Sorry old chap, the money has run out!

tony_ack

Quite a lot more excellent advice over the last week - I really do appreciate different people's take on things, and suggestions.

The missus is nearly on board I think. There is still some resistence regarding baby clothes. We are also at the stage where we could do with a stroller, and she appreciates that she needs to wait until we can afford one. I suggested trying eBay and she seemed shocked at the thought of getting a second hand one! I tried to convice her that you could probably get a very good condition and brand for a lot less than a new one, but I still need more work. I personally don't see the point of buying a new stroller which we will only need for a couple of years... I will keep working on her.

She did however admit yesterday that she thinks the online shopping is a good idea. I think her mini lightbulb moment was that her mum got a credit card for grocery shopping (which she - her mum that is - pays off every month), and for the first time she could see how much her mum was spending in Sainsbury's... it was a lot. My missus to that point hadn't realised how easy it was to overspend buying, basically, nothing much.

With regards to online shopping, I think it is an excellent idea and I now prefer it to going to the supermarket. I've been using Asda for the last 3 weeks, and like Tesco, an evening delivery costs £3. I can stick to an exact budget and take things out of the basket when they cost too much but one of the advantages I wasn't expecting was that it makes shopping a lot less stressful. I don't know about anyone else, but before I would get back from a big shop pretty exhausted and then need to unpack the shopping. Now it is all done for me, I feel refreshed when it arrives and all I need to do is unpack! I also enjoy browsing the different products too. The only drawback I can think of so far is that for the last three weeks we seem to be eating the same meals all the time, however this is more down to a lack of creativity when writing the menu for the next week!

For pizza, one of my goals in life is to create a pizza more tasty than Dominos, and I have been trying for a few years. I've got to the point where I have a nice dough, so we have pizza night once a week. We also have burger night too, with homemade burgers. The problem with pizzas is there is a lot of work involved in making the dough - I need to make the dough on Sunday, then refrigerate until Thursday/Friday, then get it out and let it rise for a couple of hours. It's got easier now that I'm doing it regularly, but still quite labour intensive.

We've also borrowed my missus' mum's slow cooker - looking forward to trying that out.

We will hopefully have a little bit of spare capacity in the budget, but ideally I would rather spend it at the end of the month, rather than at the beginning (at least then I know I won't need it!). Or even use last month's surplus as the next month's spare capacity?

I had never thought about trying to get a 'deal' with my credit card companies. Unfortunately I have no spare credit (edit: actually Barclaycard have told me I'm getting a limit increase next month), so once that is effective, I will try that trick. With the missus' 0% card, I've already told her to close down her Capital One account - if she has it as a safety net, she will just end up using it.

I have previously tried the 'two accounts' method, but it didn't quite work out for me. I think the reason was that I saw the second 'surplus' account as money I could spend. So I would go out and use it for takeaways, car parts, etc. and then mid month I would get an unexpected cost, and I would have nothing left... resorting to my credit cards to cover it. Once my emergency fund starts (hopefully tomorrow when I get paid!) I will pay the money into the second account for this, but my aim is to build up at least £500 in the fund before thinking it can be used for anything else.

Finally, on selling the stuff I did... it was sold off to make ends meet this month. I did sort of charge into it a little - I identified some high-ish value items that I didn't use every day, and sold them to cover he shortfall. I acknowledged at the time that selling stuff to meet a shortfall wouldn't solve my problems, which is why I've made changes to our monthly budget and lifestyle too.

Some of the items I haven't missed at all (bike, Wii, car parts), I was sorry to see the project car go, but that was a necessity. I didn't sell the guitar at the end, and to be honest that was responsible for my biggest lightbulb moment. I always liked the guitar, and I felt a lot of regret as I removed my guitar strap (kind of 'de-personalising' it) ready for the eBay photos. It was at that point where I realised that selling the guitar was a massive sacrifice, and was caused by the debt. It was at that point I realised, this can't go on.

I didn't sell it in the end because I found other stuff I could sell to make up the shortfall which wasn't as dear to me. I now also have a 'priority order' of things to sell - everything is for sale if it needs to be, but things like the guitar get sold last.

curlytop12

well done,you are doing great.
am loving reading the posts on here.

Lara44

Me too, it's a great diary.

ecgirl07

Good luck with all the moneysaving. I and the very long thread somewhere on mse recommends this book as a cheap way to enjoy takeaway food

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Takeaway-Secret-Cook-Favourite-Fast-food/dp/0716022354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316467660&sr=8-1

its a very cheap £2.69 on amazon just now and will give you many recipes to make takeaway food at home cheaper and healthier.

edit here is the thread from mse with extra hints and tips

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2665259

sophistica

Someone has probably mentioned this but you can get a lodger for 5 days a week on a site called mondaytofriday and what about you or your wife doing more hours, getting a pay rise or getting a better paid job. Apologies if this is all obvious or out of the question.

ebayqueen_2

Hi Tony

Have been following your progress. You are doing so well keep going and keep telling your wife what has to be done. She will eventually grasp the nettle too.

I used to spend too much on pizzas and now make my own dough and freeze it too. I found Jamie Olivers base the nicest and hubby loves it. Saves me so much money too.

Take care of yourself and keep going. You have lots of people on here wishing you well.

God bless
E

tony_ack

Pay day today, and it feels different. Usually pay day is greeted with a huge wave of relief as I finally have money available to spend, however this time it feels pretty much like any other day. I guess this is because, money-wise, it is like any other day - my situation on pay day is now no different to the days leading up to it. Whereas before I would be paicking about making ends meet towads the end of the pay month, and then thinking I had loads to spend just after being paid, now I spend the days leading up to pay day watching the bills go out of my remaining balance, and the days after knowing I can't spend anything to upset the budget.

Some good and bad news today...

Bad news is that I looked over my monthly budget, and realised that I only account for three weeks of food, not four. This means that as it stands, I have a £50 hole in the budget. To make matters worse, the childcare vouchers weren't set up in time for this pay day, so I lose about another £30 there, meaning in total I have a £60 deficit for this month.

The good news is that I've worked out that the missus is currently paying about £550 per month to cover all her bills and regular outgoings (including £250 to me towards bills). As she gets paid about £750, and also get the child benefit paid to her, she would appear to have £200-£250 slack in her budget. Now I think is a better time than ever to combine our budgets. I am going to work with her tonight to see where we're at. Ideally, I'd like her to pay an extra £50 per month to me to go towards the bills, and £100 per month into the annual bills fund (which covers presents, car tax, MOT, house and car repairs. I want to be in a situation where we have all of our expected outgoings (including debt repayments) covered, a pot available for emergencies and then each of us has about £30 surplus left over for anything we want.

Thanks for the recipe suggestions. I was looking at the takeaway secrets book - I may get it if I have any money spare! I may also try the Jamie Oliver pizza recipe - I was going to post my own recipe, but I couldn't find the right thread for it.

Thanks also sophistica for the suggestions.

My missus is in a position at the moment where any extra hours she does will be pretty much swallowed up by childcare costs, though there may still be a small benefit in it (about £10 per week). I think that when our little girl is a bit older, I will push for the missus going from 3 days a week to 4 days, and then obviously when she is three and we get nursery funding, she should be able to go to full time again. Pay rise is currently out of the question for her as she works in local government. She had to apply for her own job a couple of months back, and so only just avoided redundancy. As for another job, I despair a little for her... she doesn't really know what she wants to do as a career. Until she decides what direction to go in, she is going to struggle to find a better paid job.

I am unable to do more hours - well, not strictly true, apparently we're 'expected to work beyond our normal hours if necessary' but we don't get any over time or time back in lieu unless it has been signed off previously, and it rarely is. My own company is in the middle of a takeover, so no pay rises are happening at present.

I'm not too sure about the lodger idea for a couple of reasons - first is that our spare room is full of junk and in need of decorating, which we can't afford at present. Secondly, it is not something I'm completley comfortable with at the moment with my missus and little girl sometimes on their own in the house on at least one evening per week, and more if I need to go away with work. Again, it may be something which could be worth looking into in the future.

sophistica

Hi Tony. The lodger could be another woman. The reason i mention it is because my neighbour who is also in a bad financial situation has a lodger who pays her £450 a month and she never sees him. My brother has taken a lodger who pays £700 per month and they are getting on fine. Both in London. Pleased you are making progress. Btw look at "approved food" on google you could reduce yr grocery shopping there.

turbo.jet

vstheworld wrote: »

Can you do that? Is that law? I have a friend (yes really ) who has been arguing with them for six months and is getting nothing except more fees and broken promises. If they're not negotiating, might as well just do that for peace of mind?

Yep, I think Martin calls it cardjacking (I could be wrong). Have a look on the main site, there is definitely an article about it.

hp48910

vstheworld wrote: »

Can you do that? Is that law? I have a friend (yes really ) who has been arguing with them for six months and is getting nothing except more fees and broken promises. If they're not negotiating, might as well just do that for peace of mind?

Yes You can do that, it was Sainsbury's, the card provider, who wrote to me to tell me I could!! They wrote to inform me that the rate would be increasing from 19.6% to 23.9%. I was given the option of keeping the card and account open and paying the balance off at the new APR, or having the account closed and paying off the balance at the previous rate. I chose the second option and managed to get a Barclaycard with 7.9% for the life of the balance.

Good luck!!:)