Yorkshirechicks MSE blog

Yorkshirechick

Well I've been reading a couple of the other blogs, and have decided to bite the bullet and start my own, so I can keep track of my spending, which this month has been hideous :eek:
Well I'm 27 and live with my OH who is 28, and our DS who is 8 months. Also our dog and 2 cats. I'm on maternity leave still, but am back in 2 weeks We will be very skint when I go back to work, as we'll have to start paying our mortgage again (been on a break for 6 months) and will also have to start paying for childcare too which will be roughly £380 a month.
So - I need to start planning our budget very carefully as both OH and I are a bit pants with money, and like to eat out a lot.
I'm also going to try and put a spending diary on here too.

Today I actually had a No Spend day :j
Although I should probably try and keep track of OH's spending too (as he won't be able to) he bought some milk and a paper.

Spends (me) 0 :j Spends OH 2.27

Yorkshirechick

My little boy is poorly today poor love :sad: so we're not going out anywhere - at least it will help me with not spending.
He's currently asleep again, so I'v had a quick shower and bunged a cake in the oven. It's a banana cake that I've never made before, so fingers crossed it will go ok. Was hoping for a NSD today, but had to borrow 2 eggs from next door, so will have to buy them some to replace them. I also need to get some veggies too, so will have to nip out to the supermarket once OH gets home.
I'm also going to take some clothes back to Next and Debenhams that I bought last week, so I'll be making a bit of money back there too :j
I've been invited to a conference at work too (on my 2nd day back), but we get a catered lunch, so at least I won't have to make any lunch for me on that day.
Am going to try and get some lunch now before DS wakes up.

ZoeGirl_3

Hope your son feels better soon, I was such a worrier when my son was little and sick lol

Also hope the banana cake went okay, if it turns out a littly strange just make a nice caramel type sauce lol and that will make it taste fine again. :rotfl:

Oh, and I LURVE work catered lunches lol

Yorkshirechick

Not updated this for a few days.

Well DS is back to normal now. OH and I caught it too, so Tuesday and Wednesday we both spent all day shivering under a duvet on the sofa - we're all ok now though.
I haven't really spent much this week as we've all been ill I've not really been out. On Thursday I met a friend for lunch in the pub, and spent a fiver exactly, then bought 2 double deckers for a pound. Then on Friday I went to see my dad, and bought a few bits from Home Bargains and Aldi - spent about £12 all together, but it was all things we needed.
We did spend £42 this morning though. We had to buy another roll of wallpaper for our bedroom at £15 a roll :eek: (Only need 2 rolls though, it's for a feature wall). Bought a big fleecy blanket for us to snuggle under on the sofa, and a small one for DS' pram, also a Xmas present for DS and a few other bits.
We're had a really good week with Ebay though. Sold my laptop for £232, a pram we don't use for £57 (only paid £40 for it), some DS games, and a DS. Thing the total is just under £350 :j
We have to pay out £280 next week :mad: We got an alarm fitted in April and sent a cheque to te alarm company, but they never got it, and we never realised. So that's £280 that we hadn't budgeted for. It's a good job we made so much on Ebay.
I'm dying to get another pushchair too now I've sold the old one, so have my eye out for a bargain, won't be spending a fortune though.

Yorkshirechick

Have had a no spend day today :j and only bought dog food and bread yesterday.
Am starting to get worried about money again though as have had a letter from our mortgage company today, and our mortgage is going up from £1180 to £1390:eek: Am just trying to re-do the budget now to see if we can survive or if we'll have to up our term. We only owe 20 years at the moment, so I suppose we could up it to about 35 years if need be. It's all because we had a 6 month mortgage holiday whilst I've been on maternity leave. Part of me wishes we hadn't had the break, but then I wouldn't have been able to have the time off with DS, and I wouldn't wish that away - no way.
I think I'm going to re-do the budget now, and then post it on here so I can see it in black and white.

Yorkshirechick

Right here goes - this is my new budget

OH wage - £1619
My wage - £1111
Child benefit - £75.20
Child tax credit - £42.40
Total Incomings - £2868.62

Mortgage - £1383
Council tax - £107
Childminder - £354 (can pay for this with childcare vouchers, so hopefully will go down by about £100 as will come out before tax)
Groceries - £125
Fuel - £120
Nappies - £22
Water - £25
TV license - £11.61
Pet Insurance - £24.36
Home Insurance - £25
Life insurance - £37.46
Gas/Elec - £85
Landline - £13
Mobiles - £40
Broadband - £5
Child trust fund - £10
Car Insurance - £40
Tax/MOT - £25
Xmas - £25
Eating out - £40
Total Outgoings - £2517.43

Yorkshirechick

If I've done my calculations right, then we should have £200 a month to put in savings, and £151.19 to spend on anything else we may need through the month. Well I'm really surprised, but it looks like we'll manage :beer:

ZoeGirl_3

Somehow it seems the first time you put a new budget into action stuff just happens lol and you think hmm, where does this go...so having that money to spend on whatever else during the month is a good idea. :T

I have been re-doing by budget as well, trying to scrape more money into savings lol not finding much :mad: hehe think I have already scraped it all out...

Yorkshirechick

Well we would be able to manage if we started on an even keel. However, as we spent so flippin much last month (went a bit silly i think) we've started the month about £400 overdrawn, and so can't pay all the bills etc without going overdrawn again.
I'm going to just do the best I can to really stick to the budget this month, and just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Looks like the spare money we would usually have has been by the overdraft this month, oh well I've told OH he's not allowed to spend ANYTHING without asking me first this month, poor bloke :rotfl:

Yorkshirechick

Well this morning I did a meal plan for the whole month, and then went and got all the shopping for it (we already had a lot in though). It came to £65 and that was including 2 pairs of curtains at £10 each, so really the shop was only £45. Then I went to the green grocers and spent another £9, so total atm is £54. We'll need to top up with things such as bread and milk etc, but should manage that easily, so I'm really pleased and think we'll be able to stick within the £100 budget this month.
I've also bought a months worth of formula to leave at the childminders, and a month worth of nappies too, as Monday is my first day back at work in 10 months :eek: .
We also took a shoe rack and some other bits back to Ikea that we don't need, so we now have £85 in credit for Ikea :j. The only money we spent that was slightly frivolous was on a Burger King this afternoon, and that came to £6, and came out of some cash OH had, so won't mess with the budget.
All in all, not had a bad day, and now just got to get through the weekend knowing I've got to leave my little boy on Monday

penguin83

Hi YC - hope work goes ok for you on Monday - I was booking a weeks leave within a few days of going back - it felt like I had never been away!

It may be a good idea to keep a spending diary and write down absolutely everything that you buy. It will help you to see how accurate your budget is and keep track of where everything is going!

The only other thing I can suggest is check quidco when your insurance renewals are up for cashback.

Well done on your grocery budget by the way that is excellent x x