3 weeks to pay day....

DWhite

3 weeks until pay day for me. It's a 5 week month and already my budget is shot to pieces! Not helped by the fact that I was paid around £300 less last month due to job changes and me starting part way through the pay period. But I also had to put 2 new tyres on my car last week, I knew they were low but was hoping they'd last to pay day. Checked them last week and there was no way they'd make it, especially with all of the rain we're getting at the moment.
My bills will be paid so that's not a concern. I have a small amount of savings (for a house deposit) but I'm really hoping to try to squeeze as much out of the month as I can with moving as little into my account as possible to keep me out of my overdraft but not using any more than necessary.
Not sure there's much anyone can do to help on here, just makes me feel better sharing it on here as so many people on here are so good at holding the pennies hostage

HappyMJ

DWhite wrote: »

3 weeks until pay day for me. It's a 5 week month and already my budget is shot to pieces! Not helped by the fact that I was paid around £300 less last month due to job changes and me starting part way through the pay period. But I also had to put 2 new tyres on my car last week, I knew they were low but was hoping they'd last to pay day. Checked them last week and there was no way they'd make it, especially with all of the rain we're getting at the moment.
My bills will be paid so that's not a concern. I have a small amount of savings (for a house deposit) but I'm really hoping to try to squeeze as much out of the month as I can with moving as little into my account as possible to keep me out of my overdraft but not using any more than necessary.
Not sure there's much anyone can do to help on here, just makes me feel better sharing it on here as so many people on here are so good at holding the pennies hostage

Live off the savings for the short term and replenish them when you are paid next.

You need to pay bills and you have savings so you may as well use them instead of pulling out the credit card which is more costly in the long term if you don't quite get it right.

Keep spending as little as you possibly can and you'll be fine. £300 is quite a bit to catch up on so make a plan and get it back into the account...maybe save over the next 6 months at an extra £50 per month and you'll be back to where you started.

Pollycat

Can you feed yourself mainly out of your store cupboard?

Many years ago, newly married and struggling, we lived on chip butties (home-made) and beans on toast for a month until we got organised with bills and our wages.

Good luck.

missbiggles1

Sorry but that's what you have savings for - it won't take long to put the £300 back.

Tink_04

I get what you mean - just because you have them doesn't mean you WANT to use them, you could if your desperate but try some savvy ideas first!

• list everything in your cupboards and meal plan
• check any loyalty points to buy items to help cut the cost if you need to shop.
• Work out how much you NEED to spend between now and pay day so you have enough.
• plan a treat on payday so you have something to look forward too

Good luck xx

[Deleted User]

I agree with Tink_4 make a list of everything you can in the cupboard already and work out the scenario of what I call the 'siege' menu.

For example imagine you were snowed in and for some reason couldn't get to a shop for perhaps a week.

Work out from your existing indoor stock what you needed to use for that week.
7 breakfasts 7 lunches 7 dinners plus tea/coffee/ milk etc.You would probably be surprised at how much food you actually do have in the cupboards/fridge/freezer.
At the moment I have a wager on with my friend that I will use up at least one cupboard of food stocks this month as I have six cupboards crammed full of bits and pieces.Whats left over from my monthly £60.00 budget (I live alone ) I will put into my Race for Life fund. At the moment I have around £38 odd still left in my food purse and its 23 rd of the month and only one more week to go.She said she will match it so its win-win :)One of my cupboards is getting a lot less full than it was and I am aiming to get at least well over half cleared by next week if not more I have found stuff I had forgotten about and streetched things until they squeaked this month Its amazing what you can do with a tin of sardines and a packet of couscous :).I may carry on after the end of this month as its daft to keep filling the cupboards and then not using it up.The only thing I seemed to have bought this month is fresh fruit and veg Even the veg I have been buying reduced as with the football being on all the time a lot of supermarkets have empty stored in the evening Yesterday I got a packet of mixed veg for 10p and a kilo of carrots for 11p, and a small bag of new potatoes for 10p The carrots will be turned into carrot and coriander soup for lunches next week and the mixed veg I used partly last night, and the rest will be used tonight with my dinner.Spuds have gone into my potato bag to use during the week.

If you get stuck make a small list and post it on here and see what recipes we can come up with for you.Don't forget to say how many you have to feed as well to give us an idea of your needs.

Last week I streetched a tin of corned beef to two salads and some corned beef fritters.3 meals for a £1.50 tin of corned beef that had been sitting in my cupboard since January:):) I was brought up with WW2 rationing and a frugal scots Mum who could streeetch a meal until it twanged :):) practice makes perfect :):)

Good luck we have all been in your position where there is too much month left until the end of the month IYSWIM

Cheers JackieO xx

FairyPrincessk

Oh, how frustrating! I know how hard you have been working to save for a deposit. But, you can economize as much as you can, dip into savings for the rest and think of it this way--because you have some savings you won't go into debt and that is still progress towards your deposit even if it isn't as fast as you'd like!

Just a suggestion that has worked well for us--would it be possible to set up a small slush fund that is separate from your savings? We set one up when we moved our emergency fund/deposit fund to different banks for interest rates and wanted to keep a small amount that was easy to transfer into our current accounts at the same bank. For every £4 that goes into savings, we put £1 into the slush. Anytime we're over budget or have an emergency, we dip into the slush. We actually usually end up in a surplus by the end of our savings year, so any extra is either devoted to a treat or rolled over into savings. It helps us to feel like our savings is untouchable, but it does mean we save a bit more slowly. Our true emergency fund is kept in the same account as our deposit savings for interest purposes, and if something like unemployment happened we'd certainly use it for that (and it can be accessed the same day, but is a bit harder to transfer as it is at a different bank), but having a small cushion for things like broken appliances or unexpected bills really helps.

Overall, don't worry--you're still closer to buying a house than if you didn't have savings to cover the tyres/income change and had to cover it with debt!

PasturesNew

What do you need money for?
It's just 3 weeks and it sounds like everything's covered except food.

21 days: you could have a whale of a time just using £50 to feed yourself on. Even with empty cupboards you could get away with £25 ... so all you really need is £50 for the 3 weeks and then "test yourself" to see how little of it you really need to spend and get that "feel good factor" of trying not to touch it at all.

When I was trying to lose weight I'd congratulate myself as I walked away from pies .... "don't NEED it, and it'll still be there when this time has passed if I really want it" ....

There's an inner-smug factor being able to eye up a menu, or a product on a shelf, and thinking "I could buy that .... but I'm NOT GOING TO".