Losing control, time to take charge.

Caspeia

Okay yesterday we had a takeaway from dinner, the husband came home with it. The only bonus is that he paid for it out of his tips and not from our bank accounts. I'm going to suggest to him we put his tips in a jar and we see how much he gets over the course of a month and we could use it for something nice. Currently he spend the tips he gets everyday on something for us, normally some treats after dinner or a takeaway but that not exactly helping my waistline! It would be interesting to know how much he actually gets in tips as we don't keep track, some days he can get £30/£40 and other days its nothing (or a single dollar bill which isn't really useful!).

So far today I've taken some mince out to defrost, theres another packet still in the freezer. I'm going to make some spag bol for dinner. I'll bulk it out with lentils and veg. I should be able to make two dinners worth so one lot can go back into the freezer for another day.

For lunch we all day a mixture of food, I'm trying to clear some space in the freezer so getting rid of the half empty boxes. I had a chicken kiev with two potato waffles (I know it really wasn't healthy!), the 3 year old had some beans and a potato waffle and the baby had a portion of shepards pie that was in the freezer. We've recently been going out for lunch and dinner. I could easily spend £10 a day on our lunches and a further £20 on our dinner so this is a big step.
I need to go food shopping tonight, I have nothing for lunches this week. The 3 year old has to be a cold packed lunch for nursery. I'm going to see if I can make a meal plan for dinners that only use things we have or only buying miniumal things. e.g one day we'lll have baked potatoes but we need some cheese, this is something that can also be used in the 3 year olds sandwiches though so it won't only be for one meal.

beanielou

Good idea on the tips

Caspeia

So potentially a big money saver... the three year old has decided she's finally too big for nappies and is willing to potty train. Yesterday afternoon she took off her nappy and declared they were for babies and put it in the bin. She has not had a single accident since and its been 24hrs! I have bought some white board markers to use on a potty training chart I bought last year to hopefully keep her motivated to stay in pants. Right now its just a novelty for her as she's super excited to be wearing peppa pig pants. I also need to buy some puppy training pads to be under her bed sheet incase she pees the bed. She was dry last night and used the potty during the night so I'm hoping they don't get used but need them just incase. £2.99 for the pens and 99p for 5 puppy pads. It will be cheaper than buying nappies as size 6 nappies are super expensive!

I need to go back to using the reusables for the baby, I got a bit overwhelmed with them both in resuables as it was so much washing but now its just one in nappies it will be easier.

I also was looking into bus tickets for the husband. He was buying £30 weekly tickets and it stressed me out as he'd forget when they ran out and take money out the joint account without telling me. Last month I noticed you can buy a monthly recurring ticket which lasts the calender month and is £115.40. It has been a lot less stressful as it just comes out at the end of the month automatically so definitely going to keep using this instead of buying it weekly.

I just worked out the money saving part.
52 week x £30 = £1560
12 month x £115.40 = £1384.80

Saving: £175.20 a year

I didn't realise how good the saving was

I've also spent £1 on a piggy bank. We had a box in the house were we just chucked our spare change and it didn't have a purpose. I normally just grab some change if I want to buy a snack on my way to pick up my daughter. I've got one of those tins you have to use a tin opener for and in that tin will go 1p, 2p, 5p and 10ps. I got two little tubs from the kitchen, one is for TV license (doesn't renew until next June) and the other car tax (due feb 2019). Ive written the amount needed on the front of both. My plan is to put any 20p, 50p, £1 or £2 coins in these two tubs. When we are in a better position I'll put aside a monthly amount for these two but until then I'll just put spare change in so when we do get to renewal time for them we should have some money to help out paying for them.

I've organised the tubs and the little tubs now have £4 each in them. The big tub is around 1/4 full already, when its full I'll take it to the bank and get it changed into £1 coins or notes and put them into the little tubs.


I want to eventually pay any bills I currently pay monthly into annual payments if possible.

Caspeia

So I've went through my banking and cut some unnecessary things:

1. Disneylife subscription (£4.99) I did the free trial and ended up never using it
2. Audible subscription (£7.99) I really like using this but still have books to finish so I've put my account on pause for 3 months
3. Donation to a youtuber I watch (78p) only did this because I wanted to watch one video she had released for people who sponsor her and forgot to cancel it after
4. Phone insurance for me (£6) excess is £65, if my phone breaks I'll put my sim in an old handset I have
5. Phone insurance for husband (£6) same as above
5. Prime music subscription (£4.99) I used it but not often, won't miss it


Saving £30.75 a month!


These are all things that my 'budget' spreadsheet didn't even have on them, what a crap budget that was!

beanielou

Good news on the savings

Caspeia

I'm finding it difficult to work out how much money we'll have next month as our income always changes as the husband is on a zero hours contract. He does end up with full time pay though.
This month I estimate around £1450 from his main job (30th), £375 from his part-time job (28th) and £165 from tax credits (2nd). Total: £1890


It doesn't help he gets paid exactly by the minute he clocks in/out, if he kept track of when he clocks in and out it would be a lot easier. This can be his task in July! I used to work there myself and would ensure I clocked in/out at times I could easily keep track of (on the hour, 15, 30, 45). It meant I knew exactly how much I actually worked there. I worked out his pay of a very rough 7hrs per day, some days its slightly less and some days its closer to 8hrs

He's due a tax rebate and he was told it would be this month but unsure how much it is going to be so not including that until we have it in our account. Tax rebate is going straight onto the Halifax credit card as that is the only one that isn't on a 0% interest rate right now. It should be about £200 but who knows what HMRC will decide!

I will make a post later on about our outgoings in July so we can create a rough budget. Final figures will be updated after payday.

[Deleted User]

I'm impressed you've saved over £30 a month just by cancelling subscriptions you don't need. I need to do the same.

Caspeia

Outgoings:


Rent: £395
Council tax: £105
Sky broadband: £18.99
Netflix: £7.99
Phones: £113.32 This is not all ours, will explain at bottom
Car insurance: £44.76
SCAA: £4.34
Cat protection league: £6
Laptop insurance: £6
Cat insurance: £43.24
Sofa: £46.76
TV license: £12.37
Bus ticket: £115.40
Gym: £59.98 High I know, I use mine occassionally but not as often as I should and husband is still under his 6 month contract as he only took it out 3 months ago
AA: £12 Can't seem to cancel this online despite the fact I don't want it anymore
Total: £947.10

This is everything that comes off as standing order/direct debit. We pay for our gas and electric by cards and we put £40 on each so £80. I also discovered why we have went through so much electric these past few months, I went on the husbands computer and his gaming profile was there and it said '342 hours played in June' which is impossible as its almost every hour we've had in June so far... unless you have run the game in the background of your computer and not actually switched it off in weeks which is what he has done! He has been told that every single time he comes off the game he HAS to switch it all off.

£45 of the phone costs are my sisters which she gives us the money in cash, she also gives us money towards the netflix so £50 a month all together. Our phone costs will reduce by £12 on the next billing period when our insurance comes off, so our phones will cost £56.32. Still high but we're both tied into a contract.

This means £977.91 of our income in on our bills/gas&electric.

Other spends:

Main one: FOOD! This is our downfall. I'm going to budget £250 for the month of July. I'm not sure if its realistic but it works out to be £2 per person per day which sounds plenty.

Petrol: I don't plan on using the car much as since I'm still on maternity leave and don't often have to leave my town but I will put £15 of fuel in the car so at least its ready to go if I need it and I don't have to worry about no fuel.

Cats injections: Two of the cats need their injections done in July (other two in September): I can't remember how much the injections were I know they are around £35 but I'll budget £40 each just incase so £80 for that.

Cat food: I will buy them a 10 week supply aswell for £166

Fun money: £60. Its the summer holidays in July so I'll keep some money so I can do outings with them so I'm not stuck inside with them for 6 weeks! Lucky they both are free at most places so its just me to pay for (and husband if hes off)

I'm not sure what to call this (maybe clothing/haircuts etc fund): £60. baby will need new clothes soon and husbands hair definitely needs cut so need to start putting money aside for this instead of putting it on credit.

This leaves £281.09 out of my predicted incomes, I'll put £50 in our (currently non-existing) emergency fund.

£231.09 for CC payments:

Lloyds: minimum on this card as longest 0% £39.59
TSB: 0% until sept. £25
Halifax: 19.9% so the final £166.50 on this

Figures might change depending what husband actually gets paid but this is at least a basic outline for next month

DCFC79

Whose name is the phone in your sister has ?

Caspeia

DCFC79 wrote: »

Whose name is the phone in your sister has ?

Its in my name but she's realible enough to give me the money each month. It started out as paying it as she used to help out with childcare so we paid it as a thanks as she saved us a lot of money. When I went on maternity she started paying us the money for it and we just haven't moved it into her name yet. I need to get this changed over at some point but its difficult to find time to go to the shop to do it as we need both of us there and our schedules clash!