Second time lucky... debt free diary.

charlies_tribe

Money saving/ dieting not going down well with the males of the family! Double size pack of mince went into the same size dish as we would normally use for half the size.
So I cut it into 8 slices and fridge got half! 3 of the children had the pack of pork chops that were left so no way was I cutting a kilo of mince between 4. At least dinner tomorrow is sorted.

charlies_tribe

I should be asleep but been sat trying to put together a better budget/SOA looking back at last month. At the moment it looks like this (not in any order as just gone through statements).

Mortgage £581
Savings £450* will explain below
Debt £450
Utilities £175 Hopefully will go down at next review
Park £50
Netflix £10
Swimming £120 Will be almost £40 less if they have stopped lessons
Gymnastics £20
Ink £8 Need to lower this
Bus £70 Dd monthly college bus (£55) and my odd work bus
Entertainment £100 to cover everything from days out to hair cuts
Clothing £100 Not had a clothing budget before, may be too much?
Appliance Insurance £8 DH has just agreed to the dryer too, not added on yet, may cancel them.
Water £59
TV £13
Life ins £14
Home ins £25
BT £40 Includes DH mobile, i think it may have gone up as was £34 before
Mobile £35 NEED TO SORT THIS!! CONTRACT HAS ENDED
DD babysitting £40
Car tax £19
Food £650
Fuel £100
Pets £100
£3237

I'm trying to think if i've missed anything or over budgeted.
*£450 Savings: £100 to holidays/school holiday account, £100 to christmas/birthdays and £250 to yearly account, council tax/car ins/mot ect.

Going off our basic wages coming in, we have £3398 coming in leaving £161 to the emergency/house improvement account plus any extra wages.

Right better go to bed.

Mumoffourkids

Just a couple of thoughts on your SOA. I out £100 per month into a clothes savings account. So far in January, I only have £26 in it! My kids always seem to need something. I presume your kids are probably the same so I would say £100 is probably about right.

One other thing, are you on a water meter? I have just applied for water sure tariff for both my water charges and sewerage charges. They put a cap on your charges if you get certain benefits like working tax credits etc and if you have a large family. It might be worth looking into if you can get it where you are. I think I will probably save about £20 a month on water charges.

Everything else looks ok though and I can't see that you have missed anything.

charlies_tribe

Thank you.

That's why I've added a clothing budget in. They only had gymnastics clothes and underwear last month but it soon adds up. Think it was over £50 on the little 2 alone.

Water is on a fixed rate. We gave a very large pool to fill in the summer so they may be against the water meter but I'll have a look in to it.

Quick tidy up tidy after my sister phoned and asked me to babysit. I was hoping for baby cuddles but she's fast asleep. Just having a cuppa while waiting for shopping to be delivered.

charlies_tribe

Good morning. Been a busy weekend. While i was at work Saturday DH has ripped the pantry out, the old concrete slab has gone. We were going to fetch new shelving but realised that once a shed was in, we have a utility room full of shelving. So we have ordered free standing shelving for all the utility things and then the shelving in there can be used in the pantry. The free standing stuff will then go across in to the (eventual) new shed.

Checked the bank this morning and not much has changed. I have had a payment from tax credits that i wasn't expecting, i have a feeling it's from putting in last years income as it was still estimated. If it is, then we have an extra £800 to the room re-arrangement and getting the fence fixed ready for summer. I'm not touching it until I've had confirmation though.

Had DH club card vouchers this morning so thought i'd check online. His staff card isn't connected to his old cards, he had £9 just sitting there that we couldn't do much with, other than food shopping, so I've phoned and had his cards linked, it should be showing by the morning then i'll be able to use them with his new vouchers. Mine hasn't come yet but I've logged in to mine to see and i now have £63 of vouchers there. So between us we should be able to cover some days out over the summer.

Need to do the first shop of the month today. Will have to do it after work if the delivery hasn't arrived before. We spent £16 on Saturday on pizza (from the counter as kiddies wanted takeaway!) and a few bits to manage school lunches today, but that's come out of last months budget.

Feb spending:
2nd: £9 entertainment (phone adaptor for DD)
4th: £69 House (shelving)

charlies_tribe

Work done, shopping done, gymnastics and swimming done. Kiddies in bed (except DD1) we're just going to have some dinner. Seem to have spent quiet a bit today. Can see this gymnastics being more expensive than i thought and DD1 is arranging to go to the gym with a friend, guess she's going to want money for that too.

Feb Spending
5th: £2 DD1 dinner money, £2 gymnastics raffle tickets, £28 gymnastics t shirts, £55 shopping (included £16 beer he's been told has to last the month and pull ups at £8.50) and £18 on 2 new pairs of school shoes!

Mumoffourkids

£18 is good for two new pairs of school shoes!

Two of mine go to gymnastics but it’s more of an acrobatics class. No expensive outfits to buy, they just wear leggings and t-shirts normally. The waiting lists for actual gymnastics classes round here is about 2 years as max whitlock trains near us!

charlies_tribe

Mumoffourkids wrote: »

£18 is good for two new pairs of school shoes!

Two of mine go to gymnastics but it!!!8217;s more of an acrobatics class. No expensive outfits to buy, they just wear leggings and t-shirts normally. The waiting lists for actual gymnastics classes round here is about 2 years as max whitlock trains near us!

Thank you. They were only Mr T sale shoes but DD2 boots had fallen apart and DD3 wasn't much better. They've had 'shiny' ones too do probably won't be long before they're scuffed.

The gymnastics class seems to be more of an acrobatics class too but looks like they do a lot if competitions, galas, days out etc. Girls are loving it though.

I need to be banned from the bank card!! DH went to the hardware store to fetch bin liners while I went to fetch the bits I had forgot last night. While I was waiting for him and wondering round, £34 of junk food fell in to the trolley! There was a lot of yoghurt, more fruit and ham but also lots of snack bits like brownie bites, choc rolls...
I have DH £20 (as the machine was only letting me draw out in 20's) he spent £2 but i'll deduct it from this weeks food money as he will fritter it away without telling me.

6th: Dog food £64, cat food/litter £16, £34 food, £20 DH (food), £16 DD1 top.

Cherryfudge

Oh dear to the bank card! Maybe carry a basket instead of a trolley next time.

Gymnastics clothes can be expensive though at club level I seem to remember it's basically for a good quality leotard (hand wash in pure soap, in DD's case!) DD went on to do competitive cheerleading and every time the squad got a new uniform (once it was twice in a year) they had to get another, upwards of £100. However there was a market for selling them on so she sometimes had items from last year's squad. It may be worth asking other parents or the coach about people willing to sell kit because it does happen - especially while they're growing.

charlies_tribe

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Oh dear to the bank card! Maybe carry a basket instead of a trolley next time.

Gymnastics clothes can be expensive though at club level I seem to remember it's basically for a good quality leotard (hand wash in pure soap, in DD's case!) DD went on to do competitive cheerleading and every time the squad got a new uniform (once it was twice in a year) they had to get another, upwards of £100. However there was a market for selling them on so she sometimes had items from last year's squad. It may be worth asking other parents or the coach about people willing to sell kit because it does happen - especially while they're growing.

Will definitely try to stick to the basket idea.

The girls would like to try the cheerleading that follows them in. I've just downloaded the timetable and the biggest majority of the competitions are cheerleading. They've just done a weekend competition in Manchester, with a Leeds and a Walsall one coming up, think I'll try to hold them off that a bit.
Great idea about asking for old kit though, thank you.

One set of shelves up, DH has gone to fetch the girls while I jump in the shower ready for work. This room move is happening quicker than I thought.