Second Chances! Life in a Tourer

SueP19

Not sure where to start, not even sure if I’m in the right board but here go’s

Hi there, I’m here for a few reasons other than to be debt free, I had a diary on both this board and the mortgage free board many years ago and have been on MSE for 14 years!!


As there has been a 6 year gap I thought I would start a fresh diary, many things have changed in those 6 years, in fact my life has totally changed, we are now mortgage free lol we are also house free too.  Yep you read that right, house free……………lets start with a recap 

So 6 years ago saw me working as an accountant full time, whilst running a small craft business on the side, unbeknown to me, at that point, ideas came to a work colleague to “take over” the small firm and I was seen as a threat. Fast forward to covid and I was working from home, there came the parting of the ways from my day job due to the situation there, after 20 years I left without even a thank you. With an ever increasing craft order book I set about replacing my income with craft sales. All was going great until certain bullies in the industry realised I was at last successful and wanted a slice of the pie for their relatives! A hate/smear campaign ensued which resulted in a collapse of my customer base. Little did I know that this was small potatoes compared with what was to come. Financially we struggled on, hubby working ever increasing hours, partly because of the firm he worked for and partly because he knew things weren’t so hot on the money front. 
Now we roll around to September 2021, early one Sunday morning I’m travelling along to attend a show when an idiot decides it would be fun to overtake me as close as he could and smashed into me, sending me into the central, hitting large bushes, spiralling away. Whilst I got away relatively easy (damaged back) my husband suffered a far worse fate. He wasn’t in the car but the scare set us on a path of destruction. In the next few months, as I struggled to return to work my business bullies attacked, naming and shaming with lies. The strain as you can imagine was huge, hubby developed “severe indigestion” !!! On 30th December 2021 hubby had a massive 6 hour heart attack and narrowly missed the grim reaper. His consultant reckons his survival is a miracle and his recovery is remarkable. The consequences were so big, we still find it hard to get our heads around it. He lost his hgv licence, he did go back to work after 6 weeks which was horrendous but he had to, remember my business bullies, well they went in for the kill and totally assassinated me, ruining my reputation and name. We put the house on the market, aware that time was not on our side, hubby was facing having to work 100 hours a week come the summer months, I was busy trying to prevent the avalanche of cancellations by upping production despite the damaged back. The house sold! YAY! Then it fell through so I researched and sold to a house buying company. None of that matters, he lived, that was what was important

Fast forward to today and my reasons for being here…………we do have debts left over because we took a big hit selling but its not the sole point of this new diary, I want to save, budget and recover……………….this is a recovery diary.

So here is our current situation, in the summer we bought a nearly new touring caravan and we live in it, no mortgage, no electric, no water rates and no council tax. Our plan is to develop incomes that will enable us to “tour”. And of course become debt free. I will do an SOA and debt list, yes the SOA is the thing of horror stories, one issue is overspending. 

I use YNAB, have done since 2016, love it but I have only really used it as a tracker which is not great, at least I know where it goes though. No spend days!!!! I started at the start of the year but have only managed 2 days so far………..abysmal really.

Are you still reading, if so thank you and I look forward to meeting you all

Sue xx

Try again on the SOA

Household 2 adults, 1 dog, 1 car

Income £2,000

Expenses

Mortgage 0

Secured loans 0

Site Fees £448

Council tax 0

Water rates 0

Electric 0

Gas £16

Stotage unit £90

Mobile charges £135 (near end of contract)

TV Licence 0

Subscription TV £75

Internet £25

Groceries £545

Dog Food £40

Laundry £40

Clothing £40 (includes personal spends)

Diesel £264

Road Tax £18

Car Ins £33

Car main/MOT £40

Caravan Ins/recovery £25

Caravan repairs £40

Vaping £197

Charity £4

Presrip/Dentist £18 (yearly)

Pet &vet £20

Presents £20

Hair cuts £20

Entertainment £10

Holiday 0

Emergency fund 0

Total £2,166

Deficit (166)

SueP19

My biggest expense, as you see is FOOD 

I have always subscribed to the myth that all the supers are the same and my poison of choice has been S*bury, convincing myself that with wise use of points and BOGOF I am getting a good deal. Last year saw me get a sum total of £111 in points !!!!! I kid you not, a fool if ever their was seduced by 425 points a week or £2.13. What a sucker was I then

As previously said I use YNAB so my spends for the last part of the year are as follows, omitting dog food

Aug £593
Sept £480
Oct £533
Nov £485
Dec £624

How bad is that!!

Anyway I switched to L*dl at the start of the year and so far Jan is looking at £217, an improvement but not meteoric 

Just have to remember its all in the right direction


PS just found out Tilly Tidy is still going after all these years, so chuffed with that 

Blackcats

Hello Sue - your SOA doesn't appear to be formatted properly (at least on my screen) although I think it's just that the numbers are going vertically instead of across.

I was also a loyal Sains customer - diligently scanning my nectar card and looking for good deals.  I also popped into the shop frequently and lucky (silly) me if I spent £15 I got my £1 parking fee refunded and so I really did wander round adding things to my basket to reach £15 to get than pound back.  🤦‍♀️

I now shop at Lidls and using the app get money off shopping.  We can more or less get everything we need from there.  We have to go to as da once a month as the fussy cat won't eat Lidl food and believe me we have tried and he has beaten us into submission.  So that's when I buy a few bits not available in Lidl like Yorkshire tea bedtime brew but there's not much really.

the switch has saved me a fortune.  We use olio too but that might not be feasible if you are moving around.  The grocery challenge on the old style board is fab and I've learned so much from others and also find it keeps me accountable.

it's great that you've returned.  Good luck

SueP19

Hi @Blackcats and thank you for the reply, was beginning to think I was invisible lol
Not sure on the SOA as it seems OK on my phone 😕 will edit it though see if I can improve it

Yes Lid!, used to shop at Ald! years ago but like you my lot were not keen on some of it lol

shell16

Hi There

I did start reading your diary but I couldnt work out your original SOA.  This version is much better.

So you as you have mentioned the Groceries spend is huge!  I spend £100 a week for a family of 4 and I usually have cash left over too, I shop at Ald!.  I think the key is to persevere with Lidl, make a meal plan, only buy what you will need for the week.  Try using cash for the categories you overspend in.

Also Vape is expensive too, I vape along with OH and we spend £30 to £40 a month between us.  We get the 0% big bottles 80ml and buy nic shots which you mix in.  Substantially cheaper way, how is this costing you so much?  

£40 Per month on clothing is going some, do you spend this every month as is your Subscription TV.  Are you in contract for that or out, I would seriously look at a better deal there.

Diesel costs, how come it is so high when you are sited?

Just some of my observations there, Good luck with your budgeting journey.
Shellx

SueP19

shell16 said:

Hi There

I did start reading your diary but I couldnt work out your original SOA.  This version is much better.

So you as you have mentioned the Groceries spend is huge!  I spend £100 a week for a family of 4 and I usually have cash left over too, I shop at Ald!.  I think the key is to persevere with Lidl, make a meal plan, only buy what you will need for the week.  Try using cash for the categories you overspend in.

Also Vape is expensive too, I vape along with OH and we spend £30 to £40 a month between us.  We get the 0% big bottles 80ml and buy nic shots which you mix in.  Substantially cheaper way, how is this costing you so much?  

£40 Per month on clothing is going some, do you spend this every month as is your Subscription TV.  Are you in contract for that or out, I would seriously look at a better deal there.

Diesel costs, how come it is so high when you are sited?

Just some of my observations there, Good luck with your budgeting journey.
Shellx

Hi thanks for the notes, yep food 😱
Vaping, that's hubby !!! A sticking point but he stopped smoking after the heart attack, on other months it has been less but still £100 plus
Diesel we are 3 hour round trip from storage/parents etc at the mo, plus I did 4 shows in December so hopefully that will be better too
TV subs, we have a good array of them lol will have to look at what we do watch and don't, sadly when it's only 3.99 or 7.99 it's easy to say yes 
Clothes includes all manor of miscellaneous and was a guesstimate 
Thanks for your points 

Blackcats

SOA formatting looks better now. 😁
your deficit isn't insurmountable, trimming here and there will make a big difference and hopefully not be too painful.  Could you start by reducing grocery spend by 10% this month?  That might be achievable and will motivate you.  

joedenise

Agree with @Blackcats that your deficit isn't insurmountable.

Are you actually touring or are you sited in your tourer?  Your site fees look to be quite expensive.  I'm sure you could reduce this is you joined one of the camping clubs and used their 5 van sites.  This may be more viable in the summer when more sites are open.

As you've mentioned yourself your food spend is very expensive.  My DH and I spend less than £250 a month and we certainly eat well 3 times a day.

Once your phone contracts come to and end you will be able to reduce those substantially with sim only contracts.

Is your gas usage right?  It seems quite cheap for a full timer.  I assume you have refillable bottles like Gaslow rather than Calor/Flogas exchange bottles which work our much more expensive.

Good luck with reducing your monthly spends.

SueP19

@Blackcats trimming I think would be a good start, I am missing emergency funds etc

@joedenise we are using the clubs, sadly cls are about £15 to £21 a night now. If we had a permenant pitch they are often £250/month but electrics on top, so its swings and roundabouts on that one. Gas is cooking only and a 6kg propane lasts just over 2 months 

joedenise

Do you make use of rallies and Temporary Holiday Sites (Camping and Caravannng Club)?  These are often £10-£12 a night so cheaper than CSs.  Not much use this time of year but could help reduce costs in the summer months.

Personally I find the Caravan and Motorhome Club sites more expensive so stopped using them and just stuck with CCC.  As a long term member I now only have to pay £22 a year membership rather than the £50ish!

SueP19

@joedenise we haven't yet, we spent summer on a commercial site 
Worth checking though, thanks