Getting clarity on my finances

fantastiyk

Thanks Mamato3,
The music lessons we pay for monthly - £35 for piano and £40 for singing - then at least £10 a week for the diesel to get there. I have £20 saved for piano which starts first. I didn't save over the summer as intended as was trying to make ends meet.

Had made an extra payment to cc1 of £30 in an effort to try and reduce it a bit - its so disheartening paying £37 in interest in month as I have very little to throw at them in overpayments. The money that is going on interest are the amounts that would make the difference.
I had 2 purchases on the cc this month, 1 was for a school bag at end of last month for DD3 and one for 20 euro of diesel on a day we were in south of Ireland. I had paid the school bag money off the cc last month but it wasn't on the bill til this month. The 20 euro worked out at £16. In total I paid £99.99 off the cc this month and the actual bill reduced by £21 :mad:
I know it was just the way the debits and credits went on but it is so infuriating.
It's the only times I've used the cc since I started this challenge and it will only be in dire necessity if I use them again.

Day 68 of 1 debt vs 100 days - I haven't been able to make any more payments to this but when I read the other posts on this forum we are doing ok - we are keeping all our bills paid and reducing usage where possible. I have noticed that July and August it has been a struggle to make the cc payments and I hope we are able to continue to make reductions on them. I am hoping to be able to up the ante on them a bit when kids go back to school and college. Things are a bit too tight in this area for my liking.

We seem to be managing ok on the next to no money - I have £23 left to tide us over to next Wednesday. There's still some food in the cupboard and we may actually do it. One of our payments has gone into our joint account yesterday that I forgot would go in because there's 5 weeks in the month so although it is there for bills, its available for a week or so should we need it.

Our potatoes are now ready and we've been using them for a few days now and it is helping cut down on the grocery bill.

Groceries for August: £347
Diesel: £140
Presents: £0

and there's still some of both diesel and food left.

Am helping DH fill out another job application today so fingers crossed.

At birthdays of siblings and nephews and nieces except godchildren and big birthdays, ie 21sts, 40ths and 50ths, I have stopped sending cards this year - I send them a lovely text instead. We both come from big families so it's quite a saving. I know I can go back to cards in future when we are financially sound if I want to.

Off to do some work. This house doesn't clean itself - I have tried and it doesn't work!!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

mamato3

It must be so frustrating for you to be making your cc payments but for a chunk of it to be interest. We're very lucky ours is on 0% at the minute.

We got a letter home from dds school re her music lessons, £215 to be paid at the end of this month and the remaining by the end of February 13. It actually isn't too bad, I have £130 saved up so just to find £100 from somewhere to add to it!

Your doing fantastic on your groocery budget - mines wayyy out of control and will be high again this month with having the little guys birthday party.. hopefully, like you, once all the kiddies are back into their school routine this will ease down a bit.

Hope you have a good weekend

fantastiyk

Hi Mamato3,
thanks for dropping by. Your cc 0% sounds lovely. We're stuck with ours for the minute due to unemployment but on either of us getting a job again that will be the first thing we look into.

That was great about the music lessons.

DDs music lessons have gone up to £11 per lesson for singing. Just found out yesterday. Am on the hunt for a cheaper tutor and if they lived closer that would be great also. Have told DH and DD that the price has gone up and we all agree that it would be better to look for another tutor. Will have to talk to them over the weekend about whether DD should keep going to her til we find new tutor, in case it takes a while. It took over a year to get one in the first place.


Have checked my online banking and although our finances are close this weekend, they are just staying within limit :beer:

I set all this up earlier this month so I could save having to run to town to sort banking even if we didn't need groceries. So joining on here has helped us make slow but sure progress. At least we're holding our own, which is great in this economic climate. This also makes it easier to see exactly what we have left over where before MSE I used to decide to overpay on a cc payment and then end up spending on the cc again before the month was out just to exist.

House insurance is up next week so will get online later for a scout around to see how we can reduce it.
Our BT line rental is up soon also. I'm not sure whether we should renew it or pay monthly again as our contract is up with them in March 2013 for the broadband package, and they are expensive.
I've been thinking of getting the O2 package on my pay and go - pay £10 a month and get free minutes as well, then I'd never use the house phone during the day. We only use it about 5 times a month, ie drs appointments, calls to school, opticians, etc, and my £10 top up isn't lasting the full month recently as I try to use mobile to save paying BT extras. Up until recently I used to be able to make my £10 last 6 weeks.

Day 69 of 1 debt vs 100 days - just posting it here to remind myself when I'm next on - no actual payments made.

Anyway, hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

mamato3

Hey - your doing very well with you budgeting and staying within your limits wish I could manage a little better!

We're with Direct Line for house and car insurances they worked out pretty cheap for us and very quick if you have any insurance claim to put through. It's all done online so you could get a quote through them and see if its any better for yous. As for phones I switched to Talk Talk a few years back and to be honest they've been great. I know a lot of people have complained about them but for us, we've had no problems. Free evening and weekend calls and then I use my mobile for the rest which is O2 and £10.50 a month for unlimited txts, 600mins calls and so much internet usage. It works out really well for us. We pay for DD to have this as well. At least I know she'll not run out of credit if shes out and about! You're right BT is sooo expensive.

Talk Talk also don't mind you haggling! lol! which I do quite regularly! They either give me whatever offers that are open to new customers or knock £5 off for a year! They also gave us Lovefilm free for a year! Which I wasn't going to do but when I looked into it there was loads of the films the kids hadn't seen so I thought I might as well. I will cancel it before the free membership is up!

Hope you have a good Sunday mines going to be spent cleaning (I know how to spoil myself )

JoeyGrey

Just caught up on your diary and didn't want to read and run. You're doing so well, (you too mamato).

I think sometimes it seems like you're going backwards once you've had your LBM just because you are so much more aware of the outgoings than before when the cc comes out at every "emergency" (for emergency, read regular outgoings we forgot about).

Keep plodding on, you'll have got rid of those debts before you know it. And don't worry about the kids not doing expensive things during the holidays. My mum and dad were so broke when we were growing up and it made us really aware of the value of money. It really was the best lesson ever for me as I'm so good with money now. Your kids are learning skills that they will definitely thank you for later.

fantastiyk

Thank you Mamato3 and JoeyGrey,

My family had financial challenges when I was growing up and we never got anywhere, did anything that required money and its still the same for me with my kids. Sometimes I want more.
Yes there were lots of times spent in nature, but even then, as now there wasn't enough money for petrol to go to the beach.
Sometimes it gets me down that I haven't been able to break this cycle and other times I am better able to go with the flow. Its a tight few days at the moment until I get paid on Wednesday.

I think it seems worse at times because we're focussing on it whereas before I managed to turn a blind eye.

I am enjoying focussing now on my accounts online and juggling what or how much could go where, it makes me hungry to have a higher income again.

Thanks Mamato3 for the insurance info. I haven't gotten round to it yet, hope to do a lot of this stuff on Wednesday when the kids go back. That and a load of cleaning/decluttering and finding stuff for selling. Then to list it on ebay.
I have some work (my self employed work) hopefully coming up at the end of the month - fingers crossed and I hope to put any money I make after expenses towards Christmas presents, so that we don't have to make any indents in our payments to bills and debts.
I've also got some postcards printed up on vistapr1nt and am hoping to leave them out the next day I have to go to town which should be Thursday.
Have gathered up all the euro coins and notes we had around the house - in a cupboard here, a tin there, a plastic cup somewhere else and some notes we found in a handbag I had at a wedding 3 years ago and inside DHs suit - have 100 euro :T
Am hoping to change it to sterling on Thurs also and pay it off the cc - as long as nothing else comes up. Its amazing the things that pop out of nowhere when you're trying to pay stuff off. I could have used this money to make things easier til Wed but it would be better to reduce the debt.

fantastiyk

Hi,
I've just updated my signature and am recording it here so when I look back I can see how I progressed.

Day 73 of 1 debt vs 100 days: changed euros, made a payment and my new balance is:

£154/£460

which means this debt is down to £306 + interest

I am so pleased after all this time of going nowhere, I'm finally moving :T

mamato3

Hey there!

Your family sounds very similar to mine growing up - my parents were always terrible with money and to be honest, are still pretty rubbish! I know they rely a lot on CCs for monthy expenditure which worries me alot. Unfortunately there's not much I can do to help them out. I know my kids have an awful lot more than what we ever did as kids, sometimes I don't think its a good thing! I know I'm a lot better with money than they were/are although hubby drags me of course every now and again! The car saga continues .....

Your signatures looking great Every little bit that comes off gives you a little boost to keep going

Hope the rest of your week goes well.

fantastiyk

Have sales on ebay!!!!

£65 - have transferred money over to bank account.

The plan was to pay any extra money towards cc2 on the "1 debt vs 100 days" challenge to have it cleared asap.

But have already used the money for this months d/d payment off cc1 and need £70 for when the dd goes out so was thinking maybe I should leave that paypal transfer in my account for the d/d.
(Bought a suit for work and job interviews etc at £39 in sale - have shoes and 1 shirt so thats me sorted) and groceries for back to school.

Another part of me is challenging myself to pay it off cc1 and just work harder at getting it built up again.
Decisions, decisions!!

fantastiyk

Yikes!!!
just pricing around for house insurance - buildings and contents
Our renewal quote was for £228
Direct Line just quoted me £517
Confused have quotes from £183 - £512. The cheaper ones have their excess at £300
Will have to ring our insurance provider and see what their excess is.