So I'm back again and I want to save for a new life!

cats2012

Just to say - according to your SOA you should have TONS of money left each months, where is it going?!

herewegoagain2010

I know it's scary when it's on paper, but as with everyone it disappears. We've had a lot of house, car expenses and uni fees to pay over the last few months. We started our debt free journey years ago, but were lucky enough to inherit some money to nearly clear our mortgage. Rather than pay what we had off, we stretched ourselves and for a couple of months and cleared the lot. Looking back it was silly and has left us with this debt now. I don't regret it, just want to get it back under control.

I've now got old spreadsheet filled working again with the money in / out to help me budget better. I've set budgets for food and extra spending which I've now got a spending diary app on my phone to keep track on everything with budget amounts all in.

herewegoagain2010

Updated totals after payment paid this for the month of Jan.

Car Loan 0% for life 11174 - Payment £302 / month
Zopa 6.8% 5063 - Payment £154 / month
Virgin 0% 'til Dec 13 2226 - Minimum Payment £25 /month
OD His 329**(Need to keep hubby away from this account so it's ot being added to)
OD Joint (£1 / day)......... 0* (*Am doing everything I can to keep it at £0)

My master plan

- Stick to my budgets that are in place and use spending diary app on phone

- Make sure I stick to the 10 No spend days in Jan as planned

- Car will only need £30 to top up to full and will have to last until pay day, so walk everywhere and don't use car!

- Have got children's new shoes ready for school ad their clubs were paid before christmas, no treats for them unless out of their pocket money.

-Starting the ebaying again and have already 14 things listed on the free day. 3 days still to go my sales are upto £51-48 already and I do have a lot of people watching the items so keeping my fingers crossed. Am going to try and list at least 10 items a week, but more on free listing days!

-Meal planning and using up freezer & store cupboard foods

-Am going to cut my own £200 spending down to £75 with no clothes or shopping for me. Just 1 x night out with the girls (planned before xmas) and £50 towards my new Christmas Saving fund.

-Get the 2 odd jobs done in the house (Need doing as soon as workman in available) Think it's going to be around £180 :-O It's not something hubby or I can do, so using mates rates to keep cost dow.

-Start shopping around for Car Insurance for Feb and budget to pay in full again (will reduce surplus for snowballing, but will save cash in long run)

-Start monitoring electric / gas usage and keep shouting at kids and hubby to turn it off and shut the door. (Have got free app on phone to help)

-Confirmed sky movies being tured off this week (£19 a month saved)

-Have cancelled all our paper and magazine orders (£35 a month saved)

Other than be super motivated and stop ALL non-essential spending, I'm spring cleaning and de-cluttering the house. Hubby back to work this week, so my new regime starts tomorrow! Watch out kids, their bedroom is first. I will find plenty to list on e-bay in there, so it's a great startig point!

herewegoagain2010

Still getting organised and have the box of last year's filing to do today. I don't know why I always leave it so long, but seem to do it at tax return time.Talking of tax returns I'll going to end up with a bill of about £1000 for 2012/13 so I really need to start putting money into a seperate account and get used to saving it.

I need to add it to my new update soa to it's all changed again since i did the first one. Need to sit down again and actually put all charges in. At the minute there's nothing for car insurance or servicing as we pay it in one go, but i know that's not realistic.

On a positive note the spending app on my phone is great! Phone goes everywhere wallet does, so nothing is missed! Hubby even suggested we go out for tea with the kids, but then said no we can't because of the budget! Brillant, think he's finally twigged I'm serious this time!

herewegoagain2010

NEW SOA STARTING FEB!

Income
Monthly income after tax................ 2080
Partners monthly income after tax..... 181
Benefits......................................... 574
Other income (gross)....................... 749
Total monthly income................. 3584

Expense
Mortgage (Paid off) ........................... 0
Rent .............. 0 (taken from hubby's wages at source)
Council tax...... 0 (taken from hubby's wages at source)
Water ............ 0 (taken from hubby's wages at source)

Direct debits paid monthly
Car Loan ...........................................302
Zopa Loan ........................................ 154
Electricity & Gas ................................ 115
Telephone, internet & TV ...................... 51
Mobile phone....................................... 72 (will reduce to £36 from March)
Pet insurance/vet bills........................... 15 (dd monthly)
Gas insurance...................................... 33 (dd for rental house)
Contents insurance............................... 35 (high due to hubby work)
Life assurance ..................................... 18
Kids savings (£25 each)........................ 50
Work giving (can't canx)........................ 18
Professional fees................................... 15
Hubby spends ............................. ...... 200 (into his account)
My spends (my clothes, hair, etc).... ....... 50 (into my account)
Account fee (need to keep for travel ins) ..10
Min Credit card repayment .....................25
Cash (withdraw on pay day)
Groceries. .......................................... 200
Petrol/diesel........................................ 100
Savings into 'savings pots' from Feb
Road tax, Insurance & Servicing Car 1 ....75 (into car account Halifax)
Road tax, Insurance & Servicing Car 2.....50 (into car account Halifax)
Dentist (hubby free so just me) ...............5 (into envelope)
Children's activities & sports ................ 110 (paid every term, but will save in envelopes in house to pay in cash for next term so no surprises)
Tax Savings for 2012/2013................... 100
Christmas pressies & Birthdays .............. 50 (into money jar)
Clothing& shoes for kids.........................50 (into envelope)
Haircuts.............................................. 15 (into envelope)
Entertainment, family treats .................. 50 (into envelope)
Emergency fund.......................... Nothing the minute, but need to get this sorted after the credit card has been cleared!
Total monthly regular expenses.................. £1968

Additional Feb expenses (Awful month as no money set aside!)
Bank Charges ........................................20
Car Insurance (to pay in full)...................300
Car Servicing (to pay in full)................... 300
Additional family treat money................. 150
Odd jobs around the house..................... 200 (am hoping less!)
Travel money for hubby ........................ 200 = Total £1270 approx
Surplus for additional debt repayment £470

herewegoagain2010

So a week into our new budget and we're sticking to it. I'm so pleased we're on track to keep out the overdraft. I've got the app for a spending diary and our £250 it breaks it down into £57.53 a week and out spending last week was £4-65 under!

Started a new week today with a total of £62-19 :-) The extra left over from last week will buy my friend's little one a birthday pressie.

Have started the ebay selling again an have £69 worth of sales and got 4 things already and another 2 to post. Have started a target list of things to get sold and will be aiming to list at least 10 items a week!

herewegoagain2010

E-bay Selling, Gumtree and other sales 2013 - Keeping a track of any extra money I can make in 2013! Would love to make £1200 during the year, so will have to keep busy decluttering and selling! Sell, sell, sell!

Ebay & other sales gumtree etc (after paypal, ebay and postage fees....it's all profit baby!)
Jan - £160.33 to the penny!
Feb - £412.04 updated 20/2 (monster ebay selling weekend)

Total for the year £572.37

herewegoagain2010

Right all 9 items that have been sold have all been paid for and only 4 still to post in the morning....can't wait to tally up my total profit in the morning!

I've treated myself to 3 new storage boxes from Aldi (£10) and am going to use them for sorting and storing ebay stock! Have started a huge list of bits that can go.

I've also been listing things in my local area on facebook and gumtree and made a £15 sale and the item is being collected on later this week :-) Have decided to keep a running weekly total of all extra money made in 2013 x

herewegoagain2010

Well that's my first batch of ebay for the year all finished, sorted, posted and tallied up! Managed to sell 9 items on the free listing and made £62-88! It's a brillant start and am having a sort out this afternoon to get more in the new ebay storage boxes ready to list.

The child benefit was paid into the bank today and for the first time ever I haven't thought phew, that will get me through the month. Budget looking great so far and we'll well on track. As long as we don't hit the overdraft again this month I'll be a very happy bunny!

herewegoagain2010

Well not posted an update for a few days. The budget is holding up (just!) and I've made a couple more sales on ebay with a profit of £24-08 so my total for the month of £86-96! Still got a couple of things to finish so should easily hit my £100 target.

The snow is helping with our spending although I did go and fill the freezer with meat from the butchers and some bread and milk. It's not too bad here, but we're expecting more.

Have been spring cleaing like mad and the house is starting to look loads better. I've been adding things to the ebay boxes all last week. I'm planning on a listing night Mon / Tues to try and get some sold.

Rather than putting the money in the bank, I'm saving all my sellig money in a pot in the house for christmas!

Am off to go and make some soup for lunch tomorrow and if the kids need a warming drik after the snow and get some washing put on the clothes airer to save using the tumble dryer.