woah... are those MY finances??

stewby

well... time for my daily update. (sorry about the past couple of days, i tend to just eat, sleep and work on nightshift).


so... i had two no spend days and currently working on a third. (mainly cause i have moved from the bed to the sofa and not gotten out of my pyjamas yet. i think this might be the best way to do nsd).


seven days before we embark on our new challenge and i am itching to get started. definitely like the idea of the september step-up but for october (guessing it will be the october step-up challenge). think i am going to go for it. no point in going gently gently, might as well charge headfirst just like always.


i would have started now but we have no money left for this month. getting great ideas though. lets hope this positivity keeps going.


in other good news... my oh went flying today (trying to get his type rating back for his private licence as he let it lapse). met a pilot for an airline who said his "cv landed on the right desk at the right time" so oh is currently working on his cv (with my dad) in order to send it to the airline.


p.s: got in touch to go for a viewing of my dream house. someone has already put in a note of interest (and we can't afford the full price). think i am going to cancel the viewing and accept that as much as i love the house, it is just not suitable at this time. this is a massive step for me to realise my limitations, (in a non-work sense).

Fmess

I am eagerly awaiting the start of the October step up challenge. I too have spent up this month (although my payday is this wed ) so have set my budgets and am looking forward to doing something positive towards my finances for a change

You could just go and view the dream house and remind yourself of why you want to be debt free!? Maybe even save the pics from the advert as motivation if you are tempted to spend too much.

AlexLK

So, the good news: you have a very low mortgage, there is potential for a second income soon and you have an idea of what you want to achieve long term.

The bad news seems to be centred around your unsecured debt. Not sure handing over control of your finances to your father is a good idea but when you get overtime and have spent less than you anticipated, you need to be overpaying on the unsecured debt. Is your partner on board with you for this?

P.S. Sorry to be picky but can we have some proper punctuation, please? I only added this as I did struggle to read a couple of your posts.

cottage_retreatist

hey stewby!

Got my fingers crossed for your OH & his flying job possibility! And thats great with your mindset about the house as well - we have been so conditioned to think that we should have anything we see that we like because 'someone' will give us the money for it (hire-purchase, credit card, etc) without thinking how will I actually pay for this when the 0% runs out etc. So i think that's a major step!!!

And I can't wait for NinjaSaving Kat's October trials too!!!! Can't believe only a week and then we're in October and ready to bust some more debts!!! :j

You're doing super-duper so far - keep it up! :beer:

ps - it's your diary and we're just observers so write how you want!! I think Alex was a little mean in his last comment in the previous post!

C-R xx

AlexLK

C-R: I agree with your points and am enjoying reading this diary.

Stewby: keep up the excellent work. My last comment had no malice intended and yes, ultimately, it is your diary. However, I'm sure no one shall disagree with me that a good impression is always left with one's readership by providing articulate entries.

cottage_retreatist

AlexLK wrote: »

C-R: I agree with your points and am enjoying reading this diary.

Stewby: keep up the excellent work. My last comment had no malice intended and yes, ultimately, it is your diary. However, I'm sure no one shall disagree with me that a good impression is always left with one's readership by providing articulate entries.

no worries Alex! But I'm going to adapt my text slightly - I don't think there's malice in your comment, you're correct but maybe a slight lack of tact?!!!!!!

PS - Stewby - i think the challenge will be great for taking control of finances as well and setting a realistic monthly budget - I've gone over this month by under-estimating how much we spend and where it actually goes so if you don't hit or go over your targets for the first challenge - don't worry! it's all part of the learning curve! :grouphug:

xx

stewby

Thanks for all the replies. I will do my best to try and improve my punctuation and use capitals but I'm afraid I am not the most literate of people even when I am talking. I don't take offence though.


It is the spanish bank he is with frenchfancy. I have spoken with my OH and he is going to send you a pm from my account. (he doesn't have one on here). We would be very grateful for any input or suggestions that you have as someone with experience in the field. (we obviously don't have any and some pilot websites are very opinionated which is a bit unnerving).


OH is fully on board. He will be keeping the majority of his finances seperate from mine (thanks for the advice) although will be helping with house money and helping pay off the holiday (for the wedding in kos) so we will have no problems there.
To be honest, he normally tells me to calm down when we go shopping so i think this light bulb moment has probably cheered him up.


In regards to budget, I am aiming for a budget of less than £300 in a month however I am hoping that we will spend less than that.
After reading other people's budgets and diaries, I feel almost shamed at giving ourselves a £75-a-week on food and petrol when I will only be driving three miles a day and there is only two of us.
As a result I am hoping to try and limit us to £50 a week for food and petrol. If it all goes to plan then we should have £200 a month to overpay my debts.


The reason behind using the October step-up is that, not only will it give me a set of goals to follow as an introduction to saving, but it will also stop me changing the goal posts. (which I normally do in relation to most things such as diets and holidays).


A couple of quick questions:
* Would people recommend splitting the overpayment between the credit card and my next account or should i pay off next first and then tackle the credit card??
* There is a term i keep seeing which i don't understand. what is PADing??

Thanks again for the replies and the interest. It is amazing how addcitive this site is.


p.s: hope this is better and easier to read. let me know if there is anything else I can do to make it more logical sounding.

clippy_girl

hello!

PADing is where you make a payment a day. could be something small like just rounding down your account to the nearest £1 or perhaps aiming to pay a small amount if you make a saving, eg budget £3 for something and buy it for £1.50 on offer you could pay the £1.50 off.

re your next card, i would imagine it has a higher apr than the 14% on the credit card. if so, overpay that.

re the credit card, do you have a good credit rating do you know? if so you could apply for a 0% card to transfer the balance from your dads card and then everything you pay will reduce the balance. there shouldn't be any penalties in doing this but you will probably have to pay a fee of up to 3% but this is way cheaper than what you are paying now. is the £200 per month you pay off it paid by your dad from your wage or do you pay it from your £400? if paid by your dad then once you have your new card he can set it up to pay £200 per month off as a starting point.

you must stop using the credit card though or it will never go down. perhaps you could open an instant saving acc joint to your account where you have the £400 and any you manage to save or have left over you can put in there. you can then use that for stuff you may normally need to put on cc and it can be an emergency fund in case anything breaks etc...

good luck xx

AlexLK

stewby: No need to be ashamed in regard to the petrol and food budget (mine is quite a bit more ) so long as you can afford it. I really cannot understand how some on here feed a family of four for £30 per week, there's three of us (two adults and an almost three year old) and we can't do that.

I'm up for having a go at the October step up if you are? I have not done it before either. However, I am a little confused what actually constitutes a no spend day still.

Sorry my first post on this diary sounded a little harsh. Your last post was easier to read, though it can do no harm to strive to continually improve; especially if you know that you have the capacity to learn a greater command of the English language. Now it is my turn to apologise for incoherence, if you haven't gathered, I'm not really a morning person, .

cottage_retreatist

Hey stewby!!! (& Alex!)

I think people choose their own idea of a NSD and some are harsher than others! For example - I don't count all essential direct debits etc as spends because the money is allocated and they go out on the day they should from a completely separate bank account. However any other spends - transport, food, dry cleaning, tobacco are counted as potential spends so if I take out extra money or use my card to buy something then it is classed for me as a spend day - if I go home without going via SainsBobs or buying something online - it's a NSD!! Not quite sure how people with a petrol budget do it I'm afraid as we've no car here in the big smoke - some don't count it if they buy petrol as the money has already been allocated.

If you're doing NSK'd challenge it's best to ask her which would be best! I think this month people with petrol were allowed to class it as an 'essential' and hence a No Spend purchase - if that makes sense? - up to their allocated funds.

And budgets are a very personal thing - one person's 50 quid on caviar a month is someone else's 40 quid on tobacco or alcohol so I wouldn't be concerned and I'm sure once you start you'll catch up on tricks etc to reduce the costs monthly without a major impact!!!

Yay!! The more the merrier I say!! And the most important thing - allow yourself a 'contingency' fund - something if you run out of money or you need something because you feel like you might be slipping or there is an unforseen expense. I was caught out by throwing everything I had at debts and then not having 50 quid to get something and it almost broke all the hard work I'd done!!! It doesn't need to be much - 20/30 quid or so a month - so you know you've got it there as an emergency!

hope that's useful? I waffle before my second coffee *goes away to glug a strong coffee*

xx