Diary : Making Changes...better late than never.

Mozette

Hi Abi - hope 2008 is a happier new year for you!
You say in your first post that money 'disappears' (doesn't it just!!!) so keep a spending diary. Literally write down (or keep a speadsheet - I just love them,:o but I'm strange like that) everything you spend, no matter how little.
For one thing you then know where your money actually does disappear to (Starbucks etc in my case, to the tune of £200 a month :eek: ) and also I now find that the very fact of writing it down and having it as a permanent record doesn't half make me question whether I actually need to spend it in the first place. I look back over my previous spending diarys (I am that sad! ) and I could just weep over what I've wasted on stuff I don't even remember/use/want now.

Anyway, just my suggestion. All the best.

abi113

Thanks for the replies.

We are hoping the credit card with accept the f and f being paid via another card as its not in our name. If it does turn out to be a problem we do have other options.

Painted Lady - I am reluctant to take Jake off school dinners at the moment as his diet is very limited at home yet at school he will eat everything he is given, amazing what a bit of peer pressure does! Also the children on packed lunches eat seperatly which would mean he is away from his friends . We should easily be able to manage paying for his dinners but if it does become a problem we will change. His weekly cash comes on a friday ina sealed envelope so I told him he is not to open it just give it straight to mum. This is approx £350 a week so this will pay the bulk of our mortgage/debt repayment and we will top up the rest with his bank payment (£425 a week). So intially mum will manage the mortgage/debt repayments and we do all the utilities etc out of the bank. As our money relationship inproves we will do this ourselves. Thankyou

Mozette - I'm not too bad for spending on extras but my other half is horrendous - I have just found a major source of our money loss! He buys himself a full breakfast before work to the tune of £5 then £5 on lunch and £5 on an afternoon snack!!!! £15 a day on food plus diesel to work which is currently working out at £10 a day ( we have a gas guzzler which is being sold) so £25 a day is ridiculous..its £150 over his 6 work days. He has been told and sandwiches are starting , then he cn have a budget for fuel ad any extra he has can be his snacks. It hink he will really struggle with this when he is eating his cheese sandwich as the others are tucking into a breakfast. I need some good ideas for his lunches esp when its freezing . He likes soup so soup and sandwiches is the current plan. He also must eat something before going to work. Thanks

abi113

An update

Arrears have obviously been our priority so we have thrown all our money at that.
Arrears were £2400 and we have now paid £400 last friday, £265 last sat, £550 yesterday and £200 today so our arrears are now - £985!! OH has worked some serious overtime eg 4am starts and not home till 7/8pm 6 days a week. Overtime has dropped now though so we can't pay as much. We will pay £400 next friday and hopefully £250 on saturday so £335 to go which my sister is going to lend us as we got the repossesion solicitors letter this am and as soon as its up to date the court date will not be persued. Our next mortgage payment goes on on the 31st though and its now a whopping £1200 (though they said as soon as we are up to date they will give us a better deal) so we will be paying £480 for all 5 fridays of Febuary in order to be up to date with januarys payment and pay Febs on time. We will have to pay my sister back weekly too.
Quite proud of what we have acheived. As long as we stick to Feb payment plan we should be fine then as of March we tackle the debt/mortgage overpayment plan as outlined in my first post.

We have also been accepted for a capital one classic card £100 limit and 40% ApR :eek: so we have bought one weeks shopping on it and cleared it already hopefully this will aid our plan of improving our credit rating.


...think we are on our road to getting ourselves financially fixed up and still feeling excited about it!!!

free-range

abi113 wrote: »

An update

We have also been accepted for a capital one classic card £100 limit and 40% ApR :eek: so we have bought one weeks shopping on it and cleared it already hopefully this will aid our plan of improving our credit rating.


...think we are on our road to getting ourselves financially fixed up and still feeling excited about it!!!

Well done for doing as much as you have, you've done well, so keep it up!:T

40% IS A MASSIVE RATE!!!

I understand that you want to keep your credit rating as good as poss, but clearing the debts is probably more important. Just make sure you don't ever leave a bablance on this one!!!

abi113

free-range wrote: »

Well done for doing as much as you have, you've done well, so keep it up!:T

40% IS A MASSIVE RATE!!!

I understand that you want to keep your credit rating as good as poss, but clearing the debts is probably more important. Just make sure you don't ever leave a bablance on this one!!!

Oh gosh yes its cleared in full before interest is incurred. Its the only form of credit we can get and wanted it purely to use and payimmedietly... to get the ticks on the credit rating