Hard work now but hoping to lead to financial freedom

Walaboobah

How much savings do you have?

You are effectively losing value on them anyway as your O/D is at 14.85% interest.

niftythrifty33

I only have a little bit of savings and want to leave them there. The OD is getting better as Ive been doing lots of overtime. Still not great but getting better. Trouble is it would be a lot better more quickly if I could stick to my weekly budget. It just never seems to last!!

brummiebabe

Hi nifty - have you considered that maybe your weekly budget isn't enough for your family's needs, and that's why it doesn't last? Have you kept a spending diary to see where the money is going?? I only say this as I thought we were budgeting enough (I do a monthly budget) but was overspending every month. It was only when me & DH sat down & looked at it that I realised I just wasn't budgeting enough.....for example I'd set a budget for petrol, but sometimes there are 5 weeks not 4, and I only set aside enough for 4.....no wonder it got messed up!!!

We are a family of 5 - and I budget £80 per week shopping - do you think you budget enough?

niftythrifty33

Hi Brummiebabe. My DH thinks that we need to increase our weekly budget to allow more leeway. I know he's probably right but at present it's £150 per week. This covers everything, usually around £70-80 on food, then petrol, small items of clothes, youth clubs etc, small school trips, basically everything other than DD's, (not my haircut or mobile top-ups).

Some weeks are fine then as you said now and then we need more diesel and have to use the card. I think because when the kids were little we didnt need as much so to me 150.00 seems a lot. My friend said recently that we are financially supporting 5 adults on 1 full wage & 1 part time. This made a lot of sense to me and explains why were struggling. Kids are doing A levels & GCSEs so they cant contribute obviously.

Are your kids older or younger? how much do you get through in a week/month with everything?

brummiebabe

My kids are 12, 10 & 6 so are younger. Not sure how helpful it is to say what our spending is as our circumstances are different.....we have to run 2 cars for example.....but I'll put it anyway:

Petrol £70 p/w (2 cars)
Food £80 p/w
Dance £5.50 (DD)
Football £9-10 (both boys play....this is subs)
Pocket money £7.50
Entertainment/incidental spending £20

We also have monthly amounts that I put into ING accounts.....this covers clothes, birthdays, Christmas, school trips, presents (for kids parties.....DD has a lot of these), dentist, haircuts etc. Looking at your budget you try & pay for these things as & when you need them out of your weekly amount.....so if you have an expensive trip or item of clothing, it's going to knock your whole budget for the week. Would it be worth separating things out more in your budget....eg £10 p/w for clothes.....and putting that aside, so that when you need an item of clothing you'll hopefully have some money in the 'clothing pot?'

Everyone works differently. I transfer money from my ING accounts into my main account to cover what I've spent. E.g. I bought my DD a jacket - so transferred the £12 spent from clothing pot into my current account - but there's still some left in the clothing budget which will continue to build up until I need something else.

It really is about finding something that works for you - good luck!!

niftythrifty33

Thanks for replying. Actually I do exactly the same as you. Since 1st Jan this year I have transferred £240 p/m into a savings acct linked to our current acct. On a spreadsheet I have about 8 things to save for, christmas, birthdays, clothes, ins, car tax, DIY etc etc.

When Im being good, I use cash for everything else with 150.00 and write it all down. When I need something from the big budget I use my card then transfer the money into current acct (like you).

Our trouble is when I started transferring into the budget acct, I TOTALLY underestimated how much we needed. The worst was clothing, I had budgeted about 35.00 per month which I thought would be plenty. Within a few months i was in the minus by lots due to a wedding, school uniform, football boots etc. The good thing is by the end of this year I will know where a whole years money has gone and next year will know exactly how much to put by each month. I have become a bit OCD about my spreadsheet lol.

The main things I need to do now is, get back to weekly cash & write it all down; sell ebay stuff; walk more & drive less;

I want to pay off credit card & OD then look at mortgage. wow sorry for the long reply

brummiebabe

It sounds like you need to tweak your budget then and just make sure you're putting enough aside. Know what you mean about clothing costing more than you think, with uniforms, school shoes, football boots/trainers and dance shoes etc, it's never-ending - never mind clothes/shoes for work!!:mad:

I do think it takes a while for a budget to start to work & for the appropriate pots to start to build up......hopefully we'll both get there in the end;)

niftythrifty33

Been quite good with budgeting but this week the 150.00 ran out after 3 days then had to get out another 40.00 for DD's birthday meal and money we owed her. Then I'm sure I got out another 20.00 for 'stuff' and I went to Te&*co last night to see if there was any reduced meat, there wasn't but I still spent 13.00!

I need to increase the weekly budget but I also know I need to be more disciplined with handing out money. Eg. when Im tired I find it hard not to just give the squids money for dinners as I HATE making lunches and so do they!

I just need to get organised and stop putting things off. Also need to crack on with selling on fleabay, I have tons of stuff.

Going to have a No Spend Day today. I fancy a challenge this weekend, maybe a no spend weekend, though not sure DH will agree.

niftythrifty33

Ok so I managed a no spend day but forgot I had to pay money for rugby & football so i had to borrow it from DD. Have taken out 150.00 this week and I REALLY want to stick to it.

I bought lots of posh meals reduced last week. I totalled it up and I'd bought 45.00 worth of meals for 3.50, they were the sort that us money savers would never buy, like 3.50 for a mushroom pasta thing! So will be doing a meal plan based on all the stuff in the freezer. I also need to bake some things for packed lunches, cakes/flapjacks etc as this seems to cost us loads every week.

I'm really pleased that our OD is 500.00 less than it was a month ago, not sure how thats happened as havent been sticking to budget for last few weeks but hopefully now back on track.

The kids are all desperate for new clothes and shoes, they never say anything as they know we havent got spare money but all their stuff is starting to look old and tatty. I will look on fleabay, though there isnt usually much for older teens.
I MUST SELL STUFF ON EBAY. If I say this enough maybe it will work?

wintersunseeker

Free listing this weekend! Does that help???