Currently clueless...aiming for awareness

CRANKY40

You're not mean, you're setting a good example. Tell the 7 year old that you're saving up then when you buy something special in future or have a day out you can tell her that you're using your saved up money. 

canvascamper

That's a good idea @CRANKY40. It must be confusing for them that I'm saying no so much more.

No spend day today, mostly housework and took 7yo to her party, it was at a local cafe in the park so took 10yo and 3yo for some fresh air - of course it poured down on the way home 🙄. 

Sold a kids toy for £10 on eBay and listed a couple more bits. My jeans ripped at the most inconvenient spot 🤨 so I've got my eye on a couple of options on eBay to buy - they're not repairable by me because the lycra has gone, I could take them to the local menders but it's definitely cheaper to get a pair for 99p + postage. They were only off eBay anyway so it's no great loss. 

canvascamper

Very low spend day today, just needed some smoothies for 10yo's packed lunch. I need to research whether I can get some kind of reusable cartons so I could buy a big bottle and decant some in each day as the individual cartons aren't the cheapest. 

Sold a couple of t shirts on eBay so that's some more for the coffers. Payday tomorrow, hooray! I know my overdraft is higher than last month 😫 despite all my efforts so I need to go back over my accounts and figure out where I've gone wrong. 

[Deleted User]

Hello, popped over and saw the smoothie dilemma- sistema and other brands do small bottles thst would fit into lunch bags, what about using them? My DS has one for his oat milk that he takes to school ( dairy allergy) and i just decant into that xxx

canvascamper

Well, I got paid today so I went through my whole month of spending line by line and it's not a pretty picture! I was more into my overdraft at payday than I was last month - this is partially explained by the NT payment plus my son's tutor payments for this half term, but the main culprit was top-up food/household shopping and random spends on the kids. I had budgeted £160 on top up shops (OH does 2 big shops per month at £150 each) and I spent £230. Also spent £140 on what can only be described as 'random cr*p for the kids' - toys/books/craft stuff etc.

Clean slate and will do better this month. I've got OH's birthday, our wedding anniversary and 2 weeks' half term holiday to get through. Deep breaths and keep calm...

BadBookkeeper

Or to look at it another way, you are less into overdraft than March and you didn’t completely blow it as it’s not too much over than last month.  You know where it’s gone wrong & put things in place so the same things (NT) don’t catch you out next year.  Keep going, it’s a learning curve for a while.  You will get there!! Food prices have gone up, do you need to reassess your food budget or how you do your food shopping to be more realistic? 

stymied

What do you run short of on the actual week the top up shop is done? Maybe that’s a good place to start. We get through at least 16 pint of milk a week! But at least I know and can get it in. It did mean getting a bigger fridge tho…

curly_moose

Hi, can I chip in a couple of random thoughts?

Alternatively, imagine how much worse that would have been if you hadn’t been paying attention… hang in there, you’re doing great.

In terms of the ‘random cr*p for the kids’, did I read that they’ve built up some hefty pocket money balances? Surely this kind of thing is what pocket money is for. I wonder if a problem with managing it via an app with you ‘holding’ the wallet is that they’re not feeling the pain of handing over their own cash for the things they’re using ‘pester power’ on you for. 

canvascamper

Thanks for all your comment/thoughts/support 😊 it's like having a little cheerleading squad in my pocket! 

Couple of answers -

I think my food budget should be realistic. In total it's £460 per month. That sounds like loads! Apparently the average is around £93 per week for a family. We're 2 adults 3 kids. My main issue is that I try really hard to avoid junk food/ultra processed food so it does push the bill up. Also 10yo is VERY fussy (symptom of his autism) and 7yo is also not a very adventurous eater so we have to stick to the specific brands they like which sadly tends to be the more expensive stuff. Plus, OH and I are vegan so any 'treats' like vegan ice cream are always double the price of non vegan. Basically it is a bit of a planning nightmare. I do a rotating monthly food plan so I do know what we're making each day.

Stuff we always run out of - fruit, bread, salad, pull ups for 3yo (dry in the day but not yet at night), juice, soya yogurt, cereal, porridge oats, bread sticks, tinned tomatoes. The kids eat a LOT of fruit especially in hot weather. I try and eat lots of salad/raw veg. So it does need regular top ups to keep fresh. I freeze any sad/overripe fruit for smoothies so there's very little waste. 

On the kids/pocket money thing, I've definitely dug myself a bit of a hole there because they've accrued big imaginary balances that I then forget to deduct from because in reality it's all the same money. We've been discussing getting 10yo his own debit card on the app this summer which will make it a bit more 'real' for him but I will definitely need to use the younger 2 kids' (imaginary) balances for more stuff. I've made it a Monzo pot to try and build up a fund. 

canvascamper

Good morning! 

It looks like we might dodge the rain today. I'm WFH so hoping to get a bit of gardening done at lunch - I've got sunflowers and forget me nots to plant out. I need to sow some more veg seeds too. 

Need to nip to post office with 2 parcels.

10yo and 7yo have school photos today so better check hair is brushed 🧐

I'm also planning a long bath with Epsom salts as soon as they've left for school/nursery to ease horrid period cramps (I swear they get worse with age!). 

Also need to order OHs birthday presents - I found a guitar chord book on World of Books in like new condition and I think I can use my PayPal balance from surveys so it's not coming out of the gift budget 👍 

Also do my actual job of being a solicitor at some point 😂