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.