I dream a dream.

patrick_bs15

Good luck, Beth - like others, I'm enjoying your diary: have you managed to reduce how much you pay for gym membership yet?

Sepa74

Hi Beth, thanks for telling your story. It always makes me smile when I hear about childhood sweethearts living happily ever after... because it just shows there is hope and rightness in the world

beth111

patrick_bs15 wrote: »

Good luck, Beth - like others, I'm enjoying your diary: have you managed to reduce how much you pay for gym membership yet?

Hi Patrick, Thanks for popping by. Yes, I have closed my account, now only paying £30 instead of £60. Im not really a gym kind of girl

beth111

Went into London to see Lee Evens last night:j we didn't get in till 2am!!!!!
It was good but not great unfortunately, we were packed in the tube like sardines and I have never seen so many people in one place n my life.

It was nice to spend some time with OH but next time will be closer to home. The whole night cost £160. :eek::eek:

Not much else to report, got the quote for the conservatory window blinds down to £150 from £230:j, pleased about that.
Convinced Oh he sell our 08 reg car and trade for an older more cost effective one, hoping it will sell between 7k & 8k & will spend 4k on the new one. Will split between OP and Saving with whats left.:D:D

Will up date Sig now as our OSB is,
Drum roll pls ........................£156,170 will get this in the 55's by month end. :beer:

beth111

Been a little while since my last post.

Have been quite busy with work the last few weeks, Not managed to make any more overpayment's yet.
We seem to be getting alot of bill's or someone wanting money every other day, DS1's school is the worst, a few £ here a few £ there it all add up.

Oh came home from work last night saying about a promotion his manager would like him to go for, It would mean him taking home £3/400 extra per month, which would be great!!! :beer: Trying not to think about it that much just in case but hears hoping.

Not sure how our finances stand this month, seem to have lost track of the spendng diary AGAIN. last time I checked we only had £40 in the bank, I have £90 in my purses and we should get another £225 at the end of the month plus I will work enough to get £60, BUT have a few bills to pay out of this.

IN £415
OUT - Blinds £150
Food £65
VC £36
Ds1 School trip £15
Savings £149 ( this could change when I take a peek in OH bank account)

I will sit down at the weekend and go though all the payments this month properly to start a fesh on the 25th.

icontinuetodream

well done on the blinds beth!!

beth111

Made an overpayment of £225 :beer:, Bringing to total for October :j£320.

November is going to be very tight, lot's to pay for. DS1 has another school trip & Will finish off the xmass pressie shoping soin December I can Focus on food and DRINK :beer:. OH and DS2 also have Birthdays.

Will pop back soon.

beth111

Had a lovely half term. Trying to bet back in the swing of things this month, I got a bit lost and unorganised over the last few months. November and December are going to be very tight money wise with Christmas coming up, SO my plan is to finish all the prezzie shopping in November then food and drink in December. We shall see.;)


November tasks.
Dad Xmass prezzie (DONE)
Sis 1 Finish prezzie (DONE)
Neph 1 1 prezzie
Neph 2 2 Prezzie (DONE)
DS2 Big Prezzies (DONE)
OH nan Prezzie
DS2 Birthday Prezzie
OH Birthday Prezzie
Put aside money for birthday treats.
Pay Virgin £30(DONE)
Pay Tesco £150 (DONE)
Over Payment £230 (DONE)
Holiday Payment £51 (DONE)
Year Spend pot £50 (DONE)
Pay DS1 school trip £15 (DONE)
Up Credit card 2 by £50 ( No way have the money this month to up the payment. Try again December?)
Sort NI Payments (210) ( Paid £70 still owe £139)
Pay SKY £20 (DONE) ( turns out I only owed £1.88)
SELL CAR (7K?)
SELL CAMERA (£300?)
Get selling again!!!! As will need the money.

Im tired out just thinking about it all.

pstones578

beth111 wrote: »

29.08.11
Hi Everyone,
Well my MF dream seems to be crumbling slowly we seem to spend way to much money!! this month I have not been able to overpay the aimed £225 BUT we do have that to save.

To be fair we did buy two chest of draws that we did need at a cost of £100. It seem to be all the little bits be buy.

My OH does not seem to be on Bord, he likes the Idea of paying it off early but does not seem to help with saving the money. He is on about buying another TV!! we already have 2 very large TVs but yet he seems to think we could do with another!! :mad:
He does not seem to have any money sense, now I no I am no angel and I do spend money but I am the one that sorts the money out and deals with every aspect of our finances. I get frustrated as we don't seem to be going any where we are stuck in this rut.

Im working self employed but I have so much competition It does stress me out getting work. I am starting back next week in my second job so that should be another £160 per month to tied us over but again I am stressing about next year when we will loss a chunk of money per month. what are we going to do then??? my OH could do soo much better for him self but he has no drive, enthusiasm or motivation he is just happy as he is, this is all well and good BUT what happened next year when we loose £££ per month??? he say's "Im working full time you do something" I AM I run my own business (2), I look after 2 small children, I run all our finances, try and pay off the £5k debt we are in , save for Xmas, next holiday, Tax ,insurance etc, work a second job, Sell what I can on facebook, do surveys, look at money saving sites. What more can I do????

Sorry this is a morning post but I have to let it out some where and I am thinking whats the point at the moment.

Incoming and out goings
Mortgage - £684
Council Tax - £137
Tv - License - £13
Water - £36
Gas - £36
Elec - £25
Virgin - £60
Tesco - £100
Virgin cred - £100
Barcleys £70
MBNA _ £6
Life insurance - £21
Gym - £60
Lovefilm - £6
Food - £280
Petrol - £125
Phone- £25

TOTAL £1748

Income
OH £1412
ME £550 min
Other£500
CB £133
TOTAL £2638

- £1748

TOTAL £890

PLUS just remembered £23 Milk
Per month transfer £50 - Butlins
£50 for yearly exspedicure
£225 overpayment

HOW THE HELL HAVE WE SPENT £890 ON NOTHING???????????????????

I have since 2004 kept an excel spreadsheet which shows all our incomings and outgoings. I also use Microsoft Money to track where we are against where we should be in the future. Another thing that I did is track in excel overspend and underspend each month so absolutely everything that is variable from month to month is tracked. You would find use in this in that you never have a moment where you wonder where £890 has disappeared to. Tracking to this level also helps you spot any trends that may be bad habits or may be things that you actually need to feed into your budget.

beth111

Thank you PSTONES, I will def be looking into some sort of spreadsheet. We are much better than we where but till a long way to go, I will get OH to sort that out for us.

I seem to be very unorganised, I used to be soooooo good but since have my kids it has all gone out the window, I know what I need to do but never get it done, Like selling the car and the camera, that's over £7k wasting away. I really need to get my act together.