Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris · 18 November 2013 at 12:11PM

chevalier wrote: »

Hi there
I have read through your thread from start to finish. The thing that stands out for me it that even though you have had some problems with cars etc, you have had the funds one pot or another to pay back to the card in a relatively short amount of time. Just imagine how much WORSE your debt would be if you hadnt had those pots.

Keep on keeping on. Have you thought about finding some sort of evening work that you could do around you hubby being home. That way you boos your income, but there are no child care costs to outlay.

Good luck with the last part
chev

Hi Chevalier, thank you for persevering through the whole diary!

You're absolutely right about the various savings pots we have - without them we would be completely stuck. I'm fairly happy with the way we budget for the relatively fixed price bills, like car insurance or road tax, but it's the unexpected things that bite us. We never seem to have enough stashed away but hopefully we can change that when DH starts his new job in January. Less travel and a higher salary should mean we can start saving seriously.

I have thought about and looked for jobs that could fit in around family life but jobs in general are fairly few and far between in my area, never mind those that have specific part-time hours. The plan is to get a part-time job once the children start full-time school next September. I'm fairly well qualified and experienced in my field, so if a suitable job comes up I should stand a good chance of getting it. Obviously if things took a serious financial turn for the worse, I'd take whatever I could and make it work in terms of childcare but at the moment we're ok-ish without me working.

White_Iris · 18 November 2013 at 12:23PM

Mondays are always so hectic, I feel like I'm just fighting fires from the weekend, instead of actually achieving anything. The house is a tip but we had no food in, so instead of cleaning (which I normally do on Monday morning) I've just got back from the supermarkets. I'm fairly pleased with it - I did a menu plan for the week before I went and from that I made a shopping list of things I need to make the meals. I had £25 in notes and about a fiver in change and I've come away with £10 left. :money:

Things are going to be tight this month though, I'm going to need to put more fuel in the car to take the dog for her vet treatment on Friday, which I wasn't expecting. I was hoping to get away without another fuel spend this month but I'm going to need to find about £20.

DH has also told me he's going to need another tank of fuel to get to the end of the month, so that'll be about £60. :eek: I can't express how glad I am he took this new job, as this commute would have been completely unsustainable long term.

I still need to get DH something for Christmas. I could let it roll over to next month but I was hoping to have all the presents bought by now, so that I can keep all my spending money next month for unplanned things that need buying/days out/meals that will undoubtedly crop up around Christmas. So I'm going to budget about £20 for DH.

Ok, so far I need to find £40 for myself and £60 for DH. We also need to pay for SILs birthday present, which has rolled over from February (we offered to pay for her to have some horse blankets washed but she's only just got around to doing it). That's about £40 but it can wait until next month.

Right then, off the scour the bank accounts and then maybe start a bit of cleaning before I need to pick up the children.

White_Iris · 19 November 2013 at 10:19AM

Managed to get the bare-bones cleaning done yesterday but there are some jobs to do later today, including sorting and filing/shredding a mountain of paperwork. I've emptied PayPal and scraped the top off several savings pots and I should have gathered enough for some fuel for me and a few small presents for DH. His fuel will have to come from whatever is leftover in the bills account this month and maybe the £10 I saved on groceries yesterday. Determined to get through the month without resorting to the credit card!

sweetpea26 · 21 November 2013 at 10:04AM

Morning WIris

I need to clean big time here. I have been so busy all week that it has got to the point that it has to be done today.

You will be so glad when your fuel costs go down. Keep on plodding.

White_Iris · 21 November 2013 at 12:12PM

Hooray, I have my laptop back. :j No more struggling with DHs ibook, back to a much more sensible PC! We took it to a local computer shop, who initially said about £100 but then found another "problem" and doubled their quote - I think not! So DH took it in to work and the lovely IT guy looked at it, told us to buy a £15 replacement part from eBay and ta-da!

Not much done here as I've had a poorly DD for the last few days. Unfortunately that meant I had to send DH out for a small top-up shop - childrens paracetamol, a small tub of single cream and some dog food should have cost about £12ish (I'm having to resort to extremely fancy and expensive wet food to try and coax poor, dying doggie to eat

). He also comes back with cheesecake, extra thick cream and beer, having spent over £20 :eek:. I'm sometimes not convinced he's really had his LBM.

The children has their first school pictures the other day and we've decided to use the cash I had stashed away to buy some, partly for us but mostly as Christmas presents for Grandparents. I usually do a photo-calendar for them but this should work out a bit cheaper, as long as I can find some reasonably priced picture frames.

The grocery budget has gone a bit awry this month, because of dates that money has come in my next installment is not until 5th December, leaving me with only £30 until then! Now that would be fine for a weeks shopping but it'll be a struggle to get nearly 2 weeks worth of food with it, especially as we're running low on non-food groceries like toilet paper. I might have to bring forward my Christmas grocery shopping and try to get some everyday food as well, using the supermarket savings stamps that my mum gave me.

I'm currently sitting here shivering, while DD snoozes on the sofa, wrapped up in blankets, toasty and warm. I'm really trying to limit the heating as we don't have a wall thermostat, so it's difficult to control the temperature effectively just using the controllers on the radiators. This house also seems fairly resistant to staying warm - once the heating is off it cools down really quickly. DH and I have decided not to use the dining room/conservatory to eat in, as it's so flipping cold in there and it's a waste of money trying to heat it as it all just floats up and out of the single pane, plastic roof. Eating on our laps in the sitting room isn't ideal but at least we can fire up the wood burner and stay warm!

sweetpea26 · 21 November 2013 at 9:48PM

Hi WIris

I am so sorry how did I realise your dog is unwell. You are a very thoughtful owner and I feel for you. (hugs)

Sorry to hear your little one is under the weather. So many bugs/virus etc floating around at the moment. So stay warm. Conservatories are marvellous when the weather is mild but a nightmare in winter. I have a sunroom but I put curtains up in the winter to keep heat in. Open plan living is lovely in the good weather but it difficult when the temperatures drop. I have an open fire in my living room plus our oil heating is on since about 4 this afternoon.

Must be great to have your laptop back.

take care

White_Iris · 25 November 2013 at 11:40AM

Awful, sh!7ty weekend. Poor doggie died, tears were shed, money was spent. Still feeling a bit fragile but I actually feel better than I expected. I think I've already been grieving for her for a long time, knowing she was on borrowed time. Trying to get back to normal today but I think it's time to take an emotional time-out and just concentrate on day-to-day stuff and not worry about money for a short while. The bills are paid, there's food in the cupboards and it's nearly pay-day. Debt busting will resume in the New Year.