Third time's a charm!

twiggy86

Thank you @Squirrelz92 - and well done for reading all my waffling!!! I'm doing the leafleting for an estate agents - my friend saw a post on fb about it. I'd say it's worth it if you don't mind walking, I just listen to podcasts as I do it - not sure I'd fancy it in winter though! 

savingholmes

Well done for talking money with OH

twiggy86

I didn't get around to showing OH my spreadsheet at the weekend as we ended up going to bbq on Saturday for most of the day and then yesterday I did a car boot and was knackered when I got home!

However, as above, I did a car boot and made between £40-£50 (I got a bit confused with how much I started with!!!) so that was good. I've got enough left to make it worth doing another I think - although I am going to put some of the nicer bits of V*nted, so need to sort that out! I also need to work out how to get this money into the bank - do banks still accept bags of change and does it need to be specific amounts?! 

I did also pick up another load of leaflets which I had considered delivering on Saturday but thought that plus a car boot would be a bit much in one weekend - then we were invited to the bbq and that was decision made! I drove and then came away as needed to sort last bits out for car boot and so OH cycled back later - so very frugal! 

I did have to put petrol on my CC - debated only putting a bit in and waiting until payday to fill up but decided to just fill up whilst I was there. Payday was meant to be tomorrow but boss is away so it's gone in today instead, so I've paid that straight off. Other than shuffling money to the correct accounts I will try to ignore the money until Wednesday - OH is owed money (when isn't he at the moment?!?) so hoping he'll give me some today/ tomorrow.

Speaking of OH, I decided not to "save" us when there was "nothing" for dinner last night - there was just not something either of us particularly fancied. Normally I would pop to the shop to get an alternative (or worst still buy a takeaway) but not last night! I do have a tendency to save us, shuffle money around, put things on the CC (with or without his knowledge) etc - so again it comes back to, how can OH truly appreciate our situation when  I always solve the problem?!  

twiggy86

Finally showed OH my spreadsheet last night - think he was shocked by how detailed it was!!! So the message is finally getting across to him, but equally it was a lot to take in in one go. However, he now sees that despite the best will in the world things are not aligning right now! I think he was under the impression that I moan about money because I want more to fritter away on myself, or there's not enough because I fritter it on myself. But given that I'd recorded ever penny I spent last month, he could see that's really not the case (not to say I am perfect!) 

Today I've paid £85 off my M&S CC and yesterday I paid a whole 81p of my Hcard CC! (I received it from TCB!)

I don't have much planned for the long weekend - or should I say anything spendy planned! I am meeting friends tomorrow at a local park, so will take a drink and see if I can park for free (not sure what the parking is like in that area). Then I may pop into a BBQ for a bit but have netball - annoyingly its the 9:20pm game, but at least I can pop round beforehand. I am then planning to do my leafleting on Friday so that I get paid for it next week. At some point over the weekend I will be seeing my mum so that she can do my waxing! I've done it since the start of lockdown but I can't say I do the best job and as I'm going away it would be nice to not have missed patches!!!  

savingholmes

Well done for sharing your budget spreadsheet. Hopefully the message will get through - especially if you have firmer boundaries. Something I'm working on too

twiggy86

Thanks @savingholmes - I'm definitely too soft (although he may not always think so!), so need to be firmer!

I just looked and in May I had:
17 no personal spend days
15 no food spend days (i.e. food shopping - if I buy lunch, takeaways etc it comes under personal)
10 total no spend days

That's a bit better than I thought as I feel like I always need to buy just one thing!!!

Amount spent on food was a lot higher than I hoped - although it helped prove a point to OH yesterday as the amount spent was double what I've budgeted for this month! However even with halving the food budget (and not putting money aside for car insurance etc) the amount was still minus £200 based on my wage alone! 

Squirrelz92

Great news on the spreadsheet! You have achieved loads! £85 off the CC is great going  

twiggy86

Just a quick check-in to say I'm still here!!! I went on the hen do at the weekend which was amazing but also means the stress of "can I go/ can't I go" and trying to save for spending money is now behind me. It was worth every bit of the stress!!! However, I feel like my spreadsheet has slipped in the last week or so, so I must spend time getting it all up to date again! 

twiggy86

Right so I'm back for a more detailed post (but will attempt to avoid waffling!)

So the hen do was amazing (as I said yesterday) and actually a lot of the bits were pre-paid. This meant that I spent less than I thought I was going to so have £103.28 left from my spending money - this is despite not saving as much as I'd hoped and also had my haircut out of that money too! I haven't yet decided where to allocate that money, so it's currently sat in my Monzo account until I make a decision! Part of me wants to use it use for something fun, but the angel on my shoulder says to use it for the TV! Although I just wandered off to look at my spreadsheet and realised I paid for some clothes on my CC when I was having a flap about having "nothing to wear" (although in my defence I really did cull my wardrobe!). So maybe I should pay the £72 off of that - also in my defence that £72 got me: 2 dresses (which I will wear lots), a pair of shorts, a swimming costume and a denim jacket - I think that's quite good and it was 20% off (am I over justifying now?!)

Speaking of the TV, yesterday I actually paid off what I had saved. I had previously had it sat in my savings account but decided to just pay it off - so that's £562 out of my account (although for the purposes of my spreadsheet it was already paid, if that makes any sense!) I've also decided that it isn't the end of the world if I can't pay it in full before the interest free period ends - although obviously if I can avoid this I will! The options are 1) I let it go on to the payment plan (although the term will be reduced by anything I pay before then) or 2) I put whatever is remaining on my CC just before the period expires. Will consider closer to the time which is better (if of course this is necessary). 

I do feel a bit like my goals are all over the place at the moment. So I have already started setting my goals for June-September but the difference being I am making a plan as to how I can actually achieve it. I feel like this will give me a better sense of direction and help me achieve them - rather than setting unattainable goals. As part of this I am going to speak to my parents about taking a little payment break to help me pay off the TV before the period expires (but didn't I just say above that it didn't matter - see no direction!) and then perhaps my Oct-Dec goal will be to clear that debt, but we'll see! 

Right I'm confusing myself now so I'm going to leave before anyone reading this head's explode!!!

savingholmes

It does sound a bit like you need to work out a plan and stick to it. 

I do find owing money to family creates problems so would be tempted to keep their payments at the same level and transfer the other debt on if you need to.