StarLight's 'Did I need it?' Spending Diary

StarLight

Today my contract starts for my new job. Up until now we have been living off my Husband's wage, my minescule self employment income and child benefit. About 2 months ago I hit rock bottom and posted my fears and worries in the Old Style board. Now, as of today, things are looking much brighter. Money is tight and we have gone through our budget with a fine tooth comb, adjusting where necessary and cutting out the things we really can do with out. We are now in a postion where we will have enough coming in to cover all outgoings, but still not quite enough to cope with a major 'issue' unless I set up a strict saving regieme. Hubby is fantastic and now has his own monthly spend budget and keeps a spending diary. So I thought as of today I would put my thoughts here and my spending so that I have to justify what I spend. I may get to the point where I may do it in advance of what I need to buy, but today I have spent the money so I am going to list what I have bought and whether I really should have.

So some rules of engagement. These are items over and above that which we spend by way of our monthly food shopping. At the moment our budget is £440 for all food shopping, cleaning products and toiletries also has to cover family and friends birthdays and also presents for my daughter's friends. We have a pre-loaded card from which we get money back and at the moment we shop at Sainsbugs where we can get this benefit (A*da is another one but nearest one is about 15 miles away). We also save our Nectar points although I have been using them to supplement at times. This will stop from January 2013 and will be saved for Christmas 2013 (as we always used to).

So this spending diary will be for items that do not fall under the above remit.

I only use the money I have and do not use credit cards. Once I start getting my monthly salary my ready cash will be increased but I need to save most of it to build up a fund for replacing the valves on the raditators throughout the house and then an emergency fund of £500 (Picked out the air but I have to have a starting point).

I'm going to colour code the spend using the RAG rating (Red, Amber, Green - Red Amber :think: Green :j)

OK so today (12 November 2013) I bought:
Rabbit Food £3.99 We had run out! Have tried the food they sell at Sainsbugs but the rabbit picks out what he likes and leaves the rest. So I get the pellets from the Pet Shop

Torch £4.99 I probably could have done without this but we have no working torch in the house and I can't see to get down to the bottom of the garden to get to the guinea pigs in the garage which I need to if it is going to freeze overnight. This is a worry for me!

Washing Line £2.99 I bought this so that I can line dry more washing on good days, so the idea is to use it on fine days to cut down on using the tumble drier - so if I use it, it should save me money. I get a bit lazy sometimes!

Family Calender £1.99 Needed this for the new year as Hubby has missed having a calender (changed to a diary and it really is not as visual. I will probably get a small one for my handbag to keep me organised!)

Pack of Paper 99p again maybe didn't need this but want to do some paper lanterns for my daughters birthday which we can make together.

Postage for Ebay parcel £2.70 Necessary cost.

I do Ebay items from time to time. At the moment the money has been used for Christmas Presents for my DD. Have to decide whether after Christmas this money goes towards the funds or if it is clothes, maybe go towards new clothes for DD or new toys if they were her toys in the first place. This is quite tricky for me ... not quite sure how this will pan out. Any thoughts would be greatfully received.

I will be putting down NSD (which I am pleased to say I have quite a few). Once I know what my wage will be (not loads as only working weekends) I will sort out what I can put away each month for my emergency fund.

If by any chance you have read the entire post without being bored to death ... Thank you! Please feel to jump aboard and join the journey!!

SL x

moneymuffin

Hi

Welcome to the board, I love your idea of categorizing your spends, it's such a good visual way of monitoring spending.

I hope you don't mind but think I might pinch that idea for my own diary. Got a feeling with my spending habits there may be a lot of red!

Good luck in your efforts to cut down/monitor spending.

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi Starlight congratulations on the new job :j

Loving the RAG for the spending ...... we use this a lot at work but haven't tried it for me - although I did do something similar when I started my diary and categorised spends into needs and wants (this has fallen by the wayside so really must look at doing something again!).

Best of luck on your journey *subscribes*

StarLight

Hello moneymuffin :wave: Thanks for popping in. Yes of course you can pinch my idea. I think that it is a really good way to analyse spending. Just mustn't have too many reds

Thanks for subscribing raising from the ashes I plan to have nosey through some other diaries so will make sure I pop into see you.

I am currently doing my Maths GCSE, no mean feat for a mummy in her [STRIKE]forties[/STRIKE] - sorry who is 21 again!!

Anyway last week we did some conversions and it suddenly struck me that I could approximate (hark at me!) the amount of petrol that I use when I go out in the car. So Hubby has already kept a record of how much we spend and at the moment it is £112 month. He has been doing this for 2 years!! And we realised that we were paying £9.00 month more currently for less petrol - :eek:

Anyway we know that our car does approximately 330 miles on a full tank and the tank takes approximately 40 litres. So that is 8.25 miles per litre and a litre is approximately £1.37. So it will cost me £1.37 for every 8 miles that I do. I think that's right? But I do realise that this doesn't take into account long/short journeys. But I think that it will do the job.

Got a couple of jobs that need doing so will pop back later x

StarLight

So ... yesterday (13 November) I had to take back the torch as it wouldn't switch off! But did get another one which works ok. Also posted 2 parcels which I have decided to not to include in my spending diary, as I get the money back for it. So what did I spend:

Diary 99p I decided that I would need this to help record my extra working hours and anything that I didn't really want to go on the calander. It's a nice diary that opens sort of upwards and has lines in it, which I prefer.

Advent Calender 99p Had to get this as Sainsbugs had run out of the disney princess ones and I had promised DD one.

Today (14 November)

Sweets £1.18 Promised DD I would take her to get some sweets after school. We used to go every Friday but I stopped this. Now we really only go as a treat.

Tomorrow should be a NSD.

x

beanielou

Happy new diary & happy new job.
Keep posting!

[Deleted User]

Hi StarLight,

Happy new diary and congrats on the new job.

Pmo2
x

StarLight

Thank you Beanielou and Purplemumof2 I am very excited about my new job. The training has started and all is going well.

Well torch came in handy last night for Hubby to get his football stuff from the garage and tonight we had a lightbulb blow and tripped the fuse box so I am glad I did get it - £4.99 well spent!!


Today was a NSD!

Weekly shop to be done tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. Going to keep track of that too.

AA renewal has come through but we aren't going to renew. Going to go for Pay and Claim this year and see how we get on.

That's all for today x

StarLight

Today we have £149.92 on our card to last us till next pay day (27th November). So about £75.00 for each week.

I spent £67.68. The only 'extra' to our weekly shopping needs that I bought was a 3 pack of socks for my new job!!

So very happy with that! :T

StarLight

60p First Class Stamp for letter to Santa ... a must!

StarLight

17th and 18th were NSDs :j

However it is DD's Birthday on Thursday and Party on Sunday.

Party has been paid from money that I have saved up through out the year. This will be her last proper party, next year it will be just a couple of friends etc

I had £17 left to do Party Bags, banner, balloons and wrapping paper, not to mention the sweets for the class!!!! :mad: Used a £2.50 nectar card redeem but still ended up having to pay an extra £4.04 and there still looks like there is nothing in the party bags :eek:

Posted 4 parcels today. Withdrew £80 from Paypal. £30 of which will go towards a reward gift for DD (it is her stuff that I have sold). £50 to go into her savings account with National Savings, although since it changed I'm not sure how to get money into it!! But on the reverse side I don't know how to get it our either so it won't get spent :rotfl: