85.95 Beginning Balance
+1.50 survey rewards

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87.45 New balance

262.55 to go to reach my goal of 350.

84.45 Beginning Balance
+1.50 survey rewards (opinion outpost)

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85.95 New Balance

72.45 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+ 2.00 Weekly deposit

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84.45 New Balance

70.05 Beginning Balance
+2.40 Paypal rewards

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72.45 New Balance

277.55 to go.

68.05 Beginning Balance
+2.00 Weekly deposit

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70.05 New Balance

279.95 to go to reach my goal of 350 by December 2015.

65.00 Beginning balance
+1.05 Amazon GC
+2.00 Weekly deposit

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68.05 New balance

281.95 to go.

64.25 Beginning Balance
+0.75 PP survey reward

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65.00 New Balance

A nice round number. 285.00 to go to reach my goal of 350 by December 2015.

62.25 Beginning Balance
+2.00 Weekly deposit

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64.25 New balance

285.75 to go.

60.75 Beginning Balance
+1.50 Mum survey reward

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62.25 Ending Balance

287.75 to go to meet my goal of 350.

I'm taking inspiration from LR and dedicating a post to my Emergency Fund.

48.00 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+ 2.00 Weekly deposit
+ 0.75 Opinion Outpost PP reward

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60.75 Ending Balance.

289.25 to go to meet my goal of 350GBP by the end of the year.

I just checked my bank balance there and noticed that 5GBP had been deposited. I done a survey a few weeks ago and the reward was 5GBP. I know it's not officially January yet but money from this pay will go toward January until I get paid on the 9th. So, as per my new 70/30 rule:

- 3.50 to cc2
- 1.50 to EF

It couldn't have came at a better time because I'm feeling particularly happy today. This time last year I ended up having emergency surgery; today I finally got round to doing some baking with SG. All in all, a good day.

I just changed my phone plan. I currently pay 23.45 per month for 100 mins, 500 texts and 250MB data. Well I've literally just upgraded so my new plan is 300 mins, 500 texts and 250MB data. I also added an extra300 mins for calling 08 numbers which can be really expensive. So, my new plan is costing me 12/month. Saving 11.45 each month compared to my old one.

I've just been looking at numbers for CC2 on whatsthecost, a website that lets you see how much interest etc you pay and lets you adjust your payments. If I can manage to pay 175/month beginning Jan 2015 I will have cc2 clear by Dec 2017. Or 155 will be June 2018. 135/month payoff date is March 2019. I prefer the shortest date of Dec 2017 of course so I am going to do my best to pay as much as possible next year.

I also want to increase my EF next year. I withdrew from it twice this year, otherwise I would have 228 rather than the 28 that I currently have. Next week my extra weekly payments will increase from 1/wk to 2/wk for the forseeable future. I also deposit 10/four-weekly. I worked it out and next year's automatic payments total 238. By the start of the year I should have 43 in EF. That added to 238 (total automatic savings for the year) comes to 281. I might aim to have 350 in savings, possibly less depending on debt payoff, by Dec 2015. That's over 70 more so it might be a bit of a stretch. I'm still debating. Aiming for 300 seems easy.

I've decided that any snowflakes will be split 70/30 between CC2 and EF. 70% to CC, 30% EF.

ETA: I just worked out that to get to 350 it's only 69 extra over the year. I get paid four-weekly so that's only 5.xx extra each pay period. Hmm. It might be doable.

Since baby J arrived just over six weeks ago, I've noticed a few things:

- I haven't tracked my outgoings.

Usually I get paid and as I pay my bills, I tick off each item in my notebook. The last time I updated my notebook was June before J was born.
I mentioned to hubby that I hadn't done this and he didn't seem concerned. I do check my bank balance when I get the chance so I know what's coming out. Also a lot of the stuff is the same every month so the dates are forever stored in my head.

- I'm spending money left, right and centre.

I posted about ordering the perfect prep machine. We seem to be at the shops more/ordering online more. I am waiting on a £20 eCoupon from Tesco though so that is my reason for doing two online shops recently. Plus it's a lot easier to shop online.
We've also had takeaways and have eaten out a few times.

- It's tough juggling a toddler, newborn and housework.

I'm feeling productive this morning because I've put a load of washing on, put some clothes on the airer and put some dishes away (SG slept late after getting up in the early hours last night) Who knows? This might be all I get done. I've managed to post here too so I'm going to include that since it's so difficult to update these days.

- My credit cards remain untouched.

I only mention this because when I was on maternity leave with SG both cards were still active. I remember using my credit card to get gas and electricity at the local shop. Cringe. CC2 has been closed for over a year now and there's no way I'm going to touch CC1. In fact they sent me a new card last year and I didn't even bother phoning to activate it.

- We're slowly building our EF.

Very, very slowly. I wiped it out a few months ago when I was off sick and both our pays were dire. When I say "wiped out" I withdrew 100 which was the most it had ever been at.Every week it's getting added to.

I think that's all.

Well, I phoned work yesterday to find out the reason for my low pay. The company only pays twelve weeks of sick pay; I've used all mine. My pay was government sick pay.

Hubby came home from work and checked his balance. His pay was worse than mine!! We worked it out and it's because he took sick days when I was first out of hospital. It was at that moment that I decided to withdraw one hundred pounds from the EF. Does this qualify as an emergency? To us at this point yes. I just want to make sure we can pay everything. I didn't want to withdraw the money but I can't see any other option. We've already borrowed money from family before so i don't want to do that again - although I suspect my mum might offer if I mentioned it but that would be 20-30 pounds and we need more. Goodbye goal of even reaching 200 pounds this year.

I'm trying to spend as little as possible on food shopping. I ordered from a website called Approved Foods to fill up our cupboards. They sell food that is close to or past its sell by date. It's all dry foods though. That was almost forty pounds but I ordered a lot. We should only need to buy some fresh meat and bread and milk. We go through a lot of milk, especially since I try to make sure that I drink a pint a day.

I also decided yesterday that I need to claim for my first hospital visit in December. I need to do it before next month when it's been six months. I can fill in the form today and get it sent. Hopefully they will process it this month.

I blew just over half of our grocery budget today:

- 38.99 at the butcher's
- 2.23 for bread and lettuce

Total: 41.22

Ten pounds was also added to my EF today, this is my automatic deposit that goes in every four weeks. That brings my new total to 85.00.

I just wanted to update again, mostly for my records. After my last post, I logged into my current account to set up a transfer of 1/wk for 41 weeks to my tiny EF. This is the savings from paying off hubby's BNPL item before April. It starts next week. I started to think that hey one pound each week isn't much, I bet I won't notice if it increases to 2/wk when this finishes. So I set it up. This won't take effect until December.

I'm going to have to add a line in my budget for this now. I doubt I'll even notice though.

This morning I checked my bank account and was pleased to see that I had a bonus from work. I knew that today was the day that bonus was given, I just assumed that I wouldn't get one because of being off sick. Well I got 180. I sent 100 to Capital One (cc1) and paid off the rest of hubby's BNPL item (33) I might just order some food shopping for delivery online and that will be it.

Hubby thought I should put it to CC2 but I told him I was determined to get cc1 down since it's the lower balance. It makes me feel better. When I get rid of it, hubby wants me to use it for food shopping and then pay in full to help my credit rating.

I like the idea of saving the interest "saved" from paying off the BNPL item. Do you think it's silly to set up a transfer of 1/wk to my EF? (if my bank will let me, that is)

I've been clearing out the fridge today. I made tuna fish cakes for SG from leftover tuna mayonnaise and leftover potatoes. I put two in the freezer to use another time, so I hope she likes them, I adapted the recipe to what I had. If SG doesn't like them, then we will have them. For lunch I will use up some more cooked potato and have a sandwich with that. When hubby comes home from work, he will have the last of the chinese from last night. There's also two baguettes that MIL gave us that I might try turning into garlic bread then freeze that.

I've got a lot of potatoes and sweet potatoes that need using up. I'm going to parboil some of them today then put into a container in the fridge to be used for wedges or mashed potato. After that I will make the tomato and mozzarella pasta that I was meant to make a few days ago. There will be leftovers so we will probably have that for lunch tomorrow.

I've got a rough idea of what I'm going to make this week:

- tomato and mozzarella pasta
- cottage pie
- pizza with pepperoni, leftover mozzarella and peppers (forgot I had a pizza base mix from a while ago)
- corned beef hash

I was playing about on Whats the cost this morning. If I am able to pay 100 to CC1 every month I will have it clear by the end of April 2015. Then, if I pay 180 to CC2 that will be gone by June 2018. Of course, it sounds great in theory but I will try my best to put it into practice.

I also want to make sure that we have some sort of an EF because that's what caused a lot of the credit card debt in the first place - that and unnecessary spending . Part of me wants to save 10/fortnight rather than every four weeks but I don't know if I have the room in the budget for it just now. It does work out as only ten pounds extra every pay period.

My car fund now has £51 in it. My original goal at the start of the year was to have £200 in it but it just wasn't feasible, so I changed it. I know I will need more than £50 in it but right now I'm declaring it a success.

My EF however, only has £7.60. I thought I was close to £20. I will have to get that sorted soon.

I have still to add money to regular savings and baby fund.

After work I went shopping for a birthday present for my friend's little boy. I budgeted £15, spent £7.44, I just need to post it now.

I added £7.60 to my emergency fund and £10 to my car fund.

I'm going to phone my credit card company tomorrow and cancel the repayment cover. They charge me almost £20 each month. I never would have took it out normally, just when the woman in the bank was telling me about it, I thought I should get it. Well, I can do without it now.

The minimum payment for my catalogue has decreased by £20 but my CC1 min payment has increased. That's because of last month's shopping for hubby's gran's funeral. I was expecting an increase.

My goal is just to get though this month. It's not been the best month so far. If I have money in the bank before payday that will be good.

It's the the last day of June and I haven't spent a penny I think that my NSM has been a success, despite a few setbacks - namely my windscreen and breakdown cover.

Here's what I spent this month:

£35.78 Beginning balance
- £2.78 (savings transfer)
+ £781.76 (wages)
- £13.00 (dental plan)
- £25.00 (savings transfer)
- £160.00 ("rent")
- £300.00 (hubby)
- £65.00 (credit card 2)
- £41.00 (credit card 1)
- £56.00 (catalogue)
- £70 (cash withdrawal)
- £20.00 (cash withdrawal)
+ £300.00 (cash credit - hubby)
- £2.40 (ASDA)
- £4.50 (candles)
- £45.00 (dentist)
- £70.00 (windscreen replacement)
- £50.00 (DH debt to MIL)
- £16.76 (AA)
+ £105.00 (cash credit)
- £90.75 (6 month road tax)ras
- £50.00 (savings transfer)
- £22.31 (phone bill)
+ £45.00 (dentist reimbursement)
- £98.42 (car insurance)
- £18.90 (Harry Potter tickets)
- £16.68 (AA)
+ £20.00 (money from mum for tickets)
- £49.04 (savings transfer)
= £0.00

Extra transferred to savings = £101.82


Cash envelope balances:

petrol £50 beg/£29 remaining
packed lunch £10/£3.40
snacks £10/£2.24
= £35.36 spent/ £34.64 remaining

I decided to add everything saved apart from small change (5p, 2p and 1p) I added £20 to my car fund and £14.40 to my emergency fund. I put the small change into my money bags which I'll take to the bank soon and add to savings.

All in all, I've done better than I thought I would.If my windscreen didn't need replaced I would have saved £70 more, but that's life. Now all I need to do is think of my July goals.

My emergency fund and car fund, that is. I took TarWalker's advice - thanks! -and started small. Before I left for work this morning I put £1 into an envelope for my emergency fund and done the same for my car fund. After work hubby's mum phoned and asked me to pick up bread. She gave me the money when I came in. I put the small change into money bags that I take to the bank every few months and I put the pound coin into my emergency fund.