The Ultimate Incentive Threadies go all out!

Dinah93

I have no idea what you test them for - I guess to see if they stand up to the rigours of day to day wear, if they're comfy etc?

Tete_en_l'Air

Do you eat toffee or any boiled sweets? They're much harder than nuts!

Dinah93

Hmmm good point.

Dinah93

Added 1 more 'for me' thing onto the list - cross something off my day zero list this weekend

Cinny91

Hope you're feeling okay today Dinah, and the rest of your family of course! Like Tete said, it's all the 'firsts' that are the hardest. That list seems mental though! Yikes!!

Was sneaking little reads all day today, and I've kind of forgotten what I wanted to reply too!! But that the table looks fantastic Tete I'd love to do things like that but I'd get bored half way in and would want it done yesterday. My fickleness is my curse!

And I'll just echo what everyone else said Flower, if the Doctors say it's nothing to worry about it won't be. I'm like you though, I'd still worry! And I'm sorry to hear the depression is creeping up again, have you been to the Doctors about it? Sending big internetical hugs.

Oh, and your Niece sounds like a little fighter Amy And you must be looking forward to moving back, but it must be weird after all this time over here too.

I think I'm a little late to ask but what are everyone's plans this weekend? Gardening, car washing and general relaxing over at mine. Spent £6 less than I thought I would on things for Sunday night so that's for the challenge, I'll move it over tomorrow and update then.

And one last thing while I remember for Dinah! Just in case you're still powered by it, Morrisons are selling 8 packs for Red Bull for £5, and if you could switch 8 cans of Diet Pepsi for £2

Birdie85

NIM has a tendency to ramble and over-complicate things?! I'd never believe it!

It was so nice today I popped down to the fancy park around the corner (the type with a bandstand and bowling lawns instead of swings!) to read my book and they were filming something, not sure what! I got told off because I kept trying to find a way to a spot in the sun to sit down, then when I did sit down I got told to move... the bleedin' man who told me to move watched me walk over there and settle down first! Idiot. Anyhoo, I found my sunny spot out of camera shot, finished my book and caught some rays, was lovely! Although they were filming the brass band which got annoying after a while as they kept playing a verse and chorus of 4 pop songs over and over... there's only so many times you can hear half of 'Ruby' brass band-y style!

Since you asked Cinny, we're Harry Pottering tomorrow and going to Pizza Hut for lunch with a £5-each voucher afterwards. A friend got married today and is having a wedding reception tomorrow night so we're off to that (must remember to get a card!) and Sunday we'll be chilling

Flower08

Cinny91 wrote: »

And I'll just echo what everyone else said Flower, if the Doctors say it's nothing to worry about it won't be. I'm like you though, I'd still worry! And I'm sorry to hear the depression is creeping up again, have you been to the Doctors about it? Sending big internetical hugs.

I've kind of been avoiding it to be honest OH really thinks I should at least speak to my midwife about how im feeling, but just havent so far. Really should I know.

Dinah93

Aye you should, you know better than anyone that if you can stop it early its less of a fight to pull yourself back, whereas if you let yourself go all the way down its a much harder journey out again. Huge hugs love x

Dinah93

I bit the frog and did the thing I was most dreading this weekend - my SOA for Cinny as she's going to tear it apart!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1620
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1103.73
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2723.73

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 845.4
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 116
Electricity............................. 34
Gas..................................... 34
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26.07
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 43
TV Licence.............................. 29
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 19
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 400
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 73.23
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10.4
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 5.2
Buildings insurance..................... 11.75
Contents insurance...................... 11.75
Life assurance ......................... 29.68
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Joint account fee....................... 13
Medicash healthcare cashback............ 39
Stroke Association...................... 5
Altzheimers Society..................... 5
Cancer Research......................... 5
Unison.................................. 18
Boiler/plumbing/leccy cover............. 27
Total monthly expenses.................. 2068.48


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 165000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 172500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 131200...(845.4)....4.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 131200....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
NIM HSBC.......................1500......37........0
Dinah HSBC.....................4000......104.......23.9
Dinah OD.......................1000......0.........19.9
Car Loan.......................6700......150.......3.2
Loan...........................960.......240.......0
Joint OD.......................500.......0.........16.9
Total unsecured debts..........14660.....531.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,723.73
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,068.48
Available for debt repayments........... 655.25
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 531
Amount left after debt repayments....... 124.25

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 172,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -131,200
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,660
Net Assets.............................. 26,640

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

The issue here, we don't budget for car tax, presents, holidays, extras for dental or optical over the £500 each I get on the healthcare plan (or any of these at all for NIM), the first bit of any vets bill before insurance kicks in, and we always seem to get £50+ of bank charges every month

The £100 for entertainment actually is all spends in a month so oil/wipers/bulbs for the car, haircuts, tights socks and pants, coffee and lottery at each of our works, £10 a week for NIM to pay football, £10 for me to take mum for coffee and a scone, that sort of thing. It's extremely rare there is any money in here for us to go out together, or to buy us clothes or treats like dvds.

Be gentle

Tete_en_l'Air

Morning, ooh I know you say it's for Cinny but can I have a go whilst I eat my breakfast? A few things that jumped out at me!

Dinah93 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1620
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1103.73
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0 What about MS/ebay etc? Where is this and where does it go?
Total monthly income.................... 2723.73

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 845.4
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 116
Electricity............................. 34
Gas..................................... 34
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 26.07
Telephone (land line)................... 18 - Why do you have this if you both have mobiles?
Mobile phone............................ 43 - presumably at this price you get plenty of mins/text so don't need the above? Surely either this or above can be cut?
TV Licence.............................. 29 - Shouldn't this be like £12.50? TV licence is not over £300 p/a. Anyway I thought you didn't have a TV??
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 19
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 - from what you say on the thread you spend a lot more than this in reality - this is where Cinny will come in! Also meal planning etc. Could you even go veggie five days a week and have meat as a treat? Or have beans on toast/soup for tea several nights a week at least for a month to give yourself a bit extra towards building up a car emergency account?
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 400 - yikes! You have a big car though don't you? Are you still doing a round trip to NIMs work then yours? I don't know what you can do about this in all honesty - you need the car for work (?) and don't think there are direct trains/buses for NIM... petrolprices.com for cheapest petrol in the area is all I can suggest.
Road tax................................ 0 - yeah you need to put money aside each month for things like this so it doesn't put you off-kilter with your budgets when it comes around
Car Insurance........................... 73.23
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 - as above
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10.4 - if this is prescriptions is it worth getting one of those annual prescriptions? Don't know much about them I'm afraid!
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 5.2
Buildings insurance..................... 11.75
Contents insurance...................... 11.75
Life assurance ......................... 29.68
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0 - Aren't you going on like four holidays this year? Where is this coming from?
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Joint account fee....................... 13 - What's this?
Medicash healthcare cashback............ 39 - Ditto what's this? Can you afford this at the moment? If it's some kind of medical insurance, how come you still have to pay out a tenner a month above?
Stroke Association...................... 5
Altzheimers Society..................... 5
Cancer Research......................... 5 - I think you should stop these for now. You're going to be so stressed with money you'll have a stroke yourself!
Unison.................................. 18 - I'm seriously starting to wonder why I pay into this myself TBH. They fight for payrises (albeit tiny ones at the mo) and the whole staff gets the benefit, even the ones who don't pay the fee. But as soon as you stop paying you can guarantee you'll need them!
Boiler/plumbing/leccy cover............. 27 - Doesn't this come under insurance? I don't know much about insurance I'm afraid. Do you really need it?
Total monthly expenses.................. 2068.48


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 165000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 172500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 131200...(845.4)....4.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 131200....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
NIM HSBC.......................1500......37........0
Dinah HSBC.....................4000......104.......23.9
Dinah OD.......................1000......0.........19.9
Car Loan.......................6700......150.......3.2
Loan...........................960.......240.......0
Joint OD.......................500.......0.........16.9
Total unsecured debts..........14660.....531.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,723.73
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,068.48
Available for debt repayments........... 655.25
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 531
Amount left after debt repayments....... 124.25

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 172,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -131,200
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,660
Net Assets.............................. 26,640

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

The issue here, we don't budget for car tax, presents, holidays, extras for dental or optical over the £500 each I get on the healthcare plan (or any of these at all for NIM), the first bit of any vets bill before insurance kicks in, and we always seem to get £50+ of bank charges every month

I've never ever understood all your medical covers - you explain them as though you think you're getting a great deal but I don't get what you get for it. We have an NHS (for now anyway) - which you seem to have to use anyway - look how long it took to get your knee sorted. Don't you have some sort of dental cover as well or is it the same thing? I put aside £10 a month for dental over the year - that's in case I need a filling each time I go (you should have seen the slating I got for that when I was asking about budgetting for one a few weeks ago - "Brush your teeth more!" Cheeky sods! I'm totally doing what a good MSE should and budgetting for a more expensive scenario rather than need a filling and have no money to pay for it. Anyway that's a seperate gripe) Maybe I'm understanding it wrong and you can explain why paying for all the cover is cheaper for you than paying as you go?

Ditto the boiler insurance - are you not better off putting that £30 a month towards debts? At least until they're repaid?

I don't remember seeing your contact lenses above.

You need to stop the charities for now - £15 a month is a good bit of food for you. If you feel guilty why not promise yourself that your first debt free month, you'll start up the DDs again and make a one-off payment to each of the amount you missed while you were paying off debt - this can come from the money that would normally be going off debts so you wouldn't miss it, just means your debts will come down quicker and you'll pay less interest. Giving blood is a brilliant free way of being charitable. www.blood.co.uk

If I were you, with payday coming up I'd be tempted to do the absolute minimum payments to the debts this month - to get out of the cycle of paying off debt on the 1st but putting things back on the cards by the 25th, if you see what I mean.

Have a really really frugal month - no alcohol, no going out, eat super noodles and beans on toast, just to try not to have to spend on the cards by the end of the month. (But you're going on holiday aren't you I think?)

When is your car tax/MOT due? - I'd be tempted to put aside a lump sum to cover these now if they're imminent, whilst you have a frugal month on everything else, and then you have peace of mind about that. Then work out how much the car costs in MOT/tax/insurance and divide it by 12 and start piggybanking it from next month.

It's not too late to start spreading the cost of Christmas - even £30 a month gives you £180 by December, so you don't have to hit the cards (as much) - if you start making cards/ crafting for gifts now too that could save you money..

There, hope some if it makes sense. I don't think I'm an expert by any means and I'm sure none of this is new to you. Hope I haven't come across as harsh, just being businesslike!