A Frugal Life for Me!

nowpanicking

Actually, if I look at what I've got which is £34.24 less £19. 61 to go to the holidays pot, I've got £14.63 left. That is more than enough to tide me over until Thursday.

Have to say the last couple of weeks have felt like a bit of a slog so just need to keep posting to try and stay motivated.

This will now be 8 weeks where I have not increased my debt :beer:

I will get there!!!!

NP x

nowpanicking

Right, because there is plenty there to do me until Thursday, I've moved the spare tobacco funds into the groceries budget and left the rest.

Revised funds:

£8.47 Groceries
£0.08 Petrol
£0.00 tobacco
£1.61 my personal spends
£19.61 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£2.42 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£2.05 house
34.24 total

£4.95 n purse

£0 cash for school lunches

4 days until payday.

NP x

Moneywhizz

You probably found the last two weeks a bit of a slog because you spent more freely the first two weeks. Why don't you try a weekly amount for each category then the end of the month won't feel any different from the beginning.
I know you said at the beginning of this new budget that you hoped to put anything extra left over into debt overpayments. Looking at how tight this month has been it doesn't look like there is going to be much to overpay. Are you happy with the amount you are paying to the debt each month?
I also know that you are working on the situation with your husband, but the amount that is being paid over to him each month for tobacco and personal spends would make a huge difference to your budget. If he could even cut down on the tobacco spends it would be good for you and for his health. When you consider how much is spent on food compared to tobacco it really does make you think that it is definitely a drain on your finance. Sorry to bring it up again, just trying to think of ways to help loosen the budget a bit and also allow you to overpay your debt.

Littletinks

nowpanicking wrote: »

Actually, if I look at what I've got which is £34.24 less £19. 61 to go to the holidays pot, I've got £14.63 left. That is more than enough to tide me over until Thursday.

Have to say the last couple of weeks have felt like a bit of a slog so just need to keep posting to try and stay motivated.

This will now be 8 weeks where I have not increased my debt :beer:

I will get there!!!!

NP x

Well done for keeping within your budgets for the past 8 weeks! :T
You've been doing really really well, I know you've found the last coupe of weeks hard, but you've got through them! Keep up the great work. X

nowpanicking

Littletinks wrote: »

Well done for keeping within your budgets for the past 8 weeks! :T
You've been doing really really well, I know you've found the last coupe of weeks hard, but you've got through them! Keep up the great work. X

Thanks Littletinks!!!

nowpanicking

So yesterday ended up getting milk and a few bits and bobs from @ldi. I did overspend so I've had to shuffle the remaining funds a bit. OH also had a couple of spends from his personal spends so there's just a small amount left now.

However, it is now 2 days until payday.

1. I still have funds left in spend account
2. I still have savings in place for holidays and presents
3. There are still funds remaining in my main account **

:j

** because I get paid 4 weekly, there are pay periods where there is excess funds. In my annual budget it all evens out as I have annual expenses built in throughout the year. In the past I would spend ALL funds in the spend account, All funds in the main account plus drain any savings.... Then usually go on to the credit cards.

So this is a huge step forward for me and I am determined that it continues.

NP x

nowpanicking

Funds are:

£0.00 Groceries
£0.08 Petrol
£0.00 tobacco
£0.00 my personal spends
£13.28 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£0.47 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£0.22 house
14.05 total

£0.23 in purse

£0 cash for school lunches

So as can be seen, not much left at all. Tomorrow will be an NSD and Thursday is payday and I'll reset all of the budgets.

The small amount of cash left will go into the change tub and the £14.05 I'll transfer to the holiday savings account.

There are no major plans for the next 4 weeks so the budgets should be fine.

Have a lovely evening everyone

NP x

nowpanicking

I've revised my signature. For some reason my starting debt was wrong So I've changed it to the actual starting debt as per December statements. The revised debt is per the January statements.

I'm planning on updating my signature every month and I'm hoping that the reducing amount and increased percentage will keep me motivated!!

nowpanicking

So payday tomorrow!!! :j

£14.05 has been transferred to the holiday savings account and all spare change has been put into the change tub.

Goals for next 4 weeks:

* stay within spend budget
* stay within each budget envelope (didn't manage this last pay)
* try for more NSD's as I didn't do too well on that front
* no or minimum alcohol (to help pocket and health)
* increase savings pots for holiday and presents
* keep tracking spends
* less McD's for DS (3 over the last 4 weeks)
* spend mindfully (= no hot rolls at work!!)

Budgets for the next 4 weeks:

£217.00 Groceries
£80.00 Petrol
£100.00 tobacco this has reduced by £10
£80.00 my personal spends
£80.00 OH personal spends
£23.00 DS pocket money
£50.00 Family days out
£20.00 school lunches
£50.00 house
£20.00 DS hair/clothes this is a new category which I think is needed. I am planning on rolling this forward to increase the amount if not spent each pay
£720.00 Total

I am feeling pretty positive. This is the longest I've ever stuck to my budgets at 8 weeks so I just need to keep doing what I've been doing :cool:

NP x

nowpanicking

It's Friday!!!! :j

Hope everyone has had a good week and now enjoying their Friday evening

A meal plan has been done for the week and I have been to @ldi for the week's shop.

Meals for this week are:

Salad
Salmon
Pasta or soup and toasties
Chicken jalfrezi
Omelette
Stuffed peppers
Lasagne

As usual, not in any particular order.

Have also filled the car with petrol, taken my £20 cash out and taken out school lunch money for the 4 weeks. All sorted and ready for the next 4 week challenge

Funds are :

£151.61 Groceries
£43.58 Petrol
£100.00 tobacco
£60.00 my personal spends
£80.00 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket moneytransferred to DS account
£50.00 Family days out
£0.00 school lunches
£38.00 house
£20.00 DS hair/clothes
£536.07 Total

£20.00 cash in purse

£16.00 cash for school lunches

27 days until payday.

NP x