Hi all!

It's been almost a week since I've been online - travelling with work has pretty much flattened me out so i'm just getting myself together after a busy few days.

Money
Money-wise, it's not the best. Our spending pot for the month has £6.72 left in it and pay day isn't for another 20 days It's a combination of things really - my husband spent £130 of unbudgeted money before a trip away and only recouped half the costs (in cash) from the other people on the trip, rather than 3/4 and of course with it being cash, the account wasn't replenished so the cash is just in his wallet.

In addition, we are only one month into the gifts/ clothes fund and the money that we have in there has been decimated by school uniform purchasing and we've had 3 family and 2 friends birthdays this month, so those funds have had to come from the spending account.

Ah, if only I'd started building up this fund earlier!

Anyway, i'll need to rejig things a bit and probably save less than planned this month to boost the spending funds so that we can eat and other essential things.

To Let:
Our flat is back on the market for renting and the tenents are moving out in just over 4 weeks so i'm really hoping we get some people through the door and ready to make my flat their next home! Otherwise, all of our spare income for the next however-many months will be going towards paying the mortgage and factor fees until someone takes it. This month's mortgage is covered but the next mortgage payment is due at the end of September so we need a tenant by then or we need to have £450 saved to pay.

Nursery fees:
This month was the last month of paying 100% fees for my youngest. His funded hours have kicked in and September is the first funded month so we'll be saving a little over £100 per month on nursery fees. This will just be rolled into our budget and contribute to either savings or CC overpayments, depending on what my budget for the month looks like. Glad to finally be here, although it's still a LOT of money to be forking out.

Days until pay day: 20
Days until half term week off: 63

The gifts/clothes fund may have been decimated but that proves it is necessary firstly so well done in recognising the need and putting it in place.

Last month of 100% fees

I can't believe you are counting days until half term break already

Haha I've had a hard week DIA so I need something to look forward to! We don't even have anything planned at the moment, it's just a week off with the kids at this point. Just looking forward to a week not thinking about work!

You're right - the gifts/ clothes fund is MUCH needed. I also always forget how busy with birthdays August is. We have no birthdays next month, just my sister's 1st wedding anniversary (which i'd like to mark, just because it's her 1st) and our wedding anniversary which i'd like to celebrate with a meal out if we can. Other than that, I'm hoping it's a quiet month next month!

Today is a day of buying school shoes, shirts, gym shorts... wish me luck! I have £66 left in the budget for this category and my mil is buying the shoes (or giving us the money for them after) so I think the £66 should cover the remaining!

Huabmd earned a little extra money yesterday so that's given me a bit of comfort after the disaster that was this month. We need to spend next month recovering our budgets!

Because my pay rise wasn't paid last month it'll be backdated until 1st July so should have a bit extra in my wages at the end of the month. Not sure how much but it's a relief to know there'll be a bit extra to spread.

Good luck with school uniform hunting.

i think you looking forward to things in the faraway future is actually great and something I want to begin to emulate myself

Thanks DIA - we were really efficient today! Got everything we needed from M&S in about 20 minutes (including trying on) and spent £53 which included trousers, gym shorts, jogging bottoms for outdoor gym, new socks and shirts.

We then spent £72 in the shoe shop for his school shoes and he was in need of new trainers so because we bought school shoes we got 20% off the trainers. My mil will give us the money for the shoes back at some point as she insists on buying them. It's very welcome

All in all, a productive day!

The kids had a ball at a friend's birthday party (the gift came out of my stash) and then we had visitors in the evening so they are knackered (as am i!).

Not sure how it is Sunday again already though? The weekend always flies!

It's Tuesday. Not a lot to say about today, just plodding on with work.

Good things:

1. Pay day is but 16 days away!
2. I just cashed out £20.69 from PA after my £10 survey submission was finally approved! When it arrives in my account, it'll go straight into the holiday fund bringing it close to £150
3. £500 in the Christmas fund (will be £600 come pay out)
4. £500 in the 'forgotten about' savings account which I'm hoping to keep forgotten (but might be needed to help to cover Christmas)
5. It's looking fairly likely that we will qualify for bonus this year (which is payable in the December wages). It'd be nice to put this in the holiday fund to pay for a summer holiday for us next summer. I'm hoping to clear £1k after tax.
6. My car insurance for both cars is up next month so i ran a quick comparison and I should be able to get it down in price, saving £10-15p/m. We are still not in a position to pay it outright this year, but that'll be the goal for next year!

Bad things:

1. It's still 16 whole days until pay day...
2. Life is BUSY! So, so BUSY!
3. My fridge and cupboards are empty...well, fairly empty. Really need to make that better without spending a fortune. Off to do a meal plan.

£3.60 / £25 on Onepoll
£11.00 / £15.50 Valued Opinions (Going for an Amazon voucher)

All of my debt payments have come out for the month, so here goes my end of month round-up, some good and some bad.

Balances and paid amounts
Loan: £8,948.97 / £15,792.30 (£6,843.33 paid off - 43% paid)
RESTART: CC1: £3,769.97 / £3,807 (started from scratch again here in July 18) 1.3% paid off
CC2: £4,301.14 / £5,031.14 (£780 paid off - 15.5% paid)
NEW: CC3: £899.87 / £999.87 (starting from scratch) £100 paid off - 10% paid

Total: £17,919.95 / £25,619.44 (£7,699.49 paid off, 30% paid)

Good things:

• 30% of the debt is paid off!
• I'm into the £8ks in the loan
• I'm into the £17ks of total debt (by the skin of my teeth...)
• I've made progress in clearing CC3 which makes me mad every time i look at it

Not so good things

• I'm still annoyed that we added to the debt last month...
• It could be lower if we had been more careful/ kept an eye on things/ prepared!
• Spending has just been out of control this month, but not on anything dramatic, just LIFE.

Milestones to keep focus
When I'm looking ahead, there's some good milestones coming up! Our loan will be 50% paid off in October, which will be a nice peak to hit. I always visualise once you're 50% there, it's an easier decline to the finish, as if i'm on a mountain bike overcoming a mountain.

16 more payments left on our loan - when you put it like that, it doesn't seem like much at all.

Savings pots
I think its fair to say that some pots are doing better than others...

Christmas fund: £500 / £600
Credit union savings: £500
General savings: £46 (totally raided this month because of overspending)
Gifts/ clothes fund: £0 because of school uniform and big birthday month - will be replenished next month

I do have bigger plans for savings. This month, i'll have my wage increase backdated to the beginning of last month, so anything extra that I get from here will go into our savings account. Our credit union account goes up by £50 each month, so that will continue.

From September onwards, I also plan to put £300p/m away (minimum) as an emergency fund which will help towards things that we're not currently saving for i.e. if we don't get a tenant move in this month, we'll n eed to cover the mortgage, or if we haven't put enough aside for our car service, due in November etc. I still need to work out separate budgets for car-related items.

Anyway, i'll leave you with that and come back to this later for more thought !

I was running around on an empty fuel tank yesterday morning, so had to spend £20 to tide me over until pay day next week (fingers crossed it lasts!).

Other than that, no spends yesterday and the only spend today is my return train ticket to work. I went to another gym class at lunchtime yesterday, the third class this week, so I feel on better form and it's amazing how the tiredness of last week has been replaced with a new tiredness! It's tiredness from being busy and active, instead of a horrible all-day-long sluggish feeling so hopefully the eating better is helping along with that.

Having some leftovers from the freezer for lunch today - a tasty chicken curry and rice (which is also compliant with my diet) so I'll enjoy that while catching up on some diaries in here at lunchtime.

The big C word (Christmas) has been on my mind this week, so when I've been having ideas, instead of spending on a whim, i've been keeping a record on my spreadsheet so that I can consider what to get when the time comes and when funds allow. Normally I'd just buy now and think about it later, and sometimes I'd regret some purchases made on a whim. Trying to avoid this by putting it all down on a document for consideration. It gets it out of my head at least!

Told you you would get back onboard with the fitness (wish I could)

CU and Christmas savings look good. I find it easier to save in the CU than in my own account. Less likely to dip in.

I agree re big loan, once you are half way it feels so much more manageable.

Well done. You are so organised and all over everything.

Have a positive day

Thanks for the vote of confidence DIA!

I am getting there with the fitness - I do enjoy it when I'm there but it's hard work trying to squeeze it in sometimes. Getting the motivation to leave the house isn't always easy! I feel better for it though! Now need to work on drinking more water.

I don't feel so organised but maybe I am doing not too bad.

Today was a good day - got plenty of work done and not spent any money apart from milk and bread. My cupboards are empty so I have a feeling tomorrow's food shop isn't going to come in cheap but needs must!

We have a fairly calm weekend ahead - the usual clubs with the kids in the morning then a kids party on Sunday. Other than that, hopefully some chilling and if it's nice weather getting out on the bikes.

Writing a meal plan and shopping list for the week ahead, with a frozen cocktail in hand that my mum left in my freezer a few weeks ago. Waste not, want not!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Well, this week is passing me by massively! It's been a busy couple of days all round - from work, to school stuff, to family birthdays etc. Chaos indeed!

Pay day is so close I can smell it and I'm trying to make sure that we have in our minds what our plan is for the month. I have a few things that we'll be spending on throughout the month (a special lunch with my grandparents for example) and our anniversary later in the month (it would REALLY be nice to get dinner out if we can, maybe on a voucher deal?). Other than that, I'm hoping more than anything for a quiet spending month! Really could be doing without another month like this.

Got my payslip so I know what I'm playing with this month (the backdated pay rise didn't amount to as much as I'd guessed) but still nice. It'll help to keep us on the straight and narrow.

We used some Curry's vouchers that we had to buy my MIL a fridge because we didn't need anything and she gave us the cash so we have £100 extra sitting in our pockets right now. I'd really like to put it by to buy my son's tablet (for Christmas) from Amazon because that's what the voucher was supposed to be for. In the end they didn't have it in stock, hence why we used them to buy the fridge. ANYWAY! Long-winded, but I'm not sure what to do with it. I fear if it goes into the bank it'll get sucked up by something else somehow, so i was tempted to add it to my Amazon account like you do with vouchers? Is that wise?

As predicted our shopping was a massive one this week because we needed to replenish EVERYTHING. Well, that's how it felt anyway...

Days until pay day: 2
Loan repayments left: 16

Today is bright where I am, but nice and crisp outside! Autumn is creeping closer and I'm delighted because I love getting wrapped up and feeling the cold on my face. I do not, however, like drizzle, rain and gale force winds so I'm a fair-weather autumn lover!

Anyway, today will be a NSD - mainly because there's no money left to spend but I really don't need anything either which helps.

Pay day is tomorrow so i'll be able to reshuffle everything, get my spending account replenished (and more importantly, planned out!) and get set for the month ahead.

I've done a little audit of my 'extra money' earners, so here's where I stand with them:

• Topcashback: £36.56 with another £16.31 pending
• Sainsbury's nectar card: £16.55 worth of points
• Tesco points: 606 points which works out at £5.50 vouchers I think (not sure how this works)
• Onepoll: £3.95
• PA: £3.43
• VO: £11.75 (aiming for £15.50 for an Amazon voucher)
• Shoppix receipts: 2930 tokens / 3200 (for a £5 Amazon voucher/ Paypal)
• Boots: 769 points worth £7.69

In terms of savings:

• Emergency pot: £0 (cleared out after hideous month)
• Credit union: £500
• Christmas saver: £500
• Additional Christmas funds: £100 (thinking of converting this into Amazon credit to keep by for Black Friday)

Mid-September,our savings account will be boosted by £300/pm which I'm hoping to save but, as always this is there for emergencies. Our flat is becoming vacant in 2 weeks time so if no one moves in then we'll be responsible for the mortgage until someone does...so this money may 100% be going to that in the near future! We'll see! If not, then we'll be building up a nice pot of savings for emergencies.

Days until pay day: 1
Loan repayments left: 16

Another £3 survey and just missed out on a £10 one Gutted! Wasn't quick enough logging in on my phone and it was only for mobile phones. Never mind, will keep my eyes peeled!

NSD today! Yee ha!

Just logged onto my internet banking and I've been paid a day early, so I can spend some time later tonight transferring funds to where they need to be etc. and setting myself up for September. Hooray!

Yet again, my husband still hasn't been paid and he should've been paid yesterday so goodness knows when that will turn up. At least we can survive on my wages until his come in. I try to think of it as the longer in the week we wait for the wages to come in, the shorter the time until his next wages the following week (if they're on time...)

i love a slight chill and a scarf too. I tend to walk more when it is cooler too.

Good job you have been paid early as hubby is being paid late.

Have a relaxing evening

Thanks DIA - my evening is just about to begin now the kids are in bed. I'm thinking of treating myself to an ice lolly from the freezer and watching something on Netflix before bed. Not feeling the best (think i've got a cold working on me or something) so some relaxation/ vegetating will work wonders.

I've been a bit of a muppet re: car insurance.

Our renewal came in and it was high so i did a comparison. Managed to get it £15p/m cheaper with £80 cash back on TCB but when I called our current provider to cancel they managed to match the monthly figure. Even though they couldn't match the £80 TCB incentive, they do offer a courtesy car, legal fees and European cover, all of which is included in the price, whereas you need to pay extra for with the new supplier.

Problem is, i've already signed up with the new supplier and paid the £96 deposit so i'll need to call them tomorrow and cancel, which I'm sure i can as a 14 day change of mind thing. Just a hassle and I'm annoyed that I'm missing out on the TCB, but can't have it all!

Is it worth checking to see if there are any of those top up X and get x free offers current on Amazon? I usually do those for the free credit

Cross posted - missing out on the chance of TCB cashback, my experience is that the car insurance ones rarely pay out and I have stopped even considering it in my decision. Hope the cancellation is straightforward.