£50,000 in 3 years diary. Can I do it???

RoxieW

Ok, slight revisions to SOA that I can hopefully stick to!


Outgoing
Mortgage 450
Rent 130 *
Council tax 105
Gas and Elec 70
Phone 30
Mobile (payg) 5
Sky 17
Net 20 **
Petrol 150 ***
dale lunches 100
food 300 200
xmas/birthdays 150 100
water 15
house maintainance 100 30
insurances 40
school dinners 40
activities with todd 40
boys football club 40
v license 11
charity 12
contacts 20
dentist 5
haircuts 20
newspapers/mags 20 10
clothes 50
mine and dales spends 100
family 'fun' 100
eating out 100
driving lessons/tests 120

total 2360 new total 2130



That means we can save £570 plus IF I pass my test on thursday thats £690 - shave £10 off food budget and I'll be at £700.

I haven't knocked out the budget for family fun, eating out etc because I dont think its realistic for me to scrap these and i'd just end up spending and getting demotivated. However, am gonna log everything I buy/spend on here and hopefully we will come under budget giving us more to throw at the savings.

I think the new budget is realistic - but need to be careful with the grocery shop to get it at £200. £100 a motnh is realistic for b'days and xmas and i think i was a bit generous with the house maintainance budget which is basically, window/bin cleaning and a contingency for emergencies. Mags used to be big problem for me but i've managed to cut down and hope I can stick to £10 a mth.

I haven't scrapped dales lunch money because he doesn't spend anything on himself and I think he deserves to be able to get a warm lunch/pub lunch every now and again/ Plus when i've made sandwiches in the past by the time I've bought him good ham, yogurt, crisps, drink etc its cost quite a bit anyways so leaving this as it is for now.

I'm also going to continue with the £10 a day challenge for december.

Sounds like a plan, eh??

RoxieW

ps i just got the £50 voucher for getting a barclaycard (am canceling asap of course!) Chose a next voucher so am gonna use it towards getting the boys new clothes in the jan sales.

RoxieW

OOh - my stars just went from one to two!!

mrsspendalot

Roxie best of luck for your driving test. I hope you manage to get to take it, what a nightmare! I passed my test (2nd time lucky) 3 weeks ago today and it has been the best thing that ever happened to me. I loved my lessons, but like you, was a complete nervous wreck at the thought of my driving test. About using a different car, my instructor changed cars a week before my 2nd test, so i only had 1 lesson in it before my test. It was fine. Within about 10 minutes I was used to the clutch and it was like I had always driven that car. Try not to worry too much about it. Good luck!

RoxieW

thanks spendalot - i followed your thread about your test - very enviously I have to admit. feeling rather hopeless about it but maybe i wont be quite so nervous that way. i just soooo hate having it hanging over me every month. strangely - my first and second tests I only failed by one stupid mistake - then the third (which I thought I'd passed) I had about 79 million faults on!!

i'll do my best, its all i can do - and if at first i dont succeed - try try try try try try ....................................try try try again!

pbirch53

Hi Roxie, I wish you well with all that you hope to achieve. I have read with great interest your posts and would say to you that the application of reducing your spending is your problem but then taking into consideration your age it is understandable. When we are young we 'want' and when we are more mature we 'need' and hopefully apply that to whether we spend or purchase.
What should be said to you is that you DO make excuses, you DO spoil your children and you DO generally waste money for no good reason. Remember that your children, even from a young age, learn from you and at the moment you are teaching them to be frivilous and poor at managing money as well as introducing them to a lifestyle that you do not know in adult life that they can independently sustain. And so the cycle continues!
Sorry for having been so direct but I feel that this will make you realise that this is serious and is about your future. Good luck and best wishes.

RoxieW

hi pbirch - thanks for posting (I think). T

BH I dont think that age has anything to do with money management. I certainly wouldn't class myself as immature and spoilt as you seem to be suggesting.
And for my age (25) I think to have a nice house, nice lifestyle and the only debts being the ones that paid me and oh through uni is pretty good going. I've lived independently from my parents since age 16 - supporting myself through night college whilst working full time to afford to live, got myself into Uni which i supported myself though, got a degree, post grad qualification whilst having a young baby, had my dream job and have a hubby and two gorgeous kids - i dont really think I'm doing that badly.


Hubby and I also got married this april for which we saved up and paid the entire £14000 ourselves. We also have nearly £10,000 of saving in the bank which we put aside when i was working and we had two wages coming in

I do agree that I have overspent in some areas such as food (particularly last month) and birthdays. But in other areas I think I'm quite money savvy - for example all my utilities, insurance, mortgage deals are low and i'm not intending to get a car when i pass my test as I dont feel that we need one at the minute.

as for making excuses - maybe - to me they're reasons that help me to understand why I'm weak in certain areas, my children have been spoilt with birthdays but on a day to day basis they are certainly not. Christmas and birthdays are the only times they got toys. We do go on a family outing every month ie farm or cinema etc but we think this is important family time for us.

I try to set a good example to my children. They both have money boxes and bank accounts and we sponsor a child in bolivia in order to show them how lucky they are. they are taught to be grateful for the treats that they have and the standard of living they enjoy.

As for 'the cycle continuing' - we can sustain our lifestyle on our income. But we want to save for a bigger house. That is more important to us so we've decided to make an effort to reduce our luxury spending and save it instead. Its hardly as if we are out every night living the high life? We're just a normal couple who like to eat out and yes we make a big deal of birthdays. They're the things I'm going to watch and try to improve on.

We are doing this for our future - because we want to save our money rather than fritter it away. I think thats quite a mature attitude to have at 25 so please don't patronise me when you know so little about me.

boredofbeingathome

I think life is for learning, we are all on this journey and the reason why i am on this website. I'm 43 and have learned an awful lot just by reading the posts on the website, i wish i had this when i was 25- so ignore all the negatives and congrats for being brave enough to post your details and preparing yourself for the new challenge.

RoxieW

thanks bobah. that post seemed a bit off - obviously i know i've wasted money in areas, and I need to apply myself which is why I've started this thread. i'm not perfect with money but who is ?????

RoxieW

ps pbirch Pls remember Debt-Free Wannabee's for support and help not judgement

I didn't see any constructive comments/help/support in your post - just judgement.