Oops I did it again, I played with my cards!

Cherryfudge

I think you should set yourself up in business as a milkshake seller - you would soon be rich!

A couple of suggestions, if I may. Could DH get a set amount out for you to spend on groceries? Say £20 a week. That way it would still come off the card and you would need to keep it separate from other cash but it might help.

Also - at some point (when you are down to fine details) it may be worth keeping your supermarket receipts and seeing what you are actually spending on when you're there. How much is 'real food'/cleaning materials and how much is treats and empty calories?

I'm still shaking my head that milkshakes could cost a fiver each>

in_need_of_direction

that's the difference between me and a died in the wool MSEr. i'm wondering what flavour of milkshake and am craving one!

emmie26

The milkshakes were crazy! It’s a very inappropriate post dentist treat haha! They were some crazy monster shakes one Oreo and one unicorn fairground - I didn’t have one!

As far as groceries are concerned I feel we are pretty good, we are trying to cut down on meat intake at the moment so I think that will drastically reduce our outgoings. I am going to try and keep a close eye on receipts though and try and do a once monthly trip into town to go to Home Bargains, Wilkos and pound Land to get all cleaning products, toiletries and pet products so we literally only have to get food from the supermarkets.

Today I had a crazy urge to go to dunelm and Home sense for a browse, but I resisted and instead spent a few hours decluttering and reorganising my DD’s bedroom, I got 4 bags of rubbish and 2 bags for selling or charity shop. Once I clear out some other rooms I may go and do a car boot sale because I have loads of books, clothes and toys.

Yesterday we went swimming which was another £13 but it was lovely but today was a NSD

emmie26

Well, not a nsd today but an essential £10, because we have been down to our last iPhone charger shared between 6 devices as all the chargers have been either lost or have broken so I saw a deal for 3 for £10 on Amazon so spent that at 6am this morning, a bad start really haha

emmie26

Well feeling so positive at the moment, I really feel that I will be able to clear all except the car loan by the end of the year and it’s really motivating me. Every time I think of some Home project/improvement I just think, well I may as well wait a short time. Had an email to say I’ve paid off the kitchen loan and I’ve done a balance transfer to a 0% card as my 0% deal was coming to an end. This means I can focus entirely on my card and DH’s card will be paid off by the end of the year if he continues to pay £150 a month.
Despite my motivation, I had to buy a flute exam book yesterday for DD and buy a canvas for DS for art, so that was £20 I added to the non-budgeted spends, although I made a valentines card for DH rather than buying one, small victories

enthusiasticsaver

£10 for milkshakes!!

Well done firstly on doing your bathroom without adding to the debt and paying off your kitchen loan. Good that the credit cards will hopefully be gone by the end of this year too so just the car loan to go.

You need a savings pot for all the kids expenses as those seem to crop up with residential trips, canvases, music books, sweets etc.

I am with your DH on the paying by credit card. Can you not get a second card on an account you clear every month? We use a cashback card only for supermarket and fuel spends and DH and I have a card each. It is easier to keep track of how much we are spending as we have set a monthly limit. It is cleared every month. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone as you need to be disciplined to clear it but you seem to be pretty good at managing your finances now.