Reality Check...

reality_check

Some happy positive news....

M&S sent me £18 worth of vouchers from using my credit card and I have £6 from before so that is £24...might put them aside for Christmas time.

I also have £4.50 of Tesco club card vouchers in my purse.

And, best of all....British Gas have sent me a full size box of Hotel Chocolate chocolates as part of some reward system they have?! I'm not complaining xx

milasavesmoney

I love money and chocolates!

Come on pay day!!

reality_check

Joined the gym last night and went to a spin class at 5.45am this morning before work. Was a struggle getting up but feel great now!!

One more day to pay day!!!

Lunch, water and snacks all with me today! xxx

milasavesmoney

Wow! I'm impressed with you. Plus you are prepared for your day.::T

Eager_Elephant

I'm not stalking you honestly but just thought I would quote some of your entries from back in Jan/Feb....

reality_check wrote: »

Feburary I won't be paying as much as I won't have any refunds going back on plus my Feb commission is only £300 because that was from sales from the end of Dec/Jan sales I was off for 2 weeks at Christmas and when you don't work there is obviously no potential to earn commission.

My aim is £500 a month so I am hoping to be able to have £100 left over from my wages as council tax doesn't need paid in Feb and I will need to try and come in under budget with food/petrol or try find something to sell!!
xx

In January you mentioned that Feb was only £300 commission and in a previous post when you did your first SOA you mentioned average commission was £600 but last week you are now saying average commission is £900 but are using £1200 in your SOA.


If you have annual leave you don't get commission so surely some months are much lower - how much commission did you earn in all of last financial year and how did that break down per month? I'm just wondering if you need to be more realistic with your expected commission?

reality_check wrote: »

Realised I havent budgeted for beauty/hair/make up.... I have plenty make up/skin care for the next few months but I do have expensive taste in this area! I actually really need a new mascara but Boots had offers on at christmas when you bought 2 products you got £5 worth of points, so I know I def have £15.00 and probably a little more on my Advantage card, and mascara is one of the products I am ok with changing up, so the usual £25 YSL one will be on hold for the foreseeable future!

I spend £85 every 6 weeks getting my hair cut and coloured, .

I also spend £12 every 4 weeks getting my eyebrows threaded and tinted - it is £5 threading, £5 tint and I leave a £2 tip...
I also spend £27 (£25 plus £2 tip) getting gel nails every month of £42 if I get toes done too... this also has to stop. Last year I bought all the kit, lamp, nail polish etc, spent over £150 so that me and my daughter could do at home - I done it a few times and it was great, I am just too lazy! But if I want gel nails done, this is how it will have to be right now!

The other day I mentioned beauty costs and looking at the above and what you spend it comes to more than £100 per month - I think you need to have a separate beauty budget and then have a separate spends to include impulse purchases (clothes should have it's own budget)

reality_check wrote: »

With regards to SOA and forward planning.... I think for now I am going to pay essential direct debits for me which are: mortgage, council tax, virgin, netflix, gas and electricity which comes in at £515.42 plus £300 on my 2 dogs and stick to £100 petrol budget and £100 food budget, coming in at £1015.42 and I am going to throw the rest at debt! I know this isn't planning for the unexpected, but when I have annual costs like car insurance I won't put it onto more debt I may just have to only meet minimum payments that month and eat toast and beans! Controversial maybe, but will see how I go....does this method work for anyone?!

This has been your plan since January but by my calculations your debt has not really moved so maybe that method of budgeting does not work?


I can only quote a few posts at a time but in Jan your credit card debt was £9817.86 but last month you mentioned it was £10,700 as you had forgotten a card so not sure if that was forgotten in Jan's figures as well.


Also you had your overdraft in Jan but not sure if you still have that as not been mentioned in the few posts I checked.


However you want to budget has to work for you, if you are happy living month to month and buying what you need as you go along then that is fine but I am still worried about ill health etc. Just imagine if you got ill and the car was damaged and an insurance fell due all at the same time - if you have no commission how would you pay all bills and cover the car and insurance??


I know you are saying that you are not budgeting for home improvements but I am talking about things that need repairing or replacing - the cooker, washing machine - what if a roof tile blows off and you end up with water damage? You really need to put some money away for this.


Everybody thinks their car is reliable but what if you had an accident and didn't get enough insurance to cover a different car? What if the engine blew up one day? What if the cam belt snaps and wrecks the engine? Anything like this is a possibility and you don't want to be caught out a few years down the line needing a new car with no money to get one.


You should be saving for car maintenance and repairs - tyres will need replacing at least every 2 years and even bulbs etc will need doing every so often.

think I just want to pay every penny to debt and hope nothing happens, but I know things are bound to happen so it isn't realistic....but thought could get away with a year of hammering debt and not budgeting...oh i don't know!!

But you tried this approach since Jan/Feb and it wasn't realistic as you needed the mirror and the car insurance is on the credit card and various other lovely things have been purchased.


I am only being harsh as I stood still for 5 years pretending to pay off debt and managing my debts etc when in reality I just made minimum payments and tracked all my spending - I didn't set any budget and as a result my debt went down by about £500 in 5 years.


Now I use YNAB but also have a spreadsheet which I have printed out so that every pay day I allocate all my money and send it to it's new home - whether that is a savings pot or a credit card.
What is left for spends is all I have and if that is all spent in 1 week then it's tough.
It is hard work but it is nice to see all the pots building up knowing that when the MOT is due I will have the funds to pay it rather than scrabbling around.


I think it's a great idea to have an EF somewhere you can't access it such as credit union.
Maybe the birthday and xmas could be somewhere different otherwise you might spend your EF on xmas and birthdays??


Feel free to ignore me as I do go on a bit

Eager_Elephant

reality_check wrote: »

Joined the gym last night and went to a spin class at 5.45am this morning before work. Was a struggle getting up but feel great now!!

One more day to pay day!!!

Lunch, water and snacks all with me today! xxx

Well done on joining the gym:T and going to a spin class at 5.45am:eek:. I am up at 6 and go and do my animals but I don't see anyone so it doesn't matter I rough I look whereas going to the gym and doing the class involves hair and make up at some ungodly hour

reality_check

I do have wonderful plans, that never quite follow through when you read back month to month!! In January I had credit cards and overdrafts but I done a cash transfer into my bank and cleared off overdraft so that is gone but now onto a card! I have paid off £975.63 this year....not the best!

Debt has increased as I paid for car and home insurance on a credit card, high vet bills at the start of the year plus the extra crap.

I don't know if it's the way I have worded the commission...My potential each month is £1200. This year to date:

January: £385
Feb £671
March: £969
April: £982
May: £901

Total: £3908 Average: £781.60

Basically I have spent £2831.37
Car insurance: £400
Home insurance: £220
New carpets: £1000
Vet bills/medication: £800 aprox
Tyre: £40
And spent extra money on a load of nothing!! Aprox £400 but def more £1000 on nothing!! As I had a cheques paid in and some refunds (my maths could be way wrong in these calculations)

Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Does just show what my debt now could have been compared to what it is! Pay off £500 one month, spend £450 the next month back on the card...never ending cycle!!

I can't budget for ill health right now, just need to be hopefully I can work and pay down debt and plan for this in the future. I do have policies that pay my mortgage and a pay out if God forbid I am seriously ill, but I don't like to think about it or even write about it being a possibility!!!

I am not happy living month to month, trust me I want out this way of living. YNAB is too confusing for me. I do need some extra saving pots though I agree. I am not having everything like clothes etc as I genuinely don't plan to buy them, that dress was the first thing in a long time!! Beauty treatments have stopped, since this year I have only been getting my eyebrows waxed and threaded at £10 a month which I will pay from my personal spending budget....nails, facials etc are firmly on hold! I have also only had one haircut, dyed my own hair but do need a haircut next month but again will be from personal spending pot.

I probably do need a car fund and Christmas/Birthday fund and build up my EF again...I will focus on these 3 along with my annual insurance savings...I know it makes sense. Will have a look at my budgets and maybe try the SOA link again.

I am guilty of putting make up on and going to the gym, but not very MSE as it just sweats off and then I shower and put it on again....I am aiming for 3 times a week with the classes before work as really puts me in a happier mood for the day and doesn't give me the feeling of dread of going when I can't be bothered after a day in work!

Thanks for your replies EE, I noticed you've got a diary...I'm on page 2 of 51 so a lot to catch up on lol xx

reality_check

PAY DAY!!

Not had a chance all morning to look at budgets but I have made a £500 to M&S so it now stands at £1000!! :T

Will probably have about another £1000-£1200 if I use this months commission and the remaining EF...Might pay off M&S and close it down, put £200 in EF and can always top it back to £1000 next month...

Clearing off cards and closing them down motivates me more than a EF.

The above comments do make me aware of needing to plan for the unexpected and I do plan to do this, but i think a card closed down completely will give me a boost and refocus me xx

reality_check

M&S has been cleared off! £1500...GONE!! I will wait for this to clear and then call up and close it down.

I will have about £300 left after I have paid all direct debits, food, petrol and personal spending money...so will probably put that in my EF and build that back up. Having an emergency fund was short lived :rotfl: but I do actually aim to have one and be serious about saving for life in general...baby steps!!

Cleaned my house from top to bottom, even the oven! Well Oven Pride has cleaned the oven, I just need to steam it off and rinse it tomorrow morning, and washed all the windows...that is the only bad thing about the sun, shows up everything that needs cleaning!!

Just out the shower and covered myself in fake tan! Will change bed sheets in the morning...white bedding and fake tan do not go hand in hand! Have a large glass of wine poured with some carrot sticks and humous to even in out lol and going to catch up on some diaries on this

Off to a Holly Communion in the morning, will be driving so won't cost me a penny, and I am going with my sister as a favour, so she is supplying the gift.

Happy weekend everyone :beer: xxx

milasavesmoney

Look at you! Excellent progress! Especially glad to hear you are closing that card down. Really outstanding!