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

Mortgage_Minimiser

Delurking.....Rhodes is lovely - as is Greece in general - but we have been to Rhodes the last 2 years, different hotel but same group. Enjoy. We've never had the drunken adult scenarios, i think people are less like that today.

There is s lovely submarine boat trip with a glass bottom that was amazing and you see fabulous marine life (the younger children loved that, whilst the older children / good swimmers can jump in and swim as well as just view). On the other side of the island is a dolphin watching trip which was amazing!

Have fun 

MMxx

Bluegreen143

Right, I’m sure you’ll all be agog to hear whether we booked our holiday. I’m pleased to report we did 😂. 

We are going to Rhodes, all inclusive (though a different resort to the first one we’d seen that I’d liked). £3,900 inc transfers, baggage, late check out and picking our seats on the plane. 

The children are so beyond excited as we showed them photos of the resort, water slides etc. Every photo was all “wow” and big eyes, even photos of the food and scenery 😂😍. 

@mo@Mortgage_Minimiser thank you so much! I love the sound of the submarine boat trip!

Red has pledged £300 of his money towards to the cost as he really wanted this holiday, which cost more than the one I’d been leaning towards. We are also going to look at the spending plan to decrease budgets elsewhere and increase savings to the holiday pot, as I know we will need money for excursions, any meals outside the resort etc and I don’t want to be in any way stressed that we’ve not saved enough. 

It really does feel that we are working together on the goals we set this year which is such a good feeling!

Nothing much else to report for today. Worked in the office, had a very cold visit to the school playpark with the kids. Made spag bol for dinner but also used the rest of the mince to prep Moroccan meatballs for Thursday, and made leek & potato soup for tomorrow. Feeling pleased I’ve gotten organised. 

MFWannabe

Wow 🤩 that’s great for you all 
That’s a really good price too 👌

Bluegreen143

Hello all, my goodness it’s cold just now! 

I was in the office today as well which is fine, but just the thought of defrosting the car etc. Nice wfh day tomorrow, though I obviously need to do the school run so can’t fully hibernate at home. But I will be cosying up in a hoodie & leggings. My MIL got me some nice matching leisurewear at Christmas - just two legging/hoodie sets in different colours - which are making a difference when it’s so cold as I don’t always want to put on a dress & tights as usual!

Today’s dinner was Moroccan spiced meatballs with pittas, hummus, feta, salad etc. Really nice and a change from the falafel or marinaded chicken which I’d usually have in this meal. Went down well with all family members anyway. Anything involving hummus generally does as they are all obsessed!

So far I’ve managed to keep on my (still generous) grocery budget, which is great. £216 spent and I’ve done 3 out of the 9 big shops for the month (I do two a week). 

Almost back at my pre Christmas weight thankfully. Two more stone to lose though! 

Plans for this weekend:

Sa - taking kids swimming and to the library and later on going to the comedy club with my mum & sister (they are having dinner at ours, just doing antipasti picky tea as my sister is funny with food just now due to morning sickness).

Su - Bambi has an afternoon (drop-off) play date with her nursery bestie so not sure what the rest of us will do. Hoping to go for a walk if it’s nice! 

Bluegreen143

Having a very lazy Saturday morning - lie in followed by reading interspersed with slow, unhurried bursts of housework 😂. 

We are taking the kids for a swim today so that will be £12 out of the family pot. 

Also having a money/planning meeting with Red once he’s off the phone call he’s on. These are working so well! 

Spending for this month so far below.

Fixed costs £1,080

Home £530 (Mortgage)

Utilities £200 (Energy & internet)

Insurance £45 (Life)

Car £6 (Parking)

Groceries £216

Kids’ clothes £0

Subscriptions £47 (Monkey’s karate, TV subscriptions)

Misc £36 (Bedding for the kids, postage etc)

Wants £876

Family £227
Extended family birthday gifts, cinema tickets, kids’ pocket money. Looks high for this point in the month but we will spend very little from this pot until Feb now.

Red’s personal pot £400
Not that he’ll have spent it all, but I mark it being out of the budget at the start of the month.

My personal pot £249
Almost all from booking a weekend away in March with my mum & sister, as we had to pay the accommodation upfront, also includes one small subscription and renting a movie. 

Bluegreen143

Right, money meeting had.

Decisions from the meeting

We agreed to move quite a bit of the emergency fund to the holiday fund (and then over the next few months, repay this with some of the money we’d otherwise have to put in the holiday fund from our salaries). This seems mad, but I think we were unrealistic when we decided on where money we to go in December as we hadn’t researched how much our holidays would cost.

Rather than scrabbling to find the whole holiday cost in 6 months, going forward I want to save the save amount monthly all year round and also have a consistent amount going into the emergency fund monthly. 

We’ve also decided not to save for new wedding rings yet but to review in a few months.

Our new savings balances currently are (bearing in mind I’ve not been paid yet):

Emergency fund: £1,000
New kitchen: £277
Holidays: £3,032
All other cash on hand: £1,102

And the new monthly spending plan:

INCOME (inc pension contributions) £5,474

INVESTMENTS £800
Pre tax pension £600
Post tax pension/LISA £200

SAVINGS £1,302
Emergency fund £385
Holidays £500
December celebrations £140
New kitchen: £277

FIXED £2,472
Home £965
Car £340
Utilities £201
Insurance £86
Groceries £650
Kids’ clothes £50
Subscriptions £105
Misc £75

WANTS £900
Red £400
Me £275
Family £225

Actions from the meeting:

- Red to book annual leave
- Red to decide what he wants to do for his birthday
- Red to change our hotel booking for going away with MIL as she’s paid for it but wants to upgrade a room
- Me to get the kids to make extended family birthday cards to post
- Me to close an old kids’ account and retrieve the money, to add to their savings
- Me to check childcare arrangements for the weekend I’m away in two weeks (to visit my papa and a friend)
- Me to make a GP appointment (contraception related, so MSE as avoids the financial disaster of having another child 😂)

I’ve included all the detail in case it helps anyone looking to do similar. 

Basically we open our spending plan spreadsheet, the agenda for the meeting & actions for the last meeting, and google calendar and it’s a mix of financial related chat and calendar/time related chat, so the actions which come out are quite varied in scope. 

I’ve now started an agenda for next week so we (realistically I) can drop in items during the week as I think of them. 

Bluegreen143

Another slightly lazy morning this morning. I’m feeling the need for slow, lazy weekend mornings after the frantic busyness of December! 

So far beyond showering and having breakfast, the only thing I’ve done is read library books to Bambi and also listened to her read her current reading scheme book she’s on. Need to sit down and listen to Monkey read too at some point today. 

Had a nice night out with my mum & sister last night. Spent about £20 between paying for one of the Ubers and paying for a round.

Plans for today - Bambi has an afternoon play date so Red and I want to spend a bit of quality time with Monkey. But we agreed not anything with a price tag. Think we’ll just stay in, play a board game together and maybe let him watch a movie that’s too grown up for Bambi as a treat. 

Planning chicken curry for tonight. Main chore which needs done today is I need to do a couple of washings to catch up so will go and get the first one in the machine now! 

Beyond that, I have three library books out for myself now so need to get started on one so I have at least one ready to return when we are next there. I should probably try to drag myself out in the cold for a wee walk too. 

Bluegreen143

Hello all. 

Sooooo tired today as I've been foolishly staying up past 11pm the past few nights and it's caught up with me. Plus our team have moved our office days to Tues & Wed and it did feel tiring having two office days in a row (I now can't imagine how I used to go in five days a week!). But the plus side is, I'm now done with the office for the week.

I was in fact so tired after I got back from the school run and brief playpark visit that I had to go and lie down for a wee nap! Red is utterly magnificent and made a really delicious Spanish style chicken, chorizo and potato stew for dinner, which was delicious.

I did perk up enough once up again to help the children with their homework, which I'm pleased about as it's rather grim when it's allowed to build up, especially now they are both getting homework... they do seem to get quite a bit, for being fairly young.

Last night I cut Monkey's hair in a new (undercut) style he had requested, he's always had a fairly classic longer on top short back & sides boy's cut so it's a new look for him. My first time doing this style and I think it could be better/I'll improve with practise, but he said he got loads of compliments at school today and seems chuffed with it so that's fine. I think my mum was a bit horrified I'd tried something fancy myself but it all saves £ compared to getting it cut professionally and at least with a boy, I could have just cut it all quite short all over if it hadn't looked good, it grows quickly anyway. 

Financial update

I've been paid, which is always a enjoyable part of the month! Savings balances stand as per below:

Emergency fund £1,385
Holidays £3,483
December £140
New kitchen £277

Just had a quick look at the most important variable expenses we're tracking to see where we stand this month:

Groceries £286 (budget for this month = £675)
I'm pleased that this is completely on track. It's still a very high grocery budget, but the first step is to keep within it, then reduce slowly. It doesn't feel that we are eating any worse either.

Family £242 (budget for this month = £250)
It looks like we've busted this, but actually we don't have much further planned family spending this month. It breaks down to £150 on extended family gifts, £41 on cinema tickets, £12 on going swimming, £35 on kids' pocket money and £4 on renting a movie. I'm happy with all of these spends, which have all added joy to our lives in some way and were pretty much all planned at the start of the month. The £4 movie rental was for Red & I to watch The Fellowship of the Ring with Monkey as a special treat (his first introduction to LOTR, though we've read the Hobbit together) while Bambi was away on a playdate and we all really enjoyed the afternoon.

Miscellaneous £64 (budget for this month = £75)
A bulk order of five packs of printer paper, whiteboard markers, a new bedding set for both kids, postage for a parcel and a couple of small unidentified spends. All fine.

My spending £281
My budget for this month was £275 BUT I used my personal savings I'd built up to book a weekend away, which is what they are for, so I haven't actually gone overbudget. I do have an expensive day out on Saturday too.

But I now have no personal savings left, just the new personal money from getting paid today, so will need to make sure I stay underbudget for the next couple of months to start building a pot.

Spends include £236 on weekend away accommodation, £20 on a taxi and round of drinks when out with my mum & sister, renting a movie for date night, a couple of small subscriptions and a kindle book. I know I said I wouldn't buy any books this month, but I wanted something on effectively dealing with a family member's alcohol issues, as sadly this is something which has gotten to crisis point in our extended family this month - it was quite a useful read and helped me clarify in my head what our involvement and boundaries might look like so worth the money spent.

Bluegreen143

A bit less tired today thankfully! 

Poor Bambi wasn’t well this morning, so I kept her off school (I was WFH anyway) and inevitably she was then fine by mid-morning. Of course if I sent her in, she’d have sprung a fever and thrown up at school no doubt 😆. We did keep her off Rainbows tonight to be sure, but will be sending her back to school tomorrow! 

Dinner was chicken burritos - the filling was from the freezer, so a nice easy one. 

Weigh in tomorrow, wish me luck 🤣. 

Sarahwithlove

Your holiday sounds fantastic! I'm very jealous. 

I love hearing the outcome of your meetings, it's such a good idea. Maybe I need to have a meeting with myself to keep on track with my budget lol