5 months to emerge as a butterfly

benbenandme

Slight change of plan - I went to post the Vinted parcel and ended up trying 4 different shops; the app says they can all print the label in store but none of them can I will try some others later but am fed up of trekking round for a couple of quid t-shirts ...

I also decided against going shopping as I know I'll spend more than I should. I had £20 John Lewis vouchers from my sister for my birthday - I never go to John Lewis as the nearest one is quite a way away, but I got the tension rod on their and its being delivered locally. Its a better quality one than the one I was planning on getting so should be able to take the weight of a curtain okay. 

the_end_of_the_rainbow

So impressed by your planning
I've taken my eye of the ball lately - I really need to sit down and follow your example.
Thanks for posting - you are inspiring

benbenandme

Thank you Rainbow, I feel exactly the same, I used to be 100% focussed but it has slipped quite a bit over the years, this cost of living crisis is helping to get me back on track

benbenandme

So I'm skipping todays football very quickly  
I have made a coffee cake, probably a silly thing to do as I'll end up eating most of it, but it is yummy

Tonight will be more money sorting stuff, a bit of pottering around indoors, I want to check the settings on the thermostatic controls on the radiators - the plan is to keep the heating off until October half-term at least, then when it is on it will probably only be in the lounge - ds and I both like our bedrooms cold and we have plenty of blankets / duvets to stay toasty, the downstairs toilet doesn't need heating on, we rarely use it so it doesn't seem worth heating it, the conservatory likewise, once its properly cold we will shut the doors between the conservatory and the lounge. The kitchen is tiny and doesn't have a radiator anyway. Ds doesn't particularly feel the cold, so its a challenge for me really

benbenandme

Morning all, last night I actually managed 8 hours sleep for the first time this holiday and have woken up feeling refreshed, at last!! Today is a planning ahead kinda day, getting things ready for the new term, getting myself motivated again to get on with stuff and be back on track.

I want to update my spreadsheet on here where I track my money for the month, check my monthly budget is accurate etc and come up with a plan for my money. I think I might even list my SOA all over again on here and explain my savings pots etc as well as whatever my newly formulated plans are going to be  

benbenandme

Right, so here is the current state of play:

My SOA:

Income:

Wages £1488
Ds housekeeping £200

Total = £1688

Outgoings:

Mortgage £315 (fixed until Jan 2027)
Council Tax £175
Life Insurance £29
Home Insurance £10
Water £20
Gas/Electric £150
Car tax £14
Car Insurance £15
Car Maintenance £50 **
Mobile £25 
Ds phone / xbox live etc £68
Sky TV £30 
Plusnet (broadband / phone) £34
Prescriptions £10
DFS £25
TV licence £13
Union £13
Spotify £14 
Gift fund £50 **
Household Fund £75 **
Petrol £80
Food £200
Haircuts £20 **
Nails £20

TOTAL: £1452

Remaining £233 per month for day to day spends

The items with ** are ones where I move that money into a separate pot and spend it when needed. The car maintenance one has currently been wiped out due to the new car so needs to build up again. 
There isn't really any wiggle room to change any of these much - the mortgage was a new fixed deal in January, thank goodness I did as I got a great rate then. The DFS is for another 18 months then that will be gone - (I was paying £100 into the household pot but now pay in £75 and the other £25 goes to DFS). My phone contract is relatively new, I use Spotify and the Sky tv lots (football), ds' bills come out of the housekeeping that he pays - it may not seem a lot that he pays but he rarely eats here these days, has always been a soap dodger so isn't one for using loads of baths/showers if he can avoid it , he doesn't like the heating on much, overall he doesn't add to my bills much at all

If it came to it there are areas I can cut back -sky tv, spotify, haircuts, nails ... but these are my treats, I don't drink or smoke, these are the ways I like to spend my money, but if needs must they will have to go. Instead I like to see how I can increase my incomings rather than cut my outgoings any further. Obviously, like everyone, I will be doing whatever I can to cut back the gas / electric usage this winter though.

Next post will be explaining my savings pots  

benbenandme

So, when I bought this house my brother lent me £30k as I couldn't the mortgage due to my income. I have saved up £20k of it over the last 5 years to repay him although he has said he doesn't want it back any time soon and would rather I hold onto it in case I ever need it. So it has been sat in my savings account for a while. I managed to save this up while I still got child benefit / maintenance etc for ds, however now he's out of education this has stopped so the savings haven't increased. My brother is aware of that and is not worried, he is happy to wait until something happens to Mum and sort the rest of it from our inheritance at some point in the future.

Other than that this is the rest of my savings pots situation:

Household fund: £304
Gift Fund: £123
Car fund: £0
Gas/Electric: £663
Matched Betting: £452 
Haircuts: £31 
Holiday: £541
My savings: £5000

I am looking to re-arrange some of these - I think I will chuck some of the matched betting money in with the gas/ electric to give that £1000, then the remaining £115 can go towards any overspend this month (will check the banking in a bit), or into the haircut fund or holiday fund.  I also have the £1000 Mum gave me this week, I may put some of this back into the car fund and some into the holiday fund. 

This does mean that my finances are actually in fairly good shape. When we go back to school this week I will find out if we are doing tutoring again this year as that was very welcome extra money for me this year. Also I am taking on an extra role that will give me an extra 4 hours pay per week - not a huge amount but not a huge amount of extra work needed either  

So my plans going forward are to have one savings pot for any extra income made - matched betting, surveys, maintenance arrears (£373 still owed - not much but all welcome!), etc. This will hopefully build up nicely, and can be used for gas / electric if needed, or can hopefully build up towards the remaining £10k I owe my brother. Obviously the cost of living and gas/electric prices may impact this, my general musings on this are as follows:

Currently I pay £150 a month dd, the estimations show this will probably go up to £260 by January and then a whole lot more after that ... there is also the £400 from the government to factor in ... so, my plan is: heating off until we break up for October half-term, then minimal heating on from November - March. So for the next 7 months I'm reckoning on paying:

Sept: £150
Oct: £150
Nov: £150
Dec: £150
Jan: £260
Feb: £260
Mar: £260
TOTAL: £1380

This will be:

7 x dd payments (150 x 7) = £1050
government money =400

I am currently £375 in credit too which should help a bit. However after that it gets harder and the next price increase will be much tougher ... maybe I've misjudged this one and the winter will be much worse, but hopefully I can get by, and I always have the gas/electric savings I've saved so far to help too. 

So, next step is to check the current state of affairs with the banking, I've got two days left of the holidays and two days left til payday and going back to work. Lets see ...

benbenandme

Monthly banking is sorted and I have £21 left for the next couple of days. This should be just about do-able, I'm meeting a friend for coffee on Wednesday but no other plans as yet. I need to collect Mum tomorrow but have enough petrol to get me there and back. If I do spend more than the £21 then that will have to be balanced from my savings pots. 

benbenandme

Forgot to add in that I also have a £17 credit note for Sports Direct, I'll possibly use this towards a present at Christmas and transfer the equivalent amount from the gift fund into the savings pot. I've also got a £10 Tesco voucher, again this will be used on food shopping and £10 transferred into savings. Lastly I have my Nectar points - I have £107 worth, I was saving them for their double-up offer but they cancelled it last year and it doesn't seem to be coming back any time soon so unless anything better comes along they will be used for the Christmas food shop, one less thing to have to budget for over the winter.

So onto my new savings pot. Like I said before I will be chucking any extra money into it - I don't do anything like the number of surveys that I used to do, I have streamlined the ones I do massively these days. Extra money will mainly come from Prolific surveys (approx £30 a month), Y-Live (was Populuslive), they pay out at £50, I'm currently on £28, matched betting, the extra hours at work, maintenance arrears then any other odd bits that come along such as Pinecone surveys, Quidco, Vinted, Shopmium etc. There always seem to be more little bits here and there to be made than you realise, the challenge is on

the_end_of_the_rainbow

Are you still doing your cards? Do these bring in a 'semi-regular' income?