No Money, thats No Good!

.NoMoney.

**Kat** wrote: »

Hi, I have a young son in nappies so I know what you mean. We have managed to cut our spend from what you posted down to less than £80 (so far) for the month. It will prob reach the £100 mark by the end of the month but I am hoping it won't go any higher. We did it by being inventive, writing a list and sticking to it and down branding some items (no kellogs cerial/heinz beans etc). The only thing we won't debrand is the nappies as I know for a fact it's a false economy (our son leaks out of anything other than pampers active fit).

I haven't looked at snowballing yet as I think it will tell me I will be in debt of some sort forever and I refuse to believe that. I am just trying to save money to pay off my horrible bank reserve and will go from there. Just try and overpay (even if it's by pence - look at Woo Woo's diary for inspiration) of those high rate cards and you will be on your way

We are quite good with non branded food - we don't have Heinz beans even though the current crop don't cut it taste wise I am learning to live with it and the kids have Asda's 2 for £2 cereal so that's not too bad. A large expense goes on my lunches as I generally work 12 hour days so have to take a lunch with me and usually something for dinner as I am not really in the modd for eating when I get home at 8.30 in the evening - fortunately that's only 3 days a week.

This weekend was pretty good on the finances front - we had nothing planned for Saturday until my wife's aunt dropped a belated Birthday card for her through the door (her birthday was on the 18th). She left a grovelling apology and £20 which we decided to use to treat the kids - so off to the local cinema for their £1 each for all films followed by Pizza Hut (half price discount voucher and kids eat free deals!). All in all a good family day for nothing!

Sunday was spent at the in-laws for Sunday roast, a free and fun day. My sister in law came down with her other half and his daughter, so my little ones were occupied for the whole day allowing us adults to relax.

Anyone else have a NSW? (No Spend Weekend).

.NoMoney.

pennywisepoundstupid wrote: »

Well done on getting the egg card thats a real result.

Thanks - I was surprised to be honest as my credit rating is not what I would consider good. Still, not going to argue and we are considering trying to get my wife one to maximise the benefits.

**Kat**_2

.NoMoney. wrote: »

Anyone else have a NSW? (No Spend Weekend).

Far from it unfortunately. I spent far too much money on the weekend due to Halloween . Well done of your NSW :j

hangers

Good luck with your mission.

Could do with sorting ourselves out, very hard being self employed in building trade as never know what our income will be...and always chasing builders for payment.

:j

.NoMoney.

Hangers - the hardest part it sitting down and sorting through your finances and making that initial step. Since doing that things seem to be easy.

I was browsing the Egg website last night and they have a money manager facility (which allows you to keep all your online accounts together there and only requires you to log into this to view them all. Does anyone else use this? Could be a useful way to keep track of all finances.

I relatively quite Monday for me, was working an 11 hour shift (clocking the overtime) so made lunch at home to keep me going although still spent my customary 20p on the lunchtime entertainment.

I had to spend £20 putting some petrol in the car for the wife - but she can claim some of it back through work expenses so shouldn't be too bad and it was an unavoidable expense.

Tuesdays are usually good days for me moneywise so hopefully I can keep the pennies down. Fortunately now that all the bills and debt repayments have been made, knowing exactly how much I have left to get by with has made it easier for me to budget.

.NoMoney.

Another day passed without spending - only because took the little one to see Nanny (my mum) as she hasn't seen her for a week and she took us out to lunch. I have Wednesdays off work (keeps the cost of childcare down) and my mum usually works every Wednesday, so made a nice change to catch up.

On a bad news note, the surveyor fed back to us that the roof damage isn't covered under our Insurance but the concrete guttering does need renewing - I can't imagine that will be cheap! However, it is something that cannot be done now, so hopefully it doesn't rain too much this winter.

**Kat**_2

.NoMoney. wrote: »

On a bad news note, the surveyor fed back to us that the roof damage isn't covered under our Insurance but the concrete guttering does need renewing - I can't imagine that will be cheap! However, it is something that cannot be done now, so hopefully it doesn't rain too much this winter.

It makes you wonder what exactly IS covered by home insurance!! My parents had the same problem with a leak and was told (obv not like this but short story) it was their problem for having a flat roof!

.NoMoney.

Exactly - they put it down to wear and tear which is the Insurance Companies favourite thing. How they can decide that cracking in concrete guttering that wasn't there when we purchased the house developing that quickly was wear and tear I don't know.

I guess that's why they are the experts and not me.

hirondelle

Hi .No Money.

sorry to hear about your guttering, specially with all the rain thats coming down at the moment.

You seem to be doing really well at keeping your spending down.

.NoMoney.

hirondelle wrote: »

Hi .No Money.

sorry to hear about your guttering, specially with all the rain thats coming down at the moment.

You seem to be doing really well at keeping your spending down.

Thanks.

I seem to be doing ok at keeping the spending down but haven't yet made any headway into clearing the mountain of debt. I guess once the Egg card is delivered and I transfer some balances it will start to improve.