Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Homegrown0

Off to get some exercise in by taking an early lunch since I won't get any tonight (husband is working late then at football).

I have also done a washing this morning, although my house looks like a laundrette with three loads hung up in the spare room and over every available door and bannister! Holiday clothes were getting done so one more to hang up (where though??) then we will be caught up. I've braved putting the last load outside but not convinced the rain will stay off.

Homegrown0

Survey update:
Onepoll: £3.10 / £25.00
PA: £5.14 / £20
VO: £8.25 / £15.50

redofromstart

Homegrown0 wrote: »

. I've braved putting the last load outside but not convinced the rain will stay off.

show off

Homegrown0

redofromstart wrote: »

show off

Haha I won't be showing off when my washing has been outside all day and still comes in dripping wet! :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Just to let you know - PA has cashout threshold of £5.

Homegrown0

Moguline wrote: »

Just to let you know - PA has cashout threshold of £5.

Thanks Moguline, yes I did know that but I generally wait until it's at £20 so that I can cash out via Circle without paying a fee. I know it's generally only pennies but I figure i'm working for those pennies so want to keep them all!

Homegrown0

Not a lot to report today - a busy day ahead with work, gym, meeting in the next city this afternoon then the evening routine with the kids begins.

I wasn't intending to spend any money today but I need milk so will need to pick that up later.

This week, I've had a severe itch to scratch in terms of spending money. I've almost spent out on some ridiculous things that I really don't need (or at least I really don't need RIGHT NOW). Also, I don't have the money to spend anyway because our budget pots are empty now until pay day. I'm not sure if it's hormonal but I'm having to work extra hard to really talk myself out of these impulses. Hmm.

My pay rise hasn't been processed for this month so i'll get it next month and it'll be backdated. Annoying but at least it'll feel like a little bit extra on top of the extra Frustrating because I was looking forward to getting my payslip so that I know what my new take home pay will be for sure, but it looks like even next month's payslip will be different because i'll have backdated pay in there. Never mind, i'll just carry on with my best guess in my budget and adjust accordingly.

I have a bit of a confession to make and new numbers but will tackle that in a different post...

Homegrown0

CONFESSION TIME!

A few months ago, I put our flights for holiday onto our credit card with the intention of paying it back over two months. I did start doing that, but things got in the way, some of the money had to be allocated elsewhere, and I completely forgot to budget spends for our weekend away last month (and completely under budgeted for the wedding we went to this month) which ate up a LOT of money.

In addition, my husband used a card that we had at £0 balance for a few things and we forgot about it so with my rejigging of budgets this month, all of this has come to light and i've been forced to take action.

It means that my July round-up is now null and void!

So here's the new figures, as they stand today:

July round-up
Balances and paid amounts
Loan: £9,475.38 / £15,792.30 (£6,316.92 paid off - 40% paid)
CC1: £3,816 / £3,807 (starting from scratch again here)
CC2: £4,361.14 / £5,031.14 (£720 paid off - 14% paid)
CC3: £980 / £980 (starting from scratch)

Total: £18,632 / £25,619.44 (£6,987.44 paid off, 27% paid)

Summary
Ok, so it's not the end of the world completely, but I am disappointed that we ended up adding to the debt a little bit. Overall, it's just taken our total paid down from 31% to 27% but it's given me a kick up the backside to not let everything get on top of me again. I've had such a busy few months with a lot of travel and with that came a lot of 'sod it, let's just get a takeaway because I have NO time'...etc.

The plan
I do have a plan! An overpayment plan, if you will.

As mentioned, our holidays are over for the year now and we have sorted our my husband's car situation too so we are aware of what we'll be forking out. I've got a good idea what my pay rise will look like and I know what my son's new childcare bill will be at the end of next month when he starts to get his funding.

SO!

As we are back to no savings, my plan is as follows:
- To pay £200p/m to the 'new' credit card until it's cleared off
- To pay £200-300p/m into savings (emergency fund)
- Any extra (£100 from September onwards) to go to CC1
- Any extra income from husband's overtime/ extra work to be split between savings and overpaying 'new CC' or CC1.

I have all of the figures laid out in my budgeting spreadsheet which will take us from now until December and if i keep up with my plan, the figures by the end of the year will look like this:

31st December 2018
Loan: £6,846 (£15,792.30)
CC1: £3,096 (£3,816)
CC2: £4,061 (£5,031)
CC3: £0 (£980)
Total at the end of the year: £14,003

Savings: £800 (although it is an emergency fund so we may have had to use some, particularly because our tenants are moving out in 6 weeks time and we don't have new ones yet!).

Learning a lesson
I can't say with 100% certainty that this won't happen again. In fact, I'm pretty sure something like this may happen again. But I won't beat myself up about it! The effort I've had to put in to figure out a way of mitigating the damage and the ongoing damage to our budget because of a lack of time and organisation will act as a reminder.

Also, I thrive on seeing these numbers come down and my %age paid off go up every month. But that's taken a hit too and it's not a nice feeling. I'll get back to it, but it's disconcerting to see how a couple of weeks worth of spending without thinking can really impact our plans. I won't let it affect our morale though!

On a positive note, i'm on target with savings for Christmas (£450 in Christmas saver so far plus £450 stashed away in the CU) so I know i'll be covered when that comes along (£600 payout in November + £600 stashed away and available if needed).

Homegrown0

Just completed a super monotonous survey that pays out £10.82 on PA so that's pending and have £5.14 cleared. Once the big one clears, i'm edging towards payout again. Hopefully in the next week? I'm going to set a reminder for every day to remind me to check in.

doingitanyway

There are some exciting things here such as the new car, an imminent pay rise, childcare costs set to reduce and being on target re Christmas funds. Your emergency funds must be at a good level too. Don't feel down. Stay positive. You are still doing very well

Weird to think you had rain...