SOA advice - thank you

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

One last thing - before I disappear for my tea - If you are any good with excel create yourself a budget sheet. This way you know whats coming in and out of your bank and will help you monitor what you are spending (A spend diary is also good for this)

My sheets really simple - I don't mind emailing you a blank version of this if you would like it?

Anyway i've probably spammed this thread too much now (sorry!) but I really hope you've got some great ideas. Have a lovely evening and good luck!

theoretica

fieldend wrote: »

and I think I have not had my light bulb moment yet, as I HAVE NOT STOPPED USING CREDIT CARDS. Sorry for the caps.

Take your credit card and an envelope. Write your choice of words on envelope. Seal credit card into envelope. It will be there if you need it, but hopefully will make you pause before reaching for it.

Karonher

Do you know if your daughter is eating her school dinner? A friend of mine is a dinner lady and tells me how much food is wasted. As schools are making the meals healthy many children wont eat them. It could be better for her to have cold fruit and sandwiches rather than little or nothing in school.

getmore4less

Better to have a realistic SOA so keep a close eye on those you think are under.

Those that should be over then there is room to try and see if you can do better. I would bump up the emergency fund with any underspends.

Food budget is a project, £250 is a lot when it does not include lunches.
I would leave the SOA as it but work on reductions and see how you get on.

Might be worth looking at some bulk buys of the stuff you use a lot when the items are cheap and get some easy backup food items like dried pasta, rice, noodles etc. so you don't end up with the run out of food problem.

Clothes you need something on the SOA long term so just try to underspend, do an audit of what you have, make a list of stuff you will need over the next few month and keep an eye out for sale items.

If you stick to £500pm off the CC and finds some other savings it should look pretty good by the end of the year.

fieldend

theoretica wrote: »

Take your credit card and an envelope. Write your choice of words on envelope. Seal credit card into envelope. It will be there if you need it, but hopefully will make you pause before reaching for it.

That is a brilliant idea, thank you! By Thursday the envelope will be sealed, if not earlier. (and I've just deleted the credit card from ASDA, ebay, and amazon). Hopefully I can keep that envelope sealed for a long long time.

fieldend

Karonher wrote: »

Do you know if your daughter is eating her school dinner? A friend of mine is a dinner lady and tells me how much food is wasted. As schools are making the meals healthy many children wont eat them. It could be better for her to have cold fruit and sandwiches rather than little or nothing in school.

She does. They get relatively healthy food, and it's quite tasty from what she says...

fieldend

getmore4less wrote: »

Better to have a realistic SOA so keep a close eye on those you think are under.

Those that should be over then there is room to try and see if you can do better. I would bump up the emergency fund with any underspends.

Food budget is a project, £250 is a lot when it does not include lunches.
I would leave the SOA as it but work on reductions and see how you get on.

Might be worth looking at some bulk buys of the stuff you use a lot when the items are cheap and get some easy backup food items like dried pasta, rice, noodles etc. so you don't end up with the run out of food problem.

Clothes you need something on the SOA long term so just try to underspend, do an audit of what you have, make a list of stuff you will need over the next few month and keep an eye out for sale items.

Thanks, I do buy some bulk items, mostly cupboard stuff as it's just the two of us. Clothing - plan is to stick to only buying stuff for DD for a while... kids grow so fast.

Yes, that was my idea as well.. to come up with a realistic budget. I hope it's realistic for the future, my history proved otherwise