Saving Christmas, literally

joedenise

Personally I think a small Emergency Fund for things like a broken down washing machine is really useful.  Perhaps an EF of £250 to start with and gradually add to it as you can - even if it's just a fiver here and there to increase it up to £500.  I certainly wouldn't want to add a washing machine to a CC when I'm trying to clear debt!

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary.

If I was you I woulde be really going for the CC as it is interest bearing & you don't know when interest rates will go up.
You can do this 

thriftylass

Good morning, had a very productive evening. Went though the last months' bank statements and sorted my budget. Way too much booze, fast food and simply not planning ahead. I'll focus on the CC first and aim to pay that off by June April , earlier if I get extra money coming in. Family debt target is October next year. 

foxgloves

@thriftylass - Ex-spender here, but have been a reformed character for several years.
Lack of planning, as you rightly identify, is the Enemy of the Budget. Meal planning is a case in point.  Back in the Spendy Era, we never meal-planned (or did any kind of budgeting), so we'd get in from work (both of us with a 20+mile drive home) & would regularly talk ourselves into a takeaway. Reasons for this included:
*Can't think of anything we've got in that we fancy eating.
*Didn't get anything out of the freezer.
*Had a cr*p day at work so deserve a treat.
*Had a great day at work so let's celebrate.
*Got held up in traffic so it's "a bit late to cook".
*Might go back on diet next week so best get it now.
I could go on...........
It's much harder to cave into this sloppy way of thinking when there's a meal plan, maning that there is food planned & ready to cook or heat up. It's also harder when there's a budget because money for takeaways has to come from somewhere. Grocery budget? Might leave us short. Leisure & entertainment Pot? We'd both rather use that for things like gig tickets. Personal Spends? Maybe, but when it's gone, it's gone. As I often said to Mr F (I had the LBM first)....."credit card" isn't a budget category.
I know meal planning is just 1 example, but I really stand by the importance of loads of planning when debt busting & building savings.
Good luck with it all,
F

thriftylass

Today's update. As DH was still away with the car we walked to school again like yesterday and saved the fuel, although he had to pay all the way to Glasgow to take care of his dad. I should start taking the bike again and save the bus money. Although today I had to pay only one way as the ticket machine on the way back was broken. Plus the bus service is getting worse.

Already notice a difference from not drinking and not smoking (day 3 and day 2 on that, respectively, yay). Hope it's not just the initial euphoria that fizzles out after a couple of days, been there many a time...

After doing my food inventory I got my recipe folders out and started planning meals. My 8 yo came over and commented on that she didn't know I was into recipe folders, well, she hasn't seen me looking at them in over 2 years. I even showed her the list of family favourites and she picked 2 for next week.

A colleague brought in some fresh yeast that she didn't want to freeze and gave it to me. I have heaps of flour, so might use this to make pizza dough and bread once we run out.

Off to sip my cup of tea and do some more recipe planning

Brie

thriftylass said:

Oh the saving for emergency funds I thought would be useful in case the washing machine breaks so I don't have to use the CC again. Not a good idea?

Thanks for coming back on some of my comments - it's helpful to know how a family dynamic works. 

And re emergency fund - I know people like to have a pot of money "in case".  But to my mind this is the emergency time.  So whacking everything on that CC with 19.9% is the best way to save money.  Look at it this way - if you are paying £300 a month on the CC and don't use it for anything else then it will be paid off after 10 months and cost you nearly £300 in interest.  If you forget about the EF for now and put £400 to the CC it will be paid off in 8 months and cost you less than £230.  And so in months 9 & 10 you have £400 each month to put into your EF or pay for something else that might pop up.  You also have a CC available to spend on if needed - and you can work at paying it in full each and every month.  

OH and re cutting down on drinking.....I heard an interesting thing on the radio yesterday Adrian Chiles about drinking less.  he's gone from 100 units a week to about 30 - based on the fact that he doesn't want to quit completely and that by limiting his drinking he will get substantial health (& also ££) benefits.  I expect he gets a lot of flack for not achieving the recommended 14 units a week or for not quitting completely but he's going for what he feels is achievable.  I liked in particular his comment that it's always the first drink that gives that great buzz and the rest are just really trying (& failing) to recreate that.  it was an interesting take on things.  here's a link to the book - The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less: Amazon.co.uk: Chiles, Adrian: 9781788163590: Books.  And also you might want to hook up with the thread on cutting down on alcohol - just as a way to log what you're trying to achieve yourself.  Sometimes just talking about these things help.

Keep up the great work! 

thriftylass

@Brie, that maths made a lot of sense. Thank you. I will adjust my budget for the next few months accordingly. I was thinking even saving for the potentially needed trip "home" works the same. 

I did the Alcohol Experiment by Annie Grace a while ago which explains a lot of similar things. I haven't had a drink the last three days DH was away and then caved yesterday when he was back. Nah, definitely preferred the other mornings :P. I thought about joining the CDOA thread for next month actually. 

Thank you



Payday tomorrow, yay, thought it was Monday but that's a bank holiday. Can't wait to start a fresh month and budget. Decided to start the cash envelop method again as I am a visual person and seeing cash rather than just swiping the card definitely worked better in the past. 

thriftylass

Good morning, 

went to bed early again and now can't sleep any more Checked my bank account and no salary yet? My kitchen calendar says there is an Oct Bank holiday on Monday so I thought payments would go through today? Maybe not
Just checked and it's only ROI. Oh well. 

Today will be a good day. Just paid some money I still had in random savings accounts (£210) off the CC. Additionally, if I do it like @Brie suggested I won't have money in case DH asks, not that I'm tempted to lent him more anyway but I can still spend necessities. I will also go to the gym today. Plus DH came home with beers for himself and I politely refused to have one and just went to bed 

Put the first survey money I earnt onto the CC too

thriftylass

Good morning,

today shall be my first NSD, I will go to the gym again and will cook two batches of soup tonight. One will be the standard lentil soup that's my kids favourite and the other one will be a random veggie one with sad looking vegetables that lurk in the fridge and freezer like zucchini, turnip, leek, nasturiums from the garden, peas etc. Will look and see if I find a recipe or just try.

Ordered the kids' advent calendars yesterday. So far, every year I filled some homemade ones with little things and sweets but they've asked a few years now if they can have a L3go one and a horsey one. So I found them early this year, on a good deal and through a cash back side. Plus it'll come out of their Christmas budget. We also do Saint Nicolaus on the 6th, which in recent years included small gifts but this year we'll go traditional with sweets, fruit, or coal if naughty.

We went to the trade fair at work and came back with some linen shopping bags and a couple of nice notebooks. Also walked past the community food waste place and acquired some broccoli, vegan sausages, bread and spring onions, which all will come in handy this week.

Spendless

Hi and welcome.

My first thought on reading was do the kids also  receive Xmas presents from other relatives, but that's before I read you had family abroad, so realise they may not get a physical gift from them.

My kids were slightly different age at 6 and 9 when the credit crunch had bit, I'd been unable to find a job despite several years at college upgrading skills and DD now at school and DH had taken a pay cut. We found ourselves with a £20 each budget for them, plus they had stockings as I buy throughout the year. We bought DS a remote control plane, I remember this because we took it to a nearby park, he flew it too close to one of the few neighbouring houses gardens on Boxing day and it was never seen again -lol! Can't remember what we got DD but what I was going to say, was by the time they'd received presents from Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles etc they didn't really notice we'd been unable to buy much, as they were just as excited as they'd always previously been. The gift tags said the correct giver, we didn't try and pass them off as from us. Ok, at 11 your eldest will be more aware but he's also at an age to understand.

My other thought was you're doing their bedrooms, you could also say that part of that is also towards their present. I don't mean telling them that tins of paint are their Xmas present, but you could with any additional soft furnishings, eg throws, pillows, bedside lamps etc. It might add a little to your decoration budget but would serve a dual purpose. 

Also whatever you do around Xmas time are you able to add other things in, start traditions etc that are free or minimal cost? Mine are now 22 and 19 and remember things like this far more than they remember any gift they received, even when we had more affluent times and could afford to buy them more expensive items. 

Lentil soup sounds lovely, one of my favourites. HM soups are so cheap, healthy and filing.