My accountability Diary for £42k!!!!

Buffythedebtslayer

Yet again... my lack of cooking knowledge astounds me! You can make marshmallows? HOW?

Obviously I thought the shops producing them by magic!!

KellyAS

Hi Buffy! Yes you can, it involves lots of sugar, gelatine and water. It's how I earn my money! It's easy once you know how but can get messy!

KellyAS

Payday tomorrow so here's how we did this month. We don't have anywhere near what I thought we should have left and running through the numbers it's clear that if we have money in the debit card account I spend it, therefore I think I need to allocate every £ to somewhere instead of waiting to see what is left at the end of the month. I am also going to pay any overtime etc onto the cards straight after payday so I can't be tempted to spend it elsewhere.

KellyAS wrote: »

Income:
Wages £2648.85 (plus 12 hours overtime, around £300 I think) £2933.55
Maternity £594.72 £594.72
Child benefit £137.60 £137.60
eBay sale £10.82
Total: £3381.17 £3676.69

Outgoings:
All bills £1176.96 £1276.54 +£99.58
Debts £468.69 (plus the fuel cost from today, approx £40 I guess) £567.94 +£99.25
Dog £125 £125
Annuals account £100 £100
Fuel £300 (hope to be lower but not more) £355.74 +£55.74
Food £250 (hope to be lower but not more) £335.51 +£85.51 but does include some medicine costs due to Mr K's cold & trapped nerve in back
Cars £50 (2 MOT's due in next 2 months) £40 -£10
Medical £13 £0.79 less spent here but probably included in food costs
Clothing £20 £58 +£38
House £50 £34.97 -£15.03
Emergency fund £50 £50
Gifts savings £100 £100
Entertainment £30 £23.50 -6.50
Eating out £30 (hope not to use this but will budget for it just in case then pay it to a card if it's left at the end of the month) £41.30 +£11.30 had a gift card but made a mistake of booking an expensive place forgetting to check the prices before we went, however we haven't had a date since Mini Me 2 was born so not feeling too guilty about this spend
Business costs £86 (includes stall fee of £35 for Christmas fair, hope to make around £300 from it) £246.11 +£160.11 forgot to include ingredients costs and business insurance renewal in forecast
Childcare £25 £10 -£15
Cash £10 (if needed, if not will go towards debt) £0 -£10
Total: £2824.65 £3365.40

£445.75 (+£100 overpayment to credit card so that was a good overspend) overspent or under-forecast. Not impressed! on a positive note I am now more aware of where our money is going and where I need to cut back. AND I do actually have some money left which is a first so we're heading in the right direction :T

I already have money saved to pay for Christmas so don't need to worry about that. This week I need to prepare for the Christmas event next weekend. Not making too much stock as I don't want to come home with loads! Hope to make approx £300 which will cover all the recent spends on the business to get it back up and running. That will go straight to credit cards. Mr K has over £500 overtime money this month which I am going to pay straight to the MBNA credit card.

Had to submit a claim to the small claims court for £88 for the dog daycare refund. They have ignored my attempts to contact them so they now have til 9th December before it goes to the courts. Cost me £25 but fingers crossed I get it all back.

Sold the highchair that I bought fir the same price I paid so that is all squared up. Old highchair is beyond saving so Mum bought us a new one as Mini Me 2's Christmas present.

Will have to sit down this week and work out where our funds are going to be allocated. Also need to meal plan but instead of doing week by week I'll try doing a month in advance then maybe will be able to stay within budget. Fuel spends shouldn't be too excessive this month as Mr K is only working 14 days before next payday so mileage will be down.

Summary for this month: Must try harder!

KellyAS

Payday yay! So lets start as we mean to go on by following my plan from yesterday.

We had £128.88 left from last month so I put the £28.88 into our emergency fund and have paid £65.13 to the Tesco credit card, £50 direct debit will come out to clear the rest of that on 3rd Dec so that is one card gone. When the final payment has gone I will close it.

Mr K got £603.09 extra in this month pay so I transferred £600.13 (balance after paying Tesco card was £34.87 so added 13p to round it up!) to the debit account and the extra £2.96 to the emergency fund. Then I paid the balance in the debit account which was £635 to MBNA.

Determined not to add to our debt this month. Even if I just stick to the usual payments we will be under £41k by next payday then on target to be under £40k by the end of the year with the next lot of overtime due.

Emergency fund balance now stands at £85.33

So a bit of a rocky start but I guess sometimes it's 2 steps forward 1 step back. Feeling a bit more positive today. Am hoping I get time to list some bits to sell this month as well.

[Deleted User]

Keep going, you'll soon be sub £40K in no time xx

KellyAS

Thanks Purplemumof2, I hope so.

Had some sad news today. My Grandad has been in hospital for a couple of days, he's been confused, hallucinating and aggressive to my Nan. He's just been diagnosed with bowel cancer. He is 97 so he's had a good innings and for the last couple of years keeps saying he doesn't want to be around but it's still so sad to see this once very active man waste away and turn into someone we don't know any more. No idea how long he has left but if the speed of how quick he's gone downhill is anything to go by he won't be here for Christmas.

savvysarah

Hello, I just wanted to say how well I think you're doing, and also I'm so sorry to hear about your Grandad. Even with a good innings, its really really sad.

Also, I feel your pain with having small ones and no sleep. Mine are now 7, 5 and 3, and the 3 yr old still comes through every night! Debt-busting and budget managing is SO exhausting, and trying to do it with very little sleep is quite a feat. I found breaking the food shop budget and the miscellaneous budget into weekly amounts helped (and still does), as sticking to budget for a whole month, especially when you're the main one doing it, can be just too much. I use the technique I found on Jordan Page's youtube - look her up if you haven't already, she has 6 kids!!

Also, shoes - its the one thing I still spend on. I have 2 in school now and shoes in the £40-45 range (Startrite, Bobux etc) have all lasted a full school year.

Anyway, I can also write/talk for ever!! Keep going and stick with it, I'll be following

KellyAS

Hi savvysarah, thank you for your support. I like the idea of splitting my budgets into weeks not the whole month, although I do tend to buy food stuff that's on offer a lot (one advantage of our new kitchen is plenty of storage!) which means I can spend most of the budget one week & not a lot another week. For example I like Oatibix for breakfast, it's usually £3 a pack but it's on offer at the mo for 2 packs for £4 so I bought 4 boxes today, I'll probably buy more because I know it'll keep ok and get eaten eventually and that adds up to a huge saving for me! I'll definitely check out that youtube page, thank you.

I'm going to try and update on here every day so I can keep track of everything. NSD for me today although Mr K did get us Maccy D's for lunch put fuel in the car and bought 2 headlight bulbs, they were £25!!!:eek: and because Mini Me 1 was with him he ended up coming home with a new toy car I did make a comment that next time he should ask Santa for it

On the upside we got given a TV to put up in the new extension! I'll take freebies where I can!

Looked around a school today for Mini Me 1, it was actually my old school & has changed quite a lot. We loved it but the only drawback is we'd have to drive there everyday, well drive to my parents then we could walk from there, we could walk from ours but it's a long way for little legs. Bus would be too expensive I think. One more local school to look at on Friday then we need to decide.

Walked the dog around the local fields & park today, got lost & ended up getting drenched because we had to cross a ditch & because it'd been raining all night it was rather full! Of course I wasn't wearing wellies, just my hiking boots which I have now found out are not watertight!!:undecided

Need to package my marshmallows tonight then make some more tomorrow.

Tomorrow we find out what care Grandad will need, whether he can go home or if he needs a hospice. They haven't given a time frame yet but I'm assuming he only has weeks based on how quickly he's gone downhill. My Nan can't care for him, she fell over a couple of weeks ago and is on strict rest with her own set of carers. Sad times

KellyAS

Dog food paid for today, £112.50 (should last about 4 1/2 -5 weeks) but out of the dog's account so doesn't really affect our day to day spending. Other than that it's been a NSD for all of us, yay!

Need to pay £4 for Mini Me 1's Christmas party tomorrow, I think I have that in change in my coat pocket so will check that in a bit. Also need to do a top up shop for bread, milk etc as I didn't get a chance to get to the market this week and was too late to add it to my delivery. Will go to the shop via my parents as we're there for lunch tomorrow anyway so will avoid the need for 2 car trips.

Watched a few of Jordan Page's videos yesterday and found them very interesting. I'm surprised how much she can get done! I do struggle with time especially as both of my kids like to do stuff with us, not really play independently too much. I try and get the older one involved in stuff like peeling potatoes and cleaning but he gets bored so quickly! I think I need one day a week or fortnight to just get batch cooking done.

Right, more marshmallows to package. 2 more batches made today so that's everything made for Sunday, just need to cut and bag those tomorrow and check my stall bits and bobs are all together.

KellyAS

OK, I've been putting this off because I'm finding it hard to concentrate with looking after the kids, worrying about my Grandad and getting work done this week but it needs to be done so I'll get started and leave this month budget as a work in progress. At least I'll have something to aim for.

Income:
Wages: £3251.94 £3251.94
Maternity: £594.72 594.72
Child Benefit: £137.60 £137.60
Business income: £300
Total: £4284.26 3984.26

All bills: £1346 (I round everything up to the nearest £ and keep the extra in the account, hoping to build up a decent amount over time in case we get any larger than expected bills. This also now includes £115 saving for annual payments) £806
Debt payments: £564 £800.13
Dog account £125 £125
Gifts savings £100 £100
Fuel £300 £21.29
Food £300£77.76
Medication £13 £16.99 Mr K renewed prescription
Cars £50 £25.79
House £50
Clothing £20
Emergency Fund £50
Entertainment £30
Eating out £30 £13.77
Childcare £4
Cash £55 £10 Mr K gets £10 per week frivolity spending, I will try to manage with £10 for the month
Business £43
Total: £3080 £1996.73
Left over £1204.26 :think: wow, I really hope we can have this figure left over, that would make a big dent in my MBNA card, lets see how we do.

I've asked Mr K to work out a rough figure that we will need to be putting away for car repairs/replacement bits now he no longer works at a garage.

My Grandad is getting a little better, he's still dying but apparently is no longer confused or hallucinating and is getting back to his old self. Hopefully he will go home soon although he will need a hospital bed and carers so that needs to be sorted.