Can i ask a question......

Working_Mum

My "pay day" is a Thursday - I pay myself £150 FFF money (Fun, Fuel and Food) - I tend to put £30 fuel in my car each week and accrue a bit in my tank if I know I am going on a big drive in a few weeks or don't top up and give myself some extra spending money.

Each Wednesday I trawl through my cupboards and draw up a rough menu plan (have 2 x teens who works random hours and they need feeding!!) and do a shopping list (in a gorgeous notebook bought years ago which laid in a drawer untouched!!). I shop on my way home from work for food etc - I am a L!DL/H0me Bargains convert!!

I pop any cash for later in the week events i.e. if I am going to the cinema or something, in my basket on my work surface.

I strive for 33% of my days to be No Spend Days - sadly I track this on a spreadsheet!! I am currently at 36% year to date and very happy with that!!

I save each week from this cash amount towards my Christmas spends so I don't put it on a card - I leave this in an old tin at work so am not tempted to use it to buy a take away!!!

I have a couple of online savings accounts which I accrue my yearly expenses in like for car or contents insurance - my goal is to pay all my bills once a year within 4 years.

I read on here a lot and always give myself 48 hours between deciding to buy anything and actually buying it - I delete things out of my Amazon basket fairly frequently!!

It's little steps done every day which deliver long term consistent results I believe!!

Countrygirlatheart

Grey, misty & murky, wispy mist swirling into hopeful peaks of subdued sunshine - would I expect anything else leading into a bank holiday weekend!!!!

Aww, thanks everyone, what amazing advice from you all☺☺☺

Chrystal & Efes - I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for books on the Bay of E & Mazing - I don't have a kindle although I have a similar E-reader snuggled comfortably away in a drawer keeping other unused devices company - nothing beats the feel and smell of a book (good printy smell I must add as opposed to fish or mothballs) & You tube videos, I hadn't even given that a thought!!! - I shall definitely pop in and have a look for Dave Ramsey, god of finances.......
JBK mum, fantastic idea to have envelopes per week, I'm the same as you & many weeks money can be frittered on one shop (last week I had hoped to spend around the £80 mark for food shopping & £149 later I gulped when I realised how much I'd have left for the rest of the month!!!!)
Working mum !!!, what can I say, you need to be writing your financial memoirs I reckon - such amazing strategies in place I'll definitely be trying to follow your example!!


I've mentioned to DH he needs to take a monthly amount for his spends so I can write it off on payday & no more needs to be taken out by him until the following payday ( will add it into my outgoings the same way as I would any other bill)
Menu plans are a must for me going forward, we tend to be 'what shall we have for dinner' when we're already starving kind of folk, so must try harder as take out is always an easy (aka lazy, oh & expensive) quick option when rather peckish!!


Great ideas too on planning ahead (sorry but what is planning ahead........) for big expenses, I know the car insurance, Christmas, Birthdays etc. happen the same time every year but It seems to slip my mind until having no money the week before said event - Eek!!
Onwards & upwards frugal folk ☺

jbkmum

We went to Aldi last night, we took the £15 from the jar, left all the cards at home and husband had the shopping list. I added up with my phone calculator as we went round. I think we picked up an extra couple of things, a pudding for husband and a big pot of yoghurt for me but it really helped just relying on cash. So thats now our thing!

Countrygirlatheart

JBKmum, strangely enough that was going to be one of my next questions....
Is cash a better option?
Having had a bit of a ponder I've realised it's all too easy to pull the debit card from it's holster and spend, spend, spend without giving any consideration of what and how much you are spending, a limited amount of cash on the other hand is just that - limited!!


Food shopping this week is online, I'm thinking I'm not only a bit of a liability when it comes to wandering around a supermarket but also a marketing persons dream as I'm also captivated by good old marketing ploys, I just can't trust myself!!
Had a money off voucher for delivery so opting for Tesco this week .
After work i'll be organising my vast array of store cupboard piles later, checking what's at the back of the fridge (hopefully nothing scary!!!) & trying to make some sense of menu planning.
(Working mum, following on from your 'shopping from home', I've remembered I'd bought a snazzy magnetic menu planner for the fridge when I was considering meal planning before..........)
£5.45p left in my purse until Friday - I had hoped today would have been a NSD but DD1 (both of mine are teens) needed lunch money whilst out and about, so the bank of mum was called upon.......again.......

jbkmum

Countrygirlatheart wrote: »

JBKmum, strangely enough that was going to be one of my next questions....
Is cash a better option?
Having had a bit of a ponder I've realised it's all too easy to pull the debit card from it's holster and spend, spend, spend without giving any consideration of what and how much you are spending, a limited amount of cash on the other hand is just that - limited!!


Food shopping this week is online, I'm thinking I'm not only a bit of a liability when it comes to wandering around a supermarket but also a marketing persons dream as I'm also captivated by good old marketing ploys, I just can't trust myself!!
Had a money off voucher for delivery so opting for Tesco this week .
After work i'll be organising my vast array of store cupboard piles later, checking what's at the back of the fridge (hopefully nothing scary!!!) & trying to make some sense of menu planning.
(Working mum, following on from your 'shopping from home', I've remembered I'd bought a snazzy magnetic menu planner for the fridge when I was considering meal planning before..........)
£5.45p left in my purse until Friday - I had hoped today would have been a NSD but DD1 (both of mine are teens) needed lunch money whilst out and about, so the bank of mum was called upon.......again.......

Last year I would have said no, I use YNAB and was convinced that as long as I could track it electronically it was fine. However, tracking it is retrospective - its not proactive in making sure you spend xx. I,e go to Sainsburys intending to spend £50 and you spend £120!
Whereas if we go with £50 in cash, that's all we can spend.

I'm now of the mindset that we will just have to use cash. We spent £800 on the three of us in June....our budget is £200. And its not because the budget is too low, its because I just cannot stop buying food!

Countrygirlatheart

Rain Rain go away, come after the bank 'hol I day'......


Jbkmum, I am with you with the love of buying food, if all of my cupboards aren't crammed to the point of bursting I start to sweat lol!!
BUT, although I like food shopping I've lost count of the amount of times I can barely cobble together more than a couple of meals after the weekly shop due to not really meal planning - much money can easily be spent on snacks and 'put withs' without actually buying real food - cooking from scratch (but in a manageable 'not too much time' kind of way) has to be a priority - Fortunately I've a couple of slow cookers at the ready & raring to go!!


So, time to raise my head from the sand and acknowledge 'back to school' expenses are on the horizon, DD2 needs trousers, shirts & shoes (Eek!!), DD1 needs more (v expensive) college books, add in to the financial swirl a 'big' family birthday at the weekend, needing mucho many store vouchers means I already feel on the financial back foot (and still a week til payday - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) - think a dip into the savings is a necessity otherwise ends will just not meet!!


I think i'm going to have to sort some stuff for the bay of E at the weekend to gather a few pounds back into the fold!!
Onwards and upwards!!

Countrygirlatheart

Honestly......I just can't be trusted.....


Well, the last few days haven't exactly gone to plan & I'm going to struggle to pull the positives from my encounter with the exciting spends of 'The squanderer'


I can definitely talk the talk but can I walk the walk!!
I know it's going to be baby steps but a shopping trip out equated to a couple of hundred pounds of (on the whole) unnecessary spends - completely justified by the whispering in my head at the time & the spending 'high'!!
Being of more rational mind today I'm attempting to unpick the events leading up and the mind-set during and after.
I really don't want to say no to DD's plus I don't want them to be embarrassed by what they have or own in front of their peers as they need to hold their own (I was cruelly bullied at school when I was a child, folks didn't have much & I was an easy target on more than one level and I realise this has stayed with me more than I perhaps thought)
Trying to prove my worth - I haven't amassed much through life (due to frittering!!) and I know due to health circumstances owning my own home is something that has passed me by - when those around you are shocked to hear you 'still renting at your age' it doesn't do much for your self esteem.
I'm hoping this acceptance of blame, fault & circumstance may help in the long term!!
On the up side I did buy a book ( in fact £37 worth of books) which is called mind over money ( The psychology of money and how to use it better) - note to self - read the flipping book!!!

Scottk220984

Has anyone cancelled a booking with Alpharooms? I was due to go to spain on 1st September but due to the pandemic I am unable to travel. I was in contact with Alpharooms in the lead up explaining and they were very reassuring that there wouldn't be a problem and they would just amend the booking for the same amount I had paid. However on the 25th August I decided to contact them to make the final amendments, this is when they sprung on me that there would be a 90% cancellation charge. I wasn't happy and due to a miscommunication they proceeded to cancel. I argued this but they said they only charge because the hotel will charge them and told me to refer to their terms of business. I did this and realised that the charge shouldn't have been charged mandatory as it said there MAY be a cancellation charge if the hotel decide to charge. So after writing to the hotel they have replied in writing that they have not charged Alpharooms a penny and are shocked they haven't agreed to the option of amending my booking. I am now struggling to get through to Alpharooms