Hypno's spending diary for June.....

mineallmine

Hypno,

Wow you are really working hard at this. Good to see your children are doing their fair share too.

So with the ski-ing stuff, is it paying for the events themselves, kitting your children out or general spending at the events - which is the worst most expensive bit? I know nothing about ski-ing and laughed at the waxing comments above, but are there associations you can join which offer benefits? Or are there ever any offers via a specialist magazine or website?

:A

hypno06

skiing - hmm, where do I start.....

It costs a flippin fortune! Probably the best part of £10k a year if they are out on snow. Training, (to include schooling if it is termtime), travel to their base/airport, equipment, race entry fees, insurance, several pairs of skis, clothing.....in the summer they race on the dry slope circuit, so entry fees, food/drink petrol and accomodation where necessary.

We try and keep it to a minimum by:
- not doing all the races - we only do about a quarter of those we could do.
- buying second hand kit and clothing where we can
- selling on kit when they have grown out of it
- sharing lifts/accomodation where possible - we are all "good friends" on the circuit, and sneaking extra bodies into a family Travel inn room is a speciality :rotfl:
- the children go without (literally) birthday presents and Christmas presents to fund their skiing. They don't have a playstation, Wii, or anything else that many kids take for granted.
- we work at the ski club for free - for every hour we do, the kids get a free hour skiing. This means that all local level training is free, because we work for it. National level training though has to be paid for and is expensive.

and so on.......:D

mineallmine

Hypno, it really sounds you've focused on everything that you can. Plus if you enjoy the ski-ing then that's priceless in a way (except £10k as you mentioned!).

The only other area where you have small spends really (but every penny counts) is on bus-fares and stuff. Could you get a lift or buy weekly bus tickets to save money?

I like the noting of spend and avoidable spend totals. You may like this to read this about budgeting and envelopes:
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081008_tows_thriftiest/8

A bit further on is about the Heinz family:
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081008_tows_thriftiest/8

:A

hypno06

I only spend on bus fares when necessary and it is done via a 10 trip ticket which basically gives you 10 trips for the price of 6. We did have two cars, but sold one last year, so we share a lift where we can but sometimes due to both of us working extra, it is necessary for one of us to get the bus, but it is not often, and our 10 trip ticket lasts a while.

The children have to get a bus to training after school twice a week, but again, they have a 10 trip ticket (child rate).

DD goes to college one day a week, which we currently pay for - county hall say the school should pay, the school say we should pay.....we are "in negotiation" as they say but I hope that we will get a refund of this year's fares and next year should be sorted out before the start of term.....work in progress.

savingholmes

Hi hypno - you are not adding to your debts tho are you?! I thought you were just not overpaying as much as you'd like LOL? Give yourself some credit... I haven't updated with my last few days spend... need to work it out [£535 some of which reclaimable as expenses]. I went up to London for an interview which hopefully I can claim most of the costs back on - but also met up with sister and paid most of her costs because she is unemployed....

hypno06

no, am not adding to the debts - heaven forbid!!

Our books have never balanced - we just work extra extra hard, do extra hours, all the mse stuff, have a lodger etc to cover the shortfall, pay for school trips and skiing, and make the overpayments.

Anyway, back to the spending diary - today has been a NSD :j

So total spent today - £0 :T
total spends for June - £468.89

of which £117.28 completely avoidable....;)

savingholmes

Well done on the NSD - my spending totals are worse than I expected but I]insert excuse here[/I completely justifiable I am sure! I]not[/I I haven't even done the weekly shop yet!

Verbatim

Well done on the NSD

Karmacat

Hiya! Just back on the bus tickets thing. I don't know if the scheme runs around your way, but we have day saver tickets here, if you buy them on the bus they're £3.60 each time. If you buy a set of 5 in a shop, they're £3.20 each. But if you order them online, they're even cheaper, at £3 a go.

duchy

I discovered our local arriva buses do a "one hour" ticket that works out a bargain if I have a stop to make enroute to anywhere just outside the "inner" zone day ticket. Very handy for mystery shopping-which reminds me-having packed DS off to London to meet his Dad I'd better get myself ready to hit Mr T's -whatever possessed me to accept a MS in a supermarket for a Saturday ??? DOH Working at three so need to get a wiggle on.
Ah well pub lunch on MS tomorrow -they do a reasonable roast so that's the plan before heading back for work.