Need fresh eyes on my budget!

warby68

Mmm, looking at your desired pots - garden, home and school holidays - to my mind these could split up quite weill over the year - garden late winter/Spring, School hols mainly Summer, house, Autumn Winter. So, I wonder if it would help to fund one, spend from one and ignore one at different times of the year. Its working in my head so hopelully I can explain it well enough. Something like this:

Oct, Nov, Dec Jan - save it all for the garden

Feb, Mar, April, May- spend on the garden and save for Schools Hols

June, July,Aug, Sept - spend on school hols and save for House

Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan - spen on house and save for garden again

Its tough eking everything out of a lowish income and I agree when the amounts in pots are too small to do anything with its discouraging. This might give you a bigger combined pot to work with providing you only spend on one area at a time.

So say the amount you can find in total is £50 then you will have £200 3 times a year, one for each area and the continued saving will make sure the next £200 is ready when its time to swap areas.

Hope that makes sense but feel free to ignore if not (or even if it does !)

honeybee1234

Thanks for the thoughts @warby68 , I've read through and was contemplating this yesterday when money admin-ing! I only actually have the two pots that you mentioned as 'home and garden' is just one, and I do like the idea of staggering targets so I'm going to see how I can get that to work for me. I have been blitzing garden things atm simply because some of it was time sensitive, eg fertilising/top dressing/reseeding the lawn but I'm mostly done with that now so theoretically the idea should work if I start thinking about school holidays now.

Okay. So yesterday I fully had analysis paralysis with my money admin, I confess! I did manage to draw up a chart covering my current pots, my targets for them and the current totals. Then started working out what I'd need per month for those that are time sensitive. I need to finish this by setting up standing orders to eliminate the struggle at payday of manually allocating payments to pots. I've decided any extra money (cashback, surveys etc) will be allocated to top up pots that need a little help, so I'll be doing that later.

Today I'm on dog walk duty again, which is lovely and I feel grateful I can manage this, she's a real sweetheart and it's so good to be able to get some fresh air. Then I'm collecting a parcel for DS2 and dropping it off at his house, again a very manageable short trip. After that it's finishing money admin, a fridge audit to see what's going on in there and what needs using up, and start a shopping list, to use later in the week as the boys are with me at the weekend.

Have a good day if you're reading!

ellenvan

Sounds like you are doing well with the pots and money management now , compared to the start of your journey.

Lovely that you are able to get out with the dog too. Nothing like fresh air to buck up our spirits.

Have a lovely day.

MayDogsandCoffee

Just a thought, would taking the dog along help you get your son to his clubs?

honeybee1234

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995873#Comment_81995873

DS's club is driving distance, and the dog, although a complete sweetheart, does not like the car. Walking, yep she's all for that! Car? She's a nervous wreck so we avoid unless necessary (ie vet.) Otherwise that'd be a potentially helpful idea at times for sure!

Thanks @ellenvan . I do enjoy getting out with the dog, it's a nice walk and a pretty quiet one with lots of greenery, it feels very cathartic for a while.

Yesterday I sat with my budget and did calculations and progress checks for my time sensitive pots. Christmas and annual pots (insurances) are ticking over very nicely. I've picked a handful to prioritise based on which need the most imminent filling or need regular contributions as they get used each month, those being 'activities' (funds for summer holidays with the kids), 'kids' (Ubers for DS and any other bits the boys need), 'haircuts' (for me and sometimes I pay for the barber for the boys) and something else that escapes me at the moment (still bleary eyed!)

I've set up standing orders for the start of the month for all of those, and will manually add to any others if I have any surplus left - which reminds me, I haven't allocated a regular amount for 'personal spends' so I shall do that today as I really think automating all of this is the optimal way for me to avoid feeling so stressed about how much to send where every month!

I've transferred 45.00 from my Prolific account which was sitting there doing nothing, not sure what to do with it!

Today is another dog walking day, so we're off shortly to try and avoid the impending rain! When we get back, it's housework, then I have a stack of life admin forms and letters for various random things that need completing/writing and submitting/posting so that'll take up a good chunk of the day but be very satisfying to cross of my list!

honeybee1234

This morning I was on dog walking duty very early! We go for a walk around the outside of the nearby estate, which involves walking through the woods, down footpaths and across the park. These early mornings are manageable, it's so quiet and I love walking through the woods, I really feel connected to nature and that it's good for the soul. Plus, y'know, it's completely free!

I'm in that quiet part of the month where everything is sorted, there's not much to do with the budget. I was able to take the boys out at the weekend for a couple of hours and had this in the pot... How different it feels to think, shall we try and get outdoors, go and have a drive out to the countryside where we visited a local village café with some stunning scenery, and have a hot chocolate and snacks and to actually have dedicated money put aside?

I will be slightly over on my grocery budget however. I'm using everything atm as a learning curve, and I seem to be using one month's budget on three weeks of shopping. I need to have a proper look at receipts to see what's going on because I rarely do top up shops so it's not that, I'm not wild with massive weekly shops nor do I buy many brands. I do spend extra on the weekends the boys are here, and I do try to bulk buy certain things I know I'll use a lot of so I wonder if trying a bulk buy pot again might be useful?


Spendless

You're definately heading in the right direction and in quite a short space of time too - well done.

Re the food. Everything has gone up so much its hard to budget, especially when the amount of people in the house varies. Are you doing the basic stuff first, meal planning, shopping from cupboards first, making from.scratch (if youre able to)?

honeybee1234

Generally, yes to all those things @Spendless . I always do a menu plan and shopping list, and shopping from cupboards is something I've been doing a lot.

Fresh fruit is something I've been doing more recently, and whilst I do go for what's on offer, it does take up a small chunk of the weekly budget. I use frozen fruit a lot, but obviously some things I have fresh all the time, eg bananas.

DS eats giant portions, he does a lot of gym and sports so he'll have double portions of everything! Also snacks for the boys probably play into it, I try to get them reasonably healthy snacks, fruit, yogurt raisins, yogurts, tortilla chips, that kind of thing but it does add up.

Plus side is we do quite a bit of baking, so there's usually HM cake or oat and raisin cookies for a treat!

Somewhat contrary to my previous post, I had to spend on a number of things yesterday as I've run out. Cat food, cat biscuits, cat litter, a couple of other things as well. It's taken a chunk out of my reserves and it's frustrating near the end of the month and usually I'm very organised with these but they got through their food before the regularly scheduled delivery from Amazon arrived. I need to add up what I've spent in total and factor this into next month to be more organised 😳

honeybee1234

A very early morning start wake up call by the cats, one meowing loudly right next to my face at 5am was quite startling! The animals are all fed and the cats are happily outside in the garden so it's all peaceful now!

This morning I'm off to L*dl at opening time (love doing this though with it being Bank Holiday, not sure if it'll be as quiet as usual at opening time!) to do a modest shop. I'm already over my grocery budget so will be keeping this shop very much in check as it's coming out of savings. Shopping list and menu plan is nearly done, still trying to work out another couple of meals that are light, vegetarian and easy to cook. I've struggled with eating the last week or so as my anxiety is raised atm so looking to make it as easy as possible to prepare something at teatime. May need to stop by A*da for a couple of bits but would really rather not if I can avoid it!

This will be counterbalanced by a couple of returns I need to make, one at Lidl for £14 for a dog sun bed that wouldn't lie flat (sounds random but I'd been looking for one for the dog!) and a hoodie for DS1 from ASOS that was too big (think this was £17) and can go in an InPost locket at the supermarket. Both need ticking off my 'to do' list.

I'll probably get a bit of 'no cost' gardening done after, before it gets too hot, and then get into the rest of my 'to do' list, a lot of life admin emailing/phone calls/things that need doing round the house/sorting for the kids. Then I have a nice quiet afternoon planned with some 90s police dramas and a film in the evening!

Have a good day if you're reading!