Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

My original figures are correct.  I was adding the refund of the winter holiday not the EF! 🤦‍♀️

apple_muncher

You must be swimming in numbers!

XSpender

I hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday weekend.

DH and I ventured out into a small town 3 miles from us on Saturday to visit Wilk0 to get water filters as we have been putting it off for so long and really need replacements now.  The queue was horrendous as was the queue for Tescos and Iceland, no wonder this town is in the top 3 for infection rates!  We went home and I bit the bullet and ordered a years supply on line with £5 postage.  We then went to Mr M for the weekly shop but as there was a bit of a queue DH dropped me off and came back for me when I was done.  I don’t mind queuing for a bit when it is much quieter in store and you don’t wait long to pay if at all.  Maybe they should keep this going when life returns to normal.

We had a relaxing Sunday followed by a busy day in the garden on Monday.  Lawns mowed, hedges trimmed, BBQ eaten and I painted 3 fence panels.  Only 8 to go! They are 6ft lattice ones and they took so looonnggg.  They do look good once painted though and we already had the paint and brushes in the garage so no money spent.  We also ironed a pile of laundry and I fixed 2 freezer drawers. 

Another 5 weeks of Furlough to go for me.  I do feel like it’s coming to an end and I need to make sure I get my jobs done.  I would like to paint the fence a bench and the shed, paint 2 pieces of furniture, finish the utility room makeover and a lot of the little fiddly jobs on my list.  The utility room floor is an issue, I would just paint the concrete but it is uneven and has a man hole cover in it!  Looking at painting it and getting a rug made out of edged carpet to cover the floor.  It is a short rectangle with a chunk out of the corner for the loo so not a straightforward shape.  I do not want to spend much money on the floor at all.

DS told us he was depressed and missing his friends last week and was definitely not himself :'( He has been much chirpier the last couple of days but it is worrying as there is no easy soloution.

I have been crunching even more numbers to see if we should take a further mortgage holiday.  If approved for the full payment it would bring our DFD forward by 8 months.  Our mortgage payment and interest rate should drop in November when we remortgage.  We would keep the term the same, 16 years, and not extend it even if we could due to our age. We would still be over 80% LTV either way because of the initial 3 month holiday.  DH is keen to apply for it but I need to mull it over a bit first.

We will have paid a gnats hair breadth under £3,500 by the end of this month. I may just have to pay the extra 3 quid to round it up.  I have had a late July event cancel (£27.50) and will pay this off the CC even though it was paid for with cash.  We have a mid August run that may also be cancelled which was approx £65 cash and again I will pay this off the card rather than add to the savings.

We are both paid this week so we will have our 2nd budget meeting and review last month’s spending.

I got on the scales this morning!😱🐷🐷🐷 This needs sorting out as I am now in the overweight zone and will not fit into my work clothes when I go back.  I am going to reduce my portions, eat more fruit and veg (this has dropped badly while I have been off) and cut out shop bought snacks/treats.  If I want something like that I am going to have to make it from scratch.  Smaller portions and cutting out snacks should help the budget too.  I have been number crunching about the food budget but will post this separately as this post is long enough!

Tonight we are having curry from a jar but I will have a small portion and have half rice and half green beans.  Lunch is beans on toast and fruit.  Breakfast was my usual baked oats with blueberries and lemon.  I lost a decent amount of weight about 4 years ago and did this through tracking everything in MFP and a mix of running and swimming.  The one thing both DH and I regret not doing in lockdown is more exercise although in reality the first 3 weeks we nearly did ourselves in with the amount of heavy gardening we did and had no energy for anything else.  Plus trying to social distance when there were so many walkers, cyclists and runners around our village was, and still is, hard work.

BalanceBy50

Just delurking XS to say you are doing a great job! I think your son maybe a year or two older than mine? He's yr 3. I have organised a couple of zoom chats for the boys in his class.  It was carnage but they loved it and got the hang of the chat facility too.  He has also FaceTime 'd  a couple of friends too which has helped him enormously xx

XSpender

BalanceBy50 said:

Just delurking XS to say you are doing a great job! I think your son maybe a year or two older than mine? He's yr 3. I have organised a couple of zoom chats for the boys in his class.  It was carnage but they loved it and got the hang of the chat facility too.  He has also FaceTime 'd  a couple of friends too which has helped him enormously xx

Thank you 

DS is yr 5.  He has had a couple of short (10 min max) end of drive visits from friends and he plays on the PS in the mornings for a bit so chats to his school friends on there but it isn’t the same.  As a working Mum, who only joined the school in yr 3, I don’t really know the other Mums well.  The one I am friendly with doesn’t have a smart phone and our boys are not that close unfortunately. He’s perked up this week but it is a worry.

XSpender

I have decided against applying for an additional 3 month mortgage payment holiday.  I watched Martin’s video about it last night and it confirmed to me that it is not in our best interest even if we would be debt free earlier.  The only exception would be if I am furloughed longer or something happens to my job. The 3 months we had to take will probably impact the mortgage we can get in November but we will be able to show 3 months worth of full payments after lockdown which should help.

We have 2 DDs to pay to debt left this month which come out tomorrow so I paid a cheeky £8.77 OP to the target credit card.  There was method in my madness as this will take our debt reduction to ever so slightly over £1000 this month  🥳🥳 This was helped by the refunds of our concert and hotel.

I am aiming for another £1000 debt reduction next month as well as staying on target with our savings goal.  FCPs, £193 to settle the smallest debt and a few small refunds I am due back will cover a fair bit but I will need to find another £220.  £1000 per month is my debt payoff goal after furlough to be debt free before Christmas 2023 which will certainly be a challenge to find every month.

I have had a good old think about our grocery spending and have crunched numbers and come up with various plans.  I have tried to be realistic about what we spend rather than what I wish we spent and comparing it to others.  As an example I bought a loaf of whole meal bread and 6 white rolls for DS and DH last week in Mr M that cost £1.25.  My small GF tiger loaf and 4 rolls cost £5.50!!  Even if it takes me twice as long to eat mine it is still a significant difference.  The plan I have decided on means I have given booze it’s own budget and will take £10/week off my £100/week everything else budget for a separate bulk buys/meat bulk buys budget.   I am also going back to taking the £100 out every week in cash as I find it too easy to chuck extra in the trolley because I know my debit card can cover it.  I know shops want to avoid cash transactions at the moment but I need to sort my spending out now.  

I will be meal planning, updating my freezer and cupboard inventory so I can shop from home first and avoiding waste (I’m pretty good at that anyway).  I am also cutting down on the snacks we buy and home baking treats instead.  

I have been watching u toob videos of The Budget Mom and it is making me look at our budgeting and spending a little differently and she has some tips that may help us do better.

HairyHandofDartmoor

It's okay to use cash if you go to the self service till. Staff don't seem very keen on handing it at the moment.

Suffolk_lass

I think it is really sensible to put aside your bulk buy and alcohol funds - we do the same. We are in danger of running out of instant coffee but it stays on the list as OIOO - (only if on offer), along with soap, laundry detergent and shower gel (all brands) and comes out of what I call my stores (£400 a year) along with anything like dry goods or tins. I did not used to include cat food and litter but it has joined our SM list since lockdown so finding that as well now.

XSpender

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

It's okay to use cash if you go to the self service till. Staff don't seem very keen on handing it at the moment.

I may have to wait then HHoD until the restrictions are lifted and cost out my list for Mr M before I go and tot it up as I go around.  As long as I don’t chuck extra in the trolley I should be able to stick to my budget

XSpender

Suffolk_lass said:

I think it is really sensible to put aside your bulk buy and alcohol funds - we do the same. We are in danger of running out of instant coffee but it stays on the list as OIOO - (only if on offer), along with soap, laundry detergent and shower gel (all brands) and comes out of what I call my stores (£400 a year) along with anything like dry goods or tins. I did not used to include cat food and litter but it has joined our SM list since lockdown so finding that as well now.

Ideally I would like a bigger bulk buy fund and will increase it when I can get our weekly bill down.  I have rice, laundry detergent and coffee on my list so far.  None are urgent and I will be looking for a very big bag of rice again as that is what I have just finished.  DH prefers n3scafe and I only buy that when the big jars are a fiver.  I am not bothered which brand of detergent I use as long as it is non-bio and will buy supermarket own if it is the best deal I can get when it is needed.

We include dog food in the normal budget as he costs us so little, about £11/month,  I want to start a Vet fund for him as he is getting slower now (15 this year) and I want to be prepared in case he becomes unwell.