MeandO's money-shuffling

Sarahwithlove

That's great news about the antiques guy! Hopefully he comes back with another offer for the other items. 

foxgloves

What a fab overpayment! That must feel like a boost, & you have done well on Vinted too today.
F

Mrs_Money_Penny

Congratulations on the overpayment. Hope the guy comes back with another offer for your other item. Have a good weekend.

MeandO

Thank you Sarahwithlove, Foxgloves & Mrs_Money_Penny.

Yesterday wasn't a NSD unfortunately as I had to fill the car up with petrol (£58) and I did the grocery shop whilst I was in the area. £23ish spent at Aldi but I had to go to Asda this morning and buy fruit, veg and salad as Aldi's produce shelves were practically bare. Another £13.50 cleared from vinted but I've had to top up the fuel pot with that as there wasn't quite enough in the pot to cover the cost of the full tank which I'll need later this week for the drive home. There's 72p left in the grocery pot! I shouldn't need to buy anything else this week though, except for maybe milk, but the other vinted sales will mean I can top the pot up.

Sarahwithlove

You're doing so well with the vinted sales! 

MeandO

It’s payday at the end of this week and I have struggled these past two weeks, again. I’ve not come under or within budget any month this year so far so something really needs to change and I need to be more realistic with my budget. I’ve gone through everything again tonight and have realised I’m massively overspending on the groceries. I always allow £250 but this month alone I’ve already spent £330.94! I am I being frivolous? I don’t think so as we don’t have any takeaways or fast food but eating healthily and feeding myself and a 6ft tall 14 year old boy does prove to cost more than I was allowing for. This also covers toiletries, cleaning products and household things like loo rolls etc. 

Also, because YNAB runs from 1st to 1st of the month and I get paid on the 25th, I find it really difficult to know how much I’ve spent in each category per month, so I’ve decided to shake the way I budget up a little bit. I’m going to ignore the date I get paid, stop living from 25th-25th and count the 1st of every month as the first day of my monthly budget, that way I should be able to keep track of everything much better and see where my money is going. This does mean I now have to cover any bills that come out during the remainder of May from current funds, so I have withdrawn £375 from the isa to cover these. I just need to get a firm plan in place every month that is working for me as this whole year feels like a financial struggle so far. 

I’ve also had to be more realistic with the amounts saved in some of the pots as it just wasn’t enough. I’ve upped the school expenses & sports kit by £50 to £100 per month. The groceries pot is also going up by £50 to £300 a month. If I find I have money left over in that pot at the end of the month then I will reduce this back down to £250 again.
My ISA savings will have to take a hit because of this an I’m going to reduce that to sending £225 a month to the ISA. If all income remains the same, there will be £9.47 left floating in the budget to cover any variations in bills. 

I feel disheartened reducing the amounting going to the ISA as my aim this year was to save, save, save but unfortunately it hasn’t quite gone to plan. I try to remind myself that I am still also saving £200 to the Christmas/birthdays fund a month, £200 to the car/household costs, £25 to DS’s ISA and £287 a month is being paid into my AVCs. I may have to re-evaluate all of the above in a few months as I think my water bill is about to go up (I get billed quarterly and, so far, have not been informed of the increase from April’s skyrocketing water prices). 

My broadband/phone/tv is up for renewal in July too so I need to shop around and try and reduce that. We just have the standard tv package, I may even look into a freeview box and scrapping sky altogether as we have a working aerial and a dish - not entirely sure how the freeview thing works though as has been a while since I had it 
I still don’t see how I’m going to afford a ‘holiday’ savings pot, I don’t think am unfortunately. Sorry DS  

weenancyinAmerica

Start the holiday pot with $5 a month and see if son can find some things to sell to add to it. Or look for ways to cut the expenses for him by shopping for used items and adding the money to the holiday pot. You are doing better than me - my holiday pot has 35 cents in it. And my Christmas fund has a whole $1 at this point. By the way, who are you paying $2400 a year on for presents? Maybe if you look at the yearly amount, you can think of ways to save. The total amount used to get to me (when I had an income to spend on it). Now I am working on Dizzycap's No spend Christmas ideas over in the Challenge section. 

weenancyinAmerica

Forgot to say - my holiday budget is going to spent on a day trip on the bus, with a picnic lunch most likely. I am getting books at my library book sale, puzzles at same, and going through what I already have in the house to pass along for presents. I usually have less than $10 left after paying the bills to cover extras - clothes, holidays, presents, entertainment. Your pots look wonderful to me.

twiggy86

When I got disheartened, I found it very useful to track the annual amounts I spent/ saved in various categories. For example, I haven't paid off the amount I would like on debts and my house/diy pot is currently at £0... but I have actually spent just under £3k on the house this year (boiler broke!). Plus I have over £1,500 in my various sinking funds and re-built my emergency fund (again, boiler!). So when I look at it that way, it doesn't seem so bad that I've "only" paid £1,500 off my debts! 

So how much have you saved already this year? How much have you already spent on school costs etc. For me it really helped see where my money has been going and that I'm doing the best I can (well still room for improvement!) whilst juggling ALL the priorities of life!  

foxgloves

@MeandO - Years ago, when we were very much still at the debt-busting phase, we sat together & went through every channel available on our paid-for TV package. We were pretty shocked to find that we only watched a couple of channels not available via Freeview & we both decided we weren't sufficiently bothered about them to keep paying for a whole package. So we decided to go with Freeview instead. We sometimes subscribe to a month's worth of a streamer, but only if there is something we defo want to watch. When we've watched it, the subscription ends. I can't remember even once missing the original TV package, just wonder why we stuck with it for so long!
F