Doing it backwards

Outnumbered2:4

Hello! It's lovely to see I'm not just talking to myself :0) This diary is really motivating me, I think about buying things then realise I'll have to report it on here and resist!

Well no NSD here as I popped into Sains on my way home from work, picked up some yellow snickered sausages and 2 packs of bagels, plus some naughty ciabatta and some bananas - totalling £6. This diary is asking me realise my biggest pitfalls... Diet coke, kettle chips and garlic bread (ciabatta) cost me a fortune! However reporting them on here is probably cutting my intake in half already. I'm currently dairy and soya free so the few treats I can have feel justified!

Great day with my mum and the kids, mum paid and it was lovely not to count pennies for a change. Work tonight was dead again, damn school hols but at least I'll get minimum wage!

Mum has my boys tomorrow as she always does on a Thursday so me and baby girl will have a wander round the shops for any food bargains, we have a new green grocer in town which I am worryingly excited about so will check out their prices, then hav a rummage in home bargains.

Hubby was reading the flyer for a supermarket tonight and pointed out some very processed fish bites were only £1... We really need to make sure we don't feed the kids too much junk but its so tempting at those prices! How come I can afford to buy those but struggle to buy my baby pears? The world has gone mad!

Only tomorrow to get through before payday... Can't come soon enough can't wait to update my sig!

Until then, we must behave ourselves!

Outnumbered xx

Outnumbered2:4

Take a look at my sig, £4,400 in the ISA!! I bit the bullet and paid £70 from paypal into my ISA a day early, along with a few pennies to round it up! I'm sure the lady in the bank thinks I'm nuts!

I covered another class tonight for job 2, another £24 in the pot once I get paid, I'm shattered from the extra work over the past 2 weeks though.

Payday tomorrow and we have about 20p left in cash, plus a couple of pounds in each current account.

I can't wait to get our payslips tomorrow and move our money around, pay minimum payments and transfer the max to our ISA

Outnumbered xx

MrsSmith2013

Hi Outnumbered, happy payday!!

I am the exact same with the ladies in the bank, I think they must think I'm nuts! The bank have sent me a book of paying in slips for my account so they must have noticed me paying in small random amounts. Saves me waiting to see a teller tho, just bung it in the envelope for the quickdrop thingy now!

Massive well done on the balance in the ISA thats great going! Another month or so and I'm sure you will be past the half way mark.

Hope you get all your transfering etc done on payday - keep up the fab work!

Mrs S x

Outnumbered2:4

Well yesterday was stressful, after waiting for payday for so long it comes and it feels like you're throwing all you hard earned cash away straight way!

Yesterday's spends...

*Twins school shoes £42 (Clarks outlet + 10% tamba discount) thankfully DS3s were checked and are still fine as I bought them a few weeks ago. Clarks must be laughing there was a huge queue at 9am
*Drink stop after Clarks with a hungry baby £5.25 (3 juices and 1 Diet coke! Too cold to breastfeed outside!)
*Celebratory ice cream for the kids in the afternoon with free play area £5.25 (luckily me and baby can't have it as she's allergic)
Aldi shop to restock cupboards £23
Anniversary dinner out with hubby £41
Taxis £7.50

The anniversary dinner was the hard bit, I really wanted to go and enjoy it as its only once a year (only our 3rd night out since baby was born in Dec!) but it seemed so wrong spending that money whilst we are trying to save. This was with a 20% off voucher. The taxi is also very very rare normally we would drive but we got a taxi to our local pub so we could have a bottle of wine.

We're back on track today and back on our £20 a day budget for the rest of the month. Today we've spent exactly £20 including posting 2 eBay items. This afternoon we went to Ikea and checked the big 3 into their free soft play, then spent £4.25 in the shop on wine glasses and a photo frame!

We have to pay for our car's service and MOT this month so savings will be less than last month, luckily a friend is doing them for mates rates so we're expecting £130 plus potentially a new tyre. The plan is to pay £105 into the ISA on Tuesday (its passbook based so I need to go into the branch), then pay in any extra from eBay/expenses/underspends as and when we can.

I've had a good scout round our loft this afternoon and listed another 6 items on eBay, and took 3 bags of stuff to Enviroclothes (made £2.20!) I've also started to sort out stuff for a nearly new baby sale I September - it'll b great to de clutter ready for the move/sale and make some extra cash!

Tomorrow is our 6th wedding anniversary and my parents 40th. No pressies between us as being debt free is more important. For my parents I've bought a lovely framed print for £25 and a going thirds with my siblings on a professional photographer to take photos at their party (£40). Luckily it's all budgeted for in cash. The upside will be a free roast for us all at their party tomorrow, and a free afternoon/evening's entertainment, so hopefully a low spend day!

I hope everyone's having a good MSE weekend, I'm having a rare alcohol free Saturday and it feels good!

Outnumbered xx

please-let-me-be-lucky

Happy anniversary to you and your parents! Hope you have a lovely day Xx

Outnumbered2:4

I've not been on here for a few days but we've managed to stay in control.
Sunday was a Low spend day as expected, only £10 all day on lunch and fridge top ups. On bank holiday we went to a national Trust place for 'Gruffalo Day' which the kids loved, and we took a £13 picnic for all 6 of us and my parents, with some bits and pieces left over :0)

I was naughty last night and had fish and chips in the pub with a friend, and a pint of diet coke which cost £14, taking the daily total to £27 :0( I'm paying for the naughty food today too as I overate and have felt sick all day!

So far today has been a NSD but hubby is off at the supermarket now for lunch and tea ingredients for tomorrow. Maybe he'll get some whoops items too as its prime time! We only ha e £13 cash to get us back on budget so he's taken this and nothing else.

Another £100 added to the Isa today which now stands at £4500, getting ever close to £5k but with all the car repairs we need that might be it for Saving this month... As long as we can avoid raiding savings I'll be happy!

Now for an early night as I'm still feeling yuck, and the boys are being extra challenging this week (so ready for school!)

Outnumbered xx

Chrysalis1976

Hope you had a lovely anniversary, well done on your savings - I'm so looking forward to have savings for our own use I think the most we have ever saved is about £100!

Gruffalo day sounds brilliant of to check if anything happening near me.

C x

please-let-me-be-lucky

We almost went to Gruffalo day yesterday, we could have met for coffee!! We went there today instead, lovely and quiet!! Xx

Outnumbered2:4

Thanks Chrysalis, the savings are to pay off a loan which has to be paid in full so its not 'our' money, but its nice to see it add up (we need £10k by spring to move house)

Xx

Outnumbered2:4

So last night hubby's exhaust fell off his car... In the same week my MoT and service are booked I to be done. We are getting mates rates from a friend's son but still none of these were budgeted for (silly i know as the service and MOT have been on the cards for ages, but we'd supposed we'd get these from Savings, before savings became dedicated to paying off AA) so the costs are as follows:

Mot £30
Service £100 basic plus any parts that aren't under warranty/MOT cover
Hubby's exhaust £105 parts plus labour.

So that's a minimum of £235 to find in an already very tight budget this month, plus hubby suspects we need wiper blades and a new tyre.

I am loathe to dip into our AA pot as it feels like this goes against everything we've worked for, and a huge step backwards.

Hubby is going to try and claim his expenses but this will only be about £40, and we have items ending on eBay which may make another £20 but this is nowhere near enough.

Now I'm wondering if we can lower our daily budget to £10 a day instead of £20 to pay this extra bill... That's less than £2 a day each and we will need to buy nappies too... Is this even possible??

Right not a happy money saver tonight- damn cars!

Outnumbered xx