Losing control, time to take charge.

One part of our finances I want to fix is our gas and electric. We are on the pay as go meters and we just top it up when it beeps.
I've signed into our accounts and written down all of our top ups from June 2017 to May 2018

Electric: 42 tops up totaling £522
Gas: 53 tops up totaling £775

Total for both: £1297

Theres a couple of things I want to do here.

1. Top up monthly instead of as and when.
After each pay I'm going to put the amount for the full month on instead of doing £10 amounts at a time.
2. Aim to shave off 10% off of our usage
Start turning things off when not used, use dryer less, heating off when not needed (Husband gets cold easily so he's been told he has to put an extra layer on first!) This will save £77.50 gas and £52.20 electric over the year. It might not be possible but its a nice challenge to work towards
3. Split the cost over the year, summer months gas was only £20 a month where the winter was over £100 a month.
I'm going to top up with my 10% taken off our usage. This means £39.15 for electric which will actually be £40 a month as you can only top up full numbers. For gas it will be £58.13 which we will round up to £60.
4. Keep track of daily amounts
I'm going to make a spreadsheet and check both of the meters at the same time each day and see what we are using. I'm going to track this from 1st July 2018 to 30th June 2019

I decided to book the cats vaccinations today, at the vet we normally go to the vaccinations are £38.50 each. The two youngest cats still need spayed and microchipped. The microchipped is £18 and the spay costs £82.

I decided to check out the other vet in my town, the only reason I picked the one I went to was because its the one my mum uses.

They are out of the town a bit but not by much.
Vaccinations are £33, spay is £60 and microchip £19.50.


This means per year I'll save £22 for all four cats vaccinations.

Per spay I'll save £22 and I'll pay a bit more for the microchipping though

I didn't get the job. I'm really gutted.

I need to try and balance childcare somehow, its very difficult as my shifts start before childcare starts and the husband has to get the bus before childcare opens aswell so I have to balance pick ups around family help. My task today is to get the first 12 weeks back to work childcare sorted (or at least as much as possible), after the 12 weeks we switch shifts as it will be the Christmas rota which lasts until mid-Jan and I have no idea what that rota will be and we don't get told until early November.

If the husband gives up his 15hr a week job then we will come home with around £2150 a month. Thats based on both of us getting four week pays, husband gets paid monthly but some months its 4 weeks worth and other months its 5 weeks worth. I get paid weekly. We will get £137.60 from child benefit and tax credit calculator says we will get £720 every four weeks (based on £215 a week childcare)
This means our income should be just a little bit over £3000 a month. I really hope it works out to be that!

I don't like one of us getting paid weekly and the other monthly, and then child benefit and tax credits are paid 4 weekly. It would be a lot easier to work out if everything was paid at the same time.

I'm also wondering if its possible for the husband to keep his 15hr job, after taking into consideration how much the tax credits would be affected we would be £55 a week better off, £1705 extra from the time I go back to work until the end of his contract (31st March) which is almost half our Halifax credit card. I would have to see if its even possible to balance childcare and if he's happy to do that.

First pay in the bank: I had guessed £380 and its actually £382.12.
Just need to wait until friday when his second pay comes in to see what that will be.

I'm trying to work out what to do with my pay when I go back to work.
I have three ideas:
1. Budget my pay each week to what we need to pay to each thing so for example, put x amount in bills account, put x amount in this account
2. Transfer pay into a seperate account over a month and 'pay' myself the same day as OHs pay comes in so we have a monthly budget (do same with benefits we get).
3. Use my pay for the things we can pay weekly and in cash, for example the electric/gas, youngests childminder, food, petrol

I'm drawn most to option 2. It would take a lot of restraint to not touch the money but it would mean we arent jumping from week to week and could budget for the month ahead. If I was to get ill one week then the nexts weeks pay is reduced and it means I might end up being short if I am planning weekly. if I do the pay myself monthly option it would mean we would know in advance for the next month if we have less money so could plan ahead. I hope that makes sense.
I will get 5 pays in August (although one will only be one days worth), I'm still on holiday for four of these weeks so won't have any extra outgoings for going to work. so augusts pays will be added up into a seperate savings account and then transferred into my main bank account on the last day on the month to use for the month of September. September's pays added up and used for October so on and so forth.

One thing I need to do before I go back to work is get my advisories on my car fixed. I couldn't afford to get them done at the time as to fix it up to get it passed its MOT was £500. I need to at least do the tyres first, i have two tyres that are very close to the legal limit. When I go back to work I'll be using the car daily and dont want them to go past the limit and then get pulled over and get points. its just my luck that it would happen. so tyres will be done in August hopefully. The other advisories is something to do with a t-bar (i dont know much about cars) they said it will need fixed but isnt as serious as my tyres so it can wait. I plan on getting this done during September.