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

Treadingonplaymobil

Phew, pleased to have made it through today with budget intact. First little hurdles in our budget (DH's overspend on food and underclaim on work expenses) and at least I can say we've survived them, although I can't always rely on finding £15 in my wallet to resolve these issues!

The lists...

To do today:
1. 2 hours work on 'guaranteed income' (contracted) work, to free up time on the weekend for hopefully bringing a little extra in. Done! Well, I did 90 mins. But also did half an hour's photography planning (having my website redesigned and need some new pics), so I did actually manage two hours work in total.
2. NSD - going to be a little harder today as we are going to a nice local town for a walk, but absolutely no requirement to spend. Need to remember to take snacks and water for children in case we are out longer than expected. Not only done, but also paid in £15 spare cash found in my wallet to cover DH's £7 shortfall, so am £8 'in profit' from our day out.
3. Write shopping list for when we get home tomorrow and do MySupermarket to make sure it comes in under budget. Need to check with DH what he has eaten but I know there is plenty of food in the house. Done!
4. Remind DH to put expenses claim in, if he hasn't already done it. Done! See previous posts on my irritation at small underclaim, but at least it is done and I know the real numbers.

To do this week:
1. Redo our budget to ensure that even if I only earn my minimum of £250 per month, that the shortfall is gone, whether it has to come from clothes, food, entertainment or whatever. It's lovely to try to earn extra to cover it every month, but I need to get us to a position where if I don't that we're not getting further into debt. I have done this already, yay me! Posted on Day 2.
2. We are away visiting family from Monday until Thursday, so no worries about food shopping until then (DH at home, but can make do with what's in the house, there is loads), but I'm going to challenge myself to make Thursday's top up shop to get us through until the following Tuesday (normal food shopping day) come in at under £30. Well the £30 got reduced to £18.60 thanks to DH's random extra food shop for himself, but I have put the bare essentials of what we need into MySupermarket and it's coming out at £18.20 in Sainsbury's and a couple of quid less at Aldi (and nothing on the list that we can't get at Aldi), so will stop at Aldi on the way home and pick up what we need, which will also eliminate the temptation to buy the children treats in the big Sainsbury's.
3. List child 3's old cot on eBay
4. Menu plan for next week and use MySupermarket to keep the cost down to <£60 for the week.
5. DH - water meter reading to make sure our direct debit is accurate.
6. DH - gas and electricity readings, to make sure direct debit is accurate. Done, and we are all of £3 in debit. That's fine, as it's the end of the coldest part of the year so our usage will drop, but I was hoping we'd be in credit. However, we were at zero in September, so we managed the coldest part of the year on the £104 combined DD, so hopefully in another month or two we'll see usage drop slightly and we can reduce DD a little and still accrue some credit ready for next winter. Not the big win I was hoping for but better than a huge bill. Will still try to make our usage more efficient though - a plan to make next week when the children are back at school.

For some reason I'm not feeling that thrilled with today, even though I managed to avert budgetary problems as they occured. I guess it's just brought home that we've got an awful lot of days like today ahead and we need to get good at making the numbers fit our circumstances, fast.

brizzledfw

Enjoying the diary..saw you on some other threads and have subscribed.

Keep up the good work! Keep focussed (this is another job/role now you have now, that of FInancial Director of your household and needs to be treated as such) and post regularly. It certainly helps me

Brizzle x

Treadingonplaymobil

Day 5

Right. Onwards and upwards (downwards, for the debt!). I had my moment of self pity yesterday, and I need to ration them out or I'll never stop wallowing, so it's positivity central here today (until DH's next spending revelation ).

Off home today, having been staying with relatives since Monday. The only money I intend to spend today is a top up shop at Aldi on the way home, and it needs to come in under £18.60 to keep us on track with our cheap-food-fortnight (in an effort to get in the habit of a lower food budget before it 'officially' kicks in on March 1st and I lose £60 a month off my food budget).

While we've been away I've been jotting down a list in Evernote (I love a good list, can you tell?!) of ways in which I can reduce or more effectively organise our budgets. Most of it will be on next week's To Do list. Am currently mulling over how I manage my business account - it has no overdraft, but I have slipped into the habit of transferring money back and forth between business and personal account to make things balance up, and I need to resolve that. Thinking about starting a new YNAB budget (you can have multiple ones) for the business account, to ensure my small annual expenses are saved for in there, not removed and spent, and then a panic following when my expenses are due! I'll post more on this next week when I have all the numbers in front of me.

Today's lists...

To do today:
1. Aldi top up shop to get us through until big food shop next Tuesday. Needs to be <£18.60.
2. Pay £8.74 (spare money from paying in cash yesterday) off the Barclaycard (which has the shortest 0% deal, and I'd like to get it cleared asap rather than have to hunt down another 0%, and for the psychological win of clearing one whole card)
3. Get Child 1 to choose an audiobook to use up the last Audible.co.uk credit and then cancel membership for a couple of months - we have enough audiobooks between us to manage for a while, and that £7.99 can be used elsewhere for a while.
4. Search for cheap meal ideas that use ingredients we have in the house, to start shaping next week's menu plan.

B]To do this week:[/B]
1. Redo our budget to ensure that even if I only earn my minimum of £250 per month, that the shortfall is gone, whether it has to come from clothes, food, entertainment or whatever. It's lovely to try to earn extra to cover it every month, but I need to get us to a position where if I don't that we're not getting further into debt. I have done this already, yay me! Posted on Day 2.
2. We are away visiting family from Monday until Thursday, so no worries about food shopping until then (DH at home, but can make do with what's in the house, there is loads), but I'm going to challenge myself to make Thursday's top up shop to get us through until the following Tuesday (normal food shopping day) come in at under £30. Well the £30 got reduced to £18.60 thanks to DH's random extra food shop for himself, but I have put the bare essentials of what we need into MySupermarket and it's coming out at £18.20 in Sainsbury's and a couple of quid less at Aldi (and nothing on the list that we can't get at Aldi), so will stop at Aldi on the way home and pick up what we need, which will also eliminate the temptation to buy the children treats in the big Sainsbury's.
3. List child 3's old cot on eBay
4. Menu plan for next week and use MySupermarket to keep the cost down to <£60 for the week.
5. DH - water meter reading to make sure our direct debit is accurate.
6. DH - gas and electricity readings, to make sure direct debit is accurate. Done, and we are all of £3 in debit. That's fine, as it's the end of the coldest part of the year so our usage will drop, but I was hoping we'd be in credit. However, we were at zero in September, so we managed the coldest part of the year on the £104 combined DD, so hopefully in another month or two we'll see usage drop slightly and we can reduce DD a little and still accrue some credit ready for next winter. Not the big win I was hoping for but better than a huge bill. Will still try to make our usage more efficient though - a plan to make next week when the children are back at school.

Now I've just got to get everything packed, three children loaded up and get on the road. Wish me luck!

Treadingonplaymobil

Oh crap.

Have just been informed that one of my small contract pieces of work won't be renewed after this month. It makes up a little over half my 'guaranteed' (ha) £250 income each month. Well, it's a good thing I've got skilled at shaving numbers off my budget, isn't it?! <hysterical laugh> :eek:

Seriously, I am now going to redo my SOA for the third time in a week to reflect this new reality. I'm 90% sure I'll re-earn the money with the additional time I'll free up, but as long as that work isn't guaranteed I don't think I should just assume I'll earn it - I want to base this budget on our actual income, not an ideal income.

I'll be over here with a virtual bottle of gin in the corner if anyone needs me.

Treadingonplaymobil

So much for the positivity! Have just redone SOA and spotted that the 0% deal on one of our CC balances runs out in April too. A bad day for Team Treadingonplaymobil! Have also redone snowball calculator in view of current situation. I think I need a second bottle of virtual gin.

JoJoC

Oh god, what a kick in the teeth and just when you were brimming with positivity!

Don't let it bring you down though. You can still do this.

If that's dropping half your wage, to £125 per month, do you think you'd be able to look for something else to cover the shortfall? Even just temping? Or put your all into finding more work?

Treadingonplaymobil

Updated SOA.

I have based it on my new 'guaranteed' income of £118 per month, but have actually just had confirmation of £260 of work coming in next week, which should be paid before the end of the month (I haven't included this in the SOA as there is no particular guarantee I will earn it again the following month). That income will be divided up between a small debt overpayment and adding to a few budget categories (clothes, entertainment and presents, maybe a little extra for food). Fingers crossed for more extras like that in the coming weeks!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 118
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2711.8
Benefits................................ 192
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3021.8

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 698
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 174
Electricity............................. 52
Gas..................................... 52
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 95
Telephone (land line)................... 18.5
Mobile phone............................ 85
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 428
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 225
Road tax................................ 16.27
Car Insurance........................... 25.22
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 50
Childcare/nursery....................... 80
Other child related expenses............ 91.85
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 27.07
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 16.26
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 55
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2356.29


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 210000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 210800


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 173733...(698)......3.14
Total secured & HP debts...... 173733....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclaycard....................6880.21...156.......0
MBNA...........................9614.71...97........0
Parental loan..................20000.....35........0 (This payment will actually be directed towards MBNA card for the short term, as previously discussed at length)
Tesco loan.....................21000.....377.......10.29
Total unsecured debts..........57494.92..665.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,021.8
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,356.29
Available for debt repayments........... 665.51
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 665
Amount left after debt repayments....... 0.51

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 210,800
Total HP & Secured debt................. -173,733
Total Unsecured debt.................... -57,494.92
Net Assets.............................. -20,427.92

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Treadingonplaymobil

JoJoC wrote: »

Oh god, what a kick in the teeth and just when you were brimming with positivity!

Don't let it bring you down though. You can still do this.

If that's dropping half your wage, to £125 per month, do you think you'd be able to look for something else to cover the shortfall? Even just temping? Or put your all into finding more work?

I'm going to bust a gut to bring in more income with my own business as a first step, and if after three months that isn't cutting it (I'm fairly confident it will, but I need a deadline so I don't end up kidding myself) I'm going to go for some temping or part time work or something. Have at least managed to secure a little extra work next week to avoid crisis in March (assuming extra work pays promptly, which I think it will - I have worked for the company before).

Kantankrus_Mare

Really enjoying reading your diary!! There will be lots of obstacles that come your way but by the sounds of it you really have had your light bulb moment and with perseverance you can do it!!

I can sympathise with the OH that makes the budget go AWOL.

Its took me years to get my OH trained to my way of thinking and he still occasionally slips up but nowhere as bas as he used to be!

Our downfall at the moment is holidays. Our children are 23 and 21 (one moved out just before Christmas) and for the past couple of years we have started doing "abroad" hols with just the two of us.

We kind of over stretched ourselves for the holiday for this year so for the first time in years we have got a credit card debt of around £1700. I hate it!! I said once we have had hol (May) we will not be booking anything else till we are straight again.

Doesnt sound an awful lot but neither of us have fantastic wages so will take a little while.

Good luck on your journey!!

Treadingonplaymobil

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

I can sympathise with the OH that makes the budget go AWOL.

Its took me years to get my OH trained to my way of thinking and he still occasionally slips up but nowhere as bas as he used to be!

There's hope for mine yet then! He did suggest doing swimming and dinner tomorrow at local pool with a really nice cafe, but it only took a quick glance from me and he said 'but we won't do that as we can't afford it.' I pointed out that we could afford it but it would be the entire remaining entertainment budget used up, and he was the one doing childcare for the next two weekends while I work, so if he wanted a £0 budget that was fine. :A