Pinching Pennies

daintydaisy

Received my payslip so it's time for my first budgeting day! I'm so excited *eek*

I was pretty spot on with my pay estimation, however, thanks to HMRC they have kindly deducted tax from it (even though my income is low enough to avoid paying tax). I've given up with their website and refuse to pay 3.60pm to ring them - apparently they say I will be rebated from my work so hoping that happens soon. 

I also had my interview for the supply position which went really well! It sounds like it will work with my uni schedule too, so I'll be getting paid AND gaining invaluable experience. Win win. It's also only 35p less ph than I get now at my retail job, so depending on how regular the work is I may think about leaving my current job. We'll see!

Now, on to the expenses...

I am estimating that after all of my ME (monthly expenses), I will have around £356 left over. This includes deductions for true expenses like car insurance, road tax, etc. It also includes my petrol expenses for the month and groceries - so I'm hoping that this money will be able to go towards CC/savings and a possible rollover for next month. 
I have cancelled my gym membership, postcode lottery, manga and crunchy roll subscription, so that will save me a few extra pennies. 

This month I will also be receiving money from the FD switch (not sure if it will be £150 or £175 as they upped it the day after I switched...), so will use that to pay back my SO and add the rest to CC. 

In addition, I am still waiting for my clothes refund which will be an extra £20ish in my bank. I am hoping to keep on top of prolific surveys for a little extra cash in case of emergencies. 

I'm due to get my student loan at the end of sept (before next payday) so will need to have a think about what I want to do with those funds. 

twiggy86

I know I should be commenting on your amazing efforts so far but all I want to say is your insta vs reality is incredible!!! (Good luck with the interview!)

savingholmes

Sounds like you are controlling what you can and rolling with the rest. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

daintydaisy

savingholmes said:

Sounds like you are controlling what you can and rolling with the rest. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Thank you lovely! Same to you  

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With the energy increase being announced today my SO and I have been looking at extra ways to save money. Our energy price will pretty much double (along with millions of others I’m sure), and with another increase expected in January… something has to be done. Whilst it will be tight for us we will manage, but there will be so many out there who won’t. 

Our mortgage fixed rate is set to end next year too, which will probably put our payment up by £200 a month. 

The plan for me is to use my student loan to pay off my remaining CC and funnel as much money away as possible to try and prepare for the increase, although I can’t see this making a dent unless I win the lottery lol.

savingholmes

Best of luck - not easy times.

daintydaisy

A few unplanned expenses made already this month - an old colleagues leaving do/collection and donation to a colleague who is doing a walk for charity. In addition to unplanned food shops - although this has been covered by the £160 I budgeted for and leaves me around £60 for the next couple of weeks until my SL comes in. 

The refund for my clothes did actually come through a while ago but since I paid through Klarna it was deducted from the total price, taking my payments down to £35. I have 1 £35 payment left. 

I also go on holiday on Saturday for a week so haven’t budgeted for that, but will try and cap it at around £100-£200 and use my SL to cover that. Luckily my next wage should be my last larger pay before my schedule takes a hit from uni, so I’m not too worried. 

£200 paid off the CC so far - leaving £881.93 left to pay.

Emergency Fund is sitting at £200.

Birthday of the month fund is at £20 - will try to leave this but could dip into it to cover expenses from leaving do since there are no birthdays this month.

Todd fund sits at £15. My SO and I actually used our joint account to pay for his food so this will go untouched this month.

Oops fund sits at £20 - may use this towards holiday. 

Car expenses fund sits at £15. Will not touch this as I need to save up for an oil change sometime in the near future. 

Christmas fund sits at £0.15p. Better than nothing, right? Will top this up with the money I get from either my SL or my First Direct switch payment. 

Day off today - cleaned the house, stripped the spare bed & washing is on, now to chill out and play the Sims whilst I wait for my friend to arrive later. She is staying over for the week to cat-sit while we go away!! 😊 can’t wait. 

savingholmes

Enjoy your holiday. Great to have a friend who will cat sit too

daintydaisy

SL came in which means I was able to pay the majority of my CC off - as it stands the remaining amount is around £90 which I will pay when I get paid on thurs.

so far my savings are:

everyday saver: £300 (this will go towards things like car insurance)
regular saver: £450
Birthday of the month: £30
Todd fund: £30
Oops fund: £40
Car expenses: £30
Christmas: £440

total savings: 1,320

my pay this month is around £1100, my last full amount before my pay takes a hit from being back at uni. 

I’m estimating that I should have around £400 left for the month which I hope to keep in my account to be a month ahead. 

Once I have repaid my CC and the remaining amount I owe my SO (£176.50), the remaining debt I have is £1050 which needs to be paid by July 2023. Plenty of time to save for then! 

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our holiday was fab - desperately have the travel bug now so may attempt to put some money away for a holiday (or 2) next year. We’ll see. Other than that not a lot has been happening, I’ve been enjoying playing FFXIV! 

I hope everyone is doing well 😊

daintydaisy

Been a while since the last post but I’ve lost grip of my spending and have decided enough is enough and I need to rein it in…

My 0% CC ran out in December so I’ve been trying to avoid putting anything on that and opened a new 12 month 0% which I’ve done some balance transfers to. As it stands my CC debt is sitting at around £800. I have already had my last student loan payment for this academic year and unfortunately my wage during term time is only £700-800. Some silly spending means the debt has been slowly piling up but I’m hoping when uni finishes in June I’ll be able to pay it off and rebuild my savings.

My savings are currently sat at £300 - don’t want to touch that atm incase anything unexpected crops up. 

Next payday is the 1st June, I have a concert and a birthday before then but will be trying to keep spending to a minimum. I’m also doing surveys for a little extra cash - waiting for some to get accepted but once they go through I’ll be able to withdraw £22 which will go toward my CC. 

Looking forward to being more aware of my spending habits again instead of hoping for the best when using contactless lol. 

savingholmes

Well done for re-committing to your plan. I agree it's sensible to have a mini-EF too.