Extracting head from sand and facing the truth

BabyStepper

Thanks for explaining about sinking funds. They sound like a very good idea. Our emergency fund is being used like that, and although saving up means you can't get to the debt repayment as quickly as you would like, it's worth the effort and the wait. Once you have snipped up the credit cards there is no option to use them and increase the debt. You need cash for things that come up, like your car maintenance and fixing your shower (how annoying for you, hope it gets sorted). In my mind, baby step 1 is as much about stopping using the cards as is it about saving and that is a huge change already. I was terrified cutting ours up, I seriously thought we couldn't cope without them. But it's been fine. We have borrowed and pad back the emergency fund to help with cash flow but the situation is better than it was.

Lidl is good for cheap food.

Lydia42

Wowsers will i be glad when the school term is done. Will be glad when the requests for payment for school trips, teacher's leaving collections, ice lollie Wednesday, Mufti day payment, etc, etc are over for the summer holidays and i can budget a little better. I know i'll have the kids at home for the holidays but at least i can manage things better when i am in control.

We're lucky that we live by the coast, and also on the South Downs so we can do awesome days out for the price of a home made picnic. Also planning on making the most of membership to the local theme park that we have (courtesy of Nanny on the kids birthdays). I've also kept our membership to National Trust to make the most of it over the holidays - likely to cancel in September to save money each month.

BabyStepper

Just wondering how much your National Trust membership costs? It sounds like you live in a beautiful area, great for cheap days out.

Lydia42

Brookside88 wrote: »

Yep I do, take a peak (it's not very exciting and I'm not great at keeping up with it).
Started snowballing in January, it's good to focus your efforts in the right place. I'm chipping away at it, albeit slower than I'd hoped

Just subscribed, so will have a read when the kids go to bed. Well done chipping away. At least it's going in the right direction, even if not as fast as you'd like. And with snowballing it'll speed up as you go :j

Lydia42

BabyStepper wrote: »

Thanks for explaining about sinking funds. They sound like a very good idea. Our emergency fund is being used like that, and although saving up means you can't get to the debt repayment as quickly as you would like, it's worth the effort and the wait. Once you have snipped up the credit cards there is no option to use them and increase the debt. You need cash for things that come up, like your car maintenance and fixing your shower (how annoying for you, hope it gets sorted). In my mind, baby step 1 is as much about stopping using the cards as is it about saving and that is a huge change already. I was terrified cutting ours up, I seriously thought we couldn't cope without them. But it's been fine. We have borrowed and pad back the emergency fund to help with cash flow but the situation is better than it was.

Lidl is good for cheap food.

Definitely agree that baby step one is a learning curve for saving and not using the cards.
I think using the emergency fund, instead of also trying to build up sink finds is probably the best way to go for now. I'm going to have to raid the emergency fund to get through the end of this month due to the car and bathroom. Then try and keep a tight budget during the hols. We pay approx £9 a month for national trust, but they often have deals for newbies which are even better if you look about :j

PS. Love Lidl :rotfl:

Lydia42

So......the past week has flown by and I completely let go of the reigns. Had to raid the emergency fund to cover the car exhaust and the bathroom as well as a few other unplanned items. Gutted to be taking 3 steps back before we even get going forward. We've kept costs for repairing the bathroom as low as possible. No new suite or anything like that. Have bought cheap white tiles that were on sale at wickes, and hubbie and his dad have done the tiling themselves. Picked up some lino for the floor for £8, got painting to do but that can wait. The shower and tiles are no longer leaking and causing damage and we are able to use the bathroom again. Yay!

Tomorrow is a new day and pay day. I shall check the bank again and get this months zero based budget in place. Last months budget was definitely not accurate with all the extra things we had to pay out on. However i am trying to remain positive and look for the plus points. I am monitoring and adjusting our spending where we can and am aware of it instead of closing my eyes and hoping it will go away, so i must pat myself on the back for that at least.

Another plus point is that i have just submitted an old mileage claim, and have approx £40 of old expenses to claim tomorrow too which will not only bring me up to date but will add a few pennies to the pot.

brizzlegirl

best of luck with it all. Best of luck with the zero budgeting. We use YNAB (the classic version which is cheaper) which I think does much the same thing). Forecasting and budgeting spends was a revelation after realising I was merely recording the pain after the event...and then wondering why we were so overspent.. :rotfl:

Lydia42

Would you recommend YNAB?

Lydia42

So......bathroom is half done. Tiles are sorted - cheap white ones. So shower is no longer leaking and damaging the wall, etc. The rest like finishing off painting etc will have to wait until we have more money, but at least the bathroom is now water tight again. Phew.

Car exhaust now fixed.

Well....latest break down is the boiler. Doesn't kick in when the tap or shower is on, so no hot water. Boiler engineer due out tomorrow afternoon to assess. Dreading the news as the last few repairs have cost approx £250-£280. Reckon we will have replaced the whole boiler at this rate with the parts that have broken down, but can't afford the money to have a new one installed.

So current state of affairs is debt increasing whilst we sort out the above. However i'm still trying to remain positive. I've tweaked our budget spreadsheet/tracker to make it more user friendly. I'm planning on marking each of our regular payments as they get paid throughout the month, so have out them in date order (sado who clearly has too much time on her hands whilst trying not to spend money lol). I've also applied for a Monzo account to help me manage money better too. Not sure if i'll use it for food shopping or personal spending at the moment. Will see if i get accepted.

Lydia42

Soooooo......another day.
Bad news - boiler had to be repaired which i knew any way. Good news - it was less than i was dreading £92, and not £300 like last time. Another bit of good news is that i called our old energy supplier again and they have now produced our final bill and we are due a refund of £27.52 which should clear our bank in about 5 days.

On a really bad note i have been the worst parent in the world and raided the kids savings accounts to put into our current account to help stop us going over our over-draft limit due to all the repairs and unexpected spends this month. I fully intend to pay every penny back to the both of them. It was the last thing i wanted to do, but i daren't get any bank charges or that will cause an even bigger downward spiral which i think we'll struggle to get out of. Just feel so crap for having to use the kids money :-(