Getting clarity on my finances

fantastiyk

Today is day 4 of "1 debt vs 100 days chapter 9.
I'm itching to get it paid off - 95 days early :rotfl:
Am a bit peeved as was hoping to gather up enough stuff to sell on webuybooks.co.uk as had read about them on another post. They buy dvds, cds and games as well.
They gave me worse rates than music magpie, who were woeful at 30p per item. webuybooks offered me 20p each for lots of items. They wouldn't take my books, which are mainly novels. Sorry, they made offers on 3. So basically, all this stuff is sitting in my house waiting to be finally sold on.
If this weather, ie. thunder, lightening and downpours of rain keeps up, I won't be going down the car boot sale route either. Had been considering it recently and dd3 told me she'd help if we could find one that people actually go to. Am clueless about the whole ebay thing and have asked dd1 for help with that as she's sold a few things on it in the past.
On a brighter note, I've gathered up 2 bin bagfuls of outgrown clothes belonging to us all for cashing it. Hope to get to town tomorrow to do that.

On looking back through my thread, I noticed I had a day at start of month also where I felt I wasn't getting anywhere.

I know that work would be the ideal way to pay this all off, and am forever on the jobsites looking for both of us, but there seems to be very little out there at present, and many employers haven't even acknowledged when we've applied for jobs. I suppose they have so many applying.
Have been tallying up my expenses for the month and the grocery spend is just under £300! I know there's 2 more days left of June but this is much less than the £440 estimate I had when I started out.

Youngest finishes school today and both her and her older sister off to have a day out with their friend's family for the day tomorrow. So am hoping to get a bigger shopping then, alone!!

We have 24 tins of beans left in cupboard - they're on offer everywhere at the moment so I buy more at every shop! Kids are turning their noses up at them now though.
My homegrown lettuces - started with 25 - some little thing has been eating at a few pots of them overnight grrrrrrrrrrr, must move them. Have 3 to 4 leaves now on most of the remaining ones so they should be ready for eating soon.

We planted our own potatoes, and some should be ready in the next few weeks, can't wait, my grocery bill drops dramatically when I don't have to buy potatoes.

I am rambling to distract myself from the fact that I have no funds to either buy anything or pay off anything today. How do the rest of you deal with it when it seems to be at a standstill and you run out of patience with it all?

fantastiyk

Day 6 of "1 debt vs 100 days chapter 9". I have £5 to pay off. Am glad this is moving again. I have gotten so impatient with the whole thing. Am staying in again today for 3rd day in a row to avoid spending and it gets monotonous.

fantastiyk

Haven't been able to make any more payments to my two challenges - had to use cc2 to pay for £10 diesel yesterday. Money is up the left with the whole UB crisis. I'm watching my balance as theres a debit in mini statement for something that I don't have receipts or record of in my spending diary - will get in touch with them when it all settles. Am not using the UB card until it gets sorted. I'm so thankful I started keeping a record of all spends since mid May. Thankfully I had a big shop done with Hubby's money so house all stocked up.
Kids have been baking this week, so the rewards are twofold - they are entertained, we have lots of nice goodies to eat - actually threefold - the decorations for the top of the icing are all out of date in August or September. I had a tidy out of my cupboards before the big shop and put all the items that had a "use by" date in the next 2 months at one side of the cupboard so I'd keep noticing them every time I open the door.

fantastiyk

Had a look at my spends for June:
Groceries: £318.02
Petrol: £130

both a lot lower than my original estimate on here when I did my soa

original estimate:
Groceries: £440
Petrol: £180
savings: £170:money:

some of my expenses were higher though, mainly one off spends and car tax and insurance was paid in June also so at least they're gone for now.
July is to be a relatively quiet month so hopefully will make some progress.

PollyOnAMission

Well done! You're doing really well

fantastiyk

Hi Polly,
Thank you, and thanks for dropping by.
I love your signature!

Not sure what percentage I'm at.
Counted up my debt still outstanding and I owe £3200. Ouch !! :eek:

I know it's a better situation than many though, so I'm gonna muck in and get on with it.

fantastiyk

LBM - May 2012

Original debt on here: £3469 + £90 (family event) = £3559

Balance at start of July: £3200
Total paid off: £359

If I could keep this up, I'd be debt free by April 2013

I find a challenge coming on

fantastiyk

On a lighter, brighter note: DH had a job interview at end of last week, and has been called back for a second interview - have been reluctant to get hopes up but it's looking good.

PollyOnAMission

April 2013 is soon! That would be great. Keep it up, you can do it
Good news on DH's interview

fantastiyk

Thanks Polly,
Have been a busy bee. Have listed a number of books on am@zon.

Am trying to make the 1 debt v 100 days challenge and things have been a bit slow here money wise. I know I can do it - not sure if my budget can though :rotfl:
I say that about my car all the time, when I'm in a queue of slow moving traffic and there's a corner in the distance or a car approaching in the distance, I say that I know I could get passed the slow car in front of me in time, but I'm not sure if the car could :rotfl:

Have had a NSD today :T must be my 5th this month so far. it was a beautiful day and I had resolved that the first good day that came along I would stay at home and wash and hang out to dry every piece of clothing I could squeeze into the washing machine.:j oh I am so easily pleased. It beats telling the kids we're staying at home as much as possible to save having to spend.

All of the 5 lettuces I managed to save from the hungry little rabbit that devoured the other 20 :mad: are coming along nicely. Will probably have to buy lettuce next week and possibly the week after that but then have my home grown ones to keep me going for a week or two. Must plant more this evening so they can be coming up by then.

Still haven't worked out how to do the whole eb@y thingy yet - dd1 is to show me.

DD3 said this evening at dinner that the only thing she noticed different about our lives since DH lost his job is that we gave up lovefilm! So my change of grocery shopping hasn't affected her then :T and all my scrimping and saving and worry hasn't been traumatising the kids!!!

Still no change on the work front, at least if a lottery win came our way, we'd be free to go on holidays straight away!! Wait I haven't done the lottery since I started on here