New Habits Needed...

BalanceBy50

Debt_Me_Out_Of_Here said:

BB50 we're also out of the favourite cereal but I'm forcing everyone to eat the shreddies and weetabix that have been gathering dust for months haha! 
I also recommend YNAB - it's really given me control over everything in a way my spreadsheets never did, and I rarely even check my actual online banking anymore because I don't need to.

I will definitely look into YNAB X

BalanceBy50

Update on weekly spends budget:
Total Spent £132/£100
Brunch - £15 
Takeaways & coffees etc - £57.28 
Candy Crush - £14 
Fitness Class & activity for boys - £20
Other (sweets & posting a parcel) - £11 - 
Money in purse - £14.72
Total = £132
Have removed items that are covered by other pots.  I can quite clearly see where my over spends are going! Need to concentrate on these going forward.
Weekly Spends Budget w/c 14/5
Fitness Class and boys activity - £20
Boys Spending money - £6
Repay overspends - £32
June Night Out - £10 (I have a big night out in June planned for a friends birthday so going to start saving for that now so i don't blow the whole weekly pot)
Lunch out - £15
Total = £83 - going to be tight with not much room for treats & coffees! 
All this is helping me with accountability even though its to myself 😊

Seasidegal58

It's essential to record everything and you're doing well on that, but do you really need Candy Crush?

BalanceBy50

@Seasidegal58 NO I don’t. I have felt quite sickened about the amount I have been spending. £14 is probably quite typical - multiply that by 52 weeks and irs an awful lot of money wasted 😡. I would be very cross if DH was wasting money like this. Seriously considering deleting the app as I waste far too much time on it. It’s been a real eye opener x

Seasidegal58

Yes - you could probably put £728 to good use somewhere else!  Martin had a money motivator calculator on his website where you used to put in the amount of your daily bought coffee, etc and it would give you the nasty annual cost in big bold figures!😱.  It might still be there.  I found cutting out the morning bought  coffees and bringing my own coffee to work was one of the easier things to do when I was debt busting. I used to have the odd one out when meeting a friend or for a treat now and again, but it's little adjustments like this that really help. 

jwil

I agree about Candy crush.  Is there a free game you could play instead?

BalanceBy50

Wrote quite a long post last night and then lost it so abandoned the idea! I have spent no money on cc so happy about that 😁 and am seriously thinking about deleting the app. I waste hours on it and then get cross with myself! New habits are needed in my life not just on money matters! Will think about this and maybe look at a list of where I would like to be by the end of the year.

Not sure where I am on weekly spends as didn’t get chance to update yesterday & not sure if I will today either. Went to A!di yesterday & have had my online shop delivered today & I think I am slightly under in my grocery pot - only by a few pounds! However I need to see where I am with cat food. Can’t believe they had no large packs of a leading brand for my online shop. I have a box of 40 pouches of supermarket ownbrand but my moggies are not very MSE 😂😂 only had them a couple of months so slyly mixing half a pouch at a time in with the more expensive stuff! Car pot gets filled next week as my monthly pots get filled on the 20th may sweep what’s left off of credit card & also look at other pots 😁.
Fairly miserable day here in my corner of the world 😁 - DH has just taken the boys out for their morning activities so I am going to tidy up, hoover & dust the house & DH will clean the bathroom when he gets back so should have a clean house then. Off out with a friend for a walk & outdoor coffee (my only spend of the day)  this afternoon & supermarket curry for tea so should feel like we have achieved a lot by bedtime xx

theoretica

BalanceBy50 said:

Update on weekly spends budget:
Total Spent £132/£100
Brunch - £15 
Takeaways & coffees etc - £57.28 
Candy Crush - £14 
Fitness Class & activity for boys - £20
Other (sweets & posting a parcel) - £11 - 
Money in purse - £14.72
Total = £132

You count 'money in purse' as already spent?  That isn't how I would do it as how you spend it - how it leaves the purse - seems more important.  including it in next week's budget would make this overspend smaller and next week less challenging.

I find it very useful to look back on spending and with hindsight think how good value for money everything was - do I remember it and how glad am I that I spent that money?

BalanceBy50

theoretica said:

BalanceBy50 said:

Update on weekly spends budget:
Total Spent £132/£100
Brunch - £15 
Takeaways & coffees etc - £57.28 
Candy Crush - £14 
Fitness Class & activity for boys - £20
Other (sweets & posting a parcel) - £11 - 
Money in purse - £14.72
Total = £132

You count 'money in purse' as already spent?  That isn't how I would do it as how you spend it - how it leaves the purse - seems more important.  including it in next week's budget would make this overspend smaller and next week less challenging.

I find it very useful to look back on spending and with hindsight think how good value for money everything was - do I remember it and how glad am I that I spent that money?

Hi @theoretic@theoretica thank you for responding. You are right I shouldn’t count it! Keeping a record of my spending is really highlighting how much I spend unnecessarily and isn’t good vfm! X

BalanceBy50

I’ve had a no spend day!! It is a miracle for me x