Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Thanks for the heads-up about the Boots offer on specs, OBL. He apparently got a similar offer at Specsavers, he says. He paid for the eye-test & the more expensive complicated pair of glasses, but got his new reading glasses for free so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been x

foxgloves

Hi Diary readers,
Well, it's been my Big Monthly Budget Day today & I seem to have been at my desk for ages. There were various swaps between budgets to sort out, followed by that lovely feeling that comes from knowing everything's straight & sorted out. I've reconciled July's budget - no nasty surprises there, & I've set August's. Mr f got quite a bit of travel money that he was owed in his paypacket this month, so I worked various scenarios through on paper to see what would be the best use of some of it. I decided to pop £100 of it in our Holiday Bag for when we go away.
The 'Holiday Bag' has become a bit of a 'thing' for us since we've been budgeting & living within our means. We don't go abroad, but even on our inland holidays back before the LBM....well, you've probably read enough of my past 'debtisodes' to know it was carte blanche to spend money willy-nilly all over the place......eating out, endless coffee shops & cakes, buying ourselves various things in the nice little shops one sees on holiday, etc, etc. And as we all know, it adds up quickly. Lots of 'fritters' soon equal a 'splurge' & onto the overdrafts, cards & my particularly evil 'Flexible Loan' it would go, adding to the household debt level in a way neither of us really acknowledged, as if you don't ever add up what you're spending or look closely at bank statements, you really don't have any idea!
So, for holidays, we started the 'Money Bag'. We occasionally have a week in a self-catering cottage, but mostly we like to go camping (that's money saving in itself, of course). We take plenty of food with us, & use that week's food money from the grocery budget to pay for that. The Holiday Bag usually has around £100 cash & that is used for holiday expenses such as if we fancy visiting a coffee shop or having lunch on the sea front, that kind of thing. We also have our regular monthly Personal Spends money, so we use that if we want anything else. This system works better for us than we ever thought it would. It means we have some lovely treats, but with there being £100 limit to the bag, we have to prioritise, & it puts a brake on mindlessly nipping for coffees all the time - we take a flask on several of our day trips now, so we can spend that money on other things. The fact that it's cash also helps, as we can see it decreasing on a daily basis & that kind of engages our brains more than if we were using cards all the time.
So that's what I've done with that spare £100. We know our holiday is not many weeks away & from experience, we both find that it is better to be realistic about there being some spending. Funny that as soon as I folded the money into a little cash bag, I could almost smell the sea air........can't wait......a few weeks yet, though!
Hope you're all having a decent weekend - wish we'd had a bit more rain here. Didn't get the downpours that we were promised, so boo to that!
Cheers,
F x

crazy_cat_lady

I like the idea of the holiday bag Foxgloves. It's so easy when you're away from home to spend loads. We haven't been abroad as a family (going in Feb) but we have 3 uk booked breaks this year (2 Air bnb and 1 cottage in the Lakes). Unfortunately, with the cost of the divorce etc, there's less spare exam money, but with having a 'days out' category in my budget I know exactly how much we have to play with while we're away.

foxgloves

You're right, CCL - it's the fact that cash withdrawal can be a bit erratic on holiday, not being near a cashpoint, etc (we usually go to quite out of the way rural places), so it's that constantly putting everything on a debit card which quickly leads to losing any sense of how much is being spent. Back in the Spendy Decades, pre-LBM, I'd get half-way through my holiday & then just get more & more worried about the banks 'stopping' my cards because I was so far into unauthorised overdraft. It wasn't enough to stop me buying stuff though! I used to come home with lovely stuff - I've still got a few of these things & 'have barely used them. Some have been sold on ebay & others sent to charity shops. Still, that was a long time ago & I haven't behaved like this for many years.
The Holiday Cash bag does work well for us though, so shall continue to use this system.
We won't manage a spend-free day today, that's for sure, as we're off to the V-E-T with the monster. It's his annual check-up & jabs but I have a feeling he will be booked in for teeth-cleaning & possibly a diagnostic test, so fingers crossed it won't be too eye-wateringly expensive. He's sulking big-time because he hasn't been given any breakfast this morning.....far too much of last night's meat wasted, & now it's too near the time we need to leave the house to get new meat out because he isn't a good traveller - he absolutely hates being in his cat carrier basket even though he's a big ex-street cat, he goes very shaky as soon as the basket door is closed. Oh well, I know you are the world expert on vet visits & bills with your tortie - must get cracking.
F x

PurpleFairy26

Hope the bill isn't too extortionate foxgloves our puss is now on medication for life, which our insurance don't seem to want to pay out on, so I'll need to up our 'medical' pot to cover it. There just seems so may exclusions from policies these days. I'm sure your puss will soon forgive you when he gets back and has his lunch

Honeysucklelou2

Just read through your diary Foxgloves, what an inspiring read, thank you. I enjoy cooking, baking and gardening but struggle to fit it in with job and children, although I try to involve the children with both kitchen and garden wherever possible. The toddler loves helping me to water in the evenings.

joeyjimbles

Hi, follow your thread regularly and love your enthusiasm and honesty.
Just popping on to say, I know Mr F has got his glasses now, but for the future I've used Goggles4U and GlassesDirect for DS1 and have been really pleased with the results.
In their sale I bought DS1 two pairs of coated single prescription glasses for under £18 delivered - a friend is an optician and massively sceptical about the quality of these glasses so checked the prescription and was horrified to find that it was perfect. Given she doesn't sell glasses under £100 per pair, she was quite upset to discover that his trendy perfect prescription glasses were so cheap!

crazy_cat_lady

foxgloves wrote: »

he absolutely hates being in his cat carrier basket even though he's a big ex-street cat, he goes very shaky as soon as the basket door is closed. Oh well, I know you are the world expert on vet visits & bills with your tortie - must get cracking.
F x

I am indeed an expert in veterinary visiting. Thankfully the tortie is so used to it she just walks into the basket which is a good job as she goes monthly - but we also have her son and he regularly pukes when we basket him because he finds it so stressful. I hope that it hasn't been too expensive and that he's tucking into his meat without a worry now he's home.

foxgloves

Thanks CCL & PurpleFairy for good vet wishes. We got on ok, thanks & the bill was very slightly less than at our previous vet. Cat was, however, diagnosed with a condition which will require ongoing medication as it progresses, so we were obviouly sad about that. He's fine in himself for now though x

foxgloves

Honeysucklelou2 - Aww, thanks, that's a lovely thing to say. I used to be so hopeless with money back in the day that I'd never have imagined anyone EVER being inspired by anything I'd have to say on the domestic economy! It's lovely that your Tiny already likes helping in the garden & baking together is both fun & a learning opportunity too.
F x