Have £245 until the 27th Feb, does this sound ok?

[Cantwaitforaholiday33]

This is what's left over, all bills etc. Are paid, This is for food, toiletries, transport and anything else, for me and an adult cat, I live alone.
Not intending to buy anything else like clothes, make up etc.
Supposed to be meeting up with a group of friends next week but worried I'll have to cancel. I don't drive and the place they want to meet at will cost me around £25 return on the train, and it's a high end restaurant. Wish we could just have a coffee or something but I know they're all high earners.

I've got the credit card as a last resort but really don't want to use it. I'm sure people would manage on less but grateful for any suggestions.

I wasn't being literal.

The point is, going out for this meal would take up a considerable amount of the money the OP has to last her for the rest of the month, and the meet up doesn't have to be in an expensive restaurant. It's no one's birthday, it's not a special occasion - it's just a nice restaurant clearly her friends want to go to, without having thought about whether the OP can afford it too.

If the purpose of meeting up is to catch up with friends, then whatever is being consumed in the process is secondary. If the OP's friends are truly her friends, they would not want to put her in the position where she can't enjoy her night out with them because she's mentally totting up the expense, working out what she can and can't have, panicking at the thought that someone is going to merrily declare 'let's just split the bill!' at the end and no matter how careful she's been, end up paying for everyone else's starters and drinks, etc. They can catch up anywhere - why make someone uncomfortable with the choice of location when you don't have to?

Yes she can technically afford it if she very carefully budgets for the rest of the month - but if you're having to think about how to feed yourself as the result of choosing to go out somewhere with your friends, then you actually can't afford it, and true friends would respect that and find an alternative that means the OP doesn't have to make sacrifices for the sake of seeing them.

I’ve got a similar amount to last until 31st and it didn’t even occur to me to be worried, £10 a day to live on without any bills is plenty in the short term. Presumably not all of your toiletries will run out in that time and even if they do you can buy bottles of shampoo/ bleach/ washing up liquid etc for under £1 each, you shouldn’t need to spend more than £10 on toiletries even if you have to replace everything. You can bulk buy 80 pouches of Whiskas for about £25 on Amazon and dry food is even cheaper. Batch cook your meals and go without meat for a few weeks and you can easily have enough food, a big vegetable curry, noodle soups, pasta with tomato & lentil ragu, rice and baked potato with bean chilli etc are all pretty cheap if you make from scratch and shop in Aldi or Lidl. Check the reduced aisles too. Make the most of what you have left in your fridge, freezer and cupboards too. If you’re sensible and budget carefully you should be able to still afford to eat out with your friends as well, have you looked to see if you can buy an advance ticket to try and get the cost of travel down or if there is a bus route available?

Meet your friends , buy an advance ticket and perhaps suggest a cafe / cheaper restaurant . If not , drink water, buy the cheapest thing on the menu and make sure you only pay for your own.
Your transport cost are low and you can eat cheaply for a few weeks if you need to.

@MolkosTeenageAngst the good news is there isn’t a 31st so you only have to wait til the 28th!

Haha, of course! I get paid on the last day of the month which is usually 31st and hadn’t really thought about the fact February is a shorter month than usual. Well that’s good news for me!

I'm sorry It's tough to meet every cost on your own( I live alone too)
Your friends aren't true friends ic they don't take your circumstances into account when they book a high end restaurant.
There is a middle ground. It says it all if they think Wetherspoons beneath them
It's the company that counts not the venue.( can you tell this pisses me off?')
You are doing so well owning your own place and of course the repair costs are expensive. ( new boiler last year here too)
Don't walk to work in this weather when it's not too expensive on public transport.
You will manage on your weekly budget especially as bills are covered
I'm sure you will get the costs if you're solicitor agrees but save it when it comes after paying credit card off
Prioritise you and Cat and buy the decent food
I hope the posts help. I sympathise

February is always a relief after the 29459293 days of January!

Cut out the socialising until your next payday, and you’ll be absolutely fine.

£14 a day is doable. Make your own lunches, make soups that will keep you full

The money is plenty. I do think you need to urgently prioritise saving though. When you're a homeowner there are always emergencies you have to cover, sometimes several at once so you won't always be able to put it on a credit card. Also having money gives you choices about vet care which insurance might not cover.

Would your friends really not turn up for your housewarming?
Mine come out rain or shine at the merest sniff of an occasion. They should want to spend time with you, and it shouldn't be conditional on how much money you're able/willing to spend.
If any of my friends said they were a bit tight for money and couldn't go out to dinner, I'd suggest I cooked at mine instead, or a trip to a park and a coffee/cake.
These people really don't sound worth you scraping up the money for a meal by living like some posters suggest (inc the magic Mumsnet chicken )

On a broader note, although you've had some expenses that have depleted your savings, it does come over as if you're sailing close to the wind with your finances, generally.

You've a lot on your CC that you're struggling to pay off.

Do you need some help with budgeting generally?

If you're constantly watching every penny and running short like you are now, it suggests you're not managing very well and your outgoings aren't matched by your income.

Is this a wake-up call to try to have more of a nest egg?

I know this is a tiny point, but I've never bought kitchen cleaner. All those sprays can be replaced by hot water and a bottle of washing up liquid. Or diluted bleach if necessary. Also, you can't possibly be using a whole bottle of shampoo in 2-3 weeks. I wait for half price offers and grab a Garnier one for £3 which lasts me months.
Likewise, 9 loo rolls are £5, supermarket brand.

I appreciate you're waiting for a deposit back from a LL but even so, you need to try to have more substantial savings.

Congratulations on buying your flat. X

I am failing to see how that isnt enough for 1 adult and a cat to be honest.

How many days do you know you will be travelling and is the £2 each way ?. Add this up and take it off the total

What do you normally eat? If it was me I would buy the following

3 x 500g packs of beef mince, potatoes, carrots, onions and celery 4 tins tomatoes couple tins kidney beans, 1kg pasta, rice, chilli powder etc Split the total into 3 and make a chilli, a cottage pie and a bolognese sauce each of these should do you three meals so freeze 2 portions of each so that's you got 9 nights worth of dinner with generous portions.

Pack of sausages and make a sausage casserole will do you 2 meals using some of the carrots, onion, Celery and potatoes from above.

Tray of chicken thigh and jar of curry sauce and do a curry, a chicken casserole and a traybake. Maybe get some peppers either frozen or fresh for the traybake and the curry to bulk it out. Serve with rice potato or pasta.

Get some cheese, milk, butter and flour and make macaroni cheese,

That's your evening meals pretty much accounted for.

Make a large pot of soup each week. Get some lentils or brothmix carrots, onion, potato whatever you have really. Take this to work for lunch.

Breakfasts can be eggs in various forms, but a couple of dozen and you can yes them for omlette etc for lunches or dinners as well. Buy porridge and weetabix, bread and milk.

That should leave you plenty for some fruit like apples, pears, tangerines bananas.

There will be enough left for plenty of cat food.

That wouldn't come to anywhere near your £245.

If you cancelled last time, couldn't you invite them to yours for coffee? Just say that you're feeling the pinch after Christmas.
Friendships are a two-way street and you can't avoid them forever because of finances x

Using a chicken for 2 of us we have a roast on the first day, then a curry and then do chicken pie and some veg and there will be enough for chicken sandwiches for a lunch. Also a box of eggs is useful, fried eggs and chips, an omelette and salad, boiled for a breakfast and egg for another lunch sandwich. Many years ago I had 2 wealthy friends and their point of view was they used to pay for me as they liked meeting up and going for a meal. I would take money with me but it was lovely that they knew other people were not wealthy. They eventually moved away due to getting new jobs.

Do you need to pay the vet fees out of the £245> What kind of transport will you use? Is the cat ok on a bus or do you need to take a taxi?

Cancel the meal out. Don’t bank on getting the money from your landlord as he’s already shown he’s a dodgy character. If you do get the money back, bung it in your emergency bills savings account.

Sounds like you need to start looking for new friends who share your interests and have a similar budget for entertaining.

It’s really no fun always being the skint pal if your friends are only interested in frittering money away on expensive meals out and there’s millions of people out there and many of them would love to be friends with you. Also, do you really want to hang out with people who are snobby about restaurant venues? I can’t stand MacDonalds but I’d willingly meet friends there if that’s what they preferred to do on a tight budget.

I’ve moved house a few times so always had to start from scratch with friendships and the easiest way is to join some hobby groups and go from there.

If you didn’t explain last time, I definitely would this time. Blame your unexpected boiler repair. They will understand and realise you are not a ‘flakey’ friend.

Just go and spend less on meals for the next month. Make a meal plan and then bulk buy ingredients to last you. Buy the Aldi or Lidl’s super 6 to keep costs down and get creative with herbs and spices as rubs for meat. Cost of living is going to remain high for some time and your mental health with suffer if you keep sacrificing time with friends and time to actually live!

I have £19 to last me till then. I think you're good.

In that case absolutely doable. Just cheap bus and food, which as a single person you can buy a good amount for the next couple of weeks. Have been on far less than this, so you could also meet your friends and buy the cheaper items? Xx

In that case invite them to your area. Xx

I think I'd cancel and spend they money buying food, stock up on tinned and frozen food plus cat food etc. do some batch cooking and freeze some meals, then next time if you've got a good stock in you could go without worrying. There's a group on Facebook feed yourself for £1/day some good tips and recipes as well.

Saving suggestion is to set up a standing order for payment into high interest savings account for say £20 per month or more straight out of your wage as it hits your bank account.

As it’s already taken out you won’t miss it.