What to do about the unexpected??????

IWannabedebtfree

Was doing really well with my underspending this month and then had to buy my son 3 new Polos and 3 new sweatshirts for school today as he has just become a giant overnight(well, this month!) My work shoes started letting in water yesterday and noticed my trainers were spilt when I put them on instead too. So another £20 for new shoes and £10 for trainers-75% off in local shop in the sale and nice. Trouble is, this is my first month of cutting back after being a serious spendaholic and so I hadn't saved enough beforehand to have enough to fall back on for these extras and don't know how to account for them. Should I try to cut back even more next month?
Or try to sell the equivalent value of stuff on ebay? Or just allow that I won't always keep within budget, and that it's a learning curve/things do crop up?
I have still saved about £200 on how much I could spend and probably £400-£500 on how much I usually spend in reality, but wanted to save more.
Thanks for any help- I'm loving these boards and my savings are thanks to all of you really.

eryn_kathleen

I'm a pretty new moneysaver, so others will probably have better advice than I do...

But personally, I would try to sell stuff on ebay and try to reduce in other areas if possible. You shouldn't feel bad if you don't save the exact amount you've spent - try for half or 75% of the total.

hazzie123

The way I`d look at it is,how much would it of affected you if you hadn`t even started cutting back and saving this month.Even though you have spent money on these much needed items,it wont make such a big dent in your purse than what it would do previously.

Just start re-saving and cutting down tomorrow.

angelavdavis

I agree with Hazzie, dust yourself down and start again.

Just concentrate on what you have saved this month and stay positive.

lizzyb1812

Agree with the other posters, and for the future you need to sort out some sort of "I wasn't expecting that!" budget - say a set amount you budget for each month and perhaps a small savings account to put it in. Or a £2/£1 piggy that you raid only for this sort of thing?

lizzyb

dannahaz

TO help for the future, maybe this would work:

Depending on the state of your finances, you could perhaps save a small amount of money into a specific account each week to cover these emergencies, aiming to build up a small emergency fund. You'll need to decide what it needs to be - £100, £200, whatever.

Once it gets to your chosen amount - assuming you haven't had any emergencies - switch to putting your weekly contribution to paying off one of your debts. If you then dip in to your emergency fund, switch back to contributing to it again.

vivaladiva

I agree with Hazzie too - I would have done some serious debt reduction last year but for my car costing £2000 in repairs, OH's car costing £250 in repairs (yes, its worth about £300!) and OH having root canal filling at £350.
But at least the card situation didn't get any worse:rolleyes: .

angchris

i get my quidco payments put into my paypal account and leave them there until i need to buy something off ebay or i sell stuff to the value of what i need before i buy. so in effect everything i buy is free:T this month for example my oh broke my dyson how he managed that i dont know but ive managed to buy the part needed second hand off ebay using my free paypal money and it has saved me more expense traipesing around the shops and parking and probably paying 3 or 4 times the cost in town if i could find the part in the first place! its all about recycling my old tat into something useful :j

3KIDSNOMONEY

I have just started budgeting again, getting housekeeping every week and not using cards. Really hard though for all those unexpected things and doubly difficult when the sales are on. Can't believe how quick my money goes, I have been writing down where it goes, the odd few quid for lottery and school dinner money, etc, it gets eaten up really quick.

Trying hard though, at least I am not on my own, lots of other people in the same situation.

Elliesmum

angchris wrote:

i get my quidco payments put into my paypal account and leave them there until i need to buy something off ebay or i sell stuff to the value of what i need before i buy. so in effect everything i buy is free:T this month for example my oh broke my dyson how he managed that i dont know but ive managed to buy the part needed second hand off ebay using my free paypal money and it has saved me more expense traipesing around the shops and parking and probably paying 3 or 4 times the cost in town if i could find the part in the first place! its all about recycling my old tat into something useful :j

This is kind of what I do on ebay. Sell a bit and then buy a bit. I always leave a little bit of money in the paypal account to pay for fees etc.

Then if I have a selling spree I then appraise what is in the account (with all fees paid off of course), if there is enough to transfer £50 into the bank account then I do that. If not I save the money in there for when the little things crop up.

My little one needed a new school coat at the beginning of Dec (of all the times!) so I had a look on ebay and got one I liked, paid for it out of the paypal account and it effectively cost me nothing.!

HTH's

EM x

Icemaiden

I have a clothing account which gets £40 a month. As a SAHM I got fed up of always having to ask DH for money for kids shoes, coats you name it, this way I can just forget about it and not panic and have to find the extra money when they need something.