My New Normal

DebtFreeMonkey

I've just read through your diary and it's good to read someone else's journey and see their ups and downs. It makes me more conscious that I might fall short sometimes but I need to keep trying. I look forward to reading more

findingthisdifficult

Fla603 wrote: »

Hi FTD, ohh I’m really struggling!! 2 weeks ago it was mine and my mum’s birthday and we had a lovely day out to a rural, Irish sea side town. You would imagine then that it would be quite hard to spend money but unfortunately that was not the case. I ended up buying a new handbag and clothes for DS. I should say that 3 yrs ago on honeymoon I got two lovely MK handbags for a great price and this is the first handbag I’ve bought since. So my cost per wear is in the minus figures!! DS’s clothes where in the sale but from quite a fancy brand. My experience with the brand is that the clothes wash and wear really well so he will get lots of wear out of them and I don’t buy full priced items from that brand.
This week DH and I have both been off work and again we have had some really lovely but spendy days out! One thing we’ve bought was a suitcase, which we do need as we’ve had to borrow my in-laws twice now, and it was reduced in a major sale to £15 from £100. We also went to the amusements and DS who is 13mnths had his first run on the hobby horses. Cost me £4.50 for that one ride by the time I paid for 3 of us. Just lots of spendy things like that! I’m off to get my hair cut tomorrow morning. It’s In desperate need as I’ve put it off so long.
How are you getting on? Surely not as badly as me!!!

I've not been much better, we've ended up paying nearly £100 for a day out at a show that we were meant to be working at, we were let down at the last minute and ended up having to pay to go as customers instead of traders.
We've also spent £80 on a spa day just because it was a nice way to end the weekend!!
I'm still waiting for some more money in my topcashback account to pay for my next hairdressers appointment, I only go 2/3 times a year so try to pay for it with topcashback funds.

How is your diet going?

Fla603

Ohh it’s payday and I’m balancing my account and moving money to all the appropriate “pots”.
I have £290 left in current account from last months wages... £1 shy of the amount I told myself I would pay off my c/c. I had a lovely month celebrating various birthdays and DH did purchase a bed and a wooden floor which was unexpected but are useful spends which will serve us well. I spent a lot more than I intended this month and am surprised I even have this much left in my account.
I guess then that there is nothing for it but to pay the £291 as planned and then at the end of August I will pay off the bed & wooden flooring, which I need to tot up for the exact figure.
I’ll be back later with a more detailed update, this one is just a ramble to convince myself to pay back the money!!
Here goes...

findingthisdifficult

Popping by to return the visit!
At least you were only £1 shy of the amount you said you'd pay off and well done to committing to paying it off - that bit is the hard part. I've allocated £185 to pay off my CC but I'm waiting until closer to the payment due date in case I've missed something in my budget. Hope the exact figure isn't too eye watering when you've totted it up.

Fla603

After totting up all the figures eating out and buying junk food is still my biggest expenditure. In July, I spent £200 from my personal account on eating out. With this in mind I have transferred £100 to another account that I have a debit card for. I’m going to use this card only for food spending in August. Hopefully this makes me think twice about the amount of rubbish I buy! Already today I had banana on toast in my office rather than go to the canteen and inevitably end up spending £3-4.
August seems to have a few large expenses but I’m glad I have recognised these beforehand. This includes paint and a decorator for our spare bedroom and an expensive cosmetic treatment that I’ve wanted for ages and will save money in the long run. Well maybe not save money but rather than paying out month after month I’m just having the better option and paying upfront.
I know a lot of this doesn’t sound like money saving or a debt journey but for me it actually is. I have managed to reduce my credit card from £1200 to £400, with a strategy in place to pay off the rest in the coming months and I have begun budgeting for things and spreading the costs, rather than sticking it all on a cc and adding to my debt.

I’ve also made some adjustments to our joint account so we now have a Christmas pot. DS won’t be getting a lot for Christmas, he is only 1.5 yrs old but he will get presents so this will help, and any remaining money can be used towards food and drink costs for Christmas Day.

Joint food spending also continues to be an issue, in July it was almost £400 but this included quite a few steak and wine birthday bbq’s. This I really want to reduce, but I already buy own brand items, including meat and tinned veg etc and I buy own brand washing powder. Not sure how to improve this but I must!! We are planning to go on holiday in January and if I could save on our groceries then the savings could be used to cover our accommodation costs!

Soo many thoughts running around in my head today!! My quick updates are never quick!

Fla603

How many pots are too many pots!!

Our joint account fund now has A LOT of pots...

Childcare £50 pm
House maintenance £50 pm
Holiday fund £65 pm (until January 2020)
Christmas £30 pm (Santa for DS / food)

Otherwise we only use our joint account for household bills and expenses.

So far this month food spending on our joint account has been pretty good. With two weeks left until pay day I’m hoping to keep a tight rein on this. I think allocating the additional money to our holiday fund has helped me to keep tighter control on food spending. I would much rather have that money for a holiday than waste it on food shopping that will inevitably end up in the bin when we order take away instead. It’s so wasteful of produce, never mind money!

findingthisdifficult

Hey Fla!!

Do you have separate pots within your joint account? I was tempted to move to an account that lets me do this so that I can see it all in one place.

Well done on keeping your food spending tighter this month, how's it looking now? Can't be too long until pay day right? I think almost £400 is quite good but as you know Mr FTD and I are rubbish with food budgets, I haven't updated my app for a while but I'm sure we're over our £400 budget this month. Really must get better at food shopping and maximising the stuff we buy.

I just remembered you asked me on my diary about my house plans too!! We're doing our house up to sell next year, we just need something a little bigger, maybe our forever home if we find the right one.

Looking forward to your next update.

Fla603

Hi Ftd, yes I have a lot of online savings accounts. Our joint account is with Ubank and then I opened 4 savings accounts so I can split up the money. Their app is actually really good and allows you to nickname your accounts and transfer easily from one to the other. My personal current account is with HSBankC and although they allow additional savings accounts, you can’t rename them which is annoying, so I just have a little book I keep a note of which account number is which.
I must tally up the groceries for August but it is defo less than previous, as there is still a bit of surplus in that account and I have already transferred the holiday pot money.
We are getting our spare room painted tomorrow and after that we aren’t doing any more house projects until DS is old enough to not ruin walls/floors/woodwork. So we tell ourselves anyway! I found another company who can mix the same colour as the luxury paint I want so I am trying to be somewhat MSE about it. Even paying a decorator is a luxury but with a baby underfoot it’s impossible for me to do and DH is already run ragged with his work and all his extra jobs!

Fla603

Today I had some grocery related wins!

DH awoke late and decided we should go to a fancy restaurant for brunch. We all got ready and where about to leave when DS decided to be sick all over all of us!! Brunch was cancelled and instead DH and I had sausage baps from our kitchen while DS slept.

Mid afternoon we had a few errands to run and DH decided he would stick like a “proper” coffee so we headed to a coffee shop. This one does my fave ever traybakes but DH said he just wanted take away coffee while we wandered about and I happily went along with this plan, saving money on our order and saving a few hundred unnecessary calories.

Back at home and for dinner we had planned to have chicken curry. The chicken was use by today and when it comes to chicken I do not use after use by dates. When I opened the cupboard for the curry sauce stuff I realised we were missing several ingredients. At this point I would usually decree it would be quicker to get take away and leave the chicken to go off in the fridge but instead I switched to a sweet chilli chicken and dinner was a success.
One other pack of use by today chicken was lurking in the fridge so I chopped some extra veg, grabbed a fajita seasoning sachet from the cupboard and made it in preparation for tomorrow nights dinner. Another major win as usually I’d bung the chicken in the freezer and then chuck it in the bin unused in about 4 months time.
Last but not least I have work tomorrow and as it’s Sunday the canteen will be shut. My usual plan would be to go out for a deli sandwich or meal deal from a supermarket but instead tonight I made a a ham and cheese sandwich which l will stick in the work toastie machine and prepared fruit and yoghurt and other snacks from my kitchen cupboards.

I feel like this grocery challenge I have set myself towards holiday savings is actually motivating me. More ramblings tomorrow hopefully re this coming weeks meal planning!

Fla603

PS. In other news I have started using eBay to sell baby clothes my son has outgrown. My first lot of listings went well and out of 5 items made me about £20. I have since listed 6-7 more bundles of baby clothes but have barely any watchers, and only one bid on one item. All my items end tomorrow evening. Bit disheartened as everything is in great condition but I will keep them listed and see what happens.
I have also purchased a couple of things from eBay. I got DS a costume for Halloween which is retailing online between £17-22 and from an eBay seller I got the same thing brand new for £10 with free p&p. I then bid and won DS a winter coat from N*xt. Their kids coats usually retail about £18-25 and I got one second hand for £5 including postage. The coat will prob only do him until Dec/Jan due to sizing so I’m really happy.