Hawaii before 50

Woowoo

Hi RP

Sorry to hear your still feeling poorly, glad the school have put your mind at ease about being off though.

£4318.28 since August is a great achievement, you have very nearly done 50% already.

RumPunch_2

But what the signature doesn't show is that I seem to have lost (as in can't account for) some this month. Either that or our spending is out of control...

Woowoo

Have you trawled through your online statement to see if you have forgotten anything?

Ceniza

eBay isn't great for clothes and booked, I mean you'll get a couple of pounds for most stuff, but don't bank on making a lot more than that really, unless they're rare books

RumPunch_2

Thanks, that's why I've never really bothered with ebay before, don't think you can sell holidays on there that you've had and that's where most of our money has always gone.

Have just looked at last months spending in more detail (mine and joint), from my quick calculations £280 went on food which means £70 a week which isn't too bad but we can perhaps do better this month. Apart from the occasional buy we take lunch each day so this is everything and includes household things so covers toilet paper! We said £50 per week, big effort this month. Big shock, think we have spent £390 on petrol. That's quite staggering. Did some long journeys last month (Yorkshire, Cardiff, Chippenham, Norwich twice) so it should better this month but it makes you think...

It was an expensive month for birthdays etc, both nieces, uncle, mum, 2 friends, colleague, 2 engagements (1 present, 2 cards) and 1 anniversary (1 card) Here is the rest of the spending… we obviously haven’t cut back enough but it is difficult when you’ve been used to spending a certain amount without budgeting. Any ideas anyone?

£10.00 Petrol
£3.18 Food/Household
£57.88 Petrol
£9.21 Food/Household
£50.86 Food/Household
£12.65 Food/Household
£6.25 Food/Household
£3.00 Food/Household
£30.01 Petrol
£3.21 Food/Household
£14.25 Birthday Present (work colleague’s 40th)
£24.09 Food/Household
£7.49 Books for School
£6.00 Food/Household
£10.00 Hair Cut
£6.47 Food/Household
£5.73 Food/Household
£59.00 Holiday Inn
£21.00 Toiletries
£22.70 Butchers
£54.99 Virus Software
£2.00 Food/Household
£35.03 Printer Ink
£6.03 Food/Household
£50.02 Petrol
£5.26 Food/Household
£4.08 Coffee/Lunch (return part of journey, took things from home for outward part)
£3.33 Books for School
£94.02 Food/Household
£60.90 Books for School
£37.98 Shopping for Father In Law
£11.20 Toiletries
£35.00 Petrol
£5.00 Airport Tax
£4.15 Food/Household
£5.48 Food/Household
£36.75 Lunch with friend (treated her as she was really really worried about money)
£4.89 Toiletries
£3.11 Food/Household
£43.30 Chinese Meal with absent husband (he works shifts and hadn’t seen him properly since holiday in August)
£69.68 Petrol
£15.00 Birthday Present (Niece 2)
£56.25 Engagement Present, Wrapping Paper, Engagement Cards, Birthday Cards, Anniversary Cards
£51.10 Take Away (drove to visit father in law in hospital)
£41.75 Meal (away from home and for relatives)
£9.79 Birthday Present Part 2 (Niece 2) and more cards
£3.14 Food/Household
£54.92 Petrol
£2.78 Coffee (for journey)
£36.85 Petrol
£5.07 Shopping for father in law

Kepp

Food jumps out as although it doesn't add up to too much at £70 a week maybe you would find it easier to save if you meal planned a bit and just shopped once a week?

We do £40 a week for two of us including cleaning products/toilet roll etc so should be do-able.

Also, (too late now!) but rather than paying £50 odd quid for virus software there are some pretty good versions that can be downloaded for free (legally as well!)

Hope that helps

Kepp

Have you ever done an SOA?

That helps remind you of the little things you spend money on and also helps to budget for gifts etc

Woowoo

I spend £60 a week shopping for me and the OH, that includes £12 on dog food and all other household items including deodorant and stuff like that as well.

RumPunch_2

beccie wrote: »

Food jumps out as although it doesn't add up to too much at £70 a week maybe you would find it easier to save if you meal planned a bit and just shopped once a week?

We do £40 a week for two of us including cleaning products/toilet roll etc so should be do-able.

Also, (too late now!) but rather than paying £50 odd quid for virus software there are some pretty good versions that can be downloaded for free (legally as well!)

Hope that helps

Thanks beccie, the thing is, we did meal plan (and mostly stuck to it), we also did a lot of batch cooking. The smaller amounts tended to be odd things we had forgotten off the bigger shops and fresh things like milk, salad and vegetables that we buy locally when we need them. I take salad every day for work so get through quite a few salald items (trying to avoid bread and lose weight).

I am frustrated about the virus software because that disappeared automatically on the credit card and I had wanted to cancel that anyway. The email reminder went into a different folder in my email account, lesson learnt on that one!

RumPunch_2

beccie wrote: »

Have you ever done an SOA?

That helps remind you of the little things you spend money on and also helps to budget for gifts etc

We're actually hoping to get to a situation where we will have different savings accounts for the house, cars, presents, christmas, holidays etc. For now, as the aim is to clear the debt, it is still all coming out of one pot so to speak. I could be wrong, but rather than budget for different items now, I just want to pay off the card as quickly as possible and take the hit on presents etc as it happens. It's just that considering we were economising we had a very expensive month!