Sass' 2008 DFW ramble thread

Sassamac

£6 of spends today, £3 in charity shops on clothes for DD and a puzzle for DS, and £3 on reduced bread, milk, fruit and veg, which should have been nearly £7.
All paid for in cash thankfully, as I looked at the bank balance and its not good.

The bank transfer I set up to move what would have been the council tax payment, didnt go through because there are uncleared funds (DH's DIY spends yesterday which amounts to about £50 I think, I stashed the receipts without really looking!) which takes us over the OD limit. Thank god it wasnt really the council tax payment, I just wanted to use it to pay off the other OD. I guess effectively its almost paid for the bike repairs.

So now I refuse to go near a shop til Friday, and then hopefully Fridays shop will see us through til the end of he month (well 28th to be precise). On the grocery budget I have £17 left for food and £11 for non-food (nappies etc.) for the next 10 days.

Theres over £33 left in the petrol budget, of which DH will need about £14 to get to work, which means a spare almost £20 to throw at debts. Im hoping I dont need petrol til 29th, because then I can do a big Tesco shop and get the 5p per litre petrol voucher. I worked out my shopping list to make it up to £50, so it just means doing a fortnights worth of shopping, rather than a weekly one. Then I'll get a full tank of petrol which will save me £2.50 and try to make the tank last me the whole of March.

Sassamac

Just realised DH's minimum payment for his CC hasnt come out yet this month, I guess its all changed because we cleared it then spent on it. So now I dont know when to expect it the DD. Still it may be a blessing as it used to be the day after mine which meant being a bit skint for the rest of the week.

Sassamac

DH put up a curtain over the front door at the w/e, in true MS style, bought from a charity shop. But even thats not keeping the draft out today, its so cold.

Were managing to have a cheap half term so far. Doing very well with the free / cheap entertainment. Nothing planned for today so hopefully a NSD.

lauradora

well done sass. We had half term last week and I went mad!! Well mad for a DFW. Let DD loose in charity shop etc..

An idea for you... today we went for a walk in the woods and collected pine cones! Just make sure you thank mother nature in some way for them xxx

Sassamac

ooh thats a nice idea Laura, I think DS would be interested in that as its something different for him. Good job DD's buggy is the all terrain type! As soon as we get a sunny day we'll give it a go.

Ive just gone through my shopping budget, made a list for everything we need til the end of the month (its literally the bare minimum of everything), and extended the meal plan til the end of the month. It'll be a squeeze for the food budget, but I should be left with about £7.50 on the non-food budget so will probably stock up on nappies or cat food to make next months budget stretch further.

We've got £100 left of the OD til Friday which sounds fine except that would make us £500 more OD than we've ever been! DH is going out tonight for a friends birthday so thats bound to cost a few quid. Im going to make sure hes full of food before he goes so as to reduce the temptation to snack.

I shouldnt be spending anything today anyway so thats a bonus.

lauradora

Sassamac wrote: »

DH is going out tonight for a friends birthday so thats bound to cost a few quid. Im going to make sure hes full of food before he goes so as to reduce the temptation to snack.

I shouldnt be spending anything today anyway so thats a bonus.

Good plan and make him a sandwich or something for when he gets in. that'll stop him buying a kebab and make him love you all the more xxx:o

Sassamac

Unfortunately that plan failed. I had to wake him up (sleeping off his nightshift) when I got in from toddler group, at which point he made a call and went straight out without eating.

Spent about £1.50 today on bread and butter (well utterly butterly actually) as we had completely run out after lunch. So now my shopping list for Fri doesnt come under budget (86p over) and I really dont want to sacrifice any more. Wonder if DD would notice if I didnt get the weetabix and she had porridge 7 days in a row. or maybe bread - theres pittas and bagels in the freezer.

Had a productive day. A friend at toddler group asked me last week to help her organise a nearly new sale to fundraise for the group. So today we picked a date in June, which fits nicely in between the NCT spring and autumn season sales and gives me another chance to sell my kids clobber.

I set myself a challenge at new year, that everything I spend on the kids in terms of clothes, toys and shoes, has to be offset by earning money from selling their old stuff. So far the earnings total just £5 but I havent done any events yet. I have kept a record of what I have spent so far this year and it amounts to about £60 so far, £30 of which was boots for DD. Shoes are the only thing I insist on the kids having brand new, although DD can wear DS's old ones in the garden etc. DS is due some new shoes soon too as his are battered.

Sassamac

Just altered my signiture to include the kids challenge as I think having a permanent reminder / tally will motivate me. Especially when I see that I have spent much more than I have earned so far!

Forgot to mention DH's credit card bill came through today, the one we cleared then paid off the mortgage arrears and motorbike loan with. The minimum payment DD day next month will be the same time of the month as it was before, obviously just had a month off because we paid it off in full, even though it was only clear for about 1 day.
The interest earned this month was less than a quid, but it states that the estimated interest for next month is almost £60! (The purchase rate is 15.9%) The minimum payment is £94 so only just over a third goes towards paying off the actual balance. I was horrified and now feel like a right plonker for not working it out before. I was confident that the interest charges on the credit card would be significantly less than the £32 ish of interest (out of £85 payment) that the motorbike loan was costing (22.9%) and the £35 monthly fee + 4.59% that the mortgage arrears were accruing. As it works out its saving us only about £10 per month.
Theres no way we can repay it faster, as despite being the most expensive debt, we still have a defeceit budget, and we're going more OD every month. As of next month when we get the new tax credits payments (all be it a lot lower than expected) we might just about break even, if we keep our mortgage interest only.

A couple of options we have
- ask Barclaycard to offer us the 6.9% LOB 0% fee BT deal as per the one we have just utilised, which allows us to move about £2200 and leaves about £1500.
- wait for the tax credits back payment in May which should (if we receive the amount we expect) pay off all but a few hundred quid. But the plan was to use that to eliminate the OD's. But what we actually get is such an unknown quantity if past experience is anything to go by.
- apply for a new card which is risky with our current credit rating, especially with a remortgage just 5 months away.
- haggle with HSBC to reduce the interest payments or offer us the deal for new customers, which we have tried and failed to do in the past.

hmmm bit stumped.

Sassamac

Another £1 today on groceries. Bit daft really I went in to buy bread but decided against it as even the reduced loaves didnt offer much change for a quid. Ended up with mackerel at 75% discount and half price dairylea. Bit random and not very clever as thats another pound that has to come off tomorrows weekly shop. DOH!

Just opened todays post and theres a letter from Citi (who I have never heard of) offering me a pre-approved credit card and a 0% deal til Apr 09. It was addressed to me so not just mass junk mail but Im still wary of it. It states a minimum credit limit of £500, anything above that is subject to status. Well £500 is of little use to us and I dont know that our credit rating is good enough to get any more. Even if we had enough limit to clear the expensive debt the 3% BT fee amounts to £112, which is more than the minimum payment. Hmmm think Ive just talked myself out of that one.

lauradora

Sassamac wrote: »

Hmmm think Ive just talked myself out of that one.

So you should, bad bad bad!!

Like your idea of the kids stuff challenge. starting a pot off myself now for school uniform for september as I'm always the one who leaves it til the last minute.