Getting clarity on my finances

fantastiyk

thank you DFW . I have been browsing, and making a meal plan. Must go and catch up on the free sunshine we're having!

PollyOnAMission

Hey fantastiyk

It looks like we have similar levels of debt and monthly income. However I see that you have SIX people in your household whereas I only have myself and two dogs to cater for. I've got to say, you are doing AMAZINGLY well! I am really impressed.

How are you doing keeping your spending log? I find it really helps and is my one source for finding out exactly where I'm at overall (I do it digitally so have all my different accounts/credit cards etc in there). It's easy to get slack with it and 'forget' to record things but I force myself and I'm glad I do

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine

fantastiyk

Hi Polly,
Having had a dog many moons ago, you could say you have 3 to cater for.
Out of the 6 people my dd1 pays towards her keep, is just finished her job to become full time self employed at her business so although she has been contributing that could waver if her business has slack times.
DS has just completed a college course this week, if there are no repeats, and he has a part time job 2 shifts a week in a shop. DD3 and DD4 are still at school. So although the oldest 2 are included in groceries and electric etc they buy their own clothes, pay for their own entertainment, petrol etc. dd 3 has gotten EMA this year and pays for some things herself, but it doesn't stretch to everything.
My husband lost his job a couple of years ago and was reluctant to travel far to work away from home as he did when the kids were smaller. Also he looks after elderly parents who would otherwise have to go stay with some of their children if he didn't. We don't have enough room. If he has to go away to work they'll have to leave their home and he doesn't want that to happen.
I am self employed though with the recession here my work has pretty much dried up. I haven't been that well for the last year and didn't have any spare energy for work.
We are both looking for work and hoping to get back out there. While we had adjusted quite well at the start of his unemployment, last year our dd3 was finally accepted by a singing teacher, after a years wait, and the singing and piano lessons cost a lot. She is a very gifted singer and although we can't really afford the lessons on our budget, that is when the debt crept in, it is what she wants to do for a career and is well on her way to it. She has achieved 2 years above her age in singing exams so is definitely gifted.

We grew our own potatoes last year and they lasted for about 6 months. DH chops sticks from old trees that fall in our area during storms and we light the fire every evening in the colder weather. Haven't bought oil for a year now and even then it was a third of what we used to buy.
Hopefully this tight period won't be forever but we do need to make the necessary cuts now.
The spending log I have on excel on the laptop. I just make a note of everything I spend - well that's the theory anyway. Just realised today that I didn't include the monthly charge for my overdraft. Think I'm getting everything covered but now and again I find something I've missed. Your method sounds so much better.
I like your signature - it makes the debt look smaller.
Thank you for coming over for a look.

fantastiyk

It's been 2 weeks since I joined and due to loads of bills and expenses coming in I haven't been able to make a dent in my debt yet.
I've made lots of savings on groceries and that has probably ensured that my debt level hasn't risen, but it gets so frustrating that it's not going anywhere.
As this week doesn't look any more promising with more bills I'm finding it hard to keep motivated. I'm not going to go out and spend or anything but its hard not to be able to get started.

chevalier

You are very close to breaking even, so I am sure with a bit of a push you could at least get that far. Ref your OH looking after relatives, is he due for attendance allowance (if that still exists?).

The grocery budget is the obvious target for some savings, as I think you already realise, so meal planning and taking an inventory of what you already have in is a way forward.

Other streams of income, are mystery shopping, doing surveys online etc. They do add up over time. And of course selling anything you can live without will give you a cash boost now too.

Can your self employed business we resurrected at all?
chev

fantastiyk

Thank you Chevalier,
I kept a budget diary for the last 2 weeks of May and my petrol spend was £65. Had put £180 on here for month, so have made lots of savings. Kids activities after school have dried up a bit with exams on so am running less to lift them.
Groceries also were less than I had guessed. Spent £105 over the 2 weeks so will be a lot less than the £440 monthly I had provided for.
Car tax and insurance were both up last week so have had an expensive one!! Paid car tax by cash - they don't take credit card.
Am broke til next payment comes in. Had to pay insurance on cc so that,s going up. Will have to use cc for milk and bread. Have only ever had to do that once before about 3 years ago, on a crisis week when OHs pay cheque had bounced for the 2nd time. And then only for a week. We have a wedding at weekend this week so things have gotten tight. All being well the next 2 weeks should start to even it all out.
Was shocked when I totalled up Mays expenses how much we give to others. We both come from large families. And we have fallen into the trap of presents for god children, newborns, 18th and 21st, communions, confirmations and weddings for nephews and nieces. Now we have brothers and sisters hitting 40s and 50s and 25th and 30th wedding anniversarys and we have allowed ourselves to get sucked into the gift giving at these milestones, kidding ourselves that we weren't out that much as we weren't coughing up for every birthday etc. Although May was an extreme month we paid out £202 to other people's presents - that's crazy.
And in our own house we had £260 worth of extras - one offs that won't come up again, but then life is full of the one offs.
It made me see that I don't overspend on groceries. Up until now I had grouped all that money together. But it made us realise that we have to let a lot of these present giving occasions go. I'll have to tackle this with my siblings as they keep organising things and asking for the money which I don't have. i had been agreeing to things as I felt the pressure of saying no as others will have to up their share. But that's not going to solve the financial problems.

fantastiyk

Just updated my signature :mad:

more work to do to change that!
Have joined ebay and quidco and organised online banking for an old disused account that I was hoping to filter any extra money into - being hopeful I know!
Having difficulty trying to cut through all the info on ebay to get to how to get the stuff on etc :eek:
I feel I'm wasting good money making time, going through it all and posting on here but I want to make myself accountable. I might not be any better off yet but at least I have been able to make changes.
Saved on car insurance, also so thats a plus. Though I have shopped around for it like this for years now.
Will look into attendance allowance.
Have been trying to get my work back up. Had a health challenge which made it difficult to work with. Waiting on test results hospital appointment any day now.
I knew May and June were going to be challenging months so at least by doing this SoA and tracking my budget etc I am keeping a better grasp of it than I would have in the past.
Would love to do a save £ a day challenge but as haven't the bare essentials it could be a few months before I get there.
Am off to do some housework.

fantastiyk

Ok,
I've taken the card shuffle and I've been paying off my debts in the right order.
Which is CC2, CC1 and overdraft.

I've used the minimum repayment calculator and gotten my eyes opened :eek:

If I were to keep making the minimum repayment on CC1 it would take me 17 years and 10 months and £2,145 of interest :eek:

Thank fully I'm starting to really get a grasp of how much money I am wasting and having to spend on a credit card because I don't have any money.
I counted up how much I spent just to have my £300 overdraft the other day - over 11 years I've paid £1045 in interest and maybe a bit more because I can't remember/find when the monthly charge went up exactly.

I'm at the beginning of putting a plan together that will get me out of this debt.I have noticed in the past few weeks that some groceries are shooting up in price. In our local supermarket a head of broccoli was 89p, yesterday it was £1.29 :eek:
I walked on by. Am going to look into growing my own sprouts for when the tins of beans run low!

debtfreewannabe321

hey

For presents i have started doing surveys, they are boring and mindless BUT they have so far netted me a few quid in vouchers . I have paid for everyone's birthday this year so far with vouchers earned so probably saved myself close to £100 on that.

Where do you shop for food? I've dropped the big supermarkets for my main shop and use approved foods for dry stuff (esp cereal! we get through so much!) and either the butchers or donald russell for meat, then aldi for everything else. I also take £30 from the budget each month to stock pile offers in the SM's like washing powder.

Your plan sounds interesting are you going to share once it's in place

fantastiyk

Hi DFW,
thats a great idea for presents. I'm keeping the amazon voucher for music books for dd3 that she'll need in sept when music lessons start up again. If there's anything left I'll put it towards xmas and 2 winter birthdays.
I have been shopping in lidl, asda, tesco depending on our schedule but town is 15 miles away. Our local supermarket is 5 miles away - in nearby village. It's Nisa, I think they add on the prices every morning. I find I spend more if my younger 2 are with me. they still arrive at the trolley with "a puppy dog please feed me look" and I give in. I get some meat from local butcher, just buy less of it and make it go further. A fruit and veg stall is in the village on a mon and fri but it depends on how much is left.
I do stock pile also but don't have a set amount for doing it, just buy a few of whatever's on offer.
My plan sounds interesting - not sure what the reality will be yet :rotfl: If it makes sense I will share - and if it's daft but funny, I'll share the laugh!!
In the meantime, I'm tidying out all my work stuff, books and information on healing, sorting out paperwork, tax credits, my work accounts for the last year - reckon they could be dismal as have been keeping an eye on them throughout year.

On plus side managed to bring down cc2 a bit - sold scrap metal hubby had gathered up that was lying around from when we renovated our home many years ago - he's a hoarder :T