inspiration??

Smiley_Mum

I spend £40 a week on myself and two little ones (each with a good appetite). Sometimes have some money left over but not always. We eat a lot of wholemeal pasta, rice, flour products etc. They burn more slowly rather than refined white pasta, rice and flour etc where there is no fibre in the products, so the body converts the starch to glucose straight away and then five minutes later you're hungry again. Wholemeal products keep you going. Porridge for breakfast topped with fruit of any type and yoghurt/chopped nuts/seeds which keep you going too. I eat breakfast at around 7am and a good bowl of porridge topped with the above keeps me going till around 11am.

I also try and pick up stuff which is reduced in the supermarket, bread in particular and I can just throw it in the freezer and take it out as I need it. Local supermarket usually knocks stuff down at around midday most days, so pick up bread and various things that I can freeze then.

We have baked potatoes with fillings a lot and homemade soup made in slow cooker too. Bulk it out with rice or pasta too.

Check out the OS board for info on low cost meals.

Take brown bag lunches. You could do tortilla wraps/pitta breads etc and make up your drinks at work or water from the cooler etc if you can.

Apply for freebies on the freebie board, something to look forward to in the mail.

Allow yourself a small treat once a week so you have something to look forward to.

When it comes to maintaining the car etc, tyres, repairs etc try asking for discount. The worst that can happen is they say no. Or have them do a free oil change if you've had to get tyres or something. Worth a shot.

Don't shop when you are hungry either.

lottie26_2

I'm sorry you are feeling this way,To keep my motivation up I come on here everyday.
I also have taken to write lists all the time of how much i'm going to pay off this or that even though I already know it seems to help.
I have also stapled every single reciept from what I have bought in my diary.
Just keep thinking of what you want, write a list of the things you want to do, the places you want to see when you are debt free etc, good luck.

bank_of_slate

There will always be times when it gets you down and you think, what the hell, it's only money.
keep posting on here, it really helps you to focus.
Keep checking on the 'Freebies-no spend required' forum on here too, it's like shopping, there are loads of goodies to be had!
...Linda xx

BWZN93

Queenie wrote:

Ok, skye - I have a few more thoughts for you to ponder on.

Currently, boyfriend gives you £300 pm but it begs a few questions you may need to ask yourself:-

~ How did you both arrive at that figure?

~ How long ago was the figure set?

~ How often do you both sit down and review it?

~ Have any of the household outgoings increased since you first "agreed" on that amount?

~ Is it realistic?

You may need to have another think about who is responsible for paying what, when and how.



You are approaching the income/expenses/debt from the viewpoint of a single person; yet live as a full time couple. If you soak up the day-to-day living expenses ie: housing, utilies, food etc., from *your* income and b/f contributes a regular £300 pm then, in financial terms, the relationship sounds more like landlady/lodger?

Perhaps it's time to rethink how you approach the issues of finance as a couple? In which case, it would be your *joint* monthly income and your *joint* financial commitments that would give a truer picture for you to work with.

For example:

If you matched b/f's contribution and put £300 per month into the household kitty, that's £600 pm in the kitty to budget for rent, council tax, utilities, food.

Looking at the figures you gave, £600 wouldn't cover those basics let alone the items that haven't featured in the equation such as home furnishings, repairs, replacement household items, insurances etc.



Inspiration comes from having a clear direction/target/focus on a longer term aim. Without that, we are all prone to quick-fix-must-have-now-excitements. You need to plan your life! Just like planning for a holiday.

You need to have a clear idea of your goals (financial, career, personal) , both as a couple and as individuals. Short term and long term.

This is exactly what I was about to pick up on too! At the moment my boyf isnt working and is only contributing his half of the rent, so I have been paying all the other bills so far, as well as the food etc. Looking at your budget, it is clear that his contirbution isnt anywhere near half of what your joint expenditure actually is.

Do you have a joint account for the bills to come out of, or are they all from yours? Im guessing you have a similar set up to me, all the bills are coming out of your bills account and you put your boyfs £300 in there? If so, this has got to stop asap. You need to sit down with a pen and paper (or martins budget planner!) and look at what the bills are now and what they would be if they were equally split - it is a massive chunk and I think you would be suprised at just how much you are subbing him - easily enough to pay more than minimum on one of those credit cards.

Once you know the basic expenditure plus food, show it to your boyf and tell him that you need to start paying off your debts, this is what the basic household expenditure is and this is what I need from you to cover your half. It might be worth having three accounts, one for your spends, a joint one for the household bills and one for your personal bills. As soon as you get paid, transfer your household money, transfer your minimum payment money and other stuff like contact lens dd's to the other, and what is left is your other money. From that, transfer overpayments to your debts and what is left over has to last you for going out, fags, entertainment etc until next payday. If you can see exactly how much is left you are less inclined to wildly spend on whatever takes your fancy, you know everything is paid till next pay day so there is no panic, and finally, cut up all the credit cards bar one, and freeze that one as an emergency only option (in a bag of water in the freezer!).

HTH

Jo xx