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

KajiKita

That’s a really constructive conversation about finances. I can never seem to get Mr KK to concentrate long enough to get down to that level of detail … 🤷‍♀️😂

Bad luck about the car. No point getting a second quote for the work? 

KK

Bluegreen143

Well, that’s my out of office on; I’ve got a lovely long weekend now! Away tomorrow for two nights with my mum and my sister. We’ve paid the accommodation already and I’ve got £250 in my YNAB pot for spending money (I got paid today). I doubt I’ll spend that much, but it’s nice to have a generous budget for going away with others, rather than feeling like a penny-pincher. 

Probably worth doing a little mid-month round up (always extremely illuminating for me rather than waiting until the end of the month and being shocked!). 

NEEDS £1,503.11
Mortgage £528.86
Gas & Electricity £241
Life insurance £45.07
Internet £25.90
Groceries £328.93
Petrol £40
Parking £27
Medical £11.35 (over-the-counter medication)
Car insurance £41.66 (final extension of the insurance for BIL’s car - we return it tomorrow)
Road tax £255 (annual bill)

WANTS - joint £156.16
Leisure & entertainment £28.99 (TV license, Netflix and snacks when at the football the other week)
Home & garden £8.99
Kids’ clothes £8 (took advantage of the preloved school uniform stall and got Monkey a jumper and Bambi a cardigan, which they both needed)
Kids - fun & education £110.18 (pocket money, subscriptions for activities, name labels, water bottles for school)

WANTS - personal £56.77
Books & hobbies £37.89 (yarn)
Misc £18.88 (work lunch, subscriptions for cloud storage etc)

Total spent so far in Sept £1,716.04. 

And I’ve excitingly just paid the last £329.90 off of the credit card! So we are now temporarily consumer debt free. For a very small amount of time, until we get the bill from the garage 🙄.

Oooh and I know you’ve all been eagerly waiting to hear if I paid for parking today. I parked at Lidl, bought a small bunch of bananas and scanned my receipt 😉. 78p for the privilege of parking, but as I have young kids I always need bananas anyway.

beanielou

Enjoy your mini break. 

FootyFanDan

Win on the parking  . Hope you enjoy your break.

Baileys_Babe

Well done on neutralising the parking cost. I used to do similar a couple of years ago. Lidl and a large Home Bargains shared a carpark and by shopping and scanning your receipt in each shop you could park for an hour, you could shop/scan in both for 2 hours parking which was brilliant as my children had hour and half training session 1 minutes walk away.

I would usually only buy one or two things in each shop to "pay" for my parking. I kept a list of items we would use from HB. Like OTC medication, a few grocery items, some toiletries, stationery.

wannabedebtfreemum95

Congratulations on the last of the debt and enjoy your mini break! Hope the weather is kind to you!

Bluegreen143

Well I’m back from my weekend away by the sea and I had a fabulous time with my mum and sister. 

We did plenty of walking, including round a couple of beautiful walled gardens and a cliffside walk to a ruined castle. We also had lots of lovely food out and champagne! Feeling pretty tired now - I can’t sleep well when away from home, especially if Red isn’t with me, but it was definitely worth it. 

I didn’t spend anywhere near my £250 budget - I haven’t done YNAB yet, but I think I spent around £115-120 all in. My mum paid for both dinners, entry to the first garden and the champagne, and my sister and I split paying for the rest - I spent £41 on groceries (most of which came home again!), £24.40 on a lunch out, £21 on entry to the second country park, £15.50 on gifts for Red and the kids and I think a few £ in cash on a drink or tip here and there which is trickier to work out now. 

I have already used some of the leftover on a Fitbit Inspire 3 - a preloved one on eBay (under £40 inc delivery). My sister is really into tracking her steps on her Fitbit and my mum has ordered one too so all three of us are going to start a little accountability group to walk a lot more. 

It was lovely to be away but it’s lovely to be home too. We had roast chicken for dinner and the leftovers are picked off the bones ready for tomorrow. Red and the kids also made a HM apple strudel for dessert together which was really tasty. 

beanielou

Glad you enjoyed your mini break. 

Bluegreen143

Looking over YNAB this morning. If only it wasn’t for this upcoming car bill I’d be happy that we’re turning things around! 

✔️ Credit card debt now at £0
✔️ Emergency Fund back at £558.64
✔️ Needs sinking funds starting to build up:
- car maintenance £828.47
- annual bills £112.99
✔️ Making a start on sinking funds for Wants:
- Christmas £263.54
- Other gifts & celebrations £51.06
- Holiday £40
- Kids clothes £20

It's all a good start but in the next few months, most of those savings will be gone and I’ll have a credit card balance again 🤦‍♀️. BUT it’s showing me what a difference a few small tweaks have made - keeping a closer eye on groceries, waiting instead of making impulse purchases and cutting out personal pots. 

Bluegreen143

Right, I’ve prebooked taxis for the office tomorrow. I’m only going in once this week due to not having the car (it’s meant to be twice. I haven’t told anyone yet that I’m not going to come in again but it’s usually fine!). 

This will be a fairly expensive £30 or something for the two journeys, so I did try to figure it out on public transport first. But I can’t figure out a way to get in much before 9.45am or to leave any later than 1.55pm if I’m to do the school run as well and that won’t really do (and I’d be nervous in case the afternoon bus was delayed and made me miss the kids, so would likely want to go even earlier!). At least the exercise has reaffirmed that I do, in fact, need a car in order to run my life and it’s not wasted money! 

At least we don’t have any petrol/parking costs til we get the car back so the taxi cost will come from that, and I’m aiming to walk (or bus if necessary) all other journeys apart from the office run.