Oops I did it again

Aimingforthegoodlife

Have ended the month needing to use savings as I ran out of money! Currently have £0.76 in my account, thought I had cancelled prme, but hadn't seen the extra button at the bottom so the £4.99 will come back from that! Annoying, but I will remember if we get another offer in the future! I went through my spending, had a couple of important birthdays so did spend more than usual, here is a breakdown:

Tsco- £222.84- this is food shops, DH and I pay every other week, but also noticed I am popping in more, and this will usually see baby clothes being added as they are so cute and snacks etc, soon adds up!
Fuel- £92.25- not happy with this at all, my old bigger car was only filled once a month, so one fill up per payment month, hmmm. 
Charity- £13.67- this is fine, long standing direct debits
PADS- £44.33- happy with these! Lower than last month, but still good!
Cash- £50- gave this as a gift for a special birthday as didn't know what to get!
Cards- £4.47 for 4 birthday cards, that is good and one is for a birthday in Oct
Injection- £169.99- this is actually £174 with postage, but I forgot to send the postage over, and figured I put loads in that account, it can afford my postage
Aldl- £8.70- got a couple of food bits as a birthday gift
Sainsbobs- £32.45- I have gotten into the habit of letting myself buy the meal deal for £5 a week, the halloumi wrap is just beautiful, but those costs add up, and I also bought some new smaller knickers this week (that is nice )
Santadr- £1602.65- this includes £1400 for bills, £162.95 for my loan and some other bits
DH- £27- bought two t shirts that are awesome from a shop I couldn't previously fit into, that DH gets loyalty points for
Klarna- £27.32- One of three payments for a great haul of on sale smaller clothes, probs didn't need to buy as much and should have sent the jeans back but missed the deadline!
Life Insurance- £10.74- that is fine, all other bills come from the joint account
SportD- £88.99- this is for three pairs of trainers, I washed my work ones and the tongue fell out! So I now have two pairs of work trainers, one back up, and a pair of exercise trainers for when the current ones give up. I live in trainers!
Spr- £4.94- another meal deal, come on Jo!
Taylor Swift- £57.25- although this is expensive, it was 25% off and is an authentic tour hoodie, have been eyeing it up since we saw her in June- it was amazing! And I am glad I waited and got a good discount!

That is all! Was a hugely spendy month, lots of areas I could have cut back or made different choices. I may allow myself a Sainsbobs meal deal once a month if I really want it, not sure I could replicate the amazing sauce they use myself. Unsure why fuel costs seem so high, will have to keep an eye on this. I do a lot of driving for work, short journeys, but my expenses for travel are about £80 a month, so wouldn't even cover this months spends. Don't usually go to the other shops so that should be simple to stop, for Tsco I just need to not pop in. I should get everything at the weekly shop. Injection is what it is, I want to be able to save around this, but to be honest, with the loan it is very tight at the moment. I am thinking, next month should be £268.80 less in spends! Though my next wage will cover three food shops not two, so that will be an extra £70ish as standard.

There is a warning light coming on and off in my new car, DH thinks that it is to do with the tyres and may be causing the car to use more fuel at times. Though it will then go off so it is hard to know if there is an actual problem with the tyres or if there is a sensor issue which is causing the problem. Will look into this, would be annoying to need to repair the car already!

backinbusiness

Not sure where you bought the car from, but did it come with any sort of warranty that might cover a fix (if required). BiB x 

Sarahwithlove

Well done you are doing great. I need to force myself back to the gym 

Aimingforthegoodlife

Sadly @backinbusiness it was bought privately, this was a risk we took. All MOTs and services were good so was hoping the car was going to behave!haha. 

Thanks @Sarahwithlove it is so hard to try and be on top of everything though, isn't it!

Sarahwithlove

It is. After a long day at work it's last thing I want to do. But I'm also not a morning person lol 

KeepOnKnitting

Aimingforthegoodlife said:

it is crazy that in my late 30's, I am only just starting to see that weight is not the important part!

I think the fashion and diet industries have a lot to answer for. 80s and 90s media has done a number on our generation, and probably the same can be said for older women too. 

Aimingforthegoodlife

Weekly round up:

Other: £16.58
Loan: £17.31
Holiday: £12.50

Other cumulative total: £156.66/£2000. I still need a further £1859,92 to reach this target, anything extra to throw at the kitchen bill is fine by me! We have added £1485 to the joint savings since the start of the month (will miss DH self employed work once it stops at the end of Sept!) meaning we are close to 2k just being added to savings so I don't need to stress myself out, even though I will!haha. 

Loan OP since Oct 2023: £1544.76/£1629.50. Another £84.74 to find for this next month off. I am thinking that I also need to look at building my savings as the injections are only going to get more expensive. I just don't have much wriggle room, so am considering if all PADs are to go to the loan, or if some should go to savings. Will have a good think!

Sarahwithlove

Maybe split them? Or every other day etc. 

Aimingforthegoodlife

@Sarahwithlove I am also not a morning person, takes so much effort to get moving! I do like the idea of splitting them, have decided that I am going to see how much of the injection cost I can absorb into my month, and only replace what I have too. This should help, this month I am paying for three food shops so thats an extra £70 spent before I start but should be able to absorb some. Saving the PADs for monthly payments means that I can split it more easily as well!

@KeepOnKnitting so true, generations of women destroyed by dieting and social influence! My mum was hugely influenced by diet culture. I am hoping that the newer generations are starting to fight back and they will have much better times! 

I love playing the sims, this weekend has been great for playing and my sim had a midlife crisis and I think maybe I am too! There is so much I want to do, but things just aren't getting done, everything feels so slow, yet time moves so fast, I want to save money, but I also want to do so many things that cost money We have been chatting about exploring more of the UK, discussed saving for a campervan, which also led to conversations around roof tents for the car, as a kind of cheaper mid option. I have never loved camping, but this could be the perfect option to allow more exploration at a more affordable cost. Keeping an eye on 2nd hand sites for curiosity and budgeting purposes- in the future!

Edited to add- DH got our home insurance for £165, with £34 cashback, the cashback takes it closer to last years so will have only paid £10 more in total which is much better than we expected. 

Aimingforthegoodlife

I think as part of my midlife crisis, I will attempt to up my accountability on here, it works well for PADs and retrospective spending, and also reviewing and coming up with new ideas. So here goes:

Me (weight, fitness, work etc)- 

• Injection is expensive, but I have lost 2stone 3lbs and experienced a lot of amazing non scale victories, so this will continue
• I have spent £7.99 and got a weeks free Pr*me so free delivery on 10syringes with needles, this is because the injectable insulin you get, has an amount left every month that you cannot use. I have looked up 'using the 5th dose' and this seems a legitimately good way to do it, the dose should be 0.6ml, so I can measure that on the syringe and make sure I am using the right amount, or if it is slightly less, I will be mindful of that. This will mean the injection will last 5 weeks instead of 4
• I will keep an eye on online pharmacies to see if I can get it cheaper as I continue
• I would like to try and get more consistency with fitness, I can see improvements, but am still struggling with regular movement. I will have a think about how I can add this in as a tool moving forward
• I am going to try and absorb some of the injection cost into my monthly spends, reducing the amount needed from savings
• I am going to start looking into more protein and better food choices as I get very stuck on what I know and what is easy
• I feel like I am very anxious in work at the moment, although I sort of know why, the level of anxiety is way above what it should be, so will try and work this out
• Car 02 sensor is definitely the problem, DH has bought a replacement for £58 and is pretty sure he will be able to replace it himself when he is home next weekend, so that is great news and should help fuel consumption
• I am going to try and be more accountable with my spends, as these really got away from me last month!

Loan-

• I have been tempted to just pay it off, and saving up rather than paying back, but £4k is sat in a 4% saver so getting £12 a month interest, and the other £4.5k is being used to top up a 5% and 7% saver, so it is working for me at the moment and I really like knowing it is there in an emergency
• I am doing well with the PADs and will keep this up, it is definitely a long slog and I need to think about it that way

House-

• We have been here 10 years this year, and the house definitely needs love
• We revamped the downstairs bathroom over last year, and still need to finish the flooring and find some things to make the walls look less bland! We are still debating adding a shower over the bath
• We updated the lounge, but the paint was cheap and is marked really easily, at some point will buy the expensive paint to do a top up and hopefully that will solve the problem, will need a new sofa at some point
• The kitchen will be spray painted professionally in October, £2.5k but will make a huge saving on actually replacing the entire kitchen. We need to get a replacement cupboard from where we moved the washing machine out and new handles for all the doors etc, and choose a colour/s. Will need to do the flooring at some point, but no idea when that will be
• The back patio is looking a bit rubbish, want to update the stones and resin the gaps between the pavers, can then jet wash it all, will be a huge job though!
• Trying to get on top of weeding the border, its huge and the weeds are relentless, I have more stamina now for weeding that I used to, but still fatigue really quickly! We plan to add some big established shrubs to try and keep it more controlled going forward
• We have been thinking that the house itself may need a new coat of paint, not looked into this yet
• Would love to replace the upstairs carpets, but are unsure if doing this with three dogs is a good idea or not!
• Want to replace the upstairs shower and cubicle, re tile and paint the room
• Need a cooker for the kitchen to replace our old one- keeping an eye on 2nd hand forums
• Field needs getting on top of, as much as I love the wild look it is a bit too wild in places!haha
• We have £100 set up to the mortgage as OP monthly, so that is nice, will remortgage again next year, hoping for an improvement in offers by then