Debt Freedom

Money Wise Talks 04/08/2022

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

This has been the busiest month of my entire life!

I thought that packing up 17 years of my life would be fairly quick, surprisingly it wasn’t LOL. However busy and long these weeks have been though, this time in my life feels like a dream come true. As at today, we have been in the new pad for just over a month 🙂

We were both so excited to move. My daughter was even excited about the prospect of sleeping on a mattress once I took her bed down. I wasn’t that impressed when I had to sleep on mine after cutting it in half ready for the tip. It wasn’t too bad, but I did feel ancient when I woke up in the morning and struggled getting up off the thing. The next day, both halves of the mattress went to the tip – good bloody riddance! I had to get rid of the king size bed and mattress as they are just too big for my new bedroom and at 17 years old, I probably do need to look at replacing them.

My daughter also wants a new bed as she has outgrown the cabin bed. The problem is I can’t afford to change either of them yet. My mum has lent me a small double bed from one of her guest bedrooms just so I don’t have to suffer an airbed. Not sure when I’ll have the money yet. I am trying to redo my budget but it’s hard when you have no idea what the utilities are going to be. At the moment, I have emptied everything in to my bills account, and when I say everything I mean all my sinking funds and emergency fund so I can make sure I can cover all the bills and anything extra that crops up. I’m so worried about one of the utility companies turning around and saying that because I left them I now own them hundreds of pounds.

Now I have done a full month in the new house I have a decent idea of what everything is going to be but being honest, I don’t feel any better for knowing. I have redone my budget and feel things are going to be tighter than ever. In the past I have had little slips up here and there but now I can’t spend anything outside of the budget. All monies have got to be accounted for and absolutely nothing can go on the credit card.

The plan with the credit cards is to cut them up, but I want to make use of an interest free offer on one of the cards that currently has no balance on so need to do that first. I just need to make sure my address has been updated on all my cards and bank account before I apply for anything as I don’t want it to be rejected. Changing my address has been quite a challenge especially when you try and phone each company and you’re on hold for 40 minutes each time. So for some awful companies I have had to write them with my new address.

I still need to record my You Tube video. I am absolutely rubbish at doing stuff like this, but will persevere.

I also need to save for an emergency fund, start my sinking funds again and keep over paying on the credit card debt. I won’t be debt free next year now, but I DO have a lovely new house. Just got to keep my head above water, like the rest of the UK/World and survive this cost of living crisis.

Apologies for being away for so long! And thank you for the messages. We are ok, just getting used to the new pad, new area and getting the house organised.

The organisation of the house is almost complete and the last box had been emptied today. The only things that are not where they should be is anything due to go into the shed and up in the loft. But before that happens I need to buy a shed and the loft boards. I was going to push myself and buy them this year, but with the gas and electric going up again and Christmas just around the corner, I need to start saving for that now.

I definitely need to raise some more money. Even with doing overtime every week, it’s just not enough. I think I’m going to start Match Betting again and see if I can accelerate the debt pay off journey and maybe even buy the bits I need for the new pad, although the new house things are not priority at the moment.

My new debt total is now at £28,091.69.

This is broken up as £16,271.69 on credit cards and £11,820 on an interest free loan which was borrowed for the house deposit.

I’m not going to lie, the figure does scare me a little, but then I look around at my dream house, I know it’s worth it. I’ve just got to make sure that I keep focused, I don’t let any negative thoughts affect my progress and I keep going. Which is easier said than done. Worry has already started to settle and I’ve already had my first sleepless night. I am sure I am not alone though with the talks of inflation, interest rates rising and utilities going through the roof.

Remember to talk to someone if you feel that you are struggling way beyond what you feel you can handle. If you feel you can’t talk with family or friends, there are organisations out there that offers helpful advice. Such as:

What I Spent Last Week

£28.00 Nails

£3.00 Asda

Total £31.00

Seriously, this is what I have spent since 28 July. Told you I had cut back! The nails I had done were for a treat for my birthday. My mum paid for me to have my hands done and I love them so much that I went and had my toes done. I haven’t had my nails done in years and they make me feel so lovely. This isn’t something that I want to continue due to the cost, but I am going to buy some gel polish and top coat and do them myself.

The £3.00 that I spent in Asda were on a box of chocolates that Shopmium bought me for my birthday! So I bought them last night, scanned the chocolates and the receipt and the money has been sent by PayPal already!

Another reason why I have spent so little is I have taken my cards out of my purse and when I was paid on the 25th, I took out what I would need for the month on petrol and food. £120 was taken for petrol and £134.48 for food (originally it was £120.00 but we ate out once costing £14.48).

We have £44.57 left in the food budget and £85 in the petrol budget. This has got to last us now until 25 August.

So far in this Summer holidays, we have hardly used the car and have spent nothing on days out. So I intend to use the petrol money if I need to for food. I reduced our budget this month to £30 a week for each food and petrol because I didn’t do much overtime leading up to the move and with the move costing more than I had budgeted for, I had to cover it from somewhere. From the next payday, our weekly budget for both will go back up to £40 a week which should give us more than enough for what we need.

It’s going to be tight, but we have a freezer and cupboard full of food, we are warm, happy and healthy. So I’ll take that as a win.

Hope you all have a lovely week, thanks for reading.

H x

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Things To do Free With Kids

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

The time has arrived and the six week holidays are upon us. Is it just me or does everyone think they just come around so quick too!

If you’re anything like me, you haven’t planned anything yet and the current state of my bank balance means I’m going to have to be super creative in order to ensure my child has fun and make those all important memories, because well basically, everything we do this Summer needs to be free.

And because parents have to stick together, I thought I would share my research of things to do with you all to help make your Summer with the kids as fun and cheap as can be!

  1. Exploring in your local town. Leave the car at home and go explore all those places you may miss if in the car
  2. Go to the library. Library’s in the UK usually hold free events for children to get involved in, like reading challenges and lego club.
  3. Bake a cake or/and cookies with the ingredients you have in the house.
  4. Board games. Dust off those board games and let the kids whip you at Monopoly!
  5. Arts and crafts. This category is endless! Colouring, building things out of recycling, painting
  6. Build a den using old sheets.
  7. Find a free local pool and go paddling, if your town doesn’t have one find a lake and take a picnic.
  8. Plan a walk to the next town.
  9. Go on a bike ride.
  10. Building lego.
  11. Meet friends at the local park.
  12. Camp outside in the garden if you have a tent. If not, camp downstairs in the living room.
  13. Play hide and seek.
  14. Garden party on the lawn with a picnic.
  15. Movie night.
  16. Teach your kids how to play cards.
  17. Go hiking.
  18. Ask your child to teach you how to play their game; Fortnight, Minecraft, Robux.
  19. Do a book club with your child, read the same book and talk about it after.
  20. Colour their hair with food colouring
  21. Get the paddling pool out, if you don’t have one have a water fight.
  22. Go to the beach, if it won’t cost money to get there.
  23. Do an outdoor treasure hunt and look for certain trees, insects, shops, wildlife etc. Make a card up for your child so they can cross off the items when they see them.
  24. Check out what’s going on in your local community for free events.
  25. Go to the skate park.
  26. Check out the museums to see if they are doing any free entry days.
  27. Feed the ducks at the local park.
  28. Football or another sport in your garden, at the park or in a local field.
  29. Watch the planes takes off at an airport.
  30. Star gazing outside on blankets.
  31. Have a dance party. Get your best clothes on and dance away!
  32. Have a makeover.
  33. Play dress up.
  34. Do an online fitness class; combat, yoga etc.
  35. Let them plan and cook a meal.
  36. Wash the car.
  37. Teach them how to garden. Maybe give them a part of the garden that they can look after and grow things in.
  38. Go wild berry picking.
  39. Rock painting.
  40. Do a jigsaw
  41. Learn a language with your child online.

That’s all I can think of for now, if you have any that I can add, please let me know in the comments below 🙂

Money Wise Talks 23/06/2022

The Money Wise Mum2 Comments

Howdy folks!! How’s everyone’s week going?

It has been super-hot here in the UK and I’ve enjoyed getting some much-needed vitamin D in my lunch breaks. Taking an actual lunch break outside does absolute wonders for my mental health, especially as my job can be quite challenging at times. I still love it though.

Sunshine is the best!

One week today and we will be moving into the new pad. I’m so excited. I’ve been busy packing and still have lots to do. Today I booked a ‘man with a van’ to help with the move, as there are just some things I can’t lift on my own. So apart from more packing, I’m nearly ready.

I’ve luckily been able to book next week off work, so apart from the weekend where I’ll do my overtime, all the rest of the time I’ll be packing. My daughter is off school next Friday as well, so our first night in our new home will mean that we don’t have to rush out first thing to get her to school.

I have decided to keep her at the same school for year 6 as she wants to finish primary school with her friends. As we are moving out of the area, I also think it will be better for her to not have too much upheaval.

I can’t wait to be settled though. I’ve felt that the last three months whilst waiting for the house process to complete, everything has been up in the air. All the previous focus I had with money has stopped as I’ve directed all my funds to the house and to be honest, I can’t wait to get all organised again. I’ve decided that I will start my YouTube channel once I’m in the house. I’ll lay all my income and expenses out with full transparency and accountability ready to tackle the rest of the debt, build savings and increase my current investments.

I also want to take The Money Wise Mum forward with more finance related posts, even more free printables and much much more. I feel it’s time to combine my previous careers as a financial advisor and secondary school teacher and produce something amazing!

But first, I need to move house lol.

What I Have Spent This Week

  • £7.30 Home Bargain
  • £5.64 Farmfoods pizza and snacks
  • £1.90 Post Office Father’s day cards
  • £20.03 Petrol
  • £5.50 Coop snacks
  • £3.50 Parking Cinema
  • £11.38 Macdonalds
  • £2.20 Snacks
  • £7.59 Tesco
  • £2.07 Morrisons
  • £40 Cash for carnival
  • £24.61 Petrol and snacks
  • £4.00 Coop snacks
  • £9.00 Prosecco
  • £3.50 Ice Cream
  • £4.00 Drinks
  • £18.70 Prescription
  • Total £170.92

I am definitely being caught out by having my card in my purse as all these little amounts are snacks. Grrr damn you snacks for being so nice!! Both me and my daughter have a snacky side, as you can tell, so I need to take my card out of my purse, start using cash again and have a look at what snacks we can start making at home to keep costs down.

I have always said, if you’re new to budgeting, best thing to do first is to use cash for your shopping and petrol and put your cards away. And that’s what I’ll be doing from the next week. One of the reasons I kept my card in my purse was so that I could gain Airtime Rewards (Download Airtime Rewards for free with my code BXNJQKCA and save money off your phone bill every time you shop with brands like Boots, Greggs, Wilko, Argos and loads more) but I found out this week that they have stopped using Morrisons as a retailer now (they don’t use Tesco, Asda etc either) and as that’s where I do my food shopping so there really is no point in keeping them in my purse anymore.

I had both a scary and wow moment this last week when I renewed my Tax Credit award as I was informed that due to my income there were reducing my Child Tax benefits from £230 a month to £32.00. I knew it was coming though since I got the promotion a few months ago. On one side I am going to miss the extra £198 but then on the other hand I feel proud that I am slowly but surely coming off benefits and able to support us on my own.

I am so grateful for the help I’ve received over the last ten years though and I’ve relied on it so much, especially when I became a single parent and then decided to go to university. But now it’s time for that money to help someone else, just like it did for me ten years ago. I plan to ring them up after the house move and arrange to come off them completely. We are so lucky in this country to have benefits that help people to help themselves or help those more vulnerable. It’s just such a shame so many people abuse the system and give people that receive benefits a bad name. I have experienced so many derogatory and hurtful comments about being single parent, that for a long time I felt very much a second class citizen.

There is no shame in asking and receiving help and it’s important to remember that.

I have a list of blog posts that I either want to write or am working on at the moment and one of them will be aimed at parents and the help out there if you are single parent or parent on a low income. I mean my income isn’t huge now but I’m not on minimum wage anymore and I think that really helps a lot. Especially when you look at the cost of living right now, which seems to be getting more out of control every day.

I’ve stopped watching the news every night now as I was making myself worry just before bed. In uncertain times like this it’s important to protect your mental health and if what is happening in the world is playing on your mind, switch it off. Like if you have a toxic person in your life, just get rid. That negativity can be so damaging.

Anyway, I don’t want to end on a low. I will of course be moving next Thursday, which is my normal posting day for Money Wise Talks so I’ll write it the day before to capture my week and have it set for 8pm on the Thursday to go live! Ekk, me a new homeowner!! So excited!! Will send the pics very soon so keep an eye on my Instagram account 😊

Hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for reading.

H x

Money Wise Talks 16/06/2022

The Money Wise Mum2 Comments

I’m back!!

Sorry about disappearing over the last two weeks. I hadn’t planned to take any time off but life just got in the way. As it does 🙂

The last few weeks have been super busy, I am wondering when it will ever slow down at this rate. I shouldn’t grumble though. The last two weeks I had my first weeks holiday since I started my new job, helped my dad sort through my grandads possessions and saw many friends and family. I even took a weekend off the overtime!! I know, crazy right!

Last week, it’s like I’d forgotten how to cook and we ended up at Macdonalds three times! I just wish the McPlant wasn’t so nice, it’s literally my favourite food right now. Although I could forget the fries. I’ve started having a salad and a bottle of water with my McPlant now just to get a balance lol!

In the half term week I gave us a budget of £100 and although we ending up spending most of it on eating out, we only went over by £38. I tried to pull that back and spend even less on the food shop. Which mostly worked apart from last week just going wild on Macdonalds. This week to rein it in we are doing no takeaways this week. And so far so good 🙂

My motivation has dropped off slightly for my blog writing. I have so many ideas and not enough time and energy to do them. I know I’m still finding my feet in my new role and that takes up alot of my time – still not as much as teaching though, so I know I’ve made the right choice. Infact, I’ve never been so happy. The work life balance is perfect and I even attended my daughters sports day the other day. I was so happy and proud to be there, having missed the last few years whilst teaching.

I’m also planning my YouTube content. It’s exciting. I can’t wait to take The Money Wise Mum to the next level. Watch this space – although I appreciate I’ve been saying that since January. Thank you for watching that space for 6 months!! Lol

In other news, The Money Wise Mum’s Instagram account was two years old at the weekend!! And we also hit over 5000 followers! What a lovely milestone to hit on it’s birthday. I’m so proud of how far it’s come and love receiving the inboxes from people that thank you for helping them. I love that some followers I now consider to be friends as we have so much in common and chat away. It was a blessing I found this financial community whilst trying to improve my own financial position and I’m very grateful to be part of it. Thanks for being my accountability partners and keeping me motivated 🙂

I have a completion date for the house now – 30 June!

Literally 2 weeks today! Of course the packing has stepped up and bit by bit everything is being sorted, sold, given away, tipped or packed. Once we are in and settled, I am working on that next goal and ticking this one off. I finally got my Dream House. It’s not 5 bedrooms, has no utility or extravagant garden but it’s mine. Well 50% of it anyway lol. It does have an extra bedroom, a downstairs toilet, under stairs cupboard, a bigger, flatter garden and fitted kitchen with integrated appliances. I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for a place like this. Well, actually I can – 10 years. 10 whole long, infuriating years waiting, dreaming, planning and praying.

Not going to lie, I’m ready to burst with excitement!! Be prepared for pictures galore when we move in 🙂

What I Have Spent This Week

  • £12.37 Macdonalds
  • £31.12 Pub Lunch with friends
  • £39.98 Morrisons food shop
  • £2.77 Home & Bargain
  • £5.64 Farm Foods
  • £1.90 Post Office
  • £17.05 Just Eat
  • £15.98 Cinema tickets

Total £126.81

Since Monday I have been on a no takeaway week and so far so good. This comes after the weekend of eating out and takeaways as you can see above. Food shop is under the £40 a week budget which is great and I am really pleased with how that is going. So far I am under budget 99% all the time. The only thing I need to work on is takeaways and saying no to sweets/snacks. Which is where most of these other lower end spends have come from. I need to take my cards out of my wallet as that should stop the impulse buying of sweets etc …

Overall though I’m happy with only spending £126.81 this week.

However, I am unhappy that I have spent on my credit card the last week because of vet bills due to a poorly cat and a birthday. This has meant an extra couple of hundred back on the credit card this week. I’m hoping to pay a little extra at the end of the month though to cover it. Although I may need to save it for the new back lawn instead. That’s the only thing that’s concerning me at the moment, the fact I have no lawn in the back garden and it’s just going to be soil. With a dog, 2 cats and a 10 year old, all I envisage is mess lol!

Keeping it sort and sweet tonight as I am super tired and need another holiday to recover from my holiday lol!

Thanks for reading

H 🙂

Money Wise Talks 26/05/2022

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

Life is just a rollercoaster isn’t it?

I think I may have said that before. But it really is, certainly an emotional one anyway.

This week I have exchanged contracts on the house and have a completion date of 30 June!

I still can’t believe it. Literally, 3 months ago I had no idea this was going to happen and yet here we are. We are so close to moving into our new house. A brand new start for me and my daughter and I just can’t wait.

All I need to do it try and keep the anxiety at bay. It is trying to wreck my feelings of happiness by making me feel scared about taking on more debt. Urgh, mental health sucks. Just when you feel like it’s all coming together BOOM … it’s there pulling you firmly to the ground.

And it’s so strange because I am just so happy. This house is the exact house I wanted 3 years ago. I went online, saw this house, requested a brochure and stuck it on my notice board. I looked at it every day and when I was told I couldn’t get a mortgage because I hadn’t been teaching long enough I took it down. So when the opportunity came to buy this exact house, in the area I wanted to live, on the estate where my family is, how could I say no?

Obviously, after being told I couldn’t get a mortgage, I thought I would have to do it the long way; be in employment for a year, pay the debt off in full and save a £20k deposit. I was happy with that and accepted it. But it hasn’t happened like that. I got the call to say the house was available, my name was a the top of the list and I had to make a decision there and then if it was going to be a yes or a no as they had a list as long as their arm for people who wanted it. At that time, I had no deposit, no mortgage offer and I’d only been in my current job 3 months. Would this be enough?

A couple of calls made and I rang back and said yes let’s do it. I still wasn’t sure at that time if I would even get a mortgage! I was on tenterhooks waiting for the bank to say yes and I was so relieved when they said yes.

Since that day, the last few months have been a whirlwind. The house is now legally ours. The move is getting closer. And as exciting as it all is, my anxiety is through the roof! I am taking on an extra £11500 worth of debt (deposit), my mortgage and life insurance is increasing, I need to pay for building and contents insurance and as it’s a new house, I need a lawn, blinds, light fittings and curtains lol …. All I see is huge EXPENSES!!

Is it worth it? HELL YES!

But I can’t sleep. I look at my bank account several times a day. I look at my budget each night, sometimes just staring at it (not sure what this achieves). I’m checking the news and researching ways to reduce bills until the early hours of the morning. It’s fair to say I’m becoming obsessed. I come out with a stress rash on my neck when bills hit the floor and I’m checking plug sockets are off around the house like someone with OCD. It’s no joke.

I’m hoping this is a small period of intense anxiety I’m going through, as this is such a big event in my life and after I’ve moved in it will stop.

My friend and I were talking the other day about anxiety and I was talking about how money makes me anxious and especially with what’s going on currently with the increases in living costs, it makes me feel like I’m not in control. None of us are. We can do all the cutting back we like but if inflation is hitting the poorest families up to 14% how do we cope with that?

The government are bringing in extra measures to help people on benefits and pensioners which is a fab idea but what about the people who are just over the benefit cap – like me? I feel like a carry a huge weight around being a single parent and only bringing in one income. It’s all down to me. The weight is sometimes so heavy it feels like its crushing my chest.

So I work as much I’m allowed and it allows me to feel like I’m doing all I can. We can only do this can’t we? In a way I’m quite lucky my employer makes us sign the Working Time Directive so we are unable to work more than 47 hours a week, because if they didn’t, I work even more. I still work 7 days though. I feel like I can’t stop now either. Not whilst the country heads to a recession and costs are increasing even more.

I know I’m not alone in my thoughts and I am well aware that I am better off than others out there. I understand that it’s a privilege that I can afford my bills, food, pay off debt and save abit. But unfortunately, I still feel worried about it all.

With all the research I’ve been doing, I plan on lots more blog posts coming your way. I have got a few in the bag that I am just finalising and when I’m on holiday next week I hope to make them live. I really hope you find them useful so make sure you subscribe to my blog (it’s free to do so) so you won’t miss them 🙂

What I Have Spent This Week

  • £10.66 Macdonalds
  • £7.10 M6 Toll
  • £2.89 Road Chef
  • £1.65 Coop
  • £6.86 Post Office
  • £3.89 Maccies
  • £4.09 Morrisons
  • £2.85 Coop
  • £39.18 Morrisons food shop
  • £49.53 Petrol
  • £10.00 Cash
  • £9.05 Newsagents
  • £5.29 Shop
  • £11.09 Snacks

Total £ 164.13

I had some extra expenses due to extra petrol to attend my Grandads funeral and accidently took a bloomin toll road!! Couldn’t believe I did that, I even got off the toll road and then Google maps put me back on it! I was also naughty and picked some service station snacks and a Macdonalds breakfast :). The other bits seem snacky again, just like last week, although last week I spent more, so it’s definitely going in the right direction.

This week I’ve been paid and my budget is done for the next month. My challenge this month is just to stay in budget and not spend outside it at all. Especially, as I could be moving soon and need the money for that and not snacks!!

I’ve been thinking about doing this alot and have finally made my mind up but I AM GOING TO START THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL I set up in January, The Money Wise Mum YouTube Channel and I am going to vlog about my journey too. I feel this will be the one thing that keeps me on track and as I find some YouTube channels so inspiring, hopefully by me sharing my journey it will help others too.

So, in my first YouTube I will be bearing all my budget, income and expenditure and hope you will all join me online and subscribe 🙂

Have a great week! Thanks for reading, Heidi x

Money Wise Talks 19/05/2022

The Money Wise Mum4 Comments

9% inflation! This is a 40 year high!

A recession is on the horizon that’s for sure. Is there anyone out there that disagrees with me?

Now is the perfect time to start looking at your budget, or setting one up if you haven’t got one. Stop spending more than you earn, build up an emergency fund and try and pay down as much consumer debt as you can (that being credit cards, loans, store cards etc). Tougher times are coming, I can feel it.

The worse thing to do right now is ignore the signs and bury your head in the sand. I would even go so far and say, don’t take any more debt on right now if it’s already a squeeze. We just have no idea how much the cost of living is going to increase throughout this year.

These are the increases that we have been hit with so far this year (some of these amounts may be specific to me)

  • Water 19% increase (Own calculations)
  • Gas & Electric 165% increase (Own calculations)
  • Council Tax 5.8% increase (Own calculations)
  • National Insurance 1.25% (From 12% to 13.5%) (Source Sky News 2022)
  • Petrol 32% increase (Compared to a year ago – Source RAC, 2022)
  • Food increase (variable)

Most of you will know I have just bought a house and although it is within my budget (just), I’m still anxious and worried that it will put pressure on my finances. One of the only saving graces I have is that I opted for a five year fixed mortgage so I know my payments will stay the same for the next five years. If you are on a variable rate you may want to look at some fixed deals or speak with a financial advisor to see if there are better products out there that will limit the possibility of an increase.

An increase in inflation could also mean the Bank of England increases the base interest rate again which means an increase in borrowing and credit cards.

So, if you have a credit card, unless you’re on an interest free deal this will mean you pay more interest and less off your overall balance meaning it will take longer to pay off. I wish I had the opportunity to clear mine in full but right now, the balances are too high to make a huge dent in them. All I can do is keep at it with the small overpayments I can afford to make and hope I can absorb any future increases.

I don’t usually focus my blog posts around what’s happening in the news, but last night I saw something on the TV about the inflation rate and it then played on my mind all night. I didn’t get to sleep till after 2am only to be woken up by my senile cat at 5am. Bloomin Knackered! This is one reason why I don’t like watching the news before bed as it just plays on my mind. It did make me curious though to what was going on. So today, I took the opportunity whilst on a long car journey to find out as much information as I could. I had four hours in the car today so I exhausted as many news channels as I could which talked about the increases in the cost of living, inflation and recession. Although I feel pretty knowledgeable now, it hasn’t elevated the sense of worry.

But I know I’m not alone.

It has created this need in me to know more though, in the hope that the more I know, the more time I have to plan my survival. I think that’s what it will be for a lot of us now. Just surviving and making sure we come through it. Seeing people on the news today talking about missing meals and not being able to put the heating on made me realise I am luckier than I thought. But that doesn’t mean I should be complacent. I know I can tighten my belt a little further so that’s what I’ll do. I can’t wait to get into the house now and see what my new bills will be so I can do a new budget. I feel like this will be the only thing I can do that will allow me to take back control especially when I have no control of what is happening in our external environment.

What I have Spent This Week

  • £2.60 Post Office – Parcel tape and wrap
  • £51.00 Next – New house things
  • £20.00 Cash
  • £22.47 Home & Bargains – Cat food and sweets
  • £5.09 Macdonalds
  • £38.22 Asda (Food shop)
  • £7.85 Costa Cafe
  • £2.80 Newsagents – Sweets
  • £2.50 Next – Sweets
  • £33.10 Dinner out
  • £3.13 Home Bargain – Snacks
  • £9.35 Co-op – Wine and sweets

Total £198.11

This last week has clearly been a week of snacks, eating out and just generally splashing out hasn’t it! And yet, only spending £198.11 is pretty good for me in comparison to the last few weeks anyway. I had a one off cost to get my daughters passport renewed and I couldn’t resist picking a couple of things up for the new pad – kind of inevitable as the excitement grows lol!

But the good news is, that all of these items can be cut back.

I get paid next week so am going to change up my budget for the entire month, well payday to payday. A week before payday, I’ll set my goals around what I want to spend in each area of the budget so I’ll know what I’ll be spending on X, Y, or Z. If it’s not in my budget, I won’t be spending. I think this will help eliminate a lot of my mindless spending on snacks and will help curb the overall spending each month.

Unfortunately, this month I have had to pay £210 for the annual car tax and £123.80 for a penalty notice so that’s all my planned monthly savings gone from May wages which would have gone to the house :(. Trying not to worry about the new costs for the house is hard when it needs so much, like a new lawn, blinds, light fittings, beds etc. And unfortunately, I’m not allowed to work for more than 47 hours a week in this job so I haven’t got the ability to make any more money either, apart from my 10 hours of overtime every weekend. I guess I still need to go back to that drawing board!

Let me know if you have a great ideas in the comments below.

Thanks for reading, Heidi x

References

Money Wise Talks 12/05/2022

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

Another week done. Which means another week closer to moving into the new pad! 🙂 EKK!!!

It’s amazing how quick life goes isn’t it!

I have a potential date of completion on the house as the 30th June, which is only 7 weeks away!. It still doesn’t feel real that I am FINALLY buying a new house. It’s exciting to think I will be back on the housing ladder after coming off it 6 years ago – A decision I should have never made by the way. Hindsight is just wonderful. I always remember someone telling me years ago, that it’s really hard to get back on the housing ladder if you come off it and they were totally right. I have clearly ignored that advice, not just once but twice!

I swear I will never come off it again.

The first house I bought in 1998 was a 2 bedroomed semi detached house for £36,000. I sold it after a relationship breakdown a couple of years later for £39,000.

In 2004 I bought a similar house again, but on my own :). It was a two bedroomed semi detached for £96,000, I sold it in 2016 for £98,000. If I wanted to buy this house again (as this is the one I’m living in now), I would have to pay over £125,000! Holy cow – if there is one thing I can take from this, it’s property is like shares, do not sell when they don’t make you a profit and most definitely buy with the intention of keeping long term (unless you’re flipping off course :))! I know property is different to shares as it’s where you live and you may in the future need to change where you live. But if I’d have kept hold of that property from 1998, I reckon it would be worth about £145,000 now (according to Zoopla) and I would have been mortgage free in a few years – Now that would be sweet!

Ah well, everything happens for a reason I guess.

So I heard back from the promotion I applied for and guess what, I didn’t get it 😦 Maybe I was really pushing my luck going for two promotions in four months especially when I only started permanently with the company in January this year lol – God loves a trier though right?!

Never mind, at least I tried. I have asked HR for some feedback so I can work on any areas of development ready for when another role is available. I’m still loving my job and team so it’s not like I’m desperate to run away from them!

Nothing much has happened on the financial front this week. I guess that’s the problem with being paid monthly, you have to wait a whole month for anything to happen! I really can’t wait to get into the house though and redo my budget. I feel like my budget is all over the place at the moment as I have frozen all payments into the sinking funds until I have enough to pay the solicitor, stamp duty and the essentials like beds and lawn in cash. Once I have this sorted, I will redo my budget so I give myself the available funds not just over pay on debt but to buy other bits for the property. I also need to factor in paying the deposit back that I have borrowed.

I was thinking, as the deposit is £11500, to try and pay £1500 as a lump sum before I move in. As when I move in my bills will be tighter. Not sure though, they are all just thoughts at the moment.

What I Have Spent This Week

  • £21.06 Macdonalds (twice)
  • £4.19 Pets at Home – Fish food
  • £4.50 Next T Shirt
  • £7.00 Co-op snacks
  • £6.85 Newsagent – snacks
  • £35.00 Hair
  • £91.01 Petrol
  • £39.83 Morrisons Food
  • £31.10 Marks and Spencer
  • £6.05 Costa
  • £6.85 Post Office
  • £11.00 Wilko
  • £9.35 Pharmacy
  • Total £273.79

I feel like it’s been an expensive week this week and this is not helped by the two Macdonalds we had and the extra snacks we bought. Fish food, hair, food and petrol are general expenses I pay for every month apart from the fish food which is every few months.

The T-shirt I bought from Next was a huge saving as my daughter wanted me to spend £20 on a T- shirt that had a sunflower and Ukraine flag on for Ukraine day at school. Using any excuse to make something I obviously said no lol I’ll make one instead 🙂 It turned out pretty good aswell! All I did was buy a plain white T-shirt from Next and used my printer to print a copy of picture with the sunflower and flag off. I placed it underneath the front of the T-shirt and using fabric pens, I traced the picture and coloured it in. My daughter was so pleased with the result and it saved me £16.00 so I was super chuffed with that.

The Marks and Spencer cost was a couple of Summer school dresses I bought for my daughter. I don’t usually shop in there, but they were out of stock in Asda and I didn’t want to wait for the order as it had been super hot this week and she’d been too hot at school bless her.

The Post Office costs were me sending more ‘signed for’ documents to the solicitor for the house 🙂 and the pharmacy costs were from me no longer being eligible for free prescriptions 😦 apparently I earn too much now (I wish!).

I’ve had some rubbish financial news this week though. First I had a letter saying that I had unlawfully obtained free dental treatment when I wasn’t eligible and have to now pay a £100 fine and £23.80 for the cost of my treatment. I could have sworn that the tax credit exemption certificate covered the year and as mine was sent out last April 2021 I thought I was good till April 2022 – apparently not. When I double checked the certificate they sent me, I saw that the expiry was October 2021. I have emailed them to explain what’s happened and asked that they show some compassion and reconsider the £100 penalty fee but haven’t heard back yet. Fingers and toes crossed that they accept it. I have no problem in paying for my treatment or prescriptions but generally thought I was exempt :(.

I have also lost £134 on some sofa covers I ordered from the internet from https://www.lovesweetstyle.com/. I wouldn’t usually slate a company on social media but need to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY!

So I ordered some sofa covers and although they were lovely, they didn’t fit quite right and didn’t feel that great on the sofa as my sofa is leather and they kept slipping and moving when you sat on them so I decided to send them back. I went to their website and it says if you want a refund you need to email them, which I did. When they emailed back I noticed the email address was Chinese. There were no indications from their website that this product came from China. In the email, they were a bit apprehensive about agreeing to a refund but finally agreed saying I would need to send the parcel back tracked and send them the tracking number. I packaged the parcel up and took it to the Post Office who told me it would be £94 BLOODY POUNDS to send it back.

I was shocked! Why would I pay that?! The Post Office lady advised me to check with other courier companies to see if I can get it any cheaper, which I did but at 4200kg in weight, no other parcel company would quote me. So I’m stuck with it.

When I went back on line to investigate the company, I came across the reviews and they were awful. I just wished I read them before I bought. I’m so annoyed with myself but there’s not alot I can do about it now other than try and sell them on. This will have to be taken as a steep learning curve and I will never be buying anything outside of the UK for any value again.

Has anyone else experienced like this before? Let me know in the comments below.

Anyway, not wanting to end on a low – I have sold a few more things on Vinted this week and my balance is up to £25.50 so far. It’s not huge, but I like that it is making a difference to the declutter and making us tiny savings at the same time 🙂

Have a great week, thanks for reading, Heidi x

Money Wise Talks 05/05/2022

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

I am going to sum this last week up as being just bloomin exhausted!

Last weekend, my parents and I spent the whole weekend decorating the house from top to bottom, doing the garden and sorting everything out so it will look amazing when the estate agent takes the photos for it to be sold.

I’ve also been staying up late following up new crazy ideas or trying to be creative with my budget.

It’s like trying to get blood out of a stone. The fact of the matter is – I NEED MORE MONEY!

And the hours upon hours of me trying to think of ways to get more cash, I think it’s taking a toil on my health. I can’t explain it properly, but the need to earn more is so strong I can’t stop pursuing it. It’s like I’ve become obsessed.

The promotion I went for, I unfortunately didn’t get. I thought I had all the relevant experience to do the job, but I didn’t even get an interview 😦 … sad times. I have asked HR for some feedback though so hopefully I will receive that soon and can work on any areas of weakness within my application. It could be as simple as they want me in my role for a little longer than 8 weeks and of course I would completely understand that! Maybe I was pushing my luck a little two far with getting a permanent position and two promotions in four months 🙂

I am happy to stay in my current role though and work for it. Hopefully after a year there will be another position I can apply for at manager level. Unfortunately it does mean I am now stuck on this salary, which although is pretty good, it doesn’t help me in getting rid of the debt any quicker or paying off the new debt I will have shortly following the house purchase.

So back to the drawing board I go.

The truth of the matter is, I want to earn at least two full time incomes and I’m only one person. If I get one income for working say 40 hours a week, then I’d expect two incomes to be working 80 hours. Well, that’s impossible – sorry not impossible, as I’ve done it before pre-kid, however I’d probably end up really poorly and I would definitely not see my daughter, family or friends.

I just need to think of something.

I have shares which are set up to pay out a dividend income. However, I’m only earn pennies in income at the moment. This has always been a longer term income producing plan. And as it happens, I’m not making massive contributions to my Stocks and Shares ISA, just £25 per month as I’m saving most of my money for the house.

I have my blog, but this is also a longer term income producing plan and is still only earning pennies. Maybe I should get back into writing for my blog and researching areas I want to write about. I do enjoy that. Maybe I could combine my finance knowledge with my teaching experience and come up with SOMETHING where it would satisfy my need to be entrepreneurial and I’d potentially have the chance to have uncapped income.

I have thought over and over again about doing YouTube, but held back if I was going for a manager job. Maybe I’ll will consider this again. It would mean getting it authorised by work and that means telling people at work about my blog. I’m not sure how I feel about that because I like to keep things separate.

Do you have any money making ideas? Please let me know in the comments below.

And this is what I stay up for – my mind just won’t switch off!

Decluttering Update

As we are packing to move, the decluttering has become more intentional and we now spend each weekend at the tip, at a charity shop or listing things on Vinted or FB Marketplace. I have had some great wins with FB Marketplace this last week and sold a bike for £80, a barbie dream house for £80 and a few more bits on Vinted totalling nearly £20. I was so happy that the Barbie Dream House and Bike sold they took so much room up. Apart from the money I’ve made on Vinted which will be paid into my account, the cash I have received for the items I sold have been put in the pot for the 1p Challenge Sheet from Skint Dad. Still a long way to go though, but look at how colourful it is 🙂

You know how much I love a coloured savings challenge!

I had a little target to make £100 selling clutter in April, and although I only made £89.50 (as the rest was made at the start of May), I am still super happy with the result! I get at least a couple of Vinted sales a week so instead of cashing them in each time, I’m going to leave them until the end of the month.

Goals for May

The only goal I have for MAY is to SAVE as much as I can. I am hoping and praying that my wages for May has all of my tax back and I will have a good chunk of savings by the end of the month. I have paused the rest of my savings goals for now, including sinking funds as I plan to use all the money for the house if needs be. I have kept back £500 as an emergency fund and will continue to build that back up with £50 a month deposits. I’m also still investing £25.00 a month into mine and my daughters Stocks and Shares ISA’s.

House Costs

I am currently writing a detailed blog post on moving house, but as it is unlikely to be finished until I move in, here is a list of the costs of the house so far;

  • Mortgage fee £320 paid
  • Solicitors fee £1332.20 – paid £800 – £532.20 left to pay (Saved in full)
  • House Reservation Deposit £500
  • Stamp Duty £1219 (Saved £835 – £384 left to save)
  • Savings for new lawn £500
  • Savings for new beds £600
  • Savings for new blinds £500
  • Deposit £11000

As you can see, I’ve still got lots to save and still got lots to pay for!

What I Have Spent This Week

£10.38 Macdonalds

£74.48 Asda – Food and drink

£9.00 Halfords – Body Filler

£29.00 B&Q – Paint

£29.37 Morrisons – Food

£22.00 B&Q – Paint

£10.60 Library – overdue fines

Total £184.83

You can definitely tell we had a weekend at home eating and decorating! As I mentioned before, my parents joined us at the weekend and worked their fingers to the bone to get the house ready for the estate agent this weekend. So all those jobs I’d been putting off for years were done. I laid a lawn and painted the garden fences whilst they blasted through the house and painted all downstairs, stairs and landing and fixed anything broken!!

Obviously I fed them lol so that’s why my food bills are much higher this week. But other than the decorating costs and food bill, I think I’ve been pretty good this week. I’m annoyed at myself about the library books going overdue, I really to get my stuff together and stop forgetting to renew them or take them back!!

Looking forward to having a more relaxing week but you know what I don’t think it will be – It never is!!

Hope you all have a great week, thanks for reading, Heidi x

Money Wise Talks 28/04/2022

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

It’s been quiet this week and I have welcomed this with open arms!!

Life can get so busy can’t it?

The other day I was listening to an interview that Warren Buffet did that had been recorded and put on You Tube and it really got me thinking. He was sat in front of a group of college kids and said to them that he was (hypothetically) going to give them each a brand new car, but the only catch was they would only have this one car their entire life. He went on to explain that obviously if you are only going to have one car your entire life you would have to look after it pretty well for it to last the whole of your life. And you need to look after it now not when it started to get old as that would be too late. He went on to explain that this is how we should see our health. If we don’t have our health, what do we really have? Great analogy isn’t it?

Ever since I heard this I can’t stop thinking about it. All the times I have put my health last to get an extra shift in, meet a deadline, get another job done in the house or just put myself last and someone else first. Not some of the time, but most of the time. It’s no good is it?

I know I’m not alone here and this appears to be our culture but why do it to ourselves, there must be another way!

I’m sure most parents would agree, but you get used to surviving on little to no sleep and being stressed. Even when the children are away, you still worry about them.

Even before I had my child though, I preferred to work flat out over resting, sleeping and eating well. The only thing I did then that I don’t make time for now is the gym.

I definitely need to start prioritising my health and sleep. I just need to find the right balance.

Anyway, lets talk finances!

I’ve been paid and depressingly not been paid what I should have down to HMRC – Thanks a bunch! For some unknown reason, HMRC incorrectly put me back on an emergency tax code which resulted in me paying tax at 20%. When I looked into it on the HMRC portal, I could see that they changed my tax code in February 2022 to 1275L (This is currently the amount for basic rate tax payers and means you get the first £12,750 of your annual earnings tax free and then anything over this taxed at 20%). But then for some reason, they changed it to BR (Basic Rate) from 6th April 2022 😦

Urgh, give me a bloomin break!

Basically, I paid just under £600 in tax – bye bye overtime earnings. I mean, I know they aren’t gone forever and I should get it all back next month, but I hate waiting to be paid as it is and now I’ve got to wait even longer (patience was never a strong point of mine lol!)

Looking at it positively (we have to don’t we?), next months wages should be amazing, as long as something doesn’t mess up again.

Looking back over the debt repayments I have made in April, I paid a nice round £500 off. Not as much as I’d have hoped but better than nothing. And that wasn’t just minimum payments but a small overpayment to. I have also put money away this month to cover future house costs and have now managed to save the full amount of £1332.30 for the solicitor. Next bill is the stamp duty, which I should have by the end of next month. I worked out the stamp duty to be approximately £1200 but just need this confirmed by the solicitor. Once this is saved up, I need to save for a new lawn and beds.

I don’t plan on buying alot of new things for the house, but I need to downsize my bed from a king to a double as the rooms are smaller and my daughter needs to move out of her cabin bed to a single/small double.

What I have Spent This Week

£10.38 Macdonalds

£20.00 Retirement Gift

£57.86 Food and Party Food

£4.00 Cafe – drinks

£40.00 Turf

£2.75 Diet Coke

£5.95 Retirement Card

£3.85 Parcel Tape

£0.80 Pay Pal refund

£8.06 Birthday card, present and balloon

£54.96 Football boots, shin pads, football socks and boots bag

£14.34 Birthday cards

£40.00 Meal with the girls

£7.84 Morrisons

£60.86 Petrol

£6.85 Post Office, special delivery document to solictors

£9.45 On the road snacks

Total Spent £347.95

We have a couple of things on this last week resulting in some extra spending. We threw a surprise retirement party for my parents who have finally both retired now – I’m so jealous lol!! I am so happy that they can both enjoy the next part of their lives after working so hard for so long 🙂

My daughter started football after school so I had to but her the kit. So glad I was helped by the football Mums and Dads in store because I had no idea what I was doing lol!

I had a lovely meal out with the girls, which was super overdue. There are four of us and we call ourselves ‘The Gossip Girls’ on our WhatsApp group lol! Three of us were celebrating promotions and the fourth was celebrating a few huge milestones in her business. Two of us are currently buying properties as well. We are all so happy. 🙂 I love seeing my friends succeed. It makes me feel really warm inside.

I’ve not heard about the promotion yet, only that the process is still ongoing so fingers crossed I hear soon.

I’ve got something else bubbling away too. I swear my minds never stops!

That’s it for me this week. Take care

H

Money Wise Talks 21/04/2022

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

I’m back after another loss in our family. RIP Grandad.

I completely lose focus when people die. Not just focus but everything. All my motivation and even things I am working so hard for just get lost in the grief. It’s so sad to be sad.

And in all that sadness, I feel embarrassed to say that this year for me personally has been my best yet. With a new job, new career and some of the most amazing news that I’m going to share with you very shortly, I feel guilty to be so happy in my own life when it has been cruelly taken from my brother and grandad this year.

I know life goes on. And that’s whether we want it to or not but the last few weeks instead of writing my blog I reflected on happy memories of us and just how lucky I am to be alive, even on the most darkest days. I must try to not take life for granted when it doesn’t go my way, or is challenging.

But now I’m back and I want to say how much I’ve missed it! I won’t keep you waiting anymore …

The news is …. I’VE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

I’ll just let that settle in a moment 🙂

I have finally bought a house. Yes I’m still in debt (and have more now :\) But let me tell you, this house is my dream house. New area, extra bedroom, a downstairs toilet, big garden without the 90 degree angle, it’s a NEW BUILD and the icing on the cake is it’s in the same area where my parents are.

Ever since finding myself as a single parent ten years ago, I’ve wanted – no actually I’ve yearned to move back to the area where I grew up. Where my most precious memories are. Where my friends are. Also, my parents moved back to the area last year and this only made the feeling towards moving back there even stronger.

And it’s happening. I’m still in shock. All the worry I had about paying all my debt off, then saving (probably for years) enough for a deposit and then wondering if I’d still get a mortgage when I’m knocking on the doors of 50+, has now all vanished because it’s happening! I plan to do a detailed post about the property journey so I will go into all the nitty gritty details there, but yes folks. Dreams do come true.

I’ve never bought a new house before, but let me tell you this – choosing kitchen units, worktops, carpets, flooring and tiles is the most exciting thing I have ever done – even if it has meant the debt has increased!

That’s the only bad thing, the debt has increased. Not just because I’m going to be getting a mortgage but I’ve also borrowed the deposit. All these details I will put in the property journey post. At the moment, I have stopped overpaying on my debt so I can pay cash for the mortgage arrangement fee, solicitor fees and stamp duty. And once I have been in the new house for a few months and can see what my new bills will look like, I can review my budget and start overpaying on the debt again.

Don’t get me wrong, I still want to be debt free and this will remain my focus until the debt has been paid off. As I’ve now got the house of my dreams, the next thing on the bucket list after being debt free is to focus on increasing wealth so I don’t have to work till I drop! This is starting to feel more doable even though it seems a long way off 🙂

Of course I have taken thousands of pictures of my new house being built. My friend made me laugh when I kept sharing the weekly update pictures as she says it’s like a pregnancy but for a house lol! The new house could be built as early as June, with a potential move in date of 30 June 2022…EKKKK! The packing has started and I am LOVING the decluttering opportunity! We have been doing a weekly trips to the charity shop and tip and Vinted and FB Marketplace sales have started to increase too.

I set some goals for April 2022: Make £100 selling things, £10 weekly food challenge and a no spend month. As the month as gone on, the no spend challenge wasn’t happening as I was having to pay left right and centre for house stuff, then the £10 food challenge went out the window because I just didn’t give myself the time to focus on it properly, as I’ve been spending every breath either working overtime, packing or DIY in the house I’ll leaving! It’s never ending, but I’m not stressed because I’m too excited!

I will continue with the £100 challenge from selling things though as it aligns with my current focus of making money and decluttering and have made £30 so far – only £70 left to go. I need to list a few large items to FB Marketplace in the next few days so hoping they are sold by the weekend.

What I Have Spent This Week

£31.46 Cinema

£45.21 Tesco food

£12.17 Macdonalds

£0.87 Car park

£6.15 Texaco

£19.68 Tesco beer and breakfast

£73.77 Petrol

£139.96 Sofa covers 🙂

£8.98 Washing line props and stick on house numbers for wheelie bins 🙂

£5.58 Morrisons- brown packing tape x 2

Total £343.83

Looking at what I’ve spent this last week and considering it was half term, I don’t think I did too bad. The cinema was a half term treat and included the tickets, parking and snacks. We only had one takeaway which as you know, is pretty bloomin amazing for me!

We went my brothers farm a few hours drive away so I put a full tank of petrol in. Petrol prices have come down a little since I last bought a full tank. I also bought beer and breakfast as a thank you for him putting us up. These weren’t eaten and drank together by the way! My daughter and I love it there. It is so peaceful. Watching the sheep dog Jim working his magic with the sheep had us all staring at disbelief in his ability to manage all those naughty sheep so effortlessly. It was amazing.

I have told myself not to go mad and start buying everything new for the house – It’s definitely a challenge! However, for a while now I’d planned on getting covers for the sofa as my parents gave me their old sofa which is lovely and so comfy but the colour is completely wrong for our living room. So I have ordered some navy blue sofa covers. Hopefully this will break up the cream and look lovely and homely.

Finally, my last bit of news is I have gone for YET ANOTHER promotion! I know what you’re thinking, “She’s only been in this new job two months”, and you would be right of course. Don’t get me wrong, I love my current job but when I saw the advert for the promotion I just couldn’t not apply. I have all the experience across all my career and think I’d do a great job so though, why not just go for it!

I mean, this year is turning in to the year where everything I’ve worked so hard for is coming true so why not this too! It’s more money – £8k a year more and let’s face it, with this new house and extra debt I’ve taken on, I bloomin well need it lol!! When I think about whether I should go for opportunities, it always brings me back to – What’s the worse that could happen if I don’t get it? … and you know what, absolutely nothing. If I don’t go for things I believe to be out of my reach, then I’ll never have them or find out what it’s like to have them.

So my advice is GO FOR THEM ANYWAY!

I should find out this week if I get shortlisted so will keep you all updated – Wish me luck! Hope you all have a good week.

H