only ONE credit card left + mortgage. current mood: content

Penniesinmyjar

fru-girl wrote: »

Back to say that I'm super-busy and feeling like I'm overspending! My aunt is visiting from overseas and my grocery bill was huge, but also ate out yesterday and worried now that money won't last until paydate. 10 days left and bank account is only £80. There are no more bills but these money will have to cover 1 grocery spending plus whatever else until the 25th.

I did have a couple of NSDs but also spendy days...

£8 a day challenge! I feel your pain, last month I went hell for leather putting money on my credit card and it left me a little short towards the end. I had to do a boot sale one Sunday because I didn't have enough money to get me through the last 7 days including travel to London for work, and I would be damned if I used my credit card or emergency fund

Pay day is 25th for me too and I have £23 left for food until then (I have a DD too), so if you fancy bouncing any creative cooking ideas let me know :rotfl:

MistyMountainTop

It's hard to stick to a budget when relatives come to visit - I always feel like I should be treating them, or at least not being frugal to the extent that I usually am. OTOH I resent spending money that I didn't plan on spending, and no matter what we're doing, I rarely enjoy it...

Luckily we live close to some very well-off relatives. If other relatives decide to visit, they almost always ask to stay with them rather than here. I don't blame them - they have a lovely guest room, a mini home gym, huge flat screen TVs, and a hot tub.

fru-girl

@Penniesinmyjar: I'm afraid I'm not very creative with cooking and rarely batch cook and freeze cooked food.

My fridge is full at the mom, I get groceries delivered on Tuesdays. My plan is to skip next week's regular shop and just buy whatever's needed for my child - like milk or stuff we'll really need. I will try to make do with whatever we have in cupboards and fridge/freezer.

The big problem is this weekend. My cousin is also coming on Thu and we'll go out on Fri and Sat - I cannot really say no to this one because we see each other every 2 years or so and we love going out together for dancing and art exhibitions, stuff like that. That £80 won't last too long even if we don't eat out at all (we normally don't, we eat at home then head out).

If I survive this weekend without going into overdraft it will be a miracle. I'm definitely not taking the CC out of the drawer so that's safe. OD costs are a flat £5 (up to £300, then it's very costly - I never went over that). I really, really don't want to go into overdraft at all though, so I need to ensure the £80 will last until the 25th.

fru-girl

@misty: are any of those relatives of yours single and male by any chance? That hot tub sounds so inviting :-)

MistyMountainTop

fru-girl wrote: »

@misty: are any of those relatives of yours single and male by any chance? That hot tub sounds so inviting :-)

Well one of them is single and male, but he's 82....

The relatives are hub's aunt and uncle, and the uncle's father lives with them.

EssexHebridean

OK - so what options are there for things that can be done relatively inexpensively, with your Cousin? Museum exhibitions that are free? Art galleries locally, that sort of thing? Seems to me that if you see each other that rarely then a "night in just catching up" with pizza and wine is a good option, and can be managed fairly frugally, particularly if you get inventive and make your pizza from scratch (SO much nicer than bought, too!) Cheaty ways of poshing up HM pizza are to tear the mozarella, don't buy ready-grated, and chuck some rocket over the top. IOf you've got a bread machine it's an absolute doddle, and I bet the book for the machine will have a pizza dough recipe in it. If not then a packet mix is probably the way forwards. If you say to your cousin that you'll sort the food if she can bring a bottle, then that helps even more.

On stretching your budget for the ten days - as a starting point list what you already have in your fridge, freezer and cupboards, and meal plan from that - if it were me I'd do a straight 10 day plan. For frugal-type but still tasty food thing around "types of meals" - so egg based, pasta based, etc. Also think about how you can "roll" ingredients over - that rocket from the pizza for example can be added to a pasta sauce to get a bit of extra veg in there. Masses of ideas over on the Old Style board too - people sometimes post up lists on there of what they have in and others will then make meal suggestions from that - might help? Once you've got your plan though you can then just buy what you actually need, rather than doing a "standard" shop.

pollyanna24

Hello. I have just subscribed to your thread after reading it all through. I'm not in debt, but struggling to pay everything each month and thought I would read a few diaries to keep me motivated.

We are similar in that I have a Greater London (although it's really Hertfordshire - the boundary for the London Borough is at the top of the road) mortgage (actually I have two mortgages). Also similar in that I'm a single mum (my two are in Yr 3 and 1).

Also similar in that I am thinking of doing a similar thing to you and move out of the expensive place when secondary school looms / I lose my job is London (whichever is the sooner).

fru-girl

@misty :-)

@Essex: thanks so much for the advice! yes we're doing free museums and galleries and will go dancing to a place that's £5 cover charge so that's fine, but we will most likely eat out at least once during this weekend. Plus all the coffees and train ticket top-ups (my oyster is zones 3-6 only). Fridge/freezer still look relatively full, although I will have to buy some stuff next week (milk etc). At the moment I still have hope that I can do it w/o touching overdraft but let's see on Sunday evening. If I make it to then, I'm not worried for next week.

@polyanna: welcome! It's so hard as a single parent, isn't it? Every single bill, unexpected/emergency type spending... sometimes it feels impossible.

In other updates, I met another guy online and I really like him so far - talked a lot on the phone - trying not to get too excited. We're meeting next week for a glass of wine, we shall see.

fru-girl

Current mood: mad. :mad:

My bank account has £1.02 in it and I have about £7 in cash. That's our budget for 3 days. There's food in the fridge so that's not an issue. I was very good with not spending last week, except Sat when I went out with my cousin and spent like there was no tomorrow...

Also, my DD has a dentist appointment tomorrow (small cavity, needs to be looked at) and it's not NHS. Most of it is covered by private insurance that I get through work, but I have to pay for it in full upfront, then claim. So my plan is to give them a cheque and hope they won't cash it before Friday when it's pay day. (Of course I don't have an emergency budget and no savings for medical expenses....).

I don't know if I can keep things under control, TBH. I'm on the brink of taking out the credit cards again. There isn't anything planned until Friday but then unplanned stuff can happen as well... I looked at YNAB today and it's frightening to see the total for each categories - and this is only part month, as I started budgeting only recently. On Friday when it's pay day I need to do a realistic budget for the month of December.

fru-girl

PS. On the plus side: today it's been 4 weeks since I stopped using credit cards. Fingers crossed it will stay like that.