Uh-Oh I'm in trouble...

monkeylugs

Well I've been slaving over the budget planner all afternoon!

I find it so hard with money coming in all over the place. The only way I could make-sure I wasnt overspending was doing everything annually

(Yearly income = £22976.40) Can possibly earn extra with Avon and Mystery Shopping

Weekly expenditure:

Husband's spends £60.00
Newspaper (Local) £2.22
Trip to Butlins: £8.84
Football Subs: £3.00
Petrol: £20.00
TOTAL: £4891.12

MONTHLY EXPENDITURE:
Gas £35
Electric £25
Water £27.60
Council Tax: £65
TV Licence: £10.49
Mortgage: £394.80
Insurance: £13.20
Life Insurance: £9.60
Car Repayment: £144.86
Conservatory: £135.16
Mobiles: £60.00
Barclaycard: £168.00
Nappies: £20.00
Food: £200.00
Bus Fare: £30.00
Clothes : £20.00
Shoes: £20.00
Haircuts: £10.00
TOTAL: £16664.52

YEARLY EXPENDITURE:

Car Tax: £180
MOT: £150
Next Year's Insurance: £600
Maintainance: £200
Household Maintainance: £200
Dentist: £ 40.00
Prescriptions: £ 144
TOTAL: £1514

TOTAL YEARLY EXPENDITURE - £ 23069.64
MINUS INCOME: £ 22976.40

Deficit: £93.24
+ debit interest I forgot about : £36.00

£129.24 in the red.

So that's not as bad as I think over the year, but it looks really bad over a four week month...

monkeylugs

1. Can increase income by slogging guts out doing Avon. Problem I came across was my friends taking their goods, and then taking ages to pay me and often I would just have to pay for them until they could be bothered paying me. They might get a bit snotty if I say "no goods until you have paid" and then not order from me.

2. I would realistically say the £129.24 over the year would be wiped out with mystery shopping and Avon income.

3. I am now 'fully trained' in my new job and there may be the possibility of overtime.

4. But if not, I have worked as a medical secretary and receptionist for the past eight years. On our Local DIstrict Care Trust website they are advertising for bank staff - including secretarial, admin and reception, so I am wondering if I advertise there whether I might be able to get some extra hours?

Maybe I wont have to stop the kids savings after all?

Thanks for listening to me waffling onto myself all afternoon.

nelly_2

Im self employed and get the oh can I pay you next week line all the time.

Hate it hate it Hate it hate it Hate it hate it Hate it hate it!!!!!!!!!

Then I came up with a simple challenge.

I just say to them;

"Would you even dare say that, at the checkout at Tesco?"

The look on their faces after you completely dissarm them with this question is better than sex!

moneysavingplumber

You shouldn't be acting as a credit service to Avon customers, I agree with Nelly. It's better to not get the orders than to subsidise them with your own money.

I'm amazed hubby gets away with £60 a week, my wife would kill me, unless she could spend the same! That is £240 a month after all, nearly £3K a year, which is more than your household food budget. Even if you just halved that figure, you'd make a big difference and could start making bigger payments against the card.

I noticed that your vehicle and running costs are pretty high. What's the car worth? With £3000 left on your car loan, there's a chance you could downgrade, pay alot of that off if not all of it, get a smaller engined model for cheaper tax, cheaper on fuel and cheaper insurance. Even with alot of older models, you won't spend alot more on running repairs than the £350 a year including the MOT you've listed, and with a smaller, older model you could halve your insurance easily.

Iona_Penny

Firstly you are not the omly person who has cleared debt and then gone down the same old same old. Some of us also fall into the 'it's only X much per month'.

Still now you have seen the light again even if at the moment it is just a speck in the distance. I don't have any major ideas to save you lots, but the small things can add up. I would say stop the childrens savings at least in the short term, maybe until the new year? That should help a little with Christmas coming up; but only do it if you will have something to shw for it.

Secondly what does you OH spend £60 a week on??? Its got to be reduced surely? Why not to £35 which will then leave an extra £100 to go towards the debts and/or Christmas.

It is horrible to realise how things are again but you can take back control and that feeling is great. God luck

Ember999

moneysavingplumber wrote:

I'm amazed hubby gets away with £60 a week, my wife would kill me, unless she could spend the same! That is £240 a month after all, nearly £3K a year, which is more than your household food budget. Even if you just halved that figure, you'd make a big difference and could start making bigger payments against the card.

£60 a week? My husband wants to marry you and divorce me LOL seriously, £60 a week, you can pay your debts off quickly by giving him only £20 a week and he should be happy with that!

scroogey

monkeylugs wrote:

Have been looking at getting rid of broadband internet access too, but I think I would end up spending quite a bit more on dial up.

If I can remember correctly, Telewests Surf unlimited is about £14 a month for dial up, so you wouldn't run up a big phone bill using the net.

Debt_Free_Chick

monkeylugs wrote:

£129.24 in the red.

So that's not as bad as I think over the year, but it looks really bad over a four week month...

No it isn't, so long as you remember that you cannot spend a single penny - NOT ONE PENNY - on anything that isn't in your budget. If bus fares go up - and everything else stays the same - you're bu88ered :eek:

You have no emergency fund and only £200 for house maintenance for the whole year.

Is your payment to Barclaycard the minimum only? If so, it's never going to be paid off and, with interest, your minimum payments might actually rise.

You need more income .... or cut out some of your expenses, but there's not a lot of slack in there.

black-saturn

Couldnt you have a major sort out in your house and sell everything you don't use or need anymore on ebay. You will be amazed at how much money you can earn from things like DVDs and videos you are never likely to watch again, books you don't read anymore, CDs you've never listened to. If you did that you might be half way through your shortfall.

Good luck!!

monkeylugs

Someone up there is looking out for us! My DH rang and he has been given a £2000 payrise (£25 per week after tax!!). One of his colleagues is leaving and not being replaced so my DH and his remaining colleagues are expected to take over the guy's duties. I did worry about him rescinding his notice but apparently he's having a three month break, doing an intensive training course in some computer programming language, and then plans on becoming a contractor.

Yesterday evening I listed 20 books on Amazon (I have sold on there previously) and two of those were sold the same evening, and one has sold when I have got in from work today. I now have £12.50 in my amazon account, and will have spent £3.20 on postage.

Today I took my lunch in to work (soup, crisps, apple) and I didn't have anything from the vending machines. I also walked home (2 miles) - saving £1.20. I have 10 full days left until payday with £17.30 in my current account, £40 left of the overdraft in account 1 and 2 lots of child tax credits totalling £20.50 so that's £77.80 less petrol so I reckon I will have £47.80 to last me, which I am sure it will as we've got quite a lot of food in the house.

I only work 18.5 hours per week and two weeks ago I did two training courses over two weeks which meant I ended up doing 7 days work instead of 5. I asked my immediate supervisor if I could be paid for it, but he said no I had to take them as time owed. Well I have enough time off! I only work 2 days one week and three days the next! So this morning I took a deep breath and went to beg to the department manager. I told her I was skint and that I would prefer the money, so she went to the admin department who said that I could be paid for it if I wanted! I also get my mileage back, which is £30 so mid-November I should get an extra £100 in my pay packet.

I've got a mystery shoppping job lined up for this Friday...an Avon order going in on Thursday and my friend who takes the book into work asked me when I needed it for as 'she's got some orders for me'. Hopefully it'll be more than the £40 extra I need to make up my minimum order value.

So tonight I am going to sit down with a pen, a piece of paper and a calendar and budget properly - probably by putting the £25 extra per week into a savings account for car maintainance and presents etc!

(PS - no one appeared to notice I had forgotten to budget for Birthdays and Christmas!!!)

So I might be back here later on, running some budgeting thoughts by y'all