Our £20,000 Life

eternal_sunshine

hi Cinny,been reading your thread and always feel motivated to try and tighten the purse strings when I hear your progress,you are doing great! Just a question about your food budget-do you *have* to spend a minimal amount or are you just trying to cut back in that area ie if you wanted to,could you afford to splurge and waste money on food? I only ask because for the past few months I have been monitoring our food budget(including takeaway and meals out) and to be honest for two adults and a one year old it is obscene! It is slowly coming down but the problem is that I can afford the high food bill so I’m finding it harder to cut down. Does that make sense? If we literally did not have the money I could totally be a lot more thrifty and wouldn’t complain about it but because we aren’t in that bad a place financially,it’s so easy to slip in that area. I have debt and need to save for maternity leave plus we want to clear the mortgage in 10 years rather than 15 and we want to buy a camper in a few years so it’s not like I don’t have goals,I just can’t seem to commit to cutting out the crap in our food bill! 

Sorry for that ramble-you just seem so content with all of your meals whereas I find sometimes if I have a meal planned and I really don’t want it,I turn into a bit of a grumpy teenager about the whole thing!

eternal_sunshine

ps I also hate the new layout,I’m a creature of habit!

Cinny91

Thanks Sunshine! We could easily and happily spend more, but I try to save first and spend what's left. Plus when I put a target in my head I tend to get very stubborn about it. Which I can never decide is a good trait or not! 
I am also 100% not content with the meals all of the time. I do like beans on toast with good butter on the bread so that one is easy and I could probably live that way for an unhealthy amount of time, but I try and do the meal prep first thing in the morning before my hunger kicks in and takes over. I feel that grumpy teenager, I was having a strop to myself the other day over meal plans because nothing sounded decent. But thankfully DH stepped in, suggested (and cooked) seasoned grilled chicken with coleslaw and garlic bread which is so simple (and cheap) that got me out of my funk. Plus it felt as good as a take away as he cooked it and did the dishes   

Cinny91

Today is the big payday!
We somehow managed to save our £1000 last month which means alongside our regular loan repayment we're £1369.43 closer to being debt free.
This morning we've put £500 into savings, aiming to save an extra £125pw to make it up to another £1000 by the 24th of March. It'll leave us around £600 for groceries, general spends etc through the month and that should be more than enough. We don't have much planned through March that will be costly. We have tickets to a show in the city on the 14th, two birthday parties but have several little play days planned with O's friends using local free things - plus the Mr Sun (sun, Mr Golden sun - O's song of the moment!) is finally showing his face which will mean we can spend more time outdoors. So here's hoping for no big car bills to knock us off track.
Also order a few more books to the library bus this weekend. Kind of fun visiting the bus, I think I might be a little sad when the library reopens  But it will be nice to be able to go return/find books when we fancy. 

lucielle

All sounding good
L

Cinny91

Hi Anyone!
Sorry for the long lull in posting. Once the virus started getting more serious our money plans went to pot. I started buying a few extra essentials when I was at the shops (would like to add we were not the TP-preppers!) So our budget extended slightly to accommodate that. We also spent extra to get supplies in for elderly people we know, as well as sending my grandparents a care package of books and movies and buying stamps to be able to send DH's grandma drawings from Oscar. We didnt spend massive amounts, no £150 trolleys of food for us! But little and often sure adds up. Anyhow.

Our secure savings for paying off our loan stands at £6500 (£7000 target not met) and we have £1250 easy access. £20 in my purse and £40 in the bank.

Main plan through lockdown is obviously to spend as little as possible. Save as much as we can, pause plans to pay off our loan early and just see what the world looks like after all this.

DH has been furloughed for now, until June but after 3 weeks he might be called back. One of the reasons for saving so much is we're expecting redundancy as theyve tried it before. We've taken the 3 month mortgage holiday too, with it being such a huge part of our budget so I think we can make enough of a nest egg to be okay. We also, obviously, have the £6.5k already saved.

Anyhow! Today we're making cornflake tarts, going to take some to the neighbours as since lockdown theyve all become our temporary family and hopefully longer term friends! O has also made easter cards for everyone too. Wish I hadn't lost track of NSDs or I'd be flying through them now 😅

Drawingaline

Sensible prepping then! We ate OK on tp as I am a bulk buyer of this at all times, and had stocked up fully at the end of feb.

Unfortunately I am one of the £150 trolley shoppers, but mainly because a lot of the budget brands are less available, causing a rise in overall costs, and we are a family of six, so £100 odd is the norm for us. I normally shop fortnightly too, and top up in the week so have been struggling to adjust to a one off weekly shop. I have dropped having it delivered, leaving those slots for people who need them, we are all relatively healthy, so I can still get out to the supermarket.

And we are saving a lot on commuting costs atm. Hubby working from home OK, and is classed as a key worker (although not front line) so is pretty safe. My jobs less so, one lost and one hanging on, but won't if this carries on for months. Worrying time all round

Cinny91

Hope you had a nice easter, Drawingaline We found the lack of our normal choice helped send our grocery bill up too. Around £60-80 where we'd normally spend £50 maximum? We're the same with toilet roll, we buy bulk maybe twice a year, I don't know about you but if I had to buy one of the items that was hard to find like tea or milk I felt so apologetic! But we've got to take care of our families. Was very relieved on the last grocery run I did for my Grandparents that milk restrictions have been lifted. I'd fetch them food every day of the week, 4 times a day if they needed me to but I've stocked them up properly now to limit the risk of me unknowingly passing the virus on. Hope nothing too drastic changes with your work. DH hasn't been told what he'll be getting paid next Friday but thankfully we were approved for the mortgage holiday so we haven't got paying that over our heads.

Did spend £590 over the weekend on our car insurances. Mine was only £260 which I think is a record low for me! We'll be getting £70 cashback too which will be helpful when it gets paid. Paid on our CC and will pay off come payday.

We now have £1400 in the bank. I heard the shops were quiet yesterday so I went to do our food shop and spent £38. I've reinstated our milk deliveries as the main reason we need to go to the shops is for milk or bread, and it's all about eliminating trips out. I'm hoping we won't spend any more money this week and we'll have £1500 saved on Friday.

Drawingaline

Milk and bread delivered by the milk man has been a godsend. And my parents also use them, so no worry there. I have always loved the convenience of the deliveries over the cost. I think it evens out with less 'popping' to the shops. 

Cinny91

Oh definitely, it's £4 a week for 3 pints of milk and a loaf of bread. Be a lot cheaper from the shops but hey ho, keeps someone in work too and as it's a job with no contact (sure they rock up around 3am!) there isn't much risk to our milk lady. 

Didn't do at all well on not spending any money. £20 on local deliveries, £39.99 on a new kettle as ours pop-whizzed-and-banged itself into the afterlife (had it for I think 7 years mind, so it's doesn't owe us anything), Netflix payment I completely spaced on and DH had bike repairs. Hey ho I suppose, a lot worse things happening in the world at the moment than a spot of financial flutters. Bank stands at £1440 so my £1500 wish is firmly out of reach. Will be happy to make it to DH's payday with £1350. As he's furloughed we are totally in the dark as to what he'll be getting paid. We've tried to calculate it ourselves but as his pay includes allowances we've no idea what will or won't be included as his company is skirting by on paying everyone only what the government will reimburse them. Which for a large international company is a bit shoddy but kind of to be expected.

Still, we made pizza for tea last night to celebrate us not getting a primary school placement for O. Ready for the home ed life! Very odd toppings as we worked with what was at home but we had no leftovers, and O even ate one with peppers on which shocked us all. He enjoyed making them too so as long as we have yeast they'll be on the menu.