I Can't Work This Out

GettingThingsDone

Hi DickDastardly (yoohoo hypno - nice to see you around )

Have you tried the 'split personality' approach? Basically you take on 2 different roles - one of 'you' is the wage earner and is just concerned with getting money through the door. The other 'you' is the bookkeeper who allocates 'wages', pays the bills etc.

The thinking behind this is that your out-goings are probably very similar to everybody else's and can be budgeted for, but your 'wage-earner' mind is overwhelmed by the variations in your income, hence your frustration.

Your bookkeeper 'you' can become obsessive about understanding your out-goings (such as reading your meters so you have a good idea of what your utility bills will be). Your wage-earner 'you' can become obsessive about earning as much as possible, knowing that the bookkeeper 'you' will take care of the weekly budgets etc.

I did a similar thing this time last year and identified that all I needed was a course correction; went a few weeks 'without' and that helped my 'bookkeeper' balance my books so that I could start making some inroads into my debts.

Good luck and keep posting!

gtd

esthomizzy

I have a simple spreadsheet template I use every month Hypno you are very welcome to a copy of that. If you want it pm me your email address.

hypno06

thanks esthomizzy - I have sent you a pm!

GeorgeUK

!!!!!!, i know you are probably not keen on the idea of CC's and this may be even more difficult as you are self-employed, but to pay for all those unseen expenses that you will eventually be reimbursed for, have you considered the promotional offers on CC's?

Although some do balance transfers @ 0% which will not be of interest to you, some do 0% for x months on purchases. You would need to pay 2%/3% of the card balance each month but once you get paid, can remove that part of the debt. This may make it easier to manage those unexpected costs.

But as i said, not sure what the card market is like for those self-employed. May be worth asking on the board, but thought it worth mentioning.

If you earn £30k but spend £33k, this will not really help so looking at past years spending may highlight an area or reason that more was spent than it should have been.

good luck
George

MissKJ

I think you should mosey on over to the debt free wannabe boards and have a shifty there. As it has been mentioned, people over there are working wonders and having good and bad days long the way. You may want to consider getting your wife on board with some of the tactics to make extra csh online. There is a wealth of information on how to do this, too much to mention here.