*sigh* this may take a while

ohdearhowdidthathappen

School holidays are upon us, 2 older ones finished Friday, the other 3 finish today.

I took my eldest 2 to the cinema yesterday, which was £20 but took snacks from home.

I dropped them both and some of their friends to a theme park for the day, need to go back and get them all later. It's a relatively cheap day out; they have passes, petrol will be £10 and I gave them £10 each for lunch. In retrospect, they should be getting their own lunches as that was the deal when I paid for their passes. I forgot and they certainly didn't remind me! :rotfl:

I do need to be firmer over summer hols, otherwise will be bled dry

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Did better with the less spending yesterday and today.
Yesterday, I let them all invite a friend over for the day and stayed in.
Today, a friend of mine came over with their kids; paddling pool, frubes out of the freezer and a lot of chilling in the shade to be done

[Deleted User]

Those sound like great cheap days! Those kinds of days are my favourite summertime memories from my own childhood.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Being doing pretty well the last few days;

Friday, I met up with a friend at a NT place, took a picnic and apart from ice creams (£10) and whatever it cost in petrol, we didn't spend anything. Not bad and a lovely way to spend a day!
Saturday, I was at work. One child went to a party, I have a stash of presents stockpiled, so that didn't cost anything. Another child went to scout camp for a week, all paid for already apart from £20 spending money I gave him. It's strange without him here, but a lovely opportunity for him.
Yesterday, chilled day at home, NSD.
Today, I'm childminding, so £80 being saved towards our holiday later in the month. The children I'm minding are a similar age to 3 of mine, so (so far) they're all playing together. Fingers crossed it continues!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

The other day I was mentioning that we live a month behind on our credit card and it's a mission of mine to stop doing so, so I can keep track better.
The dreaded statement came today and last month's spending on it was £2300, the month before was £2800, we've averaged £2-3k per month over the last 12 months. That's basically food, petrol, clothes, days out, anything and everything really!
This coming month (August) I'm aiming for the statement to be £1300 and next month (September) for it to only have food and petrol on it, so £800. That's quite a tall order, but according to YNAB, we've got the wriggle room to do so. My free trial of YNAB has ended, so I've paid for a year's subscription. I'm sure it'll save me the subscription costs several times over, it's been amazing at focussing my mind and showing me what we have (or haven't!) got spare

enthusiasticsaver

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

The other day I was mentioning that we live a month behind on our credit card and it's a mission of mine to stop doing so, so I can keep track better.
The dreaded statement came today and last month's spending on it was £2300, the month before was £2800, we've averaged £2-3k per month over the last 12 months. That's basically food, petrol, clothes, days out, anything and everything really!
This coming month (August) I'm aiming for the statement to be £1300 and next month (September) for it to only have food and petrol on it, so £800. That's quite a tall order, but according to YNAB, we've got the wriggle room to do so. My free trial of YNAB has ended, so I've paid for a year's subscription. I'm sure it'll save me the subscription costs several times over, it's been amazing at focussing my mind and showing me what we have (or haven't!) got spare

I think that is a great idea to work towards just food and fuel on it. It just makes it clearer what you have to spend.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Extra shift at work today, £120 earned. Bought myself lunch at work as a reward, so minus £5. Oops, but I need a reward
Cinema tomorrow with oldest 4, prebooked. Will buy sweets from local shop at much reduced price. Cinema prices offend me for snacks.
Switched energy suppliers yesterday.... estimated saving of £30 per month.
Signed up to a make up/skin care subscription service that I've been recommended by several friends. Looks good and should save money on make up, skin care and gifts. I am partial to premium brands, so am hopeful this will help :rotfl:

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Extra shift at work again tomorrow, another £120 to be earned. Children being looked after by a friend who owes me many childcare favours... Need to make plans for Friday, something non expensive, but fun for all the children... hmmmm.

Keeping nicely to school hol busget. so am pleased. Looking forward to updating YNAB tomorrow (sad, but true).

ohdearhowdidthathappen

In other news, I had an email from cheeky kidspass saying they're issuing a refund . No mention of amount, I have a sneaking suspicion it'll just be for this year. Will wait to see what's credited and then nag about the other 2 years, if it's not the full amount. Minor victory, but pleased they've admitted some liability in their dodgy methods

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Extra shift done, another £120 earned. Quiet day (NSD) Friday and then worked again today.

Much as I'm keeping school holiday spending down, it's dawned on me I haven't got any money put aside for kitting children out for school. Seeing as they all need new uniform, shoes, trainers etc that will be a bit painful and will dent my aim to keep the credit card low. I've put a new line in YNAB and aim to save £50 a month extra towards school stuff so not such a painful hit next year.

Kidspass refunded just this year's membership. Not sure I can be bothered to argue about last 2 years, it was kind of my fault for not checking statements more carefully. I'll send an email to them querying amount of refund and I've already put disputed transaction forms in to my CC company. If nothing comes of those, I'll leave it

Looking forward to a chilled day tomorrow, we have a trip to the park and then a BBQ planned with some friends coming round. All ingredients bought within usual food budget