Busy Mee's Last Leg

Moneyfordreams

loads of positives
Hope everyone is feeling , you too

Busy_Mee1

Thanks everyone for your good wishes.Thankfully everyone is back on the mend and life has just returned to the normal level of busyness and I am feeling back on top. Although I am hoping to have a "secret" day off on Monday. Secret because I am not going to mention it to Mr Mee or DD until the last minute because I don't want them deciding to take a day off with me. This is just for me, to do what I want to do, on my own :T I am feeling overwhelmed by the demands of other people at the moment and I just want a day to please myself.

I am feeling financially frustrated at the moment as I think we have blown every single budget this month for various reasons, and then on top of that Mr Mee decided to buy himself a new watch out of the blue. In fairness he does need one and it was a bargain in the Fossil sale but I am now dreading the end of month totals and the month of July has seemed soooooo long.

In better news the SSS Challenge has gone well and I have now topped the £150 target. This means that I will be at least be able to put £150 into savings this month rather than nothing. I might try and keep this going every month and aim for £100 a month ( we won't be able to cash in the change pot every month))

I had hoped that we would be back to a normal level of savings in August but we still have a number of unexpected costs to fund like the replacement window and the wing mirror, plus the credit cards bills are higher this month because of all the extra train tickets and petrol costs. I will need to do the maths, but I am really frustrated as we have been maintaining a pretty consistent level of savings until last month.

Even our grocery bills have been climbing every month and I am not sure why, I am shopping frugally and wasting nothing. I think in general food prices are creeping up. I did spend a fair bit at the weekend c £75, but I got a huge haul of reduced stuff in M&S and @ldi. I picked up 5 Gastropub lasagnes £7 (seriously :eek:) reduced to £2.80. These will feed three of us for a quick and easy tea after work, and loads of half price meat in Aldi ( steak, burgers and chicken breasts) so the freezer is now full again.

I cooked a fab vegetable lasagne on Sunday with the first of my home grown courgettes and a S6 Aubergine and I made Mediterranean cous cous last night for the lunch boxes with more courgettes ( there is a theme here).

I think that is all I have to report, pay day can't come soon enough next Tuesday.

Busy_Mee1

My spending this month is already up to £1298 :eek: with still one more weekend to go.

I had a bit of a duh :doh: moment yesterday realising there were five weekends in July. No wonder there is too much month and not enough budget. I do most of my spending at the weekend (groceries and eating out). I clearly need to adjust my budget to factor in 5 weekend months in the future.

I will factor all the emergency costs from last week out so I can see what we would have actually spent without these.

Keeping a spending diary has been one of the most helpful and scary things I have done. It is however one of the main things recommended by Frugalwoods, on the basis of how can you achieve FI if you don't know what you spending.

themadvix

Well done on the SSS challenge - that's a fab amount

Yes, the spending diary is definitely working here too.... We haven't totted it up or analysed yet (although I would argue that there's little to cut without major changes (it's food and fuel mainly), but it's certainly kept me accountable knowing I'd have to admit to spending (not that I'm a big spender). It's also made me more inventive - I used my Coop rewards points yesterday to buy ice cream - while I still confessed, at least it wasn't cash!

Busy_Mee1

Well the spending in July has felt like a bit of a car crash. The total spent is £1414.12 :eek:

I have been going through all the transactions this morning to see where it all went and it is evident that a 5 week month coupled with the parental emergency caused the overspending.

I have overspent in most categories apart from household (no lawn moving because of the dry weather and the weeding round is now complete) and medical expenses ( only one prescription).

We overspent everywhere else:

Groceries were £324.73( but this works out to £65.71 per week over the 5 week month - all food, toiletries and cleaning products for 3 adults)

Food £23.28 ( this is food bought on the go - mainly Mr Mee and probably should be added to the grocery total)

Petrol costs were £328.55 (includes around £140 spent on travelling to parents)

Entertainment £186.60 ( nothing earth shattering and £68 of this was Mr Mee doing various things with work etc)

House costs were £124.36 ( much lower this month thanks to hot weather)

Personal £223.50 ( this includes Mr Mee's new watch and two lots of hairdressing for me - the pesky 5 week month again. I also broke my no new clothes rule and bought a new swimming costume, trousers and a dress for work. All in the sale and totalling £39)

Gifts £124.50 ( this includes a tank of petrol for DD when Mr Mee generously decided to fill DDs car up for her)

Rail Tickets £78.60 ( parental emergency)

If I remove all costs relating to the parental emergency the total would have been £1159.00, which is £59 over budget, which isn't bad given that it was a 5 week month.

When I look through the transactions there is not much that I regret. Mr Mee has derailed us a bit but he is entitled to some spends too and he was brilliant when I had to drop everything and go to my parents.

I think the learning from this month has been two fold, we must have a decent emergency fund ( and we did) and also I need to budget extra for months where there are five weekends in the month. I also need to be strategic with my hairdressing appointments so I don't have two in the same month and maybe space them out a bit more.

themadvix

I think your grocery spends are great!

You don't fancy Mr Mee cutting your hair then, a la the Frugalwoods?

A tank of fuel is a very generous random present!

Busy_Mee1

In a word NO ! I cut his hair ( what he has left) using clippers but he is coming nowhere near mine. I have very straight hair and any mistakes would be very noticeable !

I know a tank of petrol is very generous random gift ....sigh. This is why we are not already retired !

I am not sure we are ready or ever will be for full on Frugalwoods. We do quite a bit of what she suggests but can't quite embrace some of it.

themadvix

:rotfl: I would consider it, but my SIL cuts my hair - about twice a year and charges £10 each time (I usually give her £15, because she's not good at valuing herself properly), so it's probably not worth it.

I agree - while I am surprised at how much I (and especially DH) have been prompted to re-evaluate stuff this month, there are some things that we just won't do. I have, however, been surprised at the things DH is willing to give a go in the name of cutting costs - he's said I can look for shirts for him in charity shops (always been very resistant before) and has tried different breakfast options (has grown up on Weetabix and then switched to organic (you can't go back, tastes completely different!) - so expensive at 4 biscuits/day!). So progress has been made.

Sorry, I'll stop waffling on your diary now - but he won't find me commenting here, whereas he reads my diary! :rotfl:

Can I be an adopted daughter? I'd love a free tank of fuel every so often

Busy_Mee1

Mr Mee is also a habitual weetabix eater but I have now managed to wean him onto @ldi's own. I doubt he would even notice the difference between organic and non organic - he really isn't that sophisticated . I eat oats a la Frugalwoods- porridge in the winter and overnight oats ( a bit more expensive) in the summer. We also do all the lunchbox prep as recommended but try and vary it a lot more than their rice and beans.

Mr Mee definitely wouldn't consider what he would call "dead mans clothes" from a charity shop. It is funny he comes from a really working class background and considers second hand clothes to be a real sign of poverty. I personally would rather have good second hand clothes rather than poor quality cheap new stuff.

The Frugalwoods exercise has actually got us into a conversation about Sky and he has actually said he would cancel now and just watch Freeview, Netflix and Amazon Prime ( both paid for by the kids). Unfortunately I signed up to an 18 month deal with Sky last time to get a cheap rate, never thinking that he would ever give it up :mad:

And of course you can be my adopted daughter MadVix, but we operate a strict one in one out policy of adult children on the pay roll. I will let you know when DD leaves but you may be waiting a long time :rotfl:

beanielou

With you on good quality from charity shop rather than cheap that is new.