Poor as a Church Mouse Diary

Steerpike88

Although I am now debt free (Thanks largely to this website) we have got dangerously close to being back in the red again. We are trying to start a family together as well, so I really don't want to go back to square one. I went to see if there was a savings forum, and there was, but I fell in love with DFW and the wonderful community here and there are no other diaries that I can see. So hopefully no one minds .

My DH and I are living in NZ atm, it's where he's from and we came back here for not very much, I've only got a part-time job at a supermarket atm. I am looking for something else, but it's a but rural up here, there's not much. He's planning on going to uni soon, so hopefully we'll be back in the UK or in a larger place after.

So I have a few goals for us to accomplish: Forgive everything being in $, it's roughly half in pounds.

Savings 1: $6000 for moving out. (we live with MIL atm)
Savings 2: $2000 for baby things (IF I get pregnant - if not, well a little extra money helps)
Savings 3: $2000 for yearly payouts (car, insurance, pet vaccines, etc.)

I kicked my bad habits before, by just looking at my bank balance every day. That did wonders, I hope if I start doing that again I'll avoid any "whoops" moments, and long hard penny scraping weeks. We still have them too often.

Just trying to stay positive.

Steerpike88

So far we've had 1 NSD in June. Today was a little more expensive as we picked up some food ($12.34) cat food & fruit ($24.85) and some cough syrup and shampoo for me ($20.00) I've had a horrible drip in my throat the past few days so hopefully the cough syrup will help. It's been making it hard to go to sleep as I'm constantly clearing this bloody throat.
Gave the cats some worming tablets today and they're bloody awful at it. Was almost ready to murder them. I read about someone grinding one up and gradually putting a little in their food and mixing it with butter to put on their paws.
We'll do that next time.

Steerpike88

Awwh, our big kitty came up and gave me a cuddle. He forgives me. Poor cats, I did feel bad for them, it can't be nice having a tablet shoved down your throat. :sad:
Still need to get some vanish and loo roll this week, as well as some pop and popcorn for our Game of Thrones night, but that's not till next Monday. Back to studying.

misstara

Hi Steerpike, good luck with your savings goals and congratulations on your NSD Hope you're well.

ViolaLass

I grind my cats' tablets and mix them in yogurt - they down it in no time (and now get excited if I shake the tablets).

Steerpike88

ViolaLass wrote: »

I grind my cats' tablets and mix them in yogurt - they down it in no time (and now get excited if I shake the tablets).

Hi VL! Thanks for checking in

I actually might do that, poor kitties, thanks for the advice. Well they're wormed for now, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks Misstara!
Hope you're doing well!

Steerpike88

So busy day, we both got paid.

We put $150 in Savings, bringing it up to $1,775.44
$60 into Yearly Savings which brought it up to $903.31
$17.01 into baby savings, so that's a grand total of $17.01
$120 into our spending account.
I spent $22.06 today on Vanish, toilet cleaner, loo roll and some antihistamines. Should be all the spends now for the week, besides some milk/bread/etc.

Went to a baby shower today, it's BIL's gf who is having the baby. They got some really nice stuff, including lots and lots of blankets. It was pretty fun, but I'm tired now, starting to think that I'm actually ill and it's not just allergies. I'm having a cuppa and studying after. I'll ask MIL if she's cooking tea, if she doesn't want to I'll whip something up.

Pollygarter

Hi there.. You sound like you have some good plans and I agree that this forum is a brilliant way to support you in a financially savvy life.

I am hoping to be debt free by the end of the year but that's just the start isn't it? Debts are just a terminal symptom of a life where we are not doing our best to use our money best to put our family and their future first. I absolutely understand how quickly redundancy illness divorce fraud business colkapse recession and other horrors can upend years of careful work for some people. Equally I put myself in the other category, the financial eejits who didn't look after the pennies let alone the pounds when they could and had nothing for a rainy day. People like us put the banks, the moneylenders and their shareholders first. They are all rich because of eejits like us!

Is there nowhere else in the forum which hosts diaries for Financial Thriving? That's a gap in the board! You are of course welcome here and Im sure everyone will support you in those goals which will.change and morph to fit you. I hope to join you shortly.

All the best.

Steerpike88

Hi Pollygarter,
Thanks for the comment. I was stupid when I was younger with my money, I bought clothes and make-up and went out with my friends whenever I liked. I got myself into a little hole, but eventually I broke myself out of it and OH and I are doing very well. He's an excellent saver.
OH wants to do computer science and I'm thinking of going to uni after him to improve myself. We don't really want to be in supermarket's forever.
The work is okay, but we'd rather work towards a goal or have careers. I mean we'll see how it goes. I don't want to be so financially vulnerable that an accident or a redundancy could ruin you for a long time. I'm scared of that, so that's why we're working so hard to save up and stay away from (avoidable) debt.
Thanks for the words of encouragement ! Don't worry most of us fell into the spending cycle, it's a trap, and everyone thinks it's okay to just spend.

Pollygarter

Subscribed. All the best to you x

Steerpike88

Hopefully no spends today. Yesterday was quite spendy.
$49 for an MOT, but the car passed. $12.99 for Netflix, and $13.53 for some milk and snacks for Monday when people come round.
Definitely sick now, in the morning I was all stuffed up and sneezing. I wasn't too bad at work until the last two hours, it doesn't help that I pretty much work in a fridge. Still not feeling too good today, but we have an extra lady today.
So I'll ask her if she can stay at the front and I'll work in the back. I'm supposed to work in the back, but she's new so she's still quite slow at serving. My MIL thinks I should have the day off, but I'm not too bad. I'm not coughing or sneezing everywhere so I shouldn't be a hazard. If I work at the back I have less contact with anything problematic.
But I get a day off tomorrow to recover. OH came back from work and got me nice treats and aloe vera tissues, so I'm pretty happy. :blushing: