The great life reset

Bella_Budget

The kittens are amazing! They're just funny little bundles of fluff who are probably being treated better than my kids! Only joking but I am quicker to buy a cat treat than I am a sweetie for my kids, which the girls have pointed out to me 😄
So money, the world seems quite different from when i started this thread. 
Isa is currently 17561, things understandably all over the place in the stock market.
Given what others are going through the mortgage seems almost trivial in comparison.

Bella_Budget

I haven't posted in a long time as real life went completely mental and money saving was the last thing on my mind due to an unexpected life threatening illness of one of my parents. The NHS has been amazing and for everyone who helped my mum to recover, i am so grateful. During those weeks/months I didn't meal plan, didn't have time to cook and ate more take away than I have in decades. Bought anything and everything to encourage my mum to eat even a few bites as that would have been better than the nothing she was then taking. Spent a fortune on fuel running up and down to hospital and taking relatives up to visit. I  say this not to complain but to better highlight how privileged I was, and didn't even realise it, in the running of my normal budget because stress and chaos throws your plans out the window.

I have a better appreciation that everyone is doing their best and sometimes circumstances are against folk which makes trying to save difficult. I have been fortunate in being able to absorb the extra costs but it has been at the expense of savings. There's also been the stock market depreciation of my savings and an extremely expensive but necessary roof repair as well as general cost of everything going up. All of which has meant I have been pretty rubbish in the mortgage pay off stakes!
For July the offset mortgage currently stands at £61,709.56 which is more or less like treading water. Hopefully August will be better.
Take care everyone 
BB

savingholmes

Treading water while going through all that sounds like an immense achievement Bella. Glad your mum is now on the mend and that you had the funds to see her when needed. You just had to re-prioritise your budget for a while. You'll get back on track. The markets will eventually settle.

jackieblack

A friend of mine who’s coeliac has given up with gluten-free versions of anything and has now adapted her diet to just do without the bread/cakes etc, says she’s saving a fortune! 

Bella_Budget

savingholmes said:

Treading water while going through all that sounds like an immense achievement Bella. Glad your mum is now on the mend and that you had the funds to see her when needed. You just had to re-prioritise your budget for a while. You'll get back on track. The markets will eventually settle.

Thanks savingholmes I did feel very fortunate that I could just spend where needed and not worry too much. One other patient on the ward (it was a speciality hub ward so lots of patients came from out of the hospitals local area) had commented that due to fuel costs and the distance, their family couldn't really visit often and that just broke my heart. To be sick and vulnerable and your family can't come and see you because of costs just seems wrong.

Bella_Budget

Jackieblack, as a family we don't go into a cafe etc unless my DD can eat something as well. It has saved us a fortune on incidental snacking and probably quite a few inches off my waistline as well!

Bella_Budget

August has turned into the month that ate all the money and we're not even a third of the way through  😱
School uniforms, car repairs, vet bills and suddenly my little pots of money are looking very empty!
This is going to sounds silly but as much as I knew everything was going up in price, I guess I didn't realize what the reality of that looked like in my day to day spending. It's been quite a shock. 
I need to reel things in a bit and will need to use my diary to be accountable. 
So in food shopping money I have £38.50 for this week (runs wed to weds) all milk and eggs for week already bought (milk gets delivered) and freezer is fairly stocked. Going to try and only buy fresh bits and bobs to squeak through this week.
DH's travel pass £27.60 bought for the week. We bulk bought pet food which should see us through to end dec, it was one of those we need to buy it and it's only ever going up in price moments which I'll be grateful for next month but not so much this month! 
We've a ferry trip to pay for tomorrow £16.80, £5 parking and no doubt costs when we get to the island. Bit of an expensive week.

savingholmes

Hi Bella - I think the speed of price change has shocked us all. Definitely do all you can to rein it in and build up a buffer in your energy acct for winter too.

Bella_Budget

Thanks SH, 
We just squeaked out of August, no debt but nothing saved. September is a 5 week month for us. No pay until 28th.
This is also the month we get out gas and electricity bill so dreading it.
Have set a budget of £80 a week shopping, £50 fuel and £40 miscellaneous/entertainment. 
Did week 1 shop 60.57 and hopefully won't need to go back until next Wednesday at the earliest. £30 in DH's car, not sure how long that will last, fingers crossed maybe 7 to 10 days.
Have a good Friday everyone 

savingholmes

Sounds like budgeting has gone much better this month. Well done. Good luck for next month too... Perhaps meal planning could help - I need to do more of that too.