Staying Positive & Focused !!!

brummiebabe

Needless to say...the skiing trip is out of the question. He's going on the residential but has paid half from his savings and the indoor skiing - he wants to go, so we've said he can if he pays for it!! He's going to do this. He's beginning to realise he can't do everything and that we can't afford it all!!:)

mamato3

Well done on getting your son to help with the cost -it's hard to say no to them but I think sometimes they need to realise just how expensive everythings become. My DD has a trip next month which cost £350! We told her she could go but it would be as part of her xmas gift and she only got very small gifts for xmas. I felt bad at xmas when the boys had so much more than she did. But I guess they have to learn sometime and she is really looking forward to it so hopefully she'll enjoy it even more! She's saved up her own spending money so I think she's learning:)

mamato3

Just cashed in my credits on VO got a £10 Boots voucher which will go towards DDs bit and pieces for her school trip next month - I still have 25p and £7.00 pending it just seems to be taking ages to credit anything at the minute which is a bit rubbish if you've spent 35 mins taking a survey! Ah well I shall persevere!

mamato3

Not to much to report on the money saving front - I have to add £50 to the gift total for our June birthdays I've worked out that it'll probably take another £150 to cover the rest of June/July birthdays and Father's days the perks of having a large family! I'm thinking £500 will be optimistic for the year but I can live in hope!

Hope everyones making the most of the fabulous weather

mamato3

Happy June Everyone :) - I'm hoping the little smilies help get rid of my nasty migraine I've had for the last few days

First of May's end of month check list ... gulp here goes;

Food - £391.01
Petrol - £190:cool:
Clothes - £65:cool:
Take Aways/Eating Out - £57
Cinema & Beach Outings - £41.50
Hairdressers - £40.00
School - £24.40
Cards - £7.40
Misc - £58 - giving a total of £874.31

We also had both cars to tax and oil to get thankfully this came out of hubbys overtime.

Anyways a new month has started so time to try and get June's budget organised which will be hard work as we have soooo much on this month. Firstly DD got into her first choice of Grammar School yippeee:T Not so good we also got a pack home from said school with fees totalling about £140 to be paid this month and also an order form for PE Kit which comes to about £150 which also has to be ordered and paid for this month!!!! That was a bit of a shocker we have a small savings amount of £500 I guess we'll just have to use it to cover these sigh ......

Onwards & upwards with holiday at the end of the month and so many birthdays and fathers day also coming up I really want to keep the food bill down to £200 until we go away. So will be keeping a close eye on this. I Still have about £120 in birthday presents to organise :eek: although this will be me covered for birthdays until August which will only be token gifts so not too much cost after this month (thank goodness).

DD also has appointment at opticians tomorrow and as we get her glasses lens thinned down probably about £40 there! So its shaping up to be a pretty expensive June already!

Roll on holiday

mamato3

It's been an expensive few days! DD's glasses came it at £78 used the boots £10 voucher so that helped a bit plus boots points and it was for sunglasses and normal glasses so wasn't bad at all. I have to add £80 to our clothes total as got a few things all had either 20% or 25% off so a bit of a saving! And not too much else to get.

Nothing much else to report hope everyones well.

mamato3

£6.00 onto gift budget for a pressie for an August birthday - really need to get June's sorted but need to wait to next payday to do this.

My little guy got a nursery place unfortunately he wasn't able to get a funded place so it will cost us £18 per week - will have to do amended soa after holiday and number crunch!

mamato3

Today should be a pretty low spend day just lotto to put on which i already have the money for and then off to my Aunts for lunch which will be lovely. DD wants to get a DVD out on the way home will have to see if the pennies can stretch to that! I Have about £15 to do until Thursday but that's with all food bought for next week so should be okay I still have to make a cc payment this month so will get that done when I get paid again and change the rest of the holiday money to euros.

Happy Saturday everyone

mamato3

I feel like things are starting to run away from us again this month! So much to do and not enough money to do it all with!

Finished off clothes shopping for holiday £60 to add to the total which brings it over the £250 I was hoping for. I'm actually happy enough with this, previous years I would've just gone to Next and put £300-£400 onto my Next Card and worry about when it would get paid thankfully now it's all paid for and most at pretty good prices so hopefully it'll be these small changes that'll make a difference. I wish I'd found this site years ago rather than a year or so ago I'm sure I would've thought alot differently about money back then if I had.

As for the rest of June I'm pretty sure the overdraft will be maxed out by the end of the month things are being pulled pretty tight with trying to hang on to any spare cash for holiday. I'll be glad when there's no pressure on us after holiday to save a certain amount it's been hard work saving it from the start of the year. Having said that it's been a rough few years health wise and we're most definitely looking forward to the break:)

Also have to add £6.00 onto gift budget forgot DD has her last music lesson tomorrow so had to get a gift for her teacher! I have 2 gifts in the gift bag which should cover the other teachers thankfully.

I'm off to have a browse round the boards - will make a promise not to stay on to late .... we'll see!

mamato3

This month has been sooo expensive sigh.... between dds school fees, glasses, school trip, 8 birthdays and father's day i'm about ready to scream!!! I have to add another £150 onto the gift total, which is starting to creep up this also includes teacher gifts.

On a more positive note the original nursery I wanted my little guy to go to was over subscribed so he didn't get a place but today I got a phone call to say a place had become available if we wanted it - yippeee.. so it's a great nursery and most of all its free !!! apart from the snack/lunch fee of a few pounds a week but its a lot better than the £70 I thought we would have to pay. That cheered me up a little

Other than that not too much else to report just waiting to board that plane in a few weeks to sunny Spain - it can't come quick enough