Positive Balance: Focused on Budgeting

PositiveBalance

Puddleglum wrote: »

Hello PositiveBalance. We are still here for you! Well done on the repayment. This is about the time of year when I give up on the gardening, accept that it all got away from me again, and resolve to do better next year!

Alas, it's not pretty gardening - it's the killing off tree roots variety, which is best around now. And was there a lot of work to do for it! :eek:

Same old here...min payment of £28.75 plus an additional £1.00 made to my CC this month bringing the balance down to £2884.80. It's not much, but it's something and I haven't added anything to it for a long time.

My main goal this year was to repay the CC which is looking increasing unlikely but I've paid £420 back to source over the past two months so I can't say it isn't coming down.

If I look at it like that, I've paid off £480.20 overall back toward debt over the past two months which isn't too bad.

Right...got some cooking to do or I will get into trouble!

See you soon.

PositiveBalance

*Opens door to thread, does some dusting, turns heating on and puts kettle on*

Hello everyone! It has been a while...

....so, my guest has returned from whence they did come and in the past two months I have spent what seem like simply obscene amounts of money. I did repay approx. £480.20 mostly to source including 2 min payments and extra payments of £1.00 each month the CC and I did buy myself things I had needed for ages such as a new dressing gown and some new tops, but had neglected to buy (it's soooo much easier traveling to nice shops with a car even though they are literally just up the road)! I didn't get my passport sorted last month, though, and spent the money allocated for that on other things, so I think it counts as a draw in terms of actual money; I paid for everything without needing to add anything to a CC but not all the things I intended to pay for got bought!


Oh, and I bought one of my most important Christmas presents as well, to send back with my guest.


So, on to this month....I've bought my buildings and contents insurance for the house for just under £195. I could have got it cheaper, but this includes lots of added extras that it would cost me a lot more than I could afford to throw at them right now if they went wrong e.g, boiler emergency, lock replacement. I might not pay for such bells and whistles in years to come. I budgeted £250 for this, so even at that price I'm still pleasantly surprised.

I can't remember if I mentioned but I have seen an insurance broker about getting all the types of insurances that I should have as a responsible (:o) home owner. I'm waiting to see if I get them as I have a pre-existing medical condition which might make it a bit harder, so cross your fingers for me.

I'll see if I can dig out this months' figures in a format that I can post (blummin' spreadsheets! :mad:).

BRB.

PositiveBalance

Hi guys,

I'm back. I keep falling asleep every time I try to update my diary but I am reading lots of other peoples'!

I'm hate typing on my phone so apologies for any typos... I have put £106 into Premium Bonds as my starter emergency fund. This gives me a princely £107 which I hope to top up up to £500 next month.

Given my income this is enough for my starter Emergency Fund. I think I will grow it to £1000 by adding £50pm and use anything else to pay off the CC. This will stop me going too mad feeling like I'm not making any headway as I do a little now. *Sigh*

I must remember that I HAVE made progress this past few months, just not quite in the way I thought I had. Stop going sideways and go upwards now, PB!

PositiveBalance

So, my CC minimum payment has gone out for this month bringing the balance diwn to £2885.95, meaning that I have paid off 42%.

I was hoping to have it all paid off this year but I'm aiming for at least the 50% mark by Christmas (£2500) which is £385.95 between now and then.

Should be doable, although it doesn't look like I will have that much overtime in my next pay packet, so it might be a bit more December heavy.

Puddleglum

Woo hoo! Excellent news You've got this.

PositiveBalance

Puddleglum wrote: »

Woo hoo! Excellent news You've got this.

I hope so, dear Puddleglum!


OK, so updates...due to my credit card provider being a dipstick and adding £3.01 interest incorrectly over 2 months, they have given £25 compensation, which I have knocked off the CC balance meaning a £21.99 profit.


I topped up my baby emergency fund and have done a rough budget for next month (I don't know exactly how much I will get paid until I get my payslip, so it's strictly a guestimate!) so I'm hoping that if I get paid what I think I will and raid my non-existent clothing and holiday pot to get the fund up to £500 at the end of the month.


After that, I'm hoping to decimate the CC which currently stands at £2831.55 and will be at £2800.40 once the min, payment and £1 additional payment I pay each month. (My numerical OCD might have to round that figure down, though! )


Come December I'm hoping to throw more money at the CC and perhaps get it down to £2500 by the end of the year. It's not where I wanted to be, but it's better than where I was at the start of the year!


In other news, my gas and electricity seems to be very expensive given how much I use (I'm barely ever home.) I did go through Cheap Energy Club but seem to be £150ish in arrears. I have no idea how as I'm barely home (work 6 days a week), don't have many things plugged in (and unplug everything that doesn't need to be plugged it), religiously take meter readings and submit them and have worked out what my best tariff would be due to actual unit usage. I'm paying more than I should be using each month by DD and I was anticipating that the situation would have improved over the summer months with little usage, but it hasn't.


I think I'm going to have to find a new provider, but I'm worried that the problem might follow me as how can I have miscalculated so badly?! Unless I haven't, and there's some other factor at work...



Also, I think I might be going over (slightly) on my food and transport budgets. I'm good at setting the budget, but not so good at reconciling it. I think I need a better system.


I also need to get my 'spending pot' savings accounts set up. I set up three online savers and haven't accessed any of them. #badPB


Hope you are all well. x

PositiveBalance

Hello again!

So, this is my theoretical monthly budget (it's in cells, so I hope it posts!):

INCOME £1,480.39
Mortgage £267.07
Council Tax £88.00
Water £29.28
Gas & Electricity £75.00 (gone up as my deficit isn't reducing)
Food £200.00
Internet & landline £28.00
Mobile £8.50
Public transport £75.00
CC min payment £30.15
Extra CC pmnt £1.00
Union subs £8.96
Martial art £40.00
Exercise class £26.00
Clothes £50.00
Holidays £50.00
Presents £50.00
Fun £50.00
Prescriptions £8.80
Cat flea treatment £4.00
Work Lottery £10.00
Charity £5.00
Work coffee kitty £4.00
Cat jabs pot £4.60
Semi-professional insurance £88.20
H&C insurance: £16.25
TOTAL £1,217.81*

£262.58 difference between income and outgoings
£130.42 needed to make up required £393 to EF
£50.00 from holiday fund to EF
£25.00 from clothes fund to EF
£30.42 from presents fund to EF (not ideal this close to Christmas)

*Yay! That worked! It will save me a lot of time each month!

I've also worked on my 'pots' or 'sinking funds' and realised that they should be as follows. Given how I've not quite got this month right I don't think I'm going to be able to add to all of these this month as I forgot a few annual memberships along the way and have just added them, but it's a good start for the future:

Clothes £50.00
Holidays £50.00
Presents £50.00
Fun £50.00
H&C Insurance £16.25
Cat jabs & deworming £7.26
Prescriptions £8.80
Semi-professional insurance £10.00
Warehouse membership (annual) £2.10
Martial arts insurance (annual) £1.25
POTS TOTAL: £245.66

(What's really scary is that months into this budgeting thing I'm still finding things I've forgotten and then when I looked at the pots more closely I had duplicated the some columns like a complete lunatic! )

So, first things first...I had an unexpected £113.20 expense. This only shows up as an £88.20 expense as I paid for it on my other CC as it took an unnecessary DD for £25.00 last month, so I paid off the difference from this month's budget. It's something I need for certain qualifications I have, but as I have not been practicing them in the recent past, it's not something I have been paying out for in the past few years. Now that I am insured again, I may have to look to earning more money with that skill (I'm doing a skill swap with someone else for now.) However, as I am a stubborn moo I still transferred £393 to my emergency fund to bring it up to £500. I may live to regret this as it might skin me entirely until the end of the month.

In other news....while going through some old paperwork I discovered some old bank account details. I thought there was only 1p in each of them but there is a whopping....£7.70! :rotfl: (They are making it as hard as possible to close them, though. :mad:)

Also, I've decided to cash in an old traveller's cheque I found and use the money for debt reduction, so I've posted a question in the holidays section of the forum to see if people who do this more often than me know the best place to get the best rate for it.

Furthermore, my new CC company have added interest to a small purchase they should not have done and I complained and got £25 compensation which I have paid off the CC. After my min, payment this month plus the £1 extra that I pay, my balance should be £2799.40, bringing it into the new hundred bracket. I kind of hope their system automatically messes it up again next month so I can get more money for the same error!

I also have lots of things I need to sell on various selling sites around the place which could help with my tight budget. I just need to get around to doing it.

I'm also due to receive £28.50 back for money paid out on behalf of another person as well. This has already been taken from the budget and needs to go back into it to give me some liquidity as things are already looking tighter than a gnat's backside and it's only the 5th!

I'm busy but need to make sure I keep my food purchases to a real budget this month. Luckily, I have lots in the freezer and cupboards (freezer inventory needed!) which should help, if I'm not stupid. I bought a load of veg to make soup last week and I still haven't done it, so I need to get that done. I need to sell things as well - I have some pretty valuable items that would sell well at this time of year so I need to get listing them. I need the money and it will make me feel better getting rid of the clutter.

The fireworks have been unbelievable here tonight...it sounds like I live in a war zone and my poor cat is petrified!

I think it's time for bed. Sweet dreams to you all. :A

PositiveBalance

Hello!


It's technically Christmas Day so now I have the gammon suitably coated and in the oven I will make this quick...I have been meaning to come on and update for aaaaages but I have had a seriously hectic past two months so that hasn't happened.


Anyway, I will be back shortly with more news but I just wanted to wish anyone with the patience to keep up with my ridiculously infrequent updates an extremely Merry Christmas and all the very best wishes to them, their family and friends.



Have a blast, y'all! :T

:rudolf: :xmassmile :xmastree: _party_ :beer: :j

pidge04

Merry Christmas!

Well done on your debt reduction!

PositiveBalance

pidge04 wrote: »

Merry Christmas!

Well done on your debt reduction!

Thanks Pidge!


The same to you, too! :xmassmile