Lauradora DFD Married life four years on...

lauradora

Nearing our 4th anniversary and looking back through my old DFD's have decided to start a new one since this year should be my last!!


I have had a long struggle on the debt free road. When I started I was ££££'s in debt, a single parent with no job and no support. Life is a lot different now and were looking at the last big push towards shaking all of our debt off.


We have ofcourse acquired a little more here and there across the years but I'm still living by most of my mse acquired mantra's.


Before xmas we had to graduate to being a 2 car family....Well as a die hard mse'er you and me would say "Did you really need it?"


Well no I suppose we didn't 'need' it but we did the sums, we came up with a sensible figure that we could afford to repay every month and we got a loan out which we are re paying easily



So I would love you to come and read my diary but please don't judge my choices.....I have been there and done frugal living....we sometimes have to go back to that when things get tight or when there are things that's we need.


I do welcome any suggestions.....

lauradora

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,786.47
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 86.67
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84.90
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.37
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.80
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74.00
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.66
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339.88
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.53
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.17
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110.00
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163.50
Kay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39.62
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88.83
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,873.14

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,791.26

lauradora

Already realised that I've budgeted for car tax twice.....

lauradora

Doing a MS tonight which means I can take DH out for tea. It will have to go on the credit card as we have no money left in the food budget but will make sure I repay it when I get my reimbursement.


I have spend a lot of my morning on mse (should have been working) but have had a good look at budget and hope to have a good talk to DH about it whilst were out on our financed date night tonight.


Things seem very tight...I guess that's because we got paid in December very early, the 19th and we don't get paid again until Friday.


My back hurts from being sat at a computer all day....when I did get round to doing proper work I was trying to check all my staffs annual leave for the year.....such a snorefest


Off to walk the beagles before we go out for tea.....

lauradora

Had a long day at work today.


Did some skiving on mse but on the whole got to the bottom of quite a big piece of work that I've been on with since last week.


I did a MS on the way home so that will be an easy £10 if/when it pays out


Feely quite crappy and depressed at the minute, I guess everybody is in the same boat at this time of year?


Have been going on sunbed to try and help and am trying to keep energy levels up by going to exercise classes. On the flipside they are costing me money I cant afford!!


My face has come up in loads of spots for some reason, not even monthly time...my body is very confusing....I hope I'm not going through the change!!


Off to watch Emmerdale now