A Frugal Life for Me!

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on getting to payday with money still in bank account and presumably nothing on credit this month.

How much are you saving towards the holiday each month?

I am sorry but I still think you are being way too generous with your OH. Spending money for booze, cigarette money and he gets takeaways and holidays without having to work and you have almost £30k of unsecured debt. I know you said you are just going to work on keeping within budgets and let things carry on re your DH not getting any work but I think you have a ticking timebomb there the older you get. He is not building up any pension not only occupational but no NI payments towards state pension either.

nowpanicking

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Well done on getting to payday with money still in bank account and presumably nothing on credit this month.

How much are you saving towards the holiday each month?

I am sorry but I still think you are being way too generous with your OH. Spending money for booze, cigarette money and he gets takeaways and holidays without having to work and you have almost £30k of unsecured debt. I know you said you are just going to work on keeping within budgets and let things carry on re your DH not getting any work but I think you have a ticking timebomb there the older you get. He is not building up any pension not only occupational but no NI payments towards state pension either.

Hi enthusiasticsaver, thanks for popping by

Yes, nothing on credit since I've started the diary which is a definite improvement. I'm saving £80 per pay for the holidays and will be topping the account up on the pay I don't have mortgage etc to pay (as I get paid 4 weekly). I'm also putting money aside for presents which will cover birthday presents throughout the year plus Christmas. I have a spreadsheet that has all the birthdays and Christmas presents on it and a budget per person. I then worked out how much I needed to put away. It is fairly low at the start of the year and then after summer I reduce the savings for holidays and increase the amount for presents. This is the first time I've done this. I don't usually save for anything so it is a big step forward.

I completely agree with you on OH position. Believe me, I'm not just sitting back and accepting the position. We are looking for something for him so I'm just hoping he gets something soon.

To be fair to OH he is trying to reduce smoking and drinking and has said that any funds he doesn't spend out of his amounts can be put towards holidays.

nowpanicking

List done although I still have yoga to go to later on.

I have taken £20 out in cash for DS lunches. He usually takes money once a week so £20 more than covers this. If there is anything left I can't decide whether to give it to DS or whether to put it in the holiday spends tub :think:

There will be a small spend of £2 tonight for yoga.

I have started to look at holidays for the summer. Need to discuss with OH and get something booked.

Funds are:

£156.79 Groceries
£47.27 Petrol
£78.28 tobacco
£47.27 my personal spends
£80.00 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£8.75 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£10.53 house
£13.98 bal cfwd from last pay
444.21 total

£18.00 in purse (£2 deducted for yoga)

£20.00 cash for school lunches

23 days until payday.

NP x

nowpanicking

Morning! Half way through the week

List for today :

- meals per meal planner
- hm soup on for lunch.
- gym
- no unhealthy snacks
- check bank

Reflecting on how I'm doing and I am pleased with my progress so far. There are usually much higher spends by now. I usually splurge in the first 2 weeks, scrimp on the 3rd and 4th, sometimes going onto the cc's by the 4th week. I am feeling positive and will be so pleased if all works out. I also have put funds into savings fairly frequently but by week 3 I am always raiding the savings accounts so determined not to do this from now on.

Have a lovely day everyone

NP x

nowpanicking

Credit Card statements are in so will update signature later and spreadsheet.

nowpanicking

OK so not all the cc statements have come in. I'm still waiting on one so I'll wait until then before I update my signature.

I've updated my cc tracker spreadsheet with the statements that have come in so that's good. One of the payments isn't due until after I get paid meaning that I have an extra £200 this pay. This is down to me being paid 4 weekly and it always ends up that there is one month that I don't need to pay a d/d.

What I would usually do is transfer that money over to my spend account and spend it. Not this month!!!!! I have actually paid it over to my cc :T

It won't show up until the next statement now but I am so pleased with myself :cool:

nowpanicking

List is complete for today.

We rented a movie to watch tonight - some family time so a small spend for today. I'm not doing so well with the NSD's unfortunately!!

Funds are:

£156.79 Groceries
£47.27 Petrol
£78.28 tobacco
£44.12 my personal spends
£80.00 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£8.75 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£10.53 house
£13.98 bal cfwd from last pay
439.72 total

£18.00 in purse

£16.00 cash for school lunches


22 days until payday


Now off to have a cuppa and update my spreadsheet with my additional payment :coffee:

NP x

Littletinks

nowpanicking wrote: »

OK so not all the cc statements have come in. I'm still waiting on one so I'll wait until then before I update my signature.

I've updated my cc tracker spreadsheet with the statements that have come in so that's good. One of the payments isn't due until after I get paid meaning that I have an extra £200 this pay. This is down to me being paid 4 weekly and it always ends up that there is one month that I don't need to pay a d/d.

What I would usually do is transfer that money over to my spend account and spend it. Not this month!!!!! I have actually paid it over to my cc :T

It won't show up until the next statement now but I am so pleased with myself :cool:

Well done NP on making a hefty additional payment to your cc :dance:

nowpanicking

Thanks Littletinks!

Day off work today, I went out with my mum, went for lunch and did a bit of shopping. Not very MSE I'm afraid but it was a lovely day. So the funds have gone down a bit. £23 spend in total

£156.79 Groceries
£47.27 Petrol
£78.28 tobacco
£34.12 my personal spends £10 deducted for lunch
£80.00 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£8.75 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£10.53 house
£0.98 bal cfwd from last pay £13 deducted for spends today
416.72 total

£17.00 in purse

£16.00 cash for school lunches

21 days until payday

nowpanicking

Friday!!! :j

Busy day at work today so I didn't get a chance to post earlier with my list. What I have achieved today is:

- gym
- no unhealthy snacks
- food plan for week
- shopping list for week
- shop at @ldi which was on budget
- meal per meal planner
- no unnecessary spends

Meal plan for the week

Pizza
Meal at relatives
Salad
Steak round (baked pot for me)
Stuffed peppers
Soup and toasties
Pasta and garlic bread

We're away this weekend staying at a relatives so planning on a sober weekend for health and MSE reasons. Will be interesting to see how we get on as we do usually drink when visiting.

Funds are:

£106. 91 Groceries
£47.27 Petrol
£78.28 tobacco
£34.12 my personal spends
£80.00 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£8.75 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£10.53 house
£0.98 bal cfwd from last pay
366.84.total

£17.00 in purse

£16.00 cash for school lunches

20 days until payday

Have a great Friday night everyone

NP x