Shortie's DFW Diary

Shortie

Hello peeps!

Firstly, apologies for my ramblings, if you fancy chipping in / making suggestions along the way then please do, but I'll quite happliy chat away to myself otherwise

We're not at home this weekend, so I'll set a couple of posts aside in a mo to post an SOA. I've done a fair bit to make the bills as lean as possible already as we only moved to a new house last month so I got rid of various subscriptions etc. I *believe* the only thing we can really foucs on now in the water (first house I've even had that was metered), electric and oil (only house ever with no mains ags supplied - eek!). At the moment we can only go on the suppliers estimated monthly bills until we find out how much we really will be spending....

Initially, at least, my main focus is to stop wasting the remainder of my money. I get to the end of the month with no spare money to pay extra money off my debts - I want to get to a point where I can chip away a bit more off them each month

Thanks for reading!

Shortie

Updated in this post (121)

SOA

*** I will add in my hubbies details tomorrow as that's in work. I see his (for now anyway) as looking after itself only, as he uses the incoming benefits (he gets carers now for example to my eldest gets DLA) to pay for petrol, his phone, a loan he has and anything left at the end of the month to dig himself out of his rather large overdraft. I will put this in though as I know that although I see it as 'self contained' it's still finances right?




Incoming wages, post tax: £3,298

Outgoings:

Direct from my account:
- Petrol - £100
- House Ins - £38
- Life Ins - £15
- Travel card for work - £476
- Entertainment - £100 (anything from cinema with the kids to a family take out) - this one is something we can look to cut back on to help repay debts. I don't want it to vanish totally, that would be unrealistic I think - maybe we challenge ourself to spend as little as possible, and what we don't spend goes off a debt somewhere..?
- Food - £250 - this is for 2 kids, 2 adults, 2 dogs, 2 cats and some chooks. it covers everything from food to toiltries. If it comes from Mr T (or alternative) it comes out of this budget. We should be able to cut back here - I'm going to subscribe to the Grocery Challenge for next month in a mo
- 'Yearly by Month' - £225 - this is an account where I have worked out certain annual costs like MOTs, car Ins, car tax, school uniforms, vets bills.. and broken the questimated total down to per month
- Clothing - £30 - Mr Shortie and I tend to keep clothes until they fall apart, but things need replacing, and while my youngest is happy to have hand me downs at the mo, my eldest grows out of his trousers etc - he had a 3 month check up at hospital last week - 3cm in 3 months... no wonder he's been having phases of eating loads more than normal!!
- Mobile Phone - £10 - 30 day rolling contract with Tesco. Gives me all the tetxs, call minutes and data I need

Other Monthly spendings:
D/D to bills account - I move £400 here to cover any changes to utilities- a buffer as it were. This covers:
- Oil - 61 (this is the guestimate as per last home owner, but I need to check this as it seems sooooo high!)
- Water (metered) - £46
- Electric - £66 (again, this seems so high compared to what we were paying monthly in London, but this is what the energy company have estimated for us (estimated as we've only just moved there)
- Council Tax - £130
- Sky - £26 -yes, not an essential but we don't live an extravagent life, and don't go down the pub lots, etc - if we ever got that close to the wall of course it would go, but this one stays for now
- BT and broadband - £40 (still in contract so this can't be changed even if there are better deals around..)

Debts
- Mortgage - £731 - I'm on a stonking deal here and unless it's free, i won't get a better rate - however that comes with the worry of knowing that if I was made redundant from where I work I would lose the rate and my interest repayments would shoot up..
- Extension Loan - £302 - carried from old house - I think this is at 7.9%?
- Bank of Mum and Dad loan - I need to start repaying this - no monthyl amount set yet, I want to start this after Christmas when in/out going settle down post the move


Mr Shortie: He isn't working so he gets paid the remainder of the Child Benefit (some is paid into a child trust fund), the DLA and the Carers Allowance. So, total incoming for him there is: £506.80

Mr Shortie's outgoings:
- Mobile phone - £35 (though when his contract is at the end he will look at doing the same as me for £10 if his phone is still in good nick)
- Plumbing Course Loan - £130 (he got suckered into this and has totally lost interest. he can pick it back up at any time, but regardless of if he's doing it or not, he still has to pay off the loan he decided to go for when the sales person 'complimented' him into enrolling for ht eblooming thing, sigh...)
- Petrol - guestimated at £100

I've not popped in a figure for 'bits' here (ie a coffee out etc) and at the moment, any spare at the end of the month is going towards taking small chunks out of him overdraft so I'm not including any of that in what I see as spare money



Mini Summary / Thoughts
.. okay, so according to my spread sheet, that puts me at about £600 spare each month. I've only shaved all the spendings right down 2 months ago just before we moved. I haven't been having this money spare as the house has been taking a fair bit of money up. I've also been burning money on lunches and convenience - this HAS to stop.

If I *really* do have £600 spare and I've not forgotten something major in my SOA, then I should easily be able to pay off an extra £200 off the extension loan AND start paying my Dad back right?? So kick up the backside needed and I'll be watching myself closely next 'pay month' (on 20th of each month) and trying desperately hard to knock the extension loan on the head first...

I do believe I've just had my LBM. I've always seen every month that I have excess as my spread sheet tells me I do, and just brushed it off that I burn it away on rubbish and it doesn't really matter. But it does matter doesn't it... I always thought I was doing fine as I met all my repayments and debts slowly went away, but it actually should be about reducing the debts faster if I'm in a position to, and clearly I am in a position too. I feel like a wally for not really realising this before :wall:

Shortie

So I face November in the following postion - I'm in my overdraft (I get charged interest but I'm well within my agreed buffer amount at the moment) but I have no spare money that's for sure. This month has been really hard..

We moved 11th October, and since then spent a few weekend and week days travelling back to Lonodn from South Cambridge to remove the last bits from the old house (which seemed a never ending pile) and also get the house ready for rental. That kained petrol alone, and add to that 2 trips away (in Britain) and me using my car to travel away for work last weekend too. My petrol bill has been horrendous this month

Add to that the Mr Shortie's cars water pump and camb belt needed replacing suddenly the week before we moved, so that was another £400 that vanished in a puff of smoke

I've also not been organised since we moved with food, so I've been buying lunches at work. At best in London, a lunch is around £5. Add to that tea and snacks and I'm hemorrhaging money at the moment.

This needs to change, hence I'm now here committing my thoughts and actions into this diary. I really wish I was a super being who didn't need to, but I'm not so, well... here I am!

Shortie

Christmas is looming and I only have 1 more pressie to buy for my boys. I think we've bought what we will do now for my eldest (9), and I just want to get one or two more little things for my youngest (5) to be happy with what we have. I've been good with the shopping and managed to get some specific bargains that I'm extra happy with - I got a really nice, hardly used RC Car for my eldest from a friend for £15. He's been on and on about wanting an RC Car for Christmas so I'm glad I managed to get this for such a reasonable price. We also bought the boys a PS2 with some games, 2 guitars and 2 microphones for £30 - that's for them to both share obviously but I know they'll be pleased as punch about it and I'm lucky they don't turn their noses up and older consoles (... yet...!)

I still have £104 out of my £200 kids pressie budget left (woo hoo!) and only a small amount of things to buy. So what we have left I will use instead to go towards Christmas food and treats :D


Mobile Phone: When my set-period contract period came to can end for my old Samsung Galaxy 1 back in July, rather than upgrade when my phone is still working fine, I move to PAYG for a bit. Unfortunately, that was quite expensive for my useage so last month I went to Tesco Mobile onto their £10 pm 30-day contract. I get all the minutes, texts and data I could want, and if my phone finally packs in I can cancel with 30 days notice (and the tarriff is only £10 for that month anyway...) and I can then do as I need for a new phone. Which leads me to....

Mobile Phone Battery: Rapidly, my phone is lasting a lot less time between charges and is also taking much longer to charge. I was starting to think I might need to look at getting a new phone very soon. But speaking to someone in work, he wonders if it's just the battery. I googled a replacement battery and I'm looking at about £6-7 to replace it. Definately worth a shot to save me the gazillions for a new phone if that is all the problem is! I'm going to wait for payday (20th) to buy it, but that's not far away

elantan

With everything going on its totally understanding that budgets gets squeezed and overspent, you will make it back though once things settle, are you happy in your new home?

rising_from_the_ashes

Whooooo! Hi Shortie:D (not stalking you .... honest:rotfl:).

Just spied your diary *subscribes*

Shortie

Yep loving the new home thanks Elantan The shame is we got our old house exactly how we wanted it, but once we had, we realised the focus we had put on getting house lovely didn't detract for the neighbourhood we were in, and within a year of having an extension etc, we looked to move. The new area in lovely, a total change around... We moved from a packed area in London to a tiny village surrounded by fields.

My travel back to work has gone up substantially but the trade off is okay with me as I love the new area

Hehehe :wave: Rising From The Ashes! It was something you said on my 'hello' thread that made me go 'yep, I need a diary to drop my thoughts into!', so thankyou - here I am. I started nosing at yours earlier until I was being sighed and huffed at by Mr Shortie as i was making us late for the meal

I was very well behaved tonight... I only drank some wine that came with the meal and the table water that was out. The children had a few soft drinks, and I've left Mr Shortie at the bar and have come to bed with my pooped 5yo.. But I think the bar spends tonight are at a pretty good low for us tonight. Mr Shortie isn't a big drinker either, and was sticking to a glass of red that came with the meal, I can't see too much of a dent being put in the cash I took out earlier

Actually, it's helped a fair bit because Mr Shortie finally 'gets it'. He has been pretty bad with money in the past but seems to have recently calmed right down (thank goodness!)

Shortie

Now there was a bit of a shocker.... I've known joining MSE that paying extra off the highest interest rate loan is the best thing to do, so I just did a quick calculator wis the 'Snowball debt calculater' and had a bit of a shock....

My Extension Loan is something like £20k ( abit less as a few payments have gone through recently..) on 7.4% interest over 7 years.

I thought I'd pop in an extra £200 into the repayment alaculator (not sure how feasible that *really* is but it's a starting point!) and my repayment went down from ending in December 2019 to September 2016! :eek:

I'm not sure if I can achieve it without my SOAinfront of me at the mo, but it's certainly a quite sobering / inspiring thought reminding me it's worth doing as many challenges as poss to get it paid off as soon as possible

elantan

I was just thinking there ... That £200 overpayment sounds like a challenge to me lol

It is amazing the numbers that come out of snowballing isn't it ... Gives you that wee surprise when you see how much you can save

Shortie

Absolutely, and when that's paid off in theory carry on and it's £500 pm extra to pay off my Dad or mortgage (that loan is £302 pm at the mo)

Shortie

So, today when we got back from being away we took the dogs up to the field at the end of the road so they could have a run around (they've been sparko since :rotfl:). anyway, at the top of that field is the allotment I've just taken on from the guy who used to own this house.

I was expecting to find a horrendous mess but I'm super pleased to say that it's mostly clear so will just need a quick dig over ready for the winter frost to work it's magic. And, as a bonus I found a pile of marrows that needed picking, and 3 small squashes. The chooks can have the marrows and we'll use up the squashes

We've decided to reallocate the decorating budget too - the house living area is sooo cold so we've decided to get a log burner installed this year and not next. It does mean though that other bits of decorating will now take a lot longer to get to as it's going to eat a rather large hole in the budget, but the house is sooooo cold - even Mr shortie is feeling it! Next weekend will also be about trying to winterproof as much as poss - we'll hopedully be fitting a upvc door (free) instead of the wooden, rotting back door. Fitting an old long curtain over the other rotting wooden door that is behind the fridge-freezer.