New Diary, New Start-mortgage be gone

tattycath

Been baking today.
I did spend £6.49 for supplies, I also used lots of stuff up out of the cupboard.
Freezer supplies going down steadily.
Off to update my grocery spends so far this month.

Thistlewhistle

tattycath wrote: »

Been baking today.
I did spend £6.49 for supplies, I also used lots of stuff up out of the cupboard.
Freezer supplies going down steadily.
Off to update my grocery spends so far this month.

Hey tattycath, I did this in August and managed to survive on only £86.48!! Good luck:T

T;)

tattycath

Ok, so today I have a mild dilemma. It's stupid question time...
I'm keeping a spending a spending diary and this week I have a large one off expense ( when I say one off, this particular expense won't come up again for years), do I diarise it or leave it out?

peaceandfreedom

tattycath wrote: »

Ok, so today I have a mild dilemma. It's stupid question time...
I'm keeping a spending a spending diary and this week I have a large one off expense ( when I say one off, this particular expense won't come up again for years), do I diarise it or leave it out?

I suppose it depends on what your spending diary is meant to record. If you are just trying to track everyday spending then I suppose this one-off wouldn't fit in.

At the end of the year, it is always fascinating to see where the money has gone so I would definitely record it somewhere. If you are keeping a spending diary in Excel, you could use a different tab for one-off expenses like this?

tattycath

peaceandfreedom wrote: »

I suppose it depends on what your spending diary is meant to record. If you are just trying to track everyday spending then I suppose this one-off wouldn't fit in.

At the end of the year, it is always fascinating to see where the money has gone so I would definitely record it somewhere. If you are keeping a spending diary in Excel, you could use a different tab for one-off expenses like this?

Thanks for this p&f. I'm using a good old fashioned paper and pen method at the moment as I do most of my stuff on my tablet and it doesn't support excel.
I think I'll just record it in my note pad, maybe using a different colour for one off expenses. Xx

greent

I'd record it but mark it differently - so a different colour in this instance seems like a good idea


x

Thistlewhistle

Record it as an extraordinary item tattycath, then you can see the money has been spent but know it was just a one off.

Tx

tattycath

Been shuffling funds again today and I've paid another £200 off the mortgage. This might be it now for the month. I will have to see.
Even if I can't pay any more off this month, I will be very happy with what I have managed so far.

tattycath

Spent £8.77 on groceries today. I still need to do a menu plan.
I really fall down at stuff like this.
When I was growing up my mum had a menu. We had the same meal every Sunday lunch for 4 months. Roast beef, or roast pork or roast lamb.
Every night in the week was the same every week, same thing every Monday, then what ever we had on a Tuesday was every week too, and so it continued. We were well fed and knew what we were having-mum rarely deviated from the menu.
I must sit down and sort it.
I also need to sort out my paperwork for self assessment. It's my first time doing it so I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. So far is collated receipts and other relevant pieces of paperwork and I've no idea what to do with them.
Right, I had better go and sort some food out.

peaceandfreedom

tattycath wrote: »

When I was growing up my mum had a menu. We had the same meal every Sunday lunch for 4 months. Roast beef, or roast pork or roast lamb.
Every night in the week was the same every week, same thing every Monday, then what ever we had on a Tuesday was every week too, and so it continued. We were well fed and knew what we were having-mum rarely deviated from the menu.
I must sit down and sort it.

Is that what you really want though - to have the same thing each week? Much as I find meal-deciding a bore, I wouldn't want the same thing repeated each week and neither would anyone else in the house. I like a bit of variety.

Having said that, I am the opposite extreme and generally have no idea what we are having for dinner every evening. If it were just me, it'd be no problem - I sort out my breakfast and lunch every day and they are delicious, healthy and very economical. But the evening meal is the bane of my life, partly because it is hard to please everyone.

tattycath wrote: »

I also need to sort out my paperwork for self assessment. It's my first time doing it so I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. So far is collated receipts and other relevant pieces of paperwork and I've no idea what to do with them.

So all purchase receipts / invoices go in one file, in chronological order. Then tot them all up - might be tricky if you only have a tablet, a spreadsheet is the best way but you can hand-write it. Include absolutely anything that may have been a work-related cost. You can include a portion of household costs if you work from home but I don't know the details as I always use an accountant. Include any professional fees, subs, postage etc.

Likewise, all sales invoices in another file / list.

Sales less purchases is your gross profit - obviously you want this to be as low as possible to keep the tax bill as low as possible. My accountant fills in my tax return for me but actually there isn't that much to fill in, you don't need to submit your actual accounts, just the overall figures.

I guess since you are filling it in this early, you want HMRC to calculate your tax liability for you?