or petrol etc. So it shouldn't be that hard.... should it???? (scared now!!)

I have just had an awful realisation too, that most of my spends money goes on food or drink :eek:. Until you sit and think about it, you don't realise how all those school dinners here and there at £3.00 a time, all those bags of sweets at £1.50 and the frappacinos at starbucks £4.00:eek::eek: , how much they all really add up:eek::o. Now going for lunch with friends and family is different etc, for example when me and my mum go we always go to a nice cafe and split it so its only about a fiver but its sociable and gets me out the house and seeing people, its not just mindless spending on food.

Toiletries can definitely go on the tesc0 shop which OH pays for as his toiletries go on there too. Really also need to stop thinking that buying a £10 shampoo from lush and a £7 eyeliner from boots is acceptable on my tiny wages, when I'm a teacher earning mega bucks maybe, but definitely not at the moment:rotfl:. So from here on in, I will be using OH's shampoo (which I secretly quite like) and using collection 2000's eyeliner from tesc0. In fact thinking about it, it is my birthday in September, I might ask family if they can make me a little hamper of all the luxury cosmeticy toiletries things I love.

Have also had to start thinking ahead to paying for my OU and when I go back to work part time, then even further ahead to when I do my teacher training, when I will get paid nothing, so I really need to start saving when everything is paid off too.

If anyone has any tips on living on £50 a month for spending money it would be very gratefully received. I think I am going to have a read back through cheery daffs thread and see how she coped when she was studying, if I remember rightly she survived on not a lot.

Thanks for listening to me whinge you lovely lot, it does help me no end knowing that I have your support x

missymoo81

hello mummytogirls, lovely to see you. Yes I had forgotten that, but that will go straight to the baby to buy things, thank you for the thought though. Trouble is I see this as my mess and as such that I need to sort it out myself. Stupid aren't I, but with my plan I think I have it sorted, I think!!

No no chickens anymore hun, I can't look after them whilst Im pregnant so my dads neighbour gave them a happy home, I can still see them from my dads garden whenever I want.

God the realisation of £50 a month is really hitting home!!!

youareallhelpingme

Again, don't stress! Just take it that your LBM is now so if you can't manage on £50 for the then you can't. Start properly from your July payday which coincides with lower petrol etc.

Depending on what your DH earns, plus what you will earn in this tax year you may not qualify for tax credits and child benefit so check these carefully on direct.gov.uk, they have calculators you can use to estimate it.

If you have brands that you love, make them last until September and then have them as treats, I found the cheap makeup didnt last at all. Sometimes it is better to pay out more once than keep paying out!

We are here for you x

missymoo81

Thanks youareallhelpingme hun x, very sound advice. We wont qualify for tax credits, as OH earns too much, but I thought everyone got child benefit, might be wrong thoug?!. I hear what you're saying with make-up.... hmmmm am wondering, if I can be especially fantastic with the food shopping and making things from the freezer that the shopping bill would be lower so I could buy my usual eyeliner, think tesc0 might sell it... ( I dont just wear eyeliner by the way, but have all the other bits of makeup I wear, with even some new in packets waiting to be used so I dont need any more for quite some time, but my liquid eyeliner is on its last legs, there is only so much shaking and wiggling around you can do!) then I wouldnt feel bad about putting extra money on the shopping bill because I would be working hard cooking etc and making things from scratch so that the shopping bill was less, if that makes sense.

missymoo81

So with all of the above in mind I think I need to make this a spending diary, and actually write down what I have spent my rather small spending money on. Am off out with my mum on sat which will involve lunch along with a wander round the shops, so we will see how I fare!

youareallhelpingme

Definately makes sense.

They changed the child benefit rules - not sure when the change goes into force. If one parent earns more than £40k (i think) then the family does not qualify. If 2 parents earn less than £40k individually but more than that in total you do qualify. many teachers were complaining as they earned £41k with the extra roles they took on, ut lost £1.5 in benefits. They said they might as well do less work! Hope that makes sense :eek:.

missymoo81

makes sense thanks hun, we dont qualify then , OH earns too much, B$gger how very annoying!!! OH's money is all tied up in stupid rental properties that are never rented, rubbish agent, so although we should have lots of money we really dont, so that doesn't seem particularly fair.

oooh goodness I've got heartburn again, really need to get some gaviscon, meant to get some today but forgot, mind you really need to get it on the shopping budget, so I'm not paying for it, see I'm thinking ahead! Will have to pop into tesc0 after work tomorrow me thinks:)

youareallhelpingme

Don't you get free prescriptions? The dr's version is more powerful that the shop version and is excellent.

Maybe you need a different rental agent or perhaps sell one property and use any equity to pay off your mortgage. House values and rent are going down and that is not gooddepending on how much he has tie up in them.

There is a rental agency in Peterborough where you pay a slightly higher % commision on your rent but they still pay you if the property is empty. Might be worth looking at something like that. Are they being restrictive on people with pets. I know someone who was prepared to put down a £5k bond against damage by her 2 terriers but the letting agents would not accept it. That would have far outweighed any damage that may have been caused.

missymoo81

morning,

well teacher training day today, wish they'd just given us the day off! Really cant be !!!!!d to sit in a classroom and be talked at, I'd rather the kids were there!

Am rather sleepy couldn't sleep until gone 12, I don't know why!

Must not be tempted to walk to the shop or go out for lunch today as it is a training day and some people go out and about, but not me on my budget, especially as I am out for lunch on saturday, and because I have some lovely soup sitting in the fridge at work as I didn't eat it yesterday. Am round my friends for tea and I'm taking some home made burgers which are already in the freezer, rather than buying stuff Need to remember to drive properly so as not to use too much petrol. Will update on here how many miles I've done and how much my petrol has gone down, have one of those digital count down things. It's such a beautiful day, think I may well have a walk down to the river at lunchtime and sit and read my book, need some more sun! My tan is fading fast.

Need to sort out a day/evening of sorting, I had set friday aside incase my sister asked me to come round, but as yet have heard nothing so I think friday should be spent sorting clothes for ebay for sunday, really need to make some money for venice, I'd like to make £300 but I don't know how doable that is.

Have thought about saturday, am going to draw out £10 for spends on saturday as have £5 in my purse, so this should cover lunch, a drink later and any little things I fancy.

right, work, see you later

kavics17

£50 is plenty missy, I've been managing on that for years now! And that has to include clothes, etc.

As for debts, you don't have much time before maternity kicks in. I think you really need to sacrifice your summer to sort out clothes/etc and hit ebay,amazon, sell all your cds and dvds and just get some extra cash in. Can you tutor children over the summer? Do you speak another language which might generate some extra income? Can you do some ironing in the neighbourhood? Mystery shopping maybe? I know that if I go on maternity, I'll still try to get some extra money in. Also the most basic one: can you switch your bank account to get some money? First direct offers £100 if you switch to them. Quidco to check your electricity/gas supplier? Can you offer your parents that you check theirs as well through your quidco account? I did it for a friend who just doesn't bother with cashback sites and got £50 for switching her electricity from one company to the other. Can you compare your insurances and switch them too? These are small things but can give you some extra cash. Also can you downgrade your mobile phone tariff? My bf pays now £10 for the same package he paid £20 last year, that's £120 saving a year.

November is a good month, you'll have a scorpio child. I don't really believe in signs but I'm a scorpio and am liking it:).