Prosperous soul in the making

Choccygirl123 wrote: »

Hi saving and congrats on your new diary.

Your crafty business sounds like a great idea. I!!!8217;d love to make money from my hobby but I only scrapbook.I used to be a secret craft hoarder and went cold turkey about 12months ago. I!!!8217;ve vowed not to buy anymore until I at least use 5% of what I have.

Good luck with venture, will keep popping by x

Thanks for posting. What does the 8217 mean? I have seen it on a few people's messages..

I know what you mean about going cold turkey on buying craft stuff. I am trying to use up what I have and use pretty much all of my personal spends on crafts each month. OH and I allow ourselves £50 each free no judgement spend a month. When I had the LBM that I could use recycled glass jars and bottles that definitely helped.

I am hoping I manage to sell what I make but if I don't then everyone I know will get them as gifts LOL. The ones I have given as gifts are all well received.

Could someone please remind me how I can paste photos onto my thread? I have a photobucket account from last time but the url doesn't seem to be showing as a picture...

Thanks Essex Hebrid - will look at Flickr or Instagram:)

Thanks Enthusiastic. With the cars we bought new/a few months old. With hindsight - my car is probably worth it as I got about £5K off the list price but OH got a couple of grand off but not enough. OH also insisted on doing a PCP type thing with a balloon payment at about 5.3% - £360 pcm. I ended up going via our bank for my car and got a loan that pays it off in full within 5 years at 3.2% £273pcm. The problem is that they are both diesel and because of the emissions scandal and the government's changed attitude to future diesel pricing etc even though they are (or mine is) Euro6 engines they aren't worth what they were. There is always more depreciation when you buy new/newish. I could perhaps look into whether I could add his car loan to the one I have with our joint account bank - or get him to apply in his name - as we would quite like to keep it at the end. Because of the interest reduction - we might still end up paying less doing that (ie total interest) - and he'd get to keep his car at the end. One of the reasons I upgraded my car was I started doing more mileage with work which helps offset the cost.

I agree we need to change our attitude to debt and stop spending on the cards. Last year I managed 5 months where I created an emergency fund, saved for holidays, gifts etc and then everything imploded and I haven't got back to a positive sustained savings position. This was partly because my son went to Uni and we had to help kit him out at a time when we already didn't balance our budget. He also doesn't get a full loan so we have had to help him make up the difference. To be fair to him, he had pre-saved to cover much of his first term and earned money at Christmas but it didn't cover everything and we are now having to make regular payments to help him out.

Any new CC debt we have paid off within the month's grace period recently but it would be better if we didn't have any. Last month I forgot to claim for expenses which put me back about £90. I have now submitted my two months claim which is for £179 (it would normally be more but had time off) which should almost clear the £212 I owe on a CC due to be repaid by 19/2. I will have enough to clear the rest of that this month. I haven't added to it for a couple of weeks which is an improvement.:cool:

Other areas to tackle:
We allow each other £50 non-judgement spends but still going over
We spend about £400 a month on groceries (or TBH more if we aren't careful) - need to get this down

While paying down debt is a priority - I also need to get to a position where if my son can't get a local job at uni - we can support him to the tune of up to £400 pcm. This month we gave him about £236 but its not enough. He wants to study abroad from end July - and that country would want to see us paying £400 pcm into his account for at least 3 months as proof he can afford to live out there.

I have done a budget that allows for everything - uni, clothes, holidays, a little maintenance etc and in theory it balances - it just isn't because in practice I - and it is mostly I - am still overspending. If I stuck to my budget rigidly we would be fine.

Just cancelled Audible saving £7.99 a month. Interestingly they offered me a free credit if I stayed but resisted. Lots of free podcasts I can listen to instead for now.

Agreed with OH he will delay buying train tickets and hotel for a trip he's making until we get paid. If I shrink my grocery budget to less than £100 over the next two weeks I may be able to avoid going into overdraft this month. Even if I do end up in overdraft it looks like it would only be for a day or so / may be within my free overdraft as this month I get paid 2 days earlier than normal.

Having worked through my budget again - I am hopeful that because of the 10 month council tax payments - and the free months you get Feb & March - that I can give my son extra this month. Also because our CC usage has been so much less we should, if I tighten our grocery and other spending, be able to start building an emergency / savings funds for annual bills from mid Feb.

I am going to ask OH to get an early settlement figure from the car loan people tomorrow and see if we can move the loan to one that's cheaper.

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:TJust been able to send my son an extra £135 this month which gets him out of overdraft and pays this weeks groceries. So thrilled.:beer: