Third time's a charm!

twiggy86

I still feel like I'm being a bit spendy this month! I did have to order some yarn as needed more to finish a commission and a present (I have a million colours but needed more of the same!) - of course I ordered extra to get free delivery with every intention of sending back what I don't need. I'm sure I'll feel better once I send back the extra as actually it would be under £10 that I spent. I did also order some tickets for an event for me and my mum - we never go out together, so again its a spend but not one I regret. 

I did feel myself slipping with buying lunch rather than bringing it to work with me. But hopefully I'm back on track as I've bought lunch from home the last two days! I have also just paid another £75 off my debts as a CC statement had come in. I am continue to track all my spends so that is a big positive - rather than just burying my head in the sand for the month! 

I am kind of going to a wedding on Saturday, so of course was telling myself I NEED something new to wear! However, actually I am only going to the evening and also have agreed with my best friend that I will take her boys home whenever they need it (it's her brother's wedding) - even if this is 5 mins after I get there! So given that I may actually only make a fly-in visit, I can't even justify it getting something new to myself! 

So hopefully I've turned a corner?!

twiggy86

This month is whizzing by! 

I went to the wedding at the weekend (thought I'd have to cancel as thought I had the "dreaded virus" - but just some other bug!) which was lovely! I ended up being there for 2 1/2hrs before taking the boys home - so definitely wouldn't have justified new clothes! So I wore a dress I wore to a wedding a couple of years ago - and actually decided I might wear it another wedding later this year as felt really comfortable! I only spent £1.50 at the wedding, although it was a fair amount of driving involved (1 1/2hrs away). 

However, I may have intentionally skipped over Friday night... and that's because I bought myself a takeaway. I was feeling really poorly and could not be bothered to go shopping and/or cook dinner for myself (OH was out). Done now but wasn't worth it. So yesterday I went shopping when I got back to avoid a similar situation last night as still wasn't feeling great and could see a similar path!! 

In better news, today I have made a number of CC payments! That will likely be it for the month as I need to top up the "pots" with anything OH gives me. I'm not sure this method works well for me yet but I'll give it a try for a few months! 

twiggy86

According to my credit report - my total debt is now under £100k!!! That's my debts and my mortgage and is always a bit behind, but it's good to see! My credit score has also improved quite a bit - I know it means nothing but I've always been a nerd so I like high scores!!! 

So far this week I've managed, two NSDs, picked up a batch of leaflets (although a smaller batch so only worth £25) and unraveled a crochet project I made (a cowl which I didn't wear so will become socks instead!). Oh and I also had £5 reward from my bank account - which has been shuffled away for a debt repayment! So it feels like I'm winning a bit this week! 

twiggy86

Today I've paid £405 towards the TV - feels so good that the amount is finally going down! So I have £635 left to pay off by 5 September, i.e. two paydays which is definitely achievable now I'm feeling more focused. I have been playing with the figures and tentatively thinking about what I what to achieve by the end of the year (since my original goals are pretty much out the window after an incredibly bad financial start to the year!). It would be great if I could clear the TV, Bcard, Hcard and my parents by the end of December. This requires £2,653 but will also have to pay the minimums off the other cards on top of that. However, again it should hopefully be achievable, particularly now I've had my pay rise. It would be great to start the new year with 3 debts rather than 8 I started the year with!!! 

I had a lovely weekend, although definitely spent more than I had intended to! However, I have updated my spreadsheet and shuffled money to the correct places, rather than give up for the rest of the month! Defintely need to try harder next month - I think it's the sunshine encourages me and OH to go out more (which I would say we don't do enough in the darker months!) I have still managed to pay over £800 towards my debts this month though, so not being too hard on myself! 

twiggy86

Just popping in to keep myself accountable! 

I finished a commission this week - I only charged £10 although it took me longer than I expected. I managed to find a free pattern and mostly used yarn which I won in a competition last year, I just had to buy one ball (which was on sale) so cost was £1.88. So a measly £8.12 profit! However I have shuffled the £10 towards my car insurance pot, as my pots haven't been topped up for the month yet! Hoping OH will give me a decent amount today so I can top them up properly with the monthly amounts. 

I also have a leaflet delivery to complete - although only "half" a round so £25 once that's done. I will either overpay towards the TV or top up the pots if OH's money hasn't covered it. I had planned to do a car boot with a friend this weekend for more extra pennies, but she has been offered an extra shift so we're now doing on 7 August. That gives me more time to get sorted out (e.g. gather some change up etc). 

So plan this weekend is to deep clean the living room and sort out my office which has become a bit of a dumping ground! There is currently the boxes of car boot bits, plus some boxes OH dumped in there! All of that is fine, except I'm working from home for a couple of weeks whilst my bosses are on holiday - so I'd really not work in box city!!! So OH's boxes needs to go in the loft and I need to sort out the car boot boxes so I can stack them a bit more out of the way. The plus side of working from home obviously means I will save on petrol costs, but will use extra electricity!

Right enough waffle for now! 

twiggy86

Happy Monday MSE'ers!

Back from a productive and fairly frugal weekend. OH did give me £200 but he'd ended up owing me £190 - so great amount to pop aside!!! But in the mindset of "every penny counts", I did top up my car insurance "pot" with the £10. I also made £10 giving my neighbour a lift on Saturday night - however as she gave me a £5 note and then coins, I've popped it in my tub for when I do a car boot so I have some change (I also found £2 in change in my car which I think was OH's so that's gone in the tub too - and I've spotted a £1 in the spare room, so that will get tossed in there as well!). I also finally completed my leaflets yesterday so I've messaged them - hopefully get paid the £25 this week and fingers crossed they have another load for me soon. 

I spent most of Saturday sorting out the house - didn't spend any money but did do 7 loads of washing!!! However, I am very impressed with how good the sofa covers came up! Next step is to hire a carpet cleaning to get the carpets looking better - and also need to do the arms of the sofas which now look very grubby compared to the cushions! After my leaflets yesterday I then popped over to a friends for a cup of tea and to drop round a birthday present for her daughter that I'd made - so just £1 spent on the card and she loved the present (obviously at some point in the past I'd paid for the yarn but I didn't buy anything specifically for this one). 

However, I did buy me and OH a takeaway for dinner last night because I hadn't been shopping. So plan for today is to make a meal plan, then a shopping list and then go shopping. Recently I've been skipping this step and it just doesn't work! As I'm working from home today, I am also planning to take some photos of a couple of bits and then list on V*nted - that gives me a couple of weeks to try and sell them on there and if not I will take to the car boot with me. However as they are nicer bits I'd be silly not to try and get a bit for them than I could get at a car boot. 

So despite having a bit of a rubbish month on the spending front, I am feeling motivated going in to August! Hopefully it stays that way!!! 

twiggy86

Right - 6 things listed on V*nted and one more hanging in the bathroom in an attempt to make the creases drop out before I photograph! Plus a friend who is also doing leafleting has asked if I can help her complete her round tomorrow night for half the money! 

twiggy86

Few bits and bobs of money have come in today.

I chased a refund where the parcel is still (10 days later) as showing as "in transit" - within 15 mins I had received the refund of £19.85. I try to keep £100 "spare" in my bills account but I had to use £50 of this to cover food shopping the other day and had intended to reconcile this on payday but I used the refund to cover some of it. 

I also got paid for the leaflet delivery I did plus my friend got paid for the round we completed last night, so she has already paid me half. So that's an extra £50 in total! I have shuffled this off towards the various "pots" which hadn't been topped up this month. 

I haven't got much left in my accounts (91p in my current account to be precise!) but payday is on Friday!!! Once that comes in I will decide where to shuffle any odd bits that I've got left! 

twiggy86

I've got my payslip so I've finalised my budget for August - so tomorrow I will shuffle everything as per my spreadsheet. I've also played around a bit with my spreadsheet and I think it will work slightly better for me moving forward. (Fingers crossed anyway!) I've also created a bit of a "pay off" plan and have a current debt free date of May 2024. This means paying off £750 a month except September and December (my birthday and Christmas) where I will only pay off £500 for those months. I'm not sure how realistic it is, so I will re-assess at the end of the year. 

My friend picked up my next load of leaflets for me today (as she was going there anyway) - believe it's a £50 round this time again once I've completed it. I've set myself the goal of earning an extra £100 for August so that will be half of it sorted already! Speaking of extras, I did find 40p on my dog walk yesterday! Plus I snaffled a 50p from OH (my excuse was I need to start sorting change for the car boot!)

Think that's enough waffle for today! 

twiggy86

PAYDAY!!!

I've done a few final tweaks to my budget, including a bit more playing around with my spreadsheet. Now I've been using it a while I realised a few areas I could improve to make it work better for me. Once I'd finished with that faffing, I've shuffled money off to the various accounts. I haven't made any CC payments yet (as will wait for the statements to come in first) but I've moved the money to my "bills" account so it is safely out of my main account! 

OH also gave me £150 yesterday so I used that to: 1) paid some towards CC to cover something I used it for the other day; 2) reconcile my bills bank account so that was back up to £100 (as a buffer); 3) move £50 to my bills account and hopefully use it to put towards the TV - but I just want to make sure I haven't mucked up any of my numbers and I can afford to do this. I don't know why as my spreadsheet tells me that I can! However, I have counted it as "paid" for the purposes of my spreadsheet, but haven't sent the actual payment off. I'm hoping OH will get paid from another job today in which case I will definitely send it over. 

However, according to my spreadsheet once I've actually made all of this months payments, my total debt figure will be under £15k!!! That's still a much bigger number than I would have hoped for after re-starting my debt journey at the beginning of the year, but it's still so nice to see it drop into the next thousand-bracket!