Pollyanna

ChopinonaBudget

£50 has gone out as a standing order to pay Mum's loan, so that's another £50 I can adjust my signature by

I'm still confused as to why my minimum payment on the M&S cars is so high (£60 on a £2.5k balance!)... September payment is now visible and it's the same. I like my minimums to be as low as possible so I'm ok during my low-earn months but can them make overpayments on my high-earn ones, but the M&S repayments are bigger than my huge nationwide credit card (balance of over £5k)

Might give them a ring later, see if there's been an error or if they can drop it to the usual £25 ish.

ChopinonaBudget

Oh and my new saver is open; that one is for my personal spends (£8.80 left this month)

One more to go I think... This one is to keep track of family weekly spends (£20 per week)

ChopinonaBudget

And .......

Because I've now spent the money that was sitting in the smile account, that balance now reads £0, so it's officially a 'zombie' account in my app and spreadsheet until after January when I've paid the tax bill

ChopinonaBudget

Bum. M&S T&C ask for 2.5% as minimum payment. That'll be in the £60 ball park then. Bum.

ZTD

ChopinonaBudget wrote: »

Bum. M&S T&C ask for 2.5% as minimum payment. That'll be in the £60 ball park then. Bum.

It's swings and roundabouts, a large minimum payment means you get rid of it quicker - whether you want to or not.

ChopinonaBudget

ZTD wrote: »

It's swings and roundabouts, a large minimum payment means you get rid of it quicker - whether you want to or not.

I know, I try to remember that, but as an example, this week I will have brought in a flat £60 via teaching :eek: on a good term time week I can bring in £350+ plus £100+ from job 2 plus £275+ from job 3.

Hence my need to keep minimum repayments as low as possible. A couple of months ago I paid off £2.5k total debt in one month without even budgeting. This month I've slipped back in by £950 and I've been budgeting hard and sticking to it. I'm used to it now, the eventual plan is to build a buffer for the summer months, but in the meantime I like my outgoings to be silly money so I can just chuck extra money at debts during the months I have it rather than the months I don't

ChopinonaBudget

I've just looked at my budget app summary and started thinking ahead to September. This month total income (not including tax credits which I think I'm going have to give back as an overpayment so they're safely stashed in an ISA for now) £810 :eek:

Total spends?
A lot!
Includes:
£140 NI payments (I paid July's invoice a few days late)
£150 summer budget (this is money for summer stuff that we don't get a chance to do the rest of the year because I work 6 days a week. It's being budgeted for, but I started budgeting again after the summer hit so I had no funds available for this one!)
£50 driving licence for daughter (driving lessons will be her birthday present, and I'll see about where to scavenge the money to stick her on my car insurance to take her out myself as a learner... I've found one short term insurer for learners but haven't shopped around yet)
£50 celebration for GCSE results (an annual thing apparently: there'll be AS then A2 then degree year 1,2,3 maybe 4.... I need to add a budget category for this!)
£20 my birthday eating out etc
Double the amount on petrol because of outings etc but that will even out over the year within the petrol budget
Groceries are an all time low of £125 :beer: YES!!!
Clothing budget was blown in one go, plus the surplus from the July, and a spend into September, so that looks worse than it is.
A few extra clothes for daughter as she has very very few for a load of reasons (one being that she never really bothered with clothes much when in school uniform most of the time, and now she's out of it, her wardrobe looks really pitiful). The other that she desperately needs a new pair of shoes so I had to juggle clothing budgets etc, she paid a chunk out of her allowance, and I paid some extra.
Oh, and my birthday spends, which make the budget look awful because they come out as 'expense' but they're not really as I was given the money to spend as a gift in the first place, but the app can't tell that so it looks like I went on a random blow out at M&S

I've come across this problem with budgeting before: because I spend money on stupid stuff and I fritter it, I don't have money left for stuff like haircuts (I have two booked in now for Friday, so that's another expense coming out) or clothes or new shoes etc. so as soon as I start a budget, i look at what we need and spend the budgeted amount, but it looks awful because I spend it all at once! (July's got rolled over, so August clothes budget and haircut budget has /will come out now and the app looks awful).

Also if I start a budget over summer, I have no funds built up yet, !!!! all income, and the most expensive month of the year as it's literally the only time I get to spend some time with my daughter and do lots of stuff.

Onwards and upwards! Monday I'll be earning again, and within a month I should be back on an even keel again

Here's to budgeting, even if it takes a while to sort itself out!!

ChopinonaBudget

And my new savings account is open! this one is for my £20 weekly spends. I've just got to sort out account name on laptop as I can't do it from the app.

I think (think!) I've got enough now..........

Watch this space :rotfl:

ChopinonaBudget

Ooo I get paid tomorrow from job number 3 £260 before tax and pension (tax is the full 20% so it's a sizeable chunk gone.

Bubblesmum

Morning

Ooh a budget app...... What one are you using..... It's on my list of todo.

We've used an excel spreadsheet for ages, but I would rather have something on the IPad.

Spending birthday vouchers is fab.... I always got book vouchers from a cousin for my birthday and it was a highlight.... He passed away (killed on his cycle) a few years ago..... Wish I could tell him how much as an only child they meant. happy memories