Um, help and advice please?

Merlot

£80 per week on tobacco, is this the right figure? That is one heck alot of cigarettes, I too smoke so I am not going to give up a lecture, I don't spend that in one month. Try roll ups, you will not smoke anywhere near as much as you would, cause they are a faff to make up and the urge has worn off before the cigarette reaches your mouth.

jak

Try the NHS smoke stop. You get patches on perscription and have meetings for support every week. It really does work. You need to ask your doctor to refer you. I did it and stopped sucessfully. Plus if you are trying for a baby it will help you concieve a healthy child.
Also ref: grocery budget, have you dropped a brand in terms of toiletries/cleaning products etc? Also meal planning and writing a list really cuts costs. Then you can still bulk buy (I'm the same as you in this respect, hate empty cupboards!) but stuff like rice/past/flour that keeps AND fills out your cupboards. Good luck. You debts aren't that bad relaly. You'll soon be on top of them!
J
X

Hawthorn

Yikes. Now I'm getting scared.

Ok, I'll go through statements etc tonight and get exact amounts for what we are spending.

My heart is in my mouth, you know? Change scares me, but we cannot continue like this. I need to get a grip!

The kids don't have pocket money as a regular thing - if the eldest wants to go in town or to the pictures, we give him money as and when he needs it. It works out fine that way. The others get ice creams etc when they come around. We eat out only rarely, and my husband and I don't go out often. We do get the occasional bottle of wine though - that comes under the grocery budget.

I'll have a look at the old style board.

Thanks, I really appreciate all your help so far........be as harsh as you like also. I know I'm messing things up in a big way, and I need my backside kicking!

Hawthorn

Merlot wrote: »

£80 per week on tobacco, is this the right figure? That is one heck alot of cigarettes, I too smoke so I am not going to give up a lecture, I don't spend that in one month. Try roll ups, you will not smoke anywhere near as much as you would, cause they are a faff to make up and the urge has worn off before the cigarette reaches your mouth.

£80 a week? Thats a rough figure. On an average day, my husband and I smoke 20 each. That's about £9 per day *gulp*. times that by seven and you have £63. We smoke more when our friends are around, or if we go around to theirs, so it will work out at about that, yes.

Just to add, we do not smoke in the house. We go outside, whether it is snowing, or raining, or hailing. I do not smoke near the kids.

Merlot

You are not messing things up at all, you are not badly in debt, you have had your lightbulb moment far far early than most on this board and that is a good thing, you can repay these debts off within a couple of years without too much hardship. (and I'm close enough to come and give you a real kick up the backside not a virtual one:rotfl: ).

Merlot

Hawthorn wrote: »

£80 a week? Thats a rough figure. On an average day, my husband and I smoke 20 each. That's about £9 per day *gulp*. times that by seven and you have £63. We smoke more when our friends are around, or if we go around to theirs, so it will work out at about that, yes.

Just to add, we do not smoke in the house. We go outside, whether it is snowing, or raining, or hailing. I do not smoke near the kids.

hawthorn, we are not here to judge you on your lifestyle or on your smoking, only to offer you advice, you have no need to tell us that you smoke outside, its no-one elses business, but well done anyway, I have a coat by the back door for when its cold, I hate the smell of cigarette smoke, but I have tried patches, inhaler, Zaban, nothing yet has worked on me and I only smoke less than 10 a day.

Hawthorn

Thank you Merlot.

I must confess to feeling kind of emotional about all this. Excited too. I know I messed up - I can be honest with myself about this, but it has to stop. I don't know whether I'm coming or going.

Years back when I was a single mum on income support, I was able to save up £1000 for a holiday, and decorate my home without any hardship. I had quit smoking at that point though, but if I can do that, then I can do this. I know I can.
I really appreciate all advice, and I will act on it. Our lifestyle is doing my family no favours, and it's teaching the kids bad habits to boot.

I really need to do an indepth view of what we spend and what we don't I think. I have a feeling money is slipping through our fingers and we don't even realise what we're spending. A fiver here on hot school dinners because I forgot to take the bread out to defrost and that kind of thing. Buying a bottle of water because I forgot to take some in a flask. It all adds up.

becky_rtw

Hi Hawthorn,

Just wanted to say I keep my spending diary on here: spendingdiary.com as I cant forget to do it then, but others (tallyhoh?) use a system where they write all their money at the top and subtract everything they buy off - so it really seems like its going down. Its a real eye opener when you've been doing it for a few weeks!

Good luck.

Hawthorn

Ok, thanks Becky. I have a notebook somewhere I think. I could use that. If it's online, I will forget LOL.

floss2

I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep my budget on track. I have 2 pages for each month: one has all the bills with 2 columns (to be paid & paid out) & totals at the bottom. Then these totals transfer across ot the other sheet like so:

date details In Out Balance
31 May Salary £xxx.xx £xxx.xx
1st June To be paid out ..... £xxx.xx
Paid out.............. £xxx.xx
3 June Tesco £xx.xx
expenses £xx.xx

etc.

Then I can update this each day, and do calculations to see how much or how little money I will have at the end of the month. I can add & take away things like car insurance, road tax, bonus payment etc to give projections too.