Losing control, time to take charge.

Caspeia

Today I've ordered the babies mattress from amazon and also two cot sheets, £21.58 for the mattress and the cot sheets were £3.65 each for a total of £28.88. This should be arriving tomorrow.

Budget spent:
Food: £133.82 / £250
Fun: £0 / £60
Other: £28.88 / £60

Food budget is a bit over what it should be but we have our food for the next week. I might have to buy some bread mid week but apart from that we should be fine.

Caspeia

My cats all get fed the same amount and I haven't really been paying attention to how much they need. One of the cats is fat, I've always known she was a big cat but at her appointment I was told she was obese and I have to cut her food. This particular cat will eat everyones left overs. So by the vets advice I've cut their food down based on their weights (and the fat cats recommended weight).

Before we were using 500g a day so the 36kg I order would last 72 days. I've cut this down to 400g a day which means the 36kg of food will last 90 days instead.

We were spending £885 a year but with cutting down the amount of more expensive meats we buy and the lower and healthier portion sizes, a years worth of food will be £691.40 which is a saving of £193.60 a year, 21.9% off of the original amount.

I can't believe ordering half the amount of expensive meats and reducing the cats portion size by 25g each per day would make such a difference!

Hopefully the fat cat will lose weight, I don't want her to get ill because she's fat. She needs to lose 3kg. I'm also shutting her away from the other cats when shes getting fed so she doesn't eat anyone elses food.

Including the £22 a year savings on vaccinations and the £72.12 a year saving on the cat litter (assuming I can get the new litter year round), I've saved £287.72 a year on the cats costs which works out to be 24.3% off of the original amount for everything :eek: :eek:

I love how little changes have made such a difference!

Caspeia

Trying to work out a rough budget for when I go back to work.

Tax credit calculator says £550 every 4 weeks but entitled to says £600 every 4 weeks. I'm going to go for a lower estimate of £450 as tax credits never seem to give me what they say they will!


Husband is going to keep his 15hr job until end of November as I've managed to balance childcare until then.

This means our monthly income will be:

Me: £1080
Husband 1st job: £1100
Husband 2nd job: £380
Tax credits: £450
Child benefit: £137.60

Total: £3147.60

Outgoings:
Bills £800
Bus £115.40
Gas&electric £100
Petrol £80
Childcare: £884 (how crazy is it my childcare bill is more expensive than our household bills!)

After this it leaves £1168.20 for food, general spends, debt payments and savings. As long as everything goes smoothly (fingers crossed!) we should be able to pay off our debts pretty fast.

I'm not relying on this though until its in my account, my husband has had multiple jobs in the last few years. He's had very bad luck

beanielou

Does your bills amount include your rent?

Caspeia

beanielou wrote: »

Does your bills amount include your rent?

Yes, our rent is £395 so it isn't much.

beanielou

Figures looking good for you then.

Caspeia

I can't sleep right now as I'm feeling pretty low and s*** about myself. I need somewhere to just vent my thoughts.
I'm obese, I've known this for a while but haven't really faced up to it. Just kidding myself that I'm fine.
I realised earlier that my weight could kill me, I've put myself at an increased risk of health issues. If it was just me I don't think it would bother me as much but I have two kids. If I was to die they might not remember me, the 3 year old might have vague memories but the baby wouldn't remember me. As I've gotten bigger, my self confidence has gotten lower and I don't take any pictures of myself or let anyone take pictures of me. I realised that I barely have any photos of me and the kids so if I was to die there would be no trace of me in their life, no memories and one or two photos.

That thought has broken my heart, I have to be healthier for my children.

I currently weigh 223lbs which puts me at a BMI of 40.7.
My goal is to be down to 120lbs which would be a BMI of 21.9
I did manage to go from 233lb to 222lb in May but gave up.

It would be cheaper as well. I can easily have a couple bars of £1 chocolate a day or have take away costing between £10 and £30 for a meal.

103lbs to go, I will do this. For my kids. They need their mum.

beanielou

Break it into baby steps.
1/2 a stone at a time
With you all the way.

Caspeia

I think I'm going to break it into 21 steps.
First one being 3lb and the rest being 5lb ones.
I prefer to use just lbs rather than stones!

This mornings weight: 222.8lbs

Caspeia

I haven't updated my totals in a little bit.
116.18

Food: £21.40. This was spent as someone left the fridge open and the food went bad. We have to store it in the fridge as our kitchen gets too hot. We also had to buy more bread, cheese and then we spent some extra on treats. I'm glad this was before our hello fresh order was delivered!

Fun: We spent £20 on a takeaway

Other: We met up with my gran and waked around the garden centre, my daughter spotted a little fairy wish jar and she really wanted it. 99p on that, that was on Saturday and she hasn't even looked at it since the walk home! £3 spent this morning on some personalised stickers. The company I bought them from are doing a 'letter of the day' and if your name starts with that letter you get 35 personalised stickers free (delivery to be paid). Today was the letter my daughters name starts with so I've bought them, waiting for my sons name to be the letter of the day and I'll get him some as well. These stickers will be used on the stuff they bring to childcare. My friends ones have lasted over a year now with her washing them everyday, I won't use all 35 of them all at once so hopefully these will last me a good few years.

So totals spent:
Food: £155.22 / £250
Fun: £20 / £60
Other: £32.87 / £60


Overspent on food but we shouldn't have to buy anything until Saturday, I've skipped the next hello fresh box as nothing much we want to try. A lot of olive based dishes next week, yuck!
We have one box still available at 30% off which is £34.29 and then we'll be back to full priced boxes but I have £22.20 credit in our account as I complained as the avocado we got was mouldy (don't even like them so we wouldn't have used it anyway), we were missing a lemon which I'll need to buy but they aren't too expensive and the potatoes they sent were off (but luckily we had some in the house anyway). So our next full priced box will actually be £26.79. After this box is used I'll cancel my subscription again.


I like the boxes for trying new recipes and think they are okay priced if there's a discount available but full price at £48.99 is just crazy, not worth it at all.


Next week my plan is to use up as much in the freezer and the cupboards as we can. Theres just so much in there and it never gets used!