Batting this curveball in a positive direction...

MeandO

Trying so desperately hard to keep upbeat, I've listed some more books for sale locally which are worth pittance on Amazon.
If sold, they will bring in in another £12.50.

I've also (roughly) worked out my current debts and what I should be left with once this remortgage goes through, and it will be around £4k of debt left (max, hopefully). Once my business kicks off again (fingers crossed) in the late summer, it will be easy to pay this off and start an emergency fund in case I lose my job.

I would like to pay off the debt and get £5k in savings by then end of this year, it will be tough, but hopefully achievable.

MeandO

Tonight, I've wrapped all of the parcels that I've sold so far, except one which I need to dig out some bubble wrap and a box for, at work tomorrow.
The rest of the auctions will end on Friday, unless there are any BINs before then.

Got home to a gas bill of £128. Long story, but we had terrible trouble switching our gas when moving into this new build due to the meter not being registered properly so haven't been paying the gas by direct debit and get bills quarterly. Hopefully this should be the last one now as I think (hope) it's sorted. Still have to shell out the £128 though which I could've really done without this month.

DS is tucked up in bed, I have the house to myself and am feeling a bit lonely tonight. Could really do with a cuddle and come company tonight.

I've downloaded a free spending diary app today, so going to have a play with that and see if it will be useful. I find the full scale budgeting ones a bit difficult to get my head round tbh.

MeandO

oooh, spending diary is actually quite good! Really simple and easy to use, will be sticking with this one.

My budget is difficult to define at the moment as the ex is still living her, we still have the joint account for petrol, groceries and the current mortgage etc and he is contributing massively to the bills until his house is ready, but I think it will be a really useful tool for me when I'm going it alone.
This month I will use it for tracking spending and keeping an eye on what areas I am/we are overspending on.

MeandO

Back on the diet wagon this morning (I'd like to lose around 2 to 2.5 stone), so have filled in my nutracheck food diary which I bought a cheap subscription to over Christmas. It's a great tool, I just have been rubbish at sticking to anything at the moment, but intend to make a real effort from now on as it will make me feel so much better in myself.

Loving my little spending diary too, off to update the app shortly.

Today I need to give the new gas supplier my meter reading (using work's phone ), wrap one parcel tonight and maybe work on some new ideas for my business. It'll only bring money in if I actually put some work in after all, but I've been seriously lacking in motivation lately after working on it practically every night and weekend for the last 4 months of 2014. Needs must though.

MeandO

Had some bad news last night - my Mum was taken poorly on a day trip away, so is now in a hospital 2 hours away from where my parents live (which is 5 hours away from me).

That, on top of everything else had just made me feel utterly miserable and really down today.

I'm not sleeping well and I'm pretty exhausted to be honest. I have no oomph in me today for anything and have hardly uttered a word to anyone all day. I had to get out of work today at lunch time - usually I stay at my desk and eat whatever I've brought with me - but today I just had to get out for half an hour. I bought myself a meal deal in boots and picked up two packs of hair dye reduced to £1.70 each from £7 which will save me some £'s. Not my usual shade, but hey - live dangerously and all that!
I actually dyed my hair again last night (I have to every 6 weeks or so to keep the grey at bay:(), but it really didn't take at all. I used a cheapy dye from HB, which has turned out to be a false economy it seems. Will give it a week or so and do it again with one of these.

I'm off out to the cinema (half price ticket) and for a meal (with a 40% off voucher) tonight. Not very budget-friendly I know, but I don't really care today.

MeandO

All bar two BIN's have ended on eBay tonight, making £114 sold in this round of ebaying. Not bad considering I thought I had nothing much left to sell! I'm planning on digging out things from the bottom of my wardrobe again this weekend as I know I have a couple more bits I could do with parting with.

Not much other money news. I've been told the remortgage will take at least another 2-3 weeks to sort, due to Lloyds solicitors being carp and only just getting the transfer of equity documents to the ex's solicitors. This has been going on for nearly 4 months now and I just want it sorted

MeandO

Not much to report, other than I've probably spent too much and am still living in limbo until this remortgage goes through.
There has been a bit of progress on that front and. all being well, hopefully it will be completed within 10 days or so.

I started the 30 day shred dvd last night in attempt to get myself back to some sort of fitness and lose some lbs. I could hardly walk up my stairs afterwards! I'm a bit sore today, but a good sore iykwim. Planning on either doing it again tonight or going to the gym, depending on my mood when I get home.

Got to pay my credit card bill (£150) and gas bill (£130) this week and car tax (£120) by the end of the month. The car tax can come out of next month's pay, as could the credit card bill really, but I don't want to risk that being late. We'll see how things go.

I so can't wait until I have some sort of control over my finances again, it's such a complicated situation at the moment that it's proving near impossible.

MeandO

I need to explain a few things on this SOA - so please see the post below before commenting

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1632.97
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 82
Other income............................ 400
Total monthly income.................... 2114.97

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 500
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 200
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 141.75
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 28
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25.5
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 33
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 10
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 462.5
Other child related expenses............ 25
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 10
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 33
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Heating cover........................... 15.5
Total monthly expenses.................. 1896.37


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 10000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 210000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 102000...(500)......2.24
Total secured & HP debts...... 102000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
credit card....................4000......90........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........4000......90........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,114.97
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,896.37
Available for debt repayments........... 218.6
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 90
Amount left after debt repayments....... 128.6

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 210,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -102,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,000
Net Assets.............................. 104,000

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

MeandO

Right... this is my predicted new SOA once I'm living alone and the ex has moved out.

I should explain, that as well as having a full time job, I also have a small business which can do very well for 5 months of the year, but earns me next to nothing for the other 7 months of the year. For this reason I exclude this for now from my SOA as the income varies, but it does allow me to pay for my car tax, insurance, house insurance in full every year and will hopefully enable me to pay off the remaining credit card by the end of the year, if not sooner.

It should also allow me to stash some savings away in an 'emergency' pot this year too, but we shall see how it does.

The £400 extra income will be from my ex, as contributions to childcare, and money we owe my parents - which brings me to the 'rent' figure - we repay my parents £200 a month and I will not allow this to drop.

Council tax is with single person discount. :eek:

Electricity, gas and water may reduce as I ex is moving out and I am very wary of using these only as needed, but for now I'll leave it as is.

Phone/broadband/tv is £30 a month, all from Sky.

Groceries - I need to make sure this does not go over £200 a month, will look at cutting this when I am living on my own, but I'm pretty sure I could get it down to £150 a month with a big bit of discipline.

Entertainment of £33 is the gym, which I will have to cut as soon as I am out of contract (4 months remaining).

Haircuts - my friend cuts my hair for free once every few months. Ex pays for DS's every couple of months when he has his cut.

Clothing - DS has been kotted out for the next few years by hand me downs from my cousin's little boy. Anything he does need, I shall obviously buy, but this is not normally needed on a monthly basis. Myself - I rarely buy new clothes, will only be doing so as and when I can afford it! (so in about 10 years then ).

Birthdays/Christmas etc will be bought for when needed. I pick up 'bargains' throughout the year (and re-gift some things!) and keep them in a 'gift cupboard', but everybody has been warned the purse strings are being pulled very tight from now on, so these gifts will not be expensive. My 'grown up friends' have also agreed not to buy for each other any more, just a small token for their children.

Mobile will be reverting to PAYG when I'm out of contract, unfortunately I have another 11 months to go of a 2 year contract.

Right, I think that's it...

Things are going to be tight, that's for sure.... any moneysaving tips would be most welcome!

MeandO

Oh, and I need to switch my credit card to a 0% deal but am reluctant to do this whilst remortgage is going through - don't want to be applying for any more credit, so this will have to wait until afterwards.