Tales from a country cottage

ani*fan

Just re-read my old posts and noticed that I've been well aware that the CCs are maxed out. Need to stop kidding myself on about things!


Anyway, I'm on a roll with working out ways to organise the cash. My new plan is this.

• I'm going to keep the money for bills in our current account. That way I'll know its there and not need to keep totting figures up every 2 days.
• I'm going to move the remaining cash to my seperate account so I can more easily see what is there for food, electricity, travel for uni and any fun things.
• I'm going to pay all my petrol money to my capital one credit card at the start of every month then use it to buy petrol through the month. This may even reduce the interest a bit.
• This card will be the one to be targetted next since my supervision debt was paid off. (:jstill very happy to have one less debt!) I will add an extra hundred quid to it every month.
• And...that's about it.

In the meantime, after tonight's calculations, we have £15 to last us 11 days. Once music magpie have forked out, we'll then have £35.

This HAS to last us. Like I said before, we have enough petrol and food if we are very careful. I really am determined not to get a charge this month. I also need to remember to leave enough petrol to get to the petrol station on pay day!

Now I've written this down, I have to see it through. I love this diary for that. Also I can read back my train of thought and notice where I'm going round in circles and try to address it. What a handy thing this diary is for me.

Thanks to everyone who's supporting me in this. You guys are fabulous. Really. :A Big hugs to you all.

ani*fan

Just had another thought about the petrol credit card. I'm going to stop thinking about my expenses as extra income and start paying them immediately towards the credit card. That way that cash will be used for what it's meant to be used for.

I'm thinking that if this plan works out, I will continue to pay my petrol money onto this card at the start of the month then use it through the month, even when my card is paid off. Are you allowed to do this or would it have to be in arrears then paid off at the end of the month? Is this making sense or am I starting to ramble?

I'm going to learn to manage my money if it kills me.:D

Igamogam

You are making a lot of sense. Its really all about finding the best way for you and as long as the debt goes down then you are cracking it. However there are lots of things that you may or may not have thought of. 0% credit card - I think you tried that didnt you. Try again as 0% interest for 22 months will make sooo much difference to your debt reduction. Set up DD for minimum on your cards and pay extra on the one with the highest interest ( if not already) - that way you wont get stung if you miss/are late with a payment - also makes it easier to budget. Stashing money : its amazing how quickly loose change adds up and you really dont miss it. I emptied the 20p pot before we went on holiday and had £35 - I thought it would be about £5 - paid for parking fees and icecreams. I also throw all my coppers in a bottle at the end of the week and every £2 get saved - so stashing money is worth a shot - maybe just 20p's. I have a T*sco credit card for all my diesel ( and I use a lot ) But its paid in full each month by DD and I get points on all the transactions. We also have a bills account whch is serviced by a SO from our other accounts and pays all the long standing bills - TV licence utilities council tax etc.

I think you have a great attitude to it all and your £346 is a fantastic amount. Keep up the positivity!

Lemon_Tree

i beleive you're making a good decision by splitting monies into different accounts. I've done this with my household bills money for years and it's the only way i know we won't bounce anything (when it was that likely in the early days). I seem to spend loads of money on petrol so i have one credit card which i put the costs on and then clear each month. A few years ago that was my Asda card as i got a 2p per ltr discount but that's dropped to a penny so i'm better off buying it on a different card.
you really have to do what works for you.

ani*fan

Thank you so much Igamogam and Lemon Tree for your words of wisdom and support. You've no idea how much it helps me to have you guys here to discuss ideas with. Thank you. :A I'm now convinced that seperate bank accounts is a good way to go. I have them already, it's just a case of using them wisely.

I feel a little bit silly discussing what to do with my hundreds of pounds when I have £15 in the bank and that's all. But I think this has been part of my problem all this time. I've believed that money management is only for people who have lots of money. How silly. I'll never have any unless I learn to manage what I get.

I'm not sure about applying for another 0% card. I don't know if I can face the transfer fee. I know this is a daft way to look at it, that long term I would pay less interest, but I really can't face seeing the debt figure go up however temporarily. Saving change might be an option but I do tend to spend every single penny. I will try it though.

I have 11 days now with pretty much no money. Me and OH went and did some chores today and picked up tobacco from MiL. We used most of the petrol so now the car is out of action for 11 days. We have meal planned with what we have, and bought a couple of wee things (milk, tins of tomatoes) to do us. There is £9 of electricity in the meter. It will need to last. I have money to get to uni and that's all. It's been years since I've been this poor but still I'm glad I had the money to cope with the car bill. Things could have been so much worse.

When the cheque from music magpie arrives I will need to cycle 5 miles to the bank to deposit it. And 5 miles back. Not looking forward to that!

We're having friends over tomorrow for a bonfire party. We have chilli and pitta breads, and hopefully our friends will bring some other snacks. There is enough alcohol left over from previous parties to do us and I'm looking forward to having fun and forgetting about all this for a night.

Night night everyone. AFx

ani*fan

I have loads of things to do today before our friends arrive tonight. Feeling a little overwhelmed so thought I'd make a list.

• Clean the bathroom
• Clean the cat litter
• Sweep the kitchen floor
• Sort out the flower beds
• Phone a client re. rescheduled session
• Begin a plan of where and when to move how much money to when wage arrives
• Try not to panic about 10 days with no cash
• Review my reading for uni (which is mostly done already, just one wee half chapter to finish.)
• Book car on for an MOT at the start of next month
• Include this and old garage bill for new battery in the financial plan

Food wise, I plan to have some porridge with jam for breakfast, egg mayo roll for lunch and chilli with pitta and rice for dinner.

We tidied up the garden and house yesterday and everything's looking lovely, just a bit of a clean required here and there.

It's an extremely odd feeling to be managing now with no money. I panic so much about it but actually, things just potter along as normal. I don't need to be spending all the time, it's better if I don't. I can't help thinking how loads of people are in this position every week, and how it must be for them. I'm feeling a bit lucky to have a wage coming at the end of this.

Talking of which, it will be my biggest yet as its my first full wage from the extra day at work and I also did some overtime I'll be getting paid for this month. :T Brilliant.

Have a lovely day everyone. Let's hope the weather holds out for our bonfire tonight.

ani*fan

Here's my revised SOA with a few changes added.

Monthly bills

Rent 558
Council Tax 99
TV License 12.12
Orange mobile (1) 25.00
Orange mobile (2) 27.00
Oil heating 178
Phone 25
Car insurance 23
Liability insurance 9
Electricity 40
Petrol 350
Food 240

1586.12

The DD for oil has gone up. This is because we used up loads last year. This year we're managing much better by simply turning the heating down (I know this is not rocket science but honestly, it gets cold here!) I'm hoping that by the end of next summer we will receive another letter saying it's going down again.

The petrol bill has gone up due to my new job. There is no changing this at the moment. My fingers are crossed that I can can transfer closer to home when work becomes available.

Debt repayment

Supervision bill - paid in full :j
Capital One (2) 611.74/17 per month min 30%
Capital One (1) 1235.98/66 per month min 30%
Overdraft 300/1.50 per month 18% interest
Abbey CC 3193.15/85 per month min 17%
Virgin CC 3734.97/97 per month min 17%
Car loan 2060/70 per month - don't know interest rate
Loan from MIL 2750/50 per month - 0% interest


361.50

The only change here is that I've reduced debt repayment to MiL from £50 to £25. She doesn't even notice and as an interest free loan, it should really be paid back last. I'll keep paying a little so she knows we haven't forgotten about it.

Income

My wage 1700
Private work 240
DLA 150
Other sources 300

2390

Total income this month minus total outgoings leaves £442.38.

I need to overpay debt by £100, and budget for an MOT and old garage bill that never seems to arrive. Will this be enough? Certainly hope so.

ani*fan

Oops. I didn;t update amounts owing on the cards. Never mind, it was an exercise in cash flow rather than total debt.

ani*fan

Just did it now so the totals are all correct. I've also put them in the order they need to be paid off. So it's the Capital One (2) card next. £600 so at £100 a month it will take 6 months, plus the interest. I wonder how I could speed that up? It would be great to pay it off in half the time.

It is unfortunately the time of the year when the car needs an MOT and road tax. This is going to use up most of our extra cash for the next couple of months. So the only way to get that card down quicker is to make some extra cash somehow.

Which brings me back to selling things, mystery shops and all that.

My friend just offered to lend me £50. :A I politely refused but am so happy there are lovely helpful people in the world.

ani*fan

I forgot to include train fares in the budget. Need to remember that in future.