Second Purse Challenge 2012

debtfreewannabe321

Beencounting wrote: »

:rotfl: DFW321...are we twins??? :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl:seems so God help you haha

fozziebeartoo

Annie_99 wrote: »

Ok I need help..
You know I was on board with this and all excited.. I feel all in a muddle and like ive failed already..

Aw - sending a big hug!

What I love about this thread is that we have budgeters of all levels, 1st timers like me (and you) and established superstars like Mothership!

What we all have in common is we want to get out heads around making our money work for US......in whatever way suits us best and we can manage, without piling on the pressure!!

Already too much of that for most of us

So just take baby steps!

If you have something unused in your cupboard (anything at all) when you use it, just stick some money (spare change even) into your Second Purse.......

I dont think it matters how small the amount is......the fact is your SP will have some money that it wouldnt normally have had :T

If you can just do that a few times this week, come next weekend, you will have a bit of money to put towards something new for your shop!!

And there you go, off and running!

Beencounting

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:seems so God help you haha

...or you...:rotfl:

Annie_99

I have £290 in bank left for the rest of the month and £43.70 in my purse.. But need to stock up my fridge and cook for the week then freeze it..
Am gonna get out of my pit of despair:mad: and take myself in hand and come up with a logical plan..
Pen and paper at the ready..... Cup of tea now.. Will post later on.

cw18

helen_jelly wrote: »

If you buy something half price for £1 when you use it you put £2 in your purse - is that right??? Or should I put £1 in my purse, if its £2 surely that means I'm paying £3 for the item - if its £1 I put in my purse then I get it!!

Think of the initial £10 into purse 2 as a business loan to provide float for the shop

You now pay a real supermarket £1 from that float for the half price item

When your grocery budget buys the item from your shop it pays £2 to purse 2 - meaning purse 2 now contains £11

At this point you could repay the business loan back to whichever budget you lent it from, and purse 2 would only have a float of £1


In terms of money only £1 has really left your hands (for the purchase from the supermarket)

Beencounting

Annie_99 wrote: »

I have £290 in bank left for the rest of the month and £43.70 in my purse.. But need to stock up my fridge and cook for the week then freeze it..
Am gonna get out of my pit of despair:mad: and take myself in hand and come up with a logical plan..
Pen and paper at the ready..... Cup of tea now.. Will post later on.

Well done Annie, you can do it

MunniMuncha

OMG have just done a spreadsheet of the items I bought from last week's shopping and other bulk buys from previously and I have a total stockpile value of £52.66 - yay!:T:T:T

My weekly shop this week has been just £10.20 and because that's all I need should be able to reduce cc bill this month. I am going to put £10 in second purse and see if I can buy any bargains when out today to add to my shop.

Could I please call me shop the MunniMart?

debtfreewannabe321

MunniMuncha wrote: »

Hello everyone :hello:and would love to join this challenge, if I may? I think I have got the jist of it, but my problem is this. I have a cc for my groceries and petrol which then gets paid every month. It is usually way over budget :eek:but now am finally going to do something about it and I think this will help me do it. As my cc is always in arrears I don't have the cash available now as I have last month's bill to pay for - IYSWIM? So is it possible to still do this challenge and then slowly revert from using cc to using cash (which I think will take forever to transport across) or for one month only do I pay off the cc and also start this challenge in cash? Am confused and not sure what to do about this, so wondering if you wonderful people could help me.

I have got to page 7 so far of this thread and intend to read ALL of the pages, as on each page I am learning something new, but thought I would post my questions now as it will be another week before I get to the end :rotfl:

One other thing, is that I started my month last week (on 23rd) and have nearly met my budget already (did one big shop and now, hopefully, 3 little ones for the next 3 weeks - only spent £10.20 for this week) so will I have to wait until 23rd Feb to start this challenge?

Many thanks for any help you are able to give:T

Morning and welcome :T

I suppose it depends on how much you owe the credit card and how much you currently spend on groceries & petrol and how much you feel you could cut it down by?


Say the credit card is £500, and you spend £520 each month, I would make my grocery budget for the next couple of months half........yep i like to set myself a challenge :rotfl:and i would pay £250 off the credit card. I can feed 5 of us on £250 so i guess it depends on how big your family is?

I usually do one big shop at the beginning of the month. I buy the meat in bulk as i find the offers are usually better. Before i do this i do a meal plan for 30 days. Then i go to mysupermarket to see where the best offers are. sometimes it works out cheaper to split the trolley between say sainsbug & te$co and pay the extra delivery. then I buy all my meat, lots of frozen veg, all my milk & bread for the month (depending on freezer space though) and juice, cereals, tins, flour etc etc (all cupboard stuff) and all i spend now each week is about £20-25 on fridge stuff. So i may spend £150 on the first shop of the month. But after that for the next 3 weeks i will only spend £20-25 and overall £225 (approx)...this month my budget has come in at £200 :j the lowest ever for me :T massively helped by the fact Dh not home though :rotfl:

But anyway, yes i would pay cash for this month. Pay half the credit card off. Then the month after do the same. Until credit card is paid off. Any spare money you have at end of day/week you could do a PAD? I think the best thing is to just get off the CC and use cash. You can never overspend with cash

MunniMuncha

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Morning and welcome :T

I suppose it depends on how much you owe the credit card and how much you currently spend on groceries & petrol and how much you feel you could cut it down by?


Say the credit card is £500, and you spend £520 each month, I would make my grocery budget for the next couple of months half........yep i like to set myself a challenge :rotfl:and i would pay £250 off the credit card. I can feed 5 of us on £250 so i guess it depends on how big your family is?

I usually do one big shop at the beginning of the month. I buy the meat in bulk as i find the offers are usually better. Before i do this i do a meal plan for 30 days. Then i go to mysupermarket to see where the best offers are. sometimes it works out cheaper to split the trolley between say sainsbug & te$co and pay the extra delivery. then I buy all my meat, lots of frozen veg, all my milk & bread for the month (depending on freezer space though) and juice, cereals, tins, flour etc etc (all cupboard stuff) and all i spend now each week is about £20-25 on fridge stuff. So i may spend £150 on the first shop of the month. But after that for the next 3 weeks i will only spend £20-25 and overall £225 (approx)...this month my budget has come in at £200 :j the lowest ever for me :T massively helped by the fact Dh not home though :rotfl:

But anyway, yes i would pay cash for this month. Pay half the credit card off. Then the month after do the same. Until credit card is paid off. Any spare money you have at end of day/week you could do a PAD? I think the best thing is to just get off the CC and use cash. You can never overspend with cash

Thanks for that DFW321. I always pay my credit card in full and for as long as I have been married I have had an unrealistic budget for my food of £250 (which 25 years ago went alot further than it does today). However, my grocery spend has normally been around the £500 mark which is why I am in this mess now :mad:

This month I have still allocated £250 (4 adults - well an 18 and 14 year old, but they eat like adults) and am going to coming in budget this month. I think what I will do tho as I don't have to pay the council tax and water rates these next 2 months, will use this money to pay towards credit card (£163 per month) and then use the other £87 from my food budget to pay off remaining balance so in March payday will have no credit card and then use all the cash for food budget. I think that is the best way forward to get rid of cc as soon as possible and make things alot easier.

Sorry for asking so many questions and writing everything down, but it is the only way I can get things straight in my own mind.

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful help, advice and support :T- I will do this as now I have the bit between my teeth, I ain't letting it go.:rotfl:

debtfreewannabe321

MunniMuncha wrote: »

Thanks for that DFW321. I always pay my credit card in full and for as long as I have been married I have had an unrealistic budget for my food of £250 (which 25 years ago went alot further than it does today). However, my grocery spend has normally been around the £500 mark which is why I am in this mess now :mad:

This month I have still allocated £250 (4 adults - well an 18 and 14 year old, but they eat like adults) and am going to coming in budget this month. I think what I will do tho as I don't have to pay the council tax and water rates these next 2 months, will use this money to pay towards credit card (£163 per month) and then use the other £87 my food budget to pay off remaining balance so in March payday will have no credit card and then use all the cash for food budget. I think that is the best way forward to get rid of cc as soon as possible and make things alot easier.

Sorry for asking so many questions and writing everything down, but it is the only way I can get things straight in my own mind.

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful help, advice and support :T- I will do this as now I have the bit between my teeth, I ain't letting it go.:rotfl:

Do you have a slow cooker? When i was getting to grips with my budget it was my best friend lol. I would make say a chilli and make enough for 4 portions. Eat 1 and freeze 3. same with stew, spag bol, curry...in fact there is a slow cooker recipe thread on here it's really helpful. And I practically ate the same thing for the first few months until i had the spends under control then started to branch out :rotfl:I have a freezer full of stew & curry atm, i know the nearer to payday, the less money we have...but at least we have dinners so i won't need to over spend good luck :A