you might want to track every expense and income you have in a spreadsheet, so you can track it better and on a timeline. there are some free tools on the web that will help you do so.
good luck.

I don't always get receipts (I don't for driving lessons). I was saving them, but I never worried too much about cash as I didn't think we spent that much. I now see we were wrong >.<;

The theory test is the written part of my driving test. I can't really not do it, although it is expensive. But I knew learning to drive would be expensive... I'll need probably 50 lessons which is £1250! Plus the theory and practical tests on top of that :/

He is applying to lots of jobs - he didn't get the one he interviewed for, but he's applied to two others and is waiting to hear back. One of the ones he applied for, I found out they had 164 applications. So it's just.... a bad place to be for jobs I think.



This is what I used Pear Budget for, but I'm obviously not handling it properly. :/

Why wouldn't you get receipts for driving lessons? Are you paying tax on the fee you're paying for the lessons?

You should demand receipts, especially if you're being charged tax. My concern would be that without receipts, your driving instructor could be neglecting to claim your payments as income, and pocketing the money without paying income tax on it. If he's charging you tax, then it's doubly bad, because he might not even be submitting the tax he's charging you (since there's no proof the transaction took place), and pocketing the tax he's charging you, too!

Finally, you may be able to claim your driving lesson fees as an education expense, and get a tax refund for it. All in all, always demand a receipt, especially for services (as opposed to products), where there's otherwise no proof the transaction occurred, and the vendor could be illegally failing to claim your payment as income and paying proper income tax on it.

I would imagine that my instructor is registered as self-employed and pays income tax on the money she gets. I'm not particularly well-versed in the tax system, aside from filing my own tax return each year. She is a member of two professional bodies and fully credited so I very much doubt she's on the fiddle.




Unfortunately not - can only claim them if they are required for my job, which they aren't - I just want a better job, and being able to travel outside of my tiny rural town would be helpful in finding one!

I don't think receipts are issued by any driving schools 'as standard' - only if requested. I'm sure she would if I asked her, but it would be a hassle for her on a lesson by lesson basis, since I pay her in the car.... and I doubt it's something she's been asked before, so she might not have a system in place.

I think I'm going to ask her if I can block book 10 lessons in advance which would be easier for my budgeting (and cost £250, sigh).


I'm going to start posting weekly spending reports on here.

Since you would be handing her 10 lessons' worth of income up-front, you should see if she'd be willing to do a discount for buying them as a package. She might be willing to take something off (even if it's just 5%, that's better than nothing).

Is it possible for you to reduce the overall cost of your driving lessons by taking fewer lessons? 50 lessons seems excessive. (But, I don't know what driving is like in the UK, so maybe not!) Are they required? Here in the US driving lessons are not a requirement for taking the road test. Many people just have a patient friend or parent take them to a shopping center parking lot to start and then onto the roads. When I took my driving test I had a total of *three* driving lessons from a professional driving school (which included a lesson on the highway) and a bunch of practice with my parents in the passenger seat. AND, I was 16 years old. Surely, you could obtain your driving permit without 50 lessons, thereby saving quite a lot of money?! Just my two cents.

No, you don't have to take lessons. But the UK driving test is fairly tough, and 50 hours professional instruction is the average (it takes some people less, and some people more obviously).

I am not a particularly natural driver - I find it difficult to judge when I can safely join a roundabout, or how slow I need to be going to 'wind' through parked cars/moving traffic safely. I'm good at parallel parking etc.... but I get intimidated by busy roads, which makes me unsafe - and I would fail my test for being too slow at getting out of junctions etc. I need road practice, but I don't live with my parents, and none of my local friends have had their license for long enough for me to legally drive with them in the car (and it would be a hassle for them add me to their insurance).

I'm too slow at changing gears as well, they would definitely mark me down for that.

She gave me a £1 off every lessons, so the whole lot was £240 instead of £250

Thanks!

Nice! Not quite 5%, but close enough.

Debt
Student Loan: £11952.02 at 0% APR.
Credit Card: £0

Assets
Checking: £154.37
Emergency Fund: £241
6-month CD: £100 @ 2.35% (1.88% net)


From 25th March to today

Food---------- £212.10
Bills-----------£707.18
Cash---------- £110.00
Driving-------- £240.00
Spouse--------- £172.59
Health---------- £31.58
Insurance------- £16.76
Misc.----------- £10.46
Takeaway-------- £16.70
Debt Repayment--- £65.62
E-Savings------ £130


------------- £1,712.99


Actually spent more than last time :/ but I earned quite a lot this month (£1,864.88) so we do actually have +£151.89 positive difference.

However, I'm on holiday next week (dependent on UK flights anyway) as my parents are taking everyone on vacation. They are going to give us some spending money too (yes I have amazing parents, I know) but I'm going to expect some spending of our own money too.

We spent too much on food, but we don't seem to be able to change that £190-210 spend range. That's about £100 each for breakfast, lunch and dinner over the month, which I averaged out to be under £4 a day each. I don't know how we can get it much lower than that without making a major sacrifice. I'm wondering if I can persuade the spouse to join me on a 'seriously frugal' eating week next month, where we eat nothing but noodles and frozen veggies :/

The misc. was some plants I bought - a strawberry plant, rosemary plant and some pansies + soil. I don't regret it!

The insurance was travel/healthy insurance for the spouse for next week.

The takeaway was a pizza - we were both stupidly tired and lazy and just ordered it. It's the only one of the month though.

Bonuses of this week:

We got given a free bike!
Spouse applied to two more jobs (weekend bartender and waiter at a small cafe)
I'll get my 'pay increment' pay-rise and some overtime pay in my next paycheque which comes on the Friday/Saturday of next week.


Also, yes, this is InterfaceLeader. For some reason the forum won't let me log-in or send me a 'password reminder' email... and yet I have my original sign-up email so I know it's the right password/username/email combo. Oh well. Hello again

Back from holiday, and...... *drumroll*

Hubby got a job not a great job - he's a cleaner at a betting shop, and it's an hour a day 5 days a week. Anything is better than nothing though!

Also, I got my pay rise for the year, which means my base pay went up around £50 a month. Good times!

Too late to jig my budget about right now, but definitely going to be another inch of breathing room now

Congratulations to your hubby, and to you for getting your pay raise.
I hope you enjoyed your vacation as well. I'm ready for a vacation.

What is a betting shop? Can he ride the bike to the shop?

Congrats on the job and the pay rise! Sounds like things are looking up.

It's a place where people go to gamble on horses and football matches etc. It's only a 5 minute walk down the high-street, so that's a plus.

Shockingly, he also got a job interview today - for a much better job that's full-time, and pays a real salary The interview is May 12th, so you never know - we might be looking at dual income soon. They had a lot of applicants though, so I'm not sure how it will go. But cross your fingers that our run of good luck continues

From 25th March to today

Food-----------£231.43
Bills------------£719.11
Cash-----------£305.42
Driving Lessons--£240.00
Spouse----------£172.59
E-Savings-------£130.00
Health----------£31.58
Insurance-------£16.76
Misc.-----------£33.94
Eating out-------£16.70
Credit Card------£65.69

-----------£1,963.22

Income was £1,864.88 which gave us a -£98.34 balance for the month, although if you take out what was transferred to e-savings we have a balance of +£31.66.

Spouse started his new cleaning job this week, and he also has two job interviews lined up next week - a local supermarket on Monday, and a government job on Wednesday.

I worked out our entire running costs for the year to date and we are running at an overall deficit of -£559.59, adjusted for what was put into savings accounts. Most of this was racked up in January (we somehow ran a -£860 deficit in January and have very very slowly been making ground on that since)

Our free bike got taken away again However, I have been offered a free car by my brother so I'm not that upset! He turned 21 this month and bought himself a new car and is giving me his old beat-up one.

I've also been given the go-ahead to book my driving test. There's about a 2 month waiting list, so I'll aim to book one in late July.