Living in the black

Yellow_mango

Dammit.

Just came home for lunch, as usual. Left to go back to work, and realised just as I walked away that I had locked my keys in the house.

I have done this before, but last time I managed to break myself back in. Concerned by the ease with which I had done this, we improved our back door security measures. Now there is no way in other than breaking a window, or potentially climbing over a PVC roof that almost certainly won’t take my weight to reach a 1st floor window.

DH will be away until tomorrow and is more than an hour away, and there are no other keys anywhere. So Locksmith it is. Minimum £49.

Think I’ll be leaving a spare key at work in future. Or changing the lock for one that requires active locking and doesn’t just slam shut...

On_a_Shoestring

Spare key at work is what I do. Cheapest option unless you can entrust a key to your neighbours.

Yellow_mango

Well that’s £115 I could really have done without spending. This is where some sort of emergency fund would have come in handy! I’d say “next time” but of course I’m not planning for there to be a next time...

halogen

Hi there to the OP.
I'm in a different boat in that I owe more and earn less
I don't have kids, my mortage is only £250/month, phone less than £10,I don't take holidays, my car is owned outright. I don't go out, takeaway maybe once every 6 months. No Sky/netflix.



Somehow some of your comments seemed to strike a chord though.


I struggle with not spending money so I have about £12k of credit card debt (also £10K of sudent loan but I'll never have to pay that back). About a year ago I did transfer as much as I could to a 0% balance transfer card to try and make a dent but it never seems to go down. I pay off about £500-700 each month split between the two cards and I've never missed a payment.

I only ever use the cards for online spending- I live in a small town so there are things that I just can't get here so blocking Amazon and Ebay isn't an option.



I've done SOAs before and my main expenditure is groceries. However hard I try everytime I go round Lidl for the week, its £50+ and by the end of the week I'm living on cheese and crackers. And that's with only buying discounted meat and fish. When I'm in the city and treat myself to Morrisons its £70+
I don't understand these people who can feed a family of 4 for £30/week. I'd be eating the sofa with that. But anyway that belongs on the 'cooking for one' thread I guess.


However it all just goes to show that doesn't matter how much you earn.

Yellow_mango

Somehow some of your comments seemed to strike a chord though.

Hi halogen - thanks for stopping in! It’s great how we can find parallels and support one another even when our situations look so different at first sight :beer:

I’m really glad I’m not the only person in the world who can spend hundreds of pounds in Lidl :rotfl:

DancingInTheRain

Wishing you well on your journey, I have a self imposed ban on visiting the middle of Lidl - the most random things can pop in to my trolley if I dare venture down there!:rotfl:

Yellow_mango

I’ve been reflecting on my lock incident, and what I have realised is how valuable having personal money is to me.

I have repaid most of it from what was in my personal account (the £100 I stuck in when I opened my Starling account), and will pay the rest next week. It makes me feel somehow a lot better that I am able to do that, rather than mess up the family grocery budget with a stupid mistake like that. It’s a little bit of independence that I haven’t had for years, and didn’t really realise how much I missed it!

I think I will now try to always keep a bit of a buffer in my personal account for stuff like that!

In other news, I emailed the school about moving to a monthly dd schedule, and within a couple of hours I received a general letter / form about setting up payments for the next school year. Co-incidence maybe, but I’ll get them sent back ASAP. They offer 10 monthly payments August - May. That will definitely make things a little easier, and I think will allow me to go back to plan A of not needing to transfer any of the balance on the BC and just buffering through the OD for a few months.

Yellow_mango

Happy Friday MSErs!

I’ve just checked my bank account and my expenses have been paid. That’s £224 that will fund next week’s food / fun budget :-)

I really wish I was one of those people who jumped out of bed in the mornings with loads of energy and motivation to do stuff. I just want to sleep all the time.

enthusiasticsaver

Excellent expenses done and you have over £200 to cover next week. Why not stick the £24 in a savings account to kick start emergency fund?

I think personal accounts would be a great idea for you and your DH. I have a savings account attached to my personal one and I siphon off any unspent funds. One year I had enough for AI holiday to Dom8nican republic with my sister. DH never has any left at the end of the month. Too many expensive hobbies. Luckily my hobbies are walking and reading with odd theatre/garden visit thrown in so a bit cheaper.

Have a good day.

Yellow_mango

Well I have £200 waiting for next week. £89.93 in the “house” pot as the start of an EF, £10.50 in my personal account (after I’d repaid the last of the lock fiasco and an ill thought out lunch at work today) and £30 waiting for DH.

Except he’s out tonight so I haven’t sent it to him. DS1 is staying over with his friend, DS2 is shut in his room on the Xbox, and dd has a migraine. So much for my master plan. Guess I’m doing it all by myself after all.

I called the vet this morning to book the cat in for her vaccines before we go away as she needs them to go into the cattery. Except it turns out it’s been more than a year since she had them, so they won’t just give her the booster. She has to have one now, then a booster in 3-4 weeks. So we don’t have time to get both before we leave. Really hope the cattery will take her :-/

Oh well. At least it’s the weekend. Hope we get some decent weather. I really need to try and get back on top of the garden!