Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

I've not been great at updating my diary this year so far.  The new job is going well, I am enjoying it but it is keeping me very busy and I don't have the free time I had on the last contract.  I don't think this is a bad thing though as I think having not enough to do made me a lazy lump.

We will have paid off almost £1500 off our debt since the start of the year which is made up of normal FCPs, one small over payment and £140 adjustment to a balance I had wrong on YNAB somehow.  We haven't used the CC since Christmas Eve.

We have also cash flowed some new cooker parts (it's still not working properly), a new fancy microwave from a discount warehouse, a rugby tour for DS and DH, DH big birthday presents, tickets to a rugby game (DS involved) and a local music festival for later in the year (my birthday).  We have also finished paying for our Easter break, put some money away for our spending money and have paid 10% off our December holiday.

With DH being on the 6 week boot camp and cutting out the booze, we have also cut out top up shops and snacks and have saved a fortune, over £200 reduction in Jan on our food budget.  I am determined to keep this up as it has helped our budget enormously as has the smaller, lower BIK, car I am driving on this contract.  I feel like I have had a pay rise! which is good since my company has once again tried to justify why we never get one even though the client is charged for one as part of the contract <<insert a missing angry smilie>>.

I have been listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts every day and, whilst I don't agree with everything he says (like stopping all pension contributions until you are debt free), and I'm not religious (but don't mind at all that he is and that he references the bible/God/Jesus), it is keeping me focused and I relate to all those callers who have a PHD in D.U.M.B cos I still have my certificate on the wall.

Update on Feb Goals
1) No CC usage and a small refund due  - STILL TO ORGANISE REFUND, NO SPENDING
2) £300 food budget including lots of batch cooking and no booze or meals at work - £13 SPENT ON BOOZE FOR DH BIRTHDAY, £300 a CHALLENGE BUT GIVING IT MY BEST SHOT
3) Comparison/change internet provider & gas/elec supplier - NOT DONE YET
4) Arrange CC BT for interest bearing amount - NOT DONE YET
5) Make £100 (sold an item and due a refund so have a stretch target of £177). This is to be saved towards a boiler and radiator replacement this year as it's getting very unreliable and the radiator in the living room isn't working. SOLD ITEM IS NOT SOLD :-( OTHER ITEM DUE TO BE SOLD HAVE GIVEN TO FRIEND IN RETURN FOR WATCHING OUR DOG WHEN WE ARE AWAY 
6) £700 to debt - ACHIEVED £846 WHEN FINAL DDS GO OUT
7) Small annual bonus to be used to pay off Easter holiday and cover half our spending money this month. 2nd holiday not until end of the year and paying monthly installments towards it - HOLIDAY PAID FOR AND CONTRIBUTION TO HOLIDAY SPENDING, MORE LIKE 20 THAN 50% AS PAID FOR DS TOUR IN FULL

I haven't managed to work out how to do colour yet on this new forum!

apple_muncher

You may not be on here very often, but wow! to what you are achieving. Go you guys!

I'm not sure that coloured text is possible anymore (sad smilie).

If I try to edit a post, (or even preview before posting), it ends up writing backwards with a capital letter for each word, and upwards! For several posts afterwards too, on whichever thread I'm on. And I can no longer log on from my laptop. So I will try not to edit on your thread!

Suffolk_lass

Good to see you back and so focussed 

- I have managed to use coloured text in my signature but the format does not work on here. Lots have protested so it might change in time

brizzlegirl

Not sure about some of the new features at all tbh...
So all sounding super positive XS. Really well done. Your grocery bill is a marvel...

XSpender

The food budget has gone back to the same ridiculous level this month.  DH has been off his plan and I have been buying too much and not meal planning well or planning and not sticking to it.  I have also slipped back into buying too many snacks.  The 2 freezers are full.  Alcohol spending is a quarter of what it was but household and toiletry spend has been higher than usual and I have run out of DW tablets so will go up a bit more unless someone can suggest an alternative so I don't have to buy any until the weekend.  Only got one left and are the type you can't chop in half.

DH thinks it's me that spends too much and as I do the shopping I suppose he is right although I made the mistake of taking him and DS to Aldi with me at the weekend and they added things I would never have bought like £9 on flowers, £5 on a plant and £4 on a family size ready meal of DS favorite (to split into 3) that I knew he wouldn't like as he likes my HM version.  DH has said he would like to spend less on food so that we can have a meal out once or twice a month (local pub, happy hour pizza in the village, reasonable price if we don't buy alcohol) so I am going to review the meal planning and try a different approach including using up what we have in the freezers.  DH is also back on the boot camp plan for 6 weeks (another £84 not budgeted for) and we both have a weight loss goal for our Easter holiday.  DS is giving up sweets and puddings for lent so less temptation in the house too 

The knock on effect of this overspending is that we were unable to put anything away out of my bonus towards our holiday spending money as planned and will now need to cover it from March and April pay.  It's a week self catering in a caravan so shouldn't need a huge amount as we make use of our NT membership and the pool on site but we do like to eat out a couple of times, have fish and chips one night and a GF cream tea one lunch time for me    I will be taking a meal from home to warm up up the first night and will not do a full shop when we get there as we have done this in the past and not everything has been eaten and has been left or carted back home.

A couple of balance adjustments, a small over payment and normal monthly payments will help us reach £1600 paid off the debt in Jan and Feb.  However,  I have completed my self assessment and I have to pay back all of the child benefit from 18/19 (£1100) and have no way to pay for it other than a cash draw down on a CC at 0%.  This is due before 6th April and I can't see anywhere on the site that says you can arrange a payment plan, I will need to call them.  I only became aware late last year that I had to repay this and have already paid back £1000 for previous years on a CC and don't want to add this to the debt although it will be a debt and increase my overall balance I suppose until it is paid off.  I will have a bill next year too but it won't be as bad as 18/19.  

The replacement element has not fixed our cooker which only has one heat (nuclear) and needs to be replaced.  I have nothing left in the EF and will wait until I know what our income is for March to see if it is possible to cash flow a new oven.  I have seen one for £300 that would fit (double oven to go in existing unit), it is free delivery and as it is electric no fitting cost to cover as it plugs in like a toaster.  

I have reviewing our finances for the next few months and couldn't see why we are so skint and unable to put money aside to build the EF back up or clear the 2 small debts that cost £120/month and total just over £1300.  It finally dawned on me that we have been paying £500 towards our 2 holidays this year.  One is now paid off and the other, our big holiday, is £345/month until October.  We should still have over £500/month after all bills, the holiday payment and living expenses every month, to go towards debt OP/EF/holiday spending/other savings/fun.  We need to get tighter control on the budget and stop overspending on food.  I am hoping that my new tax code will give us a little bit extra too as my car tax should be lower even after the April changes.

I have asked DH to sit down with me to go over the budget for March once we know our income so that we can both be on the same page and make sure we have covered everything that is coming up in March and have no nasty surprises.

Suffolk_lass

I presume you are all au fait with paying into pensions which has the effect of reducing your pay to get under the child benefit threshold?

I do see you doing what you describe above sometimes - you go through several months of being super frugal and then it resembles my complacency filter where I stop being so observant and it goes a bit wrong for a while. I don't want it to sound like I am having a go, because I am not - I am pointing it out because you have to address this - one option is to build in the little treats and keep a record of them so you don't keep treating yourselves (eg the one or two meals out become one or two a week) - and cut yourselves a little more slack so you don't have a rebellious month where it all goes wrong.

Regarding your grocery shopping, maybe abandon the same day a week approach. I regularly have a freezer week so I try to save a week a month's grocery money - and you could try the list thing where you only write down the things you are desperate for on the actual shopping list, and have a second "if it is on offer" list to restock.

I use Morrisons Savers DW tabs - £2 for 40 and if they are running out before pay day I wash up by hand. They are pressed powder so you could cut them up too, but I don't - I occasionally leave the DW two days (I know, slovenly!) too.

Verbatim

Wow XS you have a lot to tackle there. But you seem to have a handle on it all. 
SL Not slovenly at all! It's very green to only run the dishwasher when it's full. 

XSpender

I definitely took my eye off the ball in Feb.  We had done such a good job in Jan and Feb was my annual bonus month and I didn't pay enough attention.

Your comment about abandoning the weekly shop struck a cord SL.  One of the things that helped our food budget in Feb was abandoning the idea of NSDs and doing a weekly shop every week and instead using the local co-op or aldi for bits as I needed them.  I have written a meal plan for the next 2 weeks and almost all of it can be sourced from the freezers and was items I knew we had off the top off my head without doing an inventory which will still need to be done.  I am going to attempt to manage on £50 for the next 2 weeks.  I am taking the money out in cash and sticking it in a separate purse and just not going to the shop. 

I have also taken on board that it is me who has the overbuying problem.  I used to blame it on DH spending on booze and the extras we would buy when popping to the shop but I don't think that was the main problem really.  Last month we spent as much as we have done in the past and we spent £80 less on booze. When I was single and lived alone I used to seriously overbuy, I would fill a big trolley with food and then not be able to fit it in the freezer etc. when I got home.  I never meal planned or checked what I had and used to waste so much.  I'm not as bad as that now but I need to focus on this area all the time.

I solved the dishwasher tablet problem by doing the dishes by hand (a job I hate) and then using the club card vouchers in my purse to buy some which, along with an offer on yogurt and buying value cheese, meant I managed £20 of shopping for £5.77.

We have decided not to replace the cooker as yet, it still works and I can manage with it for now.  

I have had a good look through YNAB for last month, too much 'rolling with the punches' as YNAB calls it, makes it difficult to view what I budgeted for in other areas and where I ended up.  We have relied on credit to get us out of a tight spot in the past and I refuse to do this anymore, and we haven't used the credit card at all this year, so there is bound to be some trial and error with budgeting as we learn to live on what we earn and create a surplus each month. 

It's that surplus that has been spent this month on stuff that has either been needed to be paid but not budgeted for to build up a (replacement microwave, shoe repairs, DS rugby tour) or wanted (boot camp, small decorations/plants, extra birthday present for DH).  I have manged to hold on to my sinking funds this month which is good because one of the bills is due 4th March.

Suffolk_lass

That sounds so much more focused. You are being very honest with yourself in this post. I am just like you for overbuying - only I throw little away. I seem to prefer to hoard it. Two fish fingers dated 2014 actually made it from the freezer to the bin this week!

brizzlegirl

From 2014   that’s fabulous!!! Not sure I can stretch that far but some HM jam in our cupboard is definitely 10+ years old..
Groceries are our downfall too. 5 of us at the moment but £800 last month and that doesn’t include booze or toiletries but did include some cat food. Shocking stuff.
Us having a very carnivore lodger doesn’t help. My latest is to try and be vegan before 6pm every day. More plants and less meat and diary. It'll be cheaper too. I am also travelling less which always reduces my food bill.
I do need a kick up the pants about this so happy to support XS and friends and try and change our habits together!!