millionth time trying but this time we will do it!

Penguin8410

Still don't really have a plan sorted for chilcare issues but i have done 3 different shops at 3 different supermarkets to stock up my stores for the pending redundancy. I feel much more secure knowing that we will have enough food for the kids to eat as thats most important. i have also started putting together future meal plans of cheap meals to help with this too. Money wise i've sorted out how our finances would work on 1 wage and we will have enough for all of the bills, a small amount of petrol and a small amount of food, so once again that feels ok to me knowing all the main things can be paid. i have really limited christmas presents and the amounts we spend this year. i have also found 3 items in my flat which i can use as presents for people which will cost me nothing!:money: so now to roll on pay day on friday when more payments can be made!

Penguin8410

ok i have no idea what i was thinking when i said money wise on one wage we could afford bills, petrol & food because we def can't! we will be £550 short on my part time wage and even if i went back to full time we would still be £250 short a month. We should have some redundancy money but it most def won't last that long at all. i need to get planning more but have no idea where else we can cut down as i have got rid of everything we possibly can do.

sorry i'm really rambling today but i have too many thoughts in my head and need to get them out!

Bex296

Hi! I hear you with misbudgeting, I do that all the time and it's partly how I got in the mess I'm in. I'm going to try a spreadsheet on my phone and see if that works...!
I do find meal plans really helpful or I just fill my basket with all sorts. There are also some good cheap food blogs out there to help with recipes- I particularly like one by Jack Monroe (not sure if I'm allowed to post a link, but if you google her it'll come up), really cheap recipes, mostly veggie but would be easy to chuck in some meat.

Good luck with the journey!

Penguin8410

Exactly the same as me bex296. I have always got a spreadsheet on the go and record everything but something always slips through the net that I have forgotten about! Meal planning is the only way to go, and I have learnt from my mum all about this! She had the meal plan all the time when I was younger and we had no money at all. Again I have spreadsheets for this along with my fly lady one too! I'm pleased with the stock cupboard, or how it will be after deliveries tonight, so that's a start. I worked out we would have £100 a month to feed me, oh, dd who is 1 and also niece and nephew on 2 days as well. I will def look at as many blogs as I can for ideas so thanks for the tips!

Today I have changed our gas and electric and saved around £90 a year which is good! Just looking at life insurance now as we're paying £40 a month for this and I'm sure we could get it cheaper as this was taken out 6 years ago. Next on the list is sky who I will just cancel if the redundancy happens but regardless I will be calling them up to see what they can offer. Not sure on anything else I can reduce as it has all been done already!!

Penguin8410

Haven't been on for a while but things stay the same! Another payment has gone out on each loan though so we're now down to under 24k! scary amount still though but its nice to see it going down.

I've just checked my other accounts and i owe £100 to next which i'll pay off next payday, but owe £700 to my credit card from purchases for my business. I should be fine to hopefully pay this off by the new year but will have to be inventive about how i go about it! i'm going to try and ebay a few more bits if I can find any and will join the grocery challenge for the next few months so i can hopefully have some of that left over to put towards the card too.

Less than 2 weeks now until my OH finds out if he's made redundant. I've done a good job of stocking up the cupboards (within budget) and have just received a £20 off a £40 shop from tesco so will be using that to stock up further, probably on nappies etc.

I'm feeling quite positive about things at the moment, which is nice for a change. I feel like i'm a lot more organised with everything and things are under a lot more control than they were before

Penguin8410

so the OH has just found out he has been offered the job at work and won't be made redundant! yay!:j:j:j so pleased that he has been able to keep his job and get a promotion but not to sound ungrateful they haven't offered him the amount he should be on for the position. He's dissapointed bless him, so i think he will still look for something else. At least this way he has the bonus of being able to look for a new job with money coming in.

His new wage gives us roughly an extra £100 a month which hopefully we will be able to use as overpayments on one of the loans. Will rework the finances and see how we get on!

Penguin8410

Right well i have calmed down from the dissapointment of the pay situation on monday and have been working out some positive moves for the future!:D

Our little girl is now coming up for 15 months and we are starting think about when we would ideally like another baby. currently as our finances stand, with me being just on maternity pay we would be £200 short a month.....so our plan is to save as much as we can with the extra £100 and my part time work and any spare change so that we can cater for this shortfall. we have a smashable moneybox which we have been putting £1s and £2 coins and the occasional notes when we're feeling rich so this should help with things too as i'm sure there must be at least £250-300 in there at the moment. hopefully by the end of next year we will have enough in our savings to cover everything and a bit extra.

i know we should be thinking about paying off our debt asap but to be honest life is too short. we have the loans over 4 years which was the shortest period we could do without overstretching ourselves so we do know they have an end date in sight. also i should get a bonus in march which i will more than likely use to make an overpayment to my car loan to hopefully reduce it down a couple of months.

in the long term i feel a lot more positive about things and once the loans are paid off we can look at saving up for a house

MrsSmith2013

So glad to hear that the redundancy won't happen now, that must be a weight off your shoulders!!

Glad to hear that you also have a DFD in sight, thats always a good thing. I know what you mean about life being too short, it really is!!

Keep thinking positive and I'll pop back soon to see how you are doing!

Mrs S x

Penguin8410

Hi Mrs S! :wave: it most definitley is a weight off our minds, sleep can resume again! exactly, we could put off extending our family until our debt free date, but we've put it off for long enough just starting it so don't really want to put that part of our lives on hold anymore

thanks again for popping in, i will try and find your diary on here and subscribe! take care x

MrsSmith2013

Thats good you will get a good nights sleep again!!

I don't think there is ever a perfect time to extend your family, we were the same when we thought about having baby number 2, there would always be a reason for you to postpone or put it off - things have a way of working out and you manage! I graduated 8 months pregnant with DS and we made it - was hard at the time, but you really do just manage.

I'm also a great believer in, "If its meant to be it will be"!

Talk soon,
Mrs S x