Help to Keep on The Straight and Narrow Required Please

smileypigface

I am useless with budgetting ... I know I am useless ... I just can't seem to get a grip. I read this website and feel like I know all the 'theory' - I monitor the household finances, review them regularly to check we are getting the best deals on our utilities etc, have savings set aside for annual expenses etc - but when it comes to our monthly amount to live on I go to pieces.

I have been very lucky over the years - as the 'creeping death' of my debts has accumulated I have either had a small windfall or bonus payment at work etc and I have just about pulled myself back from the brink.

A few years ago I had got myself into a right fix with credit cards and eventually my parents bailed me out and I've just finished paying them back.

I've been married for the last few years (2nd marriage) and my husband and I earn the same each month - we don't live an extravagant lifestyle - but we aren't keeping to a budget either.

Just before Christmas we were very lucky in having an inheritence from a relative of mine - it paid for us to put an extension on our house (which means we have the space to stay in this house long into the future) and to pay 10% off our mortgage (our annual limit), then another £2K off once our new mortgage year started - which I felt was a sensible use of the money.

However, I've just updated our finances spreadsheet and we can't afford to pay off our credit card this month - we use a Tesco credit card for our monthly food shopping etc so that we collect the points. The idea is that we clear the balance each month so that we don't pay interest on it - but I've let it go to pot for the last couple of months and now we can't afford to pay the balance.

I've just applied for another 0% card and transferred the balance onto it so we can use the Tesco Card to buy food this month. Our freezer is quite full so I plan to minimise our food spending this month anyway.

I'm being made redundant in a couple of months and will be able to use some of the money to pay off the 0% card and plan to use the rest to pay off our mortgage - but we are limited to 10% again this year (and have already paid off £2,000) so the rest of the money will have to sit in an account and wait until the next opportunity to pay off the mortgage in early 2013.

I will need to get another job (and have a few ideas about part time work and maybe doing an evening college course to qualify in a new field of work as a longer term plan) - if we set ourselves a food and fuel budget of £500 a month then I would need to bring home £350 a month for us to break even. Obviously if I can earn any more than that then we can relax our budget a little.

I am just so worried that I won't be able to keep to the budget and will end up bailing us out from the redundancy money that we really want to reduce our mortgaqe with.

I'm frantically reading the 'old style' threads etc to try and learn how to feed the family on a much stricter budget than ever before.

I'm thinking maybe I need to hide my bank card and simply withdraw a month's money in cash and use that .....

I just need a big kick up the backside ....

Any tips on keeping myself on the straight and narrow would be much appreciated - and thanks for reading x

hadahardyear

THis could be reading about myself.
im the same as you, I know all the theories, I can do SOA till they're coming out my ears, but sticking to them is a different story.

However this month has been different because i have had a deadline of a holiday to pay for and have worked towards that. WHereas before, I would have been overdrawn every month, now with payday coming, I have saved up the £1600 i need to pay the holiday in the last 2 months.
Now i have done that i am wondering what the hell i spent all the money on before.

I find it helps to have a goal, something to work towards. Maybe try saving £20 and put it in another account out the way, forget about it then try for another £20.
Thats what i did to start and it snowballed. Now i have paid the holiday, I am attacking the debt

rising_from_the_ashes

I think really for the best advice we'd need to see your full SOA http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html with your income / expenditure / debts on to get a better picture.

If you're being made redundant - sorry to hear this - in a couple of months then I'd suggest using your new income after this. This way, you'll have a much better idea if ends do actually meet.

With regards to the redundancy money, personally, I'd much rather have this sitting in an account until you've secured new employment, rather than using it to make an overpayment on the mortgage now - at the end of the day, an overpayment to this is "nice & something to aim for" but not essential.

With regards to your monthly budget - again without the SOA it's really hard to say eg are there any kids in the household? £500 / month seems a lot for just 2 people for food & fuel - but again once we see the whole picture it'll be easier to comment.