Double Trouble but twice as nice

taxi73

Great news on the coat and computer part...go you fixing it yourself.

Karmacat

Woo hoo! Congratulations!

gilligansyle

Not often you get to celebrate spending some money.

:j:j:j:j:D

Glad you got coat sorted, and good luck with the laptop.

Double_Trouble

This is confession and kick up the bum time :eek:

I have been on this forum since Sep 2008 and my first post was on Hypno's thread whose progress I have followed avidly ever since - but what have I been playing at?

I have never posted a SOA because I could not face the criticism of how I spend my money (although I don't think Hypno has either so it is not essential;)) I have however read about budgets, envelopes, spreadsheets, separate pots etc. with interest but until this year have never done them either I have done back of the envelope calculations and I have paid off a substantial amount of debt, transferred it all to 0%, joined Quidco etc. so some things have gone in.

So why do a deserve a kick up the bum?

It is the realisation that today is the end of the fourth week (how time flies) of my new budget and spending diary and each week (even when I have had to do an expensive trip to Cardiff which I will be doing this weekend too) I have been under budget some weeks substantially under budget. When I first set this budget I had serious doubts about whether we would be able to do it. I have obviously still to test out the budgets set for more occasional items, car maintenance, central heating oil etc but they look OK at the moment.

So the question is where has all the money gone over the last 27 months when I was supposed to be living post LBM?:mad:

The good news is that the deficit is going down it is still substantial so won't be gone any time soon unless I can up my income but once it is gone I cannot see any reason why I can't start debt busting again and in any event I am still paying off some debt with minimum payments etc.

It also provides a buffer for when mortgage interest rates go up which has been worrying me.

So that's it I have obviously been messing around for the last 2 years but this month has shown me that we can do this and we will do it however long it takes - I feel quite emotional - soppy cow

DTxx

Cheery_Daff

Don't go kicking yourself up the bum DT! (or getting anyone else to do it for you - doing it yourself might be quite a challenge! :rotfl:) Looks to me like you've done LOADS over the past couple of years, and you've done even better in the last few weeks, well done you! :T :T

Perhaps you not knowing where your money goes, and you not wanting to post an SOA because you might get criticised are part of the same thing?? I'm certainly not saying you have to at all (I never have I don't think!), but perhaps you could have a good look yourself and have a think about what you *think* people will criticise you for - which is probably where your money has been going... And then you have to decide whether that's important and you want to keep it (like Hypno's cleaner), or whether it can go.

Well done for coming this far! :T :T

se999

Well done on setting the budgets and keeping the spending diary.

I honestly don't know how people cope without. We also use cashflow forecasts, as even though the annual budget balances there are always good and bad months, which average out over the year, but you can have a big shortfall on cash versus expenses, e.g. classics for us were starts of term for school uniforms and school needing cash for lots of things, general children's clothes each spring and autumn as they outgrow them. Christmas. Holidays. Car mot, tax and insurance and service - normally all in the same month.

I think in the good months it's easy for people to think they've got spare cash and relax a bit, when in fact you need to save it for the bad months to come when all the expenses land at once.

The other thing is that this years info will make it so that next years budget will be more based on this years actuals and timings, so it should normally get more accurate as you go on.

Double_Trouble

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Don't go kicking yourself up the bum DT! (or getting anyone else to do it for you - doing it yourself might be quite a challenge! :rotfl:) Looks to me like you've done LOADS over the past couple of years, and you've done even better in the last few weeks, well done you! :T :T

Perhaps you not knowing where your money goes, and you not wanting to post an SOA because you might get criticised are part of the same thing?? I'm certainly not saying you have to at all (I never have I don't think!), but perhaps you could have a good look yourself and have a think about what you *think* people will criticise you for - which is probably where your money has been going... And then you have to decide whether that's important and you want to keep it (like Hypno's cleaner), or whether it can go.

Well done for coming this far! :T :T

Since I have started this budget I have looked very carefully at our spending but still at a loss to work out where all the extra has gone not helped by the fact cc statements only go back 6 months online. The main area I think I was worried about being criticised for was our giving to charity which when we had almost 90K of debt most people would see as unecessary but it is important to us so although it has been curtailed it still forms a major part of our budget and I would be very reluctant to remove it altogether things would have to get really bad.

I know I was too generous with the children as well but the older ones know the current situation and have agreed that it will do them good to live within a budget too and we are trying to teach the littlies although at the moment they keep mentioning holidays which they never have before which is typical as that is not in the budget this year because even though we have our own house airfares are high in school holidays, we have to hire a car because of where the house is and food is very expensive out there.

DTxx

Double_Trouble

se999 wrote: »

Well done on setting the budgets and keeping the spending diary.

I honestly don't know how people cope without. We also use cashflow forecasts, as even though the annual budget balances there are always good and bad months, which average out over the year, but you can have a big shortfall on cash versus expenses, e.g. classics for us were starts of term for school uniforms and school needing cash for lots of things, general children's clothes each spring and autumn as they outgrow them. Christmas. Holidays. Car mot, tax and insurance and service - normally all in the same month.

I think in the good months it's easy for people to think they've got spare cash and relax a bit, when in fact you need to save it for the bad months to come when all the expenses land at once.

The other thing is that this years info will make it so that next years budget will be more based on this years actuals and timings, so it should normally get more accurate as you go on.

The sad thing is that I am really looking forward to having had a full year on our new budget so that I will have a much clearer idea of our situation :eek:

This month is quite an expensive month for us because of car insurance and MOT and the cashflow is one thing I will have to watch which is what I mean about the budgets that I have set at an annual amount being more of an unknown factor. It is the weekly general and food budget which I was worried about and which seems to be fine and I still have cash in my purse which is unheard of at this time of the month I never had enough cash to last four weeks I always had to draw out more

It is really making me think.

DTxx

Keeping_Motivated

DT I can relate to the 'where does it all go!'. When I look at our outgoings and our surplus I am shocked as the is 'alot' of surplus but it seems to vanish lol...I like to think I am MSE and I am in many ways but in others no so much

I mean we don't exactly live a frivolous lifestyle but I have to admit we do not go without and have what we want within means....we don't have debt 'as such'.....what I mean by that is we do have the car on an interest free card and we do have the mortgage but nothing else which I see as necessary BUT they could be being paid off if we took care of the surplus

I need to rein it in and start doing what you are doing so I will be reading your progress with interest.

Keeping_Motivated

DT re the children asking for a holiday...could you do days out which they will probably love more than the stress of packing, flights etc...how far away are you from a beach in summer, couple that with a picnic and they will have a ball....drives to a forest with a list of things they must find ie pinecone, squirrel etc etc and you will have happy children you don't need a 'big' family holiday for that.