Time to get back on the wagon...

E2006

I'm feeling a bit today! All this scrabbling around to make extra money, and its not even a drop in the ocean! Christmas is around the corner and I know I have to pay for that and I keep thinking
should I be using the money I'm making from ebay sales for that? But then that means I'm not paying it off the debts! Either way, Christmas has to be paid for, and on maternity leave that wont be easy.
All the fee's ebay and paypal are charging are also getting me down and it makes me wonder whether its really worth the effort!

Off to the post office as soon as little lady wakes up to post 2 more parcels that have sold. Not much profit after ebay, paypal and the royal mail have had their cut, but hey ho....

E2006

So I was feeling a bit negative yesterday.....I'm feeling a bit better today. I've decided to try to pay £5 per day to my cc and will put that in my signature. I'm way behind this month so far, but I get paid on Monday and hopefully will make some headway then - also, my ebay funds are in my Barclays acc, and I'm waiting for a pins entry device to enable me to transfer the money from that acc to my cc. Once that comes I will make a payment to the cc to get me started off. So progress lately:-

Money saving/earning

• Listed items on ebay over the weekend when it was free listing - most of which have watchers
• walked to the greengrocers for veg yesterday rather than driving to the supermarket
• walked to pick little man up from school yesterday to save petrol
• Went for a bike ride over the weekend - free activity

Money spending

• Didn't stick to meal plan last night (although used the meat I had lifted out to prepare tonight's dinner, so no wastage)
• Renewed my monthly swim card (although every swim after the first 6 will be free, and will do three of those this week)
• Bought a couple of Christmas pressies (but these were on offer so we got them rather than waiting)

MrsPepperpot

Just a quick 'pop in' as have to put DD to bed but have read your posts and wondered if rather than using ebay you had considered a local facebook group in your area that you can sell things on. We have one and I am just about to put some things on to see how I go as ebay is just not doing it for me now, with postal costs etc.

Will come back tomorrow - don't get to down, we all go through it and you are doing a grand job just by doing a little bit everyday!

Mrs P x

E2006

MrsPepperpot wrote: »

Just a quick 'pop in' as have to put DD to bed but have read your posts and wondered if rather than using ebay you had considered a local facebook group in your area that you can sell things on. We have one and I am just about to put some things on to see how I go as ebay is just not doing it for me now, with postal costs etc.

Will come back tomorrow - don't get to down, we all go through it and you are doing a grand job just by doing a little bit everyday!

Mrs P x

Thank you MrsPepperpot, you know this morning I have sat down and worked out all of the fees etc I have paid on the things I've sold on ebay, and I made a total of £56.21, but then paid £26.22 of that in fees and postage! I think I've well and truly fallen out with ebay, and after the last few things that are listed have sold, I'm going to start trying facebook like you suggest. I wonder if everyone starts to leave ebay, they might decide to reduce the fee's again?!

Pay day in 4 days :j Cant wait to pay some money to the cc's and have a decent grocery budget again so that I can try to shave some money off to pay extra to the cc's.

MrsPepperpot

It's good to work out what you are actually get from ebay, it can be a real eye opener. Haven't seen a free listing weekend for a while?

What is your budget for groceries? We budget £390 per month for myself, DH and DD (8) plus 3 cats. It was £440 but we reduced it last month. Normally we're struggling by the end of the month but I am hopeful that we have done better this month.

We do meal plan, but I get bored with having the same stuff each week! Plus DD is a really fussy eater!

E2006

MrsPepperpot wrote: »

It's good to work out what you are actually get from ebay, it can be a real eye opener. Haven't seen a free listing weekend for a while?

What is your budget for groceries? We budget £390 per month for myself, DH and DD (8) plus 3 cats. It was £440 but we reduced it last month. Normally we're struggling by the end of the month but I am hopeful that we have done better this month.

We do meal plan, but I get bored with having the same stuff each week! Plus DD is a really fussy eater!

They've just had a free listing weekend - the 11th & 12th, which I only happened across by chance because I was checking other things I already had listed on there. TBH, it only saves pennies, because you still have the final selling price and postage fee. I've just sold a wedding hat for my mum ad although she got £15.65 in total, she will only walk away with £7.94 after fee's and postage. Its a bit rubbish really!

We have a 'total' budget for groceries, petrol and 'any extra's' rather than set budgets for each of them. I've tried in the past to split them up but find we dip into each and get mixed up so find it easier to have a set amount each week which we use for all of these things. The theory is that we withdraw the money on a Friday for the week, and don't use the card again until the following Friday. Never works :rotfl:We are nightmares for popping to the local sainbugs (which is sooo expensive being a small store) for extras during the week - and my husband in particular is a nightmare for coming back with things we don't need! Its this area that we really struggle with and need to focus on. Sticking to budget has always been our downfall and really is the reason we are in debt - spending the months budget too soon and then using credit to get through. Thankfully, we don't use credit anymore, but we do dip into savings to get by and this bothers me so much - our hard earned savings being spent on things like food!

Anyway, its payday today so I've paid the cc's. We are off on a little caravan holiday next week for half term and as we already have food in I haven't been shopping this week and am trying to keep it this way. The plan is to try not to spend much, if anything, this week and then this weeks money will be our spending money for next week without dipping into the savings account. I do need to pay for some postage, buy DS's school photos and pay for his Halloween disco, but I will sort that today from the ebay proceeds, then aim for NSD's for the rest of the week.

E2006

Back from our little half term holiday! We actually spent very little which I'm so pleased about! We booked little man onto lots of free activities, and paid £18 for 3 paid for activities. We also ate in every night and took that food with us so saved quite a lot there too. We took little man trick or treating and have enough sweets to last us the year out I think and then took him to a free firework display over the weekend, so have crammed a lot in for very little expense :T Back to normality now.

We've started Christmas shopping. I love Christmas but always feel out of control with the spending at this time of year, so the plan is to get it over with quickly so we can enjoy the build up properly. Mr E wants it all bought, wrapped and cards written by 1st December! I've made a good start. I've bought everything for the littlies and wrapped little lady's last night. Just need more wrapping paper out of the loft and I can get little mans wrapped too

E2006

I haven't posted for a few months. Life got well and truly bumpy for a while and due to some essential spending (which we didn't have savings to cover having just finished maternity leave) the CC's got up to £6176. I fed up with it now though and really need to get stuck in to getting some savings in the bank and getting rid of the debt. Ive joined the pay all your debt by xmas 2014 challenge but don't think I will be able to clear the lot by then - I would be happy to pay 50% off though. As ever, the only spare cash I will have will come from savings made to the grocery budget. I've ebayed mostly everything that would sell for a decent price so need to come up with other ways of making money.

The plan re groceries is to live for as long as possible from stores. I get paid on Friday but am going to stay away from the shops for as long as possible. I bought mushrooms and milk yesterday so today is NSD #1.

DH and I also agreed to do a really cheap week the first week after payday each month - loads of beans/eggs on toast etc to get us ahead from the start. At the end of the month, any left over cash will be paid off the debts. That's the theory anyway...

E2006

We really need to nail this budget now! In all of the years I have been trying to become debt free my constant moan has been the budget, and our failure to crack it. It should be simple right? It all works on paper. But then I wonder if the problem is me trying to be far too ambitious and ultimately not planning for other eventualities! This month I was paid 4 days earlier than usual, we bought some bits that wern't budgeted for but that we needed, and did a bigger grocery shop than budgeted for, and that's all it took to tip us over the edge from being able to just say get through the month (at a scrape), to being broke with 3 weeks to go, 2 birthday pressies to buy, a christening to go to and a birthday meal out :-(


Cue much thinking about a more realistic plan for our finances, lots of reading about piggybanking etc, and the shock of completing the budget planner and realising how much we are overspending every month and we're ready for the challenge ahead. We've taken the decision to cancel an upcoming holiday as we just cant afford it at the minute, and we just need to get through the next 3 weeks and reach next payday so that we can get started.


Ive drawn some cash out of the bank this morning, and relegated my cash cards to the back of my purse not to be used again this month. Ive meal planned to the end of the month and bought the extra bits I need to get there. I will need milk and fruit each week, but otherwise will have to get through without buying anything else. Going to do some batch cooking later today if I get the chance and fill the freezer with some 'ready meals' as our big downfall has been turning to convenience or takeaway food when we are short on time since I went back to work.


Little lady is awake from her nap so that's my cue to go....


E x

E2006

Piggy banking definitely seems to be the way forward for us it seems. Because last month was so tight and we had to borrow from this month, I started off this month with just three quarters of the usual budget I would have for the month. Despite this (and if we continue to be careful for the next couple of weeks) we should make it to the end of the month easily. This means that next month the 'extra' that I didn't have this month can be saved. All I have done differently to normal has been splitting the budget slightly differently and depositing it in separate accounts. I have realised that I don't have enough accounts though for what I want to do going forward, so need to open another savings account at least.


Im quite excited as from next month Im giving a 'pocket money' allowance to DH and I as well as an account just for activities for the children (swimming/music lessons etc that they already do but usually just come out of the 'generic' budget). This will allow DH and I to have a night out once per month, or to save up and either have a night away or buy ourselves something. For so long we haven't had this and we never buy things for ourselves and very rarely have nights out. We always make sure the children have nice things but even then we struggle to 'afford' to take them some places where you have to pay for admittance (although we are always out and about and access loads of free/cheap activities which we will continue to do), and its all down to having had a poor budget and spending money willy-nilly without thinking about it.


The new budget also allows for the usual savings for our little holidays and Christmas, but will also enable us to put a little into our ISA account each month as an emergency fund whilst continuing to pay off the debts. I know some people disagree with having holidays etc whilst trying to become debt free, but we have decided to take the 'scenic route' as the debt is at a manageable amount and all being well should be paid off by the end of next year in any event at this rate.


I know its not rocket science, but its something we have struggled to get right for so long and its the most frustrating thing!


Anyhow....off to eat something before little lady wakes from her nap
E x