Sparkles clears and saves

Sparkles87

After moving the cards around, they now stand at:

CC1 - £1072 (£988 at 0% till Oct 13)
CC2 - £2722 (£1010 at 0% till May 14)
CC3 - £1018
Savings for cards = empty

Not great but at least it gives us some room to breathe, which we'll need come my maternity leave as I honestly don't know how we're going to cope

May's task is to complete both our tax returns, should be easy as we've not done any self employed work this year, so that our income figures are ready to submit to tax credits when baby arrives in the hope that we'll get something.

Until then, we'll keep plodding and I need to find some ways of increasing money while I'm on leave

postingalwaysposting

Sparkles87 wrote: »

Not great but at least it gives us some room to breathe, which we'll need come my maternity leave as I honestly don't know how we're going to cope

Until then, we'll keep plodding and I need to find some ways of increasing money while I'm on leave

Sparks, why do you say you are unsure how you will cope? Do you mean finacially? Have you completed a SOA with your oh's wage and your maternity pay, or is it that you don't get a hell of a lot of maternity pay? Sorry if you have mentioned this before.

Would it be worth signing up to mystery shopping websites, I know its not much but its something you can do while looking after the little one. Plus if you get assignments where you have to purchase goods you can always use the goods at home/for christmas/birthdays.

Unsure of what else to suggest?

Sparkles87

Basically my income will drop by around £350 a month from September to January as it'll be SMP only. We have been living off my student income as well, and that's ended now too, so we're about £500 a month short of meeting the bills each month during that time. If I'd been working full-time it would have been the same drop to around £550 in September.

I'll be looking for extra work when I return in February to make my wages back up to full-time rates but until then it'll be very, very tight.

niknok_2

Hi Sparkles,

Just found your diary and now exactly how you feel Im 35 weeks preg and have just started maternity leave this week. I had 3 weeks holiday before that but it totally messed up my wages and SMP.

We have around the same amount of debt as you and have luckily had a very generous offer from my nan to pay my 10k loan and start repaying back when i'm back in work. Thought we were going to have a good amount to live off and then something else crops up to gobble the money I thought we had OH has just been told his work van needs to be declared to the tax office so that will make us another £50 worse off a month... I mean come on now he'd be better buying his own car!!

SMP sucks

Sorry for the long post on your diary hun!

Sparkles87

Hi niknok, it's a big drop and I don't even earn a huge amount, some of the advice about how to manage on SMP is so patronising too - like oh you'll save £3/£4 a day by not buying coffee each day and up to £20 a week by not lunching with colleagues :eek: I've NEVER wasted money like that.

Thankfully, I have a week's annual leave and six weeks full pay so it won't be until September that we feel it and I hope we'll have tax credits sorted by then. I'm so pleased we've had so much help with baby stuff as all she'll need is nappies and wipes until at least Christmas!

niknok_2

Sparkles87 wrote: »

Hi niknok, it's a big drop and I don't even earn a huge amount, some of the advice about how to manage on SMP is so patronising too - like oh you'll save £3/£4 a day by not buying coffee each day and up to £20 a week by not lunching with colleagues :eek: I've NEVER wasted money like that.

Thankfully, I have a week's annual leave and six weeks full pay so it won't be until September that we feel it and I hope we'll have tax credits sorted by then. I'm so pleased we've had so much help with baby stuff as all she'll need is nappies and wipes until at least Christmas!

OMG me either. I took lunch daily and never bought coffee because I never worked near a coffee shop haha I will probably still be putting the same amount of petrol in the car but ive been really frugal since xmas so hoping I can stay with this mind set.

Thats great that youve had such a lot of help Whens your due date?

I rang tax office about tax credits the other day and he said I wouldnt get anything unless I didnt go back to work!! I need the money now not at the start of the next tax year. HMRC so frustrating!

Sparkles87

niknok wrote: »

OMG me either. I took lunch daily and never bought coffee because I never worked near a coffee shop haha I will probably still be putting the same amount of petrol in the car but ive been really frugal since xmas so hoping I can stay with this mind set.

Thats great that youve had such a lot of help Whens your due date?

I rang tax office about tax credits the other day and he said I wouldnt get anything unless I didnt go back to work!! I need the money now not at the start of the next tax year. HMRC so frustrating!

We have two cars (we work 10-15 miles in opposite directions) so OH will start using my diesel which is more economical and I'll be trying to keep my petrol to £10 a week instead of £30.

We've got lovely generous friends and family so it's been a massive help. Due on 30th June according to scans but I think it's more 24th/26th according to dates which I know are spot on!

That's ridiculous! You can disregard £100 a week while you're on maternity so anyone's income drops £3900 which surely triggers a recalculation?
I may only have a job to go back to for two months, won't know until January at the earliest so playing it all by ear!
We have December's mortgage payment saved and if we can I want to use tax credits from July/August to save another payment for January.

beanielou

You seem very well organised Sparkles
:eek: to the job though.

Jonesy88

Just dropping in to subsribe
Good luck with your pregnancy/jobs/mortgage. Im hoping to start a baby fund next year so i'll be lurking to pick up tips!

Sparkles87

It is a bit :eek: beanie but I'm starting to feel it's more likely ending that continuing given current goings on, which is really sad. But I've been there 3.5 years by the time the contract ends, so they may offer something else but they'll have to make me redundant so at least that should cover us for a couple of months. Then I'm planning on post-grad next September so we'll see, trying not to worry about it as I'm not there to effect the outcome and little lady has to come first, not work.