Small Debts, Small Income, Big Plans

belleandthebudget

Aren't cinema snacks daylight robbery?! I'm a sucker for the pick n mix sweeties and even when I try and be good it still always comes to over £5 and that's before the drink!

I love some of the stuff you can get from Primark. I think if you're willing to give the seams a quick check before you go to the counter then you can tell if something's going to hold up in the wash. Jeans from there particularly have done me really well!

cavegrrl

It's been a while!

We finally did our first car boot a few weeks ago. This was despite the lack of folding table - I went into Poundland and picked up a groundsheet from their camping section and just had that and the clothes rail, it actually worked out really well! We had a box of books and some upturned boxes to display some things. OH was not looking forward to it at first but soon cheered up when things were selling (which was pretty much instantly!) I'd hoped to make £40 but we made £70 after the stall cost, not bad considering we turned up at 9.30am and were gone by 1.30pm! Hoping to fit in another one this year, weather seems to be turning very autumnal though.

Holiday was a bit of a blowout, but I did get quite a bit of money for my birthday and I was mostly sensible (thick cardigans for winter, much needed jeans in the sale)...

I am feeling well chuffed with my new mobile network! I've been with giffgaff for years, I was on their £5 goodybag but then I realised I would actually save money if I just topped up and let it roll rather than buying any package. I did like them but signal in my area is poor and has been getting worse (texts taking hours to receive, some not making it at all!). My phone is dual sim, so I decided to try out The People's Operator, which I saw on hotukdeals. I got a free sim with £10.50 credit to trial one of their hero bundles for a month and it has been brilliant - I get a signal! All my texts get through! The mobile internet actually works! And it's even cheaper than giffgaff! So I switched my number the other day (overnight, was quite impressed) and topped up today ready for when the bundle runs out.. I added £10, which lasts me roughly 3 months - and, as a welcome, they doubled it! So I shouldn't have to top up my phone until next year.. I hope.

Still forever impressed by Lidl (especially after the Waitrose holiday shop that came to nearly £100 without even having any alcohol - gulp).. Popped in the other day and picked up a whole free range chicken, some outdoor bred pork steaks, butternut squash & loads of other veg. Forgot our bag so bought one of their 'forever' bags and it still only came to £11.32 I wasn't convinced about buying the bag but OH convinced me and, thinking about it now, it's a really good bargain - 59p for a rather large, sturdy bag. Much better than the pound shop bags.

I haven't heard back from the job I applied for and haven't seen anything else recently really hoping something changes soon. We are surviving, and far better than I thought considering the additional driving expenses this year thanks to strict budgeting & tracking, but we really need to move and it's just not do-able on current budget.

Anyway, on a lighter note, I'm going to make some thank you cards later to save a few quid - picked up a pack of card blanks from Poundland ages ago and have not used them all. Have stamps coming out of my ears!

I've been loving the dermaV10 skincare range from Poundland at the minute. Saw it posted on a superscrimpers site and noticed the label said 'no parabens' - I haven't thoroughly checked the ingredients list, but it doesn't have any of the known worst offenders. The face serum and hand cream are really good.

YNAB trial ran out & have yet to hit £40 on onepoll, so I'm seeing how it goes. I have my spending diary and am trying to replicate a similar budget/test free apps in the meantime.

cavegrrl

I've reached £39.90 on OnePoll but seem to be suffering from survey drought - so frustrating!

In good news, I've started matched betting. I didn't have much to start with so it is slow, but I have already made about £70 profit in a few days, so that's positive.

My car has been in at the garage getting repaired - I'm not entirely sure it was worth it and I've had to receive help from my mum and stepdad to pay for it initially but fingers crossed once this is done, it will be good for a while... I'm hoping matched betting will help pay the debts off and kickstart the bulk of my savings!

cavegrrl

What a day! Got my car back, after its mammouth repair job. Also got a free clean and a free pen with torch, haha. Not bad!

Not long after that, I got a call from Waitrose about a job I applied for. I've got an interview next week! Totally swinging between "I can do this" and "yay" to "omg" and "this isn't going to happen" - I get SO anxious about interviews and this is a particularly bad group interview deep breaths..
I'm going to find some proper interview clothes at the weekend. It's something I should have done ages ago, usually I just 'cobble' something together from what I've got & charity shop clothes, but I realise not only do I really need to give a better impression, but the more comfortable I feel with how I look, hopefully the more confident I will feel. Investment in the long run, right?
The actual job may end up being a bit of a loss wage-wise - I'm going to have to see how it goes, it sounded like they might have other shifts available.. I want to get my foot in the door but I may be £150 lighter a month if it's the hours they advertise but they want me to do weekends.

I bought YNAB and spent hours inputting my spend diary figures for the past month and a bit, since the trial finished.. Didn't quite all add up but I just manually input the difference and will keep it updated from there.

My savings have grown x10 since matched betting! I'm keeping all the funds in my matched betting fund, so they can continue growing, it's much better than the measly interest I was getting from my savings account. Feel like the first goal is really achievable now.

cavegrrl

I was sure I had updated more recently than my last post, but apparently not!

Lots of new things..

1) I got the job at Waitrose! 3 nights a week, 11.25 hours but they have lots of overtime so I'm pushing it to 20 hours a week. 3 month contract, which I hear is standard, really hoping they renew in January!

2) I passed my driving test! First time! I can't quite believe it, really was not expecting it. A big bonus finances-wise.

3) I've been approved for a John Lewis Partnership card - planning to pay off in full each month. As I'm going from weekly wages to monthly, and my budget starts at the beginning of the month but pay is towards the end, I figure I can make use of a credit card instead of my overdraft (which charges me by the day I think) and get some vouchers for doing so! I'm only allowed to spend within my pre-planned budget and everything is tracked through YNAB so I'm confident this won't be building a debt.

4) Matched betting has been slower this month, due to how busy I have been but continues to be a good income.

5) We've made the choice not to buy presents for Christmas. Bigbig saving and less stress! We are doing the food for Christmas day, and we're just going to focus our time & energy on spending time with people & having fun instead of buying gifts which will stretch us and may or may not be needed.

6) Moving in February now. Really hoping I can meet my £1,000 savings target and lower my debt to below £1,000 by then. So that's about £900 in 3 months. I feel positive I can meet this, although I will have to start using some of my Matched Betting profits for living costs until I get a permanent contract.

7) I got £20 for a survey a couple of weeks ago - Valued Opinions is not so bad after all Requested John Lewis voucher - it will go towards food for Christmas.

cavegrrl

Christmas without the buying was really nice - I didn't feel too bad about not giving as we did the food and we had warned everyone prior, so the presents we received were only as people wanted to and were much less than usual. Since I have been decluttering, it's actually really nice not to receive!
We chose a cockerel for christmas dinner instead of turkey, as it was half the price. The veg wars at the supermarket definitely helped, too!
We had a busy couple of weeks so we didn't spend too much on going out, either.

I had a couple of wins over Christmas - I won £5 on the lucky phone draw and £10 credit to my account through a onepoll competition - hopefully I will hit the £40 payout on onepoll in the next few months.

Still crossing fingers over my contract with Waitrose continuing. We are starting to look at flats to rent now.

Perhaps the biggest news is we were given some money towards a house deposit. I can't pay it in for a couple of weeks but we have been busy preparing. We've opened a joint account as it was in both our names (something we were planning on doing anyway - good incentive) and I've just closed my cash ISA (which I didn't really use) so I can open a Help to Buy ISA. My partner is listed on the deeds to his dads house, so it will only be the one but it is still a help as we are not quite ready to buy yet - maybe at the end of the year or early next year.
When the 0% offer ends on my credit card, I am going to use some to pay off the remainder and just pay the money back into the account - saving the nearly 4% transfer fee on the two balances I have remaining.

This year I am 30, so I'm starting to look into funding retirement.. Something I have never really considered before! If my contract is renewed, I will probably opt in for the pension scheme at work but I'm not sure it will be enough on my contracted hours. So I'll look into other options too.

I've lost the bug for matched betting, but that's OK. I've cancelled my subscription for now and I'm thinking of just using high interest current accounts to get 4% interest on my savings. £200 left to go to reach my first saving target, then it will be paying off the credit card/paying back the deposit before I start aiming for £5k, then £10k and then I will be so very happy! Big targets but I didn't think I'd even make it this far, and I'm getting better every day in regards to money.

Happy 2016 everyone!

cavegrrl

Quick update on how things are going.

So, money was paid in - I now have a help to buy ISA ticking along nicely, a Club Lloyds account giving us 4% and a TSB account giving us 5%. I've paid off my debts and am building up the savings. I have a pension with work - it's probably not going to give me a luxury retirement but it is matched to 4.5% so free money seemed a sensible option and not too crippling to me right now. Such a weird feeling to be in this place, I still can't quite believe it.

We moved in February - still renting but privately. We were quite lucky with the flat we've found - our old house, although lovely and very lucky on the rent front - was so cold and damp, mould was growing everywhere. There was never any point to turn the heating on because it just burnt money without warming the place. So I'm pleased to be somewhere that is so warm and dry. Also has huge windows so very light and is actually pretty big, considering it is one of the cheapest places we could find. Moving wasn't too bad cost-wise.. We had a couple of things which weren't great - I bought a second hand fridge which turned out to be faulty (kept freezing everything) so we had to buy another - wish I had just used my discount and bought one new in the first place. And we did pay for removals who said it would be £60 an hour with the minimum cost being £60 - they took an hour and I had already paid a £60 deposit so I thought that would be it but apparently it was £60 on top of that. I didn't mind too much, just wish it was clearer beforehand.

I have been matched betting again on the side, my work hours at Waitrose have increased and I've just given up some freelance work I wasn't enjoying to focus on selling antiques. Also been following KonMari and getting back to some hobbies and interests that had been put on the backburner for too long!

So pretty content with life at the moment! The next step will be buying a house, but we are not quite there yet.. We are not even decided on whether to aim a bit higher and go for a 'forever' house or just to find the next stage. I wouldn't mind moving away from the area we are in at some point but with my partner's job, he would not really consider it.

I have started a bullet journal which is pretty amazing - I've always preferred writing things down to digital. It helps to keep track of finances when I forget to update YNAB.

cavegrrl

Oh and I won the Lucky Phone draw again not so long ago - main draw this time, so £20.
I was checking every free daily draw I could find but I have KonMari'd a couple out of my daily routine - there was a £50 amazon voucher daily draw that had a terrible website (way too many adverts and slow loading), so I've given up on that now.

Bf continues to pay £4 a week to play Euromillions and leave his savings in 0.05% interest accounts :shrug: