To Keep Motivated Diary

Dee2

Hi KM, I'm going to follow your diary with interest as what you're saying about not making any real headway is exactly my position too. For me it all looks good on paper but it always seems like too much month at the end of the money!
Keep posting - I'll be reading and good luck!

Dumb_Blonde_3

Hi there and welcome.

£939.69 - thats great - okay do you have a rough idea of petrol costs? and then give yourself a smallish allowance each month for all of you and then throw the rest at the debts - it could be gone in several months and then turn that amount into savings - will b back later - 2 year old just walloped me - think he wants me off the laptop

Keeping_Motivated

Wow thanks everyone I really didn't expect so many replies. I thought I would be all on my lonesome with the odd person 'popping' in as they felt sorry for me so a big :T

Karmacat

Re:
Endowment - I know what you are saying and I have looked at the surrender value and its only about £3500 and I'm afraid if I cash it I'll have a new bathroom :rotfl: and then it would be gone and not savings if you see what I mean. I think though that I will look into moving it Need to giove this some thought.

Child care vouchers - She goes to the after school club is this still eligible for the vouchers as its not a private nursery? Although having said that none of our employers do the vouchers anyway but I could enquire if I thought I would save??

Dinner Money - I know what you are saying but firstly I am probably a little lazy re the sandwiches and secondly she used to take sandwiches and she came home with the filling and just ate the bread and butter!! And I am told she eats her dinners.

Broadband - Yes this is a good deal its with AOL, I know some people think they are rubbish but I've been with them for years without any problems.

Mobile - I use my mobile credit instead of using my landline hence only needing to pay the £12 per mth for BT and usually just have a tiny amount to pay for any 0870 or 0800/0845 when the bill comes in for the land line.

Gym - Mmmmm you're right I need to give this some thought. I sometimes use it loads and then I don't use it for a while!! Its a social thing too so I am loathe to give it up but I will give it some thought.

HSA - I joined this as I need alot of treatment and I will get £2000 back from HSA so I've worked it out and for this year its the cheapest way of getting my teeth sorted.

Son - Yes the £20 per mth is pocket money, he is at college and all his friends get £30 EMA PER WEEK so he really does not get much as there is no way I could afford to match what EMA give his friends. EMA is a good thing but I also feel that it should be a blanket thing for all kids who go to college as there is no way I can afford to give him this amount even if they think we earn too much to award him any EMA. But I suppose that is a whole other discussion for another time.
He has a little part time job and also he takes sandwiches to college to keep costs down.

Car - Need to think about this next year when the lease runs out and decide the best way forward.

Keeping_Motivated

Dumb_Blonde wrote: »

Hi there and welcome.

£939.69 - thats great - okay do you have a rough idea of petrol costs? and then give yourself a smallish allowance each month for all of you and then throw the rest at the debts - it could be gone in several months and then turn that amount into savings - will b back later - 2 year old just walloped me - think he wants me off the laptop

I will have a look at my internet banking today and try and get a rough idea of what I am spending on petrol. My husband has a company car so when we are going somewhere we most often try and use his for the free petrol but my car is a 2ltr so does eat petrol a little so like I said in an earlier post I think when the lease is up on my car I will look into something more suitable.

Awe bless the 2 yr old, theres only so long you can get away with walloping someone to get what you want. My 4 year old has changed to giving me 'gorgeous' eyes to get what she wants :rotfl: bless her :rolleyes:

Keeping_Motivated

Dee2 wrote: »

Hi KM, I'm going to follow your diary with interest as what you're saying about not making any real headway is exactly my position too. For me it all looks good on paper but it always seems like too much month at the end of the money!
Keep posting - I'll be reading and good luck!

Yes you are right it looks good on paper and I keep on top of it and don't let it get worse but I also don't make it better, which is my problem.

Its funny I think I fall into a bracket where we don't have loads of money but we are also definatley in a nice position. I suppose I was more careful with money when we had less and now I am a little lapsidaisicle (how on earth is that spelt!!) as we are not under as much pressure but I am lulling myself into a false sense of security because I do have debt and I do have a mostly interest free mortgage :eek:

So I'll keep you posted.

As so many people have replied already I really feel I must make some progress to show you all, so your motivation is working already :A

SO today I will

• Post off my last expenses (£94) for my old job. Been meaning to do this for a couple of weeks.
• Send off for magazine subscriptions (Tesco clubcard deals) so that will be 2 'free' xmas presents.
• Check how much I spend on petrol per mth.
• Have no spend day and eat at home.
• Send off the voucher for Barclay Card that indicates which £50 voucher I would like for opening their credit card :T Thanks to Martin for the tip.

I have also opened an Amazon CC so that I can get the £15 voucher and opened another credit card that credits your card with £25 when you spend on it so I am hoping that with 3 credit card freebies I will be mostly be able to sort my daughters xmas presents :T

Karmacat

Thats it KM- its the little things that really do add up. If you're fairly comfortable, it can seem ridiculous doing them - but, for instance, I've used online banking to send *every* extra little bit to a separate account, even the £1.70 sales on amazon. And that account is about to hit £500 - a month's maximum overpayment on my Nationwide mortgage. Keep going!

Keeping_Motivated

Karmacat wrote: »

Thats it KM- its the little things that really do add up. If you're fairly comfortable, it can seem ridiculous doing them - but, for instance, I've used online banking to send *every* extra little bit to a separate account, even the £1.70 sales on amazon. And that account is about to hit £500 - a month's maximum overpayment on my Nationwide mortgage. Keep going!

Yes you are right. My husband has started doing matched betting but the little bit of profit he has made has just gone into the joint account and been used as part of everyday money when really it should be seperate as it is money we would not have had. So that needs sorting he needs a seperate account for the matched betting and then we can use any profit to make a difference and make it count.

Karmacat

Exactly. And woohoo, matched betting! I'm just about to start working my way through it all with Getting Things Done, the profits seem fairly substantial.

Keeping_Motivated

Yes matched betting is really a good way to make money from home BUT I had to get my husband on the case as it just went over my head BUT my excuse is that I deal with most of the money sorting so its only fair my husband gets involved

GeorgeUK

Hi Keeping motivated.

Seems you've been pretty busy and getting things underway with a bang.
Something i would like to mention though. It seems that you have recently opened 3/4 new CC accounts - is this correct?

Having alot of credit checks on your credit history can affect your credit score, so i would advise not doing anything else on that front for about 6 months - just to make sure your rating has recovered.

Also, once you have got your vouchers, spent the amount required and then paid it off again - you might want to see if any of these new cards have a 0% on BT promotional offer with them. Then you can transfer the Tesco and Virgin so that you don't pay interest on them while paying them off.