Budget or bust........again

mamato3

Loving your lists and your budget layout! My budgets are pretty much bust for this month lol! Hoping to do better next month

Good luck with your budgeting for April your definitley on the right track:)

XSpender

I had a letter from the hospital today bringing my biopsy appointment forward by 3 weeks:eek: I am a bit freaked out and really starting to feel a bit scared about the whole thing:(

My spends and budgets need updating but I am too pooped tonight so will try update it tomorrow. I have overstated what I managed to save after we (or rather DH) got a bit spendy on the last day before my payday. It was probably the shock of having money left in the bank at the end of the month:rotfl:

Spent far too much on food already and only got paid yesterday:mad:We really have to get cracking eating all the gluten foods in the freezer before my biopsy.

Off to fiddle with my spreadsheet so I can update properly tomorrow.

XSpender

Here is my very belated update. I have been a very spendy XSpender sincepayday on Thursday.:o Much of it wasbudgeted or expected spends but it has all happened at once.

I lost the plot a bit with spends at the end of the month,what with using the debit card for food spends and then them not coming outuntil 2 days in to the next month.
At the end of March I had about £60 saved (£10 towardsChristmas and £50 towards the new bed). I am a bit disappointed that we didn’t manage to save more towards thebed as it means this month’s bonus will have to cover it.

April
Grocery Budget£165.48/£380 - Ridiculous amount spent so far this month, really need to rein this in. :eek:
Diesel £60/£70 - I have upped the budget by a tenner as I think I may haveunderestimated what I will need to spend this month.:)
Miscellaneous £122.21/£140 - This includes shoes and trousers x 2 for DS, library fines, Eastereggs, 4xcards but I still need to buy a present for my Niece’s 18thand we have a week off where we wanted a day/lunch out. Note to self-do not goshopping with DH when we have just been paid.:eek:
Bedroom Makeover£14/£200 - I have dropped this budget to £200 after I bought just thecurtains we wanted for £14 in the Next sale. I will need to take them up but that will give me an excuse to use thesewing machine I got for Christmas that has never been out of the box. I willget all the bedding and duvet for under £100 and will then just need paint anda new roller and brushes. I am hopingthat the under spend will help go towards the misc. budget or grocery budget.:D

Savings £288.46 - I have transferred the money into all the ‘pots’ I hadplanned. The task now is keeping itthere.;)

April Goals
•Eat out of freezersand cupboards, using up all gluten containing foods – I’m working on it andthere is definitely more room in there:p

•Open an ISA with£100 – waiting for 1st April:)

• Save £100 to holiday fund – in the pot:)

•Save £10 toChristmas fund – in the pot:)•Save £20 to car fund– in the pot:)

•Keeping topping upall pots and Shirley the shrapnel pig – up to date with £1/day pig this weekand repaid £30 owed still have £30 to repay next month:D
•Turn off heating (ifDH doesn’t notice) – turned it back on for a bit last night as it was freezing:o
•Monitor how muchfood we are wasting and cut down on it - £2 of fruit so far:o
•Complete EPF133D andEPF230A assignments for college- must be done by 24th April:eek:
•Complete bedroommakeover – buying paint tomorrow night and painting ready for new bed this week:D
•Day trip to Whitbywith fish and chips included – planned for our hols in 3 weeks time:D

Phew that was a mega post, off for a cup of tea to recover.

Housework*Fairy

I hope your hospital appointment goes well.

I'm always losing the plot with my spends too, particularly at the end of the month when I can least afford it.

I'm not sure whether I have told you this, but on-line grocery shopping has really helped me out (just don't read my post for last month will you hah hah). It might be worth drawing up a meal plan for a week, buying everything you need for it, just to see how much it costs you. I was surprised at just how little the necessities cost. I haven't spent more than £50 a week on an online shop, yet in the supermarket I was thinking I'd got off lightly if I had got away with £75.

Enjoy the rest of your day :T

XSpender

Thanks HF, I am soooo not looking forward to it.

I have tried internet shopping before but I never like the fruit and veg they pick for me and I always spend too much on 'offers' that were not on my list, just like me in a real shop.:rotfl:

I am a bit hitty missy with meal planning at the moment but funnily enough have been doing it this week and it is helping me feel less stressed out every night when I know what to cook. I will really need to get back into it if my diagnosis is confirmed as I will have to be organised about what I eat as there will be no option to order a takeaway pizza for me:(

My biggest problem is lack of time. I finally sat down to eat at 9pm tonight after picking DS up from nursery at 5.45pm, buying paint, a quick trip to Sains and then a bath and bed for DS.

I was talking to my colleague who is a single Mum about her going part time in a different job and she was saying she never has time to clean, do the dishes, shop for food etc and I was saying I would be knee deep in dishes if it wasn't for the dish washer, I don't walk the dogs as often as I should and I ran out of time at the weekend to wash the kitchen floor:eek: Part time is not an option in my job.

I am considering employing a cleaner for a couple of hours a week. Not really sure how to go about it and not sure of the costs involved exactly to muck out a small house once a week.

XSpender

We have had a busy weekend decorating the bedroom. It looks lovely, much more elegant and sophisticated than the last decor. I wonder how long it stays like that? Probably will be a couple of weeks before DH starts again with the floordrobe;)

I had budgeted £200 for everything for the room (except a light fitting as we couldn't afford it this month) and have come in at £205. However, we have enough rollers, brushes, filler and white ceiling paint to complete the rest of the house:D The existing bed side tables don't fit so may try and sell them as they are good quality but quite chunky. I don't think we will replace them.

The Miscellaneous budget has taken a real hammering and is waaaayyy over budget. This is going to have to be subsidised by some of the money I had saved:( It includes DS nursery photos which were too lovely not to buy, some trainers and some trousers for him, £20 to get up to date with DH work lottery and 2 family meals out. The 5 magazines were a treat for me and DH and we have hardly had chance to look at them.:o I am also going to get dentist check ups booked for me and DH when we are off which I haven't budgeted for but we haven't been for a year and our week off is an ideal time to get it done.

April Goals - how am I doing?

• Eat out of freezers and cupboards, using up all gluten containing foods - the freezer is getting roomier but I need to use up the flour and baking stuff
• Open an ISA with £100 - the £100 is set aside but may need to use a bit of it to come us afloat this month. Not had time to open the account.
• Save £100 to holiday fund - currently stands at £102.02
• Save £10 to Christmas fund - currently stands at £20 in total
• Save £20 to car fund - £20 balance
• Keeping topping up all pots and Shirley the shrapnel pig - I have topped up the change pots but have not been adding to the £1/day pot as I keep forgetting and am now 1 week (£7 behind)
• Turn off heating (if DH doesn’t notice):shhh: - it has been off more but has not been turned off completely
• Monitor how much food we are wasting and cut down on it - I have wasted a littel fresh stuff amounting to £3.50 so far
• Complete EPF133D and EPF230A assignments for college - started but will be spending a whole day on these on our week off as DH has to go into work fgor a day
• Complete bedroom makeover - glossing to do this weekend and buy a light fitting next month.
• Day trip to Whitby with fish and chips included:drool: - planned for week off in April

I have spoken to DH about a cleaner and it looks like we will probably be employing one from next month at a cost of about £20 a week. I am aiming to make up half the cost from my food budget and the rest will be covered by my travel expenses from work. We can afford it without impacting on the savings. I just need to stick to the budgets....easier said than done in my case.

XSpender

Dentist booked for us both in a couple of weeks time so that will be the best part of £40. This is coming out of the emergency savings as I did not budget for it but it needs doing.

Did have a bit of good luck....I have been updating my spreadsheet and panicking that we seemed really short this month, I haven't even had my personal spends yet and there was not enough left in to cover the basicsaccording to the spreadsheet but the bank account, less the DDs still to come out, looked a lot better when I noticed that 2 of the formulas were wrong. This means I am nearly £100 better off than I thought..phew!:)

I will still need to use a little of the money I had set aside for our holiday but not much. This will mena I have saved something in both March and April. Not much maybe but it's a start and we have spent money on work in the house both months and a new bed. Very comfy it is too but at a foot wider than our last one it feels like I am sleeping alone:eek:

I haven't done anything about the cleaner yet. I will look to start it after pay day on the 20th.

My meal planning has been going OK this week and haven't set foot inside a supermarket since the weekend which is always a good way of keeping the pennies in my purse.

XSpender

Remind me to leave DH at home when I pop into Ald1 for a few bits. £15 on food, £15 on booze and £15 on bits for the garden. This is on top of another £12 on a plant for the patio.

DH bought DS a Mickey Mouse breakfast set for his birthday next month and it's in pieces when I got it home so it will need to go back.

Having a lovely weekend so far with lots of visitors. My friend came over yesterday with her 2 girls and we had a good catch up. DM and DSD coming up today for lunch and DBIL and his girlfriend (who he lives with and we have only met once on Christmas Eve) are popping in this afternoon.

I have some work to do this weekend ready for Tuesday but DH is out tomorrow al day so will try and get it done then. Monday is finishing the bedroom day. We did end up getting a light fitting for the bedroom for £25 from sains. so the surplus this month is shrinking again.:o

I have opened an ISA with £100 and have done 3 you gov surveys this morning so am at 200 points. Bit of a way to go to a pay out but I will keep plugging away and hope I get there by Christmas. 2 of the surveys were for comps so here's hoping I win the £2500 top prize instead:D

XSpender

Happy Easter everyone

DH out today so I have a list of things to get done today. I am not planning to go out today anywhere having droppedm DH off at 7.45am:eek:

My list is more housework than money saving TBH:

• Sort out the ironing pile. DH does it but has asked for it to be organised.
• Get DH meat out of freezer for tea
• Wash kitchen floor
• Tidy painting stuff away as not needed until tomorrow
• Tidy DS room as it is becoming a dumping ground again
• Read and prep Day 1 for work next week
• Complete student finance form and find DH income proof
• Write and stick stamps on 2 birthday cards (one needs cash adding)
• Write a cheque to pay for races day
• Stick some boxes in loft
• Get my summer clothes out of loft
• Reorganise freezer and check what gluten foods still need to be eaten. I have to wait 2-3 weeks for my results so still time to eat it all up just in case.

In MSE news DH and I have decided to do a car boot sale 22nd April sowill be spending some of our week off gathering carp together to sell. We have loads of DS stuff we can sell. There are also a few more exspensive baby items like a baby carrier and one of those seats that go on your back to sell. I will put these on fleabay.

I don't like fleabay much but we could do with the £s towards our holidays. We need £609 for the caravan and £1000 for food, diesel and spends. This budget is quite generous and will depend on how much eating out we will be doing. If I am Coeliac I expect it will be less than if I am not.

We have been invited out with DBIL/DSIL but I don't think we can afford it as it will be 1 week before pay day and we hae already overspent this month. I do not want to get to the end of the month and have no money put aside at all. I am already owed £80 of my personal spends which will have to wait until next month. £45 of this will be for my races ticket.

Am I the only one who starts planning next months and can't wait for pay day 2 weeks into the month? I have all my budget planned out already:o

mamato3

I know I shouldnn't but I'm exactly the same xspender I wish the rest of the month away by the time we get to the middle! You seem to be doing really well I wish I was sticking to my budgets as well as you!