WOW I must be serious this time.....I have a diary

DreamerHelen

Hi There, I've just read through your Diary and you're very inspiring....I'm particularly inspired by you not goiing to drive-through's anymore as Ive just started a Diet and have to resist takeouts as well....

I'll be subscribing and keeping up to date with how you're doing...Keep Going!! :j

sassychick2014

Hey hon

All sounds like it's going good to me. Of course, the other bonus of setting the kids up with their own accounts is that they too will now learn how to budget so hopefully when they're older they don't get into schtik. Well, that's what I'm telling myself with my littley! Fingers crossed x

Trixxibell

Hi all,

Three night shifts in a row complete now get to spend a few evenings home with hubby :j

Needed a little pick me up because I'm waiting for payday not until the 26th and I don't know if I'm going to start paying tax or not this month..really annoying I have my budget set on a guesstimate wages definitely under budgeted just incase. So I compared January's bank statement (post LBM) to Novembers (pre LBM) I can see the following differences hopefully this well help any lurkers hoping to change their ways :

* petrol costs used to be more because of buying at the till. Chocolates, mints a few sweets for the kids. This has stopped petrol stations are for petrol! My local petrol station also to clubcard points so I always scan my clubcard now.

*a lot of ATM transactions, we have a cashpoint at work and I was taking £10 out per shift (3 shifts a week) or using my debit card in the canteen or the on site shop or sometimes both:eek:

* obviously as mentioned a million times before KFC was a regular appearance however those small £2 or £4 transactions soon added up.

Are you ready in one month pre LBM I spent £165.38 on the above :eek: I cannot imagine spending that now. That's just under £2,000 a year! With nothing to show. (Unless you count a pudgy stomach). So to all those out there who buy just that one cup of hot chocolate from the work canteen because its cheaper than the costa (yes that was my rationale as we have a costa at work but I was buying from the canteen as it was cheaper :rotfl:). Think of what you could do with that money. I have now brought a hot chocolate tub into work and make my own as well as taking my lunch in which I'm still doing.

So that's it I've probably repeated a post I've already discussed but needed a pick me up and it's worked :-)

Trixxibell

Tonight is going to be a DFW chat with the hubby he has recently had a pay rise which I've let him enjoy for a couple of months but it's time to have the budget chat.

Now I must be clear that I may come across harsh when it comes to DH and money but it's not his strong point and after clearing thousands of pounds of his debt. We have both agreed that as long as he has no DDs to deal with he can cope just fine. Physical cash he can deal with, cash on screen doesn't compute, it just goes terribly wrong. But hey I dont mind dealing with the finances and he don't mind cooking which I hate. It works for us :-)

We've been married 13 years this year and I know him well. I'm expecting one response slightly reluctant to begin with, then give it year when he sees the savings grow then he will say; "we made a good decision to start saving when we did" ......my response will be yes dear "we" did ;-).

Not asking for much we need to set a budget for food, he buys the majority of the food as he does all the cooking. I buy the occasional big shop, might suggest we continue with the meal plans and split food cost 50/50. Including the toiletries etc. I'm going to get him to set an amount for the kids accounts as previously mentioned on here.

Then I need to set an amount to put to the savings but I don't know how much is reasonable to expect him to pay? He currently pays, rent, gas electric and weekly food shops and his diesel. He also smokes :-( a habit I stopped 5 years ago this summer :-) and as far as I know that's it. Now I say as far as I know because in the past there had always been an unknown debt or unknown project going on that's syphoning his money. So my first angle is to ask him to write down his outgoings then go from there. I think he has one outstanding debt which we will discuss tonight and I want to check his Noodle account so everything is out in the open and we have a clear date for when we are both default free in our credit report.

I have three savings at the mo two I've started thanks to great advice on here. 1 Xmas and birthday fund, 2 in case of emergency fund (ICE) I have my car account and I intend to get just one more the house deposit account. I won't be putting a penny in the house account until my debt is gone. But I have worked the Xmas and ICE savings into my monthly budget. [Three birthdays in March :eek: will spend the minimum don't think I can make these.] the plan is at least to start putting DHs money in the house deposit account to start the ball rolling :-)

I actually have butterflies I hope the DFW chat goes well. He has seen how hard I've worked since January taking lunch into work, switching lights off, setting a meal plan etc. So here's hoping it goes well. I did show him a 4 bed roomed house that went for £90,000 by us the other day:eek: it would have been perfect I said if only we had savings.........hopefully that helped set the seed :-)

I've rambled enough..sorry I'm a talker :rotfl: I will update tomorrow :-)

mum2one

Good luck with the chat.... its the same with my dad - he makes me laugh - like I buy as much as i can in the sales - he moans like heck and back, then when I show him the spreadsheet with how much been saved, such a good he had!! xx

Trixxibell

Hiya guys,

Thanks for the encouragement it's needed and greatly appreciated. Just thought I would quickly update the DFW chat went really well.

His response was so proactive we will sit and do spreadsheets tomorrow. Over the moon :beer:

Night will do a better post tomorrow at a decent hour...lol

in_need_of_direction

Really good. Hope you had a good night's sleep having gotten the chat out of the way.

Trixxibell

So close to being sorted.....

After finally getting some sleep I realised that come April there is a good chance I will lose my WFTC entitlement now that I'm working, or a good chunk of it. I have updated my salary with them and they have sent out new awards etc but DH is expecting a pay rise and I don't know if that will takes us over the band. Which is fine we obviously earn enough on paper I thought to myself I will just have to rejigger my budget when the time comes. (This isn't the problem of the day read on...)

So I got up and thought about all the positive things going on, my debt is reducing and I now have hubby on board so I put a wash load on and then I noticed a funny smell. Yes my washing machine was burning :eek: luckily my hands on hubby is home today and disconnected it and worked out the main motherboard was melting :-(

His on the phone now trying to get a replacement part fingers crossed we can get one. With 5 of us in the house the washing machine is used everyday. I only have £100 in my in case of emergency account :-(.

Just feel one step forward two steps back.

mum2one

hope u get sorted with the washing machine. xx

Trixxibell

kittycatfan wrote: »

Hi trixxibell i have read your whole thread its very interesting and you have done very well i am curious to no if youve also lost any weight by not going to drive throughs ? Also about your car situation i have just ordered a brand new fiat punto 14 plate and it was a no deposit deal and monthly payments are only £183 a month and i havent got to worry about tax for first year as already done and no mots for 3 years either so if you were prepared to spend £250 a month on a car you may be better of also getting brand new car theres no better feeling good luck i have subscribed

Hiya kcf, thanks for reading. I haven't noticed any weight loss yet, but I'm quite small and never really weigh myself. Got a stomach that's shows I have three kids which will only budge with exercise.....unfortunately. :rotfl: