Dreaming of being a budget queen!!!

littlemissbudgetqueen

Everything was a bit manic over the past couple of days. Work has been really busy as there is a deadline coming up so I've been working late as well as attending classes at the weekend which just means there isn't much time left for anything else.


The budget has been going well although there have been a few budget fails:
- DH is away with work and realised he doesn't have any smart clothes (apart from a suit which is too smart) so we had to get him a couple of pairs of chinos and a smart jacket. He is usually quite fussy - I've mentioned this before with his jeans. However he left me to go and get things and was happy with all my purchases - I got two pairs of trousers and a jacket for £100.00 which I'm happy with considering the other jacket he had been eyeing up was £120 alone.
- I got my haircut which was much needed but cost £65.00 - however I am really happy with it and think it has been a year since I've got it done


The other reason I've been away is my parents had put an offer in on a house which they would be downsizing to. They offered DH and me the opportunity to buy theirs at a slightly reduced price but to include all furniture. We have been weighing this up and how it would impact the budget etc. Their house is a lot bigger and more expensive than we would ever have anticipated so we were spending a lot of time looking at the costs involved. Today however my parents have rang to say that they have pulled out of the purchase - they realise they aren't ready to downsize yet. This puts a stop to us thinking about buying theirs which to be honest would probably have left things tight for us - but has made me want to knuckle down even more so that I can be closer to our forever house.


Payday has arrived I have set money aside for our big holiday in January and have updated the signatures. I will put more detail in once the loan goes out on 31 October as this will give a more up to date picture of our finances.

littlemissbudgetqueen

I'm back again with an update for the start of this month. The next couple of months I wont be able to pay as much off the debt but that's because we are heading away in January for a holiday (realistically a once in a lifetime type of holiday). We have already paid quite a bit towards it but I'm determined to have cash for whilst we are there and not put anything on the credit cards.


Debt as at today:
Car Loan: £0/£14,000
Credit Cards: £5181.00 / £5154.49 - I know this hasn't moved much but this was due to the clothes for DH which I just hadn't budgeted for. I have managed to pay most of this off and hoping my work travel expenses will also reduce it by a good bit this month.
Prof. Study Loan: £5390.07/ £8660.00
Argos Card: £255.00/£372.95
Mortgage: £66,000.00 (approx.) /House value £125,000.00

LISA: £150.00
NS&I: £200.00
Savings for Holiday: £500.00

littlemissbudgetqueen

Having typed that I was feeling a bit down that I hadn't managed to chip much away from the credit cards. However I have just checked how much the overall debt has decreased (excluding mortgage) and it has gone from £11,963.05 to £10,826.07 - that's a reduction of £1136.98 in two months

littlemissbudgetqueen

I have been travelling all over the place with work so haven't had a chance to come on here. I weighed myself yesterday - first week that I have made a conscious effort to exercise more and have lost 1.5lb :j
I'm so happy with this - I really want to lose as much as possible before the holiday and more importantly by my 30th birthday.

I have made some small payments today towards the Argos card (£5.00) and Credit Cards (£6.64). I have transferred the holiday savings money into a separate account so I wont touch it until we are getting ready to go.

DH has signed up for the gym but hasn't actually gone yet (he signed up about 6 weeks ago) - its £30.00 a month so if he doesn't start going I'm going to tell him to cancel. It just doesn't make sense to pay £360.00 per year for something that isn't being used. :mad:

We have two busy weekends coming up - one is a trip with DHs parents and the other is with a group of friends. I have set money aside and the accommodation is already paid for both - I'm determined to stick to the budget!

littlemissbudgetqueen

Well DH got paid today so I couldn't wait to pay off some more debt and transfer money into holiday savings just to see where we are for the start of December. DH got paid a bonus from work so I have assigned it into different pots.


Debt as at today:
Car Loan: £0/£14,000
Credit Cards: £4800 / £5154.49 - I am so happy to have this under £5000!!!
Prof. Study Loan: £5390.07/ £8660.00 - This hasn't gone out for next month so I will update when it does.
Argos Card: £217.00/£372.95 - Interest free until March so I need to increase payments on this.
Mortgage: £66,000.00 (approx.) /House value £125,000.00

LISA: £550.00 - Have added a good bit into this from the bonus
NS&I: £200.00
Savings for Holiday: £1480.00 - This figure includes DHs spends from the bonus which he is using to buy some clothes whilst we are away.

[Deleted User]

Hi littlemiss,

Always good when pay day comes to the household

Well done on getting the CC's under the £5k mark.

Pmo2
x

littlemissbudgetqueen

Thank you Purplemum it is such a good feeling to get them under the 5k. I love pay day when I actually feel like we have a good amount of money sitting in the accounts.

We have been really busy recently going away for the past two weekends. Last weekend was with a group of friends from school and it was the first time in years that we have all managed to get together. I had set aside £200 for this (accommodation was already paid). We went over budget but DH and I had agreed that any extra money would come from our personal pocket money.

I've been off work now with the flu both Tues and Wed - working from home today as we have so much on and I felt bad taking any more days off. Think I've just run myself down with travelling all over the place with work and then having weekend classes not to mention the two trips away one weekend after each other. I'm planning to take it very easy this weekend.

Money has gone out today for my professional loan so I'm going to update the signature - really looking forward to getting that amount under 5k which will happen with the next loan instalment going out :T

Debt as at today:
Car Loan: £0/£14,000
Credit Cards: £4800 / £5154.49
Prof. Study Loan: £5137.98/ £8660.00
Argos Card: £217.00/£372.95
Mortgage: £66,000.00 (approx.) /House value £125,000.00

LISA: £550.00
NS&I: £200.00
Savings for Holiday: £1480.00

Since last month then this has been a decrease in debt of: £671.09 and an increase in long-term savings of £400.00. :j
( I am ignoring the holiday savings as these will be all spent when we go away in January)

littlemissbudgetqueen

So much has happened since I last posted and I have been reading through lots of other diary entries but just haven't made it back to update on this. I feel like I need to get back into diary mode just to keep myself accountable and hopefully watch the figures go down.

Since I last posted we have moved house!! We have moved to an older farmhouse which needed quite a bit of work done to it. We kept back some of the money from the house we sold so that we could use it to renovate - of course the money we kept back didn't cover everything.

So here I am...with more debt but thankfully I can see where it has gone and it will be worth it in the long run as I do think we have added to the value of the house.

Debt at my last post:
Car Loan: £0/£14,000
Credit Cards: £4800 / £5154.49
Prof. Study Loan: £5137.98/ £8660.00
Argos Card: £217.00/£372.95
Mortgage: £66,000.00 (approx.) /House value £125,000.00

LISA: £550.00
NS&I: £200.00
Savings for Holiday: £1480.00


Debt as at today:
Car Loan:£6000/£8000 (approx.) for DH car.
Credit Cards: £10306
Prof. Study Loan: £0/ £8660.00 - Paid off when we sold house
Argos Card: £110
Mortgage:£192,300(approx.) /House value£235,000 (hopefully more considering the work we have done to it)

NS&I: £200.00
Savings for Maternity (TTC): £950
Emergency Fund: £700 (trying to build this up to £1000)

I am determined to get the debt down whilst trying to save on the side for emergencies. At the moment my car is with the mechanic and we think it is going to be around £1000 :eek:

Here is to getting as much debt paid off in 2019!