Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

Thank you for popping in Suffolk lass. Things have been quiet this month as we have been so skint due to the mix up with my tax. We are doing well though; our grocery spending is much lower than usual (although not the £220 I budgeted for), we haven’t spent anything on entertainment, I haven’t dipped into savings and have only added £93 to the CC for some of DS termly expenses. It’s half term next week and we are all off so will need to keep a handle on what we spend. We have some free cinema tickets, can all swim for a tenner and will use our NT membership for a couple of days out. We also have the living room to part decorate in preparation for the joiner coming. DH has already done the ceiling and we need to lining paper one wall.

I have been re-reading Barefoot Investor and listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts to keep me motivated as I was gutted that I couldn't start my plan this month. I did confuse myself though as I was swinging between OPing what we can to the debt (all of it apart from £600 is on 0%) or saving it in case I was made redundant as that has been hanging over my head for at least the last 6 months and I am feeling very financially insecure. DH also has his first decent bonus coming this month which is earmarked for saving and for (a much reduced) Christmas. I finally decided that saving it is the best option until I knew what was happening with my job. The interest bearing part of the CC will be BT as paying the mortgage is my number one priority if I lose my job.

One of the points I picked up from the DR podcasts was the need to increase our income to get things moving and have applied for a few jobs this month although no interviews yet. Its not the ideal time to be job hunting TBH.

Fast forward to yesterday when I was informed that my contract ends at the end of the year as they have lost the funding and, unless they can redeploy me (unlikely), I am being made redundant. There is also the possibility that they will offer me something unsuitable for me that meets the 'similar' job criteria which will mean I lose my redundancy if I don't take it. Childcare is going to be a real consideration now. I will probably not get my annual bonus either way although will be employed for all the qualifying time.

I applied for another 3 jobs yesterday and 1 this morning. DH has advised me to give myself some time to get my head together until after half term but its not in my nature, I'm a doer.

An update on DS writing - he is improving massively! :T He seems to have come on leaps and bounds in the last few weeks with his writing and is really making headway and is getting lots of comments and 'rewards' from his teacher. He didn't seem to do well under last year's teacher who used to make them stay in to finish their work so he rushed everything. I am looking forward to parents evening next month to chat with his teacher.

Pneumonia and flu jab appointment shortly, time to squeeze in another cup of tea before I leave.

apple_muncher

Hooray for ds!


Ya boo and hiss to the possible non-refundancy twits!


Your dh may have a point, taking time to get your head together...

Honeysucklelou2

Well done on the grocery challenge thus far. Sorry to read about the job news...

Suffolk_lass

Sorry to hear your job news. I've "known you" long enough over the years on here to know that will play with your brain until you have something else in place but you do need to just slow down and make sure your applications are tailored, reflect your USP and your hard work and diligence, and that they suit you.

Re childcare, as you are collecting DS from school, you could chat to the parents you get on with and the parents of the children he gets on with to pave the way - you never know, an offer there might be forthcoming and an informal homework club with a bit of competition might benefit both families.

I hope you have a good half-term break. It was during a holiday after my DH got made redundant from yet another contract-style job that I said "what is it you really want to do when you grow up" and the answer came back that he had always wanted to teach. It meant a huge (75%) drop in his earnings over the next 17 years but much happier, if poorer and a re-jig of where we live, what I did and where. Lots of compromises but more fulfilling working lives. You can't see that wood for the trees of financial concern at the moment. I recommend that sort of review, if you can do it over half term.

XSpender

Honeysucklelou2 wrote: »

Well done on the grocery challenge thus far. Sorry to read about the job news...

Thanks. I'm over my teeny tiny budget of £220 at £277.74. Bit if an unachievable budget really when are average is about £500! £100 of the spend has been on booze (we were supposed to be doing Stoptober so I hadn't budgeted for this) and DH buying extra food at work. I hadn't budgeted for this but I should have as every Friday 3 of the managers taking in turns to buy lunch for the others and DH has needed sometimes needed extra food on top of his packed lunch due to the long hours he has been working.

I have a £7 off £50 voucher for T3sc0 and am weighing up whether to go there this morning as I know I will spend £100 as we are out of all the basics like soap powder, dishwasher tabs, dog food, meat, frozen bits, GF oats and cereal, cleaning products, toiletries. I also think I may be subconsciously feeling the need to hoard due to the redundancy.

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Sorry to hear your job news. I've "known you" long enough over the years on here to know that will play with your brain until you have something else in place but you do need to just slow down and make sure your applications are tailored, reflect your USP and your hard work and diligence, and that they suit you.

Re childcare, as you are collecting DS from school, you could chat to the parents you get on with and the parents of the children he gets on with to pave the way - you never know, an offer there might be forthcoming and an informal homework club with a bit of competition might benefit both families.

I hope you have a good half-term break. It was during a holiday after my DH got made redundant from yet another contract-style job that I said "what is it you really want to do when you grow up" and the answer came back that he had always wanted to teach. It meant a huge (75%) drop in his earnings over the next 17 years but much happier, if poorer and a re-jig of where we live, what I did and where. Lots of compromises but more fulfilling working lives. You can't see that wood for the trees of financial concern at the moment. I recommend that sort of review, if you can do it over half term.

A friend has offered to take DH back to hers if we are ever late and cannot pick DH up by the end of afterschool club at 6pm. It opens at 7.30am but it is if I have to have more nights away where we will struggle as DH works an hour away and has to leave early/arrive late to cover the childcare.

I have been ready to move on/change projects for a while and want to go back into more of an L&D role which may require a pay cut but have more opportunities. In reality, once my co car tax has gone I would probably come out with about the same even allowing for car running costs and fuel.

There may be a new contract at my current employer to walk straight into but they haven't signed on the dotted line yet so no guarantees. Its a good fit for my current team. Had a lovely chat with the client yesterday and we agreed to end a lot of my work/travel so I am going to be twiddling my thumbs a bit over the next few weeks.

Booked some tickets (£8) for a Halloween evening event at our local NT site at half term. The joiner is coming next week too and will take over the living room so we will not be having lazy mornings in front of the TV in our jarmas! Lots of days out as cheaply as possible next week to get us away from the work. Avoiding eating out will be the biggest money saver.

XSpender

Well that was the week that just kept on giving!

Came back from a mammoth Mr T shop, feeling really bad about spending money , to find that the dog had had severe D&V in the hall, kitchen, a bedroom and the living room. :eek: Luckily (!) the carpets in the bedroom and living room are ancient and I could take the scrubbing brush to them. Put the shopping away, sat down with a cuppa to open the post and found I had a speeding fine Caught by a van doing just over 30, my own fault.

The dog then had me up at 3.30am on Saturday morning mopping D&V from the bathroom floor. :eek: Thank god he went in there and not on the landing carpet. He is OK now after being fed chicken and rice for 2 days.

I am hoping the redundancy, speeding ticket and poorly dog are my 3 bits of bad luck and I am due some good luck now like a new job.;)

I did spend a large amount on food shopping this weekend but have a good amount of stock now as we were out of everything from baked beans to bin liners. I didn't buy any treats apart from some mince pies and some GF Halloween cakes to take to a friends next week. The 'treats' I did buy which I wouldn't usually were a packet of crumpets and some cheap (what used to be value) croissants to have with ham and cheese. I actually allowed myself to buy some GF items that I am reluctant to buy because of the cost. Nothing fancy, just 2 types of cereal, bread and wraps.

Stocking up has made meal planning a lot easier even though the only ready made items I bought were chicken nuggets and chicken Kiev and the GF equivalent. I haven't added the total up yet as I will feel a bit sick. ETA: I've added it up and it comes to £575 which isn't as bad as I thought, bearing in mind our average is £505, this is a 5 week month and I have meal planned for the next 17 days and only need some onions and peppers and milk. We spent a smidge under £500 last month for a 4 week month.

I am going to exclude booze, work lunches and school dinners from my total from next month as I think it skews the figures.

Last night's gammon joint will be stretched to have with beans and oven chips tonight and into a carbonara tomorrow night.

DS and I will pop to B&M tomorrow for the bits for a shoe box appeal and to pick up some metal dishes to batch cook some dinners for him for after school.

Oh and DS won a place to take part in a sporting event with school next year so we have to find £50 deposit at pay day and the rest by April, plus kit etc. Its a fabulous opportunity for him though.

Half term this week and we have some low cost activities/days out planned as well as decorating our living room once the joiner has finished his work.

Suffolk_lass

I hope you have had a good half term break and the decorating is all done. What a shame the weather has been so dreich all week

XSpender

Back to work after out half term break. Its all fun and games here!

The dishwasher has died and I don't want to use my emergency fund to repair/replace it so it is back to washing by hand. I want to hold on to/grow the EF to help pay the mortgage if I haven't got a job by the end of the year. I have calculated we can manage 5-6 months (to May/June) on my severance pay, PILON, annual bonus and EF before we won't be able to pay the mortgage and I will have some kind of job way before then.

DH company refused to pay the management team their quarterly bonus and after much fighting their boss has managed to get them awarded just over half. Very underhand goings on and it stinks. This is a PLC not some back street company :mad: DH will receive some of it this month and the majority of it next month.

My tax problems look to have been resolved and I have received the right pay this month including the extra for changing my car down. We will be able to put aside enough to cover a much reduced Christmas and a bit into savings. We do have about £1000 on a CC charging interest but I don't want to use my spare cash to pay this off until I have a new job.

The joiner is into his 2nd week and is doing excellent work and has such a good work ethic he never stops! We would have cancelled this work due to my redundancy but had already paid for the materials which were 50% of the total cost. We will need 10L of emulsion paint, a tin of eggshell and some lining paper and the 2 rooms will be complete. Both are being painted the same colour except for 1 feature wall. I will have to wait for blinds for the living room.

I have applied for a job yesterday and an internal job today. The internal one sounds really good and would be the best option but I do not have operational experience in this field although I can demonstrate all the skills/experience they are looking for. Will depend if it is a deal breaker or not. If I can get in to this field I see it as being my career until retirement with lots of opportunity for advancement and a clearly defined role/job type. Trying not to get my hopes up, even if they client says I can apply I might not be successful:o

Nothing heard from the 4 jobs I applied for week before last. I may have to bite the bullet and have my CV looked at again if I continue to apply and not get a response.

I looked at how much debt we had in March and how much we have now and felt sick

Way, way over the teeny tiny food budget I unrealistically set for October but we are well stocked up and it did cover some treats for half term. In real terms our average weekly spend was only £5/week more than September. Will pick up some fabric conditioner, sugar (for the joiner's coffee), milk, a pumpkin and some Halloween cakes (for a pre trick or treat tea at a friends on Thursday) after school tonight and that should be it for the month. The first week of November should be low spend too. DH wants to lose some weight so we have agreed to not buy big multi-packs of crisps and he is back on the chicken and rice, which we have plenty of. I want to increase my fruit and veg consumption to improve my energy levels and to eat 3 regular meals a day.

Sunday's chicken has made dinner for 2 plus 2 lunches for DH and will be made into a curry tonight for 2 and a risotto tomorrow for 2.

I made a poultice to clean our limestone fireplace hearth and it seems to have improved it. That and the wash down with stardrops! The dog did keep trying to eat the poultice though.

Also finished 2 Christmas gifts with some bits and bobs from B&M to complement the items I got in last year's Christmas sale. We only have 3 token gifts, stocking fillers and DS gifts to buy. DH and I may stretch to a couple of token bits at most.

I have a lot of free time working from home as the project is wound up and I want to make the most of it spearing some frogs, sorting out a bedroom, decorating, cooking proper meals, deep cleaning, minor repairs and up cycling some pieces of furniture. Job hunting will be a big part of it too. I think the sitting around with not much to do is getting me down I am not busy working but not actually free to do my own thing so I end up achieving nothing. I have decided to give myself 2 tasks to complete each day outside of job hunting/work activity. Dusting off my bullet journal and cracking out the coloured pens.....

XSpender

I have a letter from HMRC saying I have to pay back child benefit. I genuinely didn't realise they take my company car into account as income. £700 for last year and probably some for each year back to 2015/2016. It doesn't seem fair that I pay a huge amount of tax on my car and am getting effectively charged twice for it. I have to have a car to do my job and the company dictates the brand I have.

Oh and part of the bedroom ceiling has fallen in.

XSpender

Feeling more positive this morning

I have calculated I owe £1200 CB back and will know by their deadline if I have a job with my employer or need to make alternative payment arrangements with them.

I have been encouraged to apply for another internal role but one of the clients is a nightmare and although I have operational experience in this field this client is likely to feel it is insufficient. The other client is lovely. Worth a go though and the assessment centre would be soon which I would have to pass first before being considered by the client. I’ve spotted another external role to apply for as well.

I’ve signed up to NST challenge again this month and have written the ‘rules’ in my bujo ready for the first. This will give me something to focus on along with the job hunting. I’ve also written a list of frogs to tackle and allocated a couple to each of the next few days.