A path out of the Jumble

Thanks LMSTM I know what you mean about it seeming like others have it a lot easier. It's funny thinking back to my teenage dreams - I've achieved some things I never thought possible, so I guess it works both ways

Thanks for your kind words DIA whenever I'm having a tough time, I always try and remind myself that it's only temporary. Then also remind myself of all the things I do have and what I should be thankful for xxx

Morning Diary,

Woke up feeling like today was going to be a planning, tidying and organising day I always feel better when my house is tidy and I've got a plan.

This morning I'll be doing a budget review of September to help me move into October with the right mindset. My pay day is the 24th, so each month starts a little early in our house if it works I might keep it up, in a similar style to my weekly reviews, they're good at keeping me on track

I already know an emergency fund is needed and after starting to read Dolly Rockers diary, I've been thinking about a holiday fund too yes, debt freedom may take a little longer if I allow for emergency and holiday funds. Yet it's not having a savings plan of any kind that got me here, so thinking about a regular amount for those things that come up, such as Christmas, birthdays, dentist trips, holidays.

I'm a firm believer in having things to look forward to in life, I've learnt before if I'm too strict - I just end up throwing the towel in! I've done this with weight loss as well too, hmm starting to see a pattern here :rotfl:

I'm going to keep an eye out for free events/activities in my city too, we went to a fab free art gallery on Saturday and I really enjoyed it having fun and making memories doesn't always have to come with a hefty price tag.

I also need to finalise hotels and train tickets for our London trip in November :j I'm so excited to be going, just need to make sure I'm on the right track budget wise.

Hope you all have a lovely day

Jumblerina xxx

I've decided to do a review of this months budget to help me see where things have gone well and where I need to make changes. I'm hoping this will help me keep on track and catch bad habits before they start to impact my quest for debt freedom.

I've been using the spreadsheet that helped me pay off £8.5k in a year and it's worked well for this month, I'm going to make a few changes for next month to give me greater visibility of exactly what I'm spending my personal allowance on.

Overall budget for September: £2761
Actual spend for September: £3047.51 (- £286.51 :eek:)

Food Spends

Budget: £275
Actual: £291.55 (-£16.55)

I've done a few top up shops this month for bread, milk etc. which I don't normally do, yet these have helped us to make our own lunches and not spend £3-5/day each. At the start of the month I spent £75 on a weekly shop while I was still getting in the zone on budgeting and I think that's the biggest impact.

Travel

Budget: £110
Actual: £84.51 (+£25.49)

Yay – somewhere I've come in under budget I've started to take the bus where I can and when my bus pass comes through that will really help with costs there. Next month I'll just keep focusing on taking the bus.

Personal Spending

Budget: £150
Actual: £352.13 (-£202.13 :eek: :eek:)

This is where I'm most over budget, mainly due to unexpected dental costs (£137.70), forgotten subscriptions (£9.99) and eating out/takeaways (£86.98). There's a few things I can do to keep on track with this;

1. Review all my subscriptions to make sure there aren't any surprises in future
2. Record my eating out/takeaway budget on my spreadsheet separately and keep to budget
3. Start a savings plan for dentist/opticians/prescriptions - anything I don't spend can be put towards my debt re-payment.

Household bills

Budget: £649
Actual: £641.01 (-£7.99)

These costs tend to be pretty static, the only variable tends to be the home phone costs if we need to use it. We mainly use our mobiles, apart from 0845 numbers etc.

Puppy Costs

Budget: £218
Actual: £229 (-£11)

Here I forgot to budget for his booster shots (£16.77) and some shampoo/balm for his dry skin (£21.98). I was hoping to come under budget this month as I saved £80 on his dog walker due to her being on holiday. Need to budget for his regular expenses such as worming tablets, food etc as he's eating much more now at almost 5 months.

Debt Payments

Budget: £1250
Actual: £1332.97 (-£82.97)

I've paid a little more this month and the rest has gone in my savings to pay off balances as they get to the end of the 0% deal. My budget already includes over-payments on all my cards, when I get my act together with my budget, any surplus each month will go into my online saver to pay off the cards.

Other costs

My mobile phone bill has been higher for the last 2 months due to a mistake by @2, I'm hoping it will be all sorted when my bill comes on 4 October - when I'm due a big credit this will help pay for my bills for a couple of months!

Extra costs for unblocking the drains, was very, very reasonable at £25 and shows the importance of an emergency fund.

Need to be mindful of this as I start to put together my budget for October.

Jumblerina xxx