Do One, Debt!

GoingToDoIt

No wonder I'm in debt....
I used to pay 70 per month to an account for xmas and birthdays, somehow I've got confused and paid 70 for xmas and 70 for birthdays :rotfl: I've accidentally over saved :rotfl:
I thought that account was looking very healthy. I'm sending £150 of that to the cc debt

GoingToDoIt

Well, a busy few weeks including birthday lots of fun and lots of spending.
I currently have £25 in the bank plus the same in cash, and £25 squirrelled for travel, which I knew would be a bit more expensive this month due to lots of activities.
I still have plenty of food in so I just need some cheap top up shops.
I had a compulsion to do clothes shopping again but have squashed it down, instead have sorted through my "don't fit/different season" stuff and found some useful bits that can be brought into use.
I will need to find a few new items, after next payday, but now I know what I am looking for rather than aimlessly looking about.
I cashed out £5 on swaggy but had a £5 bill from bay of e so that was a bit meh! I changed my foreign currencies and got £2.70 so that was nice, just spent it on shopping though.
I have put side hustles to the side whilst socialising but will get back on them next week. Inb@x£ is almost at £10 which is exciting.
Feeling a bit tired out so spending the weekend planning - I need new packed lunch ideas, and I'll set out my new monthly outgoings from April soon. It's bothered me being in this transitional phase changing amounts and suppliers, plus I keep failing to find a food type budget structure that works for me!

GoingToDoIt

Mortgage 287
Rent 487.35
C tax 69.00
Water 25.05
Elec 33.00
Internet 20.00
Mobile 7.50
V!rgin cc 35.00
964.77 Bills

Hair 70
Bday 35
Xmas 35
C lens 13
Clothes 20
Rdf 20
Insurance 10
Holidays 100
Travel 100
Pots 403

Total commitments per month 1367.77

New salary 1990

Available cash £623

Hulifax cc payment 210

Orange_Ena

GoingToDoIt wrote: »

No wonder I'm in debt....
I used to pay 70 per month to an account for xmas and birthdays, somehow I've got confused and paid 70 for xmas and 70 for birthdays :rotfl: I've accidentally over saved :rotfl:
I thought that account was looking very healthy. I'm sending £150 of that to the cc debt

:rotfl: Shame you noticed...........you could have become debt neutral without realising

Happy birthday, very belatedly :bdaycake::bdaycake::bdaycake::bdaycake: Here's lots of cake as compo

Have you tried pinterest for lunch ideas? Or if you're on facebook, there's a group called "feed yourself for a £1 a day". They have a some great ideas of different food

GoingToDoIt

Thanks Ena!!! I like cake, as you may know
Unfortunately I'm a very fussy eater, so I should be clearer on what I mean for lunch ideas.
First of all I'm veggie, secondly I have chronic fatigue. So lunches I've been taking are tin of soup and bread, pasta or frozen burrito. I know there are a million things I "could" make recipie-wise, but what I really need is something that meets my exacting criteria! I have a difficult commute too. So it needs to also survive a lot of bashing about in the bag and be fairly leak proof. And be storable to stockpile in case I don't get to the shops. Oh yeah and contain some kind of vitamin or nutrition!!!
Rice freezes well, so I want to try a kind of veg pilaf rice and lentil thing? The good thing is we have a reasonable kitchen at work with lots of microwaves so I can re-heat easily. And I invested in some good tupperwares.
I'd love to do nice salads and things but the reality just now is that I'll buy the stuff and be too tired to prep it.

GoingToDoIt

Hmmmm 5th April and 10 days til payday - looks like I'm going to overspend this month. I have £15 in my purse plus food out tomorrow will be £4 and I need to get two prescription items which is £17. I'm going to put that on the cc, no point crying over spilt milk it was forgotten when budgeting. I should plan that in for future reference. I'll see how long the £11 purse cash lasts.

Orange_Ena

GoingToDoIt wrote: »

Thanks Ena!!! I like cake, as you may know
Unfortunately I'm a very fussy eater, so I should be clearer on what I mean for lunch ideas.
First of all I'm veggie, secondly I have chronic fatigue. So lunches I've been taking are tin of soup and bread, pasta or frozen burrito. I know there are a million things I "could" make recipie-wise, but what I really need is something that meets my exacting criteria! I have a difficult commute too. So it needs to also survive a lot of bashing about in the bag and be fairly leak proof. And be storable to stockpile in case I don't get to the shops. Oh yeah and contain some kind of vitamin or nutrition!!!
Rice freezes well, so I want to try a kind of veg pilaf rice and lentil thing? The good thing is we have a reasonable kitchen at work with lots of microwaves so I can re-heat easily. And I invested in some good tupperwares.
I'd love to do nice salads and things but the reality just now is that I'll buy the stuff and be too tired to prep it.

Ah I see. Yeah that's quite a challenge. I tend to have the same lunch everyday but I don't get bored. But you sound along the right lines with soup and pasta. I guess batch cook and freeze when you're up to it then just get it out on the way to work, or make a salad on the day.

GoingToDoIt

Still have not got round to lunch ideas....will try cooking and freezing some rice and veg later I think
Getting back on to doing swaggy and inbox£ after having a bit of a break. I also joined you gov, however I can see that will be a slow burn. I have no doubt that "future me" will be glad of the £50 though, even if it comes two years from now!
I've left tcb to keep ticking, there's now £27 ready to pay out however another £38 should pay soon too so I will let it build up some more. Usually side earnings go to the rdf, but I'm tempted to use this to pay the hulifax cc off. Decisions, decisions!
I've got a bit of bay of e stuff to list, but I don't really have the time for posting etc until May so will leave it until then.
It's all been about spending lately and not so much earning, but we all have to have a life, it's all a balance and I'm happy enough with my progress.
I just ordered a t@sco delivery, I was a bit disappointed with myself as I always get it before the end of the month when I've spent everything and "roll over" the overspend. However I'm closer to the end of the month than usual, so that's some progress I am already down to my last £5 in the bank plus I have definitely overspent on the cc but altogether not done too bad. Need to stock up on shopping now, due to plans over the next few weekends and it's better to overspend on stocking up on bargains, than to be without basics after payday and then panic buy at higher prices, isn't it? I think so!

GoingToDoIt

I feel like I've been spending like there's no tomorrow - more socialising and shopping for clothes again...I should be entering a quiet few weeks now so hopefully it will even out.
I was looking forward to a straightforward month bills wise but I think that May will be the first "normal" month. The Easter bank holiday meant I got paid early, but none of my money has moved yet and I am desperate to pay off more of the hulifax cc and see the balance go down
Packed lunch wise, I've made a load of shredded carrot and hummus butties wrapped in foil and stored in the freezer. Did a few experiements and these came out fine, best taken out to defrost in the morning- not the night before!
I am hopefully going to be bringing some cash in soon. Did a survey on swaggy worth 1500, so nearly £10 plus back up to 300 after recent cash out. TCB now at £30 but awaiting another £35 before cashing out. Inbox£ creeping towards £11 slowly. Did a p!necone survey for £3 but it has locked me out again so not sure how much is there, maybe £7. A huge pile of goods to go to the bay in the next few weeks. Still applying for some f2f focus groups but I'm not getting any acceptance yet.

GoingToDoIt

I've spent £120 on travel this month- to be expected as have had a lot on, but still a saving of £28 against the cost of a monthly pass
I'm trying to think positively rather than beat myself up over an overspend, so to try and look at things a different way, I totalled up a "projected" annual spend for the next 12 months and worked out what % of spend that is. Exciting! So in summary, 60% of my wages are taken up with standard bills and savings.

Annual cash in - 23880
3363 Mortgage 0.14%
5848 rent 0.24%
800 c tax 0.03%
300 water 0.01%
243 wifi 0.01%
396 elec 0.01%
145 tv licence 0.005%
90 mobile 0.002%
156 contact lens 0.005%
120 insurance 0.004%
420 Xmas 0.017%
420 Bday 0.017 %
1200 travel 0.05 %
840 hair 0.03%
14,341 60%

I think that I need to look at whether there are any costs I can reduce. Am doing a mortgage check at the mo, so will see if I can get that down but not hopeful. It's quite a limited offer for shared ownership mortgages but I will see.
I'm already paying my insurance for the year upfront, I think doing the same with the wifi would save money too, so I need to start thinking of how to put money aside for that.
I'm saving £100 every month for holidays in 12 months time, so that can go in a high interest saver. In a few months when hulifax is gone I can pay my v!rgin cc in there too and that way I should manage to earn about £60 in interest, or even if things change I won't "lose" any money by doing it.

So my income streams are:
New fd saver
Inbox£
Swaggy
Youg0v
P!necone
Bay of E
CO0p bank rewards
Hulifax bank rewards
Dibs points cc
Nect@r points
F2f with s@ros