Need fresh eyes on my budget!

Spendless

I work in a ladies clothes shop. My thoughts, summer sales are likely to start this month possibly in the latter half.

Consider pre loved, charity shops, V!ntrd, etc. Go thru your wardrobe identifying what gaps you have and what coordinates with other things.

honeybee1234

Good morning!

Today is a quiet day with the quilt on the sofa. I've been feeling a bit low the last few days, and have a nice quiet day planned watching some TV, with snacks. Hopefully this will recharge my batteries!

Yesterday, me and OH spent some time baking a cherry and white chocolate cobbler, which I can report is absolutely brilliant! Tea was chilli with spicy rice, I threw in a load of veggies to pad it out so we're having that again tonight.

Later, I spent a chunk of time sorting through all my bills and paperwork, which have been stored but not organised. I'm maybe halfway through, and it feels great to have already removed probably two thirds of what was there to shred or recycle. It's not moneysaving per se, but it's aligned with it and I'm really happy with progress there!

Im feeling somewhat thrown with my budget, as after balancing everything yesterday, I discovered I have around 80.00 "spare" in my main account after accounting for bills, groceries and pots. I think somewhere I've missed something with the pots what with forgetting to adjust the contributions for this month, so I need to work this out!

Today I have an hour of free electricity starting at 10am, so a load of laundry is going in then as well as having a shower. Not sure how much electricity a wash uses or if it'll send me over the free limit in having a shower - will find this out out of interest. Relevant as I got an email earlier saying my gas and electricity DD is going up by 10.00 so I'm keeping more of an eye on everything, especially since my water bill has gone up staggeringly tripling to over 60.00 and I can't work it out as it's me and sometimes OH, then the kids every other weekend.

Right, I'm off to chuck the washing in, have breakfast and do some general tidying before my quilt on the sofa awaits! Have a good day everyone!

honeybee1234

Good Monday morning!

So yesterday was a nice quiet day as planned. It felt good to give myself permission to relax. I've put a lot of pressure on myself to get a lot of things done and I'm also trying to work on pushing myself with leaving the house and the latter in particular is quite hard going so I had a day off from this and it seems to have helped a bit I think?

Today OH is here and we're taking the dog for a walk in a little while. After that we're stopping by Lidl to pick up a handful of bits to supplement tea as the boys will be here so need to double up. Luckily as I planned fajitas, it's easy to cheaply double it with extra veggies and wraps, and I'll be using up potatoes in the form of wedges to go with it.

I need to book a slot for the tip to declutter a load of things but this is causing me a lot of stress as last time I drove by, there were vehicles queueing all the way down the road from there and my brain can't deal with that, it's too may cars and too many people. I'm contemplating using a place I've used previously who collects the rubbish and takes it for you but I'm trying to work out if the trade off is worth it 🤔

in_need_of_direction

could a friend do the tip run for you?

elsien

We don’t have to book slots for the tip, it’s just turn up but some days and times are definitely better than others. Mid morning during the week seems to be not a bad time, weekends, for obvious reasons, are awful.

vampirotoothus

Hi with your water bill it is worth checking usage and seeing if you have an unspotted leak that has caused the rise, although I know all water companies have put their costs up. V x

honeybee1234

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059885#Comment_82059885

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82059890#Comment_82059890

OH is going to help with this @in_need_of_direction and I'm going to book a slot midweek like you mentioned @elsien probably next week. Think it'll need two as there's a fair bit I've amassed - which will feel great to get rid of! - and I have a small car - but we'll work it out. Thankfully OH is brilliantly practical against my going out concerns and so we balance out quite well with things like this!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82060549#Comment_82060549

I was thinking this also @vampirotoothus about a leak as previously the bill was just over 20.00 and to go up to 60.00 in one jump doesn't seem right, particularly as there's nothing I can identify that's changed. Going to have a think about this.

ArtyJ931

my water bill has gone up massively this year. I’m not on a meter though. I’m in a 3 bed mid terrace council band B and pay 51.91 per month.

honeybee1234

Morning!

OK. So here is my current situation:

• fridge freezer broke down. Had to get a new one, this went on a credit card so the balance is sat there atm;
• I then had a blip. Decided to buy the rest of the things for the living room I wanted on the same card, paint, cushions and a couple of other bits. Not checked the balance yet so will do that shortly;
• otherwise the budget is going pretty all right. I've had to move a couple of small amounts round, which is fine, and the grocery budget has enough for one more weekly shop so increasing it has worked out. It has had an impact on the rest of the budget - shifting an extra 100.00 to groceries - currently working at 400.00 - so I've not been able to contribute to pots like I would prefer.

I'm feeling a bit down about the whole situation. I've been realising just how relatively small my budget is and I've been trying to live like I have more coming in than I do. I think I just wanted more from my life at this age and I feel I've let myself down.

Good things are:

• I always save for my annual insurances, car, breakdown and contents so never have to worry about these
• the important things are always paid, rent, council tax, gas/elec, water
• I have a decent pot for Christmas accruing
• grocery budget is getting dealt with
• other pots/sinking funds are really starting to help, I have a 'kids' sinking fund for misc. expenses, ex got a car so that's really dropped DS1 Uber costs for his hobby, and I have a small 'activities' fund building to use for the summer holidays with the kids. Would like this to have been larger at this point but it will definitely be useful so that's great!
• I have a monthly DD for a SIPP. It's not a huge amount atm but it's there ticking over
• I have a small amount going to savings. This is really a token amount for good practice atm and will be increased a bit further down the line

So there's actually a lot of good happening!

Things I would like to change:

• Contributions to pots so I don't end up using cards, so home and garden, appliances, car, dentist and optician
• I'd like to be able to save for a small holiday
• I'd eventually like to shave some off the grocery budget, this however will come with time.

Right - I'm off to take the dog for a walk and contemplate all this!

Spendless

Hi, well dont beat yourself up, we all have ups and downs.

What stands out to me is that you havent got an emergency fund. Start it in one of your pots, target £1,000. Probably seems a lot but just keep adding small amounts and itll build. Its for when life throws a curveball (like a broken fridge freezer) at you. You take from EF, saves you putting on a CC and from thoughts 'Ive now blown it' and any spirals from there. Then the EF does its job and you build it back up again.