Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

louby40 · 10 September 2017 at 11:42AM

My DP has crackers with cheese or jam for his supper, he'll also eat 2 packets of crisps, fruit and will sometimes have a bowl of muesli

crunch_time · 10 September 2017 at 3:21PM

Husband also says 'we have no food!' When we do we have just run out of snacks! &#55357;&#56834;

So trip out to park with no spends today! We took flasks of tea and coffee and snacks from our (massive) snack tin. Well done us!

However, we forgot to get the chicken out of the freezer and didn't notice until half an hour ago so husband has nipped to sains for some breaded fish and potatoes for fish and chips as the chicken wouldn't have defrosted in time. It can come out of next weeks food budget and the chicken can be fast forwarded to next week.

So my flea bay items ended today and I have made £40 before fees to go on the credit card.

Spending the afternoon tidying and getting ready for a busy week ahead. the bathrooms are calling to be cleaned!!&#55357;&#56873;

Crunchy xx

Hiddenidenity · 10 September 2017 at 5:24PM

Just catching up, Amazing news on the mortgage

x

sugarcube84 · 14 September 2017 at 12:45PM

Just found your new diary after you commented on mine, i'd wondered where you had gone!!

Lovely to see your updates on the house, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

crunch_time · 14 September 2017 at 12:48PM

Afternoon all

After spending a few days wondering how to juggle all our future outgoings, I've just spent an hour or so going through my budget with a fine tooth comb. I've done a % category budget that looks like this:

Housing - 30%
Savings - 8%
Holidays, childcare and swimming lessons - 12%
Utilities - £14%
Food - £10%
Transport (car payment, fuel and maintenance and car replacement fund) - £15%
Entertianment - 3%
Christmas & Birthdays - 2.5%
Clothes - 2.5%
Stuff (furniture, things we need to buy) - 3%

I'm very happy with it. Some categories like housing leave us with wriggle room to allow us to pay off the impending moving costs.

I'm very much hoping it will keep us on the straight and narrow and make us realistic about our money and where it is going.

Right, enough of this now. Must get on and pack up ebay parcels.

Crunch x

Seasidegal58 · 14 September 2017 at 1:16PM

Your budget is looking eminently sensible crunchie! And well done on having some wriggle room on the housing category. You'll find that invaluable.

SSG x

crunch_time · 14 September 2017 at 8:50PM

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Your budget is looking eminently sensible crunchie! And well done on having some wriggle room on the housing category. You'll find that invaluable.

SSG x

Thanks seasidegal.

I had planned to rejig the budget like this back in May once we had paid off the loan but then got sidetracked with having a good time and then moving house. Finally found my way back to what I was doing.

I've shuffled around who is paying for what from mine and the husbands salary and I'm now paying for food which is great as we just have to make it to Tuesday and then the food budget can be refreshed which is good as there is only £14 left in the pot. I'm going to have to get creative with what is in the cupboards.

Crunchy x

Seasidegal58 · 15 September 2017 at 8:35PM

I find Jack Monroe's recipes are really helpful if you are down to eating out of the cupboards. I bought her book when I started debt busting and it's paid for itself over and over!

SSG x

crunch_time · 16 September 2017 at 7:41PM

Evening all

I have some bad news (not horrible bad just bad for me).

I had to pay half of my course fees yesterday - £1200!!!! And the other half will come out in 3 months time!!!! I start in January and it will be so worth it but i cant help but fell uneasy about it - that's a lot of money to put on our credit card.

I also received my credit card bill for August and it didn't add up with my spreadsheet and I had a few things unaccounted for that I had forgotten about from our holiday and so on. SO all in all I now have a massive...

£7232 of debt!!!!!!!!!!

And its only going to get worse as we have so much still to pay for for the house.

I know this is all for the greater good and we have decided on some life changing things sooner than we had the money for but I cant help but feel a bit arrggggggggghhhhhhhh about it!!

Husband has told me not to worry and it will all be ok. We are talking about being very frugal over the winter and I will still focus on my new % categories budget so that every £ has a goal and a place to go according to what we need it for. The horns are most definitely in and I will be thinking about NSD's massively. I have decided to record them on my kitchen calendar so I can see them and focus on the good things in life.

I cant believe i lost my way so much over the summer. I feel awful about it and so guilty about my children. I'm going to turn it around for us in a sustainable way.

Off to find some frugal inspiration.

Crunchy xx

crunch_time · 17 September 2017 at 9:18AM

Morning diary,

I feel a bit better today. Even though I know it's going to get worse before it gets better.

I read a few motivational quotes on pinterest this morning about debt and feel motivated to get this sorted in a sustainable way.

Husband and i are having a massive tidy and clean of the house today as it's got out of control over the last few weeks and it's making us miserable.

I'm also going to be cooking for the week.

In positive news I managed to post a blog post last night and put it on instagram - I now have 11 followers!!!! Ha ha!! I've got to find my niche and then I can market it properly. I want it to become a money making machine and then passive income.

I also managed to post my music magpie parcel yesterday - only £7.11 but every little helps right? It's also got rid of the last lot of cds we don't use anymore.

Any ideas where I can get rid of an old pushchair and high chair the no one on gumtree is interested in? Charity shops won't touch and I don't want it to go to landfill.

Crunchy x

Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free