A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

getmore4less

Untill it has gone needs to be on there.

Agree with the others that getting a wagon for you to runaround in with the kids(save double trips etc) then hubby can focus on getting something smaller.

using the old one and putting money aside to look for a nice replacement if it gets uneconomical/inconvenient to repair.
quite a few lease option for a 5 seater at under £200pm

Forward_thinking

I won't mention that to OH getmore - if I can live a life without hiring or renting ever again I will...whenever that may be.

One small question - hope I am not showing my obvious ignorance here! When I devise our budget and put it on a spreadsheet how do I allocate an item which is heavy once or twice a year eg. presents minimal on a monthly basis but cost heavy at xmas? Do I just acknowledge the £250 I have allocated for the month but not spend it? I'm confused....

Forward_thinking

My OCD is kicking in - I am finding it really frustrating that I can not work out EXACT costs ie. children's clubs will vary from month to month and I don't have an exact price for the year to allow for holidays. I have over-estimated but am not happy about this - I feel an urge to work out the exact cost looking at terms and calculating. I'm not going to even go down that route - it would take forever. Frustrating though. I like things to be just so.

Forward_thinking

By the way, without this forum I would have given up by now!!! Thank you so much!!!!

Forward_thinking

Wow, just noticed your 10k posts Getmore - that's rather impressive. At this rate, I'll be joining you

matchboxfull

Forward_thinking wrote: »

I won't mention that to OH getmore - if I can live a life without hiring or renting ever again I will...whenever that may be.

One small question - hope I am not showing my obvious ignorance here! When I devise our budget and put it on a spreadsheet how do I allocate an item which is heavy once or twice a year eg. presents minimal on a monthly basis but cost heavy at xmas? Do I just acknowledge the £250 I have allocated for the month but not spend it? I'm confused....

Add up all those annual costs (birthdays, Christmas, insurance, etc.) and divide by 12. Aim to save this per month, marking that on your monthly budget, and then keep a separate spreadsheet to manage the pots.

At least, that's one way of doing it. You'll find whatever suits you best.

Forward_thinking

Thanks so much matchbox. Do you personally move those pots into a separate savings account? Sorry, we've never tracked or budgeted at all!!!!

getmore4less

Forward_thinking wrote: »

My OCD is kicking in - I am finding it really frustrating that I can not work out EXACT costs ie. children's clubs will vary from month to month and I don't have an exact price for the year to allow for holidays. I have over-estimated but am not happy about this - I feel an urge to work out the exact cost looking at terms and calculating. I'm not going to even go down that route - it would take forever. Frustrating though. I like things to be just so.

For now don't bother with that level of detail, maybe knock off a few weeks and average or just have every month worst case, remember if they are not in the clubs chances are something else will eat the money anyway,

Think of it as a kids fun money(even if they hate the club) if they don't go to club they get to spend it elsewhere so every month ends up about the same.

I will cover the other post.

The SOA is an month look spreading spends, in reality we have multiple overlapping cycles (weekly, monthly, quarter,annual)

an example for some is they have a night out every fridays, if they are paid monthly 4 times a year they have to cover 5 fridays not 4.

There are loads of ways to deal with this,
some just put money aside(envelope system is one of those)
handy for those with limited cash buffers.

My prefered method annual cashflow analysis stick it in the system when it is spent and make sure you don't go negative.

So if I need £600 for Dec to cover the extras(over a normal month) at Xmas I need some/all of that either available from income or saving or planned debts.

It helps to think in terms of annual totals for everything.

eg your £700pm food is really £9600per year if you go under 1 month you have spare for the rest of the year, over you have to look at cutting down a bit.

Same with things like clothes its an annual total spend it all this month nothing for the rest of the year wait a bit and get some bargains it goes futher.

The classic underspend month on groceries is when you go on holiday if it is 2 weeks should be around 1/2 that month

Forward_thinking

Thanks as usual getmore. Great last sentence - so that means £350 automatically in the pot for an AI holiday (I speak in jest).

The fog is beginning to clear. I suspect all will become clear once I get my teeth into one of the recommended budget tools. What I am worried about is that if we underspend one month eg. no clothes bought, the cash in that pot will disappear unless I put it in another area so it doesn't get absorbed in our debt/day to day life. The second area of confusion for me is that I have a monthly pot of £250 for presents but that isn't at all representative as I have allowed in my mind £1000 for Xmas. So I worry that we will get carried away spending each month knowing there is £250 in the presents category when in reality it is very small. Do I just remember in the back of my mind that this is the case?

As I said, I am sure/hope that everything will become less murky when I have collated all the figures onto a budget tracker.

matchboxfull

Forward_thinking wrote: »

Thanks so much matchbox. Do you personally move those pots into a separate savings account? Sorry, we've never tracked or budgeted at all!!!!

We do, yes, but some people manage everything in the same account.