£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

warby68

I think changing the shopping routine is good occasionally if only to relieve the monotony of the task.

I have Tesco Delivery Saver for most things but do vary where I do fresh meat, fruit and veg, treat and top up shops.

I don't think you buy many of these but remember to hide/ration out the treat type stuff - I think that's the main danger of bulk shopping, the good stuff just goes faster because its there. It seems to trigger 'eat faster' rather than 'last longer' if there are plentiful supplies, or at least it does with competitive teenagers and husband who does think he deserves the best/first pick sometimes. You should fare better as you have some pretty good eating principles in place.

PS Sorry the lunch was a little painful budgetwise but I think you were half expecting it. I assume the plan to ask siblings to be kind with the bill didn't work out.

Silver_Queen

I'm fortunate that in my OH's (large) family, there's three other siblings who will always insist on paying for what they themselves ate/drank, even if it costs them more than splitting the bill equally, so I can avoid the awkwardness of being the first to suggest it. I always found it a bit infuriating when expected to split the bill and subsidise the cost of someone's 5 cocktails when I only had tap water and a reasonably priced main.

Hope you have a good day and your next three days aren't so painful!

Treadingonplaymobil

Yes, my plan to pay my own way went completely wrong because I wanted to discuss with my siblings before my dad arrived, but my brother and his wife had ordered a £150 magnum of champagne (yes, he is a bit of a show off, although generous) for us all to share before we even arrived, and he breezily announced between champagne bar and restaurant that splitting the restaurant bill seemed fair, and since he'd covered the huge bottle of champagne it seemed a bit churlish to say 'actually, I only have 98p to my name and don't want to do that'.

Re food shopping: we don't really buy treat stuff, because I make it rather than buying it, so fortunately as long as I don't bake it all in one go we're ok!

Treadingonplaymobil

In other news, we have established that DC1's wellies and school shoes will both last a little bit longer - although they are both a 2 and he is a 3, there is plenty of room in them still.

mfmaybe

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

In other news, we have established that DC1's wellies and school shoes will both last a little bit longer - although they are both a 2 and he is a 3, there is plenty of room in them still.

You could set up a search on fleabay for the replacements, now you have some time? Sometimes stuff can be no cheaper, but you might manage to get barely used wellies in particular.

It is annoying about the drinks (I guess that's the downside of not sharing the debt problems with the family). In my group of friends/family though, we always try to split the bill into drinkers and non drinkers, unless it ends up being one in each couple that's driving. I think I'd be smarting a little more than you are!

JoJoC

Wow - that's an expensive lunch indeed! I understand you not wanting to question it after the £150 magnum of champagne, but it does totally infuriate me when others have no consideration for other peoples' financial situations. Aside from the fact that you may/ may not be up to your eyeballs in debt (they of course don't know that) but what if you just DIDN'T WANT TO spend that much money on a lunch? Surely that's your right? I'm glad that my husband and I each have one sibling and they both are fairly modest in their means and open about affordability (i.e. "No, I can't afford to go for dinner so let's stay in and make pizza") which makes life a lot easier when you need to say it back.

I suppose you need to draw a line and leave it in the past but I'd struggle for it not to grate on me. I hope you are better at letting things go than i! On a positive note, you had saved for most of it and managed to cover the whole cost without firing it onto a credit card so that's brilliant!

Also good news on the footwear - both of mine just got new trainers x2 and I'm seriously trying to avoid buying new school shoes with 9 weeks to go until summer holidays...

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 62: Day 2

Urgh, have woken up at friends' house with the worst allergy symptoms - I have a 'dust' allergy, but it also gets set off by things like chemical cleaners, fumes from new carpets/sofas/wood glue/expanding foam etc (I am going to be living on anti-histamines when we have the extension done, it occurs to me), which I think is the culprit here - they have just built a house. Have not stopped sneezing for an hour.

Yesterday's food shop wasn't as expensive as I expected for two weeks' worth, which makes me think I've missed something when planning two weeks' worth of food. I know I'll need to top up fruit and veg at some stage, but even so. We'll see how it goes.

No useful guidance from the architect about the budget of our favourite design in his email yesterday, he is going to have a meeting with DH on Wednesday where we need to get some useful information or we'll need to halt the process with him until we can get some builders to look at it and give an estimate.

Two days work today and tomorrow which will be horribly busy but I will be pleased with at the end of the month when I invoice for them. I earned another little bit of money yesterday so was able to make some little payments to my savings pots as I decided on earlier this month - 10% goes to each pot, so my 'extra' this month stands at:
£7 debt overpayments
£7 extension savings
£7 house stuff (urgent need for new pillows as my cheap replacements bought a year or two ago give me terrible neck ache, a saucepan, a couple of other smallish things that really have reached the end of their lives)
£7 biz account emergency savings
£7 food/household supplies
£7 annual insurances
£7 supplies for sister's wedding cake
£7 saving towards 4 months' buffer in biz account
£7 DC1 tutor (starting in Sept)
£7 emergency fund

We're actually running really tight in things like food and family entertainment pots this month, but I didn't want to just 'give up' and put the extra money in there, as it would be sucked up so quickly, and I figure if I'd never earned that money we'd have to eke out what's there, so we should now too.

Debt repayment:
- £29.95/30 April rounding down pot.
- £1,922.49/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

mfmaybe

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Week 62: Day 2


We're actually running really tight in things like food and family entertainment pots this month, but I didn't want to just 'give up' and put the extra money in there, as it would be sucked up so quickly, and I figure if I'd never earned that money we'd have to eke out what's there, so we should now too.

That's an interesting and very important point. I was dwelling on my financial priorities yesterday and had 3 main areas I wanted to focus on. With a tiny TCB payout on the way over I was debating what to do with it; but realised that if I never had that money I would still have had to pay off the monthly credit card; and still have had to top up my annual bills pots. So I'm going to put it all to my mortgage. (It's my only ongoing debt, so for me that's the priority). I have read on here repeatedly that you should make your debt payments at the start of the month with whatever your budget determines, not the end with whatever is left; and I guess it's the same principle. Obviously that requires a balanced budget in the first place, but it's all too easy to let things slide otherwise.

Treadingonplaymobil

mfmaybe wrote: »

That's an interesting and very important point. I was dwelling on my financial priorities yesterday and had 3 main areas I wanted to focus on. With a tiny TCB payout on the way over I was debating what to do with it; but realised that if I never had that money I would still have had to pay off the monthly credit card; and still have had to top up my annual bills pots. So I'm going to put it all to my mortgage. (It's my only ongoing debt, so for me that's the priority). I have read on here repeatedly that you should make your debt payments at the start of the month with whatever your budget determines, not the end with whatever is left; and I guess it's the same principle. Obviously that requires a balanced budget in the first place, but it's all too easy to let things slide otherwise.

Wait, does this mean I did something right? Hold the front page!

Chrystal

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Wait, does this mean I did something right? Hold the front page!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: