Freckles' 'Get your life in order' Diary

belleandthebudget

Aw, that's so lovely of the boyfriend's family. I bet they love being in the position to help you out/treat you and share the wealth a little. Things like that really spur me on to me debt-free so that I can pass it on too.

freckles1_2

yes, same here! It'd be nice to be able to treat friends/family 'just because' but obviously can't justify it at the moment.


I'm having a bad week to be honest. My car tax is up end of September and it looks like I need a new tyre or two


Also feeling mega stressed in work, there's a lot of change in the office with people on the sick and temps starting with no one to train them - it's increased my workload and now that I'm back to Uni one afternoon a week I feel like I'm drowning in it.


It's only the 3rd week back to uni, and I feel like I've fallen behind with that already too.


I hate being disorganised! and at the moment I'm really struggling to find the time to get any of it in order. I'd love to book a day off and spend it getting myself back on track but I work in finance and it's month end next week so I have deadlines looming.


I guess what I'm trying to say it the money situation is getting worse not better. I have lots to sell but again it's finding the time to do it.


I'll stop whinging now, I know there are super-human type people out there who manage to hold down a full-time job, run a house, study and have children... how they do it I'll never know!

belleandthebudget

I really hope things get less stressful, Freckles, there's nothing worse than feeling overwhelmed. I did a part time university course for two years (graduated in Feb thankfully!!) while working full time and so often I felt behind, but honestly it all worked out fine. It was my stress making me feel that way more than anything!

And just think, the fact that you're posting about these stresses rather than going out and spending £100s to make yourself feel better means the money situation is, or at least WILL, get better soon. I know that's what I used to do whenever I was feeling a bit down in the dumps.

Chin up, you're on your way!

freckles1_2

Thanks Belle, sometimes just having a rant and getting it out of the system makes things a bit better! Helps when there are nice people here with a few kind words too

Well, I had Uni this afternoon and during my break I started writing down a mammoth to do list with the idea of spending 30 minutes a day ticking some things off it.

They're the sort of things I keep meaning to do but putting off... so I made a start tonight and ticked off the following:
(despite being interrupted by a 20minute phonecall from a friend! lol)

• Ordered my car tax - this was fairly high on the priorities as mine runs out next week. I ordered 6 months and paid on my debit card (vs. 12 months on CC). This cost me £79.75 but hopefully, when I get my budget in order I can start putting away each month to cover the cost when it comes around.
• Ordered a tyre tread depth keyring - I'm worried I need new tyres - so I ordered a tread gauge from eBay for 99p (inc. postage) so that I can check them all myself rather than go to a garage and be told I need 4 new ones! I know you can check with coins and the like, but I'm pretty thick when it comes to cars so my nifty little tool will be worth the 99p to know that I'm checking correctly!
• Tried to update the address on my driving licence - FAIL. Need paper licence... can't find it :doh:
• Went to update the address on my logbook - also FAIL. Can't find that either :doh:
• Decided AGAINST rerouting my mail from my old address - it's now £24.99 for 3 months!!! When on earth did that go up! I figured that all the important address changes have been made (bank, insurance, etc) so I just need to do the 2 above changes.
• Booked Autoglass to come and repair a chip on my windscreen - only to find out that my insurer is one of the very few on the exclusions list. D'oh :doh:FAIL no.3

So I've actually only crossed 2 things off... :rotfl::rotfl:
Still, it's a start!

belleandthebudget

I couldn't believe how much mail rerouting is now when I looked into it last. No wonder I get mail at my place for people who haven't lived there in AT LEAST five years (that's how long I've been there!). Who'd really pay that much to get theirs sent elsewhere?

freckles1_2

whoopsy, been a while since I last logged in!

Well, today I drew up a budget of sorts, factoring in the things I should be budgeting for e/g car costs inc. tax, insurance, maintenance etc.

I get paid on 15th, so my October budget runs until 14th November.

This is the result (and shows why my SOA was so inaccurate!):

Rent: £236.98 (my share of rent/bills) (until 15th Nov)
CC1: £163.81
CC2: £25.00
Loan: £246.72
Bank Charge: £15
My Mobile: £40 (est)
Sis Mobile: £40 (est)
OD1: £22.88 (I couldn't find my debit card when paying for something so had to use another one. D'oh)
OD2: £165.32 (this is how much I estimate I will be into my current account overdraft by payday)
Diet Subs: £53 (bad bad bad I know! but I've had the product, have to pay for it! Final payment this month though so won't be there next month)
Magazine Subs: £24.49 (this isn't a monthly charge - £15.49 is a quarterly one, £9 is every 6 months - both fall this month)
Tax: £24.17 (I have budgeted this amount for 6 months, so that I will have the full £145 to pay for 12 months when my tax is up end of March 2015)
Insurance: £96.07 (this is high because I've left it so late in the year to start saving for it! My insurance is due in Feb which means I have 4 paydays left to pay for it - I'm basing the cost on last years cost but will shop around for a better deal when the time comes)
Car Maintenance: £50 (estimate based on how much I've spend on MOT, repairs and tyres this year)
Fuel: £160 (this one makes me angry! but this is what I've spent in the last month - hoping to reduce this by driving more economically, emptying my car of all the crap I've been carrying around for month and checking my tyres are correctly inflated etc - also going to use petrolprices and try to maximise reward points)
Food: £80 (This is based on what I've spent on fast food and the occasional small shops I have done)
Entertainment: £80 (going out, cinema, socialising etc)
Toiletries: £15 (shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, lady bits etc - not in food budget as generally don't go to the supermarket!)
Fritter: £50 (budgeting £10 a week for the inevitable 'small' spends inc. tea kitty at work, parking at uni etc)
Personal: £50 (for me to spend on me on whatever I like)
Gifts: £16.67 (a small amount to set aside for birthdays/Christmas and to be topped up with earned vouchers)

TOTAL EXPENDITURE: £1,655.11

TOTAL INCOME: £1,379.63

DIFFERENCE: -£275.48

freckles1_2

damn, didn't mean to post that! I hadn't finished.

I should point out that a lot of my budget is based on weekly amounts and it's a 5 week month so I'm higher than on my SOA (though more accurate)

Obviously this is why I don't have a spare £400 to throw at my debt.

The fixed element of my outgoings total £1033.20
The budgets for annual expenses total £186.91

It is important that my wages go towards these items in order to be more financially stable going forward.

That means that of the variable expenses remaining: £435
In order to stay out of my overdraft, I have to cut to: £159.52

this obviously isn't feasible, as its as much as my fuel costs alone.

what to do... what to do...

freckles1_2

The obvious thing of course is to not budget for the annual things this month and put the £186.91 towards general living expenses for this month.

Next month should be easier when I don't have 2 overdrafts and the diet & magazine sub to pay.

Still going to have a think about what to do and see if I can set myself some mini spending challenges to stretch the pennies.

I have joined the Make £10 a Day challenge and off to a good start so far:

£42.74 in paypal from ebay sales
£13.50 cash from small odd job

Total: £56.24/£310

Haven't quite decided what to do with this yet either, so will have a think on it.

Now, I'm going to revive all my old survey accounts and see if any are near cashing out. Back soon. x

freckles1_2

got £7 in Onepoll and can't remember my login for any others, not the best start!

misstara

Hi Freckles, just dropping by to say good luck with cutting back to stay out of the overdraft Recognising where the extra money is going and taking steps to stop it is great.