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

Bluegreen143

@zcrat41 this is how I’ve felt about the fan tbh, but basically it runs constantly (every journey and for 5-10 mins after you stop the car) and Red thinks it’s knackering the battery - we had to get a new battery when it was in before and I don’t think the new one will last anywhere near the length of time it should because of the constant power needed by the fan. But tbh that’s why we’ve left the fan issue the past year, we didn’t want to lose the car for weeks again when they didn’t find the issue last time and it wasn’t completely crucial! The new garage man reckons he knows what the issue is 🤞🏼

Oh tiny budget positive. My papa emailed me yesterday to say he forgot Bambi was starting school and he wants to pay for her uniform as he did for Monkey in P1. I’ve already paid for it obviously so the money he sends can go into the car pot! 

Bluegreen143

I don’t think I rounded up yesterday:

Spending

£0 - parking 😜 (I parked at the nearby supermarket - they have an arrangement with the school - and got there in good time, so I’ll do that again!). 

£188.21 - MOT 

£109 - weekly Tesco delivery (inc baking ingredients for Red to make me a birthday cake plus nice birthday breakfast stuff he put in for me, so I’m pleased it came in at this) 

£40.31 - put petrol in borrowed car. We actually need two cars one day next week as Red is taking his mum for her operation while I’m in the office/have the school run, so we’ve hung on to it for now - BIL is away so doesn’t mind

Meals

B - kids peanut butter/toast/banana, me banana/yoghurt 

S - apple & strawberries for kids 

L - ham sandwich for Red, leftover enchiladas for me 

S - may have scoffed some chocolate cake as still feeling under the weather (did I mention I had a bit of a cold)… carrot & cucumber & cherry tomatoes for kids after school

D -  HM chicken, butter bean & veg soup (I didn’t have with bread as we just had sliced rubbish bread in but everyone else had that)

Red took Monkey to karate yesterday as we’ve agreed to alternate this annoying task 🤣 so it was very pleasing to not have to do it. I used the time well - read to Bambi & played a game with her, then gave all the downstairs a really good, thorough tidy (straightening up shelves and tackling clutter spots etc) while she watched a little TV. 

Today I’m working from home then we are taking MIL to the seaside to cheer her up before her mastectomy next week. Will need to pay for a taxi for MIL to get here (too out of the way to pick her up in the time we have), a chippy dinner and possibly ice creams for the kids so a somewhat spendy day, but worthwhile. 

Floss

That's a great way to share the karate run - you can now both spend quality time alone with each child. And great memory-making with the seaside trip too.

Sarahwithlove

Would the help to save come out in time to pay monzo off in December? Does it have to be 3 equal payments if do via monzo payment plan? Never used it myself. Could you raid your savings and then use monzo to pay other expenses the savings were intended for until your saver matures in December and clear it then? Just thinking the amount you have to pay monzo each month would be spread out as the 3 months start from date or purchase right? 

Bluegreen143

@Sarahwithlove it’s 3 equal instalments, the payment date is the 15th of the month so I can’t remember what the cut off is for whether the three payments start in Sept or start in Oct. I think if the purchase is in Sept the payment might not start til 15th Oct though. 

I don’t have any savings pots I can raid beyond what was mentioned. 

In all my on-budget accounts (basically current accounts and savings accounts/ISAs but not including Help to Save or LISAs) my current balance is £2,225.43 (including my personal account & savings). Obviously some of that is needed for living expenses before next payday on the 30th. 

So you can see, we don’t currently have enough spread between savings pots to cover a £2k bill without using a card. 

Red will get paid before the car goes in and I might get paid again too actually which will improve matters. 

But yes, in Dec we will get £6,000 which will clear any remaining CC debt, pay for Christmas and hopefully set us up in a much stronger position with our savings pots and emergency fund.

Sarahwithlove

Could you maybe pay as much as possible from raiding savings and leave yourself say £500 for anything extra then pay difference with monzo with the 3 payments? Maybe see how things look at the time after Red has been paid in September. What would be the interest rate if it went on normal card? Would you get the standard 56 days until interest is charged. If so you'd probably only get 1 or 2 months interest and you could pay as much off as possible between then and December 

MFWannabe

Is paying 2k to fix the car the best option? Or would it be worth looking at what you would get for the car if you traded it in / sold it now? And got a newer car? Doesn’t sound very mse but it could work out better to do this? 

If the best option is to repair the current car are you eligible for a new 0% spend credit card? Do the search on here to check. That way you can pay on this and not have to raid any savings etc then when you get your money in December you could clear it 

KeepOnKnitting

I think it is always really hard in the first few months of debt clearing/budgeting, as you have this new awareness of your finances and exactly how much (little) money you actually have, how far it needs to stretch, but you don't yet have emergency pots saved up, so you are still lurching from disaster to disaster. I think it probably takes a year to get from lurching to steady and solid. I'm right there with you, so you have my sympathy.

Spendless

I think I would try if possible to ensure that the £2k car bill remains at £2k rather than £2k plus interest, because any money you spend on  interest could  go towards something else. Is £700 a month doable from current finances (if you do it on Monzo) or will the bill need to be covered in full or part  by your Help to Save maturing.

On your known next big spends eg Christmas/kids birthdays etc have you already got budgets planned than you will be able to stick to?

Bluegreen143

Thanks for the thoughts all. 

We did deliberate on changing the car. It’s only got 50k miles on it so it should have a few years to do. It would sell for about £4K but we would not be able to get a similar car for under £8-10 I don’t think, so it would completely wipe out all our savings in December. We’ve decided it’s better to keep it for now. 

The car didn’t feel good when driving it on the motorway yesterday (struggling at higher speeds even in the appropriate gear and just not feeling totally “right”) so the work does need done. In fact Red has asked me to take BIL’s car up north next weekend as he doesn’t trust our car for any more than pootling about doing the school run til it’s fixed.

KeepOnKnitting (love the username!) - I completely agree, the first year of budgeting when you have no savings is such a pain. Forgotten expenses, sinking funds not full at the right time and emergencies happening with no emergency fund. I’ve been here before and I know that the longer you budget for, the smoother the process is. 

Budgets for Christmas/kids’ birthdays - yes, I need to sit down and do some proper planning of the budget and what we are going to get people. I tend to start thinking about it after my birthday each year so I’ll schedule some time in next week. 

Yesterday’s round up 

We had our after school seaside trip yesterday. I had already said to Red that I thought MIL was being very optimistic about what she could manage but went into it with the mindset that it was about MIL and I was going to go with the flow and not fuss about the day looking any particular way. 

I may not have mentioned that Red’s anxiety is on a bit of a flare just now, mainly triggered by driving, so I also had to drive. I’m used to Red being the main driver so this is a bit of a recent change for us. 

Anyway, so MIL got a taxi here and we set off at 4.15 for a drive of over an hour through heavy Friday afternoon traffic in a dodgy packed car 😂 and my phone wouldn’t charge so my sat nav stopped working half way through and Red had to direct me. 

We got there, it was cold and windy, and as soon as she stepped out of the car MIL declared it was too cold for her and got straight back in 🤣🤣🤣 we divided and conquered and Red took her for a wee drive up the front to look at the view while I took the kids for a bracing walk around the rock pools, which they loved. And Red said he gave MIL his coat and coaxed her out for a little walk which was good. 

Then we went to the chippy to sit in and have our dinner. I lived in this seaside town throughout the end of primary and all of secondary school (though none of my family live there now) and this particular chippy was one we used when I was a child, lovely and nostalgic! 

Then we went home. I think we spent longer driving than at the seaside 😂

I was under the impression MIL was coming to ours (and nobody corrected me when we were setting our destination on the sat nav!) and then when we passed MIL’s exit on the motorway she piped up asking why I wasn’t taking her home and she didn’t want to come to ours because she was tired. And I’m sure she was as she’s really not fit/well. But at that particular point I was also very tired from a week of work and car/school admin, having a cold, then finishing up and driving for over two hours to take her to the beach 🤣 so I had to take a deep breath at that point at the dismaying thought of adding an extra 45 minutes to our drive! But I did it, and Red took over the driving for the final leg. And we saved ourselves a second taxi fare. 

Anyway, I think I got decent “daughter in law” points and the kids were happy and MIL can tell all her friends at the sheltered housing about her Friday adventure, so I think it was a success!

Cash spent - £40 on the chippy, £25.74 on MIL’s taxi.