Mini LBM - need to get back on track!

Hurdler

I am a lot older and I went for it ... As hackneyed a saying as it is - life is too short. But do a lot of research beforehand - are there any opportunities for workshops for what you want to do to give you a taster?

FacelessNumber

Well it is March, my most difficult money month for a while! Having started a new job where I get paid a month in lieu I have essentially lost a months pay. So this month I got paid £770 when I normally bring home £1500.

I have cleared my savings pot into my current account so there are no problems with general living but I also have a lot to pay for! Sold some stuff this morning making myself an extra £50...every little helps and I plan on using that to kickstart a new savings pot! I have managed to leave my Christmas savings alone (£50 a month goes into here), and my TT account (only has about £18 in it). But otherwise I now have no savings.

Therefore my focus over the next few months is to build up some savings as quickly as possible, pay off my small debt (£267 to my parents - they have very kindly given me a couple of months off paying them with the job change), and pay my £200 for a trip I'm going on. After these things are paid off I should easily save £200 a month until we move house.

So my goals for this month:
Pay £100 for trip leaving £100 to pay when I get paid at the end of March.
Make the £267 for my parents - selling, change jars, TCB etc etc - anything extra this month will go to my parents.

My car insurance is due in April, I normally pay this in a lump sum but won't have the savings for this, so may use a 0% credit card to avoid the costs of paying it monthly.

This is the first time in my working life that I haven't had a small savings pot to fall back on, I am very lucky that I had it as otherwise this job change would have caused more difficulties. But it is making me nervous that I don't have it!

Right I'm off to play with my budget and see what I can squeeze out of it

FunLovinCriminal

Hi FN
Loving the blog, loving the motivation too.
Which spreadsheet are you using? Can you post the link. I'm just starting on this journey, and want to crunch numbers and see how much interest I am saving on a weekly basis.
Cheers
FLC

FacelessNumber

Hi FLC!

I haven't got round to setting a spreadsheet up to calculate it for me, as I have just been working it out as I go along. I will sort one out though and then try and share it.

Doing quite well with my goals, have already made £70 of my £267 for the month, and should hit almost £200 when I get paid for some work I did in December. £70 so far has been selling a couple of bits and pieces. Also have £6 and change to withdraw from TCB and a few things to ebay so fingers crossed my one small debt will be gone by March 31st!

We have estate agents coming round to value our house over the next week so will soon be doubling our mortgage (eek!) but living in a better location and hopefully in our forever home! I will keep you posted

Haven't had a chance to work out my mortgage stats for the month yet, but fairly sure we will have hit 7% paid off, and will head under £82k so all going well. There will be no OPs in March for obvious reasons but hopefully will be back on it in April!

FacelessNumber

The house is on the market!! We are hopeful that we will sell relatively quickly as houses round here have been sold as quickly as 2 weeks!

Started decluttering / sorting ready for when we have to move - I know this will be 3 months at least but I feel better if I get started now. Bathroom deep cleaned and decluttered - 2 packages of pills disposed of at the pharmacy and two foot lotions that have never been used and never will be used have gone as well. My next room on my hit list is the office but this has been our junk room forever so will take a bit longer!!!

Very excited to move on house wise, although we will be doubling our mortgage payments! Oh well, we are hoping where we go next will be our forever home so a big challenge to OP enough to pay it off early!

March goal is going well - £209.71 / £267 found so far, and £29.83 in my tidying account so should make it by the end of the month! Although things are looking a bit tight in the meantime. Should clear my loan from my parents on 31st March leaving me essentially debt free

FacelessNumber

Booo no viewings arranged on the house so far....I am feeling very impatient to start getting some!

Not much to report on the money front, a bit tight for the rest of the month. Work expenses have been high this month and don't get them reimbursed until the end of April!

FacelessNumber

Woohoo! After six days on the market we have been offered asking price on the house!! Hopefully it will all go smoothly from now on

Lots and lots to do over the next few weeks, starting with major decluttering and sorting, budgeting for a move etc etc.

We may be moving in with family short term so will need to sort storage out as well for our furniture. It's all very exciting!! Does mean our OP'ing has slowed for now though.

julliff

Hi FN, Just read your diary, congrats on getting engaged and selling your house too! Fantastic! :beer:

have subscribed, and will be follwing your progress, if that's ok :-)

FacelessNumber

Hi julliff!

Of course it is OK!! I mostly just ramble on to myself, and need to get better at posting but I'm working up to it!

Currently debating whether or not to OP the £95 that would have gone on council tax this month or whether to just whack it into savings. I guess it doesn't make much difference as we will be selling and paying off the mortgage in the next 2-3 months.

Have worked out we should get £42k back out of the house - take away 5-6k for fees (about to work this out more precisely) and keeping a little back for potential work on the next house we should have a good £32k deposit for our next house.

FacelessNumber

OK I have decided to try and structure my posts a little more as there is so much going on at the moment!! Here goes:

Money Matters:
8 days til my first full payday since December!! On countdown!
My 'tidying' account has £33.72 in it, and my pay off parents loan account has £209 in it (out of £267 needed).
When payday comes I will top that up and pay them off, and also pay off the remaining £100 for my easter trip.
Need to work out a budget for the month as also need spending money for said trip!
£103 left to last til payday - will need to fill up car.

Wedding Planning:
Not a lot happening, we are working out numbers - so far worked out 35 for main ceremony and meal (keeping costs down!)

House Update:
I have worked out the costs of selling the house at £2750 in fees (margin for error here of course), and the cost of buying at £4600 (have estimated slightly high here to work out the budget). No sorting / decluttering done so far!

Goals:
Money for parents mentioned above. I am finding having goals really useful so am setting a goal for the next week to spend NO money on extra food.

Hopefully this new structure will help me keep better track of things!!
Apologies for all the posts today, making up for my normal lack of posting