November Numbercrunchers *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.

Feel free to post a daily spending diary, to ask for advice or just for a general money moan.

50p on the mirror. I popped into Aldi tonight after work but not for the 'big shop'. £2.10 on bread, crisps and sweeties. Their cheapo midget gems are great.

Armistace that's why they need a chaperone taxi service

Tomorrow I am doing some Christmas shopping, will update then.

Another £39 today from a customer, and hopefully a bit of work that will generate £400 or so, just waiting for confirmation. Will be such a relief if I get it, it will really help with the pre-2014 target.

Despite massive money stress re needing to make money before end of Dec I am really chuffed that at payday (today) we were a couple of hundred pounds from our overdraft limit - have been hard against it every month for about a year now. Progress, right?

NSD so far today - it will be tomorrow as well, as I am at work 8.45-7pm then having a night in with DH.

A work meeting has been arranged for Sunday night, in a pub, I'm as it will mean buying rounds which will be £££

Stupid place to have a meeting.

£10 petrol.

Wow

I can't believe what a short month November seemed to be! In total I have £156 available to carry forward into December, and £273 in a holding account ready to pay towards my credit card bill. (I bought some shopping and petrol on my Tesco card for the points).

Total groceries for November was £293.03 (£16 less than last month) out of a £350 budget, and petrol was £201.81 (£122 less than last month) out of a £295 budget (of which £40 was DH's work related). I used very little petrol this month which was a surprise but very welcome.

Budget for the next month is....
Petrol: £255
Food: £350
Everything Else: £342.59

Also started a savings account up for DS2's Yr6 school trip to the Dales which will need to be paid in May.

Today's spends
£20.00 - Yr6 school trip
£2.60 - Lunch (my once a month treat)
£11.73 - nit lotion (GRRRRR I would have expected by now at the grand old age of 10 he'd have stopped bringing headlice home)

I don't actually have anything to "pay out" of December wage (other than Xmas) but end of January will be DH's road tax.

New thread here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1925884-December-debt-destroying-blows-the-budgeteering-bugle

PS - come on, we need to get this thread to 20 pages to beat the October thread

Wait till you see January's thread, it's always packed in jan.

LOL, I know exactly what you mean. I had next year's lightbulb moment 2 months early (or was it this year's 10 months late???). I've been a bit lax on this thread but I have been keeping my spreadsheet up to date however I will definitely try and keep a spending diary through December. Am just trying to write out my Xmas list it's awful. I've got to bring it in at £200 for 20 people and I get all claustrophobic in crowds, work full time and there's only 4 weekends left to Xmas (sob). Hopefully I can get most of the stuff in the supermarket

Online shop claret today is good as black Friday n lots deals around.

We had take away tonight but was a pre holiday treat we have a wknd off n rather than going away we r doing some cheap days out n having couple days to ourselves whilst toddler goes to nursery got day trip to local children theme/fun park booked as my 3yr old is less than 95cm he is free n as a weekday its cheap rate £6 an adult n then £4.75 for Santa visit for toddler so £16.75 for day out n cheaper than Thomas land last yr at £45 n shite xmas gift.

Also got Santa at garden center booked groupon deal £6 includes child Santa visit n 2 adult hot drinks

off to pantomime tomorrow all paid for just petrol parking in lunch

hoping for a dry wk ahead

I haven't reconciled this month yet (will wait till Mon in case I have missed any transactions that don't clear till then), but I think I'm going to come in ever so slightly under budget for November, which is v satisfying. I'm getting on with YNAB budgeting software really well, it really helps.

Really wish I'd taken better control of the budgets earlier this year, but can't change the past so just determinedly focusing on continuing to limp towards being more flush.

artemis work meeting in the pub!? Great idea!

£383 nursery bill. Particularly high as it includes extra hours for November and December as I've taken on extra hours at work.

3frugalthings: paid nursery bill much earlier than usual as I want the money to be accounted for at the beginning of December (same idea as getting all DDs in line at beginning of month); bought my dad 6 month magazine gift subscription rather than a year (sorry dad!); am starting to compile list of all annual one off expenditures so I can plan in saving for these monthly, so far I've got MOT, tax, NT membership, boiler service, daughter's birthday and Christmas - can you help me think of any others?!

Cheap weekend planned - we've all got tummy bugs

£5.90 on travel for me and DS; £1.74 at Tesco and £3.75 on a latte and a cake in a naice cafe. So, £11.39 altogether.

Have a good weekend, everyone .

Get well soon, turnoffthelights and family.

Did some shopping Today , christmas gifts and stocking fillers, will update actual money Spent Tomorrow.

Turnoffthe light hope you all recover quickly.

Turnoff I believe there's a list on MSE but I'd include house/car insurance, small holiday fund for camping or The Sun deals, and little slush fund so you've got some spare cash if something breaks. Hope you're feeling better soon, there's a lot of that going about right now.

We still have another 2 weeks until payday so I suspect this weekend will be lots of trips to the park with a flask of coffee. So glad my dc are still young enough to consider this a good day out.

I plan to do some cooking later. I've got some brown bananas that need turning into cake and I need to make some chutney for Christmas gifts. I'm not seeing the recipients until the New year so hopefully I've just about got enough time for it to mature.

Oh, if anyone wants to do homemade gifts for children, I had big success a couple of years ago with homemade marshmallows and dry cookie ingredients layered in a jar with a nice ribbon and the instructions and a (sainsbury's basics 99p) wooden spoon tied on. I always struggle for cheap gift ideas for kids that aren't tat and I was pleased with those.

£13 spend - £6.95 on a box of chocs to thank the people who had me to dinner last night and the rest on lunch bits as I am away with work from 12.20 and they never remember to provide pack lunch for people with allergies.

Today's spends:
£13.00 - that I owe my son!

£ 7.00 - for me on some foundation
£ 7.00 - more bloody nit lotion. The stuff I bought yesterday did nothing for me although DS1 is clear I think.
£41.30 - grocery shopping at Tesco
£45.10 - grocery shopping at Farmfoods
£ unknown amount on haircuts for the menfolk of the house
£20.00 - DS put some more petrol in yesterday
£49.98 on Christmas presents (chocolate and alcohol for 8 people out of the 25 I have to buy for).

Did buy some stuff from Tesco which I didn't need as they had some extra points / money off. (like £1 off mince which had been £3) so thought I might as well get some, and 85 points on pepsi so got 16 cans for £4. In Farmfoods last night I bought enough 'main' meal stuff for 9 or 10 days.

Total spent on Xmas stuff so far £136.97.

Number of people I am putting money in a card for...9...so need to pick up some money wallets from the pound shop

Number of people still to buy for...7 + my 2 sons.

De-nitted AGAIN and touch wood so far there's been no itching since I dried my hair. Fookin orrible things.

Nsd

NSD for me due to not leaving the house, but DH spent some on cheese and bread in town at the German market. Was only a few quid though, so will forgive him.

Need to reconcile my accounts tonight, then can jump over onto the Dec thread.

Quite a spendy day, as out and about all day. £8.30 on travel; £6.75 on lunch out and a snack later on; and £18.12 on Christmas decorations and my last two Christmas presents. Also gave DS his pocket money (£3). So, £40.37 in total.

Haven't checked in for a long time even though I've read most posts. This is mostly because of the fact that I've had two major services for both cars which costed £600+ and I've travelled for work. Things have gotten out of control. Good news is dh managed to contribute a significant amount to the family account so it wasn't too bad.

Not started Christmas shopping yet either. Help!
Onwards and upwards.

Yesterday I spent £40 on petrol and a couple of quid in Tesco. Today I got my hair done which is a small fortune but budgeted for. I used some of my birthday vouchers and got perfume from m&s. If I was rich id have hundreds of perfumes. Then I spent some more birthday vouchers and got DS a jumper and me a onesie and nice shampoo/conditioner from asda. It reminded me how nice it is to buy things that aren't essentials. Sob. Tomorrow will be Aldi shop.

Whoops! £36.17. Every little helps!