When things hit rock bottom the only answer is to fight the way back up...

Hiddenidenity

charlies_tribe wrote: »

Wow! What a different SOA!
What I would say at the minute is maybe once your at work and you have everything updated. You could loosen the budgets a little eg. a bit more in grocery to have a treat every so often? dECIDE HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO PAY TO DEBTS EACH MONTH AND THEN MAYBE SET UP ANOTHER ACCOUNT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE TO GOINTO FOR THE TIME BEING AND AS YOU BUY THINGS YOU WILL GET AN IDEA OF HOW MUCH TO ALLOCATE TO EACH (sorry just seen caps still on) budget area. Maybe another savings account for Christmas /birthdays.
BUT! With your first payment I really want to say... Treat yourself and the children! Enjoy the rest of the school holidays without worrying x

ETA I hope that made some sort of sense lol

Does make sense, thank you.

DD's DLA 'other income' goes into a separate account so it won't get mixed in. So taking that off the SOA money left leaves around £200.

Will see where we are at when we get to the end of October (First wage in is 18th September. So by then end of October I'll have done a full month on the new budget. Obviously until the 18th September not much will change in the sense of budgets. DLA is going towards her pram and carseat and some things she needs.

I'm trying to squeeze in a weekend at the caravan (it's free other than train fare £30ish return for the 4 of us unless we can get a lift then its £25 fuel) We won't spend anything different while we are there either.

Uniform needs finishing first though.

charlies_tribe

Don't feel guilty using the DLA if needed, it's also there to cover the extra costs of washing (electric and wash stuff) bathing (electric/gas), extra bedding, new beds and duvets we go through more of due to night accidents. Travel to hospital apps etc.

Hope you manage to sort that holiday.

Good luck with the uniforms, I really need to make a start on ours too.

Hiddenidenity

Thank you Charlies x

On to today.

We've made playdough and the kids are [STRIKE]getting it everywhere[/STRIKE] playing nicely

Waiting for eBay sales to end so I can sort them but everything else is pretty much sorted and done. Until bedtime of course when it all starts again :rotfl:

Roast for dinner today, going to get on with that in a mo along with filling the oven with snacks.

We are all having an early night because I'm so tired today Ready for the busy week ahead. I feel organised though and have a lot of lists for everyday. Fingers crossed!

enthusiasticsaver

That soa is looking good HI and glad your DD has had the DLA awarded. There are gaps in the soa which you might want to address. Emergency fund is one. Just put £25-£50 a month away in a savings account for emergencies. It will give you a bit of a buffer. I would also take out contents insurance. It is cheap and if the worst was to happen (fire or burglary) you would not want to have to replace everything from scratch.

You also need to allow for haircuts, presents and entertainment as I guess you do spend on these although I think you have used your survey money for this. Once you are working you may not have as much time to do these though so putting £30 a month away for presents and entertainment seems reasonable. That is the cost of a cheap cinema trip/meal out once a month.

Hiddenidenity

I agree all things I need to sort out.

Christmas is never too expensive. But then I have all 3 birthdays over 2 weeks (End of Feb/first week in March) Along with my sisters and mums and mine but that doesn't count :rotfl:

Will take a look at house insurance too.

EF is a good idea. At the minute the only money we have out side the budget is £50 stashed away for an emergency hospital visit.

Oh and entertainment need to figure this out.

Grocery budget could stay the same if I'm not using it to cover all the above :cool:

Eager_Elephant

Excellent news today hidden!!! I'm glad you have the letter to say the bailiffs cant remove goods from your house - I bet that is a huge weight lifted?

I am so pleased DD has been awarded DLA, as charliestribe says you will get more tax credits.

If you have now been awarded Income Support you need to let Housing and Council Tax Benefit know as you should get all your rent and nearly all your council tax paid from the Monday after you claimed Income Support. This would then give you extra in the budget until September when they will rejig it all once you start working.

Hiddenidenity

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Excellent news today hidden!!! I'm glad you have the letter to say the bailiffs cant remove goods from your house - I bet that is a huge weight lifted?

I am so pleased DD has been awarded DLA, as charliestribe says you will get more tax credits.

If you have now been awarded Income Support you need to let Housing and Council Tax Benefit know as you should get all your rent and nearly all your council tax paid from the Monday after you claimed Income Support. This would then give you extra in the budget until September when they will rejig it all once you start working.

Yeah it currently looks nothing like that SOA I've posted, although only for another 4 weeks or so x

missymoo81

sOA looks good Hidden! You do so well on so little. X

You've made me want a roast!

Toni'sfriend

Everything is looking great, Hidden. Lots of good advice as well. Re contents insurance, I rent from our local authority and mine is included in my rent. It is optional but it's only a few pounds a month. Just wondering if it's something you might want to check out or is it possible you already have this

sashybo

Great news about the DLA Hidden. :j

We have savings accounts for Birthdays/Christmas (we have 6 nephews & nieces and now DS), Cats (food/general vet visits) & Household (appliances/repairs around the house etc) and a separate account for DS (saved before maternity leave to buy things for him). We actually need to open another savings account for the cars for MOT/repairs etc as well as both have second hand cars now.

We have set up standing orders to each account every month and it's roughly £30 each to cat & house accounts and £70 for birthdays/Christmas. I think we'll reduce the £70 though as need to put a bit away for the cars.

The good thing is that all the accounts are in one place so it's easy enough to transfer the money back if there was an emergency. It's just better for us to separate them so we don't spend the money as it's been put away for a specific purpose.