Why is spending money so easy......

Snwps

Month End Summery - June 2020

Debt Figure - £26,948.92 - Down £10,544.33 from £37,493.25 (28.12%)

Split - 

Name	Start Amount	Current Amount
Capital One	£2,582.96	£0.00 - Paid Off/BT to Barclaycard5
Vanquis	£1,724.64	£0.00 - Paid Off
Halifax 1	£3,249.45	£3,429.95
Tesco 1	£1,474.80	£0.00 - Paid Off/BT to Virgin
Tesco 2	£4,051.80	£4,760.97
Tesco 3	£4,388.04	£0.00 - BT to Virgin
Barclaycard 1	£1,044.71	£0.00 - Paid Off
Barclaycard 2	£587.78	£0.00 - Paid Off
Hitachi Loan 1	£3,130.82	£0.00 - Paid Off
Barclaycard 3	£1,049.90	£697.77
Barclaycard 4	£1,853.25	£1,853.25
M&S CC	£1,167.18	£861.43
Halifax 2	£3,059.10	£2,684.41
Post Office	£1,313.00	£939.00
MBNA	£2,161.40	£1,771.40
Hitachi Loan 2	£3,774.42	£1,887.21
HMRC	£880.00	£640.00
Barclaycard 5	£0.00	£2,170.53
Virgin CC	£0.00	£5,253.00
	£37,493.25	£26,948.92

(I know this looks a lot but I've split everything up into when deals end first and am working my way down the list using the snowball calculator app)

Goal to end of July - The repayments wont be as much next month as we need to get the house renovations complete so I anticipate the debt amount to be around £25,990 (just about scraping into the £25k's)

Things coming up in July - 
* the 2 cars need MOT's and services. I should have about £300 from job no 2 next week but I dont think this will cover it so any more will have to go on the cards
* its our wedding anniversary. We had booked to go see Lion King and stay overnight in a hotel. Lion King has been postponed to 2022 and the hotel are refusing to give a refund as they anticipate they'll be open by then. I wont be going but if they will be open I hope to move the booking to maybe July 2021 (they'll only move it 12 months). But needless to say I wont be booking with them again when we do go to see Lion King in 2022.
* as explained above we're having some work done on the house which is going to take approx 2 weeks. With everyone working from home/no school and DH working nights its going to be a mad house. Most of the budget is saved ready but we need to use DH 2nd job wage this month to pay the balance. Then once its done we can get back to paying off the cards/saving into some pots.

Good/Bad Points from June - 
* I've gone back to Job #2 (thats a good point from money point of view)
* Our take away spends have dropped considerably, I'm really happy with this as this was one of our downfalls
* Our food spend is still really high and need to get this down but I'm struggling. I've not even bought any alcohol and its still high (sob!) - £531.16
* Paid £1900.38 in debt repayments/overpayments
* saved money on fuel by working from home due to Covid-19
* worked out my annual spends 'pots' to fill going forward - just need money to put in them now!!
* Started EF - £60 at todays date

Sorry for the long post. I'm going to do a end of month summery to help look back on.

Snwps

A couple of small DDs have come out since my last post. So debt figure now is £26,907.39. DH got paid today from job no 2 but I've had to put the £781 into savings to pay for the house renovations  It has to be done to get the house finished and hopefully by the end of July it will all be done so next month both incomes from 2nd jobs can go towards debts/EF. 

A little good news, my pay from job no 2 should be a little more than originally planned as I'm getting some holiday pay and I'm praying that it will be enough to cover the car MOT/services. Both cars are booked in.

I've also managed to get an appointment for some beauty treatments at the end of the month and am looking forward to a little pamper hour. This isnt something I get very often but had an offer going on a fully intend to treat myself.

I'm really tired at the moment and since lockdown seem to have got into a routine of going to bed really late for no reason tbh. I'm going to see if I can have an early night tonight and maybe a lay-in tomorrow. 

I have to go grocery shopping now and have put it off all day. I've gone I hate going out. 

Snwps

Im getting really good at talking myself out of ordering a take away. We were going to have a fish supper for tea after I went shopping as it was late to cook, but instead I bought a frozen pizza and some mini hash browns and kids had those (like a fake away Papa Johns with peperoni pizza and potato tots with cheese). I wasnt hungry so had some bruschetta which I'm really into at the moment. Basically some nice fresh chopped tomatoes with basil on ciabatta. So saved myself about £20 tonight.

Done a pretty good shop, had lots of YS on meat and put it in the freezer. Still spent £102.08  and fancy a cooked dinner on Sunday (maybe due to the rubbish weather) but didnt even get any meat.  See how I feel tomorrow, may pop out to get some for Sunday.

swfcfan

Snwps said:

Its been a good weekend, money saving wise. Only spent money on stuff/food at work for DH on Saturday, nothing spent on Sunday. DH needs fuel today and we need milk. All budgeted for. 

I made another £30 in work Saturday & Sunday which I've added to the EF. Now sits at £52.00. Hoping for another £10 tonight. 

I've been playing with my SOA to see about budgeting for annual bills better. Does this sound reasonable to you?
Name / Monthly / Annual Total

Car Maintenance ANNUAL	£37.50		£450.00
Car Tax/Insurance ANNUAL	£60.00		£720.00
Home Insurance ANNUAL	£20.00		£240.00
Clothing ANNUAL	£33.33		£400.00
Birthdays ANNUAL	£20.83		£250.00
Haircuts ANNUAL	£12.50		£150.00
Christmas ANNUAL	£100.00		£1,200.00

Do these figures sound reasonable? Have I missed anything out thats important. I know a few will think Christmas is OTT but this is about average we spend and includes food and drink etc, we've spent more in the past!

As explained in my previous post my EF is being saved separately from cash earned for fuel on job #2. It will be slow but I will get there. Aiming for £500 first then when I get that will up it to £1000. 

Looking forward to coming on tomorrow to do my end of month round up. 2 DD's due tomorrow and will definately get the debt figure into the £26ks.

Home insurance seems a bit high? Can you get it cheaper? Not sure maybe it’s just different to ours. 

We have birthdays a bit higher than that and xmas slightly lower but just do what works for you and your family. Keep going. 

Snwps

Still been having late nights and early mornings. I popped to supermarket last night and bought meat and veg for a cooked dinner today. I cant believe how expensive it is. I paid £8 for a tiny beef joint (it said medium joint, would hate to see a small joint). This is one of the reason we dont have this weekly. Dinner is on now and I'm really looking forward to it. The off to work for a few hours later this evening.

I found out last night that my employer of job no 2 has moved the cut off date for payroll from 5th to 3rd. So the hours I've worked this weekend which I was expecting in my July pay will now be in my August pay. Typical when I needed the money for the MOTs. 

Got some time off coming up in July so need to get organised for the house renovations. I cant wait to get it done. Been waiting since December. 

enthusiasticsaver

It looks good to me.  Do you do holidays?  That is the only other annual expense I save for along with a boiler service.

Snwps

enthusiasticsaver said:

It looks good to me.  Do you do holidays?  That is the only other annual expense I save for along with a boiler service.

No we dont do holidays at the moment, maybe once we get back on our feet financially. Good point about the boiler service. We was paying boiler insurance cover which included a service but cancelled it to save money but then I forgot about saving for the service. Our next service is due next year.

One of the cars went for 4 new tyres this morning, setting me back £172.80 Ouch! I've paid on my credit card but will pay off tomorrow when I get paid from job no 2. We've had a quick look over the 2 cars and done the basic checks we can do before the MOTs next week. Things like check the lights, etc so will have to see how it goes next week. Both cars are long overdue on a service so once these done cars should be OK for a little while. (touch wood). They could also do with a good clean.

Another DD come out for £120.93 but because of the above spend debt has temporary gone up a little. Figure today at £26,959.26.

Also forgot to mention, I previously posted how I was looking forward to a pamper day at the end of the month. Well its been cancelled as beauty salons are not allowed to open due to Covid. 

Snwps

My payday from Job #2 yesterday and it was a little more than I had calculated at £477. I've put this aside to put towards the car costs. 

I need to contact the hotel we've got booked for the 18th to try and reschedule but first I need to decide on another date. I dont fancy going at the moment as the pubs and restaurants are only opening on 13th and with it being the first weekend of everyone being able to go out in Wales I think it may be busy. Plus its going for the sake of going and I think it will be a waste. 

Got lots to do around the house this weekend as need to prep everything ready for the house renovations starting next week. I'm so excited to get this done, it will be a massive tick off the list. Its something we've needed doing since we moved in 14 years ago.

Snwps

So good news on the hotel booked for 18th. The hotel manager emailed me to check we were still going. I took this as an opportunity to explain how I was disapointed that I couldnt move the booking to 2022 as its too far in advance and couldnt get a refund as the hotel was open so had no choice but to use the booking for the sake of it. I had a really quick reply from the manager and he apologised and said he was happy to move the booking to 2022! Something they had said they couldnt do previously. Understandably the booking system is not open for 2022 so they're moving the booking to 2021 then next July I need to contact them to move to 2022. I know this means they're sitting on the money for 2 years but at least I'm not loosing out and still get to make it an overnight stay when we do finally get to see the show.

I've also returned a couple of items bought as they were not as advertised and should be getting a refund any day. 

I need to go food shopping later and again I've been putting it off the last couple of days. (can you see a pattern here) I just hate it. 

Another DD come out yesterday so debt at today is £26,876.15. Really slow this month without the big overpayments from job no 2. Looking forward to getting back on it next month. Still on plan at the moment to get into the £25k's by end of the month.

RobM99

This may have been mentioned before but are your teens old enough to get a Saturday job (if not already)? At least they could buy their own lunch!