Real Life, Dating and Money!

Littlebirdie

Hi, 
Awake early with my budget on my mind. 
Did the food shop yesterday and spent £17.41. 0.79p was spent on horrible sour dough crumpets which I wont be buying again. Now I have 7 to get through  . That means the total weekly shop is £24 which is well under my £40 usual budget. 
I've done a freezer audit and I've got plenty of lunches to last me a while (did I mention crumpets!?   ). 
The fact is I've got a lot to buy next month and looking at my budget I simply can't afford it. Well that's a lie - I can but I want to save as much as I can. Things I need to sort:
1) Get bridesmaid dress taken up - priority 
2) Get shoes re healed - priority (I wear them all the time and will just have to get new shoes if I dont sort) 
3) Get pictures for wall - really low priority but I keep putting off 
4) New trainers - kind of priority 
The thing thats holding me back I paying of this debt at £50 a month which should be paid off in June. I will be getting a pay rise in April - only like £30 a month but I always say an increase is better than nothing. 
Then once that debt is paid off realistically I'll have to start hammering the credit card at ~ £50 a month. Everything will quieten down after September and then I'll be saving for another holiday. THEN AFTER THAT MY EXPENSIVE (i.e >£2000) HOLIDAYS WILL STOP. My 30's will be about saving, saving, saving. (I hop, hope, hope). 
I'm hoping my side job will get my emergency savings to £3000 and then the £40 a month I put to that can go to my LISA which will bring me to £290 a month. 
I'd love to be able to afford to put £100 each month to investing but realistically that cant happen until next August when my pay goes up by ~£5000. 
Lets see how it goes! 

Littlebirdie

So my balance is at -£111.29. Urgh. 9 days until pay day. I do have money in my emergency piggy bank which I am going to have to use. Must have ~ £25. 
Also my penny savings challenge is going to have to be on hold! Keep thinking this will pass....

Littlebirdie

Hi, 
So my new balance is -£141.29. I should be getting a refund of an event that was cancelled and pretty much all my social events have been cancelled. I reckon I've saved at least £200 from all my social events being cancelled. 6 Days until payday. 
Should also be getting my extra money through any day now. I'm going to try and do my tax return ASAP. Looking forward for the next month starting to start my budgeting of ~£110 per week. Excited for the challenge!

Littlebirdie

Also forgot to mention I'm also getting a refund from my mobile provider - thats £10 so in total getting £26 back. I also paid for my friends ticket but I owed her money for a dress but that will be coming out of another account. So in total I'm getting £58. Should be arriving in the next 5 days or so just before payday so hopefully less in my overdraft. Also majority of my side hussle work has been cancelled so that will take a blow but actually none of that work affects my overall budget so not too worried on that front. But it will be going towards my emergency money in the future as my goal is to get it to £3000 and then I can leave it be. Or maybe I should get it to £4000. Eurgh I could always save more! It's almost like there is never enough saved. Maybe once I get to £3000 I then start paying for income protection …. 

Littlebirdie

Ok, so I need to have ~£2600 in my emergency savings account. I have multiplied all my essential costs by 3 although it doesn't include socialising. I think for motivation levels I just stick to that but aim to save £3000. So only another £900 to go. Then I can leave that account alone and focus on my LISA. Ok glad that is sorted!

Littlebirdie

So changes since is that I'm likely going to have to pay an extra £133 on top of my rent because we cant fill one of our rooms. We may need to split the bill money as well...well we will have to. Urgh. Thats a total of £25 extra each. So basically £150. Lets hope we find someone. The I'm getting my parents a food shop because well long story so that will be ~£40. I'm going to take that money our of my penny challenge. Urgh I'm luckily I haven't lost my job or had reduced hours BUT this virus is still impacting me on another way! Not feeling so optimistic about next month now...

Littlebirdie

So 2 more days until pay day and then the challenge begins! I've budgeted for £104 a week but including the penny challenge, its around £84 a week. Not a lot but I am going to give it a go. So on Tuesday I am going to put £525 into my put then every week I'll automatically get transferred £104 but once the penny challenge is deducted it will leave ~ £84. I was going to do the reverse £1 challenge but I just though enough was enough. I'm saving enough each month. So rent has increased to £610, bills to over £100 (a/w finial no from housemate) but have saved on gym membership and probably social events. I've cancelled the debt repayment where my wages were overpaid due to extra holiday. I've emailed them explaining the situation and I think with everything going on, they can't say no. 
Currently £123.83 overdrawn. I'm going to keep it at this no and then when I get my extra money (~£300) I'll put the remaining on my credit card. 
This virus has really affected all my extra side work - basically all been shut down. One part of work pays off my credit card and basically funds my expensive holidays and the other is just for career progression. 
Will be interesting to see how the next month goes 

Littlebirdie

Hello, so first week in the challenge and this is what I have spent in week one:
£24.69/£28 - Groceries
£6.71 - Eating on the go 
£2.55 - Food for work 
£8.55 - Food at work (bought two colleagues cheap lunch)
£1 - Travel (long story)
£10.95 - Seeds (I need a challenge) 
£25 - Flowers for friend 
£16.77 - penny challenge (ok so not technically spent but for ease including it as is daily)
Total:£96.22/£104 
I honestly dont remember the last time I spent under £100 in a week! Also the flowers can come oit of my gift pot so technically not part of the budget. I've got £10 left on myprepaid card and I want to use that to pay off my credit card. I get uneasy if I have no money on my prepaid card and the thought of not spending any money today makes me feel funny (strange isn't it). 
So I've realised I spend a lot of money on groceries when I even have food in the freezer. I guess I've got out of the habit of planning my meals which is ridicolous as I batch cook every week. 
Ok so today I'm going to return my trainers so my credit card balanace is ~£80 less which will be nice. My credit card balance is £1343 and take away £424 wich my friend owes for a holiday (wont ask for it back till we have booked everything and at this stage till we know we are definitely going) bringing the total to ~ £839. That's too much for my liking. Now I'm back up to full salary and my pay should be going up next month to ~£2030 (rough estimate) there is no excuse for overspending. 
Ah it feels good!

Littlebirdie

Hello,
So another week done. This is what I have spent...
£48.59 on food shop  
Ok so technically this is two weeks worth of food....I did a big shop on Monday and Saturday. Hmmm it still seems like a lot. Partly due to having to go to the more expensive shops and the cleaper ones have SUCH BIG QUE's. This also included an Easter egg for work and food for parents. 
£3.35 Food at work
I'm so bored at work I end up boredom eating 
£6 - Wine 
I honestly cant remember the last time I bought a bottle of wine. I'm not really one to drink in but our of pure boredom! Not a very good think although I'm sure its common. 
£19.11 Penny challenge
This brings the balance to £240. 
Total left on card: £26 - I think I have to buy something for my mum which is around £5. So don't know to put the £20 to savings or credit card. I find it harder to save money than pay off debt so think I'll put it to my emergency savings. 
___________________________________________________
In other news I also got paid from my second job. £450 I made the stupid mistake of thinking the tax year was from 1st April rather than the 6th so I put £350 straight onto my credit card and used the other £100 to make up how much I overspent last month. I have expenses so maybe I wont have to pay the full £90 tax

Littlebirdie

Hello, 
Another week. This week I feel totally bummed. I've realised by the end of the month, I only save around 20% of my salary. I don't think this is good enough. I would like to save 25%. You know what 20% is a good start. Pretty much done my freelance taxes. Just need to call HMRC and sort a few things. Savings are £13,017. That includes LISA at £10,280. I just feel like its nothing which is ridiculous as it's great. Must make an effort to think better! I've also got to return trainers and a dress but can't do that until Corona Virus is over which will reduce credit card amount and my housemates owe me money. Any money left over I've put into my emergency savings, that's now at £1740, then add the £541 in another account which totals £2281. First goal is to get it to £2500 and then have a break as I feel like this has been my nemesis for some time, focus on paying off debt for three months, then come back and aim to get it to £3000. When I'm on the 'break' I'll still transfer like £20 a month so its not a completely static amount each month. I think when I've got my emergency savings to £2500, I'll start to feel better. OH BRILLIANT NEWS: I CAN GET A REFUND FOR MY TRAVEL CARD. Bloody thrilled! 
Spends this week: 
£44.05 Food shop
Yeah that's a lot! Cooked for housemates and that added up. God the food shop is my worst area. Don't have a clue what I'll do for this week. 
£0.50 Food on the Go 
Meh not going to worry about that 
£5.20 Food at work 
Same as last week - get so bored!
£4 Beauty 
Got some good hand cream - couldn't say no really  
£4.70 Magazine
Bit of a waste really