Starting to control my finances

beanielou

You have made a fantastic start

MovingForwards

What a big change already!

Glad the separate bank account is working for you.

I moved away from drinking fizzy pop all the time and have now started buying squash, maybe that would work for you? I highly recommend Morrisons apple and pear or their tropical squash

Also their own brand chocolate is ok!

Did you sign up for your loyalty card?

One last tip. I often go back through my diary to see how things have changed and also follow up on anything I've posted as a reminder to do something.

Look forward to your next update.

lightbulbtime

Hi All,
So great news these past few weeks. I have a new job which has almost doubled my income. Basic income, without overtime, comes in at £2,200 instead of the £1350 I have been on. And I have the ability to do overtime on top of that.

So a few things have gone on in my head since I found this out.

First, I wanted a newer car!
Second, I wanted to buy stuff I knew I didn’t need.
Third, I wanted to up my budgets considerably.
Fourth, I was already spending money I hadn’t even earned yet.

However, I thankfully still have my minimalist head on and my sanity from doing budgets. And yes, I could easily afford a car and the new stuff etc. But where would that get me? Exactly where I’ve always been, living month to month. So I looked at this from a different perspective. I decided to figure out how I could take advantage of this situation financially.

I had enough hours collected to get the last week off, so now I start my new job a week earlier! I get paid twice for the same week, woohoo. I’m also due holiday entitlement for 20 days which should equate to another lump sum. And on top of that there’s a pay deal going through tomorrow which will give me either a 6 or 12 percent increase back-dated to the start of the year. So all in all I should receive around £1500 next month along with my new £2,200 pay! So in one go I’ll have managed to get my emergency fund in place and pay off my negative bank balance. And have a brand new larger salary deposited the same day to start off the new month.

I’ve had to amend the budget to accommodate a higher fuel consumption, given myself an extra £30 per month for food as it was really tight. And added some money to the kids’ savings account each month. My mortgage is currently £375 so I’ll add another £25 each month to that in over-payments. And next year I should be able to reduce my mortgage to around £290 but I’ll still keep paying £400 each month so it’s a good over-payment going forward.

I’m glad I’ve not gone back to my old ways, I’m keeping with my budgets and saving or over-paying as much as I can each month so I have savings. My target is to have 6 months-worth of savings that will cover all my bills and typical expenditure.

I do have a £4,500 loan still to pay, the interest is low and any overtime I do will go towards over-paying it and getting it paid off quicker.

Onwards and upwards as they say!

beanielou

Great news on the new job :T

DancingInTheRain

Congratulations on the new job great news! Sounds like you have a good plan in place for budgeting the increase in income too