Looks worse when it's written down!!

GTBT123

I'm having a good month money wise. All my minimum payments have been covered as well as a large overpayment to the Next account and I still have around £800. I'm looking forward to paying that off the Next account.

I've also had some wages paid to me that were owed. Its a newish company and the previous payroll person kept making mistakes. I flagged them up a few times and in the end because of all the mistakes they'd made, we found somebody new to do the payroll and they sorted out all the mistakes so now my wages are all caught up and I can use that money for another large overpayment.

I'm still working on my grocery bill. It was a bit high again this month but I am going to keep working at it and just keep making changes to get it down to a level I'm comfortable with.

EsmeWeatherwax

Grocery bills are a nightmare. :eek: Food shopping is just so expensive, so I feel your pain. I found the best swaps were with cereals, my DCs never noticed at all. The only "proper" cereal we buy now is wheetabix, because there is a taste difference. And they don't ask for them often.
I loved Eat well for less on BBC1, it made me feel better about my food shopping habits!

Great news on the back pay, and well done with getting your totals down. :j

GTBT123

I've updated my signature. The debt hasn't gone down as much as I wanted it to because February was an expensive month. March has been better though, I've made some overpayments already and still got another £230. I've got £150 of that going to the Next account and the rest is going to one of the credit cards.

I logged into all my card accounts this week and have increased the DD amount. They were all set to the minimum amount and I was just making overpayments manually, but now that I know there is definitely money in the budget to make overpayments, I have increased the DD to a fixed amount every month. I'll still make manual overpayments as well, but at least if I don't make the payment for some reason, I'm still making above the minimum every month.

I've set my budgets for April. It has worked out I will have just over £700 extra on top of all bills, spending money and debt repayments (that's including the adjusted DD amount).

I was pleased to see the debts are now below £20k. That was one of my short term goals. I feel like setting smaller goals will be better for my mindset because as I reach each goal it will help me to stay motivated. My next short term goal is to get it under £18k.

I've been working from home quite regularly lately. It's great for me because I get to concentrate on my work without too much noise and hassle, plus it's saving me money on fuel. While the weather has been nice this week I've also been walking to do the school run. It's been lovely getting some fresh air and sunshine, plus I hope the extra exercise helps me with losing some weight!

GTBT123

EsmeWeatherwax wrote: »

Grocery bills are a nightmare. :eek: Food shopping is just so expensive, so I feel your pain. I found the best swaps were with cereals, my DCs never noticed at all. The only "proper" cereal we buy now is wheetabix, because there is a taste difference. And they don't ask for them often.
I loved Eat well for less on BBC1, it made me feel better about my food shopping habits!

Great news on the back pay, and well done with getting your totals down. :j

You're right about Weetabix! I definitely notice a difference. I will look at the cereals, we don't eat cereal every morning but when we do, it's always brand named cereal. I've just ordered my weekly grocery delivery to arrive tomorrow. I'm going to take another look at it though to see if there are any swaps I can make.

GTBT123

Haven't updated in a while but have been trying to keep on track with debt repayments. My grocery budget is still something I need to work on, so I've really made a start on tackling this because I would really like to get the debts under £15k by the end of September. I did add up the debts the other day & it came to just over £17k, so I'm really hopeful that I can hit this target.

I am trying to run the freezer down right now. We have our normal fridge freezer in our kitchen & a small chest freezer in the garage. I've gone through the one in the kitchen & worked out a few meals for the next few days to get rid of a few things. I plan on checking the chest freezer on the weekend so I can plan meals from the food in that one. I'd like to have an almost empty freezer by October so that I can stock up on party food for Christmas and I'd also like to start batch cooking, particularly in the winter when I can batch cook things like stews & casseroles in the slow cooker.

I have got a pile of things to put on ebay. I'm going to do that on Thursday evening. I had a big sort out of DD2's bedroom the other day to clear out stuff that she doesn't use anymore. She's getting older now so doesn't really play with toys much, so it was good to go through everything & have a good sort out. We've got a pile of books to give to the local library and clothes to put in the next charity bag that we get through the door. She also had a few pairs of trainers that are still in great condition, so I'm going to try & sell them. I've told her that any money we get from selling the trainers can go into her money box so she has some money for days out & treats over the summer.

I'm still trying to lose weight. I did lose a bit of weight before we went on our holiday, but in typical holiday fashion we ate way too much & I feel like since we got back from holiday I've carried on eating like I am still on holiday! So today I'm setting myself a target. We have a day out planned in 2 weeks so I'd like to lose 4lbs between now & then, it won't be noticeable to anybody but I know it will make me feel better if I can see the weight going in the right direction. A lot of my clothes feel tight at the moment, which has really knocked my confidence & I just don't feel like going anywhere at all

GTBT123

Things I've managed to get done today:-

Hoovered & mopped all of downstairs floors.
Checked bank accounts & reconciled all payments that have left the account.
Made a chocolate brownie for DH & DD's. I have to just resist the urge to eat any of it!
Put on a washing load & dishwasher load. Cleaned kitchen worktops.

GTBT123

I have booked my grocery shopping to come tonight. I stayed on budget this week which is a good start. We have so much food in the cupboards and freezer at the moment, so there's no reason why I can't stick to my budget & just use up what we already have.

I'm going to do my ebaying tonight. I don't have much else planned, apart from putting my shopping away when it arrives, tidying up our lounge & cooking dinner.

I had a letter through from my private pension scheme that I pay into. I have a company pension that I pay into, which is the bigger pension pot, but I have this private one that I have been paying £50 into for around 10 years now. Well I read the information & noticed that I haven't added our youngest daughter as a beneficiary because I took this pension out before we had her, so I've sent the amendment document off now to add her to the beneficiary list and I've also increased the monthly payment to £60 now. It's not a lot but at least it's something. I'm not too worried about this one because the company pension is quite decent and I also have 2 other company pensions from previous employers I worked for. I need to sit down with a financial advisor really & see if there is a way of combining all pots, I know for sure that one of the old pensions is with the same provider as my current company pension provider, so I wonder if they would combine that?

It looks like I've got around £450 to make overpayments this month. I am going to just pay that all towards the Next account. I spent a bit of money on there last month because youngest daughter needed a few bits for school and eldest daughter needed a few essentials. Normally I would have popped to Asda or Tesco first but we were so busy in & out of work so I wasn't getting any time to get to either, so the easiest solution was to order them. BUT, I budget for clothing every month so had some money put aside for that which I will now pay to the Next account

GTBT123

Sat here today looking out of the window at the rain & can't believe just yesterday we were eating lunch in the garden, enjoying the sunshine & splashing around in the pool! Such a difference.

Update for the last few days are

On Friday we went to the cinema to watch Toy Story 4. It was a nice treat to get out as a family & all budgeted for, so no impact on debt repayments.

Yesterday we spent most of the day in the garden. We tended to the plants and our daughters played in the pool. It was nice to sit outside and enjoy the garden. Our British weather means we don't get to do that very often. I also love getting the washing out on the line

We have plenty of food in the fridge, freezers & cupboards so I have a meal plan sorted for the upcoming week. I'm also going to try & get out for a run/walk at least 3 times this week to help with the weight loss.

As for money, I'm going to check the bank tomorrow to make sure the final few DD's of the month have gone out. Can't believe we're almost at the end of another month! It will be Christmas before we know it.

GTBT123

I can't believe it's July already. This year is flying by. I think because I'm always waiting for the end of each month to check final numbers, it always feels like I'm wishing the weeks away. Obviously that's not the case, I'd love time to slow down just a bit!

I got paid on Friday so have updated You Need a Budget. The good thing is my wages actually cover all bills, including the debt fixed payments that I have set as DD's. So my OH's weekly wages are used for groceries and all overpayments. With the debts I have all of them set on DD to pay above the minimum amount at a fixed amount each month, so I know I'm always paying over the minimum anyway, then any overpayments are paid manually with whatever is left over at the end of the month.

I'm feeling really pleased with myself because last week I finally managed to come up with a 2 week meal plan for us. I wanted to have meal plan that would work for the whole family, rather than cooking 2 or 3 different meals every night. I checked out a few meal plans online and took a few meal ideas from them to come up with my own. We're also trying to eat healthier as a whole family, so with the meal plan everyone else knows what is on the menu each day, so they don't snack as much when they get in from school & work.

This week I'm going to add a 3rd week on to the meal plan. I think after 3 or 4 weeks we should have a good idea of which meals we prefer and which ones take longer to prepare etc. I'll try & adjust the meal plan then depending on the results of that.

I also need to order the weekly shopping today, to come on Friday. That's been my routine for a while now & with the meal plan I've finally managed to put together, I have a good list to stick to. I think the groceries for next week's meal plan should only come to around £40 because we have a lot of the staple ingredients, like spices and tinned stuff, plus stuff that we have in the freezer. I'll see how it goes

GTBT123

I put a few things on ebay yesterday & have bids on 2 of them already. I put them on a 10 day auction so they end a week Sunday. I prefer having them end on a weekend because I can pack them ready to post on Monday then.

Bills are paid & most minimum payments have gone out. I should try & get the DD dates changed on some of the cards. At the moment they all come out on random days throughout the month, which I personally find really annoying. I'd rather everything come out around the same time at the beginning of the month, so I can just concentrate on over payments then for the rest of each month. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get round to getting those dates changed at some point. It's not really a necessity, so I'll just sort it when I have some time to make the phone calls.

I haven't updated my amounts for a while. I am going to check all balances this weekend to make sure they reconcile with my You Need a Budget (they should do as all payments have been accounted for on there). Once I've done that I can come back & confirm the current total.

In other news, I'm trying to be more productive. I find lately I go to work, come home & just can't be bothered doing much. I do the basics like cook dinner, put some washing on & clean up the kitchen, but then I just sit in front of the TV for the rest of the evening while at the same time moaning about all the stuff we've got cluttering up the house. So starting now I have made a list, but I'm not calling it a To Do List, I'm calling it my achievement list. Just something that made me feel a bit better about it, when it's a to do list it puts me off lol

On this list I'm breaking them down by month, so things I want to get achieved that particular month & even breaking down into small jobs. So for instance, instead of just saying 'Sort living room & clean', I have broken that down in to the easiest of tasks, like 'Dust all surfaces', 'Hoover carpet', 'Wash curtains & cushion covers'. It sounds a bit pedantic but I feel like if I break it down into small jobs, I can just pick one or two at a time & complete them, then seeing those jobs ticked off the list will hopefully motivate me to keep going. Also if I break it down somebody else might help!

One of the reasons I want to get my butt in gear is because we want to move in the near future. Getting the debts paid is a priority of course, but we have always said that the house we're in now is not our forever home. So we've started researching our area to see what properties are selling for, what sort of properties fit our forever home checklist and we've also spoken to the local estate agent so he can just keep us updated if anything particularly interesting comes on the market.

The idea of being in our forever home within the next 2 years is definitely exciting and I am determined that we will be debt free by then too, so we really can make it into our dream home.

I did well with sticking to our meal plan for most of the 2 weeks that I had put together. There was one day that ended up changing, but that was because we got invited over to someone's house for dinner, so I just popped the meat in the freezer to pull out another time.

I saw some beautiful bed linen on Instagram last week. I loved it and it was the perfect colour for our bedroom, so I thought I'd have a look to see how much it is because we actually need some new bedding and I have put some money aside for home stuff like this. Anyway, went on to the website, found the particular bedding I was lusting over and was shocked at the price. I know bedding is expensive but this set was £179!! And that was just for a quilt cover & 2 pillowcases. I didn't even bother checking how much the sheets were, I just shut down the page & decided to just make do with what we currently have.

Plans for this weekend

2 kids parties!!
Get meal plan sorted for another 2 weeks, using up what is in the fridge, freezer & cupboards first.
Take the dog out for a walk.
Sort through 2 baskets in living room to try & squeeze some of the Lego in that is currently stuffed in a corner of the room.
Enjoy the sunshine