New year - New [tight] budget - want to join me?

[HarrietJones]

Dh has been on a fluctuating income for the past year & I was on maternity for most of it so our savings took a battering
So now we need to stop dipping into it & live within our means ( & make a safety net!).

Bills are all budgeted for but we need to cut our spending (food clothes petrol etc).

Want to give me moral support join me?

[KellyKettle]

Harriet do you need storage or a declutter? I am going to be ruthless tonight while DD1 is at her grans and throw out/put aside for charity shop a lot of her stuff.

[HarrietJones]

Storage. She doesn't have a lot of clothes( but dies have vouchers ) dd1/2 share a room but currently over flow into what will be dd3s room. They have equivalent of small wardrobe & 3 small drawers each. For all clothes/books/toys. Though we do have book shelves else where too.

[KellyKettle]

Hmmm...I do know what you mean. We cosleep with the DDs so I hadn't given much thought to bedroom furniture for DD2. She's sharing DD1s wardrobe & chest of drawers with overflow going into an ikea unit we'd been using for toys. We can't keep it up much longer.

If you need it you need it. Clothes without a place to go will would drive me insane.

Maybe shop around, use cash back websites or Jan sales?

[HarrietJones]

Dd3 is co sleeping at the moment but needs more space for her stuff ie her own room back!

Dd1/2 are 12/10 & Although toys have got smaller clothes have got bigger !

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

Great start to my new year, work has implimented a new scheme so you can earn bonus. we didn't manage it in the last run but found out today we had done it this time so i have approx an extra £100 in my wages next payday.

[HarrietJones]

We've set a £50 a week food budget to start with. We've a full freezer & store so should be easy for now. Not sure how to record it/monitor it as we mainly use market & no receipts. If we use cash how can we keep it 'available'?

Petrol is just going to have to be what ever it costs but trying to just use cars for work.

[HarrietJones]

Might have to be less actually. Just remembered school dinners[eek]

[KellyKettle]

well so far I have spent £20 (nappies, wipes, butter and bread in co-op plus a couple of other bits). My parents have paid for DD1s birthday party so I can't complain about that anymore.

Birthday cake dilemma solved. The cake I enquired about was very simple and an extortionate £60. So I think we'll just pick her one up from the supermarket.

wornout That's great news. What will you do with the extra money?

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

Last year before the drop in wages we booked a holiday to spain so it'll go towards that, as will every spare penny. i think had we known this year was going to be so tight we wouldn't have booked it.
On the upside ds3's birthday is coming up middle of feb and he said he would like a pixar cars 2 scooter, it was £34.99 in argos before christmas but I spotted it for £22.99 in the sale so thats a bit less spent.
Harrietjones I hoping to spend around £50 (less if I can manage)a week on shopping we are a family of 2 adults and 3 dc, I think the slow cooker will be doing overtime.
Anybody know cheap recipes for the slow cooker, I usually do homemade veg and ham soup made with a ham shank, chilli made with passata, tinned kidney beans etc and I always throw in lentils to make any meal in the slow cooker stretch.
kellykettle thats lovely of your parents to help out with your dd1's birthday like that.

[HarrietJones]

We are the same 2 adults , 3 kids ( 12,10,1).
Starting from Saturday as we weren't organised.

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

Theres some nice recipes for soups on the mumsnet recipes bit, they're usually cheap, I'm going to give the potato and leek one a go next week I think.

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

Going good so far, I have stayed within my budget I set for the week and I have £4 left over. My new week starts tomorrow and I will be concentrating heavily on my shopping bill I'm going to meal plan and see just how low I can get it although I will be giving frozen basic chicken portions a go from tesco just to make curries and stews from, Has anybody tried these?

[UglyBethy]

Costco? It's a warehouse, and you can buy the things you need at warehouse prices. It's where your local store owners go to pick up their inventories.

The down side is the stuff you get there is usually slightly larger quantity than you normally would buy. But if you have couple of friends that live nearby and need the same things, then you can cut down your cost!

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

Managed to keep my shopping down to £35 this week but I did have lots of things already in. Have made cheese scones and flapjacks this week also to go in the packed lunches. Going to try a veg frittata this week for the first time, will hopefully go down well as its cheap and I can get rid of any randoms mushrooms etc out of the fridge.
By the way does anybody know where is cheap to buy pasta this week?

[peacefuleasyfeeling]

Ah, I LOVE it!! I am SO in!! DP and I both went part time when my maternity leave was up in order to share childcare, which is lovely, but we've effectively taken a whole income cut, so are looking to be properly frugal. I do like it though and will be following closely...

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

That does sound a lovely way of bringing up your dc peacefuleasyfeeling

I am quite pleased with myself this week if I don't spend anything else until friday I will have managed to scrape another fiver off my weekly purse fund, also done a favour for a friend (took some rubbish to the tip for her) and she gave me £10 for helping out (there was rather alot) so thats another £15 into my holiday fund.

[peacefuleasyfeeling]

Has anyone had any experience of selling old stuff on eBay or similar? Am considering letting go of trappings of working life (ridiculous collection Pied A Terre boots springs to mind... seem totally superfluous now, belonging to another life ;) ). I just wonder if it'll be worth my while? Incidentally, DD has been dressed in eBay bargains almost exclusively since birth, so it clearly works for some people who sell their things. Had a good giggle at storage issue arising just as the purse strings are tightening. I have a sudden irrepressible desire to buy a sewing table, what with all the mending and darning I'll be doing now... I have been making warm woollen trousers and smocks for DD out of DP's old lambswool jumpers (after I accidentally shrunk a couple). They have come out rather well.

[Cazpatch]

Hi all, I am so reassured to be reading all the messages knowing I am not alone in how suddenly how little money i seem to have. I have learnt to budget, and thought it might help others and if there is anyone who has got any advice for me I would be more than pleased to listen!

Last year I did my in's and outs so i knew to the penny what I had left. At the end of each month I looked through my reciepts and literally wrote down in a notebook how much i spent on: me, my dd, petrol, food, home, social/leisure (e.g. swimming, cinema, school holidays), presents, christmas and pharmacy (I just couldnt put tampax and paracetamol in the me category!). It helped me to feel in control and i tried to spend less each month. Although it felt a bit OTT last year, actually it really helped. I managed to pay £800 off my credit card and didnt use a credit card at all last year. It also made me look realistically at how i often I treated myself! ok my treats are usually clothes from ebay or the charity shops but even still it all definately adds up!

This year I have gone a step further and set a budget for each category which is slightly less than the average I spent last year. Also I could see the areas where I could def cut back on. Keeping and looking at every reciept meant i couldnt forget a coffee here, a couple of books from a charity shop there, parking money, the occasional school dinner!

I have been using e-accounts linked to my bank account where i save for christmas (I had £300 saved for this xmas which was lovely!) and my s reg car which last year cost £1000 (ok £998.97) to keep on the road. This money goes out as soon as I am paid so i dont miss it.

This month I have been analysing reciepts and filling out my notebook every few days rather than just leaving it til the end of the months and its really been good. Its making me a lot more thoughtful about spending anything! Using the e-accounts and setting a strict budget shows me that I dont really have any money spare but actually thats reality. It does mean though that when my car needs new insurance, tax and MOT and service all in the same month i wont have to put it on the credit card!

I would love to hear how others budget!

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

Great bargain today! My bedroom is looking a little shabby and I had £10 in vouchers I had got from doing surveys and I thought I would put it towards some wallpaper for a feature wall so I went to homebase this morning and found some shelves full of last rolls of paper for............10p. I needed 1 roll and 1 more length and I found a lovely striped plum and metallic one so that was my feature wall sorted for 20p then I found a lovely plum glass vase/bottle thing reduced to £3.50. I am a very happy bunny today with my bargains and I still have my vouchers!

[Fluffycloudland77]

I'm quite frugal, I do this.

I try all the basics stuff in the supermarket, if we cant tell the difference then we get it all the time eg stuffing, all my cleaning stuff, sanitary towels (tested them on my own), food bags, cat litter, tomato sauce, fizzy water, frozen veg, frozen rice, pikelets, muffins, mint sauce, rubbish bags ( I change the bag every few days so splitting isnt an issue) Sainsburys basic tea bags are really good, we've used them for over 12 months and dh hasnt noticed we dont have pg tips anymore (asda ones are rubbish though), jaffa cakes, digestive biscuits (you get the idea).

I go to homebargains for stuff like alur (made by the stardrops people bit like Woolite but only 89p), colour catcher sheets (their brand not dylon), cheap rinseaid.

I use one tablespoon of Daisy dishwasher powder from tesco, works out at 2p for a full load of dishes, if my maths are right.

I always take a packed lunch to work, I used to spend £3 a day, every day I do it I make a note in my diary so I can see how much I am saving.

I always park in the free side streets for 30 mins, long enough to do a home bargains and bank dash.

Anything I need eg kelp tablets I check on Amazon, you would be surprised what you can get on there. For the same price as 3 a day holland and barratt kelp I got solgar one a day kelp so it will last me 3 times as long for the same price.

I shop at asda and aldi.

I use the local farm shop for potatoes, 60p for 2.5kg.

I've just ordered the takeaway recipe book off amazon, so I can do DH tikka masala curries. I heard about it on moneysavingexpert.co.uk and it's only £3ish at the moment.

I looked at my washing machine instruction booklet and worked out which washing cycle used the least electric/water for cottons. You can save a lot doing that, some cycles are very wasteful. Ditto for the dishwasher.

Anything I need from town I check the poundshop, homebargains and wilkinsons for the cheapest.

Dh takes a tin of soup to work every day and bread for toast.

I check the local morrisons when I drive by for marked down bread etc.

When I renew my mobile tariff I plan to get one with a free gift eg TV, ps3, xbox etc and sell the free gift and the phone and put the sim in my iphone.

You can use nectar points in blockbuster, £2.50 towards a rental and when I shop online I check the nectar site first to see if they do nectar points, lots of them do even amazon then I follow the link and it all adds up.

I check my asda reciepts online on their price checker and often get vouchers, if I see a reciept in a trolley I pick it up and check that one too .

So there you go. Now you know how really sad I am!!

[Fluffycloudland77]

I forgot to say, if you have frozen rice or those plastic tubs of longlife cooked rice from asda/aldi and supermarket bought prawn crackers, naan and poppadoms it shaves quite a bit off the bill.

Things like rice are £2 in our takeaways and prawn crackers are £1.90! there under a £1 in aldi and asda.

You can also get LED lightbulbs now, there very expensive at the moment (around £15) but they are cheaper on ebay and amazon, they only use a few watts of electric but last 25 years on average. I think a 40w is only 4w for a LED bulb. I'm going to get them when they get a bit cheaper (and more like 60w). They dont have to warm up either like energy saving bulbs usually do.