Lynn's MFW Diary

setmefree2

well done on all that progress :T

Lynn11

Payday for hubbie yesterday and trying to do finances for May which is a 5 week month. Anyway it seems that his wages are down £70 a month due to the increase of NI, but I get an extra £8 a month in my wages. Will need to look at the finances and maybe reduce the amount going into saving slightly so that we still have money to live normally within the month.

chirpchirp

Sorry to hear about the setbacks. I noticed you have abandoned the grocery challenge which is a shame as I haven't been doing it on here but had been doing it in my head - its made quite a difference to my finances. Perhaps if you try again you might be able to claw back some of the £62 you are losing each month.

Good luck with sorting out the budget for May.

Radish72

Hi Lynn

Well done of what you have acheived so far, even with that set backs you have had, you seem to be coming out of them strongly :T

Lynn11

chirpchirp wrote: »

Sorry to hear about the setbacks. I noticed you have abandoned the grocery challenge which is a shame as I haven't been doing it on here but had been doing it in my head - its made quite a difference to my finances. Perhaps if you try again you might be able to claw back some of the £62 you are losing each month.

Good luck with sorting out the budget for May.

I am still taking note of all of my expenditure for the month on a spreadsheet, but when I am paying for nappies, bum cream which is £6 for the big tube at least once a month I am not making my target of £200. Hopefully if I manage to get daughter potty trained in the summer I maybe able to achieve my food target. This month which is classed as a 5 week month in grocery terms we have spent £280 on groceries, nappies, toiletries, cleaning products etc. I am still trying to get good value for my groceries and hopefully we can do better next month. Thanks for your support

chirpchirp

Hi Lynn

Maybe you have set your grocery challenge too high( or too low if you get my drift) I have two children 7 and ten and just myself to pay for - I have school dinners 3 times a week and they have school dinners each day so I don't count this in my grocery shop. This months shop will come in at just under £150 but if I counted school dinners it would be much harder to say this is less than £200 (although there have been holidays this month but most of that time they were elsewhere).

Obviously the nappies etc will be expensive which is why I think that maybe the £200 is setting your goal too high. You seem to be doing really well getting your groceries as low as you are. Let's hope for a good summer so you can get on with the potty training!


Good Luck and well done.

Lynn11

Well its the 30th of April and for the month of April I managed to overpay £320 (better than the £250 originally anticipated). To date have managed to overpay £1320. Not sure if my target of £4000 will be achievable but time will tell.

March I worked out that my daily rate of interest was £8.24 and in april it is now £8.18. I am well chuffed with this and I think it is mainly due to the fact that I overpayed and pay the original amount together at the start of the month. The new standing order is set up to be taken at the beginning of the month and I can do my overpayment then also and hopefully we can reduce the daily rate as well for May.

Went on the scales this morning and found that I had lost 1 3/4 lbs off so that an 11 ib loss so far - need to keep on going and try to lose lots before my holidays in June.

StuartGMC

Lynn
That's all really good progress - enjoy the weekend!

evab_2

Well done with your over payment. x

Lynn11

Made May's overpayment today of £260 and hopefully I can make another small payment later in the month, when we receive some money from TCB.

Hubbie tried to open RBS ISA and savings account and sent all paperwork and cheques to them via post. Anyway they have opened the savings account which is rubbish interest rate - no sign of the cheques or opening of the ISA Cash plus. RBS are investigating but now he is seriously thinking of not opening it up and seeing another us which are semi decent rates with access. We will see what they say about it.