Running out of Time, Space and Money!

nomoney1010

Hi everyone,

I'm a long time lurker, and am posting a diary for myself, to help keep on track - I'm hoping writing everything down with push me into dealing with it!

In short, I live with DH and DS. I have a part time job, in which I'm only contracted until August. Hence the running out of time - I either need to find another job, or another way of making this money!

We own a ramshackle house which is unfortunately unliveable just now, so we are staying in rented accommodation, and paying double rent and council tax! :mad: We are trying to put the house on the market at the moment... If we find someone silly enough to want to buy it, it would change our finances dramatically, but I don't foresee that happening for a long time!

The rented house is much smaller than our old one, which is adding to the running out of space issue - this is mainly caused by our (almost!) toddler's baby items filling every available space, and the fact that I have a small shopping/hoarding problem.
I'm working on it though, and in the mean time, am planning on decluttering and selling everything I can!

And finally, today is the day I officially ran out of money.
We don't owe huge amounts, but do have a shortfall of around £250 every month, which is causing a lot of stress.
This is what I have to address first, then will work on being rid of the debts.

I get paid on Thursday, and have £20 in my purse to last until then - I have maxed everything else out.
So, I guess that's rock bottom, hopefully it can only get better from here!
I will add more detail in the next post, once DS has gone to bed.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read my rambling! :rotfl:

nomoney1010

I won't post an SOA as the vast majority of the bills are paid from DHs account, which is totally separate to mine. This is the account we have the £250 shortfall each month.

I pay for grocery shopping, baby items such as clothes, nappies, milk etc, and a few small direct debits.

I make roughly £500 per month from my job, however, this includes working away most weekends, which I have to pay travelling costs myself for, and these are reimbursed at the end of the season - ie August. I'm expecting around £900 back, but at the moment have to pay out for travel myself.

My debts aren't massive compared to some, but I still have to get rid of them, and with time running out in my job, I'd really like to have all of them except the loans gone by August.

They are;

£6500 - unsecured loan
£9200 - student loan
£550 - family
£75 - family
£360 - council tax
£500 - OD1
£250 - OD2

The unsecured loan has a monthly payment that we are meeting just now, but I'd like to get this paid off sooner if possible. I'm not paying anything to the student loan just now, but am aware that interest is being added to this all the time.
Once I've paid the smaller debts back I will concentrate on the loans. :T

I'm on the lookout on the board for ways to increase my income, but as my house is bursting at the seams with random 'stuff', I'm going to work on Ebaying as much as I can first.

nomoney1010

So, had a think overnight and I think I will use this diary as a note of my debts, payments and goals and can tick of each payment and goal as I hit it.
Probably not very interesting reading, but hopefully motivational for me if I can see things changing!

Long term goals:

Clear debt
Save enough for new house deposit
Sell old house
Be able to afford a holiday in 2017


Medium term goals:

Clear smaller debts - ie everything except loans
Declutter!


First goal:
Find £250 shortfall by end of April :eek:

First debt to go:
£360 council tax - 0/360 :cool:

nomoney1010

I think a lot of my overspending comes from being unorganised - having nothing with me for lunch so buying a sandwich, taking nothing out for dinner so buying takeaway, buying clothes that don't fit and forgetting to take them back...
So I think I'll write a list of aims to get through today and see if it makes me any more organised!

Today's plan:

No spend day - nothing planned so this shouldn't be too hard
Tidy front room
Find 5 items to sell and list on eBay
Check likely travel expenses for next weekend - off this weekend! :j
Lunch - at home so will make sandwich
Dinner - in fridge ready to be heated up
Get exact balances due on overdrafts

Hope everyone (including me! ) has a productive day.

Kitten868

Why is your house unliveable? Unless it's unsafe I would consider moving back in to make the sale. You will save money doing this and hopefully speed up buying the next place
I have two children and find the plastic hoard overwhelming too. I've been ebaying and Facebook selling and donating to charity. It's been liberating and great for getting more income.
What are your goals and priorities? I'm doing it in size order. Id previously been doing in order of closest to 0% interest finishing. But now they all finish about the same time and getting my creditor list down has felt fab! X

nomoney1010

Thanks for stopping by Kitten868
The house has foundation/lower wall issue which make it unsafe to live in I would probably go back but can't risk having DS there.

Re my debt goals, I'd like to do it in size order, I agree with you about seeing the list decreasing, but the council tax one is most pressing so this must go first. Then after that I can hopefully get the smallest gone next!

Yesterday didn't go quite as planned - I didn't have a NSD day, and spent £13 of my last £20 on craft items... :cool: this sounds bad but I then spent most of yesterday afternoon making said items into things to sell on eBay :money: so not all bad, doesn't help the mess or the debt immediately, but I did manage to list 19 of them last night, so I'm hoping they will sell in a week or so and I will see some return! This will obviously go straight towards this months shortfall.

I also got exact OD details yesterday as planned, so my next aim is to find out how to make myself a signature!

Today's plan:

List last 5 crafty items on eBay
Walk in afternoon for fresh air and free exercise
Working at night - water and snack from home
Lunch and dinner from fridge
Work out how to add a signature!

Won't be a NSD as I have to get petrol to get to work, but this should be the only spend today.

Shortfall - 0/250
Debt 1 - 0/360

Kitten868

Have you had quotes for the work? I didn't think you could sell homes with structural issues. When I watch (obsessively) DIY shows they say underpinning is about £2k - it's not as much as you think.
I'm always impressed with crafty people making money. I can't do anything! X

nomoney1010

Morning all

Today is going to be a spendy day as its the last day of the holidays the whole family are going on a day trip to the zoo. Fairly expensive, but the little one will love it and it's not often we go anywhere with the extended family.
I'm hoping to just pay the gate fee though, there is petrol in the car from yesterday and I will take a packed lunch :money:

I have a few bids on my Ebay items - the £13 I spent is more than covered so anything else is a bonus, and going straight to my shortfall fund!
Hoping for DS to be tired out from the zoo and give me a nice peaceful night to add some more Ebay listings - must get started on the decluttering!!

Have a lovely day everyone

endoftheostricheffect

Hey nomoney1010! I too have started a DFD. Congratulations on your steps so far! Look forward to the update on the zoo! Hope you have a lovely day!

Kitten868

I wasn't trying to be annoying as I know there's always more to stuff than we write down. I just wanted to bolster you to get the work done as signing up for more debt is frustrating but I want to see your dreams come true but cancelling your gym membership isn't going to do as much as good as stopping paying for 2 households. I would contact council tax as I don't think you should be paying twice. It's only where you live. See if you can pay unoccupied rates? I don't know if it's different for your council x

nomoney1010

Hello again, and thanks everyone for stopping by
Kitten, thanks for your comments - I know you're trying to help! we are having quotes at the moment for the building work to be done, but it's coming in at at least 5 figures at the moment so very unlikely we can ever afford to get it done. It's also a lot to invest in a house I don't want to stay in long term - it would be different if it were to be my 'forever' house, but it's just not big enough for a family. There hasn't been any problem mentioned to us about putting it on the market so fingers crossed!


As for me, I'm totally disgusted with myself - we had our day out yesterday and I spent a fortune. All my own fault, as it was total keeping up with the Jones'. My much better off cousins were buying expensive food and rides and I didn't want it to look like we couldn't. So angry at myself :mad:
So, I didn't enjoy my day as this was at the back of my head, and now I have £50 to last until Thursday. When will I learn?

A tiny ray of light is that I have been offered a small piece of freelance work this week, which should only take up about 4 hours and should get me between £30-£60 which would be a huge help. Between that and the eBay listings finishing, I'm keeping my hopes up that I can still put a little towards the shortfall fund.

Have a lovely Saturday everyone!