to be irrationally worried that we only have £140 left to last to next Tuesday.........

[WheresTheMoneyGone]

and have 4 DCs? 2 x DCs need new school shoes before Monday (I threw their last ones out when they finished school because they were wrecked - they only last a term - bloody boys). We have enough food until Monday - online shop will be delivered today with enough food for 4 days and I have taken that off bank total. I always feel irrationally insecure if we have less than £100 in account!

We will need to put £15 on electric meter and £25 on gas meter today (meters installed before we moved in and bloody costing £5 a day just for gas!!).

Big car bill this month for MOT repairs and tax credits reduced by £60 last week and every week until end of June due to DH earning slightly higher than expected - £1000 - which I informed them of immediately we got his final payslip for the last tax year so they reduce our payments by £240 month!

I fucking well hate this obssessing about money all the time . We don't smoke/drink/go out/have holidays/do anything really. Before anyone says we should not have had 4 DCs, we were better off until last year when I got made redundant and can't now find another job earning enough to cover childcare.

I would buy the school shoes from Tesco, Asda or similar. As long as you check the fit then they will be absolutely fine and if pricier shoes are only lasting a term you might find that cheaper ones are no worse!

Yes, supermarkets for shoes. That's not a small budget if you already have shoes. Many families live on less than this every week.

Your not being irrational, you are being sensible to be aware that you are skirting close to the edge.

In saying that, you do have enough money to last you so you don't need to worry.

I completely join you in being sick of watching every penny, and just when you think you have got all the balls juggled well something else goes wrong!

Your're not your .

Try a car boot sale for bargain shoes (if only to last them until you can get new) there are loads about this week it seems.

Alternatively Ebay, - left it a little late for posting though, so try searching within 5 miles and you could pick up.

I think you are very rationally worried, if 140£ is all you have in the world.

I suppose you should really start making savings throughout until you have some savings.
Charity shops, ebay, freecycle, cheapest supermarket items.

What if you have another unexpected bill?

Can you change the electric and gas meters? I used to pay a lot less in gas!

Can you check your gas usage? Why is it so high?

£5 is alot for gas. I'm paying about £50 a month in a 4 bed house - have you had that checked out?

If that is costing so much because it is a meter then I think you should ask for it to be changed.

I dont think you should panic at all. 140 is still a decent amount until Tuesday. Get the shoes and a bit of food, and the electric and gas and I expect you will still have about 40 quid left. Dont panic

OP - you have my sympathy, that sounds very tight. There's a very cheap shop called Shoezone in one of our local shopping centres which I think is less than the supermarkets.

Please check out the gas, I think you are paying slightly more than us and we have a large house. Also, could you manage without the heating on - we keep ours on at 16 all the time and it has barely clicked on this week but we are in the South and it has been very warm. At least could you turn off a couple of radiators.

Yes, check out the gas tarrif. Could be that the last people didn't pay their bill so they are recovering the debt through inflated meter charges which would apply to the debtors, but not to new people in the property.

Come over to the Credit Crunch forum for some ideas for making a little go a long way.

You will be fine on that amount til Tuesday. Shoezone or supermarket shoes shouldn't cost much more than £15, and twice, the Sainsburys ones have lasted my DS 2 terms, when he was 6 and 8, so just as good as Clarks.

You are not the only one sick of scrimping all the time but it does get very wearing

I know where you're coming from, Op - I get very panicky when I get to 'less than £100 in the world' point as well. No savings, self-employed, erratic income - that's the scary bit for me, the fact that I don't KNOW when the next bit of money is coming in.

And I, too truly hate the fact that money is on my mind ALL the time :(

Shoes from Asda cost a tenner, I buy my DS2 them. I can understand your worry - god knows Im like that to but for me its always about feeding my family, I dont understand if you have enough food. And I dont understand why some posters think having £140 left and not having to buy food is tight??

So you have food coming that will last until Tuesday, £40 for gas etc so you will have £100 left and need to buy two pairs of shoes ?

I'm sorry, I am failing to see the panic so assume this is a joke thread

£100 - shoes, cheap ones say at £15.99 = £68. Then food for three days, say £30 = £38. Bits and pieces like bus fare and parking (I can get through £2 per day easily here just on parking) £38-£10 = £28. Couple of ice-creams at a cheap day out at the park with the boys £5 = £23.

It's probably not that bad, but I wouldn't like it.

We often have 100 to last us the month. You will be fine

Oh and stranded, I'd like to see your meal plan, Is it on a thread?

Are you kidding with this thread?

If you've got food etc you'll be fine. Worried about heating/gas etc? Put more clothes on.