Getting it together...one £ at a time!

teafor2

Morning HG It would be easy to loose a grip on things at the moment wouldn't it so the monthly reviews are good. Mind you I need to take my own advice and update the pots on my diary lol. 

Hubby is designated shopper here at the moment and we don't have anybody else to buy for. Mum's on her own so always has good stocks in just in case she can't get out, you'd think we lived 100's of miles apart rather than a couple but she's very independent and tries not to ask for any help. I take my hat off to you shopping for other people as well as your own family although the media seem to have moved on from their panic buying headlines so hopefully things will slowly return to normal now with food and loo roll! 

What's happened with nursery fees if you don't mind me asking. Have they just stopped or are you having to pay some sort of retainer for DS's place? We've had a letter from the caravan site which was pretty cold in it's tone. Basically saying it's not their fault it's shut and nobody can go and they still want all their fees. I see their point, but people are dying and all they were banging on about was their money. It made my blood boil. 

Hope work calms down for you. Enjoy the family time and stay safe and well. xx

Homegrown0

Hi Tea - I'm not surprised your blood was boiling at the letter you received. I think people are losing all sense of human decency during this. Ultimately, the entire world is facing this deadly virus and yes, it's important that we keep economies and businesses afloat, but to not even recognise the human element of this or show any compassion is a mistake. After this, people will remember those who cared and they'll most certainly remember those who were all about the money-grabbing at a time like this. 

Our nursery asked if we could kindly continue paying our fees because they had committed to paying their staff. There was no invoice issued and no requirement to pay. I'd likely have kept my payments going if it was a smaller amount of money or they'd asked for a percentage, but you can't ask someone to 'kindly pay £850 per month' when you're not providing any element of the service that they're paying you for. So we decided not to pay. My husband is furloughed and we don't know how long for so we need to look after our family as #1. I'm keeping a few memberships going despite not receiving a service from them right now to help them support their businesses, but there's a differene between £20 and £850!

Not much else going on here, other than us spending a fortune on groceries. I put it down to us eating at home a LOT more. e.g. my kids are now eating breakfast and lunch here 7 days a week instead of just 2. There's a LOT more snacking going on. And because we're at home and not treating ourselves to anything, I'm treating us to some yummy food. This week I added in a selection of cheeses, crackers, olives, antipasti etc. to the trolley. We will enjoy it one night this week as a treat, but it probably cost about £20 all in. Plus all the other snacks. The kids are eating us out of house and home these days - growing like weeds and never full/ sick of eating. I can't complain, because it's mostly healthy stuff that they eat but they must go through about 8 portions of fruit each per day... 

[Deleted User]

I totally sympathise! My 5 year old has been eating 4 apples a day plus additional assorted fruit and a truck load of olives. 😂😂

Homegrown0

It's never ending Moguline! We should be grateful that it's the healthy stuff, and they're not having a problem with burning off all the energy (spending 8 hours + in the garden every day) but my food bill is through the roof! 

How is everyone doing? 

I'm feeling a bit better about things today. No particular reason why, i guess it's just peaks and troughs. 

Not a lot to add really, other than the finances are currently looking as expected and nothing new to report. Once husband is paid tomorrow I'm hoping to transfer £300-400 into the savings account.

Savings so far:
£1,630 savings account
£4,480 savings #2
£300.16 in Gifts/ clothes account
£301.68 in savings #3 (CU)
£250 in Christmas savings (CU) 

Days until payday: 14
Days until normality: Who knows? 

teafor2

Hi HG Blimey I wouldn't be inclined to hand over £850 for nothing in return either and rightly or wrongly, more so if the place wasn't needed in the future with DS starting school soon. You're right to put your own family first. I expect nursery are still getting paid from some parents who are having to use them and hopefully they can tap into some financial help as well to pass on to their staff. I'm not sure how the money side of all this is working and whether it's a load of hot air the government are spouting or if people are actually getting the help they need, I certainly hope it's the latter.  

I'm not noticing too much of a difference in food being eaten here apart from more fruit and oddly we're going through mushrooms like there's no tomorrow, but I am noticing a difference in supermarket prices. I'd say 80% of my shop is repeated every week so I'm pretty spot on with what's normally charged and there's definitely a rise in price on lots of items. 

Is your husband still furloughed or has he been able to get out and do some work? It's a real worry especially when there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Anyway, you seem to be taking it all in your stride. Take care and stay safe. xx







 

Homegrown0

How strange that mushrooms seem to be the order of the day in your house! We do love a mushroom here - I chuck them in most things that I cook. Also, I'm not particularly surprised that prices have gone up. I'd imagine although supermarkets are making lots of sales right now, they're probably losing out on a LOT of random shops (i.e. someone that would pop in every day as opposed to once per week). And I guarantee their overheads will be higher with employing extra staff, putting more delivery vans on the road etc. Still, it does seem a bit off when there's so many people struggling financially right now. 

Yes, my husband is still furloughed and will be until lockdown is eased. Right now, it's not making a massive difference to us as his employer is paying him the 80% every week and with the money that we're saving on nursery fees, it balances out well. At first, he wasn't sure what to do with himself but now he seems quite happy to be at home with the kids. 

We are trying to look at the positives (although I'm still working of course). We will never again have this chunk of time off with the kids - we're looking at 8+ weeks at home with no interruptions or commitments to hang out and spend quality time with the kids. That's got to be a blessing (although hard at times ) Before this, I think the most we've spent together without work/ school added into the mix has been 3 weeks.  

Another working week begins and I'm hoping to do some work outside later when the temperature comes up. It's a beautiful morning but it's not to get to peak temperature of 16 degrees until about 2pm. The temperatures in the north aren't quite reaching what some of our southern counterparts are seeing...  

Things are ticking along nicely here. Managed to put £400 into savings the other day and everything else seems unchanged for now. 

Days until pay day: 9
Days until normality: A million...?

Homegrown0

April 2020 ROUNDUP!
The months appear to be flying by at the moment... another month, another monthly roundup! 
Balances and paid amounts
Loan: Paid off  (yes, i'm still displaying this on my totals)
CC1: £4,081.71 / £4,736.59 (£654.88 or 14% paid off)
CC2: £3,197.00 / £5,031.14 (£1,834.14 paid off - 36% paid)

Total: £7,240.74 / £25,619.44 (£19,860.24 paid off, 79% paid)

Savings

• £6,510.17 in savings (saving hard for extension contingency, hence why debt payments above are less than usual)
• Aiming for £8,000 in savings by the end of May 
• £400 in clothing/ gifts account - not been used this year, mainly because of lockdown... the kids will need all the shoes and school clothes once we are outside again
• £300 in Christmas saver (restarted in November)
• £351.68 in credit union (restarted in November)

Days until pay day: 29
Loan payments left: NONE!!! - Yes, I'm still going on about it! 
Childcare payments left: Technically two, but possibly 0 depending on lockdown...

Homegrown0

Hello all, just thought I'd pop in and do my monthly roundup, since I've been paid today and I've done all my online banking and spreadsheet reconciliation. 

Really hopeful to reach £8k in the savings this month and as long as something major doesn't come up there's no reason why we shouldn't. I want to get a good contingency behind us before I start overpaying the credit cards again. Right now, they're both sitting a little above the minimum payment but of course it's my intention to pay them down a bit more where possible. 

I've transferred the usual amount into our spending account which normally covers food shopping, fuel and any ad-hoc spends like going out for lunch, other things that we need to buy through the month. However, because we're spending on less in general, i'm hoping to siphon some of this cash off at the end of May and i'll either put it into savings or use it to overpay the credit card(s). I'll see what we have left, if anything. 

Our food bill is through the roof at the moment. Mainly because I'm shopping for my MIL and for us, and I'm leaving it at her door. She only deals in cash so keeps wanting to give me money (I don't want to touch money right now for obvious reasons) and she doesn't have online banking. So we've been mostly paying for her shopping too every week. It's not massive amounts but probably upwards of £100 so far. She's keeping a list and insists she'll sort us out when this is all over. I really don't mind, i'd rather she was safe and ok, but I need to remember this when I wonder why we're spending so much! 

Also, my husband has developed an online shopping habit - buying stuff for his new bike and lego for the kids because they're powering through their sets lately. Need to put the brakes on these habits to make sure we don't waste the saving opportunity. 

Otherwise, finances are still ticking along nicely. Husband's drop in wages is balanced by us saving on nursery fees so the only way we're actually better off is on day-to-day spending (if we keep it under control ) 

We have been eating well, exercising in the house, going out for walks where possible (although avoiding people is difficult because we have limited green space in walking distance so we've not been doing this so much). Need to take the wins where we can though! 

Hope all is well with everyone! Stay safe.

doingitanyway

Just catching up with you and your little family. Good to see you are all ok. It's great that you are able to enjoy the time together not withstanding the obvious stresses. The nursery are cheeky. Who would pay those fees without a service? Who?
We all need good trades so hopefully things will be ok when your DH stops furlough.
The edible treats are a good idea considering and a nice way of you all enjoying something together, even if its food!
Your countdowns, as ever keep me smiling.
Take care

Homegrown0

Glad to hear you're enjoying the countdowns, DIA. They are becoming more unconventional as time goes on
Re: the nursery fees, i know a couple of people who have paid them because they are too scared to risk losing the nursery place (and they maybe have another 3 years of nursery left, as opposed to us only having a few months left). I get their point, but it's still a LOT of money to pay when it's unclear whether they could actually threaten to retract the place or not. 

I think the work will still be there for trades like my husband's, but the worrying part is if they start back work but people still don't want tradespeople in their house/ workplace. Then his small company has to pay five staff members full time with potentially no work. If that happens over a period of a couple of months, that's enough to sink a business. But we'll see. There's no point in worrying too much right now until we know what will happen. 

Today is a new day! The rain has ceased for a while and that's boosting my mood immensely.