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Archive for January, 2011

February Goals

January 31st, 2011 at 09:24 am

My goals for next month are pretty simple:

[]Any extra to savings
[]Pack 100%
[]Some of bonus to start car fund

I'm expecting a bonus at work. I don't know how much it will be, but I'm going to use it to start my car fund.

Considering taking out a loan

January 30th, 2011 at 06:09 pm

I mentioned this a few months ago in one of my entries, but then I never thought about it afterwards. Until last night, that is. As usual it was one of hubby and MIL's arguments that got me thinking. When hubby came back to the room he mentioned getting a loan out. A while later I was searching for places online to rent. I found one nearby, a 3-bedroom house, £500 pcm.

It looks so good. Of course we would be struggling if we didn't get Housing Benefit.

Then I started to think about all of the things we would have to pay for:

- rent (£500, plus one month's deposit I assume?)
- council tax (not too sure of the rates)
- food
- gas
- electricity
- phone
- tv licence
- loan payment?

And that's just what I can think of. I also have my car payments and CC debt.

Hubby pointed out that it will take us ages to save up the money we would need. I know it will. But I don't want to get into more debt just so we can move out. He doesn't mind. I can see his point, his mum is annoying me now.

I know the sensible thing to do:

1) SAVE the money
2) clear debt
3) move out

Inspired by CJ: What would you change?

January 28th, 2011 at 10:31 pm

After reading CJ's entry I took a few moments to reflect on what would I change about my job, my life, myself.

My job:

- I wish I had a better paying job (I earn just over the minimum wage)
-I wish I worked in a place where you weren't just a number
- I wish my hard work was acknowledged; the more I do, the more they expect me to. Others barely do anything yet nothing is said.

Myself:

- I wish I had chosen a career path while at uni. I studied Psychology and now I have nothing to show for it. I didn't get any relevant work experience, in fact I never got any
- I wish I was confident
- I'd like to be laid-back to a certain extent. I worry about everything
- I'd like to be more productive when I'm not at work

Home life:

- I'd like me and hubby to have our own space. Choose our own meals. Heck, choose what time to eat.
- I'd like to look forward to going home when I finish work.
- I'd like to have a place to call my own

Basically I want control of my life.

2 NSDs & future plans

January 28th, 2011 at 06:01 pm

Today is my second no-spend day in a row Smile

It's our going out anniversary next month. We still like to acknowledge it. I suggested to hubby today that we go to the pub for a meal. It will get us out of the house, and we get to choose what we're having. We spent £40 on last year's meal, this year I'm thinking £20 max. Anything to get out of the house. If we lived in a nice warm country we'd most likely go for a picnic. Unfortunately, we don't.

I've agreed to go to Zumba next week with hubby's mum. She was talking to me about how she wants to lose weight. Apparently a woman at her work raves about it so she's decided to go. She didn't specifically ask me but I picked up on the hints. I told her I'm free after work to go. As it happens, I'm on holiday next week. I'm curious to see what the class will be like. I checked prices and it's £3 a class.

I'm going to check my bank balance tonight, just to see where I'm at. I'll need to withdraw money for the class next week, and money for the meal.

Unexpected spending

January 24th, 2011 at 08:34 pm

Gave my mum £20, and bought some bread and milk for her.

Bought a cardigan today that I had my eye on last week. It was £9 last week, half price today.

Tomorrow I will be buying wine to take to my mum's when I go over for dinner. Estimated expense: £4

Never spent a penny at work today. Tomorrow will be the same.

Less than three weeks till payday now.

It's been a week

January 23rd, 2011 at 08:24 pm

since my last entry. Since then, things have been bad here. Hubby had a huge argument with his mum and basically told me he wants out now. Well I told him I'll need his help saving because our current method of him paying back his mum and not helping me save isn't working. It doesn't help that his mum hasn't acknowledged how much he has actually paid back. But that's not the point. The point is that we both want out. Preferably this year.

Car problems. Again.

January 17th, 2011 at 07:55 pm

Everything was going fine yesterday until I got into the car to get hubby from work. My steering was really heavy as I was reversing out of the parking space,so I think there's something wrong with my power steering. I was telling people at work that I'll need to take it to the garage this week. However, from what people have told me, it might have something to do with the fluid. I really hope it's easy to solve this problem.

Apart from that, things are going well. Before I started work this morning I bought a few things to have on my breaks: snack packs of mini oreos and a snack pack of grapes. I had a coupon for the grapes, 50p off so they only cost 50p Smile

No unnecessary spending

January 16th, 2011 at 07:04 pm

I only got paid 2 days ago and already Im thinking of ways to save money. DH thinks I'm like this all the time anyway but these past few days I've been constantly thinking about my outgoings for the next four weeks. So, what are my reasons? Well my MOT is due next month. I really DO NOT want to put any of it on the CC, I want to pay for it with cash. I just got rid of one credit card, I don't want to add to the remaining one any more (I put my tyre on it) I'm thinking worst case scenario that work will need done since it is an old car. Aargh! If I had money saved for car maintenance I wouldn't have this problem!

Anyway so do I still have to pay within these next four weeks?

- petrol
- phone bill
- car payment
- car insurance
- dental plan
- Christmas savings
- auto savings transfer
- fix leak in alloy wheel (has to be done before MOT)

The only good thing about not using my car for almost four weeks is that I didn't have to get petrol as soon as I got paid.

I'm expecting my car insurance to go up next month because of the accident.

For the next 26 days I will pack everything I need for work. Before I can do this though I'll need to buy a few things to take to work, mostly things to snack on since that's my downfall. HH has motivated me to do this Smile I enjoyed the feeling before when I did the lunch challenge and realised how much money I'd saved.

I don't have any pub nights planned so that's good - we were out last night anyway, but hubby treated me.

OK, that's my plan. Hope I succeed!

payday, more than I thought...

January 14th, 2011 at 01:05 pm

But it is already spent. This morning I cleared CC1!! I also added my first £25 to savings, it felt good. I paid my other credit card and catalogue too.

I'm not done spending. My tyre may finally get fixed today. I had to phone the AA and upgrade my membership, someone is coming out soon. That was £66 I wasn't planning on spending. I phoned the garage, they have my tyre. I think it will need to go on CC2 when I pick it up. So depressing. I had roughly £50 extra and I've used it for AA.

I'm going to focus on not buying anything at work for the next four weeks. That will save me some money.

20% savings, leftover money

January 12th, 2011 at 02:26 pm

Every month I pay for my Love Film subscription. This month they offered a 20% saving if you prepaid either 3 months (15% savings), 6 months (20%) or one year (25%). I prepaid for 6 months. This means that I have leftover money since a payment was due out this week before payday. This money is going towards CC1. When I get paid I will pay the rest of CC1. For the next 6 months I will put the money I would normally use for Love Film towards CC2.

In other news, Hubby can now view his bank statements online and he is going to start getting paper statements again. This is great news for us because we can finally see where his money is going. for years he hasn't been getting statements because he had signed up for online banking, then he forgot his sign in details. The bank would only let him change his details when he had ID. Well he now has his provisional (learners permit to you guys).

Hope everyone is having a great day!

This and that

January 6th, 2011 at 08:30 pm

Things aren't looking too good here. Hubby is in his (unauthorised) overdraft so I'm going to replace the money tomorrow. He'll still get charged but I'm hoping it won't be as bad as if I hadn't put the money in. Also, I still need to get my tyre fixed, so I'm looking into my options, preferably the cheapest. Although, and I hate to say it, I may have to use my credit card if I haven't got the money in the bank to cover it. I do not want to use it. My MOT is due next month too, so I'm hoping I will have the cash to cover it.

I'm working extra tomorrow. I was surprised when my manager asked me, it's rare to get overtime in January. I'm not complaining though, I need all the money I can get, I have goals to accomplish.

January goals

January 4th, 2011 at 06:45 pm

My goals this month are to add to savings and to get my budget card so I can start saving for road tax.

I've changed my goals for this year slightly, made them more specific. "Increase regular savings" is now "Add £800 to savings" and "start car maintenance fund" is now "£200 car maintenance fund". This way I have something to aim for.

New year = more savings? Hopefully!

January 1st, 2011 at 01:25 pm

One of my goals is to increase my regular savings. This is my plan:

1. save £25 4 weekly
2. DH will save £18 4 weekly

We get paid thirteen times a year. So we should end up saving £559. I will add any extra money that I have. I haven't cancelled my £5 auto savings. I checked my bank account and I can't set up a transfer for every four weeks, so I will just have to transfer the money over on payday.

As for Christmas, I will pay £10 each payday towards vouchers until October (through a woman at my work this time) I'm also going to start a Christmas savings card.

The car maintenance fund will probably start off small.

Happy New Year everyone!!