Our attempt at being MF!!

CathT

Hi Lulabelle, feedback from one viewer which is the usual 'liked it, have others to view' and waiting for the other viewer. Hard not to get your hopes up isn't it but I'm ok!

Payday for DH and wages are wrong! :mad: money shuffle done, few things paid and will pay the rest when I get paid at the end of the week. The plan is to clear a cc this month as 0% card ends. The stoozing card will increase initially but can hopefully claw back next month (5 week payday for DH and dec sees us get two CB payments). Christmas needs to be extremely low spend!

I am however looking forward to beginning the new year in a much better financial position than last. Think I might trawl through my diary and see exactly what position we were in! We have done no major home improvements this year so the balance has steadily been decreasing.

67p Tilly tidy made and I have also budgeted £35 for the rest of the month for food. The money is in a envelope with a tally written on it. If it worked for past generations it can work for us! If it keeps us in check I may continue it. Might make us think twice if we have to get a whole £10 note out to buy wine :rotfl:

CathT

lulabelle1 wrote: »

Did you get any feedback/an offer yet?

I watched the eat well for less programme too - the thing that frustrates me is that we do everything that they recommend.... we shop in Aldi every week and then go to Mr T afterwards for the things we can't get in Mr T.... we never buy brands (well, just a few items, but not that much), we look for offers, cook from scratch and don't really eat like oinks, yet we spend an absolute fortune. Shaking head and shrugging shoulders over here!!

How much are you spending? Have you tried a spending diary? We average £225-250 most months including wine (cheap stuff!)

newgirly

You should do an update from the start of the year cath

atypicalblonde

Hi Cath, we spend around £300 per month inc beer, wine and nappies. Some months more, some less. We eat a lot of meat and I buy a lot of cleaning products (I really enjoy it!)


Have a lovely day, hope the wages get sorted


Best wishes, ATB xx

CathT

I think I will Newgirly, I think I wanted to reduce WIOTW balance by £12,676 and we are not far off :j

Hi ATB, that's not too bad when you consider it's for everything. I remember tracking spends last year and managed a few months around the £200 figure, that's practically impossible now!

Wages not sorted as yet so will have to check account in the morning. I am eager to get this cc paid off so that's where the money is going once it hits the account.

Caffeine reduction going well, I actually think I have gone off coffee!

CathT

CathT wrote: »

Time for some goals for 2015. I have been playing around with the spreadsheet a bit and trying to knock months off!!

We are on a 2.99% fixed rate until April 2019 so lots of time to maximise OP's.

DS will leave full time private nursery in July which will save us money but we will really benefit after the summer holidays so at that point will start to OP an extra £250 a month. This gives us an extra OP of £1000 for the year.

Financial goals



1) Reduce mortgage to £89,000
2) Reduce WIOTW figure to <£100,000

This means finding an extra £2,745 on top of what I have already planned. This is almost £53 a week so will have to come from disposable income, selling of items, TCB, savings on food budget and overtime. With all those options it is do'able.

I need to do some maths and work out how I give myself a goal in '% of target achieved'

Current WIOTW £112,675

Target reduction £12,676
Will update this on a monthly basis to track my progress!

Quoting this for reference, we are not too far off!

HelenDaveKids

Our aim is £500 but I fail each month. I do include everything though, so any meals / drinks out, the dinner money, toiletries, cat food, cleaning stuff. Still feels way to much.
I have tried though, I shop at Aldi but use Asda and FF too. I am happy to use value products.

CathT

I bet your actual grocery spend isn't too high at all Helen, mine also includes toiletries/cleaning products and wine. It is a big outlay though isn't it and the only area I feel we can control!

35p Tilly tidy made this morning. Roll on the end of the week for my payday.

Arkers

Hi CT and Helen - re the grocery spend I think it also depends upon the ages of your children. I have 2 x 6'3'' late teens and they eat an enormous amount. They also seem to be constantly asking for things in the fridge and treat cupboard, it's hard to say no as they look starving! I think it's all relative.

lulabelle1

Ok, here goes..... We spend approx £150 per week. Sometimes a bit more and sometimes a bit less. I have spreadsheets to record all spends (and maintain account balances) and have done so since I left home (it was manual on notepads prior to having computers!).
This includes anything that is bought from the supermarkets; so food, drink, packed lunch stuff, cleaning products, toiletries, cat food, alcohol (although we don't really drink very much - maybe 1 bottle wine per week) etc etc.

Meals are always cooked from scratch. We do like nice food though and pretty much have a proper meal every night - so things like salmon, chicken, mince, roasts etc. We rarely have sausages and don't really eat things like fishfingers etc (but when we do it's Aldi fish fingers). All fruit and veg comes from Aldi as does most of the meat and most tinned goods along with pasta, rice, cheese etc etc.

We don't have any other spends on lunches each day with the exception of DS1 who has money put on his account at school to pay for his school lunches. DH and I always eat at home as we both work from home. And, DS2 gets free school lunches until next year.

I'm going to start paying closer to attention to things as I unpack and put away the food shopping though to see whether there are things that we can cut back on.

I guess we could eat more pasta dishes etc (but without the addition of meat) as this could save a few £'s.


On another note, viewing can be very disappointing - they seem to be all enthused and then when the usual feedback comes, or worse, no feedback at all - it can get disheartening after a while. I think you do the right thing going out when people come round - I stayed in as I was working from home and found myself feeling like I wouldn't even want to sell my house to the loons that were looking around. Maybe thats why it was a good thing not to move, I wasn't ready to let go!!