Oh my god, my spending.

[Parsol]

Oh my goodness

I went to check my online banking and I was shocked to see the funds.

I had a look at the history of spending over the past week and I am utterly shocked.

None of it is a scam.

I am just shocked that so many little things here and there all added up.

Over the past week I spent 715 pounds.

This is unreal.

I just wasn't expecting this.

There was a morning shopping in town last weekend. I have family home from abroad. I bought an online game for my niece. Then there was a pizza take away. A cash withdrawal. Then there was an electronic book. Then there was some online purchases. Then there was a banking charge. Groceries.

Goodness knows what else. I can't even look at it any more. I am just so so so shocked.

This is way out of control. I don't have a huge income.

I don't know what I am going to do this week.

I have the funds and I will likely get paid. However I don't want the money in my account to drop below a certain number.

I am absolutely shocked. That is all. It is just so so so so much.

How do I get a hold of this.

I will need to do an online grocery shop too at some stage.

I have a hair appointment booked for Saturday.

I will just have to stop eating out and having some drinks etc.

Is there an option on a banking app to put in a weekly spending cap perhaps.

This doesn't even include the 85 pounds purchase I put on my credit card.

I am going to have to eat noodles for a month to recoup some funds.

Cancel any online spending accounts - delete Amazon accounts and anything else - take out cash for the week and leave the cards in a box at home

Cancel your hair appointment.

Do a cupboard and freezer inventory and use whatever you have so you can maybe reduce your online grocery order.

Have a few no spend weeks. Obviously if you are in danger of not being able to afford mortgage or rent you will need to do more but they are just basic easy things to do now.

Have a clear out and see if there us stuff you can sell as well.

I have weeks like this too - meals out, kids trips, clothes, supermarket, hairdressers etc Amazon, so much Amazon. And then I’ll have a week where I try to spend as little as possible in an attempt to level the spending.

I definitely spend too much on consumables that I don’t have anything to show for except a bigger waistline! This needs to stop.

Could you cancel/ reschedule the hair appointment?
Be creative with what you have in the freezer or cupboards. There are websites that come up with recipes if you type in a few ingredients. Or ask for recipes on here.
Maybe unsubscribe from any regular emails enticing you in with sales and offers? Get toiletries etc from discount stores or offer days e.g.Boots £10 Tuesday.

I take out £50 a week cash to spend on food / drinking out and when it's gone it's gone.
It's so easy with card / phone payments to get carried away as it doesn't feel 'real' but I've found rationing my cash really helps.
I also budget for the month so I know how much I have spare to last me til next payday after bills, savings and my weekly cash. I update this a couple of times a week so I know how much I have left at any point when I do make any extra purchases on my card.
Hope that helps!

You do need to take a hard look at it. I mean you literally don't know where £715 went. The things you've listed wouldn't come to that.

can any of what you bought be returned?

Also, don’t just blindly do your usual weekly food shop either, we are guilty of over-filling the freezer and cupboards so occasionally I actually meal plan and realise I only need a few bits to make meals. Like this week I have mince and salmon in the freezer so I only need pasta and tomatoes, and noodles and broccoli, and that’s two good meals for under £4. Those weeks I go to a different supermarket and only buy what’s actually needed. Can cut a weekly shop in half, easily.

Keep the hair appointment. At some point or another you will have to get it done or you will look like a scruff.
Get rid of the eating out and drinks. Cancel subscriptions (Amazon, Netflix etc - it's summer, you don't need to be watching tv). And just keep an eye on the 'extras'.
It's not a disaster OP. Just be a bit more mindful going forwards.

I spent about 2.5 weeks of income in less than a week. I'm just shocked.

I can afford my hair appointment so I will stay with that.

Thanks for all of the good tips.

To be honest I am not taken in my sales and promotions in my emails so that's not a problem. Sales is not it for me.

All of this has been due to having visitors home from abroad. Just like maybe buying more.

There are plenty of foods at home to be honest. The fridge is well stacked. However my mother would like me to do an online grocery order for her (I think she might have the beginnings of dementia and she can be controlling and means). I think I will be able to cancel this and maybe do a grocery shop later on and just stretch out the food shops.

If I do a shop now, there will just be another one due at some point. I think I will cut back on this for now and not appease her demands to fill the fridge all the time.

I agree with taking cash out for the week. I do that when things are getting a bit tight. I also USED to have the final week before payday where I use up only pantry and freezer items. That actually was hard for me so now I have every second day is either a pantry or freezer item. I find that easier for some reason and it's been really noticeable the positive affect on finances. (DH buys in bulk so we tend to have ALOT of tins around). I also realised that the vast bulk of wasted money was being spent on eating out and alcohol. I gave up alcohol last month and for the first time in years was not in my overdraft by payday.

I know where it went to and my bank account also told me the same. I wasn't keeping an eye on my bank account and it all just added up

I have family home from abroad so I treated my niece a few times. I am doing an online course and I need to buy a book for research. Then there was all of the other extras and it all just added up.

I just wasn't expecting this.

I also have a knitting hobby and I did splurge on some yarn last week too. That added to the spend too.

OP -
Oh my goodness.
This is unreal. I just wasn't expecting this.
I can't even look at it any more. I am just so so so shocked.
This is way out of control. I don't have a huge income.
I don't know what I am going to do this week.
I am absolutely shocked. That is all. It is just so so so so much.
How do I get a hold of this.
This doesn't even include the 85 pounds purchase I put on my credit card.
I am going to have to eat noodles for a month to recoup some funds.

Next post -
I can afford my hair appointment so I will stay with that.

😂

I will force myself to stay with my hair appointment. I will have to cut back else where.

Fair enough. I mean, if I was panicking as much as you are in your post to the point of saying you don't know how you're going to get through the week then I would probably just leave my hair for a couple of months but appreciate everyone has different priorities!

I'm not going to give up my hair appointment.

I do have the funds in my account but I just need to scale things back for a few weeks over the shocker if a spend I had over the past number of days.

I need to get a hold of this now and stop this now and just not continue on this path.

This is a huge shocker though all the same.

Treating visitors gets expensive, even just for food and a few treats!

£25 doesn't seem like a huge chunk of cash, but spend that only four times and that's £100.

At least you're looking at it and realising where it's going - you just need to get into the mindset that treats are treats, not everyday spends. Good luck! You'll feel happier when you've done a few "cheap " weeks too.

Definite YY to costs accumulating due to visitors. Even just doing extra breakfasts and dinners....

I am just after rooting through my wallet and I found 70 cash from last week. So will go towards my hair appointment and that will help.

I will try and keep my food shop to a minimum this week.

Then delete my cards from online and other stuff.

I have a Monzo account and you can open different pots and have different virtual cards for stuff.

When I get paid at the end of the month I have a pot for bills, a pot for subscriptions, a pot for childrens pocket money for the month, a pot for groceries, hair & beauty, fuel, etc. I used to really striuggle with money and budgeting until I changed banks and its literally been a game changer. I also round up my spending and it goes into another pit and i save that up for treats

Its been 6 days since pay day and I already have £38 in my round ups. You can also do the 1p challenge on their too so encourages you to save. I also have a savings account on their and any of the roundups left at the end of the month I pop in the savings account.

Honestly, its been a game changer, and if you refer a friend to open an account you and your friend can get a cash reward for just opening one, from £10 to £50,

https://join.monzo.com/c/hly8lfjz

Also my son has one and he is under 16 so its attached to mine and i can transfer money and get notifications when he spent

It’s easily done if you’re out of your normal routine. My kids are away this week and I’ve used the opportunity to catch up with friends after work. I budgeted for more socialising but still it’s a shock how much meeting for coffee, going out for a meal etc adds up over a week.

It does sound as though this is an 'extraordinary' week though, OP. So maybe don't beat yourself up too much about it - it's natural to want to splash out when you have visitors. And you know what you've done and you're facing up to it, so it's not as dreadful as overspending for months and suddenly waking up to the fact that you're skint. It doesn't sound as though you are scrabbling down the back of the sofa for 50p to put petrol in the car, so maybe just don't panic too much, take a deep breath and know that when your visitors go you can be proud that you gave them a good time.

And then rein in your spending for a few weeks to recoup.

I am the same. I get paid monthly and probably spend 3/4 of my money within the first week 🙈 at least you are using money that you actually have though. I have a bad habit of putting stuff on paypal credit. I owe a fortune, it's really bad and I need to cop on before I can't afford the repayments.

Thank you for all of your kind words of support. This kind of spending is not usual for me. I am just utterly shocked with how much and things all just added up and up. Extras here and there. I spend nearly 2.5 weeks of wages in less than a week. That's bad.

I will have to budget on the weekly grocery spend. I should be ok-ish with pasta, sauce and cheese for lunch next week.

I think I will aim to keep my grocery spend to about 50 this week. I have some cash already from last week and my mother might owe me more money too. My hair appointment should be ok.

If I try and keep the spending to under 200 this week, it should build up slowly again.

My only issue is that I live at home with my mother and I think she might have dementia. She definitely has some issues and problems and that can be stressful and sometimes I like to get out from the house and sometimes even go for a few drinks. This is only really relatively new for me this year where I like to sit in a city corner pub some weekends.

It’s understandable, we all need some breathing space and early dementia is really tough. It sounds like you’ll be ok if you tighten your belt a bit so don’t beat yourself up about it.

Why are you paying for your mother’s shopping?