Babies, biscuits, boobs and budgetting!

boredofbeingathome

Snaggles wrote: »

Oooh, sorry Bob, you sneaked that post in and I didn't spot it!

I'm so glad it's not just us then!

Stu tends to think we have a get-out clause because once a quarter I get Asda vouchers from work (I think they're called canteen benefits or something - you get a certain number of points per month, and you can choose from a catalogue of benefits), which cover more or less the month's shopping - but those vouchers are supposed to be an 'extra' for us, to be able to treat ourselves a bit. As it is, we have just been using them as a way to catch up and get back within budget.

As of today though, we will no longer get the quarterly vouchers, because I have opted to use the points to buy nursery hours. They will cover almost our entire childcare bill each month :j which is fantastic, but it does mean that from now on, we really have to get our shopping bills under control.

Thats a good idea for the vouchers. Our local Tesco will take them and the morrisons ones.
He is a bit of a one with not paying more than min payment, Mr B that is, i got fed up with the large bills on it..some of it was grub he bought to scoff, and i make him sandwiches etc.
I thought it was easier potty training the kids than credit card training hubby:o

Snaggles

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was going to post "it's a good job the post didn't end here" .... and then saw how MUCH the bin was!!!

Kitchen bins are £3-5. It's a bin!



Good luck

:rotfl: I know.....terrible isn't it!

I'm a bit obsessive about things looking 'right' though, and we did have a £3 Wilkos bin, but it just didn't look right.

It was my little treat to myself for dragging our family out of debt and into the black....lol!

Snaggles

Just updating my SOA - think there's still things missing though, because I know we don't have that much left!

Income

My salary - £400 (£650 - £250 sharesaves)
Stu's salary - £910
Child benefit - £123
Tax credits - £0 (should be £45 a month but not relying on these as I think they are currently overpaying me)

Total income - £1433.00

Outgoings

mortgage - £311.89 (this is interest and capital on mortgage and interest on loan, and includes £50 overpayment)
council tax - £85
water - £30
kids savings - £20
life insurance - £17.54
tv licence - £12
mobiles - £40
cancer research - £5
gas - £44
tv/internet/phone - £60
account fee - £0 (now paid for by work benefits)
electricity - £30
home insurance - £19.29
contact lenses - £20
childcare - £15 (worst case scenario)
food - £300
petrol - £100
car insurance - £0 (paid in full this year)
car tax - £12

Total outgoings - £1121.72

I've managed to include a slightly increased shopping budget in the SOA, and a small mortgage overpayment, and it all looks okay, but I've got a feeling something isn't quite right.

bubbles0169

the asda card
is that included in outgoings

Gemmzie

Have a look at your past SOAs and see if you've missed anything

Snaggles

Just trying to work out how that affects our accounts:

Money needed in shopping/petrol acount each month = £400

Money needed in bills account each month = £721.72

Stu's weekly standing orders:
To bills acct = £167 (£723 p/m)
To savings = £15 (to try to build an emergency fund)
To car savings = £12 (£624 p/a which covers car tax and insurance...would like to increase to cover MOT too, but that will have to wait)

Total £194 p/w (weekly wage usually £230-ish without overtime so will leave a bit of spending money each week)

Jo's monthly standing orders
£400 to shopping/petrol account
£5 lottery syndicate

Total £405 p/m - (salary + child benefit comes to around £523 so leaves approx £118 for spending/overpayments/digging us out of financial holes)

Does that sound okay?

Snaggles

bubbles0169 wrote: »

the asda card
is that included in outgoings

It sounds a bit of a complicated way to do it but what we do is pay £350 (or £400 from next payday) into our shopping account - then we use a credit card to buy all the months shopping and petrol, then pay it off using the money in the shopping account.

The reason we do that is we have an offset mortgage so the longer we can leave money sat in our accounts, the less mortgage interest we pay which has the effect of shortening our mortgage term (and because we clear the card in full on the due date, we don't pay any interest).

So we have £350 in the shopping account now that we can pay off it, just leaving us with £76 (I think....can't quite remember...) to find. Stu's overtime will hopefully cover that. So it's not shown as a seperate outgoing because the shopping budget covers it (in theory!).

Did that make any sense at all?

Snaggles

Gemmzie wrote: »

Have a look at your past SOAs and see if you've missed anything

I copied the previous one, so everything *should* be on there! I'm just surprised at how our outgoings have reduced, but I suppose that's because we are only paying for one car now, and no debt payments.

beanielou

Looking good Snaggles.
Is Nattie enjoying the new nursery?

Snaggles

beanielou wrote: »

Looking good Snaggles.
Is Nattie enjoying the new nursery?

Hiya Beanie

Yes, she seems to be settling in really well. They say she has been a bit teary a couple of times, but she's only been left at nursery a grand total of 4 times so far, so it will take a little settling in I would think. Plus she has had the upheaval of moving from one nursery to another, and a fractured leg to contend with, not to mention a stomach bug and teething. OMG, being a baby is really hard!!

Talking of children, I really must go and pick my other one up from school. :cool: