How do you get balance?

StayPositive_2

Thanks MadMoney

APR's 6.75% - but will check out tomorrow if there's anything cheaper

Hubby regularly checks Gas+Electric and this seems cheapest for now

Decorating/Maintenance £20 - are doing up the house (slowly!) and decided we needed to budget for this as before we'd just do a room and need the paramedics when we added up what it cost!!

We could reduce charity short-term especially by the amount to balance the SOA but know deep down that it's really looking at what we're spending on that's going to make the difference long-term and your right there's bound to be a fair number of luxuries (oh pleeeeeze not the chocolate! ) that need to be addressed!

Kids Clothes - r 2 boys are fine. but the girls (13 + 15) always go over their budgets. Eldest isn't too bad (she's now in adult sizes and shares my clothes!) Do use Primark, but with Ebay can you return stuff if they don't like something?

We don't actually put away for holidays yet, so actually have a £755 deficit (included in the deficit figure!) from this year instead

Did a car boot Saturday as it happens - only made £10.40 (last one we made £45!)

Hubby and I are due to sit down tomorrow (er today ) to go over everything together so really appreciate these points - will let you know how we get on!

StayPositive_2

Well, Hubby and I spent nearly all day Saturday going through everything and have finally come up with a budget we're both happy with

Many, many thanks for the posts saying our food budget was too high :beer: - We nearly always overspent on our food budget even at £500 so would not have looked at lowering it! As it was we went through what we spent on during a month with fruit+veg coming top, main dinners 2nd and......chocolate (it's my weakness ), crisps and treats 3rd. We've lowered the budget to £375 and written down the max amount of that to be spent on the 'danger zones' we came up with!

Looking at Petrol caused us to put it UP(!) to £100!! :eek: £5 more than my SOA amount! :cool: So long term we're going to have to look at changing the car.

Both of us were reluctant to lower our charity amount so we looked at other stuff first and in the end managed to keep that as it was.

In fact, all told we ended up lowering :T the amount Hubby needs to bring home overtime-wise AND put up the amount we're going to allocate to clear the deficit we've created!! :j :T All through lowering the food budget :rotfl: And best of all, by having looked at where we spend on food we can see we still have an achievable budget even though it's so much lower!!

Thank you sooooooooooo much to everyone who posted - all points were considered and investigated and, though it's going to take up to 5 years to clear the 'debt' we've accumalated, it really does feel achievable - and we've still budgeted in treats!!! (my pocket money went up to £20 to include a £10 chocolate allowance ) - it really does feel like we've got a balanced budget! :beer:

All we've got to do now is stick to it (....which we're strangely looking forward to trying to do....weird!)

Thank you again xx

Crown

Hi, Great to read that you both have worked out a budget. I have learnt the hard way that its impossible to live happily with another adult when one person forces a budget on the other. I guess they feel they are being punished. By working together it can only strenghen your relationship as you are both heading for the same goal.

Good luck with your journey and I hope you stay on these forums sharing your experiences and giving and receiving mutual support.

StayPositive_2

Thanks Crown

Don't get on the PC much (4 kids fight me for it!!! haha) but this is a great site! :T so worth the 'fight'

Tabby_Kitten_2

Do use some value stuff already though being Veggie there aren't many main Value veggie bits (like mince etc) available at the mo.

I'm veggie too and have found that Asda do some really nice, fairly cheap veggie stuff. Like dried veggie mince which costs about 50p a pack it and two packets feed six/seven of us with some frozen peas, etc.
They also do loads of frozen things to

If you joine quidco then you could order online and get cashback too.

StayPositive_2

Hi Tabby_Kitten

Thanks for that! Our nearest Asda is about 1/2 an hour away but it's on the way to/from family visits so we do pop in every now and then so will definitely check that mince out!! Know they're usually cheaper than Tesco on the veggie hot dog sausages amongst other things!

What's quidco?

millionaire_in_training

hi there so glad to see that you are seeing the light as to speak. Tabby Asda only give you cashback on certain things. Not your shopping I'm afraid. Quidco is a cash back site