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.....

Wow, 4 pages already and it's not actually January yet.

Rang my new job up today to see if I had passed my vetting and they said they hadn't heard yet, and even then I won't get my final offer until they've had references back (they don't apply for references until vetting is back) MEERRRRGGHHHHH and current boss has advertised my new job on the internet today (eeeek)

DH won £160 on a football accumulator yesterday (he has better luck than I do) so he's treating us to a pizza for tea (wooh).

Today's spends
£60.65 on petrol (me)
£4.48 on lunch today (bad, bad Claret)
£0.20 putting air in my tyre but it turns out I have a heyooooge nail in it so will need a new tyre - BAH
£5.00 on hair dye - roots desperately need doing. I look like some elderly person.

Budget..
Kids stuff - £166.15 remaining
Everything else - £493.90 remaining
Petrol - £194.35 remaining
Grocery - £350 remaining

StuntNun Tough love and thick skin will be the only way if your DH has his head-in-the-sand-but-telling-you-what-he-thinks-you-want-to-hear and unfortunately it's not always very comfortable (I am only too aware of this!)

Checking in six hours early to mark my place for the coming weeks! Joining this thread over the past couple of months has been great and kept the Christmas spending far more under control than it would have otherwise been.

Picked up a new fridge for our new house (we move in two days ), and ebay bargain at £45. That and cardboard boxes has been our only moving expenses so far (apart from the alarming deposit payment, but fingers crossed we'll get the full deposit back from this place).

Need to reconcile my YNAB (budgeting software) in a couple of days - I seem to be £200 poorer according to YNAB than my current account thinks I am (even taking into account pending transactions). I think the error was made at some point in the run up to Christmas but I can't find it and I can't make the accounts reconcile automatically, so I am planning to withdraw £100 cash to get us through the weekend and wait till all the transactions have cleared on my online banking, and see where I stand.

Have just discovered I can cancel my gym membership early as we are moving more than 10 miles from the gym, which will save £55 a month from February. DH will cancel his and the DCs' in April when the swimming term that we have paid for ends, so we will be £110 better off (don't think we'll get a refund on the DCs' membership as it was paid in one lump sum rather than direct debit). I'll try though!

Stuntnun Dh struggled to get on board with the frugal living for ages, but we had a couple of big arguments conversations about it, and he really got to grips with it once he got a budgeting app on his phone and he could actually watch the account balance trickling away with every spend. It also helped in that it forced him to 'categorise' every spend rather than just not acknowledging it.

Newcomer to the budgeting threads here. Reckon we need it more now than ever, as DH was paid early due to Christmas closure where he works and a horrifying amount of his pay which should see us through to the end of January has already gone (a lot of it on petrol, driving to see family/friends but also last minute Christmas expenditure of one kind or another) Checked the bank balance today and was [shocked]

I am really going to try harder with budget cooking - luckily we have lots of tinned food in our storage, and quite a bit of stuff in the freezer that can be used assuming it's still ok.

Unfortunately we also have DS2's birthday, as well as my dad's and my grandmother's birthdays, and a joint party (DS1 and2) to pay for so there will be further outgoings. Am doing a party for the boys because DC3 is due in Feb and I don't want them to feel that they are missing out, as the next few months will be pretty hectic.

My dh is lots better than he was. I'd say 99% there.

They work best on a reward system of "if I meal plan & shop at aldi/lidl it's half the cost & you can spend that on your interests/pay off cc etc"

DH is fully behind me, he worries a lot about our bank balance. He buys nothing but petrol and motorbike cleaners every few months.
I'm sitting working out how much we need to save to pay off our DDs. I think its entirely possible to do it maybe by the summer. Then I'll start on the credit cards.

I hopefully back.

I had NSD since Sunday. Mainly because I left my bag and purse at my sisters house. She dropped it back to my mums and I get it before the weekend.

So I have done my menu plan for the month. Most of which I have in either freezer or cupboard. So hopefully will have mimuim spend on food this month.

I would like to join in

I've always been a bit careful with money largely due to not having much, but I want to be smarter with it too. We don't tend to buy much 'unnecessary' stuff (a few luxuries always on offer and repurpose as much as possible).

Groceries, meals out and transport are the biggest spend areas. Already getting best deals on utilities and use Quidco for pretty much everything. The other day DH and I decided to walk to and from where we were going which saved £5.60, so that made it obvious to us how much better that would be financially to do more often plus we like going for walks.

Looking for ways to get best food for my money and be more sensible with the food. We eat leftovers, but little bits tend to get chucked (eg handful of peas). I'm going to start saving these in a freezer bag, I read one MNer who kept them all to make soup and that just seemed like such a good idea.

Takeaway is my main bugbear tbh. We currently spend around £100/month on food from outside About £20-30 of that is actually for a real treat for us that I wouldn't want to give up. The rest is debatable! I need to really work out how much stuff I should keep in the freezer as 'lazy food' as I never buy enough to fend off the takeaway option.

Paid off our overdrafts a bit over a year ago after some serious saving so happy on the debt front not counting my student debt but I'm on the old plan so it doesn't feel like proper debt.

Ooh, forgot to add, saving slowly at the moment as I would like a new bed and to prepare (very slowly!) for a second child some day, plus some other ambitions we have. So reducing spending means being able to grow our savings a little.

I'm going to be following this thread closely next year - DH and I are both selfemployed so budgeting is a bit of a guess when we don't have guaranteed monthly income so hoping to just keep spending low and save if we have a good month.

Must get my head round mealplanning - any tips? We only have a tiny freezer, DS and me are veggie (he's nearly 2 and randomly turns his nose up at something he's previously loved, and DH and I often eat at different times. Not sure how to make that work.

Our luxury is a takeaway each week but it's cheap and lasts for another meal next day - and we don't eat out.

We also pay for our own wine or beer at home out of our "pocket money" which helps.

can I join, need to be better with money this year! ! we have debt I want to clear so then we can try and save some money for unexpected bills etc

going to try meal planning and would like to get a small chest freezer so I can start cooking extra meals so we dont always eat pasta & pesto when I cant be bothered to cook! !

also thinking of using a seperate bank account from the one bills come out of so I know how much money I have for week then I might stop overspending! ! then taking out cash for food shopping. is this a good idea?

Disney
We draw out a set lump of cash at the start of the month and divide it between four budget jars e.g. Groceries, parking, coffees/lunches out, etc.
This helps make paying for things feel real.

The DDs come out of my account (main earner) and we've just started using a joint account for planned spending e.g. Putting aside money to pay for the car to be MOt'd, or for Christmas.

Definitely worth having separate accounts/pots to help keep track of spending.

Disney we have a joint account which both pays go into. Then I have a separate one I move the money I need for the month.
From now on I'm leaving the amount needed for the direct debits in the joint one, lifting the money I need and leaving what we need to save in my account.

I think it's easier to save on your weekly shop when you have the money in cash rather than paying by cards.

Coco teens, and my Pre-teens are defo selfish creatures who don't see a need to share the world with other people, it's a wonder any of us turn into reasonable adults sometimes.

Fluffy I second eBay for the aeg, and Well done MrFluffy for being so cheeky.

So, £12 at the greengrocers on veg, fruit and a kilo of honey To do a couple of week's worth of granola, then £20 at the supermarket on special dinner for tonight, marinated ribs To BBQ, salad and charcoal To cook it on. Plus food for dogs and other odd bits. We already have bubbly and are not going out.

Forgot one, £1 on a coffee between the two shops because my sanity depends on a few minutes away from DDs, and DH and the bloody dogs.

Will be having kitchen audit later today and will meal plan. Although don't think we have much in. Will shopping list as well.

Appointment with bank in thurs to open new shiny savings account and to set up overpayment of mortgage while our repayments and interest is super low and fixed.

Today should be a no spend day.

Will be taking lunches into work everyday. And walking in when it's dry to save on parking costs.

I'm with primus, well done you!.

Tcb is the way to go.

Happy new year everyone.

Happy new year all!

I'm slowly improving. Yesterday I was in a charity shop and saw a book I wanted selling for £2.50. Much cheaper than paying more for a new copy but I thought of this thread and put it back then got it from the library. I need to go to to libraries even more this year - just because the book or DVD is cheap it doesn't mean I have to buy it! This should help my clutter issues also.

Happy New Year! Am at home with the kids today and tomorrow so hopefully NSD as they have so many new toys to keep them occupied :-)

Happy new year

The other day I reviewed our budgets for 2014. I realised that though we've always worked to budgets of sorts, they were too vague and didn't take account of periodic expenses. Eg we have an amount in the joint account for groceries plus DC and household items, and regularly the whole lot would go on groceries and then I would remember the DC needed new shoes or something, or that the milk bill needed paying, and I would be over budget. So for this year I've taken off the regular things like milk (expensive but saves the £20 'popping out for milk' trips), DS school dinners, etc and divided the rest into groceries and DC/household. I just need to remember to keep track now.

So far (after Sainsbo's trip yesterday)
Groceries £65.17 spent, £287.83 remaining
DC/household £30.85 spent, £59.15 remaining (DC clothes, half price kitchen scales and reduced wrapping paper)

My aim is to get the grocery bill down but I'll do that gradually.

It will be a NSD today, cooking for family. My Dad is bringing a dessert which has saved me cost / effort - am crap at desserts!

Happy new year!
I tnought I had to go to the shops today but it can wait until tomorrow.

My direct debuts didn't come out today, is it because it's a holiday? I thought they would still come out because it's automatic computer type thingy.

Oh dear Lord. I've just checked my bank balance. I should just have enough to cover bills over the next couple of weeks with not a penny left. Could be worse considering Christmas and new baby expenses though (35 weeks). I went out yesterday and stocked up on lots of toiletries so I don't need to waddle into town again this month so I should be set apart from a food shop tomorrow which I'm hoping DP has the money for.
Really, I need to have two weeks of no spend days to get us back on track. It's a good job I don't want to leave the house. So I'll be reading this thread for motivation and ideas.
Happy New Year!