Progress not Perfection

Sun_Addict

Makingabobor2 said:

I've just started budgeting on a 4 week period for grocery, used to do it weekly. Not sure how well it is going to work. I'll give it a few months to get used to it before I decide. 

I aim for a certain amount a week so if it goes over that amount I adjust the other 3 weeks to accommodate it. I've been far too tempted by offers the past 4 weeks though so have spent a fair bit more. When Mr SA worked he used to get paid weekly so I found it easier to budget this way. It took a while to find a method that worked. 

Makingabobor2

Sun_Addict said:

Makingabobor2 said:

I've just started budgeting on a 4 week period for grocery, used to do it weekly. Not sure how well it is going to work. I'll give it a few months to get used to it before I decide. 

I aim for a certain amount a week so if it goes over that amount I adjust the other 3 weeks to accommodate it. I've been far too tempted by offers the past 4 weeks though so have spent a fair bit more. When Mr SA worked he used to get paid weekly so I found it easier to budget this way. It took a while to find a method that worked. 

Yes, this is why I used to do it weekly, DH still get paid weekly. But now I'm getting pension 4 weekly, I thought I'd give it a go. The aim is to go once every 4 weeks to A!d* to stock up on a few bits. Then I use the local butcher quite a bit and have Mr S delivery every couple of weeks. So will see how it goes. TBH, I think I need to up my housekeeping budget quite a bit, finding it harder to manage on the same amount as I was a few months ago. 

Sun_Addict

Finances have been done and there was an overall underspend of £21.14 for the 4 week period which isn't great as I vastly overspent on the grocery budget by a whopping £58.34 😲 Oh my days that can't happen again! Going to be a lot stricter with myself during this 4 week period. My downfall is I can't resist a bargain. The 4 week budget covers groceries, alcohol, meals/coffees out, personal spends and household spends. Fortunately the other areas were sufficiently underspent to accommodate the grocery overspend. 

I've also sorted out some sinking funds pots: birthdays, magazine subs, home insurance, Yumove for the dog, Mr M delivery pass, Prime membership, Feel Better app membership and hairdressers. Previously these just came straight out of my monthly wages when due but a couple of them took me by surprise recently hence the decision to save smaller amounts monthly. 

Christmas is already covered by saving oddments throughout the year. Holidays are already budgeted for on a monthly basis. Emergency fund, general savings and home improvements/repairs are the 3 regular savers I have running at the moment.

I also need to start off pots for reading glasses, vet bills, appliance replacement and entertainment (eg theatre trip, days out). Previously these would have come out of wages or savings. Makes sense to have separate pots for them. 

They won't be in separate pots as such just virtually on a spreadsheet. I've totted up how much there should be in there by when they become next due and this amount will be put away from my COL payment.

Although I think I've covered everything, I'm bound to think of something else 🤔

Sun_Addict

Already remembered another pot - nails, eyebrows, meals out with friends will be covered by survey earnings. 

So many pots, so little time/money. I need an accountant 😄

Makingabobor2

Love reading about people's savings pots and how they do things, so useful.  I can use my survey earnings for something else as I never have nails or eyebrows done and we hardly ever have meals out either.  Some will go to my "self care" pot, which I will use for massages, reiki therapy, reflexology, hair etc, oh and also things like my online exercise group. 

Willowtree222

I'm thinking of converting to a four weekly grocery. Some weekdays I spend loads more when I need washing tablets etc and then others a lot lower. I feel guilty when I overspend do doing it over a pay period might be better.i think I'll try that when I'm back x

foxgloves

@Sun_Addict - We routinely used to overspend on groceries. Only £2.79 over this month so I'm fine with that, but if we had been, say £35 over, you can bet it would have been because we couldn't resist a bargain. Mr F reminded me the other day that "If we don't need it, it's not a bargain", which is what I've been telling him for ages. Stocking up on something we use when we see it at a fab price is not a bad idea at all, it's just that having done this on a few items, I'd expect our grocery spend over the next week or two to be lower & this doesn't always happen. So that makes me ask myself if we are really benefitting from those 'bargains' if they don't impact positively on our spend at the till for the rest of the month. Hope I'm making sense.....I've got a neighbour on one side lawn-mowering & the one on the other side power-tooling. I can barely hear my own thoughts!
F

EssexHebridean

the other thing about bargains in the grocery department is learning what offers come along time and time again, I've found. This is where our "target prices" for various items come in - although the past few months have seen rather a lot of those needing to be revised upwards! 

beanielou

Woohoo on COL payment.

Sun_Addict

Morning, happy hump day!

WFH again today, changed my working from the office day as I'm meeting some work friends for a lunchtime catch up tomorrow. I prefer my usual hybrid working pattern of in the office Mon/Wed/Fri as it gives me a break in between but I'm looking forward to the catch up so don't mind changing on this occasion or on occasions when I need to be in the office for something in particular. 

It will be NSD8 today. Also on the money front, from October onwards the additional borrowing part of the mortgage will be gone so that will be an extra £163.55 to add to the savings pots. Then from next February the windows/door payments will be gone so that's another £155.42 freed up. In the midst of all this we have a pay rise pending which will be backdated to June. All heading in the right direction. I'm also still keeping an eye open for a suitable role on promotion which would mean a substantial hike in income, I'm not just going for anything though, it will need to be something I'd enjoy doing, I've never been a grade chaser just for the money. 

Today's exercise is taking the dog out later this morning and live Zumba at 6pm. I'm aiming to do a short workout session at lunchtime too as I'll miss my lunchtime workout tomorrow. Will find something on YT. 

Not 100% sure what I'm making for tonight's dinner but it will involve using something up from the fridge. 

I can hear Mr SA shuffling about upstairs so it looks like he'll be up and about shortly.