How will you celebrate being debt free? How do people stop from sliding back?

Vicky496

Oh, and I got a new badge!... got one for posting about my home insurance

Got it down to £22.88 (contents only) after a lot of shopping around and using Quidco.

I noticed that although Confused.com tells you who's cheapest, I saved about another £5-£7 by then going through the insurers own websites.

Vicky496

The trouble with school holidays is that I spend far too much time thinking about money... either how to save it or how to spend it!
When I'm busy with work my finances just tick along and I find I spend much less!

On the other hand, the free time has given me a chance to get ahead with essential spending (birthday and xmas pressies and how to make other savings and do some batch cooking) and I have the time to shop around the sales and online for really good deals.

XMAS SHOPPING!
Have budgeted £10 per family member for xmas presents and birthdays that fall between Nov-Feb (not including OH). This is less than last year (I spent £15-£20 on them last year).
Total gifts to get: 13
Budget: £130

Spent so far (including postage): £35.45 (3 gifts) + £9.74 + £4.95 + £14.95 + £10 +£7.99 + £9.59 + £9.59 = £102.26
I have 3 gifts left to get, so pretty close to being on budget: £27.74 remaining.
Am thinking possibly a gift bag of bits for the remaining 3: ie scratch card, miniature alcohol, sweeties/chocolate, jar of homemade marmalade... unless I see something perfect in a sale
That should bring me in under budget

OH is nearly done (birthday AND xmas pressy AND stocking!): so far £57.38.
Only thing left is bday present. Was thinking of getting him Little Big Planet 3 (PS3) which is for pre-order on amazon for £35... but hoping a deal will come up somewhere nearer the time and I can get it for less.

Buying xmas presents for the baby would really be for us... might keep an eye out for a cheap baby's stocking and put some smaller things in that I've got early for when they're a bit older (hairbrush, couple of toys, etc). I'm thinking it's really to entertain OH and the rest of the family as the baby will be so young still!

NAPPIES!
I have thought before about getting cloth nappies and had previously decided not to get them until I knew what I was doing with first child since they were about £10-£15 per nappy. We are not on a water meter so it would only cost a little more in electricity to use non-disposable nappies (google results reckon about 25p per cycle).

However...
Bought some disposable nappies in tescos on offer (bogof):
£6.99 for a total of 90 size 1 (newborn)
£9.99 for a total of 112 size 2
Internet discussions seem to say that it'll take about 10 nappies per day to start with - that means it's roughly 70-90p per day and that's when they're on offer! So budget about £25-£35 per month (if I can continue to get bogof or an equivalent deal).

Doesn't sound too bad, but THEN...
Discovered a seller on ebay that does pocket nappies + 2 liners for £2.99 (with buy 5 get 1 free).
A friend of mine uses them and showed me how she stores, washes and stuffs them - looks pretty straight forward.
So I ordered 12 nappies including liners for £30 + flushable liners for £3.49 = £33.49.
This is just one months budget and they adjust to fit the baby as it grows so should be a huge saving.
I'll probably need to buy about another 8 if I'm going to use them 100% of the time. And I'll need to buy a nappy bucket.
I may not end up using them full time with the baby - will probably use them just when at home during the day at first. But they should give a big saving.

Likely savings
Assuming I use them 50% of the time and assuming 10 nappies per day (bad assumption, but makes it easier to work out):
Cost of disposables each month: ~£15
Cost of one wash cycle (just the electricity): ~£0.25
Number of washes per month: 15 (every other day) = £3.75 per month.
Cost of liners (£3.49 per 100 liners) per month: £5.25
Total cost for the year: £288
Monetary saving: £72 over the year.

If I can use them all the time then I'll need to buy a few more (£24)
The total cost for the year would be £114
Monetary saving: £246.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see what the reality of them is like!

BATCH COOKING!
I will have no time to cook once the baby comes I'm sure (and hopefully less time to shop!), so I'm going to stock up the freezer with some old style money savers.
I'll look for the ingredients on offer/yellow label this week and do the cooking next week.

To Make List:
- Slow cooker Chilli. Ingredients needed (that aren't already in the cupboard): kidney beans, possibly some chilli powder (I need to check the back of the cupboard).
- Slow cooker Bolognese. Ingredients needed: probably some more mince as I'll have used a lot for Chilli.
- Marmalade. I have some tins of Ma-made from a Lakeland sale, just need to check how much sugar we've got.

That's probably it for now... but I'm off to have a look on the old style moneysaving board for some more inspiration!

Vicky496

Good things happening and money saving plans!

Got a free jar of jam from a friend this week

Paid in £3.61 to my virtual sealed pot this morning

Only pregnancy discomfort is CRAZY dreams (and they make great stories for 'by the water cooler' moments!)

Pay day in 10 days time will probably be in only 7 or 8 days time as it's due on the bank holiday

Making plans to pay all my current account balance that's over £1100 STRAIGHT into my ISA and try and live off just that... might make it £1200 hmm...

Found all the ingredients for my batch cooking on yellow labels or with good offers!

Only one truly frivolous spend this week... 6 doughnuts for 60p

The baby bump goes wild with the kicking when I eat a doughnut

Got a cashback badge... and some cashback paid out

Adding another £10 to my xmas/bday present budget as I nearly forgot bro-in-law's bday - whoops!

Think I'll start a new diary when the baby arrives... I always think my diary titles are boring... I'm thinking something like
'Newly debt free new mummy and trying to stay that way!' or
'Enjoying talking to myself, but feel free to interrupt!' or
'Best laid plans... partially followed' or
'Adventures of a NDF Mummy' (the grammar in this one already annoys me... a or an?) or
'NDF Mummy managing to make money' or
'Mummy Saving Expert' lol if only I was an expert

Vicky496

Busy batch cooking... Chilli... in the slow cooker
750g mince £3
2x Schwartz chilli £1.50
4 tins chopped tomatoes £1
4 tins kidney beans in chilli sauce £2

Total: £7.50
Portions: 13
Price per portion, served with third a bag of value tortillas (46p/3 = 15p): 73p

Freezes straightforwardly in freezer bags (~2-3p each), can just heat up in the microwave.

Vicky496

Money saving bits for today...

51p in VSP (too little to transfer on it's own so I put a bit more in my ISA).

Pay day in two days (I think... it would have been monday, but that's a bank holiday, and I think when it's due on a saturday it goes in on a friday... we shall see). Planning to keep £1100 in my current account and transfer everything else into my ISA. Can't wait to make that savings pot look a lot healthier!

Read Martin's email... nothing I can use right now though.

Going to do some looking through the old style board for recipes my DH will like... more cheap batch cooking for the freezer for after the baby comes - provided it tastes good!

Filled in some OnePoll surveys... no point really, I'm now on £19.95 after YEARS and they only pay out when you reach £40.

Checked online banking... love to look at the positive balances! Really really want to keep it that way... the risky months will be January, February, and March (when I'm only taking home some statutory maternity pay) so I have to live carefully between now and then if I don't want to end up in the red again.

Vicky496

Yay pay day! And for most I guess that means a spending spree... but for me - all but £1100 is going in my savings account!

New maternity leave savings total: £1010.28
£12.50 of this is virtual sealed pot which I top up every Sunday and some extra days when I feel like it!

Vicky496

Last edited: 23rd Sept... 1 day left.

Ok, so rent and bills come to £718.45 and I've given myself £1100 to live on for the month.

Should be more than enough.

That leaves £381.55 to pay for the following things (I'll track how much I spend on each and try to minimise spending on each):
1) Groceries
£123.03
2) [STRIKE]4[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]2[/STRIKE] 1 remaining Christmas[STRIKE]/birthday[/STRIKE] gift[STRIKE]s[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]and 1 wedding present[/STRIKE] ([STRIKE]£47.74[/STRIKE] left in my present budget)
£53.69 (now -£3.20 oops left in my present budget... one present was free using CC vouchers with the tesco boost )
3) Haircut?
£0
4) Baby stuff
£41
5) Petrol
£34.53
6) Life insurance
£0
7) Social life (meals out, pub visits, lunch etc)
£89.39
8) Travel (e.g. parking, bus fares)
£33
9) Other (hopefully I haven't forgotten anything, but I'll put it here if I have).
£2 Charity donation
£18 Overdraft fee which I'd forgotten ( ), but is the LAST
£50 Gardener... cheaper than the agent charging us!
10) Refund from DH (his share of the rent minus my share of the bills he pays - we more or less keep our finances separate)
-£124.36 It's usually about £100.

VSP this month: £51.95
Amount remaining: £7.32

Anything left by next pay day will go into savings and I'll start the new month again with a fresh £1100.

Vicky496

I do love a good weekend morning cookery show!

Managed not to have a pay-day-splurge, but the house is stocked up with food for the week and work should keep me busy enough for the next week that I don't spend too much! Went to the supermarket with a list and my DH with strict instructions not to go off list for anything except yellow labels! DH did great job of keeping us on track except for the chocolate biscuits he snuck in! :T

I needed (wanted?) some newborn vests as all the ones we have are second hand and I wanted the baby's first outfit to be new to them! Found a pack of 5 on sale in Tescos for £3 (and it was on the list!).

If I do feel the uncontrollable urge to spend this week I have:
£1.24 Tesco voucher (from a price match)
Free hot drink & cake at John Lewis
£2 left on an Accessorize gift card
£1.67 on my Nectar card
£22.50 in Clubcard vouchers (worth double or more if I use CC boost) which I've been storing up for anything we might have forgotten for the baby and/or a night out at Cafe Rouge :A

I'll have to fill up the petrol this week, but have 8p off a litre at Tescos stored up.

lobbyludd

you've done so well! congratulations for both that and the wonderful new person you are growing!

I had cloth nappies for my second. It did work out cheaper, but not I have to say by the extent of some of the calculations you'll find on pro-reusable sites online - I sometimes used disposibles on holidays (camping) overnight, if they had tummy upsets - you will get loads of vouchers to try and cement brand loyalty when your little one arrives if you sign up to b**ts/t*sco/bounty clubs - so I used those for the disposables. I also had to use cotton wool and water instead of wipes as both mine had drama queen skin as babes - I still use baby wipes to remove dried on gloss paint from the tiling though - no idea what they make them with!!

cloth nappies does decrease the smell though - sounds counterintuitive, and i got used to the extra washing really quickly.

I had no car with my first but did with my second - and walking/public transport was fine with 1 but very difficult with 2. I live in a city though and there was one particular long-haul train ride where eldest cried the WHOLE time no matter what I did, that still gives me occasional nightmares, although I was moved into first class at one point to give the other passengers a rest!! I also spent large amounts of time making dens in luggage racks when he was older - to the amusement/disdain of other passengers!

people give you a lot of stuff too, other than things for the first week, try not to be too prepared as you'll be gifted things second-hand, new, barely used, - it can be difficult to give away unused baby clothes as most people have a glut of them (I know this is not true for everyone, and not trying to be insensitive to those not in this position).

you're doing grand

Vicky496

Warning: Short childish rant coming up!

I really hated work today.
Everyone who left early and left me with all the rubbish jobs are poo heads and hopefully will suffer in my absence while on maternity leave.
Maybe I'll just quit and find another job for after mat leave... so there :P

That is all.