Big changes Small income!

Penny2myName

Debts
£1205.82 Capital One Monthly 30.340% apr £44.01
£3387.30 Barclay Card Monthly 29.9% apr £85.00
£1025.11 Barclay Finance £42.58 Monthly
£1124.10 Bedroom finance £26.85 Monthly
£-1,890.00 Student Overdraft £0000 Monthly £33 interest per month
£ 447.77 Npower final bill when it arrives. Ended up more than expected.

£9080.10:eek:

my bedroom and barclay finance are rough estimates

Penny2myName

Well yesterday it cost me £47.50 to have my machines serviced, which wasn't too bad considering the fact my lockstitch took a lot of damage when it fell the day I was moving it into the new unit. Now both machines are working properly again I can get down to the business of manufacturing whole hearted.

Penny2myName

Today I bought 5kg of chicken breast for £20, in total there was 23 breast in it, so roughly 87p a breast, have used 3 and a bit (that isn't included in pricing) 650g to make 12 portions of Chicken Szechuan. I bought a catering tub of the sauce a while back and we have used about a third of it already. I am now getting some Sweet & Sour made and hopefully some Peri Peri before I go to work.
When I get home from work I am planning on batch cooking some mince for Lasagne, Bolognese and Cottage pie.

Main reason I am doing all this today is that I recieved letter from Tax Credits after I called them and informed them my income for rest of year is going down. They have decided to also reduce my Tax credits by £30 a week. So I know over the next 3 months we are really going to be struggling.

Penny2myName

I have come to the conclussion that I should look into getting either an IVA or a DMP, I hadn't wanted to, but I don't have the thrust to do it all by myself. Today is a sad day but an honest day to myself.

DawnW

Sorry to hear that you are having a sad day
Why not contact the free debt charities for advice? It would be a great help if the interest on your debts could be stopped, as some of them look quite high.

Take care xx

Penny2myName

Went on the StepChange site after posting yesterday, and once I did an honest budget on my actual contracted wage and not including overtime (may be plenty now but it can not be guaranteed) it suggested I go for a DRO. Discussed it with partner, and late last night I set the ball rolling. Cancelled all my debt DD's as they are all due out this week, and once I did the maths of essential DD's I have just over £40 left in the bank for shopping. The crunch has come due to the drop in Tax Credit. Really is the straw that broke the camels back.

Penny2myName

It ends up I can not have a DRO, but stepchange are arranging a DMP for me instead. Main thing is aslong as I can get it all sorted and not be stressing then I shall be happy.

Penny2myName

Valentines day tomorrow, and it is my first one with partner so being skint what can I do? Well that was my dilemma, with it being our first one I wanted to do something kind of special. When I went for packing tape at teh £1 shop yesterday I found a frying pan (single egg) and I already own some bread stamps, so I bought the frying pan, and I have a heart shaped cookie cooker, so I am making some love heart strawberries shortcakes, and a Strawberry and white chocolate Cheesecake for him. Bought some value white chocolate from Mr T's for 30p, and have ordered some strawberries in syrup from Mr M's, which I will blend into a coulis tonight whilst he is at work. Use half on the cheesecake and half on the shortbreads. I did also have to buy the creme fraise and Macapone and clotted cream, but all in all my valentines spend will come to less then £5:T

Penny2myName

When I titled this blog back in November, I was just thinking about the fact I was cutting my hours down at paid work due to wanting to start my own business (which is slow going due to unexpected chances).

Big Changes

Change One
I have moved home. I am only a couple of streets away from where I was but, it is a housing association so I may be able to claim help with council tax and rent. I could not do this previously as I was renting a house from the father to my eldest two children. I got the keys on the 9th March, but due to not being able to afford a removal van, it took us til Saturday 28th March to finish moving everything in.
In that time due to beng given a decorating pack, we have managed to decorate the attic bedroom (DS's) which is huge so like a flatlet for him, once we all have the energy to try getting the sofa bed up there. Used two of my mum's old matching carpets to do his room out 11.5x 19.10.
Decorated the main bedroom, which I used some paints that I still had and hadn't gotten around to using previously in old house. Carpeted with two donated carpets that are the same colour even if they do not match in pattern.
Lounge we decorated with the decorating pack and I got a carpet for £78. The Dining room we also used the decorating pack and I bought a carpet for £100.
The Stairs landing we are still decorating, I have just temporarily carpeted them with offcuts from the lounge, and son's bedroom. Flight of stairs to his room are obviously done in the carpet from his room. The first flight of stairs are done from the dining room carpet.

My kitchen is tiny so I am having to find space saving solutions. I bought a kitchen trolley from a well known non food store for £40 but it is unfortunatly an inch too wide to fit into the slot next to the 40cm floor cupboard. It is where the fridge or freezer should go, but since the wall cupboards start 54inches from the floor and my fridge/freezer is 71inchs high, its a dead space and my fridge/freezer is in the dining room. Anyhow I have put the kitchen trolley in sidewards, and use the wine rack part to store my pans on. it allows me to have two extra drawers instead of the single 40cm drawer which is part of the kitchen. I also bought two wired shelving solution plate racks £10, and found a in one of the large discount stores some under-cupboard trays. I still have most of my kitchen stuff boxed up. I did buy some chrome corner shelves (bathroom ones) for the kitchen but due to the odd jut outs in the kitchen they screw parts for one side are just after the walls finish. Anyhow I have ended up spending £250ish of money I don't actually have due to the move, and I am now having to get used to token meters instead of DD's for my energy. But all the negatives get swept a side over one simple thing, I have a radiator and heating in the lounge and NO walls are missing so the heat stays in the room.

Change Two
My partner proposed to me a week ago today:happylove . So I shall be planning a wedding on a major shoe string. We have considered what is personal to us and the tight budget, and have decided since we plan to get married at Halloween either 2016 or 17 (thinking 16 myself) to have a Halloween Party at home for the evening do, the actual wedding we are considering a Quaker marriage since I am an attendee and he was introduced to the faith as a baby. The only negative aspect of that is I always wanted to wear the long white dress (infact I have one already, cost me £29.99 new online from that well known market place), I also already have invites and other stationary £40. I bought them all in preparation for if my daughter every got married to save her some cash when I did have it spare, but now I can use them for myself:rotfl:. Since my partner is big on horror and I love Halloween we already have all the stuff to decorate the house.
One of our considerations was a picnic in park style reception for straight after the wedding, that was til we chose our rough date.

The one aspect we haven't really discussed is a Honeymoon, but I think if we have any money left over from out trip to Prague later this month, then I shall just set it to one side and we can always go there for a few days. I may have to check the prices of flights in Oct.

Anyhow I think I have rambled on enough and short of it is, I am seriously broke after the move as I have not done any over time due to packing everything up, decorating, laying carpets and actual moving, so just expect a flood of tears post in three weeks time when I get a 'normal' wage slip with no overtime.