Third time's a charm!

twiggy86

@foxgloves it wasn't long drives that were the problem... it was the 10 houses in a row which each had 10-20 steps up to the front door!!! I never realised I lived in such a hilly area!! However in total it only took 3 hours - hopefully my next route will be similar. And yes @savingholmes - comfy shoes are a must!!! 

twiggy86

"Happy" Monday! 

Mixed bag of emotions over here. Money wise, this weekend was generally a winner, with lots of little MSE bits and bobs - including doing part of a leafleting round, selling the old tortoise table for £20, dying my own hair and my mum making me a lasagne! 

The bigger news is that I am not going on the hen do. So this means that I will potentially get some of my money back (not all of it though as accommodation is an apartment and can't increase price for the others at this late stage) - friend has initially indicated might be about £100. However, it does also mean I won't need to budget for spending money. 

The HUGE news is that I was due to have my appraisal on Wednesday but as I needed cheering up by boss told me today that I am being "promoted" and will have a £7k payrise effect next month!!! An online calculator indicates it will be about £300 a month extra after all the deductions! That will take a bit of pressure off for sure!!! And has massively cheered me up!!! 

savingholmes

Wow that's a huge payrise. Well done!

twiggy86

Thanks @savingholmes - it will really make a difference moving forward!!! 

twiggy86

I'm just post my internal monologue here so not sure it will make much sense to anyone else!

I have had a few bits of "additional" money come in and am trying to work out where best to allocate them. I had the money from leafleting (which was going to be my spending money for the hen do I can no longer go on), partial refund for the hen do and the council tax rebate... 

1. Leafleting = £50 - I think this is best shuffled to my groceries as I currently only have about £8 left for the month and otherwise will have to put on CC
2. Hen do = £100 (possibly a bit more to come) - ermmm, can't decide on this one. Part of me feels like I want to put it towards a holiday later in the year (as I feel I deserve one!) but the MSE part of brain says not to be so "frivolous"! Think I'll leave this sat where it is for now and decide later! 
3. Council tax rebate = £150 - I need to pay for our green bin collection which I had been delaying but bin is currently full and grass needs cutting again...(*shuffles off to check how much this costs*) £46.44, leaving £103.66... I think I'll put £100 towards the TV to meet my £200 payment for this month, and the odds of priority CC that I'm trying to clear 
4. Sales = £20 - not a lot at the moment but hoping I'll sell a few more things, plus I've arranged to do a car boot with a friend on 29th of this month. OOO I've just realised if I use this and the odds left over from the CT rebate it will take my Hcard CC under £400! Would be nice to see it finally drop into a different "bracket" so decision made! 
   

I'll also have another £50 when I complete the other lot of leaflets I have. I've done some but haven't had a chance/ weather to do the rest, however I'm off work tomorrow so will hopefully complete then. Will decide what to do once it comes in - as I'm also still waiting for OH to get paid for a job he did, so will see what our position is like when that finally happens!!! 

savingholmes

Good luck with the money shuffling

twiggy86

Ah man! More money shuffling required! So a change in rules means I can go on the hen do! I'm over the moon but also !!!!!! why did I pay for my green bin!!! 

1. 
   Leafleting = £50 - I think this is best shuffled to my groceries as I currently only have about £8 left for the month and otherwise will have to put on CC DONE and spent at the weekend so I can't undo
2. Hen do = £100 (possibly a bit more to come) - ermmm, can't decide on this one. Part of me feels like I want to put it towards a holiday later in the year (as I feel I deserve one!) but the MSE part of brain says not to be so "frivolous"! Think I'll leave this sat where it is for now and decide later! Thank god I left this sat there! 
3. Council tax rebate = £150 - I need to pay for our green bin collection which I had been delaying but bin is currently full and grass needs cutting again...(*shuffles off to check how much this costs*) £46.44, leaving £103.66... I think I'll put £100 towards the TV to meet my £200 payment for this month, and the odds of priority CC that I'm trying to clear DONE but can "undo" the £100 for the TV if necessary as it's sat in one of my accounts
4. Sales = £20 - not a lot at the moment but hoping I'll sell a few more things, plus I've arranged to do a car boot with a friend on 29th of this month. OOO I've just realised if I use this and the odds left over from the CT rebate it will take my Hcard CC under £400! Would be nice to see it finally drop into a different "bracket" so decision made! DONE so can't undo
   

Right so now where do I stand?! 

I had a few "weekend wins":

• Sold some stone for £50 (leftover from the garden project)
• Finished my leafleting so that's another £50 to come
• My MIL "gave" me £20 - I very often buy her bits and pieces but feel awkward saying you owe me x so really it's probably just recouping what I've spent, but I'm counting it as extra 

OH also had a message this morning about the stone so may be able to get another £50 for that. Oh plus I cashed out £5 from Shopp*x which will come in this week. So that would take me up to £175 - not bad for a weekend! 

I'm going to make a list of things I need to pay for for the hen do - e.g. a new activity has been added, taxi to airport etc so that I know what needs to be accounted for before spending money. I would also like to get my haircut before but I'm not sure that's feasible. However OH is owed some money from work which he should get today, plus he's got a private job to do this week on top of the day job so hopefully will get a good amount of money this week (and therefore I'll get a good amount of money!) 

I did have a mammoth clear out over the weekend so have a lot of stuff to take to the car boot which I'm doing with my friend on Sunday. However my house is currently a mess of piles everywhere which need to be sorted - so I'm going to have a busy week! The plus side of this is that I found two pairs of brand new shorts that I bought it the sale at the end of last summer as didn't think I had any shorts that fit! (A lot of the clothes I had don't fit!) 

I also did an online Sa*nsbury shop as had a voucher for £18 off a £60 spend come through the post - annoyingly I'm not sure TCB tracked it as that would have been another £12. Fingers crossed it shows up - although appreciate that it won't be payable before my holiday. 

Right I'm off to fiddle with spreadsheet! 

savingholmes

Good luck with the money juggling. Sounds like you have a lot to look forward to and a lot to fit in.

twiggy86

So I had a blazing row with OH the other day - of course it was about money! (Don't worry, we're friends again now!) However the up-side is that over the weekend I have told him that over the weekend I am going to sit down and show him my spreadsheet. I have always managed the household finances and other than saying odd figures at him (e.g. our energy DD has gone up to £214 a month) he doesn't have the full picture of the cost of everything and how I am trying to balance things. He was shocked last night when I told him how little "personal spends" I have had this month. 

Other good news is that he's been paid some of what he was owed, just waiting on a bit from last week. This means that I have now finally managed to top up my "pots" as they should have been. My problem has been that I include them in my budget at the outset but the end figure of the total budget is actually a minus until I get OH's money. I.e. In the spreadsheet I put x aside for car insurance, home insurance etc but can't actually afford those amounts out of my wages alone. I think for next month I am going to trial only including the bills, CC payments, food and stuff as far as my wages stretch - then when OH gives me money I will put the amounts into the pots and only then count them in the budget. Once the pots are topped up, anything extra will go to CC over-payments (that would be nice!) Does that make any sense to anyone else?! I feel like I have to include the "pots" at the outset as otherwise they will just get ignored - then September will come around and I'll have to find the full amount for my insurance! But equally having the minus figure stresses me out! It's all a bit of trial and error at the moment! 

I got paid for the leafleting and the shopp*x money appeared so that's been added to the hen do spends! Plus I've had two consecutive NSD! This is unheard of!!!

Oh and literally as I'm typing the company I did leafleting for have messaged to ask if I want any more! Not sure when I'll fit them in but would seem silly to say no! I'm off work tomorrow, although I have a doctors appointment and need to sort out car boot stuff - but I could at least pick them up even if I don't have time to deliver any tomorrow. First lot took 3ish hours to deliver and second lot nearer 4 hours - I'm sure I can fit that in somewhere over the long weekend next week. 

Squirrelz92

Popping in to say hello! I have just finished reading your diary and what a rollercoaster you have been on since the start of 2022! You have done so incredibly well with juggling it all despite not knowing what other spanner would be thrown your way. I have bookmarked you and shall continue to follow your debt free journey
Great news about the hen do! Even better news about your fortune regarding the leaflets! I didn't even know this was a thing so I am tempted to look into it myself with being a keen walker.