Diary of a 30-something idiot

Kim_13

CoffeeSonata said:

 amazon prime. Are the savings you get for razor blades and coffee throughout the year relaible and enough to warrant £107.88 a year? 
  The rest is nice to have but maybe not always worth it. I'm with you on the kindle free books being lovely though. 
 You can buy the House box set for about £45 , probably cheaper second hand. 
 
 Monzo plus: I *think* that startling accounts do most of what the monzo plus does, without a subscription fee? It has 5  virtual cards, rounds up to pots, has over 50 categories, does insights etc.  Again wondering are you getting  enough benefit from the nice-to-have extras for it  making it worth  £60 a year to you? Maybe starling would do. 

 That is a fab boots bargain! You made me laugh with cross stitching to the apocalypse. I have enough wool/yarn to knit and crochet to the apocalypse. 

   That is excellent news about the youtube ad blocker extension. I might resort to that! 

£10 if there were only 6 series, I don't know as I've never watched it: https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail?id=5050582779691&categoryName=dvd-tv-documentary&superCatName=film-tv&title=&queryID=23477824d20f8afbe7e936c0203eb914&position=1

They do charge a flat £2.95 delivery per item unless you can pick it up from a local store, but well worth it for that many episodes I would think.

I'm with Chase and wondering if you'd benefit from opening a second account there (MSE advice is to have at least two current account providers anyway.)

For free they offer 1% cashback on most debit card spending (max £15 cashback/month), 1% interest on the current account monies, 5% interest on roundups and currently 4.1% on other savings pots. You can have any combination of I think 10 current and savings accounts with them, each with an individual sort code and account number from which Direct Debits can be taken. So you could have bills separated into pots and out of sight. I think you ended up with a £25 charge recently for a bounced DD from the company you were paying, when if some bills are going to bounce you want it to be the ones that aren't going to start adding charges. Hopefully this is just a fallback you won't need though.

Debsnewbudget

We dont  have  Prime but we do use the subscribe and safe part of Amazon every month for cat food, shower gel, my coffee etc. 
Am I misunderstanding your comment, as I read that you needed Prime to get your subscribe and safe ?

Kim_13

Debsnewbudget said:

We dont  have  Prime but we do use the subscribe and safe part of Amazon every month for cat food, shower gel, my coffee etc. 
Am I misunderstanding your comment, as I read that you needed Prime to get your subscribe and safe ?

I've always been put off as they're not explicitly clear about delivery costs initially (if you have Prime it's free.) Once established, I believe there are no more charges.

How much notice do they give you over the cost of your next delivery, and is it possible to cancel at that point if they are no longer the cheapest place to get the item? Otherwise it feels like a blank cheque that could end in a blown budget.

stymied

@Kim_13 it's at least a few days' notice, yes you can cancel/skip then and delivery is free for all the subscribe and save deliveries. We do loo roll, cat food & dishwasher tablets.

stymied

@Kim_13 it's at least a few days' notice, yes you can cancel/skip then and delivery is free for all the subscribe and save deliveries. We do loo roll, cat food & dishwasher tablets.

warby68

Popping in to nag a bit but make sure the Boots spends, even though small, get knocked off the budget allocations. Not sure what the appropriate categories are on your budget but guessing groceries might cover the chemist item and clothes for the tights. Great bargain there btw. A good budget makes sure you have enough money for the month so you can pick things like this up.

warby68

Also does anyone buy gifts for you and Mr F? Just a thought but could you ask for some practical things (or treats) that way. Needs must and all that.

millymolly22

Going back to your subscriptions why are you paying so much for Netflix?  From my understanding that fee is for four people using it simultaneously.  Does that actually happen?  In our house we pay 4.99 one person can use it at any time with 30 seconds adverts every so often.  If you have Prime You Tube and a Playstation available why do you need to pay that much.  Also you are paying the highest fee for the PS.  I doubt you are benefitting from that either.  Just reducing those two to a lower monthly fee should give you nearly £20 a month extra.

Running_man

Hi
You seem to have alot of unnecessary outgoings
Sky Internet £58.00 -why so high ?
Spotify £17.99 why plenty of free music about 
Ring doorbell £8-00 -Mr fox home all day
PlayStation plus £15.00 why I am sure this is not for you
Netflix £17.99 for what - get basic package if at all
Premium bonds £25.00 you already have a savings account
So £142.00 a month  going out on very little 
PLUS
Clothes £40.00 ?-half it

And as Mr fox no income he is not helping you (and obviously not paying child maintenance so paying anything for his children)bone idle comes to mind.Please stop making excuses for him
 So what does he actually bring to the marriage if he doesn't help support you ?hope it's worth it.And yes that might sound harsh it is meant to 
You have so much potential.Proved you are strong with what is happening  in your life.I wish you well Mrs fox

CoffeeSonata

@millymolly22 hope Fox doesn't mind me answering but she is getting asked alot about the netflix. It's shared between step- kids who live in different houses as well.

I would though Fox maybe do a little survey to work out how much the kids themselves are actually using it (especially if they have access at their homes to other streaming services) , are they using group watch features on the same account? Are they actually using it at the same time as anyone else?

And do a quick assessment of how much use it's actually getting, and does the use justify the cost? 
Realise that might be a little harder to do.  Just wondering are they using it as much as you think? And is there any chance that what's actually happening is rather than mainly the kids watching it, or watching it together in different houses , you're subbing other adults/houses with neflix and the kids themselves aren't watching it that much?

 If they are, I understand, just aware of the possibility the kids themselves might not be using it as much as you think. 

  I also think that it's now very unfair that you have given up both your subscriptions that were agreed, and Mr Fox none.  I agree you can't afford all of them by any means, it's just the agreement was equality. 

 Can the spotify be revisted or reduced for a time? 

 Grocery budget/money:  what has helped keep me on track along with the grocery challenge and my (very probably adhd brain that cannot keep track of anything) is putting the grocery money in an entirely separate account. 
 I have starling, and I do use starling pots for some things with virtual cards  (they are hidden in the dashboard and my total so I cannot see them, this has been a game changer for me in thinkng 'I'll just pull money from here to use and fix the other pot later'.)   My main bills are not coming from the starling bank at all.  In the starling is the month's allocation of grocery, petrol/transport, personal (for me), subscriptions, gifts, pet food.  (these are all attached to virtual cards.) I have more pots, but those are the spending ones, and have their own virtual cards. It's just much easier for me to see that way what's left, and more real. I only have £80 petrol in there, so I have to make it work. 

 Grocery is my main starling current account/real card.  I put the grocery money in there, and once it's at target, that's the month's grocery money. I can see what's left, and I know roughly each week what my average spend can be.  I don't have a weekly budget as such (though sometimes I have to, as weekly income makes it tricky).  Because I find doing a larger planned shop and using the freezer helps with planning, and the 'help nothing to eat ' (frozen pizza, fish fingers to the rescue.). I tend to plan two weeks at a time.  The less I'm in and out of the shop,  the less I spend.  But the main thing that helped is entirely separating out the grocery fund, it's not with bills, it's not with personal spending. 
   It is for food and essential household items (basic cleaning things/paracetamol/regular toiletries like toothpaste, everyday shampoo).  I am not allowed to take money out, unless it's for food or absolutely essential cleaning/toiletries. And I do mean essential. 

   However, I also have a pot for household items/toiletries in bulk (to take advantge of offers, use at the refill shop,  and protect the grocery budget) and in there are also generally cleaning supplies, toilet roll.  
 So grocery is mostly just food.  However, there is flex if say I need a tube of toothpaste one shop, or shampoo is running out, or the toilet roll is nearly gone. But mainly groecery card =  food.

 My rule is it cannot be siphoned off or redirected to other pots thinking I can top it up later somehow. It has to last the month. I can add to it if I want to, I cannot take away.  My brain tends to then think of it like a gift card. This is the amount on it, when it's gone it's gone, I need to make it last the month. 

I now have a chase account as well, and am considering  using the chase account for mainly just groceries (with the 1% cashback) so it's well and truly separate.  

Having that separation, means that I always know I have grocery money for the month and it's protected.  I always know how much I have left  - because it's the balance at the bank - and I can pace.  That combined with one or two larger shops, less short top up missions, and making sure I either do the big shops online/click collect , or do not shop when hungry, and always shop with a meal plan has really helped stabilise the grocery budget and stop me using it for other things out of necessity then finding food really tight some weeks.  It's also helped me reduce my bill.