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.....

thanks clutterbugsmum and ImATotJeSuisUneTot, i'll keep thinking about the food shopping. I have a lidl close by too so will venture in there first for my next shop, then aldi and then Tesco/Morrison for anything else, hopefully after a few weeks I can work out what's best to buy where! We eat quite a bit of pasta so would like to buy that in bulk, but I buy wholewheat and aldi didn't seem to have any, although on the leaflet with next week's offers they had some from today (typical!)

I have changed my name to keep reminding myself of our goal!

Currently doing a spreadsheet of basic incomings/outgoings per year (just x12 for monthly things, x13 for 4 weekly things etc)... bit scary how much stuff adds up!

NSD for me today but not for DH...dry cleaner costs and he needs a new shirt for work. He is taking DS2 to Clarks as he is complaining that his shoes are tight. I'm not convinced...hopefully it is just a ruse to get some new ones. If the shoes still fit he is definitely not getting a new pair.
theonlymrsw I'm back at work on Monday - it is much easier to have NSDs then and get into a meal planning and budget routine; it is about the only positive thing about the holidays coming to an end. It has been so nice to spend time at home with the family this Christmas.

We have completely overshot our ambitious weekly budget but that's because we bought a mop (no more cleaner), a massive saucepan (batch cooking - no more takeaways), and a shelf for the downstairs loo to store cleaning products on (no more panic the baby will eat them!). A non-frugal morning at soft play as I would have gone crazy inside - and BOTH dc are now asleep (one on me, which makes typing hard) which is BLISS.

Have also just accepted a last minute work project. Means working this weekend and hoping my friend can have the DC as they don't start nursery until mid-month, but the pay will make a good dent in the debt.

LonelyGoatherd It was a couple of years ago now, but we used JL vouchers in Waitrose several times to get groceries. I imagine they still operate the same system.

fuzzpig DH and I had a similar discussion a while back. Long story short, had to work very hard to pay it all off and got hit by fees in the meantime. It's tempting to see that £1k as 'extra' money, but actually the overdraft is the bank's money, it needs to be paid back and the sooner it's done, the easier life will be, esp. in terms of fees. Then you can rest easy and truly enjoy or save any remaining money

Another NSD planned today - initially I looked at our fridge and thought, "Oh, we need food", then had another good look I realised that actually, we really don't. We are going out tomorrow so whilst we're out I'm going to pick up some basics like milk and bread and set a budget of £20 (need some cupboard extras like oil, which is well and truly all gone now, plus keeping an eye out for anything reduced). Normally I would be booking my next online order to come which is a min. £40, so feeling positive about not jumping in with that yet. This thread is really helping me to keep focused!

Well all is going ok so far. We have seriously overspent over Christmas and I need to rein it in big time now so we don't flounder before payday on 25th. I did a food shop today, mostly Aldi and the few remaining items from Tesco next door. I also bought 4 things we needed in the pound shop. Grand total was £61.97 for 9 days food. That's 4 of us today, tomorrow and the weekend then just dh nad I next week as the dc have school dinners - already budgetted for. I was really pleased with that total actually as it included quite a lot of meat. I also had the ds with me which usually means I spend more but I had already told them I was sticking to the list and not to ask for anything!
I also had to get £30 out in cash to give to a friend as I owed her it for some tickets she got me for the pantomime. This were ridiculously cut price through a scheme her dh beongs to so we have £84 worth of seats for £30. Going tomorrow night and we are really looking forward to it. A nice end of Christmas treat.

Right we have pretty much finished the spreadsheet. It was easier working out yearly rather than monthly.

We have roughly £27750 coming in per year, and roughly £18,760 going out - including the £100 already going to savings, our £20 each pocket money, and the £320pcm food budget.

What I haven't included in the income is DH's irregular wages - so the odd £40 here and there for a day's work (yes, it's a shit job :( but better than nowt - he's still looking for something better) is certainly not 'needed' and therefore we have agreed that every time he gets a payslip he will pay the same amount straight into the ISA.

So it looks like we can afford to save more. BUT what I haven't included in the outgoings is the more sporadic stuff like Xmas birthdays (but I am planning to set up a separate budget and maybe even an extra account for this), and variable essentials like clothes and healthcare and bus fares.

That's what I'm finding quite tricky, I don't know how to budget pr plan for things like school shoes and bus fares that can't be scrimped on. Any suggestions please? I'd like to have an 'everything else' type budget so that we can work out how much extra we can put into savings, but I'm not sure how much to allow

Spent £4 in Home Bargains, for toothpaste, water and a new notebook to write everything down in
£13.99 in Tesco using a £1.99 off voucher.
£20 in the buthchers.
Things I bought that I didn't need; Next Home catalogue for £2 and a £5 watch in Asda, it was cheaper that replacing the battery in mine.

Also it was the first time I've really truly sat and looked through all my bank statements (a few months worth) - it was quite embarrassing seeing how much is frittered on snacks and little bits and pieces. But strangely it's also quite exciting as I can see how much extra we could save if we kick these habits! :)

Delasi

Its only dh and I and a cat. My menu plan for the week would look like this.

Fish and chips etc
Chicken roast dinner (frozen no added water chicken from aldi), stuffing wrapped in bacon, petis pois/green beans/sprouts, yorkshire pudding.
Chicken and pasta
Sausage dinner with roast potatoes, petis pois and yorkshire pudding
Breaded goujons of chicken with chips, onion rings etc.
Chicken curry night/rice/naan breads.
Sausage mash and peas/ quarter pounder/ turkey joint/salmon sandwiches.

We both take packed lunches to work and have breakfast at home. Snacks are a piece of bread and butter or fruit, I dont have biscuits etc in the house.

BUT, dh has diabetes so snacky stuff is mostly out anyway plus he wont eat pork unless its bacon or high meat content sausage , beef, lamb,gammon or venison. So I am very limited in what I can offer him . He is also fussy about what cut of meat it is so chicken breast is ok but chicken thighs are not . I eat a lot of tinned pilchards and salmon from there or I have frozen salmon.

Most veg is frozen and I buy things like parsnips and par boil ready for roasting or I chop celery/onion when it's on super six and freeze it ready for soups. I have fizzy drinks in for dh but other than that it's tea or water.

The cat has a tin of aldi cat food everyday

I dont include alcohol in the weekly shop, to me its a treat item, I do include washing powder from there for my whites and cloths, we use vinegar for fabric softener and I get through one bottle of malt vinegar a week usually/

I buy almost everything from aldi except;

Sainsburys smartprice tea.

Sainsburys smartprice stuffing
Sainsburys smartprice potatoes, mostly serve roast potatoes in goose fat.
Bisto gravy powder, I don't like granules so I check the poundshop regularly. Sainsburys does it cheaper but has an ingredient I am allergic to.
Birds custard powder, very easy to make and I can make it low sugar for dh.
Amazon for 2kg packs of goose fat, half the price of the supermarkets and it tastes better than roast potatoes in veg oil to me.
Tescos daisy dishwasher, I had a break from using it but then read it wasn't tested on animals anymore so I will go back to it when the aldi tablets run out, a dessert spoon is enough for one wash and a box lasts me about 9-10 months.

I make my own soups for lunchtimes at home with red lentils bought from tescos ethnic food aisle, they are usually half price in the autumn so I buy 2kg for £2 and it lasts me most of the winter. Dh has more egg & bacon type lunches when he's at home because he wont eat lentils.

Anyway, today was;

£2.21 in card factory for next years christmas cards for family
£1.49 for a birthday card while I was in there

£2 in homebargains, new container for laundry gloop, dh chucked the old one away not knowing we use laundry gloop and I'm not telling him because he will have an Opinion on it, 65p for soda crystals but that will make 4 lots of laundry gloop which should last me all year barring any more incidents involving the tip, 99p hair removing cream and 49p on camomile tea for me because I'm doing dry january so that's my treat for the week.

£2 something cash back on topcashback came through which I had as amazon vouchers to put towards the led bulbs I need for the new light fitting.

have downloaded the MSE budget spreadsheet and it has been a real eye opener! Also opened another two online accounts under different headings for putting money away for Christmas/holiday, and for car costs.

Have meal planned and done the weekly shop plus put £45 quid petrol in each of the cars for travel to work costs. that will probably need to be topped up by the end of the budget week though. Estimate around £60 still available for the week so hopefully there wil be some left over as "savings" by the end of the week. Am doing dry january so that should help as we have been spending far too much on alcohol!

We had a trip to the park today, taking a flask and some snacks with us. Thankfully our dc are still young enough that they are more than happy with this.

Whoever wanted to know about longer term meal planning I meal plan monthly. It's a real pain the first few times as it takes all evening but I'm much better at it now. I do a huge shop for all my washing powder, tinned stuff, cereal etc along with that weeks fresh stuff and then try to shop weekly for milk and fruit/veg. I freeze milk so it lasts the week and we eat a lot of carrots, apples etc as they last all week and frozen peas, sweetcorn and peppers. If I buy something like strawberries we eat those that day or the next. I think we save money because I can plan better.

I haven't planned for the 2 weeks after Christmas though. We are just working our way through leftovers and various things in the freezer.

woodburnerbabe

Try aviva for car insurance & go through topcashback, they usually offer £60-80 cashback for aviva. Could you add another driver to bring the premium down? I add dh but I used to have my dad as a named driver . I've found aviva really cheap.

Don't add AA/Rac cover unless its cheaper than having it seperately through topcashback.

Just checked the bank accounts and things are looking pretty dire :( There is really nothing left . There is enough to pay the bills...just but that it is. We loved getting paid early in December but now we have to pay for it. I think we maybe have enough in the freezer/cupboards to last us. Dh does have some room on a cc but really don't want to have to put anything on there. I am looking forward to rnd of Jan so I feel I can actually start budgeting properly for a normal month.
We have the aforementioned pantomime tomorrow night which is paid for - think parking will be about £7 and we can take Chrsitmas sweets with us for the kids so we don't get fleeced for expensive snacks.
I expect Saturday and Sunday to be NSD as we have food in and have no plans. Dc have lots of things to make from Christmas so I guess we will have a crafty weekend with a trip to the park with their new scooters if the weather is ok.
It's back to school/work for all of us next week so at least we will spend less.

NSD here. We went out for a walk with the DC. We would normally stop and spend £15+ on tea and cake in the garden centre cafe but we played hide and seek instead and had a snack when we got home.

I too have done spread sheets for the entire year and should be able to pay off £2500 worth of debt if I am careful.

Thanks Fluffy, being able to compare it to what we currently do really helps. I had suspected that we simply buy more than we need, and looking at your plan seems to confirm it. I end up with so much stuff in the freezer or cupboards too often!

I have committed us to finishing all of the frozen meat before buying more, there's not much left but at least a good 3 or 4 days. We also have to use up fresh stuff in the fridge. We have plenty of cupboard bits to add for flavour. Fortunately DH and I both like cheap cuts and mainly eat rice, we get a 10kg bag cheap from an Asian supermarket where we also pick up all of our spices. Costs us about £15 every 3-4 months. So really, we should be able to get costs down easily. DH makes great daal but we don't often make it (curry, otoh, very regularly!) so I think we should have more pulses, we have a stock of them also.

fluffy what's washing gloop please?

Just off to do an inventory of my cupboards/freezer! What an exciting life I lead!

NSD day here, went up the country park with the kids which was great and had hot chocolate at home instead of in the cafe. I'm out tonight, had budgeted £10 to take wine a nibbles, but I found a lone wine bottle refugee in the downstairs cupboard which will be pressed into service! Nibbles I will have to buy, but should save me £5 there :-)

My "left to spend" money for anything unbudgeted is standing at £8.73 today, and will go up tomorrow morning by £3.73 :-)

Will check out aviva, been with admiral for years so possibly some good savings to be made there...

You can only hope to reach the giidy heights of my life Abbylou. I spent an hour writing all my monybjits and bobs in my new Cath Kidston knock off notebook. In my best handwriting.

Let's see, £17.95 on travel to collect DS from the airport, although I saved money on a single bus fare by walking to the train station (about 2 miles) and £10.40 on lunch at Costa on the way home, as it was already after 2.30 by then. So £28.35 altogether. Then when I got home, I took a bag to the charity shop that offers 50p per kilo for old clothes and shoes and I got £2 for it. Then I spent £1.51 of that on bread and milk from Lidl. It saved me dipping into next week's food budget early, so it's true that every little helps!

How is your dog today, adora? Poor thing .

littlecottagecomforts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/some-handy-hints-little-bit-of-thrift.html Laundry gloop.

Hard to believe soap and washing soda is all you need but it's good on colours and delicates.

So have gone through my purse and handbag (clearly working really hard today ) and I have the following: £102 Monsoon vouchers, £26 Debenhams vouchers, £25 vouchers for a well-known north-west shopping centre, £10 Dorothy Perkins vouchers, £23 M & S vouchers and £25 in Love-To-Shop vouchers. So I reckon that DD's clothes will be free for the next few months as well........
Also for those who are frantically checking cupboards etc the link is here that I used for mine - thanks again to fluffy, I really like lists that I can put on the fridge!
organizedhome.com/printable/menu-meal-planner

I must go back to using gloop, I did for years but got out of that habit. Pretty sure I still have soda crystals, soap and tea tree oil somewhere...

Wow! Thanks for that.