My New Frugal Life

Newfrugallife

Miss_Moneysaver wrote: »

What are you studying?

I really want to study business management and computing at open university and signed up back in August. Since then I’ve been backwards and forwards to the student loan company and they keep promising a decision.. first by end of September, then end of October, now definitely by 1st November. Well surprise surprise I called up today (expensive line as well!) and it’s now saying I will definitely know by Monday!!

At the moment uni are waiting but they can cut me off at any point and I wouldn’t blame them the money was due ages ago! And the most annoying thing is when I applied in August I asked if it will go through in time and was assured that it will be

So it’s a bit up in the air still. I already done 2 assignments- hopefully it’s not all for nothing!

Newfrugallife

I kept hearing about the surveys people do and signed up to a few, let’s see how I get on

Newfrugallife

Newfrugallife wrote: »

Food - £166.53 (-£27.88/ -£55.59)
Family entertainment- £82.80
Everything else - £20 (-£20 present, -£10 haircut)
Emergency- £20

Can’t stick to the food budget arghhh!

Food shop - DONE
Front garden - DONE
Dining room/ play room - DONE
Clothes wash -DONE
Back garden, cut grass - DONE
Drop nephew present after school -DONE
Open uni
Book

Son and husband went to football last night, had a meal out/snacks £25.97

Food - £166.53 (-£27.88/ -£55.59)
Family entertainment- £56.83 (-£25.97)
Everything else - £20 (-£20 present, -£10 haircut)
Emergency- £20

Miss_Moneysaver

Seems odd that the SLC are taking that long to give you an answer. Have you had loans from them before?

Newfrugallife

Not been on here for awhile was feeling a bit down and had to work through some things!

But! Some major good news I have been accepted for the student finance and now officially on my course! I am currently working on my third assignment and then moving straight onto fourth (they are due in 23 and 30th of November). It’s hard I’m not going to lie.... and I had my second assignment back with a score of 55 which is a pass 3 (only just the cut off is 55-69, pass 4 is 40-54; and the minimum to pass is 40 marks), but not amazing so I need to work harder....
One of my biggest problems is motivation, sometimes I go through a low periods and feel like there’s no point etc and then give up. I really really need to stay on top of this as this course is something I really want/need for my personal development and future career, when I go back to work. To try and motivate myself I have my mums graduation photo as my screen savers and I’m breaking the course down to the assignments, for example I need to complete 2 more this side of Christmas. That sort of thing...

In terms of my budgets, I had to increase my food budget as really was not managing, it is now 70 a week and I only go shopping’s once a week, with a small top up for bread permitted midweek!

I am also doing the surveys, but not had a pay out so far and I’m on a look out for a little part time job.

Shammi

Hey Just wanted to say Good Luck! I've never managed to stick to a budget. So your definitely not the only one.
stay motivated and keep trying x

Scrimps

Good luck with the course! I hope you start to enjoy it more., It's always harder at the begining.
At least if you go shopping just once a week that'll give you some time back, don't worry about sticking to it right at the begining too much as it's all a learning curve and best to try a few approaches.

Something that seems to have worked for us so far:
big month shop for coffee, tea, cleaning,uht milk, toilet paper, flour , sugar etc. I.e. non perishables and things that will last
Then a weekly food meal planned shop.
Then one mid week shop in the evening for bread and milk etc. I think I've found our local do lots of bread and milk yellow stickers on a Wednesday so can usually fill the freezer then. I'm trying to figure out when they do the minced beef discounts now

I don't have fussy kids to cater for so it may not work for you but it might!

Newfrugallife

I’m so happy, I think I have cracked it, it was a bit of trial and error and stress but my food budget seem to be settling at between 60-70 a week. And when doing my budget for the month if I put 350 a month (so working on the basis of 5 weeks), we should have a buffer building up in there..... I know it’s more than what I originally planned, but my previous estimation was unrealistic.
So this is the amount I will now take out of the budget and this covers everything - food including 2 meat free meals a week, packed lunches, cleaning products, cat food and litter, beauty products such as shampoo, some medicines etc etc...
As it stands I have £77.55 left in my food shop account and I have one more weekly shop to do before pay day.
In my family entertainment pot I have -£6.17, we went for a family dinner to Nando’s which was a bit over £60.
My everything else pot I had £10, but now counting it as £3.83 to balance out the entertainment short fall
Emergency still have £20
I have found out that I don’t actually use that much petrol as hardly drive during the week (still need the car though as it’s the only family car we have). So I originally budgeted £40 a month and I spent only £10 so far this month! But we topped up £20 the month before. I will still budget the £40 as the excess can go towards other car costs.

In terms of me making a few ££ here and there, I had another doggy to walk which earned me £10 (they said will be booking me again soon).
My surveys - one poll I have £11sh need £40 to cash out. PA surveys I have £18 ish and will cash out at £20 so nearly there... YouGov doesn’t seem that good, I have 500 points so far and need a ridiculous 5000 to cash out £50!

I have also done a free trial of matched betting, followed all the instructions but really did not like it!
It took me 2 hours to try and figure out this one bet, also I did not realise that you have to deposit quite large amounts to cover the lay bets (you can withdraw them straight after the bet clears but still!). In the end I deposited £55 and took out £60 so I did make £5 and I haven’t lost the money BUT it so extremely complicated to me, and the odds change so quickly (that’s why I only made 5 was supposed to be 13, but by the time I submitted my bet the odds changed slightly).
I have decided it not for me and I still have one more free bet but too scared to do it!

Newfrugallife

Newfrugallife wrote: »

I have also sorted a budget for Christmas, I buy presents for niece & nephew £20 each, then some chocs for that side of the family (we don’t buy for adults) £5, and my nieces birthday near Christmas £20.
My mum and his dad £20 each. Our 2 kids £50 each, and me and hubby £20 each. Unfortunately the niece/nephew is a fixed amount which would cause lots of bother if challenged (don’t ask difficult family relations), but I have massively cut our own kids budgets. So I’m getting total of £245, plus say extra box of choc for the teacher or what not, let’s make the total present budget at £250.

I will try to be under, and I really like boots 3 for 2, so potentially can get mine or husbands present “free”. I have the money already saved in the Christmas/ birthday/ everything else pot but will need to replenish this for next year. Normally allocate £50 a month, but this month have already used £30 for nephews present and haircut. But I’m not stressing about it yet, I’m confident that some months I will use less and will be able to add and replenish this pot. I will run the minus total alongside this category so I can see what’s coming in and what’s coming out each month.

I will also be going over the Christmas budget, I was initially hoping to be £250 all in but again, same as my food budget, it seems to be unrealistic...
So far my Christmas spending is -£232.20, all the kids presents are now done.. Still need to get:
My mum £20
Dad £20
Niece £20 and £20 for birthday
Nephew £20

So that’s another £100, the chocs and extras I will try and squeeze out of the food account. I do have a Christmas/ birthday buffer fund from when I was working so this year is covered. But I am very conscious that I will need to rebuild it for next year to make our future budgets sustainable. Therefore if I spend say £350 in total, I will need to put away just under £30 each month from January to replenish the fund. And then there’s birthdays..... but I will get there! And I am on the look out for a part time job so I’m not stressing just writing all of this down to keep me on straight and narrow.

Newfrugallife

Newfrugallife wrote: »

In terms of me making a few ££ here and there, I had another doggy to walk which earned me £10 (they said will be booking me again soon).
My surveys - one poll I have £11sh need £40 to cash out. PA surveys I have £18 ish and will cash out at £20 so nearly there... YouGov doesn’t seem that good, I have 500 points so far and need a ridiculous 5000 to cash out £50!

I have also done a free trial of matched betting, followed all the instructions but really did not like it!
It took me 2 hours to try and figure out this one bet, also I did not realise that you have to deposit quite large amounts to cover the lay bets (you can withdraw them straight after the bet clears but still!). In the end I deposited £55 and took out £60 so I did make £5 and I haven’t lost the money BUT it so extremely complicated to me, and the odds change so quickly (that’s why I only made 5 was supposed to be 13, but by the time I submitted my bet the odds changed slightly).
I have decided it not for me and I still have one more free bet but too scared to do it!

A little update, I got another £8 from the match betting, I’m so stupid that didn’t realise I had to wait for the initial bet to come in as well. So all in all I had to deposit £55 and I took out £68 so did make the promised £13! I still have one free bet left from the initial sign up but I’ve not yet used it as I’m still not sure it’s for me.... but wanted to mention it in case it helps anyone else out there!
The doggy website took £1.80 so I received £8.20 in total for that walk, they’ve booked again with me for two days dog sitting so that should be another £32.
One poll I now have £12.60 - need £40 to withdraw
PA I have £19.81 -need £20 to withdraw so nearly there!
YouGov I have 700 points - need a massive 5,000 to withdraw £50, each survey is 50 points so ages away still...