Why is spending money so easy......

Snwps

Anyone else out there addicted to take aways? 

I think I need help! I cant even pin point why we have them so frequently. Sometimes its the fact I've had a long day and cant be bothered to cook, other times we treat it as a treat night usually when DH is off work as we dont spend much time together we have kind of a date night. Most of the time I regret it straight afterwards and dont enjoy it. Am I just a fat cow? lol

I do hate cooking, although I'm not bad at it. I hate the everyday conversation I have of 'whats for tea?' even if I do weekly meal plans we dont stick to the days as it depends on what we feel like that day. I try and mix things up but I find we have something, enjoy it, then have so much of it we get sick of it. Then we're back to square one. 

RobM99

Snwps said:

Anyone else out there addicted to take aways? 

I think I need help! I cant even pin point why we have them so frequently. Sometimes its the fact I've had a long day and cant be bothered to cook, other times we treat it as a treat night usually when DH is off work as we dont spend much time together we have kind of a date night. Most of the time I regret it straight afterwards and dont enjoy it. Am I just a fat cow? lol

I do hate cooking, although I'm not bad at it. I hate the everyday conversation I have of 'whats for tea?' even if I do weekly meal plans we dont stick to the days as it depends on what we feel like that day. I try and mix things up but I find we have something, enjoy it, then have so much of it we get sick of it. Then we're back to square one. 

How about a slow cooker? Just chuck everything in at breakfast time, and it's done when dinner time comes around. 

Snwps

Balance on CC1 is now down to £885. The 0% deal ends on 01/04/2021 and there's only 1 dd left before end of the month of £30. The balance was due to be paid in full from DH job #2 salary on 05/04/2021 but it means it wont be paid off before the deal end date. I've been racking my brains how to I can clear this before end of the month. 

I had a thought earlier, I have £590 in my Monzo pots with another £300 going in on 26th. I've decided I'm going to use this money to clear the balance on CC1 on 26th. Then when DH gets paid on 05/04/2021 I'll pay this back into the Monzo pots to bring back to where it should be. In effect borrowing from my savings for those 5 days.

CC2 0% deal ends 01/10/2021 but this will be paid off in plenty of time (est end July), and the same goes for all the other cards on 0%, they'll be paid off before the deal ends. So once we get this month out of the way there should be less stress.

enthusiasticsaver

I would use the pots money to clear CC1 and then focus on resaving in March and April rather than BT the £700 or paying the interest. I know it is disheartening to empty pots but IMHO better than paying interest.  It also means that is another debt gone so all in a good cause.  Can you ration the takeaways to just one a week or every other week?  Meal planning should help with reducing the takeaway spend.  Using a slow cooker is a good idea or having some convenience stuff in the freezer like a pizza or curry portions. 

Snwps

enthusiasticsaver said:

I would use the pots money to clear CC1 and then focus on resaving in March and April rather than BT the £700 or paying the interest. I know it is disheartening to empty pots but IMHO better than paying interest.  It also means that is another debt gone so all in a good cause.  Can you ration the takeaways to just one a week or every other week?  Meal planning should help with reducing the takeaway spend.  Using a slow cooker is a good idea or having some convenience stuff in the freezer like a pizza or curry portions. 

Thats what I was thinking so thanks for the push in the right direction. Its always good to have others thoughts. 

I know its only 6th of the month today but we've not had any take aways this week and we're not having one this weekend yey!. This is a major step for us    Im aiming to reduce how often we have one. However, sometimes the problem isnt how often, just purely the cost of 4 adults having a take away, it can cost £30-£40 a time. This itself should be a discouragement in getting one, but like I've said before all reasoning goes out the window when I'm in a 'dont give a toss' mood. 

I'm going to look through some recipies online to get some more variety in our meals. I hate the recipies where you need to buy ingredients you wont use again unless youre making that recipe and end up going out of date after just one use. I like ones which have just a few ingredients and are pretty straight forward to make - slow cooker recipies would be even better as you just throw everything and pop it on. I do have one and do use it for the same 3 meals. See I need to get on the ball with this.

Snwps

I've just moved the money from the Monzo accounts to CC1 and rounded up to £600. Balance on CC1 now sits at £285. This will be paid on 26th.

Balance @ 06/03/2021 is £21,548.01 and with the remaining DD's due should break through the £21k mark by end of the month. However I need to remember that next month is not going to be as much of a change as this month as this month as DH's wage from job #2 will be going to fill back up the Monzo pots.

Snwps

Sorry for the millions of posts today, got lots going around in my head.

To do:

• I just checked and my 2 sim only plans are expiring on 18 April 2021. I only pay £9.02 per handset (one each for myself and DH) so I need to phone them on 14 March to renegotiate another sim only deal for the 2.
• I also need to phone sky to find out when my deals are ending. I know I renewed 1 part of my contract last year which I think was for boradband so need to check the TV deal end date. Theres something in my mind its this summer.
• Car insurance due for renewal on 18 May, need to start looking around for cheaper quotes. We got a multi vehicle policy which means both cars renew together at the same time. Usually it's a pain as if I switch providers I have to find a deposit for 2 policies at the same time. This year it shouldnt be an issue as I've got the money saved to pay the year in full. Then I plan on saving what I was paying monthly in my Monzo account. Same when I renew the tax in July on the one car. I will pay in full and save the £20 per month in Monzo.
• I really want to do a bank switch but I'm waiting for the cash insentives to pick up. At the moment theres only HSBC offering this so I'm going to hold off a little longer. I also need to weigh up the cash back deals I'm getting with Coop/Nat West to see if can get better if I moved DD's around. However I dont want to have an unmanagement number of bank accounts lol.
• Need to finalise our wills. I'm half way through and got to the executors bit and stopped. Need to pick this up again.

TheAble

RobM99 said:

Snwps said:

Anyone else out there addicted to take aways? 

I think I need help! I cant even pin point why we have them so frequently. Sometimes its the fact I've had a long day and cant be bothered to cook, other times we treat it as a treat night usually when DH is off work as we dont spend much time together we have kind of a date night. Most of the time I regret it straight afterwards and dont enjoy it. Am I just a fat cow? lol

I do hate cooking, although I'm not bad at it. I hate the everyday conversation I have of 'whats for tea?' even if I do weekly meal plans we dont stick to the days as it depends on what we feel like that day. I try and mix things up but I find we have something, enjoy it, then have so much of it we get sick of it. Then we're back to square one. 

How about a slow cooker? Just chuck everything in at breakfast time, and it's done when dinner time comes around. 

It's not quite so straightforward. Do it like that and it will usually come out yuck. They're a great thing, I have one myself, but you do have to spend time in the initial stages to get a good result.

TheAble

Just on your credit card issue, to put it in perspective. You'd be paying 4 or 5 days' interest at 20% or whatever on a debt of £885. So about £2! Yes, better to have the £2 in your pocket, but not really a big stress.

Snwps

It is a glorious day here today. 1 wash done and pegged out, another wash in. I done a load of cleaning yesterday and feel so much better for it. Theres something about sunshine that makes me want to clean (I'm sure I'm not alone in this). Down side to sunshine is that it shows every speck of dirt and dust when it shines through the window, they are filthy! I definatley need to get the jet wash out and clean the outside of the windows ASAP.

Started planting some seeds and have them in trays on the windowsil at the moment, beans are looking good and tomatos are getting there. Need to sow more this week. Looking to go to our local allotment this weekend to put our name on the waiting list, they like gold dust at the moment here. I just dont have the space in the garden to do much.

DS1 back to college this week so need to start giving him money for lunch 3 days a week. DS2 not back in school for some time yet.

DH lost his wallet last week so cards cancelled and re-ordered. I need to order him a new driving licence so thats going to cost £20.