where do people get the money?

JIL

Many moons ago when my children were small I would have this same thought myself. A few of us at work, used to joke with colleagues that could we hand over our wages and let Mrs x spend it for us as they got loads more for their money than we ever could.
Fast forward to the current day and I wish I could have put into practice what I have learned over the years.
Meal plan, vouchers for eating out, nothing on credit cards unless it all gets paid off. Use cash for small spends such as coffees and sandwiches and magazines. But set a weekly limit and once the cash is gone then wait to get the next lot out.
Write down everything you spend for a month and then analyse where its going. Put £200 away at the start of the month and forget about it. This will leave £550 which should be more than enough.

mobo1980

Hi Bigmaz

I agree a spending diary would be a good idea ,I have just started one myself and I spent £63 pounds on not very much last Saturday :eek:
lesson learnt !!
I am doing the no spend day challenge at the minute it's really good because I don't want to lose an nsd just for the odd couple of ££ on something I don't need (last saturday was obviously NOT an nsd )

Mobo xx

GreyQueen

Your joint monthly disposable income is nearly as much as my total monthly net income, and that has to pay all the bills in this singleton household.

I cannot agree more with earlier posters about keeping a spending diary. For you both, and for every penny, not cheating on the little sums because they're little and thus not worth recording, because that's how you bleed money with nothing to show for it.

As to others, some people will be wealthier than yourselves and some will be poorer. Some will be working vouchers and codes cleverly, some may be maxing out their credit cards, who can know? You can't control what other people do and, unless you're good enough friends with them to ask without giving offence, there's no way you can know.

£80 for a meal out for two does seem an awful lot to me, though. Last time I ate out was January with 2 friends in a rather superior Indian restaurant and the bill for 3, with 10% tip and beer, was £50.

bigmaz

Wow, thank you so much everyone for replying. I def think a spending diary is the way to go. Give ourselves a shock. I do realise to some folk, that is a lot of money, and I myself think its a lot of money. But then I am sure a lot of ppl also think its not a lot to have, so yeah I suppose I shouldn't worry about other ppls situation.

GreyQueen, that £80 was drink and a meal. but again, we should be able to afford it. I suppose with kids, a lot can end up going on them.

Its just mad when you check your balance after a week and its virtually all gone. We really need to sort ourselves out :P

Thanks again for all your help and sharing your experiences.

wallyUK

I keep detailed records of spending (although we do still spend quite a bit). At the moment, this is just highlighting that we spend a fair bit of money ;-) . For us, a lot of money goes on smallish amounts of eating out - so lunch at Pret, DH lunch from the shop for work etc. I am bored of trying to get him to take a sandwich so have given up on that for the moment. We also spend a fair bit on bus fares and then random child expenses. I am looking to bring the spends down and that should get easier when school holidays are over so I don't have to provide any entertainment. Even reasonably cheap activities seem to involve some element of travel expense here in London.

I do think that if you have sorted out your financial priorities such as pension, savings, bills etc and that is the money you have left then why not enjoy it. It's just a matter or making it go further.

tibawo

You might have seen us three at Alton towers, Blackpool, London including the eye, Manchester Lego and sealife. I suppose it looks like I'm loaded but we have merlin passes. I ask for a token pressie and cash at Xmas. The cash buys the pass. Still Alton towers we get the drinks capsule because between us it is very economical.

Mr tesco then provides the train ticket and I get gift cards or use vouchers when I can. The gift cards I get if I have surplus one week. Sometimes I have to pay petrol. I also see if I can pick up a mystery sho in the area as well.

I take our food and drink and the sweets.

Only if I have surplus cash do we get something as a treat.

I also book free events in the hols and money that would normally go for term time activities we use for swimming etc.

This works for me and is via tips I have picked up on MSE! Thanks all!

Tommelise

You need to find out where your money is going to be able to change your cash flow.


If a normal budget spreadsheet does not work for you try an app. This one does it for us


https://goodbudget.com/

skogar

Definately try the spending diary thing. It's great for opening your eyes on what your money gets spent on.

Definately a meal for 2 for £80 sounds expensive. Do you always go out and have 3 courses each, bottle of wine, coffees, etc? Could you cut back somewhere.

We usually go out and just have a main course, often a bottle of wine but sometimes just a glass of wine each (and get tap water as well) or a beer each. OH is not a pudding fan so we don't normally have puddings. We sometimes have coffee but only where the expresso is excellent, otherwise we go home and make our own. My parents always go home and have coffee there.

If we have a starter we normally have 1 between 2 because otherwise we can't eat it all anyway. If we go to an italian we normally have pizza or pasta rather than the more expensive dished, and the pizzas are so big that we never have a starter. It means we eat out more often than we would be able to if we had more extras every time. :-) Maybe the people you see eating out are all cheapskates like us!

bigmaz

tibawo wrote: »

You might have seen us three at Alton towers, Blackpool, London including the eye, Manchester Lego and sealife. I suppose it looks like I'm loaded but we have merlin passes. I ask for a token pressie and cash at Xmas. The cash buys the pass. Still Alton towers we get the drinks capsule because between us it is very economical.

Mr tesco then provides the train ticket and I get gift cards or use vouchers when I can. The gift cards I get if I have surplus one week. Sometimes I have to pay petrol. I also see if I can pick up a mystery sho in the area as well.

I take our food and drink and the sweets.

Only if I have surplus cash do we get something as a treat.

I also book free events in the hols and money that would normally go for term time activities we use for swimming etc.

This works for me and is via tips I have picked up on MSE! Thanks all!

You seem so organised. I wish we could get this organised. We have tried a few times to have a system to watch our money, it maybe works for a few weeks, and then we just end up forgetting about it and fall back into the way of things. I dont know if its just pure laziness or what, but I wish my brain could be programmed and just do this kinda stuff automatically, no one to blame but ourselves, hehe!!

lovemystudentloan

We have a tablet we got for £10 cash with Tesco vouchers. My Mum in law bought my husband a home pc for his birthday. We go to Wetherspoons quite often where we'll get beer and a burger - hubby will drink the pint, I'll eat the burger and our daughter eats the chips (we could always double up the burger for £1 but no one else ever wants one except me!). I buy cheap things on offer, such as childrens books and toys to build up a little toy store, so I always have a present for birthdays and always, always get the free lego with the papers to add to my daughters lego. Underwear and socks come from Primark and Aldi, leggings are 2 for £10 from Sainsbury (best ones I've found, good as Next), foot wear is always bought half price, in fact I don't think I ever buy clothing unless it's reduced, and I use vouchers where I can for extra points or money off. I also always look at reduced price meat and stick it in the freezer for another day.