Are we nearly there yet?

Pauper1

Just did a couple of PA surveys (£1.12) bringing my total to £18.54 I think, so hopefully not long until I cash out.

Groceries: £200
Spends: £39.36, £13.88, £4.75, £1.95, £5.98, £1.78, £5
Remaining: £127.30

Fuel: £150
Spends: £56.72, £20
Remaining: £73.28

Other: £128.51
Spends: £21.48, £5.98, £1, £6, £4.55, £9.35, £3.19, £2.47, £16.20, £2.99, £10.60
Remaining: £44.70

Total remaining - £245.28 (£212.32 in account + £5 cash)

We've got a night away tomorrow and I don't know if it's already been paid for. I hope so, otherwise this will really mess with my budgets. I'm going to look for somewhere we can eat that will accept clubcard vouchers to keep costs down.

Pauper1

Turns out DH took lunch from home AND bought something from work every single day this week so £16.80 extra on food! Gah.

Groceries: £200
Spends: £39.36, £13.88, £4.75, £1.95, £5.98, £1.78, £5, £1.95, £3.90
Remaining: £121.45

Also, the hotel hasn't been paid for so that's going to completely ruin this month. GAH. I have got club card vouchers for our tea though so there's that at least.

Pauper1

Our weekend was so lovely, and we decided to put all the hotel costs on to DH's credit card so as not to ruin my budgets *too* much. At the moment I have left all associated costs (parking, eating out etc) under "other" in the budget but I think I will have to change it, because there's still baby bits to buy and it's due pretty much next pay day so I can't not get stuff. DH will get a bonus in May, along with a 10 year service payment, so that'll cover his credit card and any baby bits I get on mine. He's also had some potentially exciting news regarding his job, and I think we'll find out in the next few days.

Groceries: £200
Spends: £39.36, £13.88, £4.75, £1.95, £5.98, £1.78, £5, £1.95, £3.90
Remaining: £121.45

Fuel: £150
Spends: £56.72, £20, £?
Remaining: Less than £73.28

Other: £128.51
Spends: £21.48, £5.98, £1, £6, £4.55, £9.35, £3.19, £2.47, £16.20, £2.99, £10.60, £20, £4, £9.55, £1.99, £5.10
Remaining: £4.06

Total remaining: £178.79 (£170.68 but petrol still to come out)

Took a £20 PA payout today so hopefully that will bring my budgets and bank account back in line. Just need to stick to it now! DS and I spent some time in the garden this morning while it was sunny, which was lovely, and only a few nap time related tantrums at lunch. We're off to Morrisons later, without a list or meal plan... could be dangerous... will be good!

Pauper1

Eurgh, my computer died on me during a meal plan post

Breakfasts - avocado and cherry toms on toast, tofu scramble (*batch* - make extra tofu, put in a wrap with cheese, cover with foil and freeze - heat in oven for 20 when want to eat), cereal,
Lunches - jacket pots, "fish" finger sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, HM soup (*batch*)
Teas - chickpea and spinach curry (was on the plan for last week but failed, *batch*), HM cheese and onion pasties (*batch*) with chips and beans, "kebab" and chips, SC sausage casserole (*batch*) and "carbonara" (*batch*)

Also want to make a double batch of blueberry muffins and banana bread to freeze this week.

Only got 4 weeks left til due date so I'm starting to panic haha. I've got to get our freezer and cupboards stocked, finish getting all the bits we need for baby/home birth, finish last two weeks of study and do TWO assignments for uni. As well as get nursery and car ready, wash all the baby clothes etc etc. Oh my days.

Just did our food shop to come tomorrow - £60.03, so £10 over budget needed washing powder and tofu/fake meats though which always pushes it up, plus we are batching a lot I suppose.

Pauper1

Ahhh I love reading back on old posts. It's been 8 months since I last posted, and reading all my stress of how hard it was with DS and getting ready for the baby. Oh man... Those last days of the two of us were amazing and terrible all at the same time. 1 month and 1 day after my last post I had my baby. My beautiful bubbly baby boy I can't even describe how stressed I was through months 2-5 of his life. I got really ill. Anyway, he's about to be 7 months old, we moved out of our house into my parents house and things are better.

Financially, it looks like we only paid off about £400 from the big debt since my last post. But we have cleared all the little, niggly debts (both credit cards and the Next account) and now we have drastically reduced our outgoings we should make great strides. There's £11,154 left to pay on the debt and I want it to be gone by next summer.

Our rent now is £450, and includes all bills and food. It's such a weight off my mind.
Our fixed monthly outgoings will be £597.43, and our budgets for fuel/kids activities/extra food is £205. I am hoping to get this down further but it might already be a bit much for now.

This leaves us with £1074.63 to save. We have a big holiday planned in March, but it is all paid for except spending money (which I am hoping will be about £500). IF we are able to be super frugal and save ALL this spare money, we would have saved £5673 by the end of April, which is when I start my new job. I will then get about £700 a month from that.

My plan with the debts this time is to offer about a 70% settlement. April will see the debt be around £10,854, so we'd have 52%. Luckily May is DH's bonus month as well as my first pay month so we'd hopefully have 72% by the end of it, and will offer a settlement.

I'm struggling to want to stay living with my parents for much longer than that to be honest, although I know we are very lucky and I am very grateful. So I will reassess in May.

I'm planning to learn how to live much more frugally than I currently do. This week I taught myself to crochet. I'm currently trying to make a hat but it's very wonky. I'm hoping to be able to make some soap scrubbies for Christmas presents. I will keep this diary updated with how I get on.

Pauper1

I've just made a bath bomb! My first one was a fail but the boys and I will enjoy the remains in a bath tonight so it's not all bad. The second one has turned out lovely. We had all the bits in, so I'll make as many as I can for Christmas presents! Might see if I can find a smaller mould so I can get more out of what we have. Everyone loves a bath bomb, right?!

Pauper1

I have made 10 sets of bath bombs (I think) so that's something crossed off my to do list! I'm doing hampers for everyone this year, mostly all the same bits although grandparents are getting photos and things as well. I've got some foraged blackberries and apples in the freezer ready to make some jam

Unfortunately I've had THREE different unexpected/forgotten bills of around £150 each come in this week, which puts my careful planning of only 6 days ago to absolute !!!!!!. I've had to dip into my Big Holiday Savings, which sucks, but luckily as we have a lot more disposable income now we should be able to replenish it next month. Just puts us a month behind I suppose.

Pauper1

I've just joined the Frugal Living Challenge and worked out that my annual expenditure budget is £11,909, which considering we live with my parents still seems quite high. Hopefully I can come in under this amount.

Just taking in to account DH's basic wage and our child benefit, it leaves us with £10,615 to pay off debts/save. DH usually gets a minimum of £2k in bonuses throughout the year, so we're at £12,615 spare.

I go back to work in April, which will add income of £5040, and hopefully only slightly increase my outgoings (petrol etc). So, keeping everything crossed, gives us £17,655! Eeeeeek. It's my 30th this year and we have a couple of holidays planned - one big one for a Disney do-over - so we definitely won't see all of this, but it should be enough to get us in to our own house by next Christmas (Brexit depending...), which would be beyond incredible.

Obviously I want to do it all as quick as I can, as I do find it hard to live with my parents, so the lower I can get all our outgoings the better!

Pauper1

I've been looking all over the forums and found some resolutions:

• No more lunches and coffees out - bring our own!
• Cancel our second mobile contract - saving £8 a month
• Only buy clothes in charity shops/secondhand sites
• Meal plan and batch cook - including snacks
• Learn how to make own bread/ketchup/
• Sell all the bits stacked up in the shower room
• Aim for 5 NSDs a week (!!!)
• Draw a weekly spending amount out in cash
• Keep a bit of 'Happy Money' for little treats - some for each of us
• Little gratitudes - starting to find enjoyment in the simple things, rather than having to buy a fancy gadget!
• Look into getting an allotment - we are all over the place, housing wise, so I wouldn't want to grow too much here as we'll be moving again at some point this year, could be in a month, could be November, who knows?!
• Watch How To Live Mortgage Free on Netflix
• Make do or mend before buying "new" (preferably second hand even then)
• Don't put off doing life admin! - sort car insurance, changing addresses etc
• Keep a list of frugal days out and activities to do with the little ones
• Make extra of meals for DH to take to work
• Use the library more

Does anyone have any other suggestions for me?

Pauper1

Forgive me while I use this thread to just get my thoughts out for a while.

Our monthly essential bills are - rent, mobiles, road tax, pet insurance (trying to cancel but they are being little toads), and Stepchange. These come to £561.12 (or will do once DH cancels his unused mobile contract), and will be £535.12 once the pet insurance is sorted.

Our other monthly bills are swimming lessons for the DSs, Netflix, National Trust membership, Disney Life and Kids Fire subscription. None of these are "essential" but they enable us to do the things we consider important. Although does DS really need 3 different subs (netflix/disney/fire)? These are the things we would cut if we really had to. Anyway, these come to £60.31, with the bulk of that being their swimming lessons.

Monthly essential spending is basically just fuel/train tickets and any extra food we need to pick up - at about £220.

Other monthly spending is kids savings and money for activities with the kids - £50.

Yearly/termly essentials are car insurance, MOTs and services, and preschool fees - about £1496.75 a year, or £124.73 a month. We considered going down to one car, but as I'm going back to work in April and it would take me an hour each way by public transport or 20 minutes in the car, and youngest DS is still breastfeeding a TON at the moment, the least amount of time away from him the better, currently.

Other yearly expenses are holidays, birthdays, Christmas and anniversaries. Apart from holidays we do tend to be quite frugal with these categories but there is still a way to go (especially with holidays...!). Anyway, yearly estimate/budget is around £2050, monthly is £170.83.

My sum up -

Monthly essentials (needs): £879.85 47%
Monthly commitments (wants): £281.14 15%
Total: £1160.99

Income: £1877.06
Leftover: £716.07 (savings!) 38%

Okay, that's better percentage wise than I thought it would be...