I refuse to be skint forever!!

menina

Hi Tootallulah, frantic is definitely a good description of my life right now! Ah, I can't wait for everything to be paid off and hopfully enough in the bank that my bank account doesn't end up hundreds minus by the end of the month as this is only good for a very short term solution! Only five more shifts to go and it should be over... I hope your moneysaving is going well xx

menina

Got paid today from my regular salary. £50 more each month now due to 1% pay rise and new tax code £631 on the dreaded credit card to be paid asap, also £458 at 0% until July....

So, the plan for the month is, use my extra shift money to pay off the credit card not at 0% when it comes in each week. I'm due a payment tomorrow, really hoping they've stopped taxing me at 40%..

The system I've got on the go at the moment is that I use my salary (from my main job) to pay all of the bills for myself and OH. I then try to save whatever of his salary that he doesn't need for his day to day expenses. (Obviously we have no savings, since we've been in debt forever and all spare cash has been getting thrown at that!!) Another debt that I haven't declared on my signature, or even really thought about is that I'm always up to my over draft limit of £1650 each month!! Just looked at the fees and it's £17 a month for this. So £204 a year On that note, this month I will use hubbies money to pay off the overdraft. I reckon I should be able to nearly do it by the end of the month, taking into account the £500 I have left over from my salary and maybe a bit of the extra shift money too. Means I'll have to live frugally but hey, I'm getting very used to that!! Any additional extra shift money I am going to stash in an old, unused account so it doesn't just get swallowed up in day to day life. I worked (and still am working!) hard for that!!

Other money saving things to do... definitely open a first direct bank account with the £125 cash back for myself and one for OH. Seems like a fairly minimal amount of effort for £250 between us!

I'll be back with an update tomorrow... I know it's all a bit boring lately but it's helping to keep my head straight!!

menina

Brummiebabe, you are spot on with your comments! Since I have extra money coming my way due to all the extra work I've been doing, I'll continue to throw that at my debts. Hopefully it will be enough and then it's the envelope and realistic budget strategy all the way xx

menina

Not exactly sticking to my plan, but paid £533 off my credit card today, the other £120 or so i owe hasn't cleared yet so i couldn't pay it off. Leaves me with £400 of 'real' money to play with for the rest of the month, which i hope is a realistic amount to live off without spending on the card. Have also downloaded a spending tracker app and will record everything i do spend. Will have 9 extra shifts to be paid for, so hopefully all should be well. Although, you never know with my financial history!!

Now, to study for the dreaded interview tomorrow.... X

menina

Yup, definitely not sticking to the plan. Just paid the remaining £121 off the c/c. Couldn't resist!! According to my spending tracker, I now have £256.93 to last the rest of the month. Hope I'm not deluding myself but I feel like this is possible! Going on holiday a week on Saturday and we will be taking hubbie's weekly wage for spending money so no need to break into my budget for that. There's always the extra shift money coming in on a weekly ish basis so I could dip into that if necessary. Hopefully minimal opportunities to spend money until Thursday as I'm doing extra shifts every day except for Sunday.

Have a good weekend everyone xx

menina

Will repay myself the money I paid off my credit card with money from 1 extra shift when it comes in. Am now on 2 weeks annual leave from my regular job and need to relax a little, treat myself to a Starbucks if I fancy it! Still waiting to hear if my interview was successful, I doubt it, just by point of fact that I haven't heard anything yet.

Hubbie had a melt down last night. Hates his job, feels horrible, stressed etc. Blamed in part the fact that we don't have a conventional computer, only iPad that doesn't upload cvs... So I've just been and bought a laptop. The cheapest one I could find- £179. That Sunday I worked as extra should cover it. Obviously it went on the credit card for now. If money gets to be a problem then I will sell the iPad. I hate to see him like that, some things are more important than saving money!!

menina

Wow! Haven't been on here for a whole month!! I went on holiday which kind of took my finger of the money saving pulse for a while.... Not too much, I am pleased to add, since my financial situation is currently the same as it was before, no better, but no worse either.

The money I earned from the extra shifts is sadly all gone. We over spent on our holiday, so some of it went to that. I finally got talked into taking that weekend in New York with my good friend, so pretty much the rest of the money went on the flight. Just got a bit of a lurchy feeling in my tummy as I wrote that, because I still need to pay for the hotel and spends. Hmmm. However, I am really excited about going so feel whatever drastic steps I may need to take will be worth it. Even if my money saving head is telling me very loudly that it would have been more sensible not to go!

Well, the flight and esta are paid for, the annual leave is booked, so the fact is that I am going. So, time to make a plan to spend as little as possible prior to going (on the 21st of this month). I will then get paid a couple of days after getting back so the plan is that HOPEFULLY everything will be paid for in real money and nothing on a credit card which can't be paid back with in the month. I am trying to lose a few kg prior to going so I'm happy to basically spend all my free time in the gym (no spend). The obvious thing to do is keep the food bill down. So, I'll be very mindful of that, definitely no spending on food at work etc.

Its my wedding anniversary tomorrow. I know that OH has bought me a present because he told me. He asked that I wouldn't buy him one, but that I'd put money towards him getting his tattoo which is happening next week sometime. Have a feeling that's going to hit my pocket rather harder than just buying him a pressie would have! I also know (the joys of internet banking) that he doesn't have much money left this week, but I know that he wants to go for dinner. (Yes my husband is SHOCKING with money!) I have Pizza Express vouchers so I think I'll sneakily plant the pizza seed early in the day tomorrow (in his mind!) and hopefully we can go for a freebie tomorrow night.

It would be nice if I could find a way to bring in some more money. Just don't feel I have it in me to do an more extra shifts at the moment... I will have to have a look and see if there is anything for ebay. Will also try to sell my bike on gumtree. Even if I could make an extra £80 it would be something. I'll see how I feel about maybe one extra shift, it would help!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend xx

menina

Good afternoon everyone... isn't it so typical that the sun has been shining brightly all day now that we're back at work?!

Yesterdays anniversary shennanigans went off quite well on a money saving front. Did the pizza express thing and went for a few drinks so probably spent around £30 in real money the whole day all in.

Other good news, hubby is going to stay in his current job until he finds another one. Being hot headed he handed in his notice last week, but fortunately his boss has decided to ignore it and just kept putting him on the rota! So the extra money that I thought I'd have to spend on rent/bills etc will actually pay for my hotel in NYC as originally planned. Makes the whole New York thing much more purse friendly. Lets just hope he sticks to it.

If I have the energy tonight, I will put 1x dress, 1x cardigan and my bike up for sale for a few extra pounds (hopefully).

Another thing on the money saving to do list for this week is to get a bank account with a 0% overdraft, or alternitively a virgin credit card that I can shift my overdraft onto.

Bye for now x

menina

Amazingly I have been accepted for the virgin credit card. 0% for 26 months I will transfer my overdraft (£1650) and the capital 1 balance whose 0% is soon to expire onto that. The transfer fee will be around £70 I think, but even so I will save over £150 in bank charges in a year.

menina

So, I've just updated my signature to the truth and nothing but the truth!

The old one said that my total debt at my LBM in Jan 2013 was just under £10000. Thinking about it, this was only the debt that I was gravely concerned about. (My credit card debt). I never even considered my overdraft, because hey, it gets cleared for about 5 minutes once a month when I get paid! It's still costing me £16 a month in fees though... I also wasn't too concerned about my Natwest loan because at least that is getting paid off every month, I can afford the payments and it will of course one day be cleared. Survival was making me bury my head in the sand because £25000 of debt was just too scary!

So, my new project is: 1- how to get rid of my overdraft- (in one sense this has been dealt with because I will be transferring it to a 0% credit card as soon as it arrives in the post). So yes, I still owe someone the money, but at least I'm not paying £16 a month for the privilage.

2- how to get my loan paid off quicker (hence saving interest payments) Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

The only thing I can think to do at the moment is to save up money to clear the balance ahead of time. I guess my money saving frugality must continue a bit longer!