Oh the shame! Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade budget

OnwardAndUpward81

Hey all

This is probably my 3rd MSE diary since 2007 but I am determined to stay on track this time. It's the 1st July and I thought I would make a new start with three new goals ( actually, annoyingly, they're not really new at all!):-

Manage my finances (whenever I come back to the MSE community I always start to get back on track)
Get back to my normal weight (It's funny how putting on 1 stone can actually rip your clothes open, ha)
Complete a qualification ( I've been doing since 2012!)

To quickly put things into context I have recently moved into a shared ownership property with my OH. We both have full time jobs and fairly new businesses on the side. Below I have listed my income and outgoings. Feel free to give me any advice or tips or maybe I've left out something? I am all ears. I also intend to join some MSE challenges, let's see how I get on.

My income
Full Time job - 1891.00
Part Time job - 150.00 min.

Joint Outgoings
Mortgage - 739.80
Rent - 1082.84
Council Tax - 172.00
Internet (Only BT Fibre Optic is available due to newbuild property) - 24.49
Netflix (We have no TV or TV licence, this is literally our TV) - 5.99
[STRIKE]Zipcar - 6.00 (Car scheme, thinking of closing the account)[/STRIKE] Has now been cancelled.
Water (metered and likely to be in credit when bill arrives) - 25.00
Electric (we have no gas - metered and likely to be in credit when bill arrives) - 100.00
Total - 2150.12 (My half = 1075.06)

Individual Outgoings
Mobile - 15.99 (plan ends 27/03/16)
Wix - 11.96 (Website fee for my business/second income)
Google Apps - 2.75 (Email address fee for my business/second income)
Loan - 144.44
Work union - 9.46
[STRIKE]Yoga - 89.00 ( This supports me with a heart condition, scoliosis and osteoarthritis - I look as fit as a fiddle, honest and I have no joy in forking out the money, at all! Debating what to do about it and struggling!)[/STRIKE] Cancelled at present
Travel - 81.00
Total - 265.60

Joint debts
Mortgage - 131,812.00
Credit card - [STRIKE]946.42[/STRIKE] :T

Individual debts
Loan - 6200.00
Student Loan - 7520.83
Credit card - 0
O/D - 0

I'm spending today and tomorrow making sure my figures are as accurate as possible so feel free to let me know if there is anything I have missed out.

Have a beautiful day everyone :T:T:T
xxx

Bobarella

Hiya
Is that electricity bill a new usage every month figure or are you clearing arrears? If the former it seems very high although you don't have a Gas figure so maybe that's why?
Bob

OnwardAndUpward81

Bobarella wrote: »

Hiya
Is that electricity bill a new usage every month figure or are you clearing arrears? If the former it seems very high although you don't have a Gas figure so maybe that's why?
Bob

Hiya Bob

We only have electricity, so I should probably add that on the post. I love your quote in your signature by the way

C

Bobarella

Thank you! I have had the 12 months from hell and am still scrapping! So I love it as it reminds me to fight on regardless.

Are you on a contract? I bet a visit to one of the comparison websites would help reduce that.

OnwardAndUpward81

Bobarella wrote: »

Thank you! I have had the 12 months from hell and am still scrapping! So I love it as it reminds me to fight on regardless.

Are you on a contract? I bet a visit to one of the comparison websites would help reduce that.

Sorry to hear that but sounds like you're taking the fight with a positive attitude, hope the fight gets better.

I reckon you're probably right with that one. We've just signed up to a contract and my OH chose to set it at 100 with a view that it will probably be less. We have just moved and everything happened so quickly I don't think we put much thought into to it, which is terrible! I'm going to double check the contract to be on the safe side.

Bobarella

Miss_Debt wrote: »

Sorry to hear that but sounds like you're taking the fight with a positive attitude, hope the fight gets better.

I reckon you're probably right with that one. We've just signed up to a contract and my OH chose to set it at 100 with a view that it will probably be less. We have just moved and everything happened so quickly I don't think we put much thought into to it, which is terrible! I'm going to double check the contract to be on the safe side.

It's not terrible! It's human nature. It's how they catch us out. Monthly meter readings are the way forward though.

OnwardAndUpward81

Bobarella wrote: »

It's not terrible! It's human nature. It's how they catch us out. Monthly meter readings are the way forward though.

Thanks, I'm going to do that (she says whilst slowly looking up and realises the light is on). Check the water meter readings too!

OnwardAndUpward81

I've just transferred £13.42 from a Natwest Cashback Plus account to my bank account. I knew I had it but had been locked out of the cashback account so just didn't bother with it. That attitude stops from today! As a result, I joined the 'Make £10 a day July 2015' challenge. Now, I think I'll join the 'Make a payment a day' challenge and pay something towards our joint credit card account. I am so tempted to save money so I can pay off a lump sum towards loan but I'll work on the credit card first methinks. To end my last entry for today, I have just joined an 'NSD challenge', wish me luck!

OnwardAndUpward81

Up at 4.24am thinking "l can't believe l'm back here again, am l stressing? Is this why my hair is thinning at the front! ". Need to work on the second income/side business to get more income and apply to some focus groups today. On a positive note, l did well on my MSE challenges yesterday and cancelled a subscription l think l don't use enough to justify 10 quid every month. I also am selling a festival ticket for this weekend instead of going, there's always next year.

Bobarella

Probably the heat doesn't help either I'd imagine. A lot of people seem to have been up late/early whichever way you look at it, last night.

I think it's very natural to feel a bit silly once you've had your LBM. You feel like why didn't I see it like this before? But you couldn't because you just hadn't thought of things that way yet.

You are doing the best you can NOW and that's all any of us can control. Try not to be so hard on yourself.

ERICS_MUM

Personally I would find tackling those 3 major challenges simultaneously just too overwhelming and I would fail, so good luck with your endeavours and congrats for the progress you make. Don't beat yourself up if you slip back once or twice during your journey.

Sounds condescending but I mean it sincerely folks. Are you setting "mini goals" and milestones within what could be a 2 or 3 year plan, focusing on some short term wins and a couple of longer term successes at a time ?

Good luck, keep posting your progress. Oops forgot to ask if OH is on-board with your strategy ?