Learning to pretend, in a good way

Suziebabe

Thanks Debs - I think I must have been checking your diary while you were checking mine! :D

Good idea about posting the list of shame in your diary, might 'borrow' that idea if you don't mind! I only worked out our %age recently and we're also at over 4% cleared, it's funny how much better I feel about that than the 95%+ in debt :rotfl::rotfl:

Suziebabe

Back again. Where did the last 2 weeks go?

As expected, visiting company did hammer the food budget, plus work involved lots more travel than expected, and on top of that I found out (and I was kind of expecting this) that my rubbish diet over the years has taken its toll and I need to permanently change my eating habits to help my poor old pancreas recover from the sugar load I've been giving it - hitting the grocery budget once again.

I'm actually quite enjoying the diet/food challenge, once I got my head around it - but having to come up with a whole new set of meals is quite hard, while sticking to a budget as well. Most of the meals are based around vegetables & pulses, and while I'm getting into the swing of it I'm using tinned pulses and sticking to recipes, and then plan to gradually build up both my skills and my stock of dried pulses and switching the veg to suit offers, to cut down the cost. I'm hoping that it'll end up working out cheaper than it was before, but resigned to the fact that while I'm experimenting it will end up costing more, just in terms of mistakes and building up a store cupboard that suits it.

(As if I didn't have enough plates to spin ... grumble grumble ... get over it ... ok then)

SO (deep breath) here I go on a new food adventure! Off to make roasted tomato soup and sort out my food cupboards!

Suziebabe

Another manic week, have failed to monitor the bank accounts, totally lost the plot on spending diary <<sigh>> and all of it in the hope that I'm doing enough to get into the pay rise/bonus band next spring - I'm gonna be soooooo grumpy if I don't get a pay rise next year after all this :mad: :mad: Trouble is, after yet another round of redundancies this summer, everyone's maxed out at work - insane.

On the plus side, I'm too busy to do any shopping - lunch breaks are a distant memory, and apart from an early coffee to kick start the day, I'm not getting to the coffee shop during the day either, so at least that spending has gone down. On the negative side, OH appears to have completely lost the plot on the groceries budget, I suspect by the end of he week when payday rolls in, we'll have increased the overdraft on the food budget whilst reducing it on the bills budget, so won't be any better off :mad: If only he'd step up and take the reins when I'm too busy ! Instead, he seems to feed off my frenzy and end up manic as well - although having said that he does manage to keep DS fed & watered while I'm working as well as working himself & just about running the house, so it's probably just as manic for him when I can't help out!

Had to laugh though on Friday - the money saving must be rubbing off on DS, came home to find him counting out some change his gran gave him, bagging it up ready for the bank. He sorted out £10, and then asked if I'd bank it & transfer the money to his account - which I'm happy to do as at some point I will get to the bank in a lunch break. Then half an hour later he comes down with £5 in coins, his stash for school snacks that he's saved up over the months, and asks for another transfer - when I asked why he was doing all this, he said he just likes seeing so much money in his account! :rotfl::rotfl:

Wonder if I can get him to manage the groceries .....:)

Funky_Bold_Ribena

I think you should stop pretending that any spare money isn't there [which is your explanation for the thread title] and realise that it isn't actually there. No pretence. Hard cold facts.

You have x coming in
You have y going out on standard monthly bills
You have z to play with, which includes food.
If you spend more than z then you are never going to clear your debts.

You list your food needs and make sure that you stick to your food budget.

Any extra income goes to take the bottom line debt down.

Buy a flask and make a hot coffee before work yourself.

Get a whiteboard and put your balances on it [x, y, z and balance of debts]
Put a menu planner on it
Put a shopping list on it
Put it somewhere where you can all see it every day.

brizzledfw

Hi Suzie..just spotted your diary, hi:hello:

I have SO been in the same place...building up debts, paying them back, adding to the mortgage..have done it all. But finally Light Bulb seems to have come on and stayed on this summer so now making good headway and really changing out ways. Even talking about whether we can be mortgage free by 2018..whoop! :T not sure yet, but good to know we could if we really tried and work still keeps on coming etc etc.

You will have unexpecteds like guests, so just don't beat yourself up too much about that..but also try and change your underlying attitude to money..that's what will stop the yo-yo'ing. And get OH on board..(he sounds like he's 90% there) that has made all the difference for us:T working as a team to tackle it together:)

Suziebabe

Thanks brizzled, ribena - I'm sure your right, that there's something in our underlying attitude to money that needs to change, to make things stick better. I guess I'm not sure what that is though? When I look through our extra spending this month, I can't see any alternative ways we could have avoided spending extra (apart from the coffees, point taken ) Or at least, that wouldn't have caused pain/upset to someone else - I could hardly give the elderly aunt (who came to stay while she was recovering from a stay in hospital) food that she couldn't eat could I?

And now I've got everything updated & checked back to spreadsheets, I find that that's the only thing that has taken us off our plan (apologies to OH are definitely in order, as the food budget's better than when I do it, don't know whether that means I'm the problem, or he's been too busy to shop and the freezers are empty :rotfl:)

So I feel a bit better than when I did my earlier post this morning - think I had assumed it was going to be worse than it was, in the past it always has been! It looks like we're on track to clear at least another 1% of the debt this month, largely due to the ebaying/amazon sales and being too busy to spend! :T I'm quite reassured that the budget and plan I set up for the bills account runs as planned without me checking it every day, I thought it was only my vigilance keeping it that way :D

I think that I need something as easy to manage for my work expenses, as this is an area that's derailed my account in the past. For every trip away, I need cash for taxis, and I use an M£S CC for train tickets and hotels, and any overnight meals (so I get vouchers I can use for DS's clothes during the year) - all of which I claim back at the end of the month. The company pays back into the same account my pay goes into, and if I'm on the ball, I then pay off the credit card in full. What's happened in the past is that I haven't got round to paying the expense claim straight off against the credit card, so it gradually gets out of step and I end up paying interest, or worst case, spend the money on something else :eek: At least that hasn't happened recently, so the lightbulb must be on, however dimly! While it's really useful having the extra m£s vouchers, it's really annoying that I can't get online with it, so I'm waiting on my statement arriving at the end of each month. I might give them a call to see if they can set me up online, at least then I'll be able to monitor it alongside my current account. It's either that, or try to get a new credit card linked to my current account, so I can do the transfer online, on the day it gets paid in? I'm much happier if I can get shot of it straightaway, there's something about having my spreadsheet total match my bank account balance that am s me happy! Not sure how the cash for taxis will fit in - and come to think of it, my nerves have been twitching recently when I've had to draw money out for taxis etc. Hmmmm. I wonder if it would help if I had 2 purses? At the start of the month, I could take out the cash I expect to spend on taxis, and keep that with the CC and all my receipts in one place, separate to the other purse which has my personal [STRIKE]coffee fund[/STRIKE] spending money in it

I quite like the 2 purses idea - off to go rummaging, I'm pretty sure I've got a spare somewhere around the place ... Then to get ready for another hectic week!

[edit] oh! and to find that flask !

julie2710

It's hard sometimes to stay on track! Interesting to read what you said about your expenses! I have exactly the same issue. I do have a float but that only just sees me through and then I over spend. Technically I should be £70-100 up every month on my expenses but it just seems to get swallowed up somewhere!

It sounds as though things weren't quite as bad as you anticipated and you'll get back on track again I'm sure. It's a bit like being on a diet, occasionally you'll have an off day but ultimately you end up heading in the right direction.

shinner

Keep going you are monitoring well and finding out your downfalls. If you can highlight them then you can eliminate them and keep moving forward. It is strange how we can all rack debt up so quickly but it takes time to get rid off it. Motivation is my downfall at present along with OH lol.

Suziebabe

Thanks shinner, that's what I'm hoping - if I keep monitoring then eventually I'll have every eventuality covered and prepared for!

Julie - glad it's not just me & expenses! We don't get a float unfortunately, which is why I switched bank accounts recently to first direct, for their interest free £250 overdraft!

Have had a good old rummage through my wardrobe for a 2nd purse and only come up with one far too small, with nowhere to put cards, never mind receipts, so that won't do. On to the sideboard next, I may end up with DS's old Thunderbirds one at this rate!:eek::eek:

julie2710

Nothing wrong with Thunderbirds!!! I had to have a float as my expenses were coming in at about £800 per month and then I would submit them at the end of the month but wouldn't get reimbursed until the 25th of the month by which time I'd racked up another £700!!! Boss just doesn't get that we end up carrying the company every month even with the £1000 float!!! Just can't get on top of it