Countdown to clean credit file...

wannabehermit

clippy_girl wrote: »

hi wanabehermit! just thought i would pop along and say hi and also recommend that you check out the up your income board for ideas to earn some extra cash. i do mystery shopping which i find good, maybe you could try some of that while your are job hunting? its also something maybe DH could do when he leaves his job to do the business if he has any slow weeks etc... as most jobs you pick up with a few days notice and as a bonus he will already be registered as self employeed etc you can check out the mystery shopping thread here- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3297184

Thanks clippy I will pop on over. I hadn't realised Mystery shoppers still existed to a great extent, I thought it had all moved over to the win £1000 survey type things.

I've worked in a fair few restaurants and was at one when it changed, you could see the standard of service drop as soon as the staff realised there were no mystery guests anymore, not by me of course . When there were mystery guests everyone used to pick up their game at the time when one was due and you could spot them a mile off.

I will definitely have a look and register as it's something I've always wanted to do tbh.

wannabehermit

Sold a couple of bits on ebay last night, £50 for my ereader and £94 for DHs old iphone. So that's gone straight into the holiday fund along with the £25 I got last week from selling some baby bits on Gumtree. I'm on a roll with the selling stuff. Put a mountain of clothes on ebay last night although looking at completed listings on ebay I doubt if I'll sell very many. It hurts as there's some dresses of mine that have been worn a handful of times (some only once) and I'll be lucky to get a quid for them but I'm never going to wear them so I'm going to give it a few attempts at ebaying them before they go in the air ambulance bin. Also have a few other bits to go, some other old phones, more baby bits, plus there's a load in the loft for when car boot season starts back up next year.

Doesn't go anyway to clearing my credit file dammit but it does feel good. I only wish I could get a proper bank account at least then I would be scoring something instead of my well looked after accounts doing nothing for my credit file.

wannabehermit

Well it's been quite a while since I last posted, and another month down.

Car hasn't broken down since last time I posted, phew!

There's not going to be any getting these debts down this month, more the opposite infact. Really low this month for some reason, we don't seem to have spent anymore than we usually do each month so I'm not sure where it's all gone - DHs account has nothing at all in it and it's another 2 weeks until he gets paid :eek:, rent is due on Friday and we're going to have to use his overdraft to cover it I think and then next week will have to use the CC to do shopping :eek:. Goodness only knows what's happened this month.

As for the other matter I'm really angry. Here I am with a knackered credit file while he's swanning around with no comeback at all it seems. What happens to his 'share' does that get forgotten about because ^I^ got a dro? So he goes off, pi$$es it all up the wall, rolls it all into joints, hell he may as well have just smoked a few 50s, and gets away scot-free. I, on the other hand, spend years trying to get the debt down and manageable, struggle to pay the mortgage and other bills while he's getting drunk and stoned, then being the only one to have taken any responsibility end up !!!!!!ed :mad:. And now, on top of that he's swanning around in brand new designer clothes, expensive trainers etc while my children are wearing hand-me-down clothes and ankle swingers :mad:.

wannabehermit

Debt free? HA! Debts stacking up more like. :mad:

Really don't know what's happening, DHs wages ran out nearly 2 weeks ago, thank goodness we're with Natwest so even though he gets paid on Monday it shows up in the account from midnight Friday. I'm sat here looking at all the receipts from the last month and the 2 bank statements and really can't see anything out of the ordinary. We've had the hassles with the car so we paid a fair chunk off of the credit card when he got paid so that's one thing plus it was ds1s birthday at the end of last month so there was that but we've also had money come in from ebay sales so that should have balanced it out.

We've had to use DHs overdraft which was really coming down, plus we've had to use all the holiday fund, so now on the 1st of next month we've got to find the next instalment of that which we've had sat in the bank for a good few weeks.

So just council tax, holiday payment and credit card payment and half of DHs wages will be gone. :eek: Thank goodness for the benefits top ups that we get otherwise I have no idea what we'd do. It's silly because on paper we can afford all this plus be able to put away to pay the car off early. My budget includes birthdays, Christmas, holidays & days out and we should have a pretty good surplus but it's not happening. We keep every receipt and at the end of the month (wages wise) we put it all together and put it into a spreadsheet to see exactly where it's all going. We've only been doing this properly for a couple of months so atm it's hard to really get an accurate view of it all what with summer holidays and car repairs.

It's so bad I want to cry.

wannabehermit

:eek::eek::eek:

We have been overspending by an average of £550 a month over the last 3 months.

:eek::eek::eek:

My budget shows that we should have a surplus of over £350 a month, but in reality we've had an average deficit of just over £200.

:eek::eek::eek:

So time for an action plan:

1. KNUCKLE RIGHT DOWN - Things like take aways add up, you just think ah a tenner here will be fine but it's clearly not. Our big problem here is when the boys go to their dads, I don't want to do anything and just want to wallow so we get a kebab or a kfc or something. We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves here and just have something nice in the house that doesn't take a lot of cooking. Starting tomorrow. I have a pukka pie in the fridge, I can do the mash during the day and then just heat it up. Hey presto, nice dinner, no hassle.

2. REASSESS BUDGET - Having spent the last 3 months keeping every receipt and working out our average spend per month it's clear that our shopping and diesel budgets are simply unrealistic. I don't buy luxuries, buy mostly own brand stuff, check the prices before I go shopping, get bits from Lidl that I know are much cheaper so I can't cut down any further on shopping. Also with diesel we only use what we need, we're not tear-arsing around at the weekends burning it up (not exactly got the car for that ) so we can't cut down on that at all. I need to up those budgets then when we do overspend on other things it's not going to look quite so shocking. (Shopping is about £100 a month over budget and diesel about £60 a month)

3. SIT DOWN MONTHLY WITH DH - I look after the money, do the budget, add our spending up which I enjoy and DH is quite happy about so he doesn't need to worry about it but I think he will understand better if I show him EXACTLY where the money is going instead of telling him. This is the 1st time he's ever needed to budget so he's got to learn a whole new way of life. He used to be on a very good wage, by all accounts his ex didn't do too badly either, they had no children and a small mortgage so if they wanted anything they went out and bought it. Cash. No need to save or get credit, they wanted it, they got it. So it's hard for him to understand that it's not that easy anymore. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't go out and just get random stuff, but he finds it hard when I say we need to wait until pay day for x.

4. NOT REALLY AN ACTION MORE OF A CONSIDERATION - It's probably not as bad as it looks.
4.1 - This current budget was made at the start of the year when DH started this new job. Prices have gone up since then, esp food and diesel (see point 2). PLus DD was breastfeeding then, now she's on formula (£7.55 a week) plus the extra in nappies that's needed because of the formula and she's on solids and has a pretty healthy appetite.
4.2 - I was only able to start putting money aside for various things in the middle of the year so hadn't got a decent amount aside for the car and for days out etc. If I can get the amount away each week that I want to that will be much better
4.3 - I've started really keeping track of things at an expensive time. I started keeping all hte receipts at the end of July, right in time for summer holidays! So there was 6 weeks worth of school holidays where days out are obviously going to be higher than at other times of the year and I get eaten out of house and home by the boys. Plus the problems with the car meant that my car account was cleared out before I could get it up to a decent level. If we have no maintenance/repair costs with the car next month then that will bring it back down in line with my budget for that (fingers crossed eh!). And one last thing...birthdays. All but one birthday in this house come within a few weeks of each other, and while I have a budget for this I hadn't got anything aside before the 1st birthday came along.

I've put point 4 in so I don't get too disheartened. Yes we need to be tougher with ourselves, but I've started this at a bit of an expensive time of year. Hopefully a few small changes and no unexpected costs should get us back on track.

wannabehermit

Urgh! This is so infuriating not being able to have joint accounts. I asked yesterday if there was a way of having an account in one name with more than one card but there's not. You could add a third party but there will still be a link on the credit reports. Rubbish.

wannabehermit

:mad: Well I thought I'd chase up the ICO today as it's been a while since I last heard from them. My case worker is on holiday atm so hopefully he will call back on Monday when he returns.

It's so irritating that M&S won't even acknowledge anything. I just want this default settled so that I can apply for a VAnquis or Capital One card. I really want to start building my credit up but no point applying until this default has been sorted. Grrr.

wannabehermit

Spooky stuff. Post arrived this afternoon and in it a letter from the ico. How strange that I phone them on the day that I get a letter from them.

It says they have written to M&S asking what has happened, what they intend to do to put the matter right and what safeguards they have to ensure they handle data correctly. They have 28 days to respond to this. I guess they will write to me if & when they receive a reply from M&S to tell me what happens next?

wannabehermit

I just want to scream. We should have money left over each month to over pay CCs but we're scraping the rent from all over the place each month. Just checking the accounts and we're going to be doing the same yet again this month.

DH is paid on 23rd, I get TC's every Friday, CB every Tuesday and HB every other Monday (Natwest so goes in Sat). From DHs wages I take our monthly budget for shopping and diesel and put these into the savings accounts, transferring what I need as and when I need it into my current account. That leaves just enough in DHs account for car finance, car insurance, contents and CC payments. So his wages are all gone as soon as we get them.

The HB is transferred into another account along with £50 a week which should only leave us with another £200ish to find on rent day, but it's not happening. Rent is due Monday, I have 1 lot of HB in the other account plus 3 lots of £50, plus we'll get HB this weekend, leaves us £210 short on the rent. I get £255ish TCs paid on Fri which means the rent is covered, and the bills that I pay on Fridays will be just covered but it's literally by the skin of my teeth. It means I can't overpay anything this month which I really really want to do.

wannabehermit wrote: »

4. NOT REALLY AN ACTION MORE OF A CONSIDERATION - It's probably not as bad as it looks.
4.1 - This current budget was made at the start of the year when DH started this new job. Prices have gone up since then, esp food and diesel (see point 2). PLus DD was breastfeeding then, now she's on formula (£7.55 a week) plus the extra in nappies that's needed because of the formula and she's on solids and has a pretty healthy appetite.
4.2 - I was only able to start putting money aside for various things in the middle of the year so hadn't got a decent amount aside for the car and for days out etc. If I can get the amount away each week that I want to that will be much better
4.3 - I've started really keeping track of things at an expensive time. I started keeping all hte receipts at the end of July, right in time for summer holidays! So there was 6 weeks worth of school holidays where days out are obviously going to be higher than at other times of the year and I get eaten out of house and home by the boys. Plus the problems with the car meant that my car account was cleared out before I could get it up to a decent level. If we have no maintenance/repair costs with the car next month then that will bring it back down in line with my budget for that (fingers crossed eh!). And one last thing...birthdays. All but one birthday in this house come within a few weeks of each other, and while I have a budget for this I hadn't got anything aside before the 1st birthday came along.

I've put point 4 in so I don't get too disheartened. Yes we need to be tougher with ourselves, but I've started this at a bit of an expensive time of year. Hopefully a few small changes and no unexpected costs should get us back on track.

Just put that in to remind myself that we're at an expensive time of year and we've nothing put aside for it all. DS2s birthday was yesterday so if I take the £40 on presents plus the £60 on party plus cakes and little bits then that's over £100 so I would have had that left this month. Hopefully get past Christmas, fingers crossed for an easy MOT and then I can get overpaying and then this time next year I'll have been able to put some money aside for birthdays/Christmas and car.

I have to say I'm finding this DFD really helpful. As I write things down I'm realising that things may look crap on paper but in fact it's not as bad and there is a reason for it looking crap. Or am I just making excuses?

wannabehermit

:j

I've finally found out that I got the job for a supermarket that I went for at the start of last month. Their head office keep telling me that I'll hear either way but I haven't and yesterday I insisted that they get someone to phone me back. Apparently they sent me an offer letter ages ago, so he's going to get another one back out to me and I'll be starting mid Dec. :eek: Just in time for the kids to break up from school. Uh-oh.

I think we're going to be worse off which is a bit of a !!!!!!. We'll probably just about have a few hundred ££ a year extra coming in according to entitledto, but our outgoings are going to be more than that extra each year. So it's a pita and really annoying to say the least that we'll be worse off by earning more money but I'm trying to look at the bigger picture, 1. my children won't be children forever and then when the TCs stop I'll be not working, not having worked for a very long time and be so out of the loop workwise it'll be very hard to get back into it. And 2. it's a job that I can gain promotions in, so I may start off at the bottom but I'm going to try to work my way up and so in a few years it won't matter what benefit top ups we get. And 3. If we ever want a mortgage we'll be able to get a bigger one with 2 incomes as opposed to just 1.

Now I just need to wait for this letter so I can get onto nurseries etc to sort out childcare. Quite exciting but very scary at the same time.