£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Week 34: Day 5

Ooh, lots of things to respond to today.

First up: the children's budget realistically isn't going to be cut. Yes, it's a lot, but each of the things they do brings a lot to them. The only possible drop is that I think after half term DC1 may have to choose between football and art club as they might be on the same day. I'm sure plenty will disagree with that decision, but that's where we stand at the moment.

The London trip will use up the weekends away and the presents budget (and possibly more besides) - it's more or less an extra tank of fuel and if we spend anything while we're there then it goes up further. Hoping for a cheap weekend though, maybe lunch at a relatives, and accommodation is free.

The entertainment budget is comically tight for us anyway, so I don't think cutting that any more is realistic - we will just end up overspending. It covers absolutely anything extra we do, so it usually gets sucked up one way or another. Last weekend we saw friends we haven't seen for three months, DH had already used up his personal kitty buying a shirt because most of his are actually wearing through, and the friend invited him out for a drink. That's a tenner gone immediately, and I'm not going to begrudge DH that when he goes out once in a blue moon and he bought them a pint and a bag of crisps each. A fiver of the remaining tenner went on buying a cake at a macmillan coffee morning - again, the friends we were seeing had stuck their hands in their pockets for various things, so when they suggested getting a cake for afternoon tea I didn't feel able to say 'actually no, you've forked out loads for us, but I'm too tight to spend a fiver.' And suddenly it's more like £5 left for a week, for three people, rather than £20. Moving those other spends into different categories wouldn't change the actual numbers being spent.

The plan for Christmas and any coats/shoes/clothes that we need to get on top of the budgeted sums is very clear - they will go on a CC. There isn't actually another option. I am intending to avoid purchasing anything as long as possible - the DCs will all probably need coats at some stage over winter, but I'm hoping only one of them will need one within the next month. They also all need wellies, but only DC3 is urgent, so hopefully only hers this month. And hopefully now they're back at school I can get away with minimal clothes too - DC1 is the pressing one here, the other two will be broadly ok. So although it sounds terrible saying new coats, boots and clothes all round, if we're lucky it will come in smaller dribs and drabs and the £60 per month budget will cover it. Christmas will definitely be on CC though, unless I have a sudden and unexpected massive income surge. Since about July when the Christmas pot just wasn't building as it kept being raided for one thing or another, I've known that would happen, and although we'll have a budget Christmas, I'm not cutting away nice food, gifts etc too dramatically. We probably halved our usual Christmas budget last year and still spent a lot, and I don't anticipate cutting it much further this year.

I'm not really sure how much the car is worth - maybe £1k rather than £500. We bought it for £1,500 two or three years ago, but we've put a lot of mileage on it. It's a great workhorse and does the job, so although I'd like to be saving to replace it, it's not stressing me out too much at the moment. Too many other things to stress about instead! £30 maintenance isn't really enough, but again it's the best I can do right now, and we'll have to address it if and when that becomes an issue. It's just had a service and MOT last month, so hopefully that £30 will have a chance to build for a good few months before anything more needs to be spent. The fuel spend was going to reduce and DH was going to catch the train, but the first train gets him in a bit late, which is fine for occasional use, but his boss has said no to every day even if DH works through a bit of lunch (fair enough). He would need to work the extra at the end of the day or a Friday (when they should finish at 12:30) and neither of those work with train times either. So we're stuck with the fuel bill. About £200 of it is commuting costs.

One piece of slightly good news - DH's boss showed him the email that allegedly confirms his payrise being approved and back dated to May. Still not believing it till I see it, given all the drama and intrigue surrounding the whole thing (I wouldn't put it past his boss to just lie through his teeth at this stage), but all things being equal DH will receive a good chunk of back pay in October's pay packet. Will need to decide whether to pay a chunk off the partnership CC or use it for Christmas so we can avoid using the CC. Still no extension saving happening, but the deal with myself was that was always the 'bonus' savings once everything else was paid, so it's low down the priority list.

To do today
1. catch up with laundry.
2. text relative re visiting when we're in London.
3. return kindle (have had a replacement sent as the screen went faulty, thankfully within warranty).
4. batch baking - flapjack and cake to use up various fruit and veg.
5. start sourdough for baking in the morning (my current favourite recipe includes an overnight rise).
6. email mortgage broker the facts and figures she needs.
7. start to plan our advent calendar - we do a homemade one, it's a huge part of Christmas for us, a mixture of activities and little gifts.
8. clear work list.
9. plan homemade Christmas gifts

To do this week
1. social media for website launch. Done.
2. redo SOA based on DH's current salary (he is still being promised pay rise next month). Done.
3. October YNAB prep. Done.
4. start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending.
5. plan working time for October.
6. check total spend for last month. This is all weird on YNAB because I moved the partnership card from a budget to a tracked account and it's sent my spending sums all screwy, so I'm not certain. Under £3,750, probably not under £3,500 is my best guess.

To do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500.
2. work a sensible number of hours, even if it means slower progress on the work and debt front. September was rubbish.
3. make any homemade Christmas gifts.

EssexHebridean wrote: »

If the backpay comes through as planned, use at least some of it to cover Christmas - it's mad putting spending of that type on one card while paying off another, IMO. Maybe a compromise is the answer - once you know the figure then choose a percentage of it to use for Christmas, and then make sure your budgeted spends to fit that figure, and pay the balance off whichever debt needs targeting first?

I'm not expecting the figure to be enough to cover Christmas, but you've got me thinking that if it seems even vaguely achievable (along with Oct/Nov/Dec Christmas budgeting) maybe I could challenge myself to stick within that as the Christmas budget. I'm not making any promises till I've seen how much it is though .