Stopping the backsliding… a family of four no longer living beyond their means

Bluegreen143

We had to pay for 90 mins (one child starting at 9 and the other at 10) but yes, it is expensive!!

Sarahwithlove

Sounds like you gave a busy time coming ip money wise. That's good about the monzo card I didn't know that but useful for me to keep in mind for emergencies in the future. 

debtfreewannabe321

Does the school area have private roads with free parking near by? We used to have to pay for parking at my children's primary school as it was opposite a tourist hotspot but I learned where all the roads were locally with less than a 10 min walk to the school for little legs and with an hour or two free parking?

I hope they both had a great day back

Bluegreen143

No it doesn’t, pretty much all of the west end and city centre here are under strict parking restrictions and the school is sort of at the junction of both - it’s a very built up urban area so I do understand the need for the restrictions. Something I didn’t consider when choosing not to send them to the local primary! (Not that I’d change it).

BUT options are the local supermarket which allows you to park for free for a short while if picking up kids (even if you’re not shopping there) - I will try to do that if just picking up rather than staying to play at the park. And also the nearby private car park my friend told me about which is allegedly much cheaper than the on street parking so I really must investigate it! 

Even parking 10 mins away would be tricky anyway because of how tight my timings are - we have no flex in our schedule. I actually need to leave work 30 mins early to get to school on time from the office so I’d feel too guilty to leave even earlier to park further away! 

PS it cost £4.20 for 60 mins at pick up - so that’s £10.40 in total on parking at my children’s school today. So yes, it is worth trying to reduce where possible. Last year I just refused to pay but before the holidays I got a ticket when I was just parked there for literally 7 minutes so it’s put me off that course of action now.

Bluegreen143

Right, that’s my pay in and budgeted as follows:

Credit card £740.20
Help to Save £100
Council tax £170
Groceries £300
Petrol & parking £85
Leisure & entertainment £80
Gifts & celebrations £10
Birthday pizza party £150
Car maintenance £136.50

And I split my £500 personal budget between:

S&S ISA £40
Phone £8
Audible £69.99*
Parenting group subscription £25
Weekend away £50
Red’s birthday £25
Gifts £15
Clothes £75
Socialising £75
Books & hobbies £50
Misc £30
Wedding ring savings £37.01

*going to switch this to an annual account which is much cheaper 

The car pot now has £403.63. I think the repairs will likely cost more but I’ve remembered that I can raid my wedding ring savings pot which has £529 in it. It would be annoying because it’s the second (or third?) time I’ve decimated this pot to bail out the joint account (which is why I never seem to get to the point of actually ordering the ring!!) but ultimately it’s silly not to use it if we have a big car bill.  

EDIT I’ve forgotten to account for the £123 bill for insuring myself on BIL’s car. So that will reduce the car pot accordingly…

Bluegreen143

And for my records, each pot currently contains (having just reconciled my accounts & paid my credit card):

Help to Save £100
Council tax £170
Groceries £300
Petrol & parking £74.60
Leisure & entertainment £80
Car maintenance £310.31
Road tax £45.30
Pizza party £150
Kids’ room refurb £50*

Monkey camps/clubs/activities £52.19*
Bambi camps/clubs/activities £102.76*

** this is from money relatives have given the kids which we’ve agreed we save for experiences and big ticket items instead of adding to their pocket money, which is already ample. 

S&S ISA £40
Phone £8
Audible £69.99
YNAB £76
Parenting group subscription £25
Weekend away (Sept) £150
Red’s birthday £50
Wedding ring £529.50
Gifts £15
Clothes £75
Socialising £75
Books & hobbies £50
Misc £30

And, errr, the myriad of other pots unlisted (Christmas etc) have £0…

Roll on next pay at the end of the month 😂

BUT in happier news, my credit card balance is now £329.90. Going in the right direction and on track to pay off next month. 

The tricky bit will be avoiding adding to it now with car repairs, annual bills, the kids’ birthdays and Christmas as we haven’t got filled pots for these yet. 

Today’s spending

£10.60 parking 

£12.66 on a birthday cake, flowers & card for my mum (who we spontaneously invited for dinner at 4.30pm as it’s her birthday today and I didn’t realise my stepdad was away)

£122.38 insuring myself to drive BIL’s car while my car is in the garage 

Today’s meals

B - strawberry & banana milkshake for kids, yoghurt/nuts etc for me

S - apple & grapes for kids’ school snack 

L - roasted veg & goats cheese again for me, ham sandwich for Red 

S - carrot & cucumber for kids, I scoffed a few squares of chocolate…

D - tuna & broccoli cheesy pasta then chocolate birthday cake 

Floss

Bluegreen143 said:

The car pot now has £403.63. I think the repairs will likely cost more but I’ve remembered that I can raid my wedding ring savings pot which has £529 in it. It would be annoying because it’s the second (or third?) time I’ve decimated this pot to bail out the joint account (which is why I never seem to get to the point of actually ordering the ring!!) but ultimately it’s silly not to use it if we have a big car bill.…

Shouldn't the joint account needing to be topped up be shared between you both, with a higher regular amount being saved for car costs in future? It shouldn't just be your personal savings that bails out the joint account...

Bluegreen143

Yes, but Red doesn’t have any savings to bail the account out with. Realistically I’d rather use my savings to avoid debt than get into debt and keep the savings (since it’s savings for a luxury item not an essential). 

marzipan.

Just just a thought for this time next year when MOT is due again… I am pretty sure you can get it MOT’d in advance of the due date by up to a month - worth checking as this year if you had known, you could have done that and then borrowing and insuring BIL car would not be needed for school run if you got MOT done before school restarted and you were not in office.

Bluegreen143

Yes, I wouldn’t have normally left it so late - we were obviously away on holiday for a week just there which slightly left us scrambling to get everything done tbh. Good point that if we shift to doing it in school hols it may be easier.