Here we go again...

timbstoke

They say it never rains but it pours. After struggling to get ourselves more or less on top of our finances over the last year or so, we’re now back where we started. My partner lost her job a few months ago, which put a strain on the accounts, but as she was unhappy there anyway, we saw it as a good opportunity for her to start her own business, which she had wanted to do for a while. The costs of getting set up have taken us to the very edge of the overdraft, and cost us £50 in unauthorised overdraft fees last month. We’ve now gone over again this month, and just to top it all off, the holiday we booked for later this month (all paid for during better times, thankfully) has fallen during my week of being on call at work. Without any on call money, we’ll be about £300 light next month.

Still, on the plus side:

1. I checked my shifts early enough that some strong budgeting this month should hopefully help us give us enough of a buffer to stop us incurring charges next month.
2. Even if we do incur charges in November, First Direct are changing their unauthorised overdraft charges from £25 per transaction to £5 per day. If they’d had that structure in place last month, we’d be looking at about £20-30 in charges instead of £75, since we only dropped below on the weekend before payday.
3. My partners business might just make enough money to at least repay some of the capital investment made last month, even if we’re not anticipating it paying her for a while yet.
4. At least I know about it. There was a time when I never checked my balances because “knowing I don’t have any money doesn’t change the fact that I need money”.
5. One of my CCJs fell off my credit record this month. :j (The other one still shows as outstanding despite being paid off in 2012 – time to send a THIRD letter to Northampton!)
6. OH is far happier now she's got her own business, and she's on board with that meaning a bit of belt tightening in the short term.