Baby Debt (He's nearly 6)!

BadBookkeeper

Okay so here are my 3 goals for September:


1 - Put £100 in my xmas pot
2 - Have 15 NSD
3 - Lose 4lbs


How to achieve:
1 - New catalogue I distribute out so going to work hard to sell the products and earn commission / Sell 5 items on Eb@y / Any savings made on shopping, fuel put in the pot not my purse, limit my DS to sweet shop visits!!
2 - Back to school so should be quite easy to achieve
3 - Decide what plan I am following and stick to it instead of changing my mind every other day!! Park further away from school and walk some of the way instead of fighting for a car pack space right next to it.
Take my DS for walks in the evening or a run around in the park



My DS is nearly 6 yrs old. What does everyone do about pocket money at this age and teaching good habits?

wishingthemortgaheaway

I like your goals. Will be cheering you on.

My little boy is only 1, but we've already set up 3 money boxes for him, spend, save. & give.

When he gets given any money we split it 45% in spend & save 10% in give.

He's not spent a penny of it yet, but the idea is that his 'spend' money is for the sweet shop trip, day out 'I want' from the gift shop, school fair type spending.
Save is to save up for a big thing, maybe a big toy or clothes or something.
Give is to be given away to charity. This could include the £1 schools are always asking for for non uniform days, or to buy something to go in a food bank box or for sponsorship.

It takes a lot of setting up and 'training' but it can be very effective.

Money is hard with young children.
Some big coins are worth more than some little coins
1 coin can be worth more than a whole handful of coins.
You can pay for something with 1 coin and get the item and many coins back.

It messes with children's heads.

Friends of ours don't do pocket money (5&4 year olds) but when they go to 'I want'land - fairs, fates & festivals the children are allowed to do two things and eat/drink 1 thing. This works really well for them and the children now know it's pointless arguing.

I'm sure there are lots of other ways, but these are the two I'm familiar with.

Wish

BadBookkeeper

Yay! Finally achieved a NSD

BadBookkeeper

NSD 2 achieved so 2/15...

BadBookkeeper

Anyone else feel they don't get anywhere fast! Checked my bank this morning and one of my DDs was £2 less than budgeted for..... then I open email from [EMAIL="Eb@y"]Eb@y[/EMAIL] invoice for August £1.96!!


Hoping for a NSD today to make me feel I'm doing something positive so no sweets on the school run.

wishingthemortgaheaway

But that's a 4p win rather than a loss of any size.

Keep plodding.

BadBookkeeper

Of course! thank you

JimmyTheWig

Personally I find it odd that you don't seem to be in a partnership with your husband and have separate money, but I understand that many couples do that. You seem to be coping just about, so no real reason to change this arrangement unless you want to.

I do have a couple of comments, though.

BadBookkeeper wrote: »

Over pay MBNA CC - £6500 5.9% for life when reaches £5000 then move to my empty Barclaycard at 0%

Are you saying that you're currently paying 5.9% on £6500 and have a 0% deal on your Barclaycard which has a £5000 limit and no balance at the moment?
Do you know that you don't have to transfer the whole balance? You could transfer £5000 (technically it would have to be less than this as they don't let you transfer your whole limit, but it should be close enough for rough figures) now, leaving you with £5000 at 0% and £1500 at 5.9%. That would save around £25 a month in interest.
Check the deal with minimum repayments, but it should work out fine.

Pay off overdraft £2000 - Not sure to move this to credit card debt

Though having said that, this might be the priority. Is this your everyday account, or an old overdraft that you are paying off? How much does it cost you each month?

terill

Hello, I was in a very similar position a few year ago when my son was a little-un. You seem to have very good plans in place but the things that stand out to me are:

GROCERIES- I swapped to Lidl/Aldi for most of my shopping and it saved at least £100 per month. I ended up putting money in envelopes every week for certain things to keep me to my budget

GAS/ELEC- seems a little high

LANDLINE- seems very high. I am sure you could improve on this. Maybe a 'free calls' service if you don't use mobiles so much or change to a 'free calls' on your mobile and use that and cxl the landline if don't use broadband

BENEFITS- Are you sure you don't qualify for Working tax credit, child tax credit or Universal credit as your combined incomes appear to be less than £40,000 before tax?

Good luck and I can't stress enough about the cash in envelopes every week. EG £50 food; £15 entertainment etc. It made me make do xx

BadBookkeeper

I need to revisit this... The reason I haven't transferred the MBNA to Bcard is that bcard minimum payment is 225% and mBNA is only 1%. I couldn't afford to meet the minimum with the high balance. But maybe I could look at shifting some of it. Thanks