We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Learning to Live on Less!
Comments
-
Well done on the holiday payment WI, it must have felt great to pay it off simply by saving. Hopefully we shall be able to do the same one of these days, but certainly not at the moment!0
-
debtfreesomeday wrote: »Well done on the holiday payment WI, it must have felt great to pay it off simply by saving. Hopefully we shall be able to do the same one of these days, but certainly not at the moment!
Thanks debtfreesomeday, it does feel nice to just take the money straight out of the savings account. Just noticed your signature - you'll be debt free in 18 months :T. Thats about the same time our big loan gets paid off - we won't be debt free then but we'll certainly have more breathing space and should be able to tackle the credit card and our other loan more fiercely, as we'll have almost £500 extra each month.
We had a lovely weekend - lots of outside play for the children with their birthday presents, lovely time spent with family and a day at the beach yesterday (and I'm only a tiny bit pink). The weather has turned today though, much cooler, Infact I may need to go and put a cardigan on!
Although it's not quite the end of the month, I've been having a look at the finances and things have got a bit out of hand, not horrendous but could have been better. Most of it will get cleared from the credit card once we get paid but there are a few things which will have to carry over until DH gets paid for his script marking in July.
Fortunately when mum and dad visited at the weekend, they bought a boot full of shopping for us, so the grocery budget shouldn't be too stretched this month. I do feel a bit embarrassed accepting a care package from my parents but mum gets a bit put out if I ask her not to - she knows what it's like to bring up children on one wage, so she feels like she's doing it more for her grandchildren than for us. They live hundreds of miles away and we only get to see them a few times a year, mum buys things when she sees them on offer or shares a BOGOF, and then saves it all up until we see each other. So, although the combined cost of the shopping is a fair bit, the actual weekly spend is negligable...still feel guilty though.
DH got paid for his extra job today so I've transferred it over to the holiday savings - £75 to get us started. I need to get back in to completing surveys, I've been a bit lazy with that lately but the little dribbles of cash will help the savings pots. I'm also done with eBay for a little while, I've still got a few bits to list but can't be bothered with the packing and posting - I'll get started again with that in June.
0 -
My parents do the same thing when they visit us WI, they live hundreds of miles away too and always bring lots of groceries and treats for us when they come or when we go to visit them. I have told them how guilty I feel about them doing it but they said they don't get to see us very often and it brings them pleasure to feel they are helping us out a bit, even when we can't be together. I know what you mean though, it does make me feel bad too. I feel like we should be able to cope and afford everything now that we are adults with our own family - if only!0
-
oooh how lovely the holiday is paid for, at least you have something to look forward to
we're not having any holidays this year
absolutely no money and we have had so many little emergencies my pot has been empty more than full this year.
I've also given up with ebay. Drives me mad everyone seems to want everything for nothing on there (and then we get charged by ebay still lol)
Good start on your holiday spending pot, perhaps you might make more than the £250 before you go
happy belated birthday to the twinsx
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-£200EF- £642.41/500
Total- £1783.67
Goal pay off 1% of current mortgage in 1 year. £1650
0 -
I was just checking through our bank accounts, savings and credit card accounts and I remembered to check the childrens savings (I rarely check them, in fact usually forget they have savings accounts!). To my surprise they both have nearly £900 each! Now this is money given to then as presents, a monthly standing order from the grandparents and only a teeny weeny bit that we added. It is also enough to cover our moving costs when we finally sell. Now I'm not suggesting that we just take it, but DH and I need to decide whether we can bring ourselves to borrow it for a short while or just forget about it again and find some other way to pay our moving/new-house-rental costs. I want to come to a descision about it soon, so that we're not forced in to a decision at short notice when we have to find some where else to live. Hmmm...it's a tricky one, raid the childrens savings or use the credit card/savings?0
-
i've borrowed from my ds1 bank account before and it played on my mind so much that it was the first thing i paid back when i moved ( i also used it as moving money -well a deposit!) so if it helps you and means you don't have to find it elsewhere i'd suggest you borrow it. Will the cc be 0%?? If not it's a no-brainer to me to borrow the money xxMortgage 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-£200EF- £642.41/500
Total- £1783.67
Goal pay off 1% of current mortgage in 1 year. £1650
0 -
Well the money I've made from eBay has now been transferred from PayPal to my bank account and almost immediately paid out again to the credit card. No room for savings this month unfortunately, it's all gone to paying off things we've bought over the last month - some needed, some wanted but actually nothing I feel guilty about. Still have to pay for those darn tyres though and DH owes about £150 which will be paid at the end of June when he gets a small bonus payment for a training session he's going on (some also is due to travel and work expenses which needs to be claimed back at the end of the month). Even though the credit card is carrying a small balance again, I do feel like we're in control of it though (at the moment!!).0
-
debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »i've borrowed from my ds1 bank account before and it played on my mind so much that it was the first thing i paid back when i moved ( i also used it as moving money -well a deposit!) so if it helps you and means you don't have to find it elsewhere i'd suggest you borrow it. Will the cc be 0%?? If not it's a no-brainer to me to borrow the money xx
I think you're right. It almost certainly wouldn't be a 0% card, so it makes sense to use savings (even if they're not strictly ours!) rather than build up more high interest debt. I'm sure the guilt would make us pay it back in record time too!0 -
White_Iris wrote: »Time for my May mini-resolutions...
MONEY
1 - Save something in my personal savings £5
2 - Save something in emergency savings £10
3- Save £16 in conveyancing pot DONE
4 - Make at least £30 from eBay to pay towards the twins birthday present Made over £100 but sadly it's had to go to the credit card
5 - Try to pay off the holiday this month (need £60) DONE
HOUSE
1 - Finish painting hall/stairs/landing DONE
2 - Clear little bedroom DONE
3 - Do something with the dolls house, currently taking up all the counter space in the utility room It's still in the utility room but I have given it a clean and emptied all the slightly scary minature dolls from it
A definate B+ this month I think :rotfl:0 -
I've just amended my signature to remove the 'moving' savings target. It was bothering me seeing it empty and, given my previous babbling about using the childrens savings for moving, it now seems a bit of a defunct target. This now allows more mental space to concentrate on the other more achievable targets.
I've also done a bit of playing around with our current accounts. When ever we need to buy something for the house (salt for the water softener, new kettle etc.), we always had to decide who would pay for it, who has the most money left?, who has the greatest 'need' for cash this month? So I've opened another online savings account and transferred some of the surplus that had built up in our 'pet' savings account (I have MANY savings pots!) to start us off. I've also decreased our monthly 'pet' savings by £10 a month and redirected that to the new 'household' savings. Just have to get to a branch now and get it swapped to a joint savings account so that DH has access as well.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 352.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.5K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454.2K Spending & Discounts
- 245.1K Work, Benefits & Business
- 600.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.4K Life & Family
- 258.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards