3 kids, 2 chickens, 4 debts...

Scottishmummy

£200 every month to charity is a lot. Even if only for six months you should go down the "charity begins at home" route. That way the guitar would be paid off by October and you could make headway in to one of the other debts.

robberbutton

Scottishmummy wrote: »

£200 every month to charity is a lot. Even if only for six months you should go down the "charity begins at home" route. That way the guitar would be paid off by October and you could make headway in to one of the other debts.

It's tithe Previously we've given more, then for a long time a lot less, but this feels right at the moment.

brummiebabe

Hi robberbutton - just wanted to say welcome to the boards! Joining in some challenges is a good idea as a way of keeping you motivated and focused.

Make sure your SOA is realistic and includes everything! Otherwise, your budget won't work!! (I speak from experience here:rotfl:)

Good luck x

robberbutton

Thanks for the welcome Brummiebabe Will redo the SOA at the end of this month.

DH has just popped to Tesco for a newspaper and present for DS to take to his friend's party later on, so def not a NSD today.

robberbutton

Opps! Mini money saving disaster - DDs have just emptied a full bottle of £4 shampoo into the bath. D'oh!

Might be time to try a homemade recipe? One thing I have found with my hair is if I slather it in coconut oil at night, and wash it as normal with shampoo in the morning, it can then go for over a week before needing to be washed again. Got to be some pennies saved there.

robberbutton

Joined up to the September GC challenge. I really need to go through the store cupboards as it feels like we've got an absolute ton of food in the house, but nothing to eat! I've been meaning to do this for ages, but like all money-saving it requires energy and effort, and I'm definitely a short-burst kind of person. I haven't been well (bouts of depression over the last 2 years) and am also 6 months pregnant, so sometimes everything is very much in survival mode.

robberbutton

Ok, so having done a bit of research on the shampoo front, I'm going to try a Lush Shampoo Bar. Apparently a 50g bar, the cheapest of which costs £2-3, lasts as long as three bottles of 200ml shampoo, smells fantastic and doesn't have any nasties in. There'll be a shop near DH's work so I'll get it on Tuesday hopefully.

We don't really use shampoo on the DCs (6,4,2) at the moment and I'm going to try to keep that up, have always read about hair not really needing it and being self-cleaning. I use detangling spray on the girls, but when my current bottle runs out apparently you can use a spray of 50/50 water/conditioner which gives the same result.

Have also decided to try some of the other recipies on the OS board - for cleaners and making your home smell nice etc. With spare money at the end of this month (fingers crossed) I'll get some essential oils. In the meantime will try ground cinnamon in a pan of boiling water, that kind of thing.

Two things that have been bothering me are the chickens - must clean the cage! Poor things - and the laundry. Will try and at least get that done today. Thought about posting on the flylady thread (used to post there) but got a bit overwhelmed reading everyone's lists of polishing and scrubbing, thought my two items would seem a bit paltry!

robberbutton

A NSD today

robberbutton

A good couple of money saving days. First managed to get our Buildings and Contents Insurance quote from £489 down to £333 via a price comparison website :j DH got a free sample of a shampoo bar from Lush (as they didn't have the one I sent him in for) which should last me a while, and the weekly shop was less than £60 (had budgeted £75 but this will allow for top ups).

27 days till next payday but in budget so far :rotfl:

robberbutton

Still going ok. Have managed to put aside nearly £100 just from the Virtual Sealed Pot method of skimming off extra pounds and pennies from the two current accounts each Friday, and also putting aside any savings from buying things cheap, or extra money (we had a cheque for £25 that was a few months old). I don't think I'll save the money in the traditional VSP way but use it to hopefully pay down some debt each month.!

I have £118 left in my account (the child benefit goes into that one and I use it for me and the children) but unfortunately all three of them have grown into the next shoe size, which will probably account for a large chunk of that. Shoes are really the only thing I spend much money on for them - second hand clothes and toys, but one good fitting pair of new Clarkes shoes when they need them!

In the joint account that my husband's salary goes into, we have about £240 left for the month, but that has to cover two more grocery shops and probably another tank of petrol (two this month as travelled a couple of hundred miles for a family christening). There's also about £100+ on a credit card - I haven't quite got my head around budgeting with a cc, which then gets paid off a few weeks down the line. It would be a shame to stop using it as we get cashback, and I guess the answer is to put the money from the current account aside as soon as you spend it, but that's been a bit harder to remember and keep track of.!

Expensive time coming up - 2 children's birthdays then Christmas, but really pleased with how it's going so far. DH and I have managed it by not spending ANY money on ourselves or the house, which of course it would be nice to do sometimes, and DH says he thinks all the time about making the cash he's taken out last. I don't want him to be worried about it, but surely that's a good habit to get into?