Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

shoppingobsessed2020

doing well, been a busy few days, but eating up the freezers and cupboards, been a low spend day today.  spent £13 in lidl.  im always amazed at how cheap it is when we go but i dont know how i would fit in a weekly shop into my schedule.  i detested being dragged round the shops on a weekend when i was younger and i dont want to do the same with monkey boy which is why i mainly do home delivery.  im gong to give it a go, maybe on a night when monkey boy has an activity so i could finish work, nip over and do the shopping, get him then home to unpack and put it away.  

in all honesty im so tired come night time that it wouldnt work but im going to try do our little bits for the weekend shop there on the way home from swimming lessons.

spent £150 on my next account but his lordship needed smaller joggers and swimming trunks - i can handle that on the account.  the trousers i had to return were actually £18 not £11 so thats good and i also need to return 1 paid of swimming trunks as i got 2 to allow for size choice.  so not bad at all.

credit cards remain ok, bar his lloyds card when we went and got him some new exercise equipment, and hit costco.  yeah lets not talk about that shopping trip!  however he is getting a bonus this month unsure on the amount but it will cover the costco blow out.  it wasnt an insane shop but it was more than i wanted to spend but he hasnt been home for months so i dont mind getting him some smoked salmon and sushi as its a bit of a luxury shop which i know we cant afford as such but he needed a treat.  it did also include bin bags, washing powder and dishwasher tablets so its not that bad.  for once costco wasnt my idea, apart from saying whilst we are up here ill fill up my car as its cheaper and that then turned into well lets go in!

im not planning on going to costco till end of march, april school holidays at the earliest, so by that point i will be ready on a BIG freezer top up shop and a big meat shop.

we have a busy weekend planned, should be low spend but we have got lunch out booked in town.  from what ive seen price wise its not ridiculous, about £8 a main meal which i find comparable with fast food places and we have a weekend away in a local lodge which was a birthday present from my parents so its nice to get it used, thats all paid for bar needing to take some food with us to the lodge.

i start my new job next tuesday so thats good, dbs finally came back so i can start.

house is a bombsite, 3 people home all day does not keep it clean or tidy.  the living room is this evenings job, the washing and ironing is up to date but i need to clean.  im hoping to work a weekly cleaner into the budget depending on a few things.  his lordship might be getting promotion which is great as it is double his current salary but it means going back to sea after 3/4 weeks (hence why i really didnt mind the blow out costco shop as he needs a proper chill), and in which case i will get a cleaner again.  if he doesnt well then im just going to have to get super organised.  Im not holding my breath for this promotion but can only wait and see.  dont get me wrong, its not dirty, id happily have friends pop round unannounced and let them use the bathroom and kitchen but id be ashamed at how untidy it is but i dont have the energy to blast it all in one go so baby steps as the basics are done its just more the extras like the dusting and windows that are desperate as they are things only i notice and not the others.

ive made brownies as monkey boy and his lordship are out on a walk at the moment so that will be a nice treat when they get back in, im picking them up in the next village over when i get a phonecall as they will have done a 7 mile walk to get there and i dont want monkey boy walking all that way back as it puts him at his limit and its not fair when its the first long walk hes done in months.

shoppingobsessed2020

emergency fund 

been musing on this and i dont know what amount to aim to save.  i know im getting ahead of myself here but having looked at my spreadsheet and thinking we are good to hammer this debt i want to have my plan in place for an emergency fund.  was thinking 1 month of living expenses first, then building up to 6 months before we start focusing on anything else?

GeorgianaCavendish

£1000 is a good target to start with for the emergency fund, that will take care of unexpected bills or something like boiler breakdown. I would work on getting as much of the debt onto long term 0% deals as possible (which might involve making overpayments) and then work on continuing debt repayments and building the emergency fund at the same time. 

I made the decision to extend my debt free date by 12 months so that we could get an emergency fund together, at that point I had about £3000 debt on 0% for 18 months. Once we had 3 months in there, I stopped making big payments to it and kept it ticking over by adding £50 a month, so we're now sitting at around 4.5 months. Once we complete on our new house and have sorted out all the repairs etc, I'd like to increase our contributions again to get this up to 6 months but for now there are other demands on our money and I don't want the EF to push me in the direction of having to borrow in other areas.

Some good advice I read about emergency funds is to include any redundancy payment that you would be entitled to in your calculations. My OH is self employed, so we only include the figures for what would be my redundancy pay into the calculations, but this really helped me decide on the overall target. 

We also keep our EF in Premium Bonds so that it is separate to our other savings, and there is the possibility of winning some money as well. So far we've won £75 which is a nice bonus  

shoppingobsessed2020

yeah i wasnt clear, i was meaning after the debt bar mortgage was gone   i need plans upon plans upon plans so if plan a doesnt work, i can go to plan, b, c d and so on

GeorgianaCavendish

Ahh I see, in that case I think 6 months EF is a really good target. Once we've got to 6 months in our EF, I'll switch focus to overpaying the mortgage and making greater pension contributions

Naomim

I stick £50 a month in PB's alongside debt and sinking funds payments. I'm upto £450 so far I think. Out of sight, out of mind.