Judicious January Jangling & Juggling *blows budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

Sorry, couldn't resist going overboard on the J's

Happy new year y'all. Welcome to expert budgeteerers, newbies, lurkers and de-lurkers. We're a very friendly, non-judgmental bunch so please use this thread as you choose whether it's as a spending diary, to confess your money sins, ask for help or have a general whinge at the cost of living.....

I'm in. Our bills accounts are well managed, but my personal finances - my bits just for me - are a mess. Again. I'm determined that DH isn't going to bail me out. Again. Mainly because he was pretty cross last time :-(

My personal account is £99.12 overdrawn and my credit card is £571.11 in debt. I've got £10.73 in a savings account and I'll get paid tomorrow. I've got £300 coming in tomorrow and £188 coming in on 21st Jan.

I need to pay my phone bill (£35), dinner money (£58), preschool fees (£42.50). Dancing fees are paid until Easter. Minimum payment on credit card has been made this month already so I don't HAVE to pay any more to that until next payday (next payment due date will be approx 16th Frbruary).

We're going to Bristol Zoo for the day in a couple of weeks, I guess that will be £100 once I've paid entry and food and petrol costs. Although I could pack a picnic, the friends we are going with won't and you have to eat outside with a picnic and it's a bit chilly for that!

I'm trying to put £10 per week away for Christmas, so say another £30 for that and the cleaner is coming on 17th/31st which is another £50 (although £25 of that could come from next month as 31st is payday).

That leaves me £98.50 for anything else I want to spend money on this month, if I pay my overdraft off in full and don't pay anything to the credit card and pay half the cleaning from next month. Then I can start paying that off next month.

I feel such a tit for doing this AGAIN!

Can you close a credit card without paying off the balance? I mean, stop any more transactions going through?

Another newbie joining! Just getting this in TIO for reading tomorrow!

I need to join this thread !

Plans are to discuss a sensible and workable family budget with DH to implement and to stick with my newly implemented meal planning and weekly food budget. I have found online shopping a great way to keep track/not buy rubbish we don't need when doing the food shop,
I have also changed DD swimming lessons as found out about council run sessions at half the cost of the ones we attended and in the new year looking to enrol her in a church run music play group (free as opposed to the $10 per session one we were attending).
Will then try and get my head around no spend days , might be trickier to get DH on board with this. What are the rules (if it is budgeted for does it count or not?)
We will need to replace our car in the next year and I want to be able to do this from savings (without dipping into our emergency fund),

I would like to join.

I am very wasteful and I spend a lot of money on stupid things. I'm in debt and miserable about it.

I've made a plan and given every penny that comes in a purpose. I've accounted for everything, including treats and if I stick to it we will be in a very good position in two years time.

The thing I struggle with is meal planning. I'm going to sit down tomorrow and attempt one.

thatgirl I agree with fluffy, we no longer have snacky stuf in the house. If dh wants crisps etc he can buy them out of his pocket money. There's always fruit available and sometimes bread and jam/peanut butter. It sounds mean but if it's there we eat it so it's cheaper and healthier not to have it in.

As for your dd, oh help gave some lovely ideas that I'll be using for my dd. At that age they still don't have a concept of the money so depending on what you usually buy her day to day it's easy to treat cheaply. For under a tenner I would get a helium balloon, a massive rip off children's magazine and most importantly take her to... drum roll please, Sainsbury's cafe for 'little coffee', 55p and a chocolate owl, 55p. She loves being a grown up and spending one on one time with me.

ohhelp do an internet search for bread pudding. I'm not a fan of bread and butter pudding but bread pudding is more like cake so can be cut into slices and eaten cold in lunch boxes. It also freezes well and can be given a couple of minutes in the microwave and served with custard.

Hello everyone! Welcome to the newbies. Theses threads are the friendliest on the site.

Spendy day yesterday - replaced the kettle for our bedroom and bought a leg of lamb as a treat for NYD. That was expensive but I'll get three meals out of it I hope. I also got 7 three metre rolls of wrapping paper reduced from £16.50 to less than £5. It's all very neutral so I won't need to buy any all year!

Should be two NSDs for the next two days as we don't need anything and I've meal planned.

DH has just redone his linkedin profile as he needs a job as his contract runs out in March. Am trying not to stress too much but failing

OhHelp I hadn't thought of hot outside picnic - but the friends we are going with won't do that I'm sure, I might just have to bite the bullet on this one and be more organised later - this day out has been planned for ages, before I realised I had ishoos...

We do have other debt as a family, B&Q (for the kitchen), Nationwide (for the extension that the kitchen in in!) and my Mum (also extension).

I spoke to DH last week about those, and we have rejigged the bills account to pay for these and both the B&Q debt and the Nationwide debt will now be paid within the interest free periods, so I am now less worried about those - they have to be paid, but we aren't incurring extra costs by having them there which is good. Money has come from the food budget, but we did meal planning yesterday and used freezer stuff and we did a whole weeks shop for £60. I guess we will need another £10 on milk and fruit, but a weeks shop for £70 (2 adults, 3 bottomless pits small children).

Also spoke to DH this morning about how much we spent on Christmas, which is the source of some of the credit card debt in my name. He didn't realise we'd gone over budget, and has given me £150 towards it, so my own total to repay is now way lower than I thought!

I forgot we have childcare vouchers that I can pay the preschool fees with :-) And the school will let me pay dinner money weekly in arrears (£10 each Friday) rather than half termly in advance, I just need to be organised to send a cheque every Friday - I pay in advance just because I'm so disorganised, but I can't afford disorganised this month - have set an alert for Thursday evenings on my phone to write cheque and put in DD's book bag.

So, my current account balance is +£200.88, credit card is -£421.11 and savings is £10.73.

Items to pay this month are

Dinner money (£28)
mobile phone (£35 - I need to reduce this but I'm in contract until October )
Zoo trip (£100)
Meal out (£20 - forgot about this earlier )
evening at friends house on Thursday (£10 for wine and nibbles to take with me)
Cleaner £25
Christmas savings £30

Gives me a spare total of £140.88 for anything else that crops up. Have mentally reserved £15 or so for school bits, like cooking money etc - but they are not swimming this term so nothing required for that. There is usually a school trip in February, but that can wait until next month. The two DC's that can walk have both had new shoes just before Christmas, but baby is now staggering around so she will probably need some proper shoes this month - £20? I might be able to get to Clarks outlet with her and get them cheaper than the £35 it will cost me in town...

Sorry for epic post!

Hi all, I'm in.

Our income has gone up, but I'm still struggling to get rid of 10k cc debt from leaner times, it's just too easy to absorb the min repayments and pretend it isn't there, but it's costing about £300 a month. I have £1800 emergency money in savings and am £1700 into overdraft. Which written down looks a bit shit.

The savings were built up over last 6 months, the overdraft is crimbo spending. Plan to plunge £1000 into cc today and then move as much as I can onto a 0% deal. Overdraft will be paid back over the next three months I reckon. Do need to write a proper budget.

woodburnerbabe I wonder if the mobile provider you're with would reduce the tarrif in return for losing some of the minutes/texts/mb you get every month?.

I'm locked into mine until August and I'm itching to ditch it for ovivo freedom 0 sim.

Is your credit card bill paid by DD or standing order? Another mumsnetter (special subject or talkingpeace I can't remember) is a financial bod & she says to set a standing order up, I didn't understand why at first but then it clicked.

Every month you pay a little bit less minimum payment so you think the balance is going down but in reality the bulk of it is interest and the actual balance remains largely static. It's why when you put the balance owed and the interest charged into mse credit card tool it comes back as 20 years to pay it off if you only make minimu repayment each month by DD if you set a standing order up you are paying more than they require each month and the balance clears much quicker.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/minimum-repayments-credit-card#calc This explains it much better than I do.

Big post typed & lost it! Will retype later, marking my place

Welcome all newbies and returners to leilandri.

kiwi how you count your spending is entirely up to you. I count a NSD as nothing over budget, yesterday I spent money on some clothes for the dc but I'd planned for that in my Jan/Feb budget so I don't count it.

Yesterday wasn't the NSD I'd planned. The dc were making presents to bring with us to Devon for family so there was £3.80 on bits they needed for that and £4 in hobby craft for a 20m roll of cellophane which will last ages. Much better value than the £3 for 2.5m roll (decorated with snowflakes!). We have about £100 left for the week but that has to include diesel for the journey back up North and some socialising while we're here.

Hmmmm I have £1650 in Direct Debits coming out this month and £1734 in the bank. Thankfully it's two weeks until my payday from Friday, but hells bell's, why do I let it get so tight. I need a toe up the arse.

Me and DH will both need petrol, my freezer is empty and I have £20 pw in dinner money to pay. This should be fun.

Pils gave us an iPad for Xmas which is fab but I clearly haven't quite got the hang of posting yet! Should have read waves to leilandri

coco will the school give you a bit of leeway with the dinner money? Ours do a couple of weeks if you explain - they only insist all outstanding MUST be paid by the end of the half term. Or could you do packed lunches for a couple of weeks, you should be able to do it a bit cheaper maybe?

I will try to call Vodafone to see if they will reduce the tarrif, my credit card is minimum payments by DD to make sure I don't miss one - then I pay extra as and when I have it. So this month, the minimum of £10 something went on 27th December and I paid an extra £150 to it this morning online. Lloyds website is set up quite well for that kind of thing. And if I pay more than the minimum before it's due, they don't take the minimum as well.

Another newbie signing in.

No its a high school so canteen. DD1 is a prefect so one of the weeks will be in the common room for lunch and she takes a pot noodle in those days.
There is £150 sitting in a drawer, it is money for the DDs that is being kept as spending money for Easter (we might be going to a cottage with my mum and dad) so I could use that and replace it as needs be. Though I feel a bit if a shit doing it even though they know I'm holding on to it and they are happy with getting it at Easter.

Can I join?

I ran up a 3.5k credit card while on Mat leave, have transfered most of the balance to 0% card and am now in a position to pay off £300 a month, so hopefully this time next year the majority will be paid off.

I've also a bit of a Next account, but nothing worrying.

If I cut back a bit more on the day-to-day stuff, I'll pay it all off sooner. I've been out of my overdraft since September, the first time in about seven years.

Also, my new job+Uni means meal planning has gone out the window, and we've been having far too many takeaways. This would be the first, and easiest way to cutback.

I'll probably lurk more than I post, is that ok?

Thanks for all the Birthday ideas, her Birthday is on the weekend so no school and we could make sure she has a special day, the magazine idea would certainly be a hit as she's always after one when we are in the supermarket, The bunting is a lovely idea too. i'll look out for some when I'm in town.

Do you all give your children school dinners? It would cost me £31.50 a week to feed mine at school rather than packed lunches, it's £2.10 per day and I have 3 at Primary school, i guess it would knock a bit off of my shopping costs.

Hi can I join? I have some confessions..oh boy

I give mine school dinners as I work 4 days a week and knowing that they've had a hot meal in the middle of the day means I can do quick easy tea stuff if I run out of time.

If any of them are still infants, their meals will be free from September? I will have nothing to pay for 1 year, then eldest goes to juniors so will have to pay again for her.

More birthday ideas, could you buy some of the ready made icing tubes and a packet of chocolate digestives and a load of little sweets? We used to love decorating them, like cakes, with icing and sweets :-)

I would like to join too!

I have £8k of debt (credit card and over draft) and I want to save to move house. I have quite a good wage but pay a lot in child care and waste a lot of money on Bon essential items.

If I'm careful I could pay off £3k this year and save £1.5k. Aiming to move (put house on market) in two years.

I need to stop popping to the shops before work for lunch and spending £5 and also looking at all disposable income as there to spend. I need to stop 'keeping up with the Jones's

*non essential

I'm in - last year I cleared my credit card and saved a grand but had to spend it on my poor sick dog God rest his soul. Insurance were good but with 2 different conditions I had to pay double excess and when I got the cheque I had to use it on new tyres anyway.

So starting the year with no savings but only a personal debt of £200 at Next which is my next target. Dh needs to sort out his debt but I'm fed up worrying about that when he doesn't seem to.

Hello all,

Sorry I've been AWOL recently xmas has been busy!

I am in a determined mood recently! Here are the frugal things I've managed so far....I hope I can keep it up!

• cancelled sky subscription....I didn't realise how many channels you can get on freesat and that the sky box turns into a freesat box when sky is cancelled....great news! I only watch things like downton, casualty and come dine with me and I usually watch them on iplayer on the ipad anyway!

• cancelled the cleaner back in November - which saves me about £80 per month . I work full time and it was lovely coming back to a cleaned house! But it is cheaper and good exercise to do it myself

• had NSD x 3 for past 3 days - we are eating down the freezer and having some interesting combinations! Luckily my hens have decided that they will carrying on laying and we're getting 3-4 eggs per day

• had a massive clear out and have £30+ of clothes for music magpie! a huge pile to be ebayed and have received a mazuma mobile bag to send off an old phone only £8 but it all helps!

• have been putting a big effort into changing electricity habits...I have been switching all equipment off when not using, especially chargers for iPhone and ipad....keeping lights off, air dyring clothes and not using tumble drier very much, full loads in washing machine etc.....anyway according to my online account I have managed to get electricity bill down to £45 this month from £78 this time last year....I am ridiculously pleased that my efforts have worked and am inspired to carry on saving electricity.

Right feeling very virtuous now so am going to reward myself with a cup of tea.....obviously only boiling the right amount of water to save money!