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

Bluegreen143

Thanks both. Though it feels scary to take a large loan, I am trying to remind myself that we won’t be any worse off due to not having to constantly get it repaired! 

We bought a car!!! It’s being delivered to us as the dealership is so far away (we negotiated them paying most of the delivery too, which I’m pleased with). We’ll find out when it’ll arrive tomorrow. Hopefully before we go on our Scotland holiday, so we can take it, but if not we will hire a car for that as we’d planned to do that anyway. The guy was hopeful but couldn’t guarantee it til he’d gone off to find out the options for delivery.  

Because of this, our financial goals have shifted since we did our review at the end of December. 

New goals

1. Rebuild an emergency fund. Initial goal £3,000. Once we are there we will likely split our savings and start saving for a new kitchen all over again as well! 

2. Overpay our car loan. We borrowed £17,500 and due to be repaid over five years. I’d love to get rid of it sooner and save some interest. We can overpay or repay early with no penalty. 

Plan for today

We have no plans today. Can’t go too far afield because of not having the car, but I’m thinking I’ll take the kids into the west end and we can do the library (that one is open on Sundays), museum (it’s free to go in) and botanic gardens maybe. Nice cheap day if we take lunch! 

Going to do chicken soup for dinner and make a loaf in the bread maker. Did I mention Red got me a fancy bread maker for my birthday? (It’s not my birthday for a month, but he saw it on sale so just bought it and then said I might as well start using it now!). 

We have a Tesco delivery coming. Red did it and I didn’t check it over, so it might be a bit random, but he did tell me he stuck to budget so that’s the important thing! 

fionaandphil

So pleased you've got your car sorted. You are correct that having a new car should save you a lot in repair costs. Our cars were both bought nearly new, 12 and 8 years ago and we usually only pay for servicing and MOT each year and tyres when they're needed. Our biggest repair on them is usually changing the wiper blades each year 😆

Hope you like your bread maker, it is such a gamechanger in that you can just throw it all in and wake up to a fresh loaf. 

Enjoy your day out. Looks like rain is just about to start here. 

Spendless

Glad youve sorted out a car. I agree theres no cheap little run arounds anymore. Its why I still have the same car Ive had for the past decade despite it being nearly 20 years old - its still running! 

Newstartforme

So glad about the new car , it will be a weight off your mind not having it in for repair every so often . Fingers crossed it arrives in time for your scotland holiday x

Bluegreen143

The car is coming on Monday, the day we are going on holiday - this is ok, it’s only a 90 minute drive to the Scotland holiday destination so we can just go later than planned if needed. 

It’s been more of a quiet week due to not having a car. On Sunday I took the kids into the west end - museum, library, Waterstones (to buy a kid’s party gift and I got myself some books with my personal pot) and the brief visits to three separate parks as we meandered home 🤣. 

Not too expensive, just the cost of bus fare and sandwiches out (no time to make them as I only realised 15 minutes before I left that if we missed this bus there was 90 minutes til the next!) from the joint account. And the party gift, but we needed that for a party this weekend and it saves me having to go out shopping again. 

We had a quieter day on Monday, but I was off work so after lunch I took the kids & scooters to a park on the bus as a change from our local. 

Back to work yesterday, and I was pleased that the kids behaved extremely well and played nicely together all day without bickering! Win! 

Red is now off for two weeks so he’s in charge today til Friday, as I don’t finish up til then for our Scotland holiday. Got loads of work to get through in the next three days so it’s just as well! 

Think we’re having a play date with Bambi’s nursery best friend today after I finish work which I will take her too, she lives close enough to walk so we will either go to her house (or I might offer to have it here too) or meet in our local park.

Only planned spending is that I may order the bits of uniform needed for next week - I did an audit on Monday 🤣. Their pinafores/trousers are all in good nick and still fit, and they have enough jumpers/cardigans because I got them second hand at the school fair, so we don’t need lots of uniform this time. They do need a pack of white shirts each and school shoes, plus PE kit. And Bambi needs a schoolbag (Monkey’s is still in good repair and he likes it). 

Baileys_Babe

I hope the car arrives early so you are not delayed starting your holiday.

Bluegreen143

Managed to get the school uniform order done this morning. 

As a test, I put the same order into both Asda and Next.

Not including delivery it was £227 in Next and £115 in Asda - literally double the price! I had thought there would only be a little bit of a difference. Needless to say, I ordered from Asda. I go back and forth on buying cheap for school clothes, but I’m feeling the need to prioritise frugality just now given we have taken on a car loan.

Glad to have that done, and I got everything needed except Bambi’s school bag, so I’m feeling more organised now.

Including delivery, that was £121 spent. 

debtfreewannabe321

Not including delivery it was £227 in Next and £115 in Asda - literally double the price! I had thought there would only be a little bit of a difference. Needless to say, I ordered from Asda. I go back and forth on buying cheap for school clothes,

That's a big difference and kids either grow too quickly or trash their clothes meaning cheap is better in most cases I think as you need to buy more often. My son was forever losing his uniform too so I never bought expensive for him. It's only as they've gotten older that I now buy more expensive things because DD has stopped growing and DS had finally stopped losing items of clothes 🤣.

Hope the car comes early for you! 

Baileys_Babe

That is a shocking difference in price, I took would have chosen Asda in the same situation.

honeybee1234

I'm currently in the midst of doing the comparison of different shops for school uniform @Bluegreen143 and I've come to the same conclusion as you! Mine constantly get pen on their white shirts so I can't allow myself to get nice white shirts! I find the Asda shirts aren't as good as elsewhere for the quality of the fabric as they tend to be ever so slightly thin but my boys don't mind so pricewise, Asda is also winning it here. That price difference though against Next is crazy!

I'm inclined to do a comparison with M&S where I've bought from before just to see what the difference is there as well.