“Debt is normal. Be weird.”

browneyed_girl

No spends yet today!  Have allocated most of what is left in the extra spends budget to the garden so using the image of what the garden will (hopefully) look like to keep me motivated and stop spending on anything else unnecessary.  

Croissant bread and butter pudding was made today and went down well with me and the kids.  Used some hazelnut chocolate spread to make it extra yummy - would definitely recommend!  Would like to say that the food waste today has been zero but DD1 seems to be developing some sort of disordered eating and is refusing to finish some of her meals these days.  This raises huge red flags with me and we're keeping a close eye on her but still worrying.  It's not as though she needs to watch her diet at all - she's 14, nearly 5ft 9in and exactly 9 stone.  Didn't really waste anything as the dog had the leftovers, but it is stress that we could do without. 

DD3 has also come home today with information about a residential trip in March costing £160.  As we changed their school at the beginning of the year, this was the first we'd heard of it - other parents had the option of paying in instalments from last year but no such luck for us.  Oh well.  Don't want her missing out so the money will just come out of the £300 we would have put towards our EF this month.  Had the money available in various places but I hate to take out of pots/savings once the money has been allocated so this is the most agreeable option for me.  I think school trips probably deserve their own Monzo pot, particularly since DD1 has been looking at A level courses and is particularly keen on environmental science that features an annual trip to Iceland!

browneyed_girl

Feeling very much at odds with DH today about the budget and money-saving.  Asked him to stop off at Mr T on his way home from work to pick up a couple of things, mostly because DD1 was in need of sanitary pads so it couldn't wait.  Items should have been less than £10 but he ended up picking up some things for himself (always branded, expensive items) so the top up shop came to £25.51.  Puts us £22 over food budget for the week.  Then he gets annoyed at me for being annoyed at him for not taking the budget seriously!  I think part of the problem is that all the household direct debits come out of my account so he doesn't really see the full impact on our finances.  He has a habit of seeing his wages as personal spending money which doesn't really seem fair.  This is despite him agreeing with the current budget and financial plan on many occasions - it's almost as though he needs a daily reminder which I honestly don't have the time for!  Particularly when I just get told that I'm nagging...

Trying to offset the inevitable extra spending by DH by keeping a close eye on our weekly meal plan and making sure we minimise food waste.  Will definitely be focusing on cheaper meals next week.

Today, I've made a batch of veggie chilli for me and DH this week.  Found a few wraps that the kids aren't interested in finishing and DH can't eat as he's avoiding carbs, so I'll probably use these myself tomorrow with the chilli to make something resembling burritos.  DH will have the chilli with sour cream, guacamole, cheese etc.  I also have some sweet potatoes in the cupboard that are leftover from DD2's cooking at school so will make some sweet potato wedges to go with another lot of chilli later in the week. 

Other than the wraps, also have some carrots that could do with using this week - they'll probably get added into a batch of soup at the weekend.  I've found a drawer full of red chillies in the fridge which DH bought last week with the intention of preserving them in some way - will have to nudge him to do something with them.  There is also a red cabbage that DH bought for coleslaw and then never used, so I'll take it upon myself to pickle this to avoid it ending up in the bin.  Had no food waste today and I intend to try and keep this going for as long as possible!
  

LzzyIsGod

Tricky getting everyone on side and changing habits of a lifetime - hopefully dh will.come.round to it.

I've previously chopped leftover red cabbage up and frozen it for future meals - not as successful as fresh peppers or courgettes but better than wasting it. I've not tried pickling though so might be a better option.

Don't get despondent! You're.doing so.well 🙂

browneyed_girl

Thanks @LzzyIsGod - it's nice to hear it from someone else and not just repeated in my own head!  It sometimes does feel as though I'm tackling this very much alone.

Busy day at work yesterday so no spending for me.  DH tells me he spent £10 on some cable for something - apparently it was necessary but I was too tired from work to really focus on what he was saying!  I tend to zone out when he goes on about electronics/gadgets/cars...

Was lovely to come home to an already prepared chilli - just what I needed and perfect for the cold weather we've been having.  Almost typed chilly weather because the pun made me laugh and then thought better of it for fear of sounding like a plonker.  Although, feeling compelled to share my thought process somewhat ruins the illusion...

Have cashed out £20.45 from Prolific this morning and put this in the holiday pot.  Have done a few more surveys this morning to try and build the balance up a bit as I've also put a deposit down for our long weekend away in April.  Deposit was £133.32 (very specific) which I had in the holiday pot, but hoping I can now get enough together to pay the remaining balance when it's due in April.  New balance in the pot after paying out deposit is £42.20 so going to have to hit the surveys hard!

Also had a surprise £82 paid into my account from some work I did about 7 months ago - had completely forgotten about it but was a nice little boost to my mood this morning.  Have immediately moved it over to the emergency fund before I could use it for any nefarious deal (meaning spending it all on B&J's chocolate brownie ice cream - have had some serious cravings recently!).  Emergency fund now stands at £262.94 and should have another £140 to add in at the end of the month.  Aiming for at least £2000 in there by the time I go on maternity leave

joeyjimbles

You are doing so well - and I'm sorry DH keeps derailing you. 
I just popped on to say you can freeze the red chili peppers and use them direct from the freezer in stews, chili con carne etc. They start to defrost in just a couple of minutes so you can easily chop them (Jamie Oliver reckons you can grate them but I end up with chili mush). 

browneyed_girl

Perfect!  Thank you @joeyjimbles - I'll do that now so at least they won't rot whilst DH figures out what he wants to do with them! 

browneyed_girl

Argh!  Have just added £795.26 to the new 0% CC - even though it was planned, I still don't like seeing the numbers on the debt going up!  Was so close to getting below £40k as well!

It could have been worse though.  Initial costs I looked at for fencing said £1100.  However, DH and I remeasured the bottom of the back garden and realised we could get fewer panels and posts than had been suggested to us.  I also found a different supplier who has just started a 10% off sale.  Altogether, saved over £300 so not too shabby!

Realised today that we should be getting our tenancy deposit returned this month which gives nearly £1000 to play with.  Currently thinking of splitting this between Very and the EF.  Could throw it all at debt but the thought of having a cushy EF to fall back on is very comforting.  It may be that after maternity leave I won't need as much in the EF and can put some of it towards debt at that point - most likely an overpayment towards one of the loans as I'm hoping Very and CC will have been cleared for some time by then.

Working night shifts over the weekend which I haven't done in quite some time.  Hoping I can stay awake as baby seems to be telling my system to nap constantly and it's hard enough to resist at the best of times!  I remember making some poor choices post-night shifts due to being too tired to reason with myself, so going to have to try extra hard to stop this from happening...

browneyed_girl

So glad to be done with the night shifts!  Not sure that I'm built for them anymore!  

Can never focus on anything else when working nights as I tend to just walk around like a zombie, but did make sure that I didn't spend anything extra by packing some nice healthy food so I wasn't tempted to go and buy copious pastries on my way home (L!dl bakery is always tempting as it's on my route home).  DH was also very well behaved when doing the main grocery shop by himself - looks like he stuck to the list and everything!

Spends since I last posted have been:

• £93.98 on main L!dl shop - this included stocking up on a few things that will last 2 weeks, so next week's shop should be a lot lower to reflect this
• £21.94 in B&M for various snacks to top up the kids' snack cupboard - will last 2-3 weeks depending on how ravenous they're feeling...
• £4.85 in Mr T for a few things we couldn't get in L!dl - would have been more but used £9.50 of vouchers
• £80 total fuel - should last both me and DH for the week
• £30.69 at Am@zon for DD1's next guitar book that she needs for her exam and 50m of rope for the fencing
• £21.58 on eB@y for two bags of pebbles for the garden - will probably need more but going to see how far they stretch first.

This leaves the following in our monthly budgets to last until payday (27.02):

• Food/fuel/sundries: £322.58
• Extra spends: £122.09

I'm quietly optimistic that we'll be able to stick to budget barring any major disasters, but won't voice this out loud to DH just yet - he tends to see that as an excuse to start spending!  

I've managed to catch up with a few surveys on Prolific today and cashed out £17.12 which has been added to the holiday pot.  Looking at accounts, we also seem to be on course to pay a bit more to Very before the end of the month (hoping for £179 to pay off another BNPL item) and stick the planned amount into the EF.  I've also completed some study for the Office of National Statistics and they've promised us a £20 gift voucher for our troubles (did anyone else get this?).  Apparently the voucher can be used at Ikea which would be perfect as planning a purchase there next month!

DH off sick from work today (first time I've known him to do this outside of COVID) so he must be feeling poorly.  Trying to keep his spirits up with some fancy coffees and Grand Tour, whilst also keeping my distance a little (apparently the flu has been doing the rounds at his workplace and I really do not want it when pregnant!).  I'm working a long shift tomorrow so hoping he feels a bit better as he'll be dealing with all the kids himself (not an easy task!).

dawnybabes

Yes we’ve you the survey thing as well

browneyed_girl

Thanks @dawnybabes - I was beginning to worry it was all a scam!  Haven't had any confirmation of the gift voucher yet so could still be a rip off!