A Money-Mastering Maternity

t2rry · 7 February 2016 at 11:35PM

Another push, another £25 sales agreed. To all complete tomorrow hopefully.

Hubster has the day off tomorrow so also hopefully he can watch DS while I clear out the garage to find more to sell!! That and the garage needs a good sort anyway

note3 · 8 February 2016 at 11:51AM

Well done! Must feel great to be selling all the stuff, not only for the money but for the space too

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja · 9 February 2016 at 1:07PM

Just checking in to say well done, you are doing brilliantly! The sales are going really well xx

t2rry · 11 February 2016 at 7:31PM

Evening diary.

I am feeling a little deflated. Everywhere I save at the moment, the saved money gets swallowed up by something else. I feel like I'm just fighting to keep us level and not relying on the credit card to get to the end of the month. Just the little things here & there are really adding up. I think everything is okay, then we need more formula, or nappies, or food...!

I will keep fighting to the end of this month, and will have kept all my debts as they are right now. I will not add to them. Not even a penny

I think I need to reassess my budgets & make sure they're realistic. I've never upped my food budget since having DS and of course £10 a tub for formula adds up quickly when our budget is only £200!!

crunch_time · 12 February 2016 at 10:42AM

T2rry - I felt like that too!! I found I was getting through £50 a month on formula but used my child benefit for that. I started off using the one beginning with A but then someone pointed out the one beginning with C was exactly the same but £1.50 cheaper. Damn marketing!!!! It made a small amount of difference. Just before we started weaning both babies were getting through a tub every 5-6 days!!!

It would probably be best to up the budget as even when you start weaning there is extra food to buy too. I was convinced that they would just eat a little bit of ours so our budget wouldn't change but they don't. Yogurts for 2 children for roughly 1 each a day costs me £4-5 a week!!

It is frustrating. I'm sure lots of people end up in more debt during maternity leave so even paying some off yours is really admirable. My friend continued her level of lifestyle during her mat leave - lots of expensive socialising, 3 foreign holidays (yes - 3) and then wondered why she needed to go back full time to pay off the debt!

Just keep plodding on. You've got this. xx

note3 · 12 February 2016 at 11:06AM

It does feel like that doesn't it! I guess you can at least take comfort in knowing you haven't added to your debt which is fantastic. You have to cut yourself some slack but perhaps revisit your expenditure to be sure where money going?

t2rry · 17 February 2016 at 9:11PM

Thanks peeps!

I am revisiting expenditure and upping budgets for next month to really get to a reasonable level where we can ensure we don't go over and work out what we actually need

We use the formula beginning with A but our HV told us it's the best one. I'm wary to move to anything else, I have been told repeatedly that the one beginning S is also quite good but that C is not. Hmm...

In other news, struggling for sales recently. Boo. I need to do something more.

t2rry · 25 February 2016 at 2:21PM

Just gave up an hour and twenty minutes of my life in the MSE birthday giveaway. Got nothing!!!

Why I bothered I don't know, I never win anything!

I'll keep to slogging away for tiny gains. Back to swagbuckking a little, on my way to making £5. Big whoop!

t2rry · 25 February 2016 at 10:35PM

£6 sales done, £4 agreed for Saturday

And first £5 earned now I'm back swagbuckking. Think I'm going to take Amazon vouchers though. I'd like to take the cash to save but we want to buy DS some swimmers, so may as well make more of the free pennies. Just need to earn enough to get the swimmers for next to nothing now

t2rry · 4 March 2016 at 4:45PM

Dear diary

Money saving seems to be moving slowly. A couple more small sales agreed. Tiny in fact. Barely worth mentioning.

'Minimum' payment off OH credit card has gone. It's 'minimum' because all my minimum payments are rounded up. I have five pay days of maternity left. That is not much.

We have car Tax and MOT due this month so a lot is set aside for those. Insurance then due next month and I usually pay in full for the year. these do not help finances!!

A Money-Mastering Maternity

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