Living within my means-the challenge

beckseven

I've had a thread of paying a debt off before June 16th thread going previously. However although I've done pretty well the past two months have been pretty bad and I've ended up adding an extra £300 to my HSBC card:eek:. Now, I've just found out I'm pregnant so really need to get this under control so that I can stop stressing out about this. My problem is overspending with my food shop and getting pulled into too many expensive social events. Last month I went out for an expensive meal, went mad cooking an expensive meal for friends (seeing a theme here?) went to a gig that was £25 so it was a really busy month. This is not the norm but still am very annoyed with myself and really need to manage my money better. If any of you can give me any tips on making more money on the side and making excuses to my friends I would be so grateful and I will be using this diary to keep me on the straight and narrow. Have a big dilemma next week as I'm going to the cinema to see Sex and the City but have had an email from my friend inviting me round to her house before hand for Cosmopolitans-she has asked for money from us in order to get the ingredients... As i'm pregnant I really don't want to touch a drop-and wont but dont want to admit that I'm pregnant as I will only be 8 weeks by then..any tips? Plus I dont' want to give any money for something I won't drink....

jak

Just say you are not drinking as you are 'trying' to get pregnant! THat's what I did. And say you don't want to contribute and you'll stick to tea or water or whatever. Congratualtions by the way! It's lovely news. I'm due on July 16th and i'm trying to get my debts paid off by then. When are you due?

beckseven

Thanks for the advice Jak! Congratulations on your pregnancy as well. Not long to go for you now and you've done so well with your debts. Is it your first baby? I've just worked out tonight that I'm due on January 12th-two days after my birthday-eek! Really don't want to be in labour on my birthday though! Also my DS was 10 days early-scarily close to new year as well! I've decided that I need to pay the minimum off my debts each months and live within my budget for the time being as I struggle with the childcare costs at the moment-£543- and finding enough money for everything else.

jak

Thanks. THat should brighten up your January! It is really hard to try and live within a budget. Have you done a SOA on here? You could join some of the challenges and stuff as well to help you save for Christmas and things.
Also, meal planning is good to save on grocery shopping and if you register with bounty.com there is a link to printable coupons. ASDA will usually let you take 10% off your shopping with coupons as will the bigger TEscos, and you don't usually have to buy the product which is great.
Are you claiming everything you can? CTC etc?

beckseven

I find it so hard especially now that I have my little one already because there is always stuff like shoes, swimming lessons etc to fork out on! I'm really going to concentrate on cutting my grocery bill this month so meal plans here I come. I quite like cooking so hopefully will be ok.I'm going to go onto Bounty to look for coupons as really could do with saving. I've claimed my CTC and I pay for my childcare with vouchers so making savings there. You've definitely done the right thing in paying off your credit cards before the baby arrives.

jak

Thanks Becky. you are doing really well too you know. Don't be disheartened. You will get there in the end and when you do it'll be brilliant! Let me know how you get on with your meal planning. And GOOD LUCK!
J
X

beckseven

Today I spent £1.46 on a bagged salad. Probably could have got it a bit cheaper but I'm on nights at the moment so didn't have much time and had to pop into the little Tesco's. There was a reduced salad for £1.09 but it had prawns in it which are a no no during pregnancy. Actually I also had to fill my car up with petrol on the way to work which cost £43.77 so actually spent £45.23. I am keeping an eye on how many miles I get to a tank because I seem to be burning through the stuff at the moment. Think I am going to check my tyre pressure tomorrow too.

fletch3163

Hi there

Many congratulations on your happy news.

I have co-workers who are in different social circles and all three of them are "complaining" about the SATC pre-movie adventures. One was even asked to pay the deposit, 2 days before payday, just because she worked nearest the restaurant. Shame! One other reckons it'll cost her upwards of £50 for the evening.

I'm sure your friends will understand.

Good luck and enjoy the movie.

Fluffi

Congratulations!

If you are struggling with your food budget try using www.mysupermarket.co.uk to plan your food shopping before you go to the supermarket.

I plan my shopping this way so that I know how much its going to cost before I shop especially increasing food prices and then I write my shopping list using the contents of my online trolley. The website keeps track of the cost of your trolley and its easy to delete and add things until its within budget.

It also tells you what special offers are available in store so you can adjust your meal plans based on what whatever is on special offer without having to wait to get to the store to find out what the offers are!

andan

Beckseven, congratulations on your news and for trying to get yourself sorted out. I would definitely recommend putting up your SOA, people on here may see things you hadn't realised.

I think its definitely tough at the moment as the cost of food, utilities and petrol is so expensive, however i suppose it just means we have to be creative!

Have you looked on the 'up your income' board, for any tips regarding making extra money. You could do things like mystery shopping or an ironing service. Or try sending off for all the freebies on the freebie board. Also make sure your signed up to the Boots mother and baby club as you get loads of free goodies with that (don't have children myself, but have been told this!)

Best of luck and keep posting to let us know how you've got on.

beckseven

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm going to try all the things you suggest. My task tonight ( I'm working night shift!) is to do a meal plan for the week. I spent 9.74 today in Tescos on basics like milk, cereal, veggies baby wipes and a fantastic pair of jeans for my little boy which cost £2.70. I'm going to get another pair for him as they were a great bargain! I bought value sweetcorn as well to go with a tuna pasta i'm going to make on Monday. I'm going to join the make £10 extra a day challange in June as well as the grocery budget challenge as well. We got our electricity bill yesterday and it was horrendous again. Ever since we've moved to our new house over 2 years ago our electricity bills have been horrendous. At one point we were £1500 in debt with it. We've had it checked no end of times but EDF say that it is not them at fault. We turn off lights obsessively, dont' leave anything on standby, turn off microwave,oven etc and use dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier in economy times and only used 1 storage heater in the whole house all winter but eleccie bill is £393 pound for the quarter and in 2006 got as high as £700 per quarter. Crazy! We never had these problems in our last house which was a 2 bed terrace but now we are in a 3 bed semi it's horrendous. I think that we were more careless there as well with our electricity whereas now I'm always turning lights off even when my DH is still in the room!