Building a newer, simpler life

AdventurousSort

Sod's Law is, you look at your spreadsheets and realise you have even less money than you thought. Just once in a very long while, you realise you have more and I've had one of those moments :j:j:j

Found out I'd double-counted one CC bill so 'found' £1.5k!!! Was about to clear out the savings, batten down the hatches etc etc but now we're ok this month and can go on our long-awaited hols with a (kind of) clear conscience :A Ok it's not really new-found money, but it feels like it. I'd been dreading updating the spreadsheet.

So have now cleared the CC with the 0% ending. It's one of the ones you can use load-free abroad so it won't be staying clear but that plan is that we clear it every month now there's a hefty interest rate (and only use it for overseas trips). July will be tough as all our holiday spends will be on it but we'll also not be racking up costs in the UK. Hopefully we'll be able to weather that as then my income goes right down :eek:

Today's (minor) MSE dilemma is whether we should use both the £8 off when you spend £80 vouchers at Waitrose before we go on hols (expire before we get back). The second would have to go all on store cupboard stuff, but not sure even we could manage that, I mean how many loo rolls and tins of beans do you need?! Tempting though.

OrangeFairy

Hi Adventurous

I hope your holiday spending stays under control. When we went to Spain we ended up overspending by about £75 which was a bit annoying as I was determined not too!

I use Mr T vouchers to stock up on things like fruit flakes, cereal, cereal bars, freezer items and toiletries.

OF x

AdventurousSort

Hi all!
Well, I'm back... mainly inspired by MumblingTaff's diary :T, which I read virtual cover to virtual cover over the last few days. And I was there because I'm facing a new level of challenges money-wise, and felt this was the best place to deal with it by logging my steps back to financial sanity!
Over the next few posts I'll try to explain why I'm here... for now a brief update to say am currently cooking up a leftover soup (I probably would've just chucked most of the ingredients in the bin - I have too low a tolerance for squishy fruit and browning veg). Spring onions as a substitute for onions (thanks to I Can Cook on CBeebie!), garlic, spring greens, tomato, lentil/tomato pack thingie from the cupboard. Will whizz it up a bit when cooked. Storecupboard, freezer and fridge pretty bare after first week of being frugal, so stock-up at Aldi later.
Right - just popping over to MT's diary to say a massive thank-you... Back soon

AdventurousSort

Ok, so a lot has changed in 2 years!
I've moved 250-odd miles away from home with DD for work (permanent jobs in my area in scarce) so have set up a second home, while DH and I commute between at weekends. This is the root of the financial issues, as we've used all our savings and a chunk of credit card debt to renovate a house in the new location (luckily much cheaper than family house area but we had to go for something in need of improvement). I'm lucky that with belt-tightening and a new attitude to spending, we should be able to get back on track and saving again in 12-18 months.
The issues? We made some poor decisions in doing up the house - thinking like the people we could afford to be a while back and not like where we are now! In fact, that's probably the root of it all, wanting a lifestyle of regular coffee-shop visits, nice clothes and stuff but really needing to adjust our expectations.
The situation now is we have around £12,000 debt (most on 0%) but no savings, which is pretty precarious (brought to a head when the boiler broke in family house and I found out we did not have enough money to pay for it to be fixed...) I have always been quite cautious so it's been a shock to find myself in this position, to be honest am feeling embarrassed and ashamed.
On the plus side, we earn pretty well, particularly DH, so there's no excuse for not sorting this out. Having scaled back our plans massively for the new place, we are now done bar a stair-carpet, which Mum has promised me as a birthday present! Main task is to sort out a proper budget to pay back the credit card debt and then build up a sensible reserve again.
This month should be the last month of a big credit card (due to boiler), so when that comes in along with DH salary (which varies a lot month to month) I'll do a proper plan for March.
For today, need to:

* Aldi shop to restock. It's a big one as cupboards are empty but aiming for no more than £50
* Batch cook some kind of chicken pepper thingie (that's all the inspiration we could manage this morning!) and divide up between DH and me
* Bake some cookies as thank-you to amazing colleague
* Do some marking
* Walk in the park for some exercise (got terrible cold so can't manage anything more strenuous!)
* Tidy up house, sort out recycling so it's looking more or less manageable for week ahead
Hope everyone's having a good weekend

AdventurousSort

Evening all!

* Aldi shop to restock. It's a big one as cupboards are empty but aiming for no more than £50
£50.70 spent in Lidl plus £3.75 in Morrisons so not too bad - and plenty to keep me going with some fresh shopping top-ups.
* Batch cook some kind of chicken pepper thingie (that's all the inspiration we could manage this morning!) and divide up between DH and me
Done, admittedly by DH, portion each in tubs, plus soup, which have to say the use-up-the-cupboards soups looks properly revolting (brown and sludgy due to the lentils) but hoping it tastes better than it looks!
* Bake some cookies as thank-you to amazing colleague
Done, and actually by me (am not a keen cook), half choc-chip (or rather choc lump - bough Lidl cheapo choc then smashed it up with DD's rock hammer thingie, cheaper than proper chips) and half choc-chip and walnut. Yum. Had to syphon off a few for colleague or they would have gone sharpish. Always best more or less straight out of the oven.
* Do some marking
Some progress on student assignments, which given am still full of cold is not too bad.
* Walk in the park for some exercise (got terrible cold so can't manage anything more strenuous!)
Epic fail. Not even managed 6000 steps today so won't get my Bounts
* Tidy up house, sort out recycling so it's looking more or less manageable for week ahead
Partial success but found new leak under kitchen sink so place is in mini chaos. Ugh.

Total spends for this weekend: £95.41 - includes shopping, petrol and new headlight bulb for DH (he does a lot of miles shuttling up and down the country), fish supplies (DD got a tank for Christmas so we got some weed and food, next weekend there will actually be fish in it) and postage for a few bits.

Plan for this week:
*No food spends at all til next Saturday. Any luxuries like coffee out (I am a total coffee fiend) must come out of my personal allowance (each get £50/month in new plan). am well-stocked at home and work with pods for making my own, admittedly not as good as a Nero but good enough. Lunch at home or packed every day (includes fieldtrip on Wed - must plan ahead)

* Start revised budget plan to discuss with DH next weekend. Get clear picture on 0% period expiry and set budget for saving towards that, replacing DH car next year and our August hol (flights paid, need to save towards accommodation etc)

* Sort through stuff DD has weeded out into throw away, donate and sell and look into online car boot sites or FB selling pages (any recommendations welcome!) ebay is too time-consuming (I work very long hours) and the kind of stuff we're selling ATM is not worth it.

Have a good week everyone!

AdventurousSort

Just found out that the 0% rate on the CC, which has most of our debt, is due to end in November I had thought it was sometime in 2017. It's impossible to put aside what we'd need to pay it off by then, so will look at a BT for DH to apply for (he earns way more than me and has been at his work and home address longer than me).

Bit of a shock, but forewarned is forearmed...

AdventurousSort

Pleased to have a NSD today. Batch cooking for lunch then use-up fridge and freezer stuff for dinner. Came up with a proposed budget to run past DH. Took the time to go through our online account and include all the sneaky direct debits that we have never budgeted for, as well as those additional costs like haircuts. Allocated some money each month for Christmas, holiday saving, insurance etc, as well as to pay off the dreaded CC, which will have to be BT'd.

Otherwise a not particularly productive day. Still struggling with the tail end of a cold, not helped by being woken every hour or so last night by snoring...

Another talk with DH on money matters then an early night I think - got some way to catch up on work from today. Or maybe just one episode of Game of Thrones (am waaaay behind on series 3, but addicted )

Hoping for another NSD tomorrow.

Have a good evening people!

AdventurousSort

Another NSD! Unfortunately it came with DD being off school with a tummy bug, but she's already on the mend. Means I've spent a little more time watching Inside Out and a little less focusing on work than I planned but hey

Edit: In case my estimable employers see this - I am doing a teleconference with the US at 8.30 tonight so promise I haven't been skiving!:p

AdventurousSort

I don't know if anyone's reading this but it's really useful to be able to track what's going on and feel accountable to a whole load of people going through similar processes. So thank you to my imagined mystery readers

Yesterday, only spends was £3.90 in the pharmacy for DD. Today an NSD :j I'm going to start with a target of 3NSDs a week, moving up to 4 if I can. Just thinking with kids you never quite know what's going to hit you! One more day until the new spending week starts and fuel light has just come on in the car - reckon I can make it though, and have a using up sesh for dinner tonight and tomorrow. Getting very low on cheese, which in the AS house is a *disaster dahling!* (Craig Revel-Horwood voice).

Also applied for a First Direct account. Planning to pay my salary into that and DH's into our current joint account, so we can get the benefits of both FD is such a good deal and gets good ratings for customer service so hopefully a good move.

Also planning to start listing a few bits on FB selling groups and Gumtree. Won't raise much but every little helps

Hope everyone's having a good :money:week!

AdventurousSort

Is anyone there? Just wanted to share a rare moment of success is my on-going body battles

Just got into some jeans I bought super cheap in TK Maxx that we're just a little bit too small (not very MSE I know!) Anyway, been doing the 10-hour feeding window thing for the last few weeks. Hadn't thought it'd made any difference (no weight change over the first 3 weeks, didn't weigh myself this week as couldn't face the disappointment) but I am safely in the jeans :j Might give the 10-hour thing a little longer.