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Learning to Live on Less!

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  • That is far too much hard work for a Monday morning White Iris! :D

    Work gets in the way of my house being like a show home and being a domestic goddess (well that's what I tell myself anyways :p).

    My car insurance is up soon too and so I am going to start looking around. Want to see if I can get a good deal off Compare the Market as I want a merekat :o Although being sensible I need to see if Quidco have any good offers at the moment :cool:
    Just keep swimming!
  • Oh you said you were not feeling productive and then do that shipping list of work!

    My goodness woman, what can you do when you are productive?
    Trying to shift that debt!
  • White_Iris
    White_Iris Posts: 723 Forumite
    We're having a bit of a money dilemma here. We have managed with one car for about three years now but it's becoming more and more difficult. We had planned to move house so that I could walk to shops and activities for the children but that's just not happening and the way the housing market seems to be going, we could still be here in a year. :( So we are looking in to buying a second car on a tiny budget - we could probably afford about £500 and as long as it wasn't a complete lemon the running costs could be fitted in to our budget without too much trouble.

    The first stumbling block is insurance - it would need to be insured in DH's name as he currently has no policy of his own (our current car is registered and insured to me as I had the better driving history at the time) and so, no no-claims-bonus. This means that the insurance is almost as much as our car budget (but hopefully this would drop significantly after a year or two of claim free driving). We have no cash for the insurance and so this would need to go on the credit card. :mad:

    The second problem is a difference in opinion between DH and myself as to what we need out of a second car - I think we simply need a small, 5-door (in case we need to get the children in it in an emergency - I'm not sure how easy it would be to squeeze their car seats in through the front doors), 1.0ish litre engine, run-around for DH to commute to work and back, which we should be able to find locally for less than our budget. Now while he says he's happy with that, the type of car he's showing me when he searches on line tell a different story - large engine, way over budget etc. etc. I've told him I'm happy to drive the second car if the idea of arriving at work in an old clunker embarrasses him but he won't have it (I'll be driving the children so I need the newer, safer car - fair enough).

    So at the moment we're at a stalemate. I won't (can't) budge on budget and he's not happy with anything I've found in that price bracket, and while we wait I'm still stuck in our teeny, tiny village. :(
  • Well its a learning curve for him, you cant get those cars, so he needs to look again.

    Hope you get it sorted out soon. X
    Trying to shift that debt!
  • Well its a learning curve for him, you cant get those cars, so he needs to look again.

    Hope you get it sorted out soon. X

    The problem is that he can't get out of the "I deserve it" mindset. He works very hard so that I can stay at home to look after the children and he earns quite a lot of money, so he gets really frustrated that the day after payday all he has for the month is his £50 spending money. It doesn't help that his friends are now at the point where they can afford nice cars and weekends away and, of course, he can't join in.

    What he doesn't think about is the position we were all in 8/10 years ago when we were spending like it was going out of fashion and had the gadgets, toys, nice cars and holidays - which is why we're having to pay for it now. :mad:

    Another issue was that he had trouble remembering that any money left in bank was for everyone's spending needs, not just his and he was often dismayed to find out that one shopping trip and lunch out, had wiped out all the cash in his account. This month we've tried something different - I've taken everything except his £50 pocket money, so all he has to budget for is his own spending (and if he doesn't budget he's not getting any extra from me!). The remainder is family spending which I'll manage (I don't get any personal spending money - poor me, sniff!:p).

    Hopefully this will get his head in the right place in terms of budgeting, although it's only 5 days in and he's already spent over half of his pocket money. :cool:
  • Skint_but_Optimistic
    Skint_but_Optimistic Posts: 3,391 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 5 October 2011 at 3:04PM
    My husband is on £25 pocket money a month. He just spent 19 of that ona book and there is a staff night out coming up on the 14th. I am the same I dont get any personal pocket money. I am going to tell him he cant go unless he is planning a £6 spend.

    Thems the breaks I am afraid. Men take longer to learn.

    Life can be tough.
    Trying to shift that debt!
  • White_Iris
    White_Iris Posts: 723 Forumite
    Men take longer to learn.

    Life can be tough.

    They really do, don't they?

    We might have found a car we both agree on - for sale on eBay with a low starting price and so far no bids and only a few miles away so hopefully we can go and have a good look before bidding. It's a bit more fuel hungry than I would like but the insurance for it would be about what we expected and it's big enough for me and the children (and the dog!) to use if we need to.

    However, DH has already throwing a spanner in the works by discussing it with his friends, which will surely mean countless potential problems identified and he'll go right off it. :mad:

    We shall have to see what he thinks once he's seen it.
  • oh i hope the car turns out to be a good one and noone else bids on it :p

    Regarding the kids shoes...i get my kids measured in clarks or brantanos then go home and buy them from ebay! Every pair i've had from there cost less than £7 with p&p look pretty much new, have clarks on them & save me a small fortune ;)

    and as for pocket money, hubby gets £40 a month and he spent a quarter of it on the first day of getting it :doh: one day maybe, he might learn to make it last; i doubt it very much though!

    dfw x
    Mortgage Overpayments 2024/25 - September-December, £152.46. J- £103.27, F- £115, M- £91.50, A- £100, M- £200, J- £200. J- £200. A-£200, S- £221.34. O-£200
    Total- £1783.67
    Goal pay off 1% of current mortgage in 1 year. £1650
    EF- £642.41/500
  • Oh no the easily swayed by other males tack!

    You know they should be kept like hunting hawks with their little blinkers on.

    mines the same. Talks about stuff with other blokes and then all of a sudden there is a new opinion which haddnt been the case before the "conversation"

    Swamp him in woman logic, its that car or no car, and you give him 2 weeks or he gets a push bike!
    Trying to shift that debt!
  • White_Iris
    White_Iris Posts: 723 Forumite
    Regarding the kids shoes...i get my kids measured in clarks or brantanos then go home and buy them from ebay! Every pair i've had from there cost less than £7 with p&p look pretty much new, have clarks on them & save me a small fortune ;)

    We did consider that, and definitely will next time, but as we went in on a busy Saturday morning we felt too cheeky to walk away with nothing after taking up the assistants time getting them both measured. Also they had both gone up about a size and a half and needed new shoes quickly before their feet burst out of their old ones!
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