Mooooving Into 2010 - Bovine Adventures In Budgeteering!

mooomin

Thanks for the present advice, I'll be on the lookout for cheap books for the next couple of weeks!

I'm off to total my spreadsheet for September now, back soon!

mooomin

Evening all

The totals for September are in!

Bills - £352.62
Groceries - £245.85
Other Sh*te - £252.19

Total Spend = £850.66/£3,000 with three months to go....I might make it!



Now, a little analysis....

The bills are the following:

• Scottish Power (Boo!)
• Orange (Me)
• Vodaphone (Mr Fresian)
• TV Licence
• Bus Pass
• Home Insurance
• Union deduction
• Life Insurance
• Holiday savings
  
• Pet Insurance
• Virgin Media

This means that I have not included my mortgage, debt payments/PADs and Council Tax. It's not too bad when you look at it really! Groceries are quite high this month but my grocery month runs from 23rd to 22nd as the 23rd is payday, so there are a couple of big shops in there. I have spent little this month so far on groceries.

Now, lets look at Other Sh*te....Big spends are noted here:

1. Wedding costs - alteration of my bridesmaid dress being one at a whopping £35.
2. Flowers for my mums birthday £19
3. Tickets for Alice In Chains :j £52.47
4. New trainers £29.99

There are also the little silly things that I have spent money on....coffee/tea/lunches being a big one at over £20 for the month. This doesn't sound huge until you remember that I essentially stopped spending on the 23rd due to realising I was going to be £355 short....:eek:

If I spend the same again next month I am going to be £400 over the challenge I have set of £3,000 spend. I have plans to combat this. For now, I'm going to update the October spreadsheet!

kissjenn

That's organised.

I'll have to find a Wednesday Mystery Shop for dinner and a movie!!

EssexHebridean

Ooh - a plan. I like a good plan!

Some of the extra spends couldn't be helped - but as you say it's the odds and ends that get frittered that make the big difference there isn't it. Including the coffees etc that you've mentioned there is about £100 of other spending isn't there - I assume that figures in the plan you mention? (Did I think to say, I like a good plan!;)) Is the coffee at work a vending machine or something like that then? can you maybe do something like taking a flask in, or perhaps have one in the morning then have a big bottle of water that you drink for the rest of the day?

Not having kids myself I really struggle with buying christmas pressies for our Niece and nephew - until I started thinking about what sort of things I loved at a similar age - Early Learning still do most of them so we've now done building blocks in all sorts of wierd and wonderful shapes, stacking cups that can stack into a tower or be used for putting things in, a sort of spirography/ink blot thing which my BIL loved too, and other bits like that. This year will probably be arty-stuff for the 5 year old and something soft and puzzle-like for the 2 year old. The older two (16 and 14 going on 21 & 25!) are getting vouchers and lumping it - not a chance I'm trying to second guess what the pair of them might like!

mooomin

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Some of the extra spends couldn't be helped - but as you say it's the odds and ends that get frittered that make the big difference there isn't it. Including the coffees etc that you've mentioned there is about £100 of other spending isn't there - I assume that figures in the plan you mention? (Did I think to say, I like a good plan!;)) Is the coffee at work a vending machine or something like that then? can you maybe do something like taking a flask in, or perhaps have one in the morning then have a big bottle of water that you drink for the rest of the day?

There was loads of other nonsense in there - dinner out with friends, tights, an emergency lipstick (For the wedding I attended) Things like the entertainment side of it is budgeted for each month - I have reduced this to £45 this month for example. The nights out stuff I don't worry too much about as it's been budgeted all year and I have never gone over the budget.

Coffees and things were sheer laziness. I have been taking my flasks in every day since the 23rd of September and haven't bought any coffee from the vending machine (Even if I do it's only 25p per cup) :j Today I didn't have my flasks (I left them in the office on Friday so I could go out after work) and was happy drinking water all day, although my boss did buy me a tea without being asked which was nice.

So far in October (and we're only at the 5th) the situation is this:

Groceries = £21.21
Bills = £165.66
Other Sh*te = £6.30

The Other Sh*te in this case was drinks after work on Friday and this was paid for from a specified budget, so it's ok

Also, I have counted this as 5 NSDs so far as I have spent no unbudgeted money.

EssexHebridean

That's good going then FF - I do something similar - I have a set amount I take out of the cashpoint when I shop on a friday and that is my spending money for odds and ends for the week. I rarely spend money on weekdays anyway as there are no shops near work! It's one reason I don't do the NSD challenges as it's an unusual week when I don't have at least three of them! (four in the winter months when I don't have speedway on a thursday).

Having said that - £45 found its way onto the CC yesterday as I had to buy new boots for work.....the left one had a hole on the toe and the right, a hole in the sole, I was fed up getting wet feet each time it rained so new ones needed getting! :rotfl:

cocalls

morning
re pressies how about some paint your own piggy or even cow money boxes i think they're selling them for 2.99 on amzon-get them money saving early and it'll keep for ages and a nice activity to do aswell!

Ive pm'd you the code

mooomin

cocalls wrote: »

morning
re pressies how about some paint your own piggy or even cow money boxes i think they're selling them for 2.99 on amzon-get them money saving early and it'll keep for ages and a nice activity to do aswell!

Ive pm'd you the code

I received a paint your own money box last year and spent a very nice hour decorating her

Code received and input into the website. You put the code in and it becomes a cow you release into your virtual herd - I have named the latest cow Cocalls in your honour :T

cocalls

flying_fresian wrote: »

Code received and input into the website. You put the code in and it becomes a cow you release into your virtual herd - I have named the latest cow Cocalls in your honour :T

I'm blessed thank you!

moo2moo

OOOhhhhh I'd included council tax and mortgage repayments in my figures, if I deduct them it makes an enormous difference to my total. I might just do it after all. Not that I can deduct them as I've done evrything in biro and I'm not writing it all out again.Haven't had the balls to work out just how much we've spent over the last few days but its not pretty and I'm thinking its going to be £300 ish.