Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

Suffolk_lass

I was thinking about your housekeeping versus ours - I have a £200 budget for all the fresh and frozen foods and consumable things as we use, including cat food if we buy it in the supermarket.

I keep a "separate" heading for my stores (£400 for the year) - it is all the same process, I just account for it differently - this is for all my store-cupboard things I keep in (a few tins, a couple of jars, dry goods and pulses), all the spares and if I buy cleaning things on offer, them too. My shopping list always features any store-cupboard ingredients that might be running low - I even go onto mysupermarket.com to see if a different SM has them on offer - but I don't stock up until they are on offer. There is a little bit of set up cost but I can honestly say I have not paid full price for any of my "brands" for about four years. I have only run out once (deodorant) and I tried a SM own brand for half the price until mine was back on offer. I did not switch but I thought I should test to see.

I don't know if you have time to do a spreadsheet list of your store-cupboard but it works for me and I normally pay between less than half price and 65% of the full price for my preferred premium goods.

I have stopped dyeing my hair now and its' condition is great - much improved. And I found a former salon owner who is semi-retired and works in the barber - he now cuts my hair for £14.50 instead of the £60 I was paying. Oh, and my face-cream is not in this amount but I have largely stopped wearing make-up (but I am not working in a client-facing role). Not sure if these tips help you or not but here they are!

brizzlegirl

Hi there

I am also musing on our food/groceries budget. I try to make it around £500 for 4 of us, although having dropped to 3 now we should be able to do this. It includes alcohol and learning products but not items such as loo paper which we get in bulk about 3 times a year. Our bills have been historically very high. Making HM food and planning, batch cooking does make a huge difference. if your family don't mind spice then mild curries are extremely cheap. We get a lot of our ingredients from local ethnic supermarkets if you have any nearby.

One impending problem is that our 'free' version of YNAB is apparently being phased out from end October in favour of the subscription model which we have been resisting..really dont want this but maybe I have no choice. Is anyone using the subscription model and what features does it have that I don't get on the Classic I wonder? Classic is certainly less stable than it used to be.

I still love the BI model. I like your description of it earlier...it does allow a life whilst really hammering the debt. By Xmas we will be through the worst if we keep it up and by late Spring we will be seriously be back in the black (with a nod to ACDC (also a great Oz export but I digress...:rotfl:)) each month. I can not f+ipping wait...

Have a great week and best of luck with the applications x

XSpender

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I have stopped dyeing my hair now and its' condition is great - much improved. And I found a former salon owner who is semi-retired and works in the barber - he now cuts my hair for £14.50 instead of the £60 I was paying. Oh, and my face-cream is not in this amount but I have largely stopped wearing make-up (but I am not working in a client-facing role). Not sure if these tips help you or not but here they are!

Thanks for sharing your grocery tips. I still have a way to go to such a good level of spending as you and Mr SL.

DH and DS use the barbers at £9 a go but my hair is expensive as I have it cut and coloured at a city salon every 6 weeks. Roots done on 2 visits highlights done on the 3rd visit. This month I had it cut first and then coloured so got away with a dry cut which is almost half the price of a cut and blow dry. I am not ready to embrace the grey as yet as it is so uneven being white on top and grey at the sides and I am in a customer facing role for a premium brand so it needs to look half decent :eek: I used to dye it myself but as it got greyer I really struggled to cover it so it is now much lighter. I have tried cheaper places for my hair but have always been dissapointed with the results so have gone back to this place. I am pretty low maintenance apart from this. I don't wear much make-up or nail polish, use aldi shampoo, soap and moisturiser, occasionally have my eyebrows waxed.

XSpender

brizzlegirl wrote: »

Hi there

I am also musing on our food/groceries budget. I try to make it around £500 for 4 of us, although having dropped to 3 now we should be able to do this. It includes alcohol and learning products but not items such as loo paper which we get in bulk about 3 times a year. Our bills have been historically very high. Making HM food and planning, batch cooking does make a huge difference. if your family don't mind spice then mild curries are extremely cheap. We get a lot of our ingredients from local ethnic supermarkets if you have any nearby.

One impending problem is that our 'free' version of YNAB is apparently being phased out from end October in favour of the subscription model which we have been resisting..really dont want this but maybe I have no choice. Is anyone using the subscription model and what features does it have that I don't get on the Classic I wonder? Classic is certainly less stable than it used to be.

I still love the BI model. I like your description of it earlier...it does allow a life whilst really hammering the debt. By Xmas we will be through the worst if we keep it up and by late Spring we will be seriously be back in the black (with a nod to ACDC (also a great Oz export but I digress...:rotfl:)) each month. I can not f+ipping wait...

Have a great week and best of luck with the applications x

You are making such great progress using BI, spring will be here before you know it. This is our first month doing it properly and are still building our EF. 12 months and we will see a significant drop in our credit levels, 2 years and it will be gone for good.

I have the new version of YNAB, 3rd year using this version. I can't remember why I needed to change to the new one or how it differs from the old one. I wouldn't be without it though.

We all like a bit of spice and curry is definitely something I should batch cook. I have done some batch cooking recently but more stuff that DH will eat than me or DS.

XSpender

I have already spent £353.25 this month on groceries etc. so I won't be hitting my £320 budget as my month ends on 26th September.

We have spent less on dog food and booze than I expected but more on toiletries, laundry and cleaning as we had run out of a lot of things like loo roll, soap powder, cleaning sprays and shampoo.

Food spending is £245.69 and includes no takeaways or food bought outside the home. I have made DH lunch everyday I have been at home and he hasn't spent much when I have been away (which comes out of the splurge fund as he is quite capable of taking something from home). I am now feeding DS an evening meal which I wasn't before, some days he is happy with a sandwich other days he wants something more substantial. The food provided by after school club isn't great and he is usually hungry after running around for a couple of hours.

I find that I do one bigger shop followed by a smaller shop the next week, then back to a bigger shop and so on. I avoid top ups where I can as these add significantly to our spends as does taking DH with me . This week will be a smaller shop as we bought a lot of bits for the freezer last week. I also have a lunch and dinner allowance to spend this week and I usually pick up a couple of non perishables with this if I can.

We had a lovely weekend and, because the splurge budget was looking emptier than planned, we used some free cinema tickets (following a complaint that they left the lights on when we went to see a film last year!) to see L10n K1ng and bought a cinema treat each instead of going out for dinner. Neither DH or I could face any dinner after that.

The good news is that we spotted our ideal sofa(s) on Saturday and they are within our planned budget. The bad news is that we can't afford them yet :rotfl: We have a joiner coming to give us a quote tonight to build a cupboard and shelves in our living room which is stage 1 of finally decorating the living room.

Every room in this house is papered and when we take the paper off most of the plaster has come with it which is why we have left the living room so long to decorate, it just seems like a mammoth task. It also has sound proofing behind the paper on the party wall. Because the joiner is coming I lifted a corner of the paper to see the condition of the walls only to find that the walls have been plastered at some point in the not too distant past :T The paper is coming easily away from the sound proofing too so this can be salvaged and no plasterer is required :j

The joiner is also going to give us a quote to put the wall back between the dining and living room (will save us a fortune in heating bills and is an odd size and position we think unsuitable for doors as no-one has fitted them here in the 30+ years the hole has been there) and makeover the utility room for which we have most of the materials. I can't decide whether to replace the sink or do without.

I want a quote for each bit of work so I can budget for it separately over the next 12/18 months. If the wall goes back up I can at least think about doing the living room and dining one at a time. Luckily the dining room is painted so will only need painting a different colour and new flooring. I can live with the curtains for a while and can up cycle the old small sideboard. It will look a bit small but will do for now.

I bought my first C present at the weekend. The next illustrated HP for DS which I have pre-ordered.

DS is going on his first 'tour' for his team next year so we need to budget for that too, it comes the weekend after we get back from our holiday so it is going to be an expensive month!

I am sure I had more money news but I can't remember what it was. I must be hungry :rotfl:

brizzlegirl

All sounding great XS. Onwards and upwards!!

XSpender

Feeling down in the dumps, bored and fed up with work and un motivated Not much sympathy from DH who just thinks I should suck it up because the salary is good and I get a nice car although he will moan that he has to leave work on time to pick DS up as with the big salary comes my nights away from home. There is also the uncertainty of if my job will continue and I no longer have a 'good pal' on my geographically dispersed team

I have tweaked my CV and re-loaded it on to several job sites. I am contemplating getting it rewritten again as I don't think the last one was very good. I had a free CV review and she made some very valid points about the content. I know it was a sales pitch but I don't think my CV 'sells' me enough. I am also not feeling very confident about getting a job in the field I want as I have a funny job title and doesn't tie into what I want to go back into.

Treated myself to a pack of strawberry pencil sweets when I went for milk this morning. I haven't had them for years but harib0 have started making a GF version Someone just needs to start making GF liquorice now and I will be a happy girl.

I have almost hit £500 in our EF, and should do by the end of the month, and have decided to stick at this amount for now. I read a good article on Debt Camel about how much your EF should be based on where you were with your debt and your ability to repay it and it made good sense.

As I can pay my FCPs and OP a good chunk to the debt each month and I have CC balance available it recommends that I use my EF, the CC balance available if required then divert the big OP to the emergency spending to clear it before going back to OPing it. The one thing we are not covered for is job loss and I can't save enough to cover this significantly with the debt or without slowing down progress significantly so I will stick at £500 and get the debt gone and then do the big EF and mortgage OP as that is also massive and a big drain if one of us loses their job again.

I really want to pay off the 2 smallest debts (approx. £1418 left after Sept to Dec FCPs), clear the small interest bearing CC balance and pay for the joinery work and paint for the living room by the end of the year. We will also have to cover Christmas as nothing saved for this. It should be possible if I keep control of the budget, make use of the £68 of vouchers I have for Christmas gifts and use 'January' Fire Extinguisher pot as we will receive our pay around 20th December. Getting these 2 smallest debts off will be a real motivational boost as well as reducing our outgoings by £150/month.

I am really not bothered about presents for me this year but DH will want him and DS to have stuff. I am going away with the girls for my big birthday in June so will count my Christmas gift as being money towards this. We are also catering for family again but this shouldn't be too expensive as there are only 2 extra for Christmas day and 4 definite and 2 possible extras for Boxing Day.

brizzlegirl

Hope you start to feel more positive about work soon. Have to dash as have work early tomorrow but feel your pain x

apple_muncher

GF licorice does exist! I have occasionally found it in a health food shop. Can't remember the brand, I'm afraid. Just remember it cost a lot! But it didn't last long once I'd opened the bag...

XSpender

apple_muncher wrote: »

GF licorice does exist! I have occasionally found it in a health food shop. Can't remember the brand, I'm afraid. Just remember it cost a lot! But it didn't last long once I'd opened the bag...

I will keep my eye out for some. I used to get one of the licorice novelty selection boxes every Christmas as a child. I only started seeing them in the shops again when I could no longer eat it

The joiner has come back with a really good price and we are going ahead with the work next month which will give us a couple of weeks to strip the walls, paper one and paint the ceiling. He also gave us a price for some work in another room but I have put this on hold as I think it's a bigger job to get that room finished than we asked him to quote for.

I have been finalising my goals for next month which will focus on minimising spending and squeezing a bit more from the budget to go to the debt. I have a small balance attracting interest on one of my cards and would like to have this cleared by the end of next month. The debt clearance mini goals for the rest of the year are:

Ll0yd interest bearing bit - £447
Hitatchi - £575
Ll0yd sml 0% balance - £297
Creation - £1198 reduce to under £700 (will be cleared by Feb)

This will get our debt back back below £30K as we need to cash flow some of the joinery work. I have also allowed for decorating materials, Christmas and the extra cost of us all being off for most of half term. I have also set a more achievable food budget this month.

We will come in around £500 for September's food spend which is ridiculous but I have to admit I haven't really tried to reduce it this month DH has been covering a lot more of the manual side of his role to ensure a contract was achieved and has spent a fair bit on extra food so I have had to increase the size of his lunches for the last 2 weeks. This is also the first month I have fed DS after school and we needed a few laundry/cleaning items replacing. Booze and dog food were as expected but we have bought more convennience foods this month and too many crisps. I blame Seabrook's pickled onion flavour appearing in Asda. We haven't bought a single takeaway of any kind this month which is a first and the couple of meals we have had out have come out of the Splurge fund.

If we continue to spend like this in October, a 5 week month, I would need to allow £625 which isn't happening. We are planning a 2 week 'shop-from-the-freezer' start to the month so that we can have a few treats at half term. I am setting the budget at £500 which is still very generous by most people's standard but is a 20% reduction on September.

It's absolutely lashing it down here today, I can't see across the other side of the road. We are quite high us so the cloud descends to cover everything. The temperature has dropped too but i am NOT putting the heating on.

I have 2 days away with work from tomorrow which I am not looking forward to. There is a rumour that next year's contract is out to tender but I am still job hunting. I have told DH that if my contract is extended we need to go hell for leather in paying down the debt next year as we could pay off at least half of it by just sticking to our budget and following the Barefoot Investor method. This isn't allowing for a pay rise for me (i'm not holding my breath) or a new job or anything more than the basic bonus DH is earning now.

We both have big birthday's next year but are not looking to purchase big gifts, go on a flash holiday or have a party. We have a caravan holiday booked for Easter which will be paid for, including spending money, by Feb and I expect we will go to France again in the summer but will go further north so may take our own tent and drive which will massively reduce our costs.

My 'big-birthday' present to myself will be being debt free before my next birthday. 2 days before, according to my calculations, but it still counts!:D DH will be debt free before the end of 2021. My stretch target is for us both to be debt free before my next birthday but will need to find about £5K based on nothing drastically changing in the next couple of years.

After that we will be moving on to being mortgage free before our next big birthdays, ideally before DH's which is 5 months before mine. If we redirected the amount we will have paid off the debt we could do it but I want to use some of this money to save a bigger emergency fund and to top up our not great pensions so it will be a challenge to do it on this timescale.