Pollyanna

ChopinonaBudget

Spoke to friend last night, she's now with cccs, cc have frozen interest, payment on cc down from £100 to £40.
They do sound brilliant. We spend last night talking about kids, general fluff, and how to spend as little as possible on groceries... She's an Aldi fan, I'm still sticking with my value ranges, but she's offered me a lift there next time she goes so I might take her up on it.
Last time I went it wasn't worth it for me as I buy so many value lines, Aldi worked out more expensive than what I was paying at supermarkets. And it's not like I can buy biscuits and things now.... So I'm dubious but open minded...

I suspect asda and home bargains will remain my best friends though

ChopinonaBudget

Just spent £11.34 on laundry liquid and softener :eek: That's the cheapest I can get it... Daughter has very sensitive skin and needs Tesco naturals laundry liquid at £5.50 each but currently 2 for £8, Ecover fabric softener at £1.84 each, no offers. The one saving grace is I can use tesco value liquid at £1.26 (yes!) for towels as her skin can cope with the limited contact that towels have as opposed to clothes.
I wash my bed linen in value stuff too. Can't tell the difference really.

I now have a bit of a mission over breakfast. My overdraft is still high due to time of the year, my Barclaycard is low, I'm going to work out whether it's worth spending groceries etc money on Barclaycard to free up the overdraft for a month or two. Interest wise there's not much in it, certainly not at the levels I'm thinking of (a few hundred a month), and it would mean my overdraft account which is where all my bills come out of has the pressure taken off for a while.
I'm due £500 pay on the 24th, and £344 tax credits on the 31st, I've still got some private income due too, so need to sit down and work out the maths an see if it's worth doing or not.

ChopinonaBudget

Verdict after maths -

It's not worth it as I have a decent paycheck coming in on the 24th, and tax credits due on 31st, and still bringing in daily private tuition income through the month too.

O/d currently stands at £1756 on a £2700 limit (I get worried when it's over £1000, not entirely sure why!)
O/d on 31st should be £750, which is £500 better than last month.

O/d on 31st November (or 30th, whichever), should be roughly £250, another £500 improvement.

I think I can forget the barclaycard and keep it for emergencies - I have no emergency fund as never able to build one up, and I have a big tax bill due in January, which I'm desperate to keep off the credit card as HMRC charge for cc but not dc. Weird. But if needs must then the devil whatnots...... So we'll see what transpires by January :eek:


Edit: I forgot I hadn't included PAYE earnings for the rest of this month, so actually the overdraft might even see some little black numbers at the end of November.....

ChopinonaBudget

Cycle maintenance course was BRILLIANT! I now know how to do an "M check", take the wheels off, repair a puncture, and adjust the brakes. No more worrying about repair bills or (more to the point) worrying about my daughter on her bike as it is in need of attention and I don't know how to do it. Haha!!

My daughter told me this evening that Barclarse took £2.68 out of her bank account, she went into the branch and complained, they said it was "monthly charges" (on a junior account?????), my daughter got pi**y, Barclarse gave her a tenner compensation. Go teenager! She so annoyed at Barclarse, she can't wait for her new account.

Oh and apparently they said "sorry, the charges were for a different account". So that would be a random person's account charges my school child age daughter was paying for. Unimpressed. Very unimpressed.

Heffi1

Wow I have been away for a few days and not posting too much, what a lot has happened, sorry about bunny

Great news about the tutor I hope that pays off as it will sort your daughters study out and not cost anything that in my books is a result worth celebrating.

Barclays are really awful aren't they, surely they knew it was a young person's account, where did they think she was going to get the money for charges. I am sure her ebay sales are not destined for the banks coffers ha ha

It is nice to have caught up again, I really need to keep on top of reading diaries, and updating mine too I suppose, but not much is happening with the cash flow.

Well not strictly true, my ebay sales netted me £15 odd so that is ok, only waiting for one more to pay and have relisted a couple of things that did not sell even though they had watchers.

Also as I have just switched energy suppliers from Scottish Power to First:Utility, they both took a payment, so it has been a bit tight, then yesterday 2 cheques arrived from Scottish Power for £227 so huge relief all round and it is pay day next week so things are back on an even keel again! Phew!!

ChopinonaBudget

Heffi1 wrote: »

Wow I have been away for a few days and not posting too much, what a lot has happened, sorry about bunny

Great news about the tutor I hope that pays off as it will sort your daughters study out and not cost anything that in my books is a result worth celebrating.

Barclays are really awful aren't they, surely they knew it was a young person's account, where did they think she was going to get the money for charges. I am sure her ebay sales are not destined for the banks coffers ha ha

It is nice to have caught up again, I really need to keep on top of reading diaries, and updating mine too I suppose, but not much is happening with the cash flow.

Well not strictly true, my ebay sales netted me £15 odd so that is ok, only waiting for one more to pay and have relisted a couple of things that did not sell even though they had watchers.

Also as I have just switched energy suppliers from Scottish Power to First:Utility, they both took a payment, so it has been a bit tight, then yesterday 2 cheques arrived from Scottish Power for £227 so huge relief all round and it is pay day next week so things are back on an even keel again! Phew!!

Thanks Heffi, I appreciate it, it's still very sad looking out into the garden and seeing it only half full of bunnies, and I spent a fortune on takeaways as I lost all motivation to defrost and cook last week, but these things do happen and need dealing with

The tutor is indeed great news, he's coming over tonight to meet us, I'll find out then how serious he really is about piano lessons! My daughter is excited about having tutoring as she is behind and hates it, so that's great

Your ebaying sounds good news! And every little helps! What's your diary? I tried to find it but failed.....

Toodles

ChopinonaBudget

Today was a bit of a spendy sunday, but then sundays usually are a bit spendy as I work six days a week so we catch up on much-needed shopping on sundays. It's actually quite nice now we're more organised as we don't always need much, and if we need nothing then we can shoot off to the park instead, but sundays used to be stressful pre-single-life, so it was lovely to chill out over a spudulike, knowing that we had only spent within budget on essentials (bar the spudulike!!!)

Spendy Sunday -

- Daughter got ear pierced (another one!) - I paid but I owe her this months allowance so will just deduct it, it's really her money not mine.
- Paid off remainder of daughter's allowance
- Bought daughter Edexcel science book on amazon (no cheaper than ebay, checked)
- £20 in Marks and Spencer on gluten free sausages, breaded chicken, and breaded veg things - the breaded chicken is quite expensive but a rare treat for daughter as she LOVES them, the breaded veg things are cheap and yum and for me, the sausages I bought in serious bulk and will freeze them - they are no more expensive than asda due to gf foods being premium prices anyway, and M&S gives her choice of flavours - she got red onion and cheese, pork and apple, cumberland etc etc etc, all apparently tasty, I wouldn't know, being vegetarian!
- £1.89 on korma sauce from health food shop. yum.
- £10 in spudulike (contamination free and safe for daughter, and nice and cheap at £5 each including drinks)

Dinner for tonight is pasta with value tinned tomatoes flavoured with basil, salt and black pepper - daughter's includes gf sausages.
Nice and cheap, except the sausages, especially considering the pasta is free :j:j:j:j:j

ChopinonaBudget

Daughter is now having tutoring, mum has offered to pay towards it, I may take her up on that, I may not, it depends on how finances pan out over the next few months

ChopinonaBudget

Last two spends of spendy Sunday done - £20 on tutor and £10 for daughter bus smart card.

Pay day on Wednesday :T

ChopinonaBudget

Well, not so much a plan as a forecast and how to work it....

I've set up a standing order to pay my Mum back at £50 p/m - not including any overpayments, at least she'll get something back every month and I'll stop feeling guilty about not paying her

Now, the overdraft -

hmmmm.....

I can bring my current account into the black by the end of November :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
But....
There's a wee hitch....

In December lies Christmas (I'm not going to go overboard this year, but it will involve spending!)

And a not so wee hitch ........

January 31st = £900 tax bill. Ouch.

So by February, the overdaft will be well and truly back in the red :eek::eek:
Not a lot I can do about it, and at least it look like I can cover it all, so thats's good :j:j

The plan...... (Cunning?)

Next year, my tax bill is going to be even bigger (I'm already earning more this year than last, wahey!!):j, so I'm going to open an ISA in February and filter off £150 a month (ish) into there to pay my tax come January 2014. At least this way I get a bit of interest.

I was initially thinking of ignoring it, using the £150 to pay off debts, and then using credit to pay the tax bill if I hadn't managed to sort everything out by 2014 (hahahahahahah, as if!), but the very big danger in that is that if my credit cards spontaneously lower my limit as I pay them off, I'm left high and dry in January with a £2000 bill and no way of paying it. And as uncomfortbale the idea of having savings while being in debt makes me, this plan makes the most sense and is the safest course of action.

It does seem a bit odd to be googling ISAs instead of debt stuff, but that's my plan and I'm sticking to it :T

Good news is the physics tutor was EXCELLENT! My daughter was much happier after one session, which is pretty imopressive as the whole thing was off-th-cuff and he was unprepared, and he still managed to get her to understand a load that she was stuck on (and she has a test today......)

So that's a stayer piano exchange will be a while, he doesnt; have a piano, but I can't see it being too long.

And I was very good and didnt spend £950 on an adiorable battered old baby grand in a music shop yesterday, even though I do have room for a baby grand now I've decluttered.

(After all, what is the point of decluttering except top create space for a grand piano?) :D:D:D:D