Fed up of being the family's Money Muppet

FalseEconomist

Hi there, yes I've heard of him. He's the one who thinks you should snowball according to size of loan rather than interest rate isn't he?

I'll check out a few of his podcasts - thanks for the recommendation.

I made the decision to put the car money on interest free with Virgin
The fee for that will be 11 pounds which I will pay straight away. I feel bad about this but otherwise we'll just be left too short this month. However, I am going to do something which makes sense to me, although it might.not to anyone else, I'm still going to transfer 50 pounds into a savings account marked car. Only buy building this up can I avoid this sort of setback in the future. I think I'll aim to get and keep 250 in there, then repairs/mot etc won't come as such a disaster.

FalseEconomist

car ended up being 355.

cry.

FalseEconomist

New account with Halifax set up and £125 in there already from them

That just about covers the dds needed for the rest of the month and which will be coming out of that account so can hopefully just forget about them now (although, need to remember to transfer £750 in and out at some point to fit their criteria to get my £5 a month).

Still feeling down about car bill, particularly as the MOT cost us about 150 in January and the car itself is worth less than £500, but hopefully that will be the last thing it needs doing this year.

just like the bank fees, it will take time for us to see this new MSE way of life paying off, but next time we are hit with a car bill and we have the money ready it will really feel good I'm sure.

Onwards

other spends today £2 on biscuits as had guests round

that's it. Also haven't even set foot in the Co - op since LBM last week and have ensured OH hasn't either. Nothing against you personally Co op, but I need to alter my patterns of behaviour, and having an embargo on this shop will really make me think and plan my shopping a lot better.

FalseEconomist

So, car got sold this morning (not the one I had all the work done on) to Co parts for 155. They got a real bargain but I just couldn't be bothered to get it MOT'd and valeted and try to sell it to a private buyer. It was a good car but in hindsight we wouldn't have bought it because the tax was £500 a year! We didn't check until we bought it, but I'm sure other buyers wouldn't be so silly.

Anyway I think most of that is going to need to pay off the insurance. I sort of thought with insurance that you just stop paying and the policy gets cancelled, but apparently I'm a fool for thinking that, and we have to pay I think it's about £100 to cancel the policy.

Still, we're £25 quid off a month better without the insurance and £42 quid a month better off without the tax (although not sure how much tax my OH will be paying on his company car, so swings and roundabouts)

Got annoyed with my OH, not long after I'd posted about not shopping at Co op, he swung through the door with a co op bag with stuff to make fairy cakes for my son's beaver sport relief challenge. £11!! and most of it was stuff we didn't need/had in the cupboard already.

He then proceeded to make really rubbishy cakes (obviously didn't tell my son I thought they were rubbishy) so when I did the big shop I had to pick up some more cake decorating stuff, because I didn't want my son's cakes to be the only ones that didn't sell.

What a waste of money. I really don't want to be the 'huff...I'll do it myself!" martyr-type person, but it seems he still hasn't quite got the idea that our disposable income isn't that disposable.

Anyway, a good shop at Aldi yesterday for £58 quid.

I'm tempted to swap my husbands current account over to Halifax as well, but he's been with his bank for about 20 years, and that is possibly a decision he should make himself.........

or possibly not.... I mean £125 is £125!.....

FalseEconomist

He's agreed, I've applied, it's set up.

Another £125 will be winging its way to our holiday savings shortly

FalseEconomist

Still staying on top of the accounts.
My current account with LLoyds closed today, so they took their fees of £80. Well, they are done and dusted now, I'm determined to not pay overdraft fees again!

A bit of a crazy month with money coming in and going out left right and centre. I think my OH is on board with it all, but there's still the feeling that I'm just being mean about spending. We had a bit of a row about it last night actually.

Got the figures through as to how much the company car and fuel will cost us in tax a month, and the one we had planned on getting turned out (unsurprisingly) to be the most expensive at about £315 a month!!

other's were slightly less but still quite expensive but there is one that will only cost us £147 a month, because it's an electric hybrid.


It's still a smart car but my husband wasn't keen because he had got really carried away with the idea of driving a large 4 x 4. I had a bit of a huff, and asked him where he thought this extra £160 was coming from each month, and what was the point of me watching every penny at Aldi just so he could drive around in a flashy car.
We've talked it through and he has agreed to test drive the Lexus. I hope he likes it, as for that £147 we get not only tax, insurance, a new car to drive, maintenance covered but also all fuel covered, including for personal use. Which makes real MSE sense.

He is still suffering from what I used to, and I think a lot of people can relate to on here, that idea of 'should'. Because we have a healthy salary we 'should' be able to afford life's luxuries. But debt takes away that should, we are not entitled to these luxuries because we can't sustain that lifestyle.

I'll be really proud of us if we choose the car which benefits the family finances. We shall see....

It's been an expensive month, with various bills to pay, and left over charges etc paid. But I'm hoping we can find a way through the next couple of months and really start to make progress. I'm checking all the accounts every day and recording on YNAB pretty much every transaction. Just got to make these new habits stick!

I'm really enjoying reading these diaries on here, and also the Debt free Roll of honour, very inspiring.

FalseEconomist

Still March! doesn't time go slowly when you're not rich

All good though, bank accounts all in the black etc etc.

Still trying to decide how to pay off the credit cards. Three cards, all will 0% interest and all with similar amounts. I thought, rather than snowball I can overpay on all of them a similar amount, the balances will go down more lowly but then all three card providers will like us and this will ensure there is always a 0% offer on the table until balances are paid off.

In addition to this I will choose one card to throw extra payments at so that I can see progress through the month for motivation.

My OH is really on board with this now. We sat down yesterday and planned the budget together. I explained that whilst I was happy to do the day to day running of the bank accounts etc, we both needed to decide what to spend money on, and how much, otherwise resentment might build up from him i.e I work really hard and there's never any money for sport etc etc. With both of us agreeing how much gets spent on going out/sport etc then it doesn't feel like so much of a dictatorship.

I still havent been into my nemesis (Co-op) since my embargo! shopping has been all done at Aldi or Lidl and my husband is literally terrified to shop in there since the fuss I made about the cake decorating equipment. I think I may be getting a tad obsessive.......

MuffinTops

Hello FE. You sound like you're really on top of it all and getting your OH motivated too. Let us know which car you all decided on!

Well done on sorting out the Halifax switch too. I also use that for the rewards. It's a good little extra each month.

MT

FalseEconomist

Thanks Muffin

I actually think I am a little bit on top of it. Or at least on the right track. I'm now where I want to be with bank accounts. It's the beginning of the month, Sufficient money is in each of our Halifax accounts to cover the direct debits and there is a couple of hundred in the Joint Lloyds account to cover food/petrol/spends for the week. If i have planned this correctly we shouldn't need to worry about bills now, and just focus on budgeting for the rest of the month,

Re the credit cards, we are making overpayments in the form of regular direct debits for more than the minimum amount, but I'm not yet confident in our budgeting skills to throw every spare bit of cash at them, particularly during the school holidays. For now will just focus on staying in the black with all the banks (a new experience for us!).

I have noticed thought that already the OH is starting to get a bit spendy again, almost like he has relaxed now I'm taking care of everything, which isn't ideal! Will be keeping a sharp lookout on the bank account and questioning everything (and in return allowing myself to be questioned about my spends!).

We got a bit (well quite a lot extra) in OH's pay this month, owing to a couple of things. So this has sort of been used as treat money. For example, buying an annual pass to our local country play park (invaluable during school holidays and would cost £40 for a single family visit!). £200 has been squirrelled away to go towards football season tickets for OH and DS (don't ask!) and our holiday in June has now been paid for, which is a weight off my mind.

Emergency fund stands at £50 and Christmas fund at £50. Also need to start a car maintenance fund but will do this later in the month when I'm sure we're going to be ok. I work for an agency and my work is fairly regular but normally short notice, and paid weekly, which can make budgeting tricky, especially when the work doesn't come in!!

I'm waking at 3am a lot these days, I think my depression may be back so in a moment will call the doctors to restart a prescription. I get depression from time to time and am now quite good at recognising early anxiety signs before it escalates. Sleeplessness, intrusive thoughts and tearfulness are the early ones. Currently ticking all those boxes. So back on the tablets we go! I'm ok with it really, just one of those things.

Happy days!

Am enjoying reading the diaries on here, it's sort of the nicest part of the forum as people are quick to get into....ahem....heated discussions on straight threads I find.

I think I'll try and sort out a proper signature so I can get a full idea of state of things.

Steerpike88

Hey!
Just read through your diary and you're doing so well. I'm looking at going back and being a student again and your diary has been motivating me to do so. Congrats on making so much progress! I have subscribed.