No Spend 2024....

[meemawww]

Or at least the first couple of months to make a dent in my credit card debt!
I feel like I need a thread to encourage me and hopefully get some tips anybody like to join? I earn an alright wage but my god am i frivolous with money since my earnings went up!

@2024Hackathon Oh I'm so pleased you've managed to get DH to talk about financial stuff. I know it's been a battle! And well done on paying the car insurance, and for managing to cut back.

We're not doing too badly at the moment and have built up a small cushion of savings for a rainy day. It's probably the first time in our lives we have actually got some savings to fall back on, but they are fairly minimal. About 6 weeks outgoings probably.

At the end of the discussion, DH said, "That's 7 minutes. I talked about money and I didn't shake, didn't stop talking, and didn't leave the room."

All of which is true and substantial progress for him. I'm pleased and I hope we can build on this.

Keep going! Small steps will hopefully make things improve and DH may get more comfortable in time.

How is everybody doing? It's Easter weekend and we have family staying, so obviously the food budget is a little out of the window.

Apart from that we've been pretty good, although I'm aware there is 50% less in the pot this month and we've still got three weeks to go. All the direct debits go out on the first (or most, anyway) so I'm waiting to see in another couple of days how the bank account looks then.

Thank you.

We paid money into the ISAs.

We'll swallow the increase in the mortgage costs because it's more sensible over time to have it in the ISAs. And, I look back on where we were 4 years ago, to the debts I didn't know he/we had, and we've paid those back plus are building up enough to pay the offset mortgage when it comes due (we should have almost exactly enough this July).

After that, it's effectively living as if we don't have that money and looking to build up some savings and to cope with any household maintenance, appliance replacement etc. along the way.

We're nowhere near being able to have a holiday as we'll need to spend money on looking after more people. But, the key thing is that if I hadn't found out about the debts, DH would never have told me and we wouldn't be in the better position that we are today

sounds like you have done a great job of turning things around @2024Hackathon 🖐high five!
@Hatty65 so far so good over here although huge bills looming for both april and may. car insurance in april and home insurance in may.
we will see how i juggle those but right now all bills are paid and cc at zero.
some of the money i took from my savings account has been repaid, and the milk frothier that died has been reordered (not arrived yet).

Hello you lovely bunch of inspirational people! I just came across your thread and have spent the last 2 days reading it..... you are all amazing, and I'd like to join in! We are trying to live off one salary (my husbands as mine doesn't even cover our mortgage!) and save most of mine (minus the cost of tuition for the kids and some after school clubs they do - our only debt is our mortgage but our cars are on the way out and we don't have much in the way of savings. We are not massively spendy - but somehow always seem to end up spending everything we have and not saving anything (so we must be unwittingly spendy!! Mostly on food.... I love food and cooking and eating LOL)
I am having a look tonight at where we can cut back and what the best way to track everything is. I'd like to save somewhat aggressively until we have at least 1 months combined salary saving in the bank - and then I'd like to start also putting a bit aside so we can go on holiday next year after ds 1 does his GCSE's.

@Captainladder Welcome! I've found this thread really helpful, to keep randomly posting on and keep reminding myself that I am supposed to be ONLY buying things that are essential. April 1st today - so that's three months in to this year. I'm beginning to drift a little at the moment. I've just realised that I've spent £100 in the last week that REALLY wasn't essential - bits and pieces in Savers and Home Bargains and Tesco that I could have lived without, frankly. Like you, I spend too much on food. Not eating out, but buying things I fancy, when actually I could NOT add smoked salmon to my scrambled egg, for eg. Or buy another pack of hot cross buns because I'm greedy.

I need to rein myself in because I've just checked and I've got £300 for the next three weeks. That is for food and fuel basically. All other bills are paid. I'll let you all know how it goes! Hopefully no more unseen expenses this month. I have, however, managed to accumulate savings for the first time (probably ever) so we've got a bit of a safety net.

Haven't posted for a while. Pretty good at sticking to budget but lots of planned spends & the dishwasher broke so that's cost us nearly £300 unplanned. Otherwise it's all manageable

Off on travels in 3 weeks. Hopefully it won't be as wet as it has been here in Wales. Must get dog booked in for her Animal Health certificate

Hello, it's been a while.
We've been doing well saving a bit every month into a high interest savings account and overpaying our mortgage but I feel like we just have constant little spends. There's either a school trip, a PTA event, after school club payments or new clothes that need money spending on them.
We are having a trip away at the moment that we've budgeted for, after this we will try and save as much as possible over April till May half-term. We still have 3k to pay off a credit card so we should still be in the no spend trenches!

@Hatty65 We had a lovely Easter and it was financially restrained! One big egg each and a roast dinner at home with a couple of bottles of red wine was perfect. We ate leftovers for tea and had enough for a stew the next day even with visitors.
The kids did not notice at all that we didn't have a load of Easter themed tat that I usually get sucked into buying.

@scoopdewhoop That sounds lovely! We pretty much did the same (no small kids here) but had my adult DS and partner and adult DD and partner to stay for four days PLUS other adult DD came round for a couple of meals (she lives nearby) and teenage DS deigned to come home (with GF) as I was cooking a big roast! It all added up to a lot more on the food budget, but it was great to see them all.

I didn't buy anyone an Easter Egg 😁Once you are over 18 you've had your lot in my eyes for things like that!

Hi all, I haven't posted in a while but feel I need to get back on track after a very expensive holiday.

We were staying in a hotel so every day had to buy meals out for us all.

It was good to get away, but I do feel a bit like I've come back to all the problems in my life.

Also there is quite a lot I need, like new shoes for work etc that I would never spend money on, but I had no problem shelling out loads more than that for every meal.

Also not really on the same page as my DP with it all. We keep finances completely separate but as we live together with our kids it all gets messy all the time which means every micro decision has ramifications and levels of stress attached to it.

It would be so much easier if we pooled all our money and worked together on all decisions.

But as I earn more I don't really want to do that. I also have savings and he doesn't.

My update is that things are on track. We paid our money into the ISAs and will now have increased mortgage payments until we saved enough to bring them down again. Rinse and repeat for the next few years.

But, I remember when I found out about DH/our debts, and how desperate I felt. I have to acknowledge that we're in a very different place now and I'd rather be here than where we were then.

Thanks for the welcome - we've had a very spendy time since I posted 😱 it's been the Easter holidays and it's the first one I've had off with the kids since I left my last job!
need to plan a bit more and not say yes to everything...... food spending hasn't been too bad though, which is a good thing!

That's great to hear your positive update @2024Hackathon.

And @Captainladder that's good you've done well on food spending at least - as that is usually where most of my money goes.

I felt too tired yesterday to make my packed lunch, then ran out of time this morning to make it. So I will have an unnecessary spend today which is a shame.

I'm also considering new shoes for work.

I have a relatively senior/ high profile job in the company, so I feel I should do my part to look the part. But also could be semi-unnecessary.

£40 on summer clothes for the kids today from H and M. I usually shop around on Vinted for clothes before buying new but wanted slim fitting leggings for my eldest and a certain cut of dress for my youngest as she is very sensitive to clothes being comfortable.
I'm going to do a clothes a sort out this week for the kids and hopefully fond some summer clothes stashed somewhere!
I need sandals and may need some bigger dresses as I can't stop putting on weight at the moment.
I am coming to terms with the fact that we will not be able to afford a holiday abroad or in the UK this year but telling myself it will be worth it to pay off the CC and make a dent in the mortgage so we are in a better position to move somewhere bigger in the future.
I'm also grateful that we can afford all our bills, food and activities there are those that are worse off at the moment. All the little price increases feel like death by a thousand cuts sometimes.

i'm still treading water and breathing. not too many positives to report on the overall budget and big bills coming in (car and home insurance) but with 12 days to go i'm hopeful that April will have been okay and hope that May is better.

I am coming to terms with the fact that we will not be able to afford a holiday abroad or in the UK this year but telling myself it will be worth it to pay off the CC and make a dent in the mortgage so we are in a better position to move somewhere bigger in the future.
I'm also grateful that we can afford all our bills, food and activities there are those that are worse off at the moment. All the little price increases feel like death by a thousand cuts sometimes.

I always feel that you take yourself with you, wherever you are. It's difficult to stay in the moment if you're aware that you need the money for something else and realise how much it will save you in future costs (interest, mortgage).

There has to be a balance because life is for more than endurance! But I couldn't agree more with your description of the increases and how much it depletes your resources (in so many ways) to plan around them and accept unpleasant realities.

I'm pleased you're still treading and breathing.

Good thoughts for an easier May.

@2024Hackathon death by a thousand little price increases is exactly right!
You will no doubt find some joy over your holiday time, even if only in the garden.

Evening, all. I've not had a brilliant month - ended up having to put £250 back into current account from (small) savings, just to get by. That's been a combination of unexpected necessary bills, not really being quite on top of spending - a little bit casual round the supermarket for example, buying stuff that we fancied - and also, as @scoopdewhoop says, 'all the little price increases'.

I spent £181 in Morrisons this week on what felt like a fairly small amount of groceries. It was just a week where we'd run out of a lot of staples and everything needed topping up.

Glad to see everyone is sticking in there and that we are still just about keeping heads above water!

I'm repeatedly having to chase my expenses which I why I try not to pay for these things because the admin is endless.

I've just been thinking through how much more we'll have to say if there are going to be additional taxes on savings, ISAs etc. We' have to find at least 20% more than I'd calculated plus the interest hit of having that money removed. (We have an offset mortgage and we've been building savings and ISAs to cover the final payment.)

So, we're unlikely to be able to build up any savings for another couple of years after thinking we'd be clear to start doing that from July this year.

It's one thing after another. Just when I was hoping we'd hit some clear water.

How is everyone doing this week? I had a bit of an unexpected boost when I got paid a few days ago, and got about £600 more than I expected. I was expecting to be on half pay, so I suspect that it was part full pay, mostly half pay. Either that or my maths is so poor (which it is) that looking at what I normally get in net pay and going, 'Ok so halve that' is probably not how to work out how much half pay will actually translate to.

Either way, it's a slight sliver lining to what is pretty cloudy at the moment. Just bumbling along mostly, trying not to buy stuff if we don't absolutely need it.

I’m looking forward to the end of the month and will update.
we had help in that dh filed our income tax return and recieved a much larger than usual return. This just means come the fall, the government will ask for most of the money back. In the mean time it’s been used to pay the two large insurance bills.