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

Bluegreen143

Got paid today! It’s a nice feeling getting paid so soon after the last time money came in. Shame it’s not like this every month!

On a whim I’ve started to name my savings pots after songs. Hey, anything which encourages me to interact with them has to be good! So I now have:

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - my personal stash
Island in the Sun - holidays 
Winter Wonderland - Christmas & kids’ birthdays 

I do also have a temporary pot I’m keeping the funds for our new mattress in - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Any suggestions for my emergency fund welcome! 

Ahem, back to budgeting talk. Money allocated as follows:

Emergency fund £262 (new balance £3,000)
Island in the Sun £175 (new balance £1,375)
Winter Wonderland £143 (new balance £136 as I subsequently ordered more gifts!)

Fixed costs: 
Home £400
Utilities £101
Insurance £43
Car £175
Groceries £375
Kids’ clothing £25
Subscriptions £50
Miscellaneous £60

Wants spending:
Family £163
Personal budget £300 split into:
Clothes £40
Subscriptions £45
My spending £140
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (aka savings account for big ticket items) £75

KeepOnKnitting

Emergency fund name first thoughts maybe "Panic! (at the disco)", which I think is more a band than a song. Or, "The roof is on fire". I like the idea, I think it would make me smile too. 

Bluegreen143

I like Panic! At the Disco even though it is a band name… my sister came up with It’s The End of The World As We Know It which I think might be a winner though. 

Obviously a highly important part of my budgeting process 🤣. 

This week and last I’ve been tired, snuffly and very fed up of the dark and cold. Well I’m still tired and fed up, but it’s Friday! 🥳 And my cold is receding, finally. I can breathe again with a minimum of nose-blowing! 

I think we are all very ready for the holidays. Neither Red or have the full lot off 🙄 but at least we have some time off, and no school runs etc to bother about. 

The time ahead looks a bit like this:

Thurs 19 & Fri 20 - Red is off. Annoyingly his request to use these two days of leave in the actual holidays was denied and as he’s not allowed to carry any leave forward, he’s had to take it just on random days. Kids finish school on Friday. 

Mon 23 - both working, I’ll be WFH with the kids at home but they have a party in the afternoon and I think I’ve arranged for a friend to pick them up for it. Only working til 3pm latest.

Tues 24 - I’m off! Red is working 

Wed 25-Thurs 26 - bank holidays 

Fri 27 - I’m off but Red is working

Mon 30 - I’m off but Red is working

Tues 31 - both working, I’ll WFH because of the kids (only working til 3pm latest).

Wed 1-Thur 2 - both off 

Fri 3 - Red off, I’m working from home 

So not the best festive holiday we’ve ever had TBH. We’ll just have to make the best of it. At least I can WFH in my jammies 🤣. 

Baileys_Babe

I love your budget names, they have made me smile 😊 

That is a shame about Red leaves being denied, can he book new for Christmas 2025 so he gets the days he wants. My BIL always books the last 2 weeks of the leave year off so he can guarantee using all his leave, he then reschedules days if he needs them earlier 😉

Bluegreen143

No, his work are very strict about not booking before the actual leave year. But he will get next year anyway as they are working on a system that you can get leave every second year then swap with the other half of the workforce (he was off between Christmas & NY last year). It’s stupid though as all their work is preplanned so as long as you gave enough notice it should theoretically not make a different to them as less work should just be scheduled when more people are off 🤷‍♀️ 

At my work one person needs to be in all the time (except the actual bank hols which includes 2nd Jan for us) so we all work a day each to allow them run a skeleton staff over Christmas. So I’m in 31st but off 24th/25th/26th/27th and 30th. 

FootyFanDan

Loving the budget names
My old job used to also be very strict with December holidays, even though it was never really busy. This year I had a load of holidays to use before end of year, so I ended up booking off Mon & Fridays - and some days over xmas. Hopefully you can make the best of the time off you do have 

Bluegreen143

Another hectic and crazy day. It should calm down after this weekend! 

Can’t believe my little Bambi turns a big six tomorrow 💔. We made her cake for her party on Sunday together today. She wants cookies and ice cream for her birthday dessert tomorrow, so we’ll bake the cookies then. 

Gifts are out, card made & written, balloons blown up, cake baked - sitting relaxing now and just had my first Baileys of the season. 

One thing I did do today is start making up a folder to keep planning information in instead of scattering scribbled bits of paper everywhere! So far I’ve added a printed copy of our spending plan, our weekly routine, our template mealplan with suggested meals under each day, a calendar of when our key dates are for next year (annual traditions and celebrations, when we’re planning on going away, reminders of when school holidays are and leave we have booked etc). 

My aim is that I can add checklists to this folder for planning holidays, projects and big things like Christmas and then we can refer to it rather than thinking about it all from scratch each time… maybe something to work on during the holidays! 

Honeysucklelou2

Congratulations on becoming an auntie! Hope you all have a fabulous day celebrating Bambi’s birthday.

Bluegreen143

It’s actually baby season here 😯. Yesterday a close friend told me she’s just fallen pregnant with her second - another friend is our group is already pregnant with her second too. 

I fell pregnant with Monkey when I was 26, earlier than my friends decided to have kids, so while I do have lots of friends with older kids who I’ve met since becoming a mum/through the school, but my besties from uni days are all just starting their families now. Both my cousins have also had babies in the past three months too (one has a just turned two year old so a very busy time for my aunt I reckon with three new grandkids in two years!). Though they live far away so it could be years before I meet their kids. 

Slightly annoying timing as now I’m ready to go out more and our friends are right in the throes of the baby years, but mostly just very lovely! 

zcrat41

Bluegreen143 said:

Another hectic and crazy day. It should calm down after this weekend! 

Can’t believe my little Bambi turns a big six tomorrow 💔. We made her cake for her party on Sunday together today. She wants cookies and ice cream for her birthday dessert tomorrow, so we’ll bake the cookies then. 

Gifts are out, card made & written, balloons blown up, cake baked - sitting relaxing now and just had my first Baileys of the season. 

One thing I did do today is start making up a folder to keep planning information in instead of scattering scribbled bits of paper everywhere! So far I’ve added a printed copy of our spending plan, our weekly routine, our template mealplan with suggested meals under each day, a calendar of when our key dates are for next year (annual traditions and celebrations, when we’re planning on going away, reminders of when school holidays are and leave we have booked etc). 

My aim is that I can add checklists to this folder for planning holidays, projects and big things like Christmas and then we can refer to it rather than thinking about it all from scratch each time… maybe something to work on during the holidays! 

I like a Filofax for this. Apart from the fact it helps me relive my 80’s childhood I love how you can buy a one page annual planner so I can see an over view of term times, holidays etc. Then I have dividers for birthdays, holidays, groceries etc. so for example my Xmas one has the gift list
for the last 10 years so I don’t cross over things, plus reviews of Christmas and works as a plan for the next Christmas at the same time. 

That sounds really frustrating about Reds holiday over Xmas. We are farmers and our staff and us have no choice but to work. I don’t understand why if you could choose to plan less work you wouldn’t?!