Diary of accountability... in all aspects of life!

FTbuyer18

Hello

This is my first diary here, which I am hoping will help me take some accountability not just with my finances but other areas too. As well as getting my finances on track I also really need to lose some weight (about 4-5 stone ideally), and de clutter my home! Clutter is mainly things accumulated from the children. 

So, situation is I live with my partner, 4 children and dog. Have 89k left on the mortgage which is in my name. Partner works full time, i work part time, after my last child i went back to work part time and claimed carers allowance in october last year, though i am yet to see this as i am classed as an irregular earner and i have no idea what they are doing despite several phone calls, i just get told they will get to it. It is my 2nd eldest who i care for, and he gets DLA monthly, though a portion of this does go on clearing private therapy which we put on a credit card, as it was needed before we could save. 

debts so far aside from mortgage are:
Halifax credit card £3501
Fluid credit card £1236.50. plan to transfer this again to 0% in September, currently pay 50 a month. 
Halfax loan 308.59 (will be paid off in 2 months, monthly payment 155ish)
Halifax loan 2 1009.89, monthly payment £178. Low interest. 
Victoria Plumbing £558.52, pay £31.03 a month, is interest free. 
So total debt : £6,614.50.

We are able to meet payments on these, but i am aware when my fix ends in October 2025 my mortgage will raise probably a lot, currently it is on a 2.6% rate, so id like to get the debt down, though i am mainly doing the diary to be accountable for my spending, I need to get some savings set up, especially for birthdays and Christmas so i aren't paying these off into next summer, and i am constantly tempted by finance deals so i need to come here daily to remind myself to behave!

We also like to holiday at least once a year so if i can save for this rather than finance it all the better. 

Sorry if i have bored anybody, i have binge read a few diaries recently on here and have found them really motivating seeing peoples progress. Hopefully i see mine soon. I am aiming to come on daily and update, hopefully i can make progress in decluttering a losing weight too along the way!

MFWannabe

Welcome 
Your post could have been written by me! 🙄 Debt, same amount of weight to lose; massive declutter needs to be done 
Ref finances; have you written yourself a realistic budget that accounts for all expenses? 

FTbuyer18

MFWannabe said:

Welcome 
Your post could have been written by me! 🙄 Debt, same amount of weight to lose; massive declutter needs to be done 
Ref finances; have you written yourself a realistic budget that accounts for all expenses? 

Not yet, i guess that is my next step. I deal with all the family finances my partner isn't great with money and budgets. He gives me £330 a week for his share of household bills, i get £76 child benefit a week and £400 dla a month. Sometimes i get universal credit, ranging from £400 to £0 which goes off if my partner does any overtime, though i believe when carers kicks in as this is an overlapping benefit i will just get the £70 carers allowance a week. My wage is usually about 200 a month as i can only do limited hours. I recently signed into prolific and i am enjoying that at the minute. So monthly i get around £2224. Now to work out my outgoings!

FTbuyer18

Okay, so we said my income was £2224 a month. 
I have worked my outgoings to  be
school dinners £80 car tax -£15 sons mobile £15 council tax £100 victoria plumbing £31, internet £35, fluid card £50, car insurance £60, mortgage £385, loan 1 £155, my phone £16, halifax card £90, lottery £30, british gas £110, loan £178, water £30, house insurance £20, spotify £12, Total of 1412, which leaves £812. From this i need food for 6 of us and a dog and petrol, plus miscellaneous spends and to save for things like birthdays, christmas etc. 

I need to figure out now how to do a budget and stick to it... with savings pots. 

katsu

Instead of £30 on lottery, buy premium bonds. You can still win a prize and can also get the money back!   But first use the money to pay off your debts. 

If the debts are for the family then it seems like your partner needs to add more money to the household.  330 didn't seem enough to clear them too.

MFWannabe

katsu said:

Instead of £30 on lottery, buy premium bonds. You can still win a prize and can also get the money back!   But first use the money to pay off your debts. 

If the debts are for the family then it seems like your partner needs to add more money to the household.  330 didn't seem enough to clear them too.

£330 is per week so should be plenty 🤨

FTbuyer18

Thank you. I think £330 is a fair amount he pays, it use to be 300 and we upped it to 330. He also pays his own phone bill, and tv subscriptions and things from his bank and he is learning to drive which isn't cheap so he can't really give me more. One loan will be paid off in 2 months also. I had never considered premium bonds, that's a good idea. My children have some which my late nan set up for them instead of buying gifts for birthday's (she had dementia so this was much easier), I've never really thought to put in myself i will look into that. 

The debts were house improvements, my partner has bad credit and money sense (though he is much better now!) so i got the mortgage in my name only, so we bought a renovation project as it was all we could really get in budget, and also i watched reno tv all through uni so thought it would be fun, though this isn't the word id use now! So we had 2 loans of 8 and 5 thousand, the 1000 and 300 are what remains of them, the interest rate is minimal though, i think it is £3 a month, so it is the cards which need clearing in a hurry, though my priority is a mix of clearing those and saving for birthdays and Christmas without accumulating more debt. If i don't have it wrote down i don't seem to realise how much i owe.

My daughter dropped something on my dining room floor earlier and slightly tore the cushion flooring so i guess that is something else i must start saving for, though will not replace until needed, ill position a chair over it for now.. 

In regards to budgeting, my partner is paid weekly, child benefit is weekly, and carers if this ever comes to materialise is weekly i believe, do you think i am best to budget weekly? Direct debits are dotted all over the place, so i have been doing a Monday to Sunday budget, where i know how much spare i have weekly for shopping and other expenses and trying to squirrel bits away. Any budgeting tips appreciated, with me not having 1 solid income and outgoings day im stuck, or maybe how i'm doing it is the best way as i have managed to not dip into my overdraft at all since doing this, after seeming to spend 3 months in their before! Oh I'm waffling now. 

FTbuyer18

Well not the update i thought id be giving. Day before yesterday my partner left out of the blue, only reasoning being he thinks hes meant to be on his own as he keeps messing everything up. This comes after taking money from christmas savings and spending it then lieing to me about it. I am heartbroken he has gone.

I am not sure whether to keep up with the diary or not. Im going to struggle for a while, I know i need to change my UC claim to single, but that seems like i have to accept he has gone, even though he has. He told me he isn't coming back as things aren't going to work. 

I have contacted childminders an nurseries regarding my 1 year old to see if i can put her in so i can work more hours, my other child has autism and adhd and it would be a great difficulty to get him into breakfast club or after school so my head is all over at the minute. 

I have no money until July so will have to use credit card for food. Forced myself to do a food shop earlier after the school run and i have done nothing but cry since, but small victories i suppose. Sorry you don't need to read my self pity.  

twiggy86

I'm so sorry to read that @FTbuyer18. Me and my partner of 16 years suddenly split last year, so I understand what you're going through right now. When you're ready, in addition to the UC claim, don't forget to contact the council as if you're now the only adult in the house you should be eligible for the single person discount. I'm not sure it will help in anyway at this precise moment, but you said he was bad with money - mine was awful and a year on from the split I find myself is a MUCH better position financially, as well as being MUCH happier. 

It will obviously hurt so much now, but you will get through this. Please keep posting if you have the capacity - I have found the cheerleaders on here have bought me so much strength in many ways to get through the split. 

MFWannabe

FTbuyer18 said:

Well not the update i thought id be giving. Day before yesterday my partner left out of the blue, only reasoning being he thinks hes meant to be on his own as he keeps messing everything up. This comes after taking money from christmas savings and spending it then lieing to me about it. I am heartbroken he has gone.

I am not sure whether to keep up with the diary or not. Im going to struggle for a while, I know i need to change my UC claim to single, but that seems like i have to accept he has gone, even though he has. He told me he isn't coming back as things aren't going to work. 

I have contacted childminders an nurseries regarding my 1 year old to see if i can put her in so i can work more hours, my other child has autism and adhd and it would be a great difficulty to get him into breakfast club or after school so my head is all over at the minute. 

I have no money until July so will have to use credit card for food. Forced myself to do a food shop earlier after the school run and i have done nothing but cry since, but small victories i suppose. Sorry you don't need to read my self pity.  

So sorry to hear this; do you have family and friends nearby you can talk to for support? 

It obviously feels like the end of the world at the moment but I am a firm believer everything happens for a reason x 
Firstly you need to sort finances so you are claiming as much as you can and are eligible for; including things like council tax discount 
A massive plus is thankfully the house is in your name only 
Maybe keep yourself occupied by starting the declutter; even if it’s just one drawer a day for instance? Break it down into small sections 
Please do keep posting; everyone here is very supportive and been through similar x 

Lonelygambler

Well done for starting a diary. I hope this helps you on your journey.