** Wish I was a money fairy **

Housework*Fairy

Had my interview and I think I gave a good interview myself but my gut feeling tells me she would prefer someone with more managerial experience and I'm pretty sure there will be someone along with more than me.....which wont be difficult given that mine is zero.

Anyway I'll find out probably late on tomorrow or early Friday if I am being called back for a 2nd interview.

Housework*Fairy

Money update

Oh my goodness how I have let myself slip this month – it is absolutely horrific reading and I've still got two days to get through – however I have enough cash in my purse not to have to make any cash withdrawals.

Petrol spends
budgeted: £240
Actual: £253.03 (less a £20 mileage cheque still to be banked) = £233.03 (£6.97 under budget)

Grocery spends:
Budgeted £240
Tesco Online: £194.22
Other Supermarket spends: £179.06
Overbudget by £133.28

• Much of this was avoidable spending. However much of it was mindless – i.e. going to Morrisons for a salad and then coming out with three magazines etc etc.
• Some of it was on Mother's Day as I did send DH to Asda to buy Mother's day presents.
• Some of it may even be split between food and cash back but as I have only been keeping track on the amounts leaving the bank at the moment, I just don't know.
• However what I do know is that given I am buying a 7 day full menu worth of food from Tesco online, there is no need at all to be spending almost the same amount again in supermarkets and I am angry and disgusted with myself particularly how smug I have been about internet shopping halving my food bill.

Cash withdrawals
Myself: £125
DH: £240

• Again, I have not really kept a track of this very well.. I know there are times when DH has gone to the cash machine to get himself a tenner, and then I've asked him to get me some money while he has been there, so it's just gone on the spreadsheet as “DH cash – date – full amount” rather than who it is split by.
• We've had a chat about this last night and I (nicely) told him that I needed to keep a tight rein on spending next month and if he was going to be asking for money left right and centre we would fall out, so he's agreed to a £25 a week pocket money and a packed lunch each day.....(yes, he is a 40 year old man).
• I have also downloaded a spending app onto my phone and it's incredibly simple so I'll be more likely to use it and I have been tracking my spends since Tuesday when I purchased it. I'll do a spending report on here on a Sunday evening.

Debt repayments from spends account
£228.93. I did manage to shift some debt to a 0% credit card but the catalogue account still isn't paid off so I will need to ring them today.

School dinners:
£36.00 – I am loathe having to pay for these but whenever I send him with sandwiches, so much stuff comes back uneaten. At least with the dinners I know he eats them.

Unbudgeted spends:
£70.00 – I started a typing course at college which I have to fund myself however I can pay in installments of three lots of £70.00.
£35.00 – car repairs (my car needed a new alternator belt)
£250.70 – DS1's school trip. The £135 cheque didn't come out last month, so came out of this month's total. I bought him 100 euro and my parents matched that with 100 euro of their own. I've also had to give him £30 in sterling, then bought him a few bits (food and drink).
£12.09 on stuff for the pets – bedding and food etc.. we have budgies and rabbits neither of which are thankfully expensive to keep.


Fripperies
£6.00 on a memory stick for myself – employers are so tightfisted I am sick and tired of having to sign my life away to borrow one, so I just bought my own.
£5.98 – Amazon. I bought two books for my kindle, one at 99p and typically the one at full price has turned out to be dull, dull, dull.
£37.94 – DS1 wanted Fifa Street the new game.
£25.00 on clothes from Primark. Typically I had to take £12 worth of stuff back but then DS1 promptly spent the refund on some pyjamas.
£10.00 – athletics membership for DS1
£19.99 – weightwatchers
£5.00 on lotto. Have set up a DD – you gotta be in it to win it and all that.

Overspent by: £372.82 (would be £20 less but haven't banked the mileage cheque yet)

It also didn't help that we had no extra money in at all this month, no private typing work, no extra work for DH, no Quidco and not much mileage.

Action for next month
1. Stay away from the supermarket. Internet shopping only, and 1 SOS visit to the supermarket each week - paying in cash only (yes, even if I have to go to the cash machine myself).
2. £25 pocket money per week for DH and to make him a packed lunch. Tough luck if he runs out.
3. Track spending daily on iphone app.
4. Join the "1 hr a day in a more productive way" challenge.
5. Finally make some PAW payments to my debts.

mooomin

Housework*Fairy wrote: »

Grocery spends:
Budgeted £240
Tesco Online: £194.22
Other Supermarket spends: £179.06
Overbudget by £133.28

• Much of this was avoidable spending. However much of it was mindless – i.e. going to Morrisons for a salad and then coming out with three magazines etc etc. Then that's not a grocery spend - you need to split your receipts/spreadsheets. Spending money in a supermarket does not a grocery spend make. Magazines should be in your fripparies section.
• Some of it was on Mother's Day as I did send DH to Asda to buy Mother's day presents. As above.
• Some of it may even be split between food and cash back but as I have only been keeping track on the amounts leaving the bank at the moment, I just don't know. No cashback for you. Set a monthly food budget and either pay only with card from a dedicated account or only with cash.

Comments above You know you've been daft, the main thing to do now is learn from it and move on. Lots of hugs from Fresian Towers. Xxx

Housework*Fairy

I phoned Nationwide as they'd told me to give the cheque which they were going to send off to Very ten working days to clear which had now passed. Unfortunately they had not been able to process it because the original chap had not taken all the information from me.....so the young lady I spoke to yesterday took all the same information from me, but sounded deeply confused about it and kept asking for my card number. I told her it was a catalogue NOT a card and she would reply "it should have a 16 digit card number" NO. IT. DOES. NOT. I really don't have confidence that it will go through this time either....

PLAN B If it doesn't go through I think I'll have to admit defeat and just have them BT from my Tesco card. I wont be able to clear all the balance but maybe around half of it, then PAD to the catalogue.

Housework*Fairy

WEEKLY SPENDING DIARY POST

Oooh I am such an anorak - I love my iphone spending tracker app :j

£82.83 - petrol (I had to top up, so did DH, then I filled up today)
£55.00 - DH cash (this includes his £25 per week pocket money which starts tomorrow, but he says it should start on a weekend so I gave him it today to stop him moaning).
£54.65 - Groceries - this includes an SOS shop for sandwich stuff (today) and a full grocery shop (online) which came to £37.06 plus a couple of pop ins during the week.
£21.00 - school dinners. This will take me up to my next wage.
£17.23 - 'kids stuff' (I've only just discovered I can make my own category, so as of next week I'll be able to narrow it down)
£9.13 - my personal spends (this was a bottle of Blue WKD, lots of chocolate/sweets and some magazines)
£7.00 - gifts (£5 in a kids card and £2 into a leaving collection)
£8.50 - PAW to holiday (£4 from paper round, £2.50 as DS2 got sent home from school sick before last weeks footy and £2 found under bed)
£4.00 - my lunch at work
£2.55 - medicines (travel sickness tablets for DS1)
£2.50 - DS2 (school footy)
Total £264.39

New month starts tomorrow. Instead of PAWing to my credit cards I'm going to start paying towards my holiday, as much as I can, as I'm afraid we'll be spending on the CC for the holiday which I shouldn't have booked but did.....so, lets aim for damage limitation, I'll start paying the CC's down after the holiday.

Another job interview tomorrow at my old employer. It's a bit of a long shot so it probably wont work out as it's actually for two part time jobs which I hope can be combined to make a full time job. I wont hold my breath though....

Housework*Fairy

Boo to Nationwide. They phoned me back today to confirm they cannot balance transfer to a catalogue. As two customer service advisers had thought they could, I sense a training issue here. Anyway I reverted to plan B and balance transferred £1042.84 from my Tesco card which will leave a balance of £1296.02 therefore I now have to do a new snowball calculator. So, plan of action is to save up as much as I can for our holiday (August) and Christmas and then to pay off the catalogue.

Still tracking all my daily spending on my iphone app - it is so easy to do, why didn't I do it earlier.

Also making DH a packed lunch, although he eats loads. It'll probably push up my grocery numbers though as packed lunches cost a fortune when I only have DS1 to pack for, But it wont be costing as much as if DH were withdrawing money left, right and centre.

Had my job interview on Monday and although I was confident when I left, my confidence has now evaporated given that I was told to hear on late Tuesday or early Wednesday but I have heard nowt yet.

Keeping_Motivated

Hi de lurking to ask what your iphone spending app is called? I like the sound of it might be worth me tracking my spending too!

Housework*Fairy

Keeping_Motivated wrote: »

Hi de lurking to ask what your iphone spending app is called? I like the sound of it might be worth me tracking my spending too!

Hi :j It's just called "My weekly Budget" and is 69p. Very simple to use

Housework*Fairy

Wayhay DH got paid today, a day earlier than expected. He also paid in £30.01 worth of petrol expenses into the bank so I have quickly transferred that to our holiday fund along with the £10 of expenses that I would normally have paid out, but haven't needed to due to DS1 being away. Holiday fund now stands at £48.51.

However DH has ran out of money as he had to pay into a collection at work (£3) which he doesn't think he should have to pay out of his weekly money!!!

PS - I phoned up about the job I was interviewed for on Monday and the lady said she is still waiting for all the interview packs and scores to be returned to her. Not sure if I am being fobbed off or whether there is light at the end of the tunnel or not.

Keeping_Motivated

Thanks for giving me the name of the App. I have just downloaded it, I will try and have a look at it tonight and get started..hopefully its simple enough for a numpty

Good news on OH being paid early so you can get organised moneywise.