Currently clueless...aiming for awareness

savingholmes

Glad you are feeling more in control. 

Sarahwithlove

It makes such a difference seeing that positive amount in your account and being able to allocate it to pots! Your budget can be adjusted over next few months if needed if you find something isn't working 

canvascamper

Not much to report here! Still using my pots and it's going well - the biggest problem I'm encountering is remembering to withdraw the money from the pot before I get to to checkout, otherwise my card gets declined. Has happened a few times now 😬

It's 7yo birthday next Thursday, all gifts bought in budget, she's having 2 friends over for tea so just need to do her a cake and sandwiches. She has very grand ideas for a unicorn rainbow cake so I hope I'm up to the job!!

We go on our summer camping holiday next Sunday so I need to do a big food shop and also need to get a few magazines and stuff to entertain the kids on the journey - it's 5 hours in the car then 4 hours on the ferry. I'm working in the office next week so should be able to get to The Works for cheaper sticker books etc. This is getting harder with 10yo as he's not interested in sticker books any more 😭

I've got £50 left in the "days out" budget which clearly won't do the whole holiday but there is £200 in the "spare" pot that I'm determined to last until next payday. I get paid again the day we travel home so I know all I have to use is in that account. Luckily OH gets paid next Thursday just before we travel so between us we should manage it. 

savingholmes

I remember the cake challenges. Fun times though.

Good luck with stretching the money to cover the holiday. Sounds like you have a good plan.

canvascamper

Happy Sunday 😊

We drove over to our home town today so family could see 7yo for her birthday. Had a lovely lunch at a cafe with OH's family and when the bill came for some reason the words that came out of my mouth we're "I'll get this..." Talk about social conditioning 😬. It was £70 (for 9 people) but it drained my eating out budget and £20 of my food budget. I am very lucky that as he was leaving OH's dad slipped me £40 in cash so disaster averted.

We went to my parents' house later and they got a takeaway that they paid for so thankfully no more spends. The fuel light came on the car on the way home, we need to fill it up before our 5 hour drive to the ferry on Sunday. I only have £7 left in the fuel pot so it will have to come out of savings, unless OH needs the car first and then he will hopefully fill it up 🤞

savingholmes

Glad your OH's dad rescued you. That's some conditioning to try and break. I must admit I was always good at giving but not receiving. I've tried to become a much better receiver!!

canvascamper

Hello from our camping holiday!

Trying very hard to keep a lid on spends. Unfortunately we've come somewhere with high food prices (channel Islands) and although I've brought a lot of food with us we need to keep getting fresh stuff which is not cheap. Days out are mostly to the beach and swimming pool, we're being blessed with glorious weather so that helps! 

[Deleted User]

Helloo hope you and the family are OK and enjoying the summer holidays xx

canvascamper

Hi!
I have been missing my diary the last few weeks but this year's summer holiday has been such a juggle. Also had quite a few illnesses and bugs sweep through the whole crew 🤢 so it's been a bit relentless.
Back to school, back to routine and I will update the diary when we're all back in the swing of things 🤞

canvascamper

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend - we had a lovely autumn walk in the woods today and a pub lunch - we hardly ever go out for a meal as a family so it was really nice, and everyone was well behaved and ate their food so I was so happy. It was £60 for the meal but it came out of the monthly activities pot so was budgeted for. 

Not in budget, but we've booked 4 nights in a lodge in Scotland in October half term for £600. We pondered it for a week and half of me thought it was not the best use of money, but the other half of me thought the kids are only small once and new experiences are so precious. I was feeling extremely anxious by all the talk of crises and crashes and interest rates but OH took the view that it's going to be tough whether we go on this break or not. I know that's not MSE mindset but he does have a point. 

Started my Christmas shopping on eBay so I've got plenty of time - no last minute panic buying please! So far got DS1 a 5x5 Rubiks cube and DD a Harry Potter jumper.