Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

crunch_time

Morning all!

Husband got paid today! £50 more than expected.

With some slushing I have managed to get my cc down to £2675 which awesome. My 0% card has come through so will transfer the balance later.

Husbands £100 mom payment will come out next week. I want to be able to slash his but I don’t seem to be able to make extra payments via banking. Will have to investigate this. Plans for today are shopping and errands and cat to the vet and then work out tonight. Plans for the weekend are a walk with friends and food tomorrow with family.

I’m feeling loads better without booze btw. I have lost an inch of my waist and thighs and half an inch off my hips. I have been exercising but diet has stayed the same. Pounds off me and pounds off the debt!!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Right - here is what I have paid off from each category in a month.

December 28th January 26th

Holidays £1086 £986 (paid off with phone £)
Spending money £269 £190
Furniture £1010 £800
Food £458 £445
Fuel £240 £240

New Business £2044 £2079 (needed antivirus software)
Moving costs £652 £552
Other carp (from summer 2016) £1432
DIY £341 £429 (wood for loft)

Total = £7532 £7153

So I have paid off £379 in a month!!

What a great start to the year!

But.... we have also accrued £118 of interest and balance transfer fees so far. I have just transferred my balance so there will be a fee once that clears.

By the end of February, I am planning to get under £7k.

I'm feeling very pleased with this.

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Just popping in to say I have been paid for the books for magpie of music - £14.61making the holiday fund £51.83 so over a fifth of the way there.

I decided not to use the phone money for the holiday and put it on the holiday debt one particular debt from lego land has been sitting on my spreadsheet since May last year and I wanted it gone gone gone - and it was pretty much the same amount.

I worked out tonight and then did some work on my course so no wine as planned -- and I'm not even missing it. My head is swimming with lovely creative ideas for making money instead!!

Crunchy xx

Willowtree222

That holiday fund is creeping up fabulously.

I wish I wouldn't have had wine last night. Instead, I had a little too much and my head is aching today. x

crunch_time

Morning

My balance transfer has happened - cost £49.14 so have added that to my signature.

We had a bit of a spendy weekend with sandwiches out and some beers (of which I regret now - lesson learned). But pleased with where we are by the end of January. Our debt hasn't increased.

Crunchy x

crunch_time

Evening all!

1st of February so lots of bills coming out today. All marked off the spreadsheet.

We have had a few unexpected bills recently. The first was council tax from the old house. The delay of 3 weeks from the date I told them to the day we actually sold it meant we owed them around £85. I used the joint account money meaning we are down for this month but hopefully we won't have to pay electricity again so that can pretty much cover it. I have a few extra stashed in the bills pot just in case but that is supposed to be for swimming lessons for the summer term which will need to be paid for mid-March. Some of the husbands pay at the end of Feb will need to re-top this up.

We are over budget on food but this should hopefully sort itself out over the next few weeks. Shopping in Aldi is not working out as I cant get everything i need so end up going elsewhere which is a) time and b) more money. So I am going back to online deliveries but not with Mr S. Mr A S D A is now going to get my custom. And the butcher and we shall see how it goes.

So things are tight but we can handle it. It is so much nicer being broke than working in the school I was in.

The good news is my funding for DD has come through for nursery meaning there wasn't anything to pay for this month so £25 budgeted is now transferred into the holiday pot!!! It should be this way for the next few months as my account is in credit for over £100. This means I just have to find another £95 to pay off the balance - deffo possible.

Right - I had better get on with some coursework so I can actually qualify and started earning money!!

Laters!

Crunchy xx

Seasidegal58

Hi crunchy.

Bit of a downer on the council tax and hope the electricity doesn’t pop its head up! Good that the nursery funds are in though.

I like Aldi for some things - it’s definitely cheaper but agree that one can’t get everything you want in there. I tended to buy my top up veg and fruit there in the period between my big monthly deliveries from Tesco. I’m now topping up my veg/fruit in our local greengrocer in the hope he won’t close like his predecessors in our area!

Hope the coursework is interesting and going well!

Mumoffourkids

I found that I spent far more if I went and shipped in Aldi because I kept seeing extra stuff not on my list. Added to that was the time it took and I also seemed to always have to take at least one child with me! I much prefer online with Mr a and I can see how much it is going to cost. Also don't forget the price guarantee. I didn't realise they were doing this still but I religiously check each week now and get money off for the following week most weeks.

Also not good news about the council tax but hopefully other savings will cover it.

Willowtree222

I agree about the shopping, it sometimes costs more when you have to visit the two shops. I do the main one in lidl and hubby does top up across the way in Tes so I don't spend too much on it.

holiday fund is looking great. I bet you can find that money.

Glad you are enjoying life out of teaching. It must be an amazing feeling.

crunch_time

Afternoon all,

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted!!

I got locked out of my account and so put off sorting it out for a while and then got busy with course stuff and life.

We have been working really hard to stay on a budget but it has been really hard since our monthly bills are more than we anticipated and we have had lots of things to pay for.

Things to update you on:

- I have set up the husbands car tax as a monthly direct debit to give us a little breathing space.

- We have just taken another half tank of oil so hopefully, we will get some warmer weather soon so we won't need the heating on so much. I have put in our budget £80 to save each month so we can stock up in the summer. Now we know roughly how much we use we can start to look at ways to reduce it.

- we are still not paying electricity as all the back office with the national grid needed to be sorted before they could do a bill. It will be backdated of course but in a way that we can afford.

Here are the current categories of debt totals

Category 1 Debt

Not to be thought about until I'm earning money from my business.

- Holidays - £986 - no change from last month (to be paid off from my business earnings.
- New business course fees and set up £2079 - no change (to be paid off from my business earnings)

£3065

Category two debt

To be paid off more quickly once category 3 debt paid off. Currently ticking over with husbands £100 a month.

- New house building materials £360
- Furniture £861
- Dogs castration £121

£1327

Other carp from 2016

£1432

Category 3 debt

This what I am currently tackling with my £90 a month and extra money we may have

- Balance transfer fees and interest - £68
- Food overspends - £506
- Fuel overspends - £240
- Spending money from last summer £190

My makeover money - after years of neglecting myself, this new lease of life I have has made me think about looking after myself a but more......

- Makeup and face creams - £45
- yoga ebook £22
- Business books - £30

£1101

So total debt = £6,925!!!!!

So I'm finally under £7k

The holiday fund is looking healthy too. I have just sold some bits on ebay so looking forward to upping it a little more this week.

Hopefully I will get back into the habit of posting more often in a way that doesn't make me feel anxious. It is going to be slow or not at all for these next few months, even this year and THAT IS OK!

So long as we are sensible.

Must have a long overdue catch up on diaries.

Crunchy x