Fighting the Waves!

louby40 · 19 August 2017 at 5:00PM

Budgeting going well. It's great when you have that LBM and you really start watching what you spend!

swimminginaseaofdebt · 20 August 2017 at 3:43PM

SusieT78 wrote: »

Hi swimminginaseaofdebt,

I'm returning your visit to my diary. Wishing you good luck in your debt busting journey too. Well done on all the no spend days and for exceeding the target on your up to £10 a day challenge.
Hope you've now recovered from your cold.

Thanks for visiting and I'm feeling much better now

louby40 wrote: »

Budgeting going well. It's great when you have that LBM and you really start watching what you spend!

Definitely, so many things to save for though and I get pretty indecisive about which pot the money should go into!

Had a bit of good news today. HMRC have finally processed my tax credit renewals and it looks like they owe me as my weekly payments have gone up. I'll still need to be careful with my spending but it means I should be able to save something every month whereas previously it was looking like every penny would be accounted for elsewhere.

I'm off to my mums in a bit (hopefully I'll get some home cooked food

) but thought I'd take stock of what I've achieved so far this week:

£280 for spends - spends for the month are now up to £207.06/£280.
15 NSDs - only had 1 NSD this week which takes me up to 9 to date.
Take lunch to work 13 out of the 14 days I’ll be there - took lunch to work the three days I was there this week taking me up to 8/13.
De-clutter a minimum of 31 items from my flat - finally made a start on this today and have got rid of 12 pairs of the little one’s socks, 1 pair of tights, 3 pairs of shoes and a packet of nappies (17/31).
Catch up on my Goodreads challenge - I finished reading the latest Karin Slaughter book the other day but I'm still 4 behind schedule. Don't think I'll catch up with the challenge this month but I'll keep on trucking on.

Spending pots remain at the same level.

Hiddenidenity · 20 August 2017 at 5:46PM

All looking good

x

swimminginaseaofdebt · 27 August 2017 at 10:01PM

Can’t believe it’s nearing the end of August, where does the time go? (confused face).

In my last post I mentioned my weekly tax credits had gone up, well imagine my surprise when I logged into my online banking on Thursday only to discover I’d also received a lump sum of just under £500. Happy days, things like that never happen to me. Though knowing HMRC they’ll turn around next year and demand it back :rotfl:. Anyway it’s meant in the meantime I’ve managed to increase the totals in my savings pots as I’ll detail below.

This week I have managed to achieve the following:

£280 for spends - spends for the month are now up £275.78/£280. I am lunching with a colleague on Wed, have calculated it should come to around £15 which will take me over my budget but by not too much.
15 NSDs - have had 2 NSDS taking me up to 11.
Take lunch to work 13 out of the 14 days I’ll be there - took lunch to work 2 days the past week taking me up to 10/13.
Take part in the make up to £10 a day challenge and aim for £124 – haven’t made much of an effort on this goal since I achieved my target but I’m now up to £138.70.
Catch up on my Goodreads challenge – finished a Jane Green e-book I borrowed from the library but I’m still behind.

Spending pots look like this:

Float money - £250/£250.
D’s clothes fund - £10/£250.
Annual expenses - £12.44/£500.
Emergency fund - £1000/£1000.
Fix this house fund - £0/£1000.
Turkey 2018 – £1200/£1200.
Full & Final settlement fund - £232.56/£3000.

My plan is to concentrate on the annual expenses spending pot next as D already has a stock of clothes in a range of sizes and anything he requires urgently can be incorporated into my monthly budget.

I have a total of £2,705.00 in my savings pots and the little one has around £900 in his account, together these would pay off one of my credit cards (and I’d have around £500 left) and bring my debt under £15,000. A part of me is tempted to do just this, but another part is hesitant as I just don’t know how successful I’d be in replenishing the spending pots.

Will start having a think about what goals I’d like to set myself for next month though they are likely to be similar to the ones above.

SusieT78 · 31 August 2017 at 10:23PM

Good news about the tax credits! Looks like you're making good progress on your goals and spending pots.

I'm no expert on finances, in fact I'm in a right mess, but based on what I've been reading on the forum would it not be best to wait until all your savings pots are at the maximum of where you want them, and then after that pay any extra towards clearing a card in full? Isn't that what the F&F settlement fund is for anyway?

Scott_Weiland_2 · 31 August 2017 at 10:41PM

swimminginaseaofdebt wrote: »

Thanks Scott, I have never heard of line rental saver will need to investigate! Can I ask who your broadband is with?

Thanks everyone, I see you all have your own debt free diaries I will pop in and have a read and hopefully pick up some more tips!

It’s the end of the second week of August and I think I’ve managed to catch a cold . My little one has also been fussy after having his jabs on Thursday, hope he feels better soon as he’s been hard work! Looking forward to going into work tomorrow so I can have a rest :rotfl:.

I’ve made a bit of progress on my goals and spending pots though I’ve adjusted the balance downwards for some of these. Think I’ll be adding a new category in here as I want to start learning to drive, expensive I know but it’s going to make it easier to get out and about with the little one.

Here’s how things stand at the moment:

August Goals:
£280 for spends – had a few spendy days so I’ve now spent £145.35 of my budget.

15 NSDs – now up to 8 NSDs, really pleased with that.

Take lunch to work 13 out of the 14 days I’ll be there – took lunch to work 3 days the past week. I’ve now done this 5 out of 13 days.

Take part in the make up £10 a day challenge and aim for £124 – Reached my target today and am sitting at £129.13. Will keep going to see what I can get to.

De-clutter a minimum of 31 items from my flat - No progress.

Catch up on my Goodreads challenge – finished another book but I’m still 4 behind schedule.

Saving Pots:
Float money - £250/£250.

D’s clothes fund - £10/£250.

Annual expenses - £9.94/£500.

Emergency fund - £1000/£1000.

Fix this house fund - £0/£1000.

Turkey 2018 – £780/£1200.

Full & Final settlement fund - £35/£3000.

Have a great money saving week everyone.

Hi sorry i didnt reply sooner i am with EE, line rental saver is basically where you pay the phone line rental bit of your broadband in one hit. I took my broadband out via go compare on top cashback.co.uk and i got 30-50 quid cashback too.

swimminginaseaofdebt · 1 September 2017 at 8:43AM

SusieT78 wrote: »

Good news about the tax credits! Looks like you're making good progress on your goals and spending pots.

I'm no expert on finances, in fact I'm in a right mess, but based on what I've been reading on the forum would it not be best to wait until all your savings pots are at the maximum of where you want them, and then after that pay any extra towards clearing a card in full? Isn't that what the F&F settlement fund is for anyway?

Hi Susie,

Yep, that's what my F & F settlement fund is for. I just get impatient every now and then and get the urge to see my debt going down sooner rather than later!

Time to wrap up my goals for August and set myself some new ones. August progressed as follows:

£280 for spends - ended the month on £318.08/£280. Slightly over budget but not too bad considering I scheduled in some last minute lunches with friends.
15 NSDs - had 13 NSDs in total, 2 off my target. Was brought down by a few top up shops.
Take lunch to work 13 out of the 14 days I’ll be there - took lunch to work 12 out of the 14 days I was there. I scheduled in some last minute lunches with friends/work colleagues and that's why I didn't meet my target.
Take part in the make up £10 a day challenge and aim for £124 - achieved this one and ended the month on £143.70.
De-clutter a minimum of 31 items from my flat - failed at this and only de-cluttered 17 items.
Catch up on my Goodreads challenge - didn't catch up with this but I did read 4 books.

For September I'd like to:

Spend a maximum of £200 on groceries.
Spend a maximum of £100 on entertainment/socialising.
Have 15 NSDs.
Take lunch to work 11 out of the 12 days I'll be there.
Make an extra £120.
Read 5 books.

Spending pots remain the same.

swimminginaseaofdebt · 1 September 2017 at 10:58PM

Took the little one to a free bounce n rhyme session at the library this morning then headed to the park in the afternoon thereby notching up my 1st NSD of the month.

Cashed out £1.75 from Qmee and received 96p bank interest so I've allocated £1.50 to my annual expenses savings pot and £1.21 to my full and final settlement fund.

Finished reading a book this evening so that's me notched up 1 out 5 already.

swimminginaseaofdebt · 2 September 2017 at 10:55PM

Me and the little one have been to a bookbug class at the library (very similar to the bounce n rhyme session we attended yesterday!) and the park today. Did some grocery shopping at Tesco/Sainsbury and spent a grand total of £12.56. This was just for the little one's meals, will need to pop in tomorrow to get snacks and stuff for myself.

Ate lunch at the supermarket cafe and I also purchased some snacks to take to the cinema as I went to see a film with my sister in the evening. Total cost for both of these was £11.35 which will come out of my entertainment budget for the month.

swimminginaseaofdebt · 3 September 2017 at 9:34PM

Spent the morning batch cooking meals for the little one so that's the freezer nice and full now. Should hopefully last a few weeks.

Took a trip to the supermarket later on in the day and bought the rest of the groceries I needed for the week, spending came to £28.79.

Have cashed out 67p from Qmee and added it to my full and final settlement fund.

Fighting the Waves!

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