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

itsthelittlethings

Just riding around London on the bus is entertainment! I would like to take the Superloop, I honestly feel the West End is a bit overrated. Trafalgar Square is cool in the sunshine though.

Bluegreen143

Unfortunately we don't live in London itsthelittlethings (we are Scottish) - perhaps we would have been more organised about bus passes if we did! I can imagine driving and parking in London must be pretty horrible!

EDIT - not sure why I said 'unfortunately' as tbh I am very happy about not living in London

Bluegreen143

Round up of today's tasks:

1.  Do a big tidy/clean of downstairs and hang washing out - Complete

2. Cut Red's hair - erm, not done, and can't be bothered now as I'm quite tired!

3. Apply for Bambi's free bus pass, which I've been procrastinating on since she turned 5(!- she's 6.5 now!). - Done!

Lovely day, went as planned, lots of wholesome frugal family fun had (cycle ride, library trip, house cleaning, river paddle, homecooked dinner, reading aloud to the kids). A good reminder that you don't necessarily have to spend any money to entertain the kids on holidays!

Money spent:
£57.71 - Tesco (groceries)
£9 - Red picked up some extra groceries on the way home he forgot to add to the shopping...
£8.09 - Amazon - some small DIY bits Red needed for a project

Plans for tomorrow:
Some kind of day trip with the family - Red is off work too. Most likely with a picnic. Haven't decided where yet!

I am going to meet my friend's new baby tomorrow night so will need to pick up a gift before I head over.

Bluegreen143

Had a fab, but busy day yesterday, so no opportunity to update.

We took the kids to a new-to-us country park some way away, where friends joined us. It was fab and we'll be going there again - lovely forest and pond, fabulous big playpark.

Our friends then spontaneously joined us for dinner, and given we didn't get home til nearly 6pm it was a bit if a scramble!

Made and ate dinner, then I had to shoot off while they were still here to go visit my friend's newborn- he's such a cutie and it was lovely to see her and my other good friends.

The rain has come now! So we have cancelled camping this weekend. Today our plan is to be quite lazy this morning, read some, craft some etc, then take the kids for a swim before Monkey's friend comes for a sleepover.

Spending - joint

£6.50 - ice creams for the kids, and one for Red and I to share, while at the country park

Spending - personal

£32 - Tesco - card/gift bags and gifts for my friend's baby and also a gift for her toddler (she is a close friend so I splashed out more than I sometimes would)

£29.85 - online subscription

angela110660

Lovely to see you back and glad all going well for you. Doesn't the weather always change around a long weekend? Such a nuisance but you still have lots going on to make up for the camping. Have fun.

Bluegreen143

Very non spendy and chilled day today. I've not actually been out - I intended to go for a walk, as it's now drier than anticipated, but keep getting sidetracked.

We have Monkey's friend for a sleepover but haven't really seen him as they've been playing out the front with the boy across the road (who also goes to their school) for, no joke, the past three hours, without really coming in except once to request some fruit for snack. Actually, it was the boy across the road who had the bright idea to send Bambi in to ask for snack apparently - you'll notice he didn't go to his own mum! I don't mind really, but my kids now share their afternoon snack with him at least 3/4 days a week and his parents have never sent any snack out with their son ever. I usually make a plate up mainly of fruit, veg sticks, sometimes dried fruit/nuts/breadsticks, and not only are they sharing it each time but my kids have also started saying things like "put more banana chips/breadsticks/grapes on, C likes those best"... At least it's nice to know the kids are thoughtful of their friends...

Red and I have used some of our time today and wisely and begun the arduous loft declutter. We have been fairly good at doing the rest of the house over the past few years - it's not perfect minimalism, but we are fairly intentional in what we keep and I have good systems in place now, like "only two active craft projects on the go at once" and "only as many fiction books as fit on my bedroom bookshelf" and "most food can be made with basic tools like knives and graters and pots so don't buy things with only one function."

However the loft is the space which has so far eluded our efforts and my goodness, it is RAMMED with rubbish we do not need. Woops! Most of the smaller baby stuff is gone, as I was quite ruthless at decluttering clothes and toys as Bambi outgrew them, but I have found some forgotten items in there like a baby walker, the dismantled cot and our pram. A big box of books I had no idea was there. Piles and piles of old photos, which need to come down and be sorted and stored properly. Artwork we had on the house in our old flat, which we haven't room for here as we've bought new stuff. A tub of random cables. Monkey's old worn out school backpack (why?).

I also found a few items I have been searching for which Red for some unknown reason put in the loft a couple of weeks ago when clearing up e.g. my only thin summer cardigan and my outdoor swimming gear! So basically a huge mishmash of unrelated miscellaneous items to go through. Red has already taken two car loads to the recycling centre though as we got the most obvious rubbish and bulkiest items out first.

Red did stop by Tesco to pick up a couple of things he felt we needed (more sausages and buns for tonight's hot dogs, as we hadn't originally planned to have this when Monkey's friend was here; more bin bags for the declutter etc). I don't have my phone to hand just now to check what was spent but will update later.

Bluegreen143

Just checking out tomorrow's Tesco delivery, mealplan as follows for Mon-Thurs (I will get another shop delivered on Thursday):

Dinners
Chicken stroganoff & rice with some green veg
Tomato chicken pasta and salad or green beans
Beef stew and mash, maybe something green on the side
Vegetarian (bean/taco veg/rice) burritos with salad

Kids' packed lunches
Tomato pasta
Soup and 1/2 sandwich
Baked beans & pittas

Our lunches
Baked beans & pittas
Scrambled egg & avocado toast
Leftovers
Tuna salad
Red usually takes either a ham sandwich or big salad tub every day.

Tesco shop £74.44
Wholemeal pitta x6 50p
Multiseed sliced bread £1.25

Swede 62p
Mango 79p
Lemons 60p
Bananas x6 96p
Carrots 69p
Red onion x2 40p
Large garlic 40p
Green beans 85p
Cherry vine tomatoes £2
Limes x2 48p
Avocado x2 £1.50
Peppers x3 £1.79
Cucumber 89p
Mushrooms x2 £1.80
Celery 75p
Grapes £2
Apples x6 £1.49

Butter £1.99
Soured cream 85p
Diced beef 600g £7.25
Ham x2 £5
Whole milk 4pint £1.55
Chicken breast 1kg £6.50

Chopped tomatoes x5 £2.25
Black beans 49p
Chickpeas 49p
Baked beans x3 £1.29
Pinto beans 49p
Chipotle chilli paste £1.80
Decaf instant coffee £3.50
Beef stock can £2.30
Salt £1.80
Tomato puree £1.20
Rigatoni 75p
Dried porcini £3.75
Smoked paprika £1
Tuna x2 £1.30

Crisps 12pks £3.20
Decaf cola x2 £1.40

Kitchen towel £1.19
Toilet roll x6 £2.65
Washing up liquid 69p

Bluegreen143

** EDITED - read to bottom for hot-off-the-press car update...**

Well, it's been a busy couple of days sorting out the loft, but we have finished it! Everything we're keeping is back in there, and much more accessible/neat than before. Red has taken the stuff we're getting rid of away too. The only bit still to do is photos, and I haven't quite decided what to do with those, so they are all in a box. It's more old printed photos from our childhoods etc, as obviously with our own kids photos were digital, and so we do a printed photobook with the best each year, which are all on a shelf in our living room.

I spent some time today rounding up our figures for April. As I wasn't tracking this properly, there is a large amount of 'unknown' spends - this can only get better when I round up the May figures.

April income: £4,631.82
* This only counts money received into the joint budget and my budget, so the portion Red keeps in his own account isn't listed, as I don't have access to his account to itemise his stuff.

April total spending: £5,503.06
* This looks atrocious - thankfully the overspend came from savings, not from incurring debt, as we had saved for the holiday payment and had emergency savings for the car repair. 

Housing & utilities: £1,085.47
Mortgage, council tax, energy and internet. Happy with this spend.

Life insurance: £75.03
Happy with this spend.

Transport: £1,263.24
- Car repairs & hire (as it broke when we were going away): £1,026.78
- Petrol: £109.73 (lower than usual due to having no car for two weeks)
- Parking: £24.10 (same)
- Public transport: £32.62 (higher than usual due to no car)
- Taxis £69.98 (all journeys caused by having no car)
Very unhappy with this spend. It's like the car is an expensive hobby, or a fifth member of our family!

Groceries & household: £861.12
- Groceries £760.33
- Hosting £100.79 (stuff for a kids' Easter party we held e.g. food, a pinata, party bag supplies)
This spending feels far too high. Next month I will be breaking it down further to look at spending on household and junk/treats. I didn't keep good enough records to do that this month.

Kids' pocket money & activities: £103.98 (includes monthly subscriptions for clubs, swimming entry and pocket money).
Happy with this spend.

Kids' clothes: £50
Estimated as bought at Tesco and didn't keep a close track. I don't think I bought anything too unnecessary. Sunhats, sunglasses, underwear and socks.

Eating out: £142.61
Much higher than usual, pretty much all spent during the Easter holidays - had lunch out, a takeaway and lots of ice creams on outings. This feels high and the takeaway wasn't that good if I remember right. Each individual ice cream is fine, but looking as a whole, we are doing this too often.

Holidays: £1,656.48
- £1,427.38 - final payment for all-inclusive holiday this summer.
- £229.10 - spending while away with MIL in the Easter break (she paid for the hotel but we paid for some meals etc while there).
Expensive, but happy with the spend.

Unknown: £198.93
Will improve on this in future months! Need to do better as I can't really evaluate the spending unless I know what it is. I think it's mainly bits and boys Red has got for the house or garden projects. It must include the plug plants we put in the garden I think (unless we bought those in March). 

EDITED.
I typed most of the above before I took Monkey to Cubs, and have just come back to it. The big news, hot off the press, is that the car has decided it has a handbrake fault now. I truly, truly hate our car.

Red and I had decided already that if it needed any further repairs before August we were going to get rid of it. He will check with the mechanic tomorrow in case it's an inexpensive fault before we fully decide though.

I personally would like to go car free for at least a few weeks, or even several months, and make a very considered decision about what to get, and in the meantime save as much as we can (we will probably need to get a loan this time if we want to get a reliable car unfortunately, which we have never done before). I think we could manage without a car. I would need to get taxis to the office which isn't cheap, but is only 1-2x a week, and is not as expensive as running our car is. On WFH days we usually walk the school run anyway. We usually get our shopping delivered. We could be better about cycling, walking and getting public transport - we live in a city after all! We could get the train to the seaside. We could get taxis if we need to, and if we didn't have a car before our Scotland break at the end of July, we could hire one. Taxis and hire cars sound luxurious but would in fact cost us less than running our car does even if we were quite liberal with them. It wouldn't affect Red's work, as he has a work vehicle.

The downsides would be things like not being able to take DIY/garden waste to the tip, it being difficult to go camping unless we hired a car, some of our favourite nature spots being inaccessible - but we could just go to the more accessible parks and walks in the city for now, or places you can get to on the train, and then when we get a car again we can prioritise those harder-to-reach spots again.

I think it would be very doable, yes some things would be trickier, but then we wouldn't have the constant stress and expense of the car. I don't think Red is on the same page here though and he will definitely be keen to replace the car very quickly if we can't get it repaired... it's all stuff needing mulled over and discussed anyway.

Floss

Ooh, some big thoughts and decisions to be made. Does Red know how much the car costs to run each month, whether you use it or not? Yes, spontaneity would be lost but planning might make life less costly for excursions or days away.

Baileys_Babe

The car decision is going to be tough, good luck with coming to an agreement that you are both happy with.

Fingers crossed it is a very cheap fix.