HELP! Have cut back all I can but am still over-spending!

andersonsophie_89

Obviously eating good home made food keeps the immune system up, thus health. If your finding it hard now to afford paying food in your budget, with inflation, you will fnd it get worse as time goes one. I will start growing my own food. Get the kids involved, and make them have competitions against each other. You will find they will be healthier, more focus, entertained and learning something. Root veg like potatotes can be kept over the winter.

It is great having savings. But you must remember that the value of £20 now most likely not be as valuable in the future. Im not a investment advisor, I have aready looked at other investments like precious metals,garden, etc... instead of putting hard cash in the bank.

ScrimpingandSaving

Verbatim wrote: »

You sound so positive S and S which is wonderful. Perhaps with the jobs market picking up and the economy improving there will be more opportunities soon for your OH. It sonds as if the difficult work patterns are affecting his health.
Good luck with the veg growing. I started some peas and courgettes off inside and put them out 2 weeks ago. Just need a bit of sun.
Vx

We're in for a cold spell this weekend with the potential for frost so make sure you cover them up.

heartbreak_star

Thank you for the update, I'm amazed and pleased at how far you have come!

Hope your DH finds something else jobwise soon, those hours sounds awful.

Well done

HBS x

Verbatim

I'm in N London and we seem to have a bit of a micro climate in the rectangle of back gardens where we are! I used to worry about frosts but it so rarely happens after the start of April that I've stopped worrying. Slugs and snails are more of an issue. Had 4 courgette flowers yesterday but no pea flowers yet.

MrsGSR

It's not about cutting everything out it's about cutting it down.
We are a family of 4, we spend £200 a month of groceries, cleaning products are bought as and when and for the cheapest possible price, clothes for the kids are budgeted for in their child benefit and I do buy and sell second gear to fund this too.
I have several little saving accounts to stash money in to pay for car stuff, kids birthday stuff, and at the moment I have been saving towards our shed. I am very, very strict and I set the family budget each month, what DH spends is up to him and his spending is the reason I run our joint account now, he just fritters money away.
Have you gone through the last few months of your bank statements to see what you are spending where? I found that this where our joint account got into problems because it was the bits and bobs shopping adding up so much.

I really should have read the dates before I posted cos it looks like you are doing really well!

suki1964

WB SS. Thankyou so much for coming back and updating this thread

I hope many more people get inspired by this thread. It's so easy to despair and think life is going to be dreadful forever, but you have shown here, that just making the smallest changes that are palatable to the whole family , things can be changed around

I'm not working now. Had to finish back in march, mostly be Use my health has been so bad this past year. Hope to find something later in the summer but until then I'm living on a super tight budget

My shopping is now value range I'm not that fussed as I scratch cook so it's tins of toms and passata usually. I'm also lucky that we have a chicken processing factory down the road that has a factory shop and chickens are from 50p each. I also head directly to the reduced aisle when hitting the supermarket. Whatever is there is the basis of my weeks meals, ESP like to find fish and veggies

The veg garden has just been planted with carrots, parsnips and onions. Will give it a while yet before putting in the sprouts, beans and peas. The rhubarb is coming along well as are the raspberries

Wine from lidl ESP when on super Saturdays is still a must

Do try and scrap the curry sauces. The curry book I'm swearing by is the hairy bikers. It really is so easy to follow and the spices required are cheap as chips from any Indian grocer ( I get mine sent over from London)
The vegetable biryani in particular is a meal on its own and will feed eight cheaply very easily

I'm glad to read you are so positive,do keep coming back when you can xx

ScrimpingandSaving

Oh hey Suki I'm sorry to hear about your ill health. Have you thought of doing work from home like I do? Your writing is pretty good, you could write web content? Or set yourself up as a virtual PA. You can get free website building tools, link your site to social media sites and join loads of forums to get work coming in.

It's a hard slog though. I hope something turns up for you.

Supermarkets are now getting better at stocking Indian herbs and spices. When we lived in Lancashire it was so much easier to source a good Indian grocers but not so much here in the countryside. And to be honest, I don't really like curries. I make them for him and the kids. He likes his super spicy whilst the kids can only handle mild. so I do 3 separate meals on Sundays. I'm usually happy with cold leftover roast meat, some of their egg-fried rice and some steamed veg. The jar sauces cost around £1 each and last for weeks. So 2 weeks worth of curries cost just £2, not including the meat and veg I add. I can really only save £1 here at best and I figure that it's worth it as it saves me the labour of doing 2 different curries from scratch.

Things do change. I know when you are struggling and life seems to deal knock after knock, it can look bleak. Christmas was difficult for us. We were still budgeting, I fell ill and couldn't do any shopping, the car broke down completely, we bought a second hand one only to find a serious oil leak which had been bodged over by the previous owner, the boiler stopped working so we had to budget hundreds for that and then my husband bought me some perfume for Christmas, went to wrap it on Christmas Eve and couldn't find it anywhere, he eventually realised that he must have left it somewhere in town on the day he bought it.

We all felt low that Christmas. But life is ever evolving and changing and just when you think you can't handle anything else, you get a little pick-me-up. An act of kindness or stroke of good luck spurs you on.

Situations and circumstances change all the time. People who are at the top can come crashing down and those who are in the gutter can be picked up.

I've learned a lot of lessons. We have an emergency savings fund for just that - emergencies, such as the breakdown of white goods, cars, etc. I also have a fund for Christmas and have started buying gifts early so I don't get stressed over Christmas. The more we cut back, the more we can save. I plan in advance and budget accordingly.

Life may never be perfect but who says it can't be enjoyable? I hope you fellow veggie growers get a bumper harvest this year. I'm going to swap some eggs with my neighbours for some of their veggies and hopefully get a bit of a community swapshop going.

Now who's up for a glass of wine to celebrate the weekend?

bess1234_2

Chin chin! Really glad you updated.

Verbatim

That's fighting talk S&S! Good for you. Enjoy your weekend. But wouldn't some sun be nice? That would cheer us all up.

ScrimpingandSaving

What is this 'sun' you speak of? I know of no such phenomenon.....