"Simply not solvent!

buddiebabe

Hi Seaxwyn

Glad to see things are starting to look up for you and that your managing to get your work done without spending all day on here :rotfl: :rotfl:

Keep up the good work

Buddiebabe x

Seaxwyn

Thanks all

Chevalier, no I haven't! But when one of my invoices get paid I promise I will. My spending diary has revealed we are going to Sainsbury's three or four times a week - what a waste of time!

Buddiebabe, I DID spend all day on here! I only clocked up 8 hours by starting at 5.30 and staying on the computer til now. Another waste of time!

Any bids on your 77 items yet buddiebabe?

Nighty night

Seaxwyn

Seaxwyn

New month - update time. According to my spreadsheets, our income exceeded outgoings by £767.95 in Feb - great news.

This is despite paying the winter quarter gas bill and renewing car insurance and paying the whole lot in one go (of course I did this the MSE way and will get £77 in cashback too).

But even better, something must be wrong with my record-keeping because we actually owe £596 less than we did on 1 January.

March and April should also be good months. OH has been offered some more teaching work and offers are coming thick and fast for me.

Actually doing the work still proves a challenge and as usual I'm behind on a couple of projects. But I am determined to sort out this stupid problem. I've had to turn down work this week which I could have done if I hadn't been wasting so much time. Hope I can report progress on that front next month.

chevalier

well done you two! Glad to see that there is some progress. It must be great to be getting work in again.
Can I suggest an anti time wasting strategy?
I have several things that must be done in a day
1) studying
2) house work
3) writing my diary (long story)
4) being on the net.

But I found I was doing all 4) and none of the others. So what I do now is set an alarm for 20 minutes. When it is up it gives me an audible cue, so it sort of wakes me up to the fact that time is passing. This helps me a lot, and though I am still a bit behind on my studying, the house is cleaner!
hope this helps
chev

Seaxwyn

Thanks Chevalier - I like the alarm clock idea and will try that. I'm intrigued by your diary and want to know more about that!

Monthly update time. I'm gutted to see that the debt total has jumped back up by £273. My spreadsheet shows a balance of £659 more in than out in March, so either my information is wrong or there is a bigger credit balance in OH's accounts, which is not a bad thing.

Big spends this month included the MOT and car tax (£343) and £595 on food :eek: I know this is an area where we need to get a grip. Also £154 on clothes - including school shoes for DS, school jumpers (overpriced and horrible grrrr) for DDs1&2, and much needed workwear for OH, who has not had new clothes in many years.

Workwise things are looking good as OH has got a further six days teaching and other work for two more months. I have been overwhelmed with offers and have just quoted for a job which should be at least 20 days @ £250/day.

Time-wasting still remains a HUGE problem for me and I've got to get to grips with that.

OH is dragging his heels a lot with DFW things. He won't get quotes for life insurance and I'm thinking of just cancelling the joint policy I'm paying £144/month for. I have separate cover should I die, and it might shame him into action.

It's hard to be very optimistic about money things but at least spring is here and I've got lots of blessings to count.

chevalier

Did you really mean you are paying £144 A MONTH for life insurance. WOW if that is true you are REALLY overpaying, unless the amount you are insured for is truely huge. I have generally seen amounts of about £20 for life insurance (though this was the single rate), so you could save a lot here. Is it to pay off the mortgage, or just for general spending if one of your passed on.

Ref the diary. Well I have a really cr*p memory, so I try to write down the funny or cute, things my two young children do.

Seaxwyn

HI chevalier

Yes we are paying £144 a month!! That is for both of us - to pay off the mortgage if either of us died. I have a separate policy and pay £7.77 which will pay out £100k in the same event.

I did look into alternatives but can't get anything very cheap as my OH is 57 and the mortgage has 20 years left to run. Most providers don't seem to want to insure people after age 60.

But I'm sure we can get a better deal and set OH the task of investigating back in January but he just won't get round to it.

I think I'm going to cancel anyway and renew my nagging campaign.

The diary sounds lovely. I so wish I'd kept a diary when my older children were little. I have a good memory but even so there must be so many precious moments lost. And they love hearing about the funny things they did.

roswell

Have you looked into how paying £144 a month extra on your mortgage would make a differance a sort of "Self insurance"

Seaxwyn

Crikey no I never had. Thanks for the suggestion.

I've only just worked out that it's £1737 a year. Paying it off our debts would probably be a better idea.

I hereby firmly resolve to deal with this in April and not let it drift on another month.

bandraoi

Do you need the mortgage paid off in the event of something happening to your other half? You bring in most of the money, so in the event of his death, financially you would still be reasonably ok.

To be a bit safer, you could insure his life for a lesser value, and your own life for the value of the mortgage. That way if the worst did happen, either way, the family would be protected.