2018 New year, new focus and new mission

Choccygirl123 · 6 February 2018 at 9:55AM

Planning a nsd today as fridge, freezer and cupboards are full. My back is agony so having a lazy morning.

Have a mortgage telephone appointment at 9:15 and feeling really nervous. Not sure why, is a straight forward new deal with same bank. The list of documents they require is crazy!

Choccygirl123 · 27 February 2018 at 1:03PM

I have not posted for a couple of weeks and what a month it has been. One of the kid's birthday and all the expensive that goes with that, then school trips and the usual kid related costs.

Hubby and I chatting and have agreed to work our budget out differently this month. Normally my wages are included and they cover overdraft fees. However, we have decided this month will be slightly different. My wages went in yesterday £405 abd i have moved the £125 from our EF which after over draft is cleared leaves us with £86 in credit. I owe £40 for a scout deposit for trip which I will pay later, so spent the other £46 on big shop. We now have enough food to last the week and are officially starting the month at zero.

Hubby gets paid tomorrow and hopefully my new second job will also hit the account (around £145) it's going to be a tight month, but we hope that starting at 0 this month will finally get us out the overdraft. We have nothing in our EF which needs sorting, but baby steps!

Have sold couple of things on eBay around £20, but used the money in my paypal account and bought the groupon 5 cinema tickets for £20. Should have saved the money, but know thus money going to be a long one and it would be nice to take the kids to cinema for a treat.

That is my update for now.

Choccygirl123 · 28 February 2018 at 9:27AM

Pay day at last!

I am feeling really positive for first time in a long time and I think it is physiological because we are not playing catch up. Deciding my main wages is to clear overdraft and we have not included it in the budget feels great. We have a realistic budget budget and are going to scrimp, save, sell and budget this month to make sure we end the month in credit.

The good news is my new job has paid me and that's an extra £144 this month. It is going to be tight as we have a lot of kid expense school trips, scout camp and rugby boots to buy. I have been thinking about posting my soa, but know I have cut it back as far as it will go due to sky and mobile contracts.

We have a good amount of income but high outgoings too. It seems true when people say you spend what you earn.

Mini targets this month :
be in credit at end of month
Make an extra £50 selling have few bits on eBay but need to list more
Try and clear as much of kids trips as possible

System · 2 March 2018 at 12:39PM

Hiya - well done for starting at zero. Even if you have to dip in a tiny bit at the end of the month it is all good progress.

Choccygirl123 · 4 March 2018 at 12:17PM

Thanks ramble- It's the first time we started at zero in years. It feels like a small victory, but a huge turning point. With the budget so tight, I don't think there will be much left before pay day, but even if it's 10p I'll be the happiest choccygirl ever.

We have nothing planned socially and planning a quiet month. We have a trip to the rugby in the already in the budget and the groupon cinema tickets I bought with the kids, but that's all in March.

The snow has been amazing and helped with the spending on food and fuel. One car hasn't moved since Wednesday and the other since lunch Thursday.

We've had 3/4 nsd and spent £12.36 in one hit in local shop on chocolate treats, milk and bread to get us through the snow. It's made me focus on food planning and my cupboard stocks. We live in a really rural area and we were officially cut off for two days. My food plan for this month is to empty the one full drawer in the freezer, do I can place a muscle food order as have a £20 voucher to spend.

Today will be a lazy day abd I'm planning on catching up with some household stuff and ironing with another nsd. Secretly hoping school buses cancelled tomorriw as roads bad, but I know that's highly unlikely!

Choccygirl123 · 4 March 2018 at 2:48PM

I'm currently polishing my halo for my meal planning. We had three very rude Brian bananas festerungbin the fruit bowl so used them abd random few left over blueberries in a banana loaf.

I've cleared my veg draw and basket abd made soup, peeled spuds for mash tomorrow and made chips fir the air fryer later. I've done my meal planning until Friday evening and jiggled the menu to suit expiry dates....hence fish and chips tonight! Very strange in our house because we always have a roast!

I'm looking after my friends daughter Tuesday evening and she won't eat chicken so had to swap meals around.

I'll need a little top up shop for lunch bits, spuds and bread but hoping to keep it under £10.

Choccygirl123 · 5 March 2018 at 10:43AM

Apologies already for the long post, but I'm going to update our progress over the first quarter of the year. I know only start of march, but the wages are in and we know the outgoings and budget already.OveralI it's two steps forward and one step back. We've had a bumpy start to the new year with lots of car expense from tyres and general maintenance. We decided the first three months would be us getting back on track, getting control of our budget again, trying to increase our income from selling and work and just being more money savvy. I'm really pleased with our progress, but frustrated it's been so slow going. The EF and Xmas accounts have had money in them, but I made decision that clearing the Overdraft was the priority so we looted them.

PROGRESS UPDATE JAN/FEB/MAR
2 ZOPA LOANS COMBINED OUTSTANDING 31/12 £16271.56 - 5/3 £15664.63
HOUSE SAVINGS SAVINGS TARGET 31/12 £0/£2200 - 5/3 £1000/£2200
SCHOOL TRIPS OUTSTANDING 31/12 £384 - 5/3 £329
EMERGENCY FUND TARGET 31/12 £0/400 - 5/3 £0/£400
CHRISTMAS 2018 - TARGET £50 per month - 5/3 £1.04
EXTRA INCOME SECOND JOB Feb £144.00 / Mar hoping £200
SELLING THE CLUTTER - Jan £97.10 / Feb £17.72 / March £15

I'm really pleased with our progress and hopefully February was the last month of ever using our overdraft! I've found a second job and have been trying to sell the junk. It's hard going but have made a total of £129.82 which has been swallowed up with everyday spending.

APR/MAY/JUN TARGETS
NOT USE THE OVERDRAFT
Earn £200 min every month from second job
Save £1200 for House Repair (by mid May :eek:)
Pay £329 to clear all outstanding school trips
Pay £250 for the kid's music lessons for summer term
Save £250 into EF
Save £500 towards a summer holiday
Save £150 towards Christmas 2018

Wow.....there it is in black and white - the ramblings of a crazy choccygirl. We've a lot of things to save for, so i better keep on track and try and sell, sell, sell!

Choccygirl123 · 6 March 2018 at 1:09PM

The snow days has been amazing for my shopping budget and nsd. Have been slowly clearing my store cupboard and have planned our menu until Saturday.

Quick trip to Aldi and only spent £30.59 so pleased with that to cover the week and my first food spend of March.

I did have another sale last night from eBay £10....so my total so far in March is £25

System · 12 March 2018 at 11:10PM

Hey Choccy girl. Just catching up - well done you for saving so much in your house pot - and overall I think making the decision to get out of the overdraft is definitely the right thing to do, as you will then be starting on terra firma. Me and DH got rid of the overdraft years ago, but its the CC's that have been our nightmare - I'm building up to get rid of ours completely but need a BIG EF stash before that happens - Perhaps by the end of the year.

Onwards and upwards - you are doing great xx

Choccygirl123 · 7 April 2018 at 12:27PM

Thanks ramblehan.

Apologies now for what is bound to be a long abd waffling post. Need to clear my thoughts and jot our progress. Have been slowly chipping away but not feeling like we're making progress. All direct debits have been taken and we're offically skint! Food budgeting is going well and freezer starting to empty. We've been all been off work over Easter and have been pottering around the house not spending a lot.

I've spent an afternoon putting things on eBay and local fb sites. Sold £20 on fb which is squirrelled away in a tin in the kitchen.

Hubby and I sat down and went through our spending last month which really surprised him. He's not completely on board and suggested food sorvds are only in cash. I took out £100 last Saturday for the fortnight and we've around £25 left. Going to stay with family most of next week so that'll help. We need to scrape through to the end of month again.

The good news is I only have £119 left to pay on school trips which is a massive relief! The Christmas savings are still at £1.04 abd there's nothing in the EF! House fund I'm hoping to add another £500 to it this month so on track for target in May. That's certainly one thing I'll be really pleased to achieve!

My little second job has finished now, but I did get paid an extra £234 this month. I've been looking for something else, but have secured some exam invigilating in the summer which always pays well.

I seem to spend a lot of time thinking about money and lack of it! I can't wait for the debt of be gone and it currently stands at £15075 abd some oddments. Next month we'll see it drop below 15k which is feels good!

2018 New year, new focus and new mission

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