Mind change to debt thanks to MSE forums!

sassychick2014

Hey!

Thanks for the advice. After reading your post I had a chat with my folks about the extra part of the trip and have decided not to do it. This is for a number of reasons and I think they're the right ones. These are:

1) It will take an extra 3 days out of our schedule
2) It will cost the bulk of our money
3) There will be a lot of mindless driving (also known as "Mummy are we nearly there yet?! driving)
4) Littley won't like what I'm planning to do
5) She'll be bored and that will annoy me
6) If we don't do it this time I wouldn't be bothered about doing it if I went back again.

The main things that made me decide no were number 4 - 6. I told the folks what it was I wanted to do and my Mum & Littley are very very similar and she said she wouldn't be bothered by it and I don't think Littley would too. When I added up everything else we want to do, it would be worth spending those 3 days doing a little extra on something we really want to do.

I don't want to pander to Littley but sometimes it just isn't worth the aggro. There's a few things I've shown her that I want to do that she's not bothered with that we're definitely doing and the compromise is that we'll do something she wants to do afterwards. She knows it's "our" trip and not "her" trip and that's the main thing.

Even though I keep telling myself it's a 4.5 week trip I have to keep reminding myself that 5 days of that is travelling. I also have lots of family, friends and trips we both want to do that are slowly eating up the time. Thinking about it 5 days in Sydney & 3 weeks in Perth aren't really that long!

The best thing I've realised today though is that 3 months today is Christmas Day and this time 6 months today we should have booked into our hotel in Sydney - excited much!? lol

Have a good day xx

sassychick2014

Morning all

I know many of you use YNAB but I've got my trusty old spreadsheet that has worked wonders in seeing how much I spend and how much I have blah blah. (There is a reason for this random start!)

So today I got paid a big invoice and was looking through and realised I haven't been sticking to my budgets at all for the last few months and that strikes me as a bit naughty, I'm sure you'll agree!

Actually, it's not that I haven't stuck to them, I just haven't bothered to look at them at all! lol

Anyhoo, today I've decided to try and stick to my budgets for this month. I've given myself a budget in areas that I probably won't spend anything - such as clothes - and I really need to get my luxury & other spends down. I've worked it out so that overall I have £460 to spend this month and that should be on food, groceries, clothes, other, luxury, savings and petrol. I'd really like to add to my Christmas savings (which is currently £0.00 oops!) but can't see that happening to soon. I'm going to be doing a spend as little as I can Christmas much in the same vein as Littley's birthday. I already have some great ideas and have got my bro and his family on board for my parents present so we'll see how we go.

So, this month's budgets are:
Food £115
Groceries £25
Clothes £10
Luxuries £40 (will be aiming for this to be WAY lower)
Petrol £50
Other £80 (again, will be aiming for this to be WAY lower)
Savings £140
Total £460

I'm sure I can do it and am going to talk Littley into helping me. She loves a project so will promise her the next Lego Friends mag if we do it (which obviously will come out of luxuries!).

Anything left over from the budget will of course go into savings.

Wish me luck! Have a good day everyone xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Good luck sticking to your budgets! I manage it most months, sometimes I just have to juggle something from one pot into the other, but I never go over the total.

What do you class as luxuries? Maybe you'd find it easier if you broke it down? My main "luxury" spends are eating out, and making random purchases on stuff I don't need but want! So I break my "luxuries" down into Eating Out and 'Entertainment' and split it 50/50.

I don't have a separate pot for food and groceries either - it's just all groceries, normally have £120 (or £140/150 if there's 5 weekends before next pay day) and that's plenty for two of us, so you and littley should have no problem sticking to that. We've even stopped going to Aldi most of the time now and go to Morrisons - usually a bit more, but over the month we still stay in budget, and manage nice treats too, like the odd bottle of wine, and a nice sunday chicken/beef joint

I have an other/misc spend category too but usually leave it at 0 as I find that it just ends up being "free" money that I fritter away too easily. That's what my entertainment pot is for, and when it's gone, it's gone.

I think £460 is pretty generous - excluding any savings my monthly expenses usually come around £200-230, so hopefully by the end of the month you'll have a fair bit left to top up the savings/pay a bit more against the debts

You're doing excellently, keep it up!

xx

sassychick2014

Hey hon

Thanks, the other pot has been used for travel insurance, passports, school trips, trips out I didn't expect. Luxuries is for silly things like snacks for a sofabed night, a magazine or a book. Maybe even the odd bit of junk food! I am 100% sure that these are way to much, I was going on previous month's spends but thinking about it, the last few months have included road tax, summer holidays and a few other expenditures I don't have to find for another year!

Reading how your budget is has made me rethink so thanks! I think it should now be:

Food/Groceries £140
Luxuries £30
Petrol £40
Other £50
Total £260

Savings £140

With the savings that brings it down to £400 a month which is much better and I still think I can beat them. We'll see. I may very well be eating my hat this time next month!

Have a good weekend xx

sassychick2014

Morning everyone

This weekend has been an oddbodge of a weekend really. Did a mystery shop in Asda's so that's an extra £15 to the Aussie pot which is a bonus. Also sold 4 DVDs on ebay so that's another bit to go in and got a payout from survey company so that's a little extra too. It's all starting to add up again which is great as I was stressing last week.

I've also got a little extra payment coming in today from bits and bobs so that's also handy. They all add up to only £34 but it's £34 from doing relatively nothing so can't complain.

Have another Mystery Shop to do today, well 2 actually but they're in the same place for 2 different companies so that's all good.

I'm now only £84 away from paying for the trip completely and then all I'll have to save is spending money. I'll be so happy to get the final confirmation that it's all paid for and won't worry so much. Well I say that but I know I'll worry until I've reached my spending budget too!

Best get off, these shops don't audit themselves!

Have a good week everyone xx

sassychick2014

Morning all

Just a quickie to say I've updated my totals today and it's not looking too bad, although it's not looking to great either but they're all less than last month so that's a bonus!

My £5 a day challenge is also still doing well. I have 2 totals, one is what I've saved including holiday spends (passports, insurance etc) and the other is what I actually have saved now. The figure including the spends is now only £20 off where I had aimed to be at this point which is good.

That's all for today. Have a good afternoon xx

sassychick2014

Evening everyone

Today has been a good day. Last week I went for drinks with my mate and we got to discussing how I haven't been able to get any decent contracts and that I needed to save a heap of money for spends on hols. She said suggested breaking down how much I need to save into weekly amounts and bid on jobs on PPH that can fill that amount. So stupidly obvious I don't know why I didn't do it earlier.

Anyway, I had some credits left on Monday so just bid on a load of jobs that I wouldn't normally because either they were not so great money, not something I thought I could do or sounded really boring. I bid on 5 altogether and from that got:

1 - guy got back to me, wasn't very pleasant. Didn't do business.
2 - woman contacted me. Asked what I did, I listed everything, didn't get back to me. I don't mind this though as I realised that I actually do a lot more than I give myself credit for.
3 - bloke got back to me and has said will give me the job. Just waiting to see if he does, who knows? If he does that's a one-off payment of £60
4 - bloke got back to me and I am now doing a job that was initially a one-off £30 that has now gone up to around £150 plus more work to come
5 - bloke got back to me and awarded me the job so another £400 one off fee.

On top of this the PR company I do freelance work for has just sent over a £200 one off contract.

So, today I have got a definite £750 worth of work with a further £60 possibly. This is already more than what I've earned extra since I lost my contracts. When the money comes in it will all be going into the pot and I will have far less to worry about!

Oh, and after 4 months of waiting my appointment for physio has finally come through too so should start getting my shoulder sorted next week.

Hope today has been good for you all too. Have a good evening xx

Trixxibell

Hiya Sassychick,

I've finally got a day off and spent the morning catching up with your diary xx

Well done on updating your signature xx at least some figures are going down and the few that went up only went up by a smidge xx

Abit annoying about the clients but think positively, something will come along to help achieve your goals. I can't believe how much you saved in the £5 a day challenge.

I hope your grandmother makes a speedy recovery. Xx

sassychick2014

Hey hon

Thanks, Grandma is back home now and apparently doing well so we'll see. She went into hospital, got worse, and has now been sent home roughly how she was when she went in. This is with the understanding that her doctor will go in and check on her regularly. Her doctor never does home visits unless my aunt gets irate with her so we'll see what happens.

As I said, work has been brilliant this week and I'll be putting an extra £500 at least into the pot which is fantastic.

The other fantastic news is my £5 a day challenge is now £8.27 above where I'd targeted it to be so I'm made up with that. All these dribs and drabs that come in are adding up and with the extra lump coming in next month I'm more than happy. It also means that in a few weeks time we can go and pay the remainder of our holiday off - yay! Will be so relieved.

Anyway, have a nice day and weekend everyone xx

sassychick2014

Morning all

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

I've been a bit naughty and am slightly annoyed at myself but know I've not really done anything wrong and I'm just being silly but here goes!

On Friday I was in the city & spotted a store with a sale on bags. I need suitcases for our trip - one main & one carry on - so had a look. The sale was so good I bought them both. They're high range bags reduced from £299 to £77 and £199 to £44. Not sure how you can warrant nearly 300 quid on a bag but hey ho. I was going to buy these bags nearer the time and get my holiday totally paid off but the offers were so good I thought I'd do it this way round.

Whilst I was in the city I popped into the travel agents and checked when we need to get our visas and was told not to go in until Christmas hols. Well as I was going to go in and pay for everything Oct hols but now won't get our visas that day I'm going to wait until the visas are in to pay for it all. This will be another saving of around a tenner after car park, petrol and no doubt a drink or snack (they do pretzels just a few shops away - should be banned!!).

So in my mind, although I was only £12.38 away from paying the rest of the hols and now I'm £98.48 away (I shoved some more over today) I think I've done well as I've made a huge saving on the bags.

Not sure if this is MSE thinking but it works for me. Just means I'm not as woooohoooooo!!! about the fact I've paid off the hol.

Have a good day everyone xx