Starting again....for the very last time!!!

Working_Mum

Hi Always,
I am averaging £51 per week for FOOD shopping this year, there is me plus 2 hungry teens in my family. My cleaning and personal spend is about £7 per week this year. I have tracked these for a few years and I needed to tighten my belt coming into 2018 and have shaved over a £1200 compared to last year on my food (household) budget.

For me it is about doing a (rough) meal plan, shopping from a list, only taking CASH with me - calculating what I spend as I put it in my trolley.

I always have a tenner squirrelled away in my purse in case I see some mega bargain for somehting that I know I will use and it is on special offer. I often spend this on toothpaste actually as it can be quite expensive.

I have a store cupboard and keep it topped up with about 2 cycles of use i.e 2 lots of face wash and buy another when I start the first one (if that makes sense). I have a deep fear of not being prepared for something and this store cupboard approach helps me not have to panic buy or get something when it is expensive!!

You are doing well and having you budgets work for you is all about being mindful and adapting to the circumstances. It takes a while to get it right for you and your family!!

Alwaysskint2016

I haven't posted in a few days as nothing much has really happened. Still sticking with watching the pennies. Patiently waiting for Payday on Tuesday and am looking forward to being able to update YNAB and over the next week seeing the DD's come out of the bank and see the new total balance. This is my life now!

I've set some targets to reach before 31/12/18:
Get emergency fund to £1000 - Currently £260.66
Get Selling total to £1200 - Currently £213.70
Christmas savings - 2018 get £1000 - only £105 left so should be saved by 20/09/18
(Once completed keep paying Standing Order for 2019 Christmas so should get £350 by end of the year)
Get total debt outstanding into the £28k figure (below £28,999)

Positives - No spends on credit cards since 08/08/2018
Sticking to budgets & meal planning (actually eating better!)

Negatives - Not been anywhere, but then due to the miserable weather, this may actually be a positive lol

Alwaysskint2016

Well payday has come and gone, YNAB has been updated and I'm skint again lol. On the plus side DH has lots more hours over the next few weeks so going to make the most of that extra cash.

Today has been a spendy day. Anyone else get really anxious spending money? This isn't a new thing, I've always been the same. For someone who hates spending money it's surprising the amount of debt I have :rotfl:. I've had to fill car with petrol and do uniform shopping and do a small food shop. All budgeted for but still. Just need to get DS1 a couple of white shirts and should be done. MIL is getting new school shoes tomorrow (thank goodness). Need to use next few days getting them back into bedtime routine, they've been having very late nights over the summer holidays.

I had a go dying the school jumpers and polo shorts. They've come up lovely and red but the logo is now all black (there was sections of blue/yellow/green). I'm going to leave it a few weeks and once they're back in the swing of things I don't think it'll even be noticed.

Also been lucky with mobile phones. DS1 has a sim only contract till December with one of my old phones which is broken. So we're paying for a contract he's not using. I managed to blag an old phone off a friend and it works. DS1 is now very happy he's got a phone again. Also DS2 phone wasn't working until the weekend. Its a PAYG but has friends and family so can call me/DH for free. But it wasn't charging but looks like it's fixed. Yey.:j

Lots of DD's coming out over the next few days. I'm looking forward to updating my signature once all paid with the new debt figure.:beer:

kindofagilr

Hi I have followed you over from the YNAB thread you seem to have a great start going well done xx

Alwaysskint2016

AAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!! I'm so impatient!!!! :mad::mad::mad:

I seem to be spending a lot of my spare time just staring at my spreadsheets and YNAB waiting for the figures to drop, as if doing this the debt will just disappear. (It's been like 3 weeks since I started my journey). I'm looking forward to say 6 months down the line and I can see a big difference of what's been paid off.

I know I'm being unreasonable and that the debt has been accumulated over many years, but this is just me.....very impatient wanting results now lol Anyone else like this??

On plus side, tomorrow is the start of a nice shiny new month. In August I've spent £423.64 on food/groceries plus £96.18 on Eating out/Takeaways, I'm going to work on these in September and try and budget £300 for groceries and maybe £40 on eating out. (We have a birthday this month so that will be used for that). I'm still trying to iron out the budgets and think that this could take up to the end of the year to get 100%, but at least I'm doing something, right?

Uniform is almost sorted. Just need to get a couple of white shirts for DS1 and pencil cases, haircuts on Monday then we're good to go.

I need to make more money!!

kindofagilr

I feel your pain. I am the same as you, no sooner have I had payday and I want the direct debits to come out and new statements available xx

Alwaysskint2016

Its been a little while since updating my diary. It's been pretty quiet on the debt busting front but I've reached the 1 month marker from the start date of my journey and I'm pleased so far with the progress of paying off £908.49 seen as at the moment I'm focusing on building my emergency fund.

Do you think its vital to have an emergency fund in place now? It's a pain putting the money away when it could be going to reduce my debt total. I don't know whether to shift my focus on the debt repayments instead, what you think?

I've just updated my snowball calculator and will be printing out a copy in work tomorrow to tick off the payments made as we go along. All going well should be cleared by April 2021

Chrystal

The whole idea of an emergency fund is so that you have the money in place, instead of having to put it on credit, if/when an emergency crops up. Life has a way of throwing things at you in multiples ie car breaks down, boiler goes on the blink and the pipes burst all in the same week! :eek: All the Money Gurus say that an emergency fund is essential, so yes you need one.

Alwaysskint2016

Chrystal wrote: »

The whole idea of an emergency fund is so that you have the money in place, instead of having to put it on credit, if/when an emergency crops up. Life has a way of throwing things at you in multiples ie car breaks down, boiler goes on the blink and the pipes burst all in the same week! :eek: All the Money Gurus say that an emergency fund is essential, so yes you need one.

You're right, I'll keep chipping away at it. Thanks. :beer:

Alwaysskint2016

Hi everyone, its been a while since I've posted. I have been on here since then reading posts and keeping up with the plan. It's payday tomorrow and almost end of September so I thought I'd post a quick recap of how things have been this month.

Once the DD's are debited tomorrow the debt total will stand at £31,407.92 which means we've repaid £1,814.40 of the original figure of £33,222.32 (5.46%) since 02/08/2018. Slowly and surely.

Good points:
* Been keeping up with using YNAB and budgeting
* No debt added - haven't used the credit cards since start of August - This is a huge thing for us as we were in a cycle of credit card top ups at the end of the month to tie us over
* Got an unexpected £25.00 cashback which will go against one of the cc's
* Finished my Park Vouchers savings over a month early. Made the final payment last Thursday and vouchers will be arriving shortly so can make a start on shopping. Love Christmas. (made order ready for 2019 Christmas and first payment made today)


Bad points:
*Food shop - I'm really struggling getting this under control. I'm planning and meal planning and shopping to a list (using vouchers where possible) and shopping in Aldi so looking for best prices, but we've still spent £357.60 on food/toiletries/cleaning products/pet supplies - Will review this and try and reduce next month
* We've slipped into old habits and had a few take aways this month - no excuses, this has to stop (or at least reduce to one a month)

Still plenty of work to do to save more so onwards to October.