One income family of four - can we get ahead even after pay cuts?

Baileys_Babe

I like both Home Bargains and Lidl. If you are planning on already being in the stores that week could you do that weeks shopping whilst you are there? As well as pick up any shelf stable or long life products for the month, which are cheaper than Tesco.

MagicCat

I'm the same with online shopping @Bluegreen143, I know it's costing more but worried about stopping at the moment. Monthly Lidl/HB shop is a good idea.

Bluegreen143

Weekly direct debit for the fruit & veg boxes came out (£23.60).

New month ahead! 

As payday is tomorrow I thought I’d round off with my final spending for this month from YNAB:

SPENDING 
Food: £435.53
Household supplies: £88.97

Petrol & parking: £60

Fun: £53.88

Home & garden projects: £72.82
Clothes: £30.72

My spends: £36.49

SAVINGS BALANCES 
Christmas & birthdays £442.70 (Spent £82.30 from this fund in July)

Emergencies £172.06

Annual bills/expenses: £65 (Spent £46 from this fund in July)

I’ve got £51 left from child benefit (as had to allocate the rest to cover overspending, oops) so have started allocating this towards August bills.

Bluegreen143

Forgot to add in Red’s spends but can’t remember exactly anyway as I don’t track in YNAB. Think he got £290 in the end which is less than normal. Some of it was likely spent on household stuff but I only reimburse him if he asks as I was fed up taking the responsibility to keep an eye on his account.

Bluegreen143

What an amazing day! So hot and sunny (very strange as yesterday it was pouring and we had a garden playdate where all the kids wore wellies and waterproofs!). 

We went to the beach 😍😁 one we have used before and know is never busy as it’s one bay away from all the facilities and playpark etc. We arrived for 10am, left at 1 after a picnic lunch - perfect timings for us with Bambi being so small rather than pushing our luck with a whole day thing. We hardly saw anyone but it was really hotting up as we left and the road on the other side was jammed packed with cars coming for the afternoon so I think our plan worked out perfectly. The tiny people in the photo are the kids and Red and you can see their big sandcastle they made in the foreground 🙂 the children had such a blast and spent all morning wading. We haven’t been to the seaside yet this summer because of lockdown (in Scotland until recently you could still only travel up to 5 miles and we aren’t within that distance of the sea). So it felt really special and very slightly made up for our May holiday to Portugal getting cancelled! 

After getting home in the afternoon we spent the rest of the time in the garden - kids played in the paddling pool and I for some unknown reason decided to turn the compost. An EXTREMELY hot and heavy job but glad it’s done and have a wheelbarrow of lovely finished compost now that I’ve extracted. 

Kids are now watching Robin Hood, absolutely knackered (especially Bambi who only had a 45 min nap on the drive home) and having scrambled egg & toast for dinner. Red is off to Tesco as it’s payday and he wants to buy steak for us out of his own money - who am I to refuse that 😅

Will post updated YNAB budget tomorrow. It won’t be enough for the month now our mortgage payment holiday has ended but once we get Universal Credit on the 8th it will tide us over. August was always going to be an extremely tight month due to having to pay the mortgage again but not being back on full pay. We will muddle through and I will be much stricter on the food budget, then hopefully in September Red will be on closer to his usual pay and we can resume our saving goals and throwing extra money at the MIL debt.

Bluegreen143

AUGUST BUDGET

Income:
Red’s salary - £1625 
Child benefit (left from last month): £50
Universal credit £? due 08/08
Child benefit £140 due 24/08

Spending budget: 
Food - £300
Household supplies - £80
Petrol & parking - £30
Fun - £30
Clothes - £33.50 have already ordered this amount of clothes for Monkey from Asda as his joggers all have holes in & tshirts are stained now after 5 months of running about in the garden. Ordered a few cheap, plain but colourful tshirts & joggers and a pair of sandshoes all for him starting nursery again in 10 days. 
My spends - £25 
Red’s spends + phone bill - £250

Monthly bills - £800
Annual bills - £125 (fund now totals £190) 

When I receive the UC and later on the child benefit, I will first need to pay £50 off the MIL loan, at least £100 into the Christmas savings and something into the emergency fund. I also expect that we will need a bit extra fun money and that Red will want some to do a couple of little projects in the house but I’ll wait to see exactly how much UC we are getting before I allocate anything.

Baileys_Babe

Sounds like a lovely day. 

natlie

Hi
My Universal credit payment has varied every month during lockdown,  if I get anything extra I just add it to the Christmas pot for now.
Nat 

MagicCat

Lovely beach day, sand is such fun for little ones.
It's hard not knowing about UC, hopefully things won't be too tight this month.

Bluegreen143

Thanks all. It’s a total mystery to me how much we will get but never mind. As this will be the toughest month definitely, I’ll settle for ending it without taking on debt. If the UC amount isn’t high enough it may mean no progress on the MIL debt or adding to emergency savings this month which is OK. I’m so glad we have some money put aside in the Christmas/birthday fund as this month is my birthday, my sister’s 30th birthday and my mum’s birthday, plus two of my best friends I typically buy gifts for, plus Red’s best friend’s wife who we would usually pick up a bottle of something. It’s by far our most expensive birthday month besides December. I find it tricky cutting back on my mum & sister’s presents - my mum does tell me not to spend too much though. But it’s hard as my sister, who is in a double-income-no-kids situation, is so lovely and generous. And particularly with my sister I know her tastes so well, it’s a pleasure to buy for her because I constantly see bits I know she’d like. If I didn’t have anything set aside for presents I would definitely be really stressed out this month!

I’ve noticed the Scottish government are doing a £250 grant for parents on universal credit at three stages of the child’s life - pregnancy/newborn, age 2 and between 4-5. Monkey is actually within the parameters for the age 4-5 payment so I think I can apply for this. If I get it I’ll put it towards the kids’ Christmas and birthdays and it’ll be a big help 🙂