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

Bluegreen143

theoretica said:

Looking at your comments around the budget, you seem to have been operating with easy access to spending money, and the idea that you save what is left over.  Rather than paying fixed bills first, putting money into various saving pots immediately (including long term for retirement, medium term for the next car and short term for holidays and presents) and only leaving the money you intend to spend - whether groceries or personal - available.  Save first, not what is 'left over' at the end.  Once the credit card is cleared, putting away at least the old £400 a month to rebuild car savings seems very worthwhile.

Are there any ways you could avoid paying so much for parking?  I am sure it varies depending on where you live, but that is a bill that catches my eye.

I actually have been protesting about parking for nearly two years by not paying at all because the prices are now so eyewateringly outrageous 🙈 they’ve recently increased parking wardens being out and I’ve received two parking fines within 3/4 months so I’ve decided to start paying for parking again as it’s getting riskier (errr, sorry if this stance of previously not paying for parking offends anyone!!).

Because I’ve not been paying for parking til now the £80 a month was a random estimate so it may cost less 🤷‍♀️

I don’t need to pay to park at the office however I live in a very urban/busy city area. Most places I want to go are metered parking and the prices have risen exponentially since the pandemic. 

As an example, if I pick my kids up actually at school (rather than them get the school bus home) they will want to stay to play at the play park with friends which costs me £8 for two hours. I met friends in a park for 3 hours the other week and it cost £12.50! 

Trying to cycle more but I’m a bit scared 🙈 and it’s not always doable with the kids to go any real distance as Bambi still has little legs and no gears on her bike and gets tired pedalling uphill! 

Re savings - believe it or not I do try to save first - ever since I stopped using YNAB I’ve not been good at tracking this though 🤦‍♀️ I really want to get a handle on this all now before our mortgage deal is up. We “should” be saving absolutely tons every month - but we aren’t. 

EDIT I’ve just remembered my friend told me about a cheap car park near my kids’ school so I need to check that out!

Bluegreen143

In other good news for stretching the budget, Red has arrived home having done a hard day’s labour at our friends’ house (helping them build a chicken run) and they’ve given him a pot of HM beef curry and pot of sticky rice to take away as a thank you 😁 I think the curry isn’t quite enough for all four of us currently but I can bulk it out with veg to be so that’s tonight’s dinner sorted. 

Because of this I’ve cut up, seasoned and frozen the kilo of chicken breast I bought last week. I froze in two tubs - one will be used with pasta on Saturday, but the other will rollover to next week, meaning less meat to buy (anyone miss the old emojis from the forum years ago, like the jumping up and down one?!!). 

I’ve got a loaf of bread rising for soup tomorrow and I had very very tasty HM quiche for lunch so I’m feeling very “domestic goddess” today 😅

I do think I will need a top up of bananas soon though. My kids are obsessed 🤦‍♀️ there is enough of other fruit in but there may be a revolt if I don’t supply bananas! 

Other money news…

- Monzo also let us join a waitlist for a free kids’ account. Atm we pay £2 a month for the NatWest kids’ account for Monkey do this would be a small win. 

- Red and I have agreed not to renew Spotify when it runs out in September (it’s an annual subscription). This may not be permanent but we’ll at least take a break for a while. 

- did I mention on my old thread that Monkey decided to stop violin lessons at the end of the school year? These cost £10 a week in term time so will be a decent saving. It also means we no longer need to constantly nag him to practice and can apply that huge amount of energy to making him do his homework instead 😂. Red is going to try teaching him guitar himself instead as we already have two child sized ones and Red is very good himself. I think “teaching your kids stuff yourself” is a VERY under-talked about money saving technique by the way - we are also teaching the kids to swim ourselves which saves a lot compared to friends who pay for lessons.

beanielou

Jeez to the parking. 

foxgloves

Agree with comments about saving. When I have my Big Budget Day (on pay-day or absolutely as soon afterwards as I can manage), I reconcile the old month's budget & then set the new one. Our Regular Saver is topped up automatically by standing order each month, but the other savings payments are dealt with there & then so there is no possibility of getting to the end of the new month & finding there's nothing left over to save. Done regularly, it soon becomes very motivating as can see savings account balances growing. 
F

Bluegreen143

Final round up for today:

Spending - £0

Meals

B - usual yoghurt/nut/banana mix (kids had cereal I think) 

L - gorgeous HM cheddar & onion quiche with salad & olives (kids had pesto pasta Red packed for their picnic)

S - kids had a pot each of chopped fruit (pear/grapes) in the afternoon 

D - beef curry made by friend, spiked with spinach, served with sticky rice and broccoli 

Plan for tomorrow

1. Work flat out on big work project.

2. Take kids to park to meet Bambi’s nursery friend after work (will need to pay to park there, unless we walk or cycle - it’s about a mile away - but no other costs). 

3. Red is taking his mum to her hospital appointment tomorrow. Please keep everything crossed for good news as this is the appointment where she gets the results for all the cancer tests she had last week 🙏

4. Meals - going to have quiche for lunch again and lentil soup for dinner. Have made the bread this evening.

beanielou

Positive thoughts. 

FootyFanDan

Crossing my fingers for you all to get positive news 

Baileys_Babe

Fingers crossed MIL for good news on the test results 🤞

Spendless

Hi

I remember your diary from the days before you returned to work. I agree with what foxgloves has said about personal spends/savings pots being more defined. That's exactly what I've noticed during my own journey to pay off debt (£105 left!) that we need to 'label' the various savings for x purpose otherwise when a curveball or two hits you don't know where you are.

I wouldn't cancel the critical illness. Both me and Mr S had one as we both owned property before we got together. Mine got to the end of the term without paying out, Mr S paid out when he was diagnosed with cancer. In both cases I'm very glad we had it.

Understand the parking charge problems. Our DD lived in Edinburgh for 6 months and it was horrendous. Sometimes we'd time our trips to see her to combine with when there was only a couple of hours left of parking charge time to minimise costs. 

FlorayG

theoretica said:

Looking at your comments around the budget, you seem to have been operating with easy access to spending money, and the idea that you save what is left over.  Rather than paying fixed bills first, putting money into various saving pots immediately (including long term for retirement, medium term for the next car and short term for holidays and presents) and only leaving the money you intend to spend - whether groceries or personal - available.  Save first, not what is 'left over' at the end.  Once the credit card is cleared, putting away at least the old £400 a month to rebuild car savings seems very worthwhile.

Are there any ways you could avoid paying so much for parking?  I am sure it varies depending on where you live, but that is a bill that catches my eye.

Actually realised that this is what I do. Sometimes in a really bad month I have to dip into that put away money, but because it's already in 'savings' pot there's a mental block against spending it unless I really have to.
Anything that might be left over at the end of the month then - usually only a few pounds - goes into what I call a 'freebie' pot which I allow myself to spend on anything I want. This also helps me to not spend more than I need to every month because that freebie pot is my only financial indulgence for stuff I don't actually need