A mission to secure my future!

StrugglingYouth

Sold a car part for a model I no longer own. All adds to the PayPal balance.

Went into Sainsburys and stocked up on non perishable things, used my voucher and scanned my Nectar card. Got double points on fuel and another when I filled up and also £2.25 off when I spend £15. So I can make use of that too!

I am also working Monday which turns out its a Bank Holiday so Il earn a touch extra for that. Il make sure the extra is transferred into savings come payday in June.

Summary:
Car part sale: +£25
BH extra wage: +£30

Nothing negative to report.

StrugglingYouth

Turns out the bulb I need is £59 from Halfords. Not much hope of fitting it myself as its a Xenon bulb carrying 24,000 volts.. So it will require a garage or someone who knows what they're doing! Halfords said £7 to fit which seems reasonable. Although Im not sure I trust their staff training with it tbh. They seemed a bit unsure when I asked them about it.

Im hoping to have it sorted for £70. More e-Baying to recoup this money will have to happen. I do have some work overtime in the pipleline which will cover this cost though.

In better news, I got 5% cashback on my Waitrose shop. So I will get £3 back next month.

Spent £5 on a videogame today. My logic is, if I am at home playing it, I cant be spending money. If I were to divide the amount of hours Il play it, it will become super good value. Thats my logic anyway.

Still plugging at Global Test Market. Im aiming to try and do one survey/day for it. Although today I worked 13 hours, so maybe Il do two tomorrow.

Hope anyone reading is all well and remember, its not how you start, its how you finish that matters! Stay positive.

StrugglingYouth

Here is a copy of my current SOA: Im trying to work out whether a £23.50 gym membership is doable or would cut it too tight. Thoughts please!?

Notes are in red

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1055
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1055

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 435
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 75 10 months
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 26
Mobile phone............................ 0 Father pays for all children...
TV Licence.............................. 0 Only Netflix
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0 Included in Telephone
Groceries etc. ......................... 30 Food provided at work + veggie
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 100 Estimate. May be less as new car is a lot more economical than my old one. Previously spent £120/month.
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 10
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 2
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 100
Total monthly expenses.................. 969


Assets
Cash.................................... 8000
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 100
Car(s).................................. 5500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 13600

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
HMRC...........................1500......15........0 HMRC Overpayment. Incurs no interest.
Total unsecured debts..........1500......15........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,055
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 969
Available for debt repayments........... 86
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 15
Amount left after debt repayments....... 71

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 13,600
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -1,500
Net Assets.............................. 12,100

StrugglingYouth

Quick update:

I did join my local gym. Its a six month minimum contract. I have my induction later today. I am going to try and make at least £20 of it back by selling things I no longer use on e-Bay.

So I have listed five things this afternoon. If I earn £10 from them all Il be happy!

StrugglingYouth

Quick update:

Ordered a set of rubber car mats. Used £10 worth of nectar points, so cost me about half from my own pocket. Went greyhound racing! I bet £1 per race. Won £9.58 back. So it actually cost very little. We made pizza before we left, which I was supremely glad about as I would have never eaten the food on offer. Cannot even begin to describe.

Did some teaching work. Im still way off the mark about the bulb, phoned three dealers, none of which would tell me for definite, even with the reg number. I went back to my parents house twice within a two week period, once for a wedding and again for a family birthday a week later, so I spent a bit more on fuel than usual. My mother did supplement this though.

Went to the gym for the first time today. Liked it! I need to get some proper gym attire though including some running trainers which may prove costly. Its good for my health though so I cant put a price on that. Il try and fund these via e-Bay sales or similar.

I also asked for two overtime shifts at work, hopefully Il get both. It will make about £180 difference to my wage. Which will be very handy!

Im still plodding with global test market, my points are nearing the £30 mark now. Opinion world is at £5.50 and none of my e-Bay items have any bids at all, still six days left to run.

Summary:
Car mats: - £12.49
Greyhound bets: - £12
Extra diesel: - £60
Sunday lunch for two: - £35 (Guess as I havent spent it yet)

Teaching: + £12
Greyhound wins: + £9.58
Fuel supplement: + £30

StrugglingYouth

This post contains a bit of bad luck, a dash of luxury, some additional procurement of funds and a snippet of good fortune!

Bad Luck:
I had the landlord change my front door lock (someone had a key I didnt particularly trust) so he changes them with a spare he had. No charge. Super! Until I left both new keys at home in a cleaning solution.. Left the next day for work, closed the door (it locks upon closing) Landlord drops a new one through my letter box, problem solved right? Finished work at 10pm, very tired, get home. No key, no envelope. No nothing. Took a photo of the inside of my flat through the letter box to see an envelope, my neighbour had put the key through it..

So all 3 keys we own are now the wrong side of the locked door and its 22:30pm.

*See 'A snippet of good luck below..'

Phoned my landlord this morning, no more spares, call a locksmith. So £45 later I am back inside my flat.


A dash of luxury:
Im taking a few friends out tomorrow for Sunday lunch as I owe them it. It will be amazing but quite costly, I predict around £23/person.

Additional procurement of funds:
2x Overtime shifts booked = £160 ish after tax.

A snippet of good luck:
I managed to acquire a bed for the night at a friends house. A lot more preferable to premier inn or sleeping on the landing..

StrugglingYouth

Auctions ended on a few small e-Bay items this evening. Tiny sums, bit it helps declutter and I have mounds of post and packaging materials already. I have another item ending in two days and have earmarked another two things I can list. Its mostly clothes I no longer wear.

Survey update:
OW - £11.25
GTM - £25

I found a pound coin on the floor by my car the other day. I dont think it was originally mine, so Im counting it!

Had my car washed today also, it was filthy.

Summary:
e-Bay sales: + £9.90
Floor coins: + £1

Car wash: - £6
Groceries: - £12.26

StrugglingYouth

Got a letter today from HMRC about Working Tax Credits. Apparently I need to fill in a declaration form even though I havent claimed in over a year. Infact they overpaid me and I have a direct debit to pay this back.

I have been waiting now for 16:58 seconds. I hope it doesnt take much longer.

ETA: Took me 47 minutes. End result. They dealt with it over the phone and assured me I need not do anything my end. I dont know if I am relieved or not.

In other news, I have done 31.5 hours overtime this month, so after tax I should get a nice additional lump on top of my regular salary.

Sold a few more bits via e-Bay, have some more things to list also. I have a family thing to attend to soon so that will require another fairly long drive so there will be some additional fuel spends pending.

Finally had some cashback from TCB - an entire £0.77 from my train tickets.

Summary:
e-Bay sales: + £19 (I have already taken away postage costs)
GTM - Almost able to redeem £30
OW - £14.

Have redeemed neither, il probably claim both once GTM hits the magic £30.

StrugglingYouth

Hit £30 for GTM so I withdrew that. Takes a while to come through though.

Also withdrew £16 from OW. Which happens almost instantly.

Current paypal balance:£207.33

Mostly made up of surveys with some e-Baying included. Im going to save it all until November for when the new StarWars game comes out on PS4. I dont have one, so il try and buy them together in a bundle I think.

StrugglingYouth

Got caught out by a 30% off voucher for Pizza Express, my sister gave me it and I didnt read it before going, turns out its only for next week! I did have a super picnic on the beach though, which was excellent. Downside, fell asleep in the sun and burned my right leg a bit.

I have been doing a bit more e-Baying too and generally carrying on with the de-clutter.

My sealed tin is filling up nicely! I think its perhaps 3/4 full going by its weight. I cannot wait to open it. I have no idea what im going to do with it. I had £201 I think last year, im hoping for a bit more this time around.

Also decided to withdraw my cashback from Quidco as it has been sitting there since January. Better to have it sitting in my account than theirs. Attempted to do this for TCB also but their website failed miserably at the last stage.

Quick summary of the last few days:

Summer clothes: - £31.50
Pizza: - £26

PineCone: + £3
e-Bay: + £3.57
Quidco: + £11.49