A Frugal Life for Me!

Kitten868

Hiya NP,

I'm not going to say anymore about hubby living off your wages as I think it's all been said. But i want to say in seriousness while you have time to fix it that he will have made no contributions to national insurance and will not qualify for a state pension. You can check on a .gov website how many years he has contributed and how many more he needs to qualify. I believe there's a way of paying in to make up for it. You said you don't have a mortgage so I'm guessing you rent. I don't want you really stuffed later on.

I like how you count down your budget and think you can do this with your determination. Paying £400 down a month is great if you're not running up anymore. I think that's how you win. So keep going with your steady destruction of debt. You can do this x

nowpanicking

Kitten868 wrote: »

Hiya NP,

I'm not going to say anymore about hubby living off your wages as I think it's all been said. But i want to say in seriousness while you have time to fix it that he will have made no contributions to national insurance and will not qualify for a state pension. You can check on a .gov website how many years he has contributed and how many more he needs to qualify. I believe there's a way of paying in to make up for it. You said you don't have a mortgage so I'm guessing you rent. I don't want you really stuffed later on.

I like how you count down your budget and think you can do this with your determination. Paying £400 down a month is great if you're not running up anymore. I think that's how you win. So keep going with your steady destruction of debt. You can do this x

Hi Kitten868! Thanks for popping by

We've already checked out the ni contributions and there are several years of a gap. Unfortunately, the child benefit is in my name as we didn't realise this was linked to paying ni credits for the stay at home parent. We need to get the form completed to transfer the child benefit and see if hmrc will backdate any of it. It is a bit of a disaster

We do have a mortgage which will be paid off by the time I retire which is a plus.

NP x

nowpanicking

Monday again and I've not posted in a couple of days as the weekend was pretty busy.

I'll update later with funds etc.

List for today:

- meal per meal planner
- soup for lunch
- no gym today but no unhealthy snacks should still happen
- look at holidays tonight with OH
- check bank

That's it for now. Hope everyone is having a lovely day.

NP x

nowpanicking

Just typed out a post and I was chucked out... A tad frustrating!!!

nowpanicking

Try again....

Have done everything on the list apart from the holiday search which I'll possibly do later on.

Planning on low spends this week. No plans apart from yoga. I think I'm possibly still spending too much at the start of the pay period but will see how the next 2 weeks go.


Funds are:

£98.73 Groceries a few small spends here after the weekly shop so will need to keep an eye on this budget
£10.09 Petrol car filled up again so £10 should be enough until payday
£78.28 tobacco
£34.12 my personal spends
£60.00 OH personal spends some spends here at the weekend
£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
301.48 total

£17.00 in purse

£15. 00 cash for school lunch

17 days until payday.

NP x

nowpanicking

Hi,

Busy day at work today. Had a few spends so no NSD today. Planning on NSD's for the next couple of days however.

Spends today were some toiletries and nail stuff for me so that'll come out of my personal spends. Also treated DS to a mcd's which will come out of the family spends budget.

Apart from that I've still been pretty good. Still on the health kick and still not spending money on food at work which I used to do fairly regularly, the odd breakfast roll or scone was always a temptation

Funds are:

£98.73 Groceries
£10.09 Petrol
£64.86 tobacco
£34.12 my personal spends
£60.00 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£2.42 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£10.53 house
£0.98 bal cfwd from last pay
281.73 total

£5.56 n purse

£11.00 cash for school lunch

16 days until payday..... Getting there!

NP x

Littletinks

Hey NP,

I know your DS has just had a McD's treat but there's a free cheeseburger on offer and other hacks on Martin Lewis's email this week.

You can get a free hamburger (norm 89p) or a free cheeseburger (norm 99p) at most McDonald's restaurants when you download the My McDonald’s app (Apple/Android) and register your details, valid 10.30am-11.59pm every day until Fri 25 Jan.

It's available to new and existing app users, but it'll only work if you enable notifications and location services on your mobile as the app needs to communicate with the restaurant.[/I]

You actually order the burger via the app, after having chosen the restaurant. It'll then send you an order number, which you'll need to collect it.

There’s no minimum spend and you won't need to enter any payment details unless you want to add extra items. It’s one per person for over-18s only, and isn’t valid with other offers.

For more ways to save, see our 20+ McDonald's hacks blog.

Might be worth getting the app if you haven't already, to capture any future deals. I hope you enjoy your own personal nail treats. I love a new nail polish


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nowpanicking

Thanks for the Mcd tip Littletinks!!! Will definitely download that app

Just watched a movie with DS on netfl!x. Nice to have some family time

Busy day again today but I did manage an NSD :j really happy about that. Still managing to have no unhealthy snacks as well. Meals were as planned so all in all a good MSE day for me.

No update on the funds.

15 days until payday.

NP x

nowpanicking

Hi everyone,

Weekend again! The weeks are flying in. Starting to feel a bit antsy, less than 2 weeks to go until payday and it looks like it might be a bit tight. I need to keep my remaining spends money until next weekend. I have a day off on Friday and spending the day with a friend so need some cash for that.

The last couple of days have not been great spend or health wise. Ended up having a hot filled roll from the canteen at work Thursday and Friday so money completely wasted I also seem to have got carried away with the groceries budget with a couple of trips to the local shop for stuff probably not even required!!! Just need to make it to payday within budget and I'll be over the moon.

So no plans for today. Just a quiet day at home which is probably why I'm feeling a bit bleh. The thing is, if I had plenty of money I would be fine staying in! It's definitely a head thing for me.

On a positive note, I am still tracking all spends and was working on my spreadsheet last night. I now have a couple of sheets to record holiday savings and spends throughout the year and the same for birthdays and Christmas. I'm also recording any savings I make on presents. Still undecided what to do about the savings? Let them mount up over the year maybe? Then I could pay over to cc or put to holidays... Hmmm decisions.

I've never managed to save successfully for anything before (except my wedding) which is a loooong time ago so I'm really hoping it works out this year.

Anyway, enough of my rambling.

I'll update funds later on.

Have a great day everyone

NP x

Littletinks

Hey NP.

I hope you've had a better day today. I totally understand how you felt about 'having' to stay in. BUT you should be really pleased with yourself. It's days like that when it's easy to think 'sod it' and spend money that you don't have or haven't planned for. Celebrate your Will power and how awesome you've been. You are doing an amazing job! Sending you a big high 5!

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