What, the curtains?

curlytop12 · 6 September 2018 at 10:36AM

Enjoying your thread, good luck!
Have you thought about your TV/ internet costs?
Currently you can get talktalk unlimited internet for 23.95 a month, and you could use free view TV ? or Netflix for £5.99 a month?

DancingUnicorn · 6 September 2018 at 12:34PM

Thanks all for joining me to celebrate the £300 victory! :dance:

curlytop12 Thanks for your input with my SoA. Unfortunately due to the area I live in I only have one option for internet/home phone - it's crazy that in this day-and-age they can monopolise the market in this way, and yet they do

I got sent home from work today with D&S :silenced: Feel guilty but I have a suspicion it's a garlic intollerance

I love garlic, so I guess I'll just have to stick with it as a weekend treat! At least I can sit on my laptop completing PA studies and planning/resourcing for next week!

I had a go at completing my online tax return today - they now think I've underpaid student loan by nearly £200 and owe them nearly £300. I could do with a nice lottery win or something this weekend I think! (not that I actually do it, so the chances of winning are essentially zero!

)

Finances - they give with one hand and take away with the other. Still thinking about going self-managed with my DMP, but maybe keeping the payments down for a short time so I can build up an emergency fund as a priority. My anxiety is pretty bad at the moment (starting a new job and then this with the tax people certainly doesn't help!) so I might just wait until things are a little more settled.

curlytop12 · 6 September 2018 at 6:25PM

Hi, sorry you are feeling poorly.
Yes, no need to rush changing the DMP whilst you have so much else going on, take care

Mumoffourkids · 6 September 2018 at 8:44PM

Just read your diary so far and I have an intolerance to garlic, onion, leeks - anything from that family of vegetables. Before I cut them out of my diet, I had really bad skin and used to have stomach bugs all the time. I cut them out and my skin cleared up and I hardly get stomach bugs now. I also started eating them again in moderation after a while, so maybe once every couple of weeks and my body can tolerate it a lot better. I feel your pain with the intolerance.

DancingUnicorn · 15 September 2018 at 2:43PM

FIRST FULL WEEL BACK AT WORK COMPLETED!!
It's exhausting but the most rewarding job in the world. At the moment I'm on a 6-month maternity contract, so I have the constant doubt of being made permanent hanging over me, but I'm a firm believer in what will be will be and everything happens for a reason.

Meal planning could have been better. I'm thinking of stocking up on ready meals for in the week so I have quick and easy meals ready.

I've lost track of my NSD's

but things could be worse!
I know I've spent £5 on a new adult drama class. This was really good and will be great for my wellbeing and mental health so I'm definitely going to keep it up.
We also had a staff lunch for a 30th birthday so I spent £3 on my sandwich! Monday I forgot my lunch and had a walk to the sandwich shop for a £3 meal deal. All in all not the best costs for lunch this week!

Going shopping tomorrow, and I'm going to buy ready meals for the evenings and soup for lunches. Also aiming to get back to the gym so here's my plan - let's see if I can stick to it!!

Daily: soup lunch, ready meal tea (except Friday - pizza night).
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: gym after work.
Tuesday, Thursday: swimming before work.

I'd like to lose 3lbs this week so I'm going to try really hard to stick to my plan. Hopefully this should also eliminate the need to go buy food in the week.

Finances:
HMRC still reckon I owe them £300. I'm thinking I'll ring them to get a payment plan (maybe £100 per month) and put off putting my DMP up. I can't really deal with calling them all the time. Yeah, it'll put me at a disadvantage getting this debt to under £10k by next September, but if I work hard enough and save where I can it's still doable. *sigh*

curlytop12 · 18 September 2018 at 9:30AM

Hi, HMRC worked out I owed£810 of child tax credit- don't know how as i was meticulous in updating with changes in my salary.hours etc...
anyhow..it's interest free, I offered to pay £50 a month which they were happy with, so only pay them back at a rate you can afford, they just want to recoup the money so will except small monthly payments, but if you miss a payment they demand full settlement ( I didn't, but it tells you in the contract) good luck.

DancingUnicorn · 22 September 2018 at 1:28PM

I've been pretty rubbish at logging my spends this month, so I'm restarting my bullet journal where I'll log all my spending. I've just been paid from my saturday job (which is the money I use for spends) so now seems the perfect time to get back on track with this.

Popped out for lunch/tea a couple of times this week when I couldn't be bothered to prepare lunch or cook tea, so I definitely need to get a grip on this and be better prepared through the week.

Still need to get in touch with HMRC. Kind of waiting for payday as I have a feeling they're going to totally mess up my tax with my new job so I'll have to call about that too.

I only went to the gym once this week, but once is better than none and is a step in the right direction. Working on getting myself better organised so I have the energy to get more active.

Withdrawn £6something from PA and £20 from shoppix so they're going straight into the EF savings account. EF currently stands at: £88.86. I'm aiming for £1000 by the end of March (£600 by new year) so it's a start!

£100 withdrawn for my 4 weeks between paydays (£20 per week with a £20 buffer) and I'm aiming for at least £30 of this to go into my sealed pot for christmas (I would aim for £50 usually but my Dad has a big birthday coming up so I'm expecting extra spending).

For some reason, I've ended up going over on my phone and home internet this month, so I might have to use some of my EF to cover these costs - hoping they're not too high!

*sigh* I'm not feeling very money positive at the moment. Let's see what I get paid at the end of the month and hopefully things will start to look brighter.

DancingUnicorn · 27 October 2018 at 1:00PM

I have been soooooo bad for spending since I last posted! I need to make some final decisions on Christmas presents, get them bought and then STICK TO THE BUDGET!!!

Despite being paid a little short last month (tax always messes up with a new job) I managed to scrabble together and pay off the £308 tax bill from 2 years ago so actually I've not done too badly.

Still debating what to do DMP-wise. It's a bit of a minefield and I have so many different options buzzing around my mind!

On a VERY positive note - today marks 2 years since my LBM and I've officially paid off a quarter of my debt without taking any more on!! Having lived off little more than minimum wage for 1 year and a student loan for the other, I'm incredibly proud of this! Next month my debt will be officially under £15k which is also a very exciting thought!