Living Payday to Payday
Lina_T
Forumite 231 Posts
Decided to start a little diary for myself here to keep track of my money incoming and outgoing for the next few months. My thoughts are often a bit of a jumble and it helps to write it down!
I'm 26 and own a home (with mortgage) with my OH and a cheaply-run car (paid off). 2 little cats who are the undisputed loves of my life. I love my little family
I'm working out my notice in the job I'm in now and it's my last week here. I'm moving to an NHS job which is about the same money but they're dragging their feet with the application, DBS checks etc and now I'm worried about how much time there is going to be between finishing here and starting there IFSWIM. A week off would be manageable (and quite welcome actually) but any more than that is going to be a struggle to pay the bills. I don't have any savings and am probably going to be about £100 into my overdraft by the time I get my last paycheck (15th). That paycheck has got to seriously streeeeeeetch.
I'm also aware of a few expenses which are coming up and am trying to prioritise them. The cats are due their annual boosters. My car needs a service. It's our 5 year realtionship anniversary on the 10th October. Christmas is looming. I could also do with a couple of pair of new work trousers and a new handbag but non-essential really. I could muddle through without for a month or 2. The house needs money spending on it, especially in terms of insulating it in time for the cold weather.
So anything that is going to reduce my spending/generate some income is welcome. I need to not let my OH persuade me to go on nights out / get takeaways / go for meals and send him out with his mates instead. Some other plans are:
Ebay/Facebook Selling: Go through my things and see what is suitable for sale. I bought a real leather jacket a couple of months ago which I shouldn't have done, I have a perfectly good pleather one
so I could sell this on ebay and potentially get all my money back (brand has good resale value).
Comping: Started comping again, quite fruitful in the past. I can hopefully win some money / Vouchers / things I can sell / Things I can give as presents for Christmas to keep that expense down.
I tried surveys sites/swagbucks in the past. Made a fair bit of extra money but didn't find it worth the hours put in for a few quid. I'm going to look at some threads here for cheaper ways to feed ourselves, and also start a spending diary.
I'm 26 and own a home (with mortgage) with my OH and a cheaply-run car (paid off). 2 little cats who are the undisputed loves of my life. I love my little family
I'm working out my notice in the job I'm in now and it's my last week here. I'm moving to an NHS job which is about the same money but they're dragging their feet with the application, DBS checks etc and now I'm worried about how much time there is going to be between finishing here and starting there IFSWIM. A week off would be manageable (and quite welcome actually) but any more than that is going to be a struggle to pay the bills. I don't have any savings and am probably going to be about £100 into my overdraft by the time I get my last paycheck (15th). That paycheck has got to seriously streeeeeeetch.
I'm also aware of a few expenses which are coming up and am trying to prioritise them. The cats are due their annual boosters. My car needs a service. It's our 5 year realtionship anniversary on the 10th October. Christmas is looming. I could also do with a couple of pair of new work trousers and a new handbag but non-essential really. I could muddle through without for a month or 2. The house needs money spending on it, especially in terms of insulating it in time for the cold weather.
So anything that is going to reduce my spending/generate some income is welcome. I need to not let my OH persuade me to go on nights out / get takeaways / go for meals and send him out with his mates instead. Some other plans are:
Ebay/Facebook Selling: Go through my things and see what is suitable for sale. I bought a real leather jacket a couple of months ago which I shouldn't have done, I have a perfectly good pleather one
so I could sell this on ebay and potentially get all my money back (brand has good resale value).Comping: Started comping again, quite fruitful in the past. I can hopefully win some money / Vouchers / things I can sell / Things I can give as presents for Christmas to keep that expense down.
I tried surveys sites/swagbucks in the past. Made a fair bit of extra money but didn't find it worth the hours put in for a few quid. I'm going to look at some threads here for cheaper ways to feed ourselves, and also start a spending diary.
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The cats annual boosters can be delayed for a few months. The protection does not stop once the vaccination is 365 days old it tapers off slowly.
The car's service will have to wait for a few more months. The car won't break down if it's not serviced. Keep a check on all the levels and service it yourself if required.
Delaying insulating the house for one more winter isn't going to cost a fortune if you need to borrow the money to pay for the insulation measures. If you have the money then it's worth doing but for one more winter you can pay the slightly higher energy bills instead of the interest on the loan required to pay for it.
I know if I'm struggling and ask for help financially, he'll help. However I feel it's partly my fault that I'm in this situation as I'm not good at managing my money, and have an inability to say no to social obligations. I'm also very spendy on unnecessary things. I've had a full time job for the last 9 years so to not have any emergency savings for occasions like this is a bit of a fail on my part! I'd like to try and cope as much as I can without asking for help, but if I need to I will and help with be given. I won't get myself into a mess. The Friday night takeaway and bottles of wine can be on him if he wants them, and he's going to have to get up close and personal with some supermarket own brands
Agree on all these fronts. Especially the car service as my new job is a 5 minutes walk from home so I'll hopefully not have to use it that much. I'd get rid all together, but a requirement of the job is to have a car in case of last minute sickness/holiday cover elsewhere.
We've both had a talk and agreed to less baths and less putting the central heating on as much. We'll try to layer up as much as possible and we have some sealant to reseal all the windows which really needs doing, there's a draft coming from each window. Could also do with a curtain rail and curtains for the main bedroom to keep the heat in, just have blinds atm. Should be able to pick some up cheap on sale or from a charity shop.
Re: the central heating. I turn off all the radiators except just the one in the living room. The heat from the living room rises and warms the bedroom above it just enough to not be freezing. Of course that depends on how your house is laid out. None of the other rooms really need to be heated. If you're in the kitchen you typically aren't in it for very long and you'll have the cooker on keeping you warm and if you're in the bathroom you really are just in ir for 15 to 30 minutes. Why heat it for 24 hours just for that short period of time.
Just to clarify: I meant showers instead of baths, not just going mucky :eek: agreed on the radiator front, I'm going to go round tonight and check what level they are all on. The spare bedroom, hallway, kitchen and bathroom don't really need to be on.
What sort of shower do you have? The flat I've just moved in to has a fantastic power shower but uses so much water at 20 litres per minute costing 4 pence per minute using water heated by gas it's far cheaper just to have a bath and you can spend so much more time getting clean without worrying about the bill.
An electric shower rated at 7.5kW would cost only about 1 penny per minute to run again depending on your electricity tariff. Just have a quicker daily shower and if you're on Economy 7 have a shower at night or in the early morning before the peak tariff comes on.
Not too sure, it's just one that runs up from the taps like this:
But I figure 5 minutes to have a shower vs 8-10 minutes to run a bath is probably cheaper, I know only by a small amount but it adds up if it's an everyday thing.
I cancelled some webhosting I wasn't using for a pro-rated refund, got a fiver paid into my paypal - every little helps!
Listed my leather jacket on ebay and have a few watchers already. If it sells for the amount it's on for I'll be making a profit on what I bought it for even after fees and postage, so fingers crossed someone puts a bid in the next few days.
My Dad's birthday celebration tonight. I owe £10 towards his main present (from all the family) and have got him a £2 box of choccys to wrap up with it. Meal tonight at a carvery place, hopefully the whole event including pressies will cost less than £25. This is good for me, I tend to get carried away with birthdays.
And then my last day in this job tomorrow! Being taken out for a leaving meal but don't think I'll have to put my hand in my pocket for that
With it being quite a high value item and a well known brand I think I might have better luck on eBay? I've always found that house stuff and toys/kids stuff sell well on Facebook but adult clothes don't fetch much. I will give it a shot if it doesn't sell on eBay in the next week or 2.