New Habits Needed...

jwil

Happy new diary

I am working from home so wait until I've dropped the kids off at school to have breakfast.  It's lovely to eat in peace  

BalanceBy50

jwil said:

Happy new diary

I am working from home so wait until I've dropped the kids off at school to have breakfast.  It's lovely to eat in peace  

Thanks @j@jwil your diary is such an inspiration 😁 and not have to share your breakfast!

BalanceBy50

Had two quite speedy days and gone over budget too. It will probably be Monday before I get chance to sit down & work everything out. Tomorrow I am going out for brunch with 3 old friends too so more will be spent x

jwil

BalanceBy50 said:

jwil said:

Happy new diary

I am working from home so wait until I've dropped the kids off at school to have breakfast.  It's lovely to eat in peace  

Thanks @j@jwil your diary is such an inspiration 😁 and not have to share your breakfast!

Aww thank you   Yes, not sharing breakfast is another bonus

Enjoy your brunch today

BalanceBy50

Really need to spend some time tomorrow sorting my spends out from the last three days.  It will be a quiet day, rubbish weather forecast & DH is working! My mum has promised the boys a kfc but I am hoping not to spend anything unless the weather really picks up!

Today I spent £15 on brunch with my oldest friends, I then went to a large shopping centre & returned 2 items of clothing, bought a new ironing board cover for £8 - DH does the ironing & was threatening to go on strike if I didn’t buy him one 😂 & managed to spend £11 in £land despite only going in for one thing! Why is it impossible to only buy one item in a pound shop 😂😂😂.  All I know is I will end up owing my pots.... again. Hoping this diary will help me curb this x

BalanceBy50

Finally managed to sit down and sort my finances out this morning. Everything is straight, largely due to a cheque my in-laws gave us. They wanted it to be used for the boys hobbies so that’s what we have done instead of using our money. Without it though I would have overspent at the weekend. The overspends were on greenhouse glass, ironing board cover & a new mop even though the house pot is empty.  I also, yet again, overspent on groceries. I have recently increased this budget to £130pw and it covers food, cleaning products, basic personal care such as toothpaste & shower gel, cat food & litter & about £12-15pw on alcohol for 4 of us (obviously the alcohol is only for 2 of us 😂😂) I don’t know if this is a reasonable amount or not.  

We allow £100pw for entertainment & a shortfall in other stuff. £10pw is used on an exercise class for DH & I and £10 on a sport activity for the boys the rest, especially during lockdown is frittered away. Today I spent £3.10 on a breakfast sandwich, I took a flask to stop me buying a coffee as I am not a fan of the coffee in the office (I buy the milk & my colleague buys the coffee - it’s Douwe E... so not cheap but I don’t like it 😂😂😂) I also took a salad & some fruit so quite a low spend 😁.

I have transferred £36.98 to my credit card as I’d had a refund for some clothes I returned 😁. I have paid a deposit for a celebration event for my oldest son’s birthday next month - this has depleted my gifts pot - not sure if this is the right pot but I don’t have a pot for birthday celebrations.  it’s my dads birthday next week & nothing in the gift pot for his present 🙈 so that will have to come out of our weekly spends. My youngest son has decided he wants piano lessons in school (we borrowed a keyboard off of my in-laws but it doesn’t work very well and I think this is what prompted the cheque from my in-laws) so we bought a new one however we encouraged our son to pay for this out of his birthday money.  We are paying for the lessons & used the money from in-laws to buy the books.  

Think that’s it from me today.  I hope tomorrow is better weather wise - I just want it to be a bit warmer 😁
xx

WinterWarrior

Pots are tricky to get a grip on! I always ended up spending them all, but this month I am jealously guarding them like a dragon on a pile of gold and don’t want to touch them...even for the things they were set up for! I’ve gone from one extreme to the other 🤣 I’m hoping for a happy medium in future, but need a decent amount in them for that to work. 

I think you need to buy your own coffee if the one your colleague gets isn’t to your liking. When I was in the  office we resorted to powdered milk as bringing fresh was too painful!
Have a great day.

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here

Hi BB50, I've bookmarked your diary and will follow along. I too have 2 kids and overspent on my first mat leave on SMP just like you - it's so easily done isn't it! I was a bit more sensible the second time around, but as you say, kids are so expensive! It's not easy but you've made a good start. Good luck!

BalanceBy50

WinterWarrior said:

Pots are tricky to get a grip on! I always ended up spending them all, but this month I am jealously guarding them like a dragon on a pile of gold and don’t want to touch them...even for the things they were set up for! I’ve gone from one extreme to the other 🤣 I’m hoping for a happy medium in future, but need a decent amount in them for that to work. 

I think you need to buy your own coffee if the one your colleague gets isn’t to your liking. When I was in the  office we resorted to powdered milk as bringing fresh was too painful!
Have a great day.

Thanks WinterWarrior my pots are all straight this morning! Cheques has cleared from the in-laws so i ave done a money shuffle 😊. I have bought some coffee in from home with the excuse its decaf, i order extra on my online shop for the office and as i like skimmed my colleague just puts up with it - there's only 2 of us in the office so its nice to share a drink and catch up!

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here said:

Hi BB50, I've bookmarked your diary and will follow along. I too have 2 kids and overspent on my first mat leave on SMP just like you - it's so easily done isn't it! I was a bit more sensible the second time around, but as you say, kids are so expensive! It's not easy but you've made a good start. Good luck!

Thank DMOOH - love your user name but not sure how you shorten it! Do you have a diary?  Will have a look and pay a visit.x

BalanceBy50

Good morning - the sun is shining in my corner of the world so I feel quite happy today!  I pegged the washing out first thing so hopefully that will be dry when I get home so no using the dryer!
All pots are straight - not a lot in some of them but they will be replenished on Friday.  I have 87p left in our weekly spends but do not need to buy anything before Friday - I may even achieve a NSD tomorrow..
I have been playing around with a Debt Snowball calculator this morning and my current debt free date is Dec 22 just paying £300 to my two card debts.  This will increase to £325 next month and £425 in July once the HP & Family loan 1 are done which brings my DFD to June 22.  If I can add an extra £100 per month this will bring it to March 22 so I have set that as my challenge.
I am counting the £36.98 which I paid to my card yesterday as part of this monthly challenge.

Hope anyone reading has a lovely thrifty day today x