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Archive for August, 2015

Playing with Numbers

August 28th, 2015 at 08:17 am

It's been a while since I've taken a proper good look at my debt. Ugh. I hate it. I spent a while earlier working out some numbers.

Four paydays until my massive bnpl item from last year will be added. I keep on paying 200 each pay to my actual bill, so it will be 800 less by then.

111 left to pay of J's cot and mattress. I have until April to pay this.

Last week I just paid the minimum to BoS. I checked my budget this morning and I had budgeted 90, so I sent an extra 42 to make it up.

I set up faster payment via my bank for the new credit card. If I paid 106.30 every month I would have it paid off in 26 months. Nothing has been put to it yet.

21 months left to payoff Tesco credit card before the interest-free period is up. Balance now is 1555. I'd have to pay 74.04 to get it paid off by then.

I would love to pay it all off, obviously. I need to find a way to pay extra to the 0% cards so I'm not carrying that debt over when it ends.

The catalogue is the biggest problem though. If I wasn't paying that I'd have extra to pay to the credit cards. Also, I still have to get rid of the remaining BOS balance.

Right now I pay 300 each pay to debt, roughly.

Catalogue: 200 + 15 bnpl payment
BoS: 70 (although 90 this pay)
Tesco: 30 (35 today though)

I need to add Nationwide's credit card payment on to this too.

Hmm. I didn't actually solve anything.

This and That

August 27th, 2015 at 08:06 am

Over the past few days I've spent about sixty pounds on shopping. The first lot was buying more cold and cough medicines, and other stuff, for the ill household. Plus milkshake complan. Lots of that. I keep wiping the shelves out when I see them. It's 1.43 a carton, on sale just now. It's also over 200 calories each, so totally worth it.

The second lot was on food and snacks. I've been buying lots of snacks recently.

Posted a parcel the other day. That was planned spending. I already knew how much it was going to be when the cashier told me.

I had enough Swagbucks to redeem a five pound paypal reward. That, plus the survey reward when it credits, will be going to debt payoff and my emergency fund.

Emergency Fund Update

August 23rd, 2015 at 06:30 am

252.78 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Leftover money
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

_______________

274.78 New Balance

Update, payday etc

August 21st, 2015 at 07:30 am

Today is payday, but I have a few things to update first.

My impulse spending still seems to be happening a lot. It's mostly something for lunch after work, or out for lunch with the kids, like we did on Monday. Mostly my reason for it is to get something to eat on the way home from work because I'm usually starving by the time I finish. I need to start packing something to eat on the way home.

Speaking of work, the trousers that I wear at work are becoming a bit of a nightmare. Or rather, they have been like that for a while and now it's really starting to get to me. On Monday night I decided that I was definetly going to buy a new pair after work on Tuesday. It means going into the shopping centre and I can never be bothered, but I thought I'd definetly make myself go then.

Well, it never happened. I was three hours into my shift at work when I fainted. The first aider at work decided to call an ambulance. They came out, spoke to me about my weight, blood sugar etc and told me to get an appointment with my doctor. I was lucky enough to get an appointment that day. When I seen the doctor he told me to keep a food diary and come back in a few weeks. As per recommendation, I've now joined my fitness pal to keep track of calorie intake.

I thought I'd lost my bank card but I found it this morning.

I recently qualified for one of those mum surveys. 5gbp reward, so I should have that soon. My Survey emailed me because I haven't been attempting surveys recently. I attempted a few so that's sorted now. My attention seems to be either on surveys or swagbucks, I don't have time for both.

Yesterday I checked my bank balance only to realise that I still had money left over before payday. I transferred some to my emergency fund .

Today I woke up and seen that my pay was less than normal, although I think I was late a few times. It's not drastic though so we'll be fine.

I paid minimum to BOS this morning. I've also paid Christmas savings. I think there's only one pay left of paying them, I'm going to double check. There's possibly only three or four more paydays until my huge buy now pay later (BNPL) item gets added on.

It's dh's birthday next month. It's over four weeks away so we'll be paid before then. Any meals out will come out of that pay, unless I manage to keep money aside from this one.

We've almost finished the last of the meat from the huge order I did online a while ago. I'll have to actually buy meat this pay period.

Return to Normal

August 16th, 2015 at 06:55 am

Whatever that is.

The person who deletes their blog entries and turns off notifications is gone. I was clearly having a crazy moment when I turned off my blog notifications and deleted that entry. So, if anyone has commented and I haven't acknowledged it, can you let me know? I'd hate to miss out because of a moment of stupidity.

The new normal seems to include a lot of talking, which is good.

I read an interesting thread about friendship on the parenting forum I read, but rarely interact with. One member commented that it's easier to find the love of your life than a true friend, especially as you get older.

I've been completely lax about updating what's the cost. It shouldn't take long to do when I finally get round to it.

I just checked BoS and my balance is now sitting at 236.13. Interest still hasn't been added though. If only I had actually paid this off rather than just transferring it. I'm now wondering if I can come up with some extra money over the next couple of pay periods to get rid of this card. It would delay catalogue payoff though. I've not had a chance to check numbers yet so it might be doable. It's in its hundreds now, it has to go.

Emergency Fund Update

August 16th, 2015 at 06:37 am

250.78 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------

252.78 New Balance

I'm looking forward to next week's deposit; it'll be payday weekend then.

An Update

August 13th, 2015 at 10:10 am

Spending has been all over the place. I haven't tracked in it about a week or so. I wasn't up to it a few days ago. I've also been adding a lot of impulse purchases to my shopping. Bad, I know. But I'm not using a bad week as an excuse for no progress, and I never touched a credit card. I don't know, it's just been a crazy couple of days.

On Monday we finally went to the farm/museum. It was a last minute decision. I had time to pack some snacks for the kids but not enough for a packed lunch. We met my mum there. We stayed for a few hours, kids were exhausted by the time we got home.

Spending for Monday:

Entry: 18.00 (for three, under-3s free)
Food in cafe: 9.25

Tuesday and Wednesday was mostly shopping after work. Must have spent about forty pounds in total over the past couple of days. This included stocking up on nappies though so not too bad.

Things are home are getting better. Basically, for those of you who didn't see the entry, dh and I started arguing over something small which led to something bigger. We've spoke a lot and we're working on it. As for the new online friend that I made, that is going well.

Throughout this whole thing, I lost some weight. It's even been picked up on by my mum, although she waited a whole two days after seeing me before bringing it up. It's noted, believe me. As a side note, I'll probably have to increase the food budget for a bit. Maybe take some vitamins too.

Earlier I transferred 2700 from BoS to Nationwide. The balance transfer fee was 2.4% which is added on to the transfer. It will be 45 days before I receive a statement. Nationwide is at 2764.81, which works out as 106.34 per month if I want to get it paid off within the time period. I'm not sure I will manage to clear it all but it is nice to have the majority debt on an interest-free card for a change.

P.S. Copy your entries before you hit Publish. I almost lost all of this.

Accepted

August 12th, 2015 at 02:48 pm

I'm going to do a long update tomorrow.

For now, Nationwide accepted me. Credit limit is 2800. I've checked BoS and I have a balance of 2936.13 before the interest is added. I want to transfer as much as possible. My question is, how close to the credit limit is too much? Will it just seem desperate if I transfer as close to 2800 - excluding 3% balance transfer fee, that is - as possible?

Emergency Fund Update

August 9th, 2015 at 08:25 am

246.58 Beginning Balance
_+1.50 Cheque
_+0.70
_+2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------

250.78 New Balance

I can't remember what the 70p is for.

P.S. thank you for all your kind comments on my last post. It has been deleted now in case you're wondering where it went. It was too depressing. But now I'm regretting deleting it, it seemed like a good idea this morning.

Just Waiting

August 7th, 2015 at 11:30 am

Waiting for a few things:

Payday. That's still two weeks away. No big plans for payday other than debt payoff, I just like the day.

BoS statement to update. It's not the end of the statement period yet, I'm just impatient. I want to see new numbers!

To hear from Nationwide. I'd really like to know either way, then I can make a plan, or continue with what I'm doing.

To pay my BNPL item off. But that's March/April time probably. Unless I suddenly find a lot of money to throw at it.

To reach my emergency fund goal. With four months left of the year, I'll need to be really patient for this one.

I'm just really impatient right now.

A NSD

August 6th, 2015 at 04:06 pm

It's been a while since I've had a No Spend Day. But it happened today, so I thought I should document the event. I hope there's more of them in the future.

No spending has meant that I haven't left the house. Although, I did catch up with a friend online so that was good. No spending there.

Have a good day everyone!

Shopping etc

August 5th, 2015 at 07:06 pm

My day started almost four hours earlier than I would have liked. This was due to a combination of factors. It was my first time going to work having been up so early. My only issue was whether or not I would fall asleep on the bus (the first bus of the day is really boring) but my phone survived the bus journey, thankfully. I need to remember and charge it.

Nobody noticed at work which was good, although I did explain to my suprvisor later. She was fine and gave me an easy job in the afternoon.

After work meant some shopping. Spent 37.xx. This included a family ready meal because I knew I was too tired to cook from scratch.

Checked my email and my phone bill is under the budgeted amount. Snowflake.

Some Spending

August 4th, 2015 at 02:35 pm

Yesterday I took SG to the library and to our local cafe for some mother-daughter time. I spent 7.70.

I came home, ready to take J to baby group, but he was asleep. When he woke up I took him for a walk. I also went to the post office to send back the terms and conditions for the Nationwide credit card, which finally arrived.

Today's spending has been minimal: bought a sandwich, fruit and a bottle of water (3.xx) after work since I was planning on getting dh's card. I didn't like any of them, so that was a wasted trip. I'll probably just order one online. I then went to the Vodafone shop to get a SIM for the phone that dh bought for my birthday, which I haven't used yet. That was a success.

I found a cheque for 4.99 from the utility company. I deposited that via the ATM while I was there. For the sake of easier accounting, I'm just going to count is as a 5GBP snowflake.

Dh's present arrived today. The one that he picked, that is, not the one I wanted to get him. I'm still waiting on that one.

I've updated my sidebar to include the new catalogue balance.

The Two S's: Spending & Sleeping

August 2nd, 2015 at 12:19 pm

"It's a well-known fact that as soon as one area of your life comes together, the other starts to fall apart "

I think Bridget Jones said that and I'm beginning to think she has a point.

One area I'm having problems with, the other is going just fine.

I've not properly been keeping track of spending like I was doing a few months ago. I like to think I've got certain categories sorted such as debt repayment and groceries. It's the little things like impulse buys and gifts that get me sometimes. However, I haven't put anything on a credit card so I'm declaring this area a success. I must be doing something right. Mind you I've not touched my card in years so that's probably not the best way to measure it.

As for sleeping, well that's a whole other story. I keep waking up really early. In the past I would have put that down to stressing about debt but I'm not. I've got no idea, I just hope it sorts itself out soon. Early morning tv isn't fun. And everyone else is asleep.

Today I paid two weeks worth of rent. That should be my only spending today. I'll write a shopping list soon for next week soon to limit impulse buys.

Its almost time for some more mother-daughter time. I'm thinking we'll bake this time.

Emergency Fund Update

August 2nd, 2015 at 05:29 am

240.00 Beginning balance
+_4.58 disount
+_2.00 weekly deposit

--------------------

246.58 New Balance