£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

dawnybabes

This half term was a killer, my teen son slept in till 11-30 yesterday ... that’s unheard of !

Cherryfudge

Good to hear that the back pay has finally arrived! £600 is a Very Useful Sum, even if it won't stretch quite as far as hoped. I'm sure you'll find creative ways to elasticate it a little.

I hope half term revitalises all of you: you've been so busy and as the nights draw in it can be hard to keep up the impetus. What was a rainy day is turning out mild and sunny here. I hope it is for you, too!

Busy_Mee1

Great news on the back pay, that will also mean an extra £100ish a month in his pay ( and in your budget too) won't it ? Also are you paying interest on the partnership card ? Would you be better paying the £600 off and saving the interest and using the interest free period for your Christmas shopping ?

Glad you and the kids had a good few days away - enjoy the rest of half term.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 37: Day 4

Morning! back home and raring to go (sort of).

First up - I have terrible mental arithmetic. Back payment from DH's work actually around £750, which is more what I was hoping for. Will probably assign that straight to Christmas and between that and the £60 budgeted in each of Nov and Dec, aim to do Christmas for £870. That doesn't seem completely ridiculous, especially give that we have already bought/planted those hyacinths and pots for adult presents. Annoying not to put it towards extension, but that sum is so close to the Christmas budget that it feels like a bit of a challenge without being totally unrealistic, so I'm going to run with it. The extra £100pm from DH's salary will still go towards the extension savings, and fingers crossed this improved mortgage thing will come through (broker coming to collect paperwork today). My salary from last year was £2k less than I'd estimated before I did my tax return, but since it's £8.5k compared to DH's (now)£47k, I'm hoping it won't affect things much.

I haven't spent on the Partnership CC since the 18th of this month, and I'm hoping that I won't need to before the end of the month, random unexpected expenses notwithstanding. The balance is just under £1,500, and I said I wanted to end the month around the £1,500 mark. It would be nice to be able to put that card to bed again after this month.

Had another couple of work enquiries while I was away, hoping to turn at least one into a paid booking.

To do today
1. plan work to do this week.
2. laundry.
3. print out info for mortgage broker.
4. business plan for upcoming 3/6/12 months ( think I need some realistic goals to keep me on track with the website etc).
5. finish contract work for this week.
6. menu plan for remainder of week - aiming to get through till Friday without shopping.
7. feed sourdough.

To do this week
1. Return/renew library ebooks.
2. Declutter a couple of rooms in the house (preferably dining room and DC bedroom) - want to get all of them cleared again before December, the clutter has built up while I've been so mad with work.

To do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500. Well on track for this (around £3,100 expected), although haven't added to savings pots this month.
2. work a sensible number of hours, even if it means slower progress on the work and debt front. September was rubbish. This is going well so far.
3. make any homemade Christmas gifts. I think things like candles and knitting will have to carry over into November. Where did this month go?

MoneyMission

That Christmas budget does sound feasible - with a bit of planning and your very good creative skills I'm certain you can pull it off!

Enjoy the rest of half term.

Chrystal

Great to hear you sounding so positive TOPM. Hopefully this is the beginning of bigger and better things with the work situation and you can manage your Christmas budget.

Suffolk_lass

Please consider things with a different suggestion that works better for your family.

In your post 1691 you posted an SOA with an MBNA card with £485.63 on it at an APR of 18%. You pay £10 a month but the interest must be over £7 a month at that APR%.

Please consider using some of that back pay to clear that MBNA card and save the other £265. Then use your grocery savings (the part between what you spend under £350 - looking like £40 this month), plus the £10 you no longer need to pay off that card to put into Christmas funds.

You will then be £67 better off to put towards Christmas (grocery £40 + £7 interest + £10 payment to MBNA)

Then use that card for the rest of your Christmas spending (that will give you a month interest free) - it might be using a credit card but it will be planned. You have worked so hard to bring your grocery shopping down, why would you want to sacrifice £17 a month out of those savings in interest and regular payments when you could remove it?

I am amazed to hear you talking about £860 for Christmas - you are the woman who was talking no less than £1200 just a month ago. I am just asking you to look at it from the other end (the expensive debt) too.

Treadingonplaymobil

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Please consider things with a different suggestion that works better for your family.

In your post 1691 you posted an SOA with an MBNA card with £485.63 on it at an APR of 18%. You pay £10 a month but the interest must be over £7 a month at that APR%.

Please consider using some of that back pay to clear that MBNA card and save the other £265. Then use your grocery savings (the part between what you spend under £350 - looking like £40 this month), plus the £10 you no longer need to pay off that card to put into Christmas funds.

You will then be £67 better off to put towards Christmas (grocery £40 + £7 interest + £10 payment to MBNA)

Then use that card for the rest of your Christmas spending (that will give you a month interest free) - it might be using a credit card but it will be planned. You have worked so hard to bring your grocery shopping down, why would you want to sacrifice £17 a month out of those savings in interest and regular payments when you could remove it?

I am amazed to hear you talking about £860 for Christmas - you are the woman who was talking no less than £1200 just a month ago. I am just asking you to look at it from the other end (the expensive debt) too.

That's a really interesting idea. I want a 'win' with this pot of money, so paying off one complete card could be that win (in the same way as it being the entire Christmas budget would have been) rather than dividing it up into a billion pots and not really noticing it, if you know what I mean. I like your thinking. Will discuss with DH.

armchairexpert

Hi TOPM! Welcome back, I missed your posts.

That back pay and plan is AMAZING. You were looking at putting the bulk of Christmas on credit just last month and now you might be able to a) get it done on savings (the back pay is of course savings, albeit enforced savings!) AND b) keep saving towards the extension. And if your work keeps on looking healthy, you'll be able to get rid of the partnership card again too. That is just non-stop winning.

Also Suffolk Lass makes a lot of sense, and getting rid of a single card is a definite win as well. I just wanted to post a general pom-poms post.

We had a frugal half term holiday here, too, by the way, largely at the girls' request. I love those, and I think at this age, it's so good for the kids.

Treadingonplaymobil

Quick round up of yesterday's lists before today's start....

To do today
1. plan work to do this week. Done.
2. laundry. Done.
3. print out info for mortgage broker. Done, she picked it up so we should hear soon.
4. business plan for upcoming 3/6/12 months ( think I need some realistic goals to keep me on track with the website etc). Done.
5. finish contract work for this week. Done.
6. menu plan for remainder of week - aiming to get through till Friday without shopping. Not done, must do that this morning.
7. feed sourdough. Done.

To do this week
1. Return/renew library ebooks.
2. Declutter a couple of rooms in the house (preferably dining room and DC bedroom) - want to get all of them cleared again before December, the clutter has built up while I've been so mad with work.

To do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500. Well on track for this (around £3,100 expected), although haven't added to savings pots this month.
2. work a sensible number of hours, even if it means slower progress on the work and debt front. September was rubbish. This is going well so far.
3. make any homemade Christmas gifts. I think things like candles and knitting will have to carry over into November. Where did this month go?