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!

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea It always seems to be swings and roundabouts, doesn't it?

I'm glad you got a boost to pay the insurance bills for now, at least. Hopefully by the Autumn you can have scraped together enough to pay back the government!

@Hatty65 thankfully this isn’t a new experience. Other than using part to pay for the insurance. It’s been dumped into savings.
Dh has really struggled with ours and his business claim due to a new online format. I would like to do next year’s personal taxes. I find it hard to believe it’s as difficult as he’s made it out to be.

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea Go for it! Will he be grateful if you offer?

I'd bite the hand off anyone offering to do financial tasks for me; I know I'm dyscalculia and terrible with figures. I can't ever type a phone number into the phone without transposing figures and getting it wrong.

If you are better with figures than DH it might help if you took over some of it. And at least you would know where you were if you are dealing with the finances. Hopefully the next week or so will mean things become clearer and you've a good idea of how it's all going!

@Hatty65 i'm not better with figures but tend to be better with online computer stuff, notice little links and highlighted icons or stuff at the bottom of a page.
at the height of dh frustration and refusal to submit it i offered to enter all our medical expenses, mid way though i'm thinking it does not need to be item by item vs one entry for him and one for me due to the particular wording, then i spotted a chat box...yes with telephone support!!
and indeed within 10 minutes a human returned the call, confirmed my interpretation of the wording AND chatted to dh as to some formatting issues.
he had been cursing and struggling since february and this was mid april never having spotted the icon.

Oh that's the kind of thing I end up doing! DH is hopeless with technology and I'm the one having to figure out how to speak to someone. 😁

I'm glad you got it sorted. I'm taking deep breaths at the moment, preparing to try and speak to someone about ill health retirement. I've downloaded the forms and they've made me feel ill just reading them 😂 I will phone and (hopefully) speak to a human being about what they actually want in the bits that are confusing me. It's something I need to try and sort out and fill in next week. I have a chronic condition and just have to take things slowly, so that's the next thing on the 'to do' list at the moment.

Hope things go well for you!

we're into may. is there hope?
so far i'm doing okay over here, cautious but thinking positively.
i've been able to replace a few things (not the le crueset pot yet though) a watch strap and bathing suit.
all the big bills (home/car insurance) managed and planning on making headway for the remainder of the year.
i feel like i'm holding my breath though, maybe cautiously optimistic?

Well, I've filled in my forms, spoken quite a lot with my union and have an OH meeting in the calendar. Haven't spoken with work yet - I suspect it's a race to see if they sack me before I retire, but I think they will prefer to avoid dismissal as it's likely to result in legal action if they do as they have done quite a lot wrong. I'd probably have a good case against them.

I've been out today and spent £114 on groceries which honestly felt way too much for what we actually bought. But at least the sun is (finally) shining here so that always cheers me up.

Like @CurlsnSunshinetime4tea I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. We have minimal savings, but we do have some at least which is something we haven't had for most our marriage.

@Hatty65 a couple of years ago my mom shared our (me and my brother) inheritance early and me and dh discussed what we would like to do with this.
i wanted a savings account.
in the 40+ years of marriage we never managed to save more than 5K, some "good" reason to dip into it always seemed to crop up.
dh wanted me to place it on the line of credit (which is our mortgage; lower interest at the time and very flexible) to which i said not in it's entirety.
we have always carried some debt and even if that account was at zero something would come up and i would resent that.
so i tucked away in a savings account a certain amount i had in mind.

in the 40+ years of marriage we never managed to save more than 5K, some "good" reason to dip into it always seemed to crop up.

Oh my goodness, this is familiar. 😀My DM has spent most of my life saying, 'You ought to have some savings for a rainy day,' and I've patiently explained that yes, every month we have put a couple of hundred pounds into the savings account, which is all we have to spare - and then every two or three months we suddenly need a new exhaust on the car, or the dog needed the vet, or something else crops up and we have to dip into the savings and start again.

Like you, we've never managed anything much. I'm glad you've got a bit of a cushion for emergencies now!

How is everyone doing this month?

We're struggling along - DS birthday next week, so we've had some outgoings.

Managed to be much better with food spending - so that's good. Less money on impulse take aways (didn't have many before but really rare now) and more using up what we already have. But on the flip side just had to pay for car to be repaired. Sometimes it feels relentless!!! But, I am plodding along and trying to remain positive about the fact we are doing the best we can- easier now the sun is shining!

@Captainladder Good to hear, I know what you mean about 'relentless'. I've found unless I'm absolutely brutal about it then it is still too easy whilst out food shopping, for eg, to say to DH 'Shall we get a coffee?' and often then, 'Shall we just have something to eat whilst we're here'.

I did suggest a takeaway the other night because I was exhausted, but DH said he'd cook and rummaged about in the freezer and found stuff to shove on a baking tray, so we saved ourselves that!

i'm trying to not be so controlling and relax.
it's been a full 12 months since i first noticed signs of trouble on the horizon with increased costs in all areas.
dh remains a spender we now have a puppy as he was certain our 13 yr old dog was not going to make it through the winter...so 3 dogs currently (the 14 yr old is going strong) food and frequent vet bills. Pure insanity.
we're surviving but are NOT making headway on the line of credit/loan against the house/kind of mortgage.
my brother has requested that i travel east to my mothers then next time she has a mini stroke/seizure event. so i have had to prepare for that with some clothing upgrades.
march was simply too stressful and intense so i'm taken may with a calmer attitude.
tax money owed to us has yet to show up, dh made a line error and had to send in a correction.
his contract work with the government has not paid him any of his travel expenses which are significant.
two clothing items i returned have yet to be refunded on my credit card.
but we're okay even without these payments owed to us.

@Hatty65 @Captainladder we’re midway through 2024. How are you faring?

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea Not too bad, thanks! A lot better than I thought we would be, but it still very precarious.

I have applied for ill health retirement, and am now into my 3 month notice period - employer/union/I came to a mutual agreement that we would terminate my contract due to ill health, and I'm just hoping that I'm actually granted it. It's basically a Government Pension scheme, so I'm relying on them to agree I'm unfit for work. No idea how long it will be until I hear. I've about 9 weeks of pay left, and then goodness knows! Even if granted early retirement I have absolutely no idea of how much my pension is likely to be per month, apart from obviously a lot less than we are used to managing on. I've worked for almost 40 years now, but quite a lot of that has been part time or not pensionable and I've had gaps in service for child rearing.

But we are cautiously optimistic that we can cling on for a couple of months or so, and DH will get a State Pension in another few months when he hits 66, so that will help.

Your situation sounds familiar - it's miserable to have to be the control freak and obsessed with money and yet frightening likely that as soon as you take your eye off the ball everything goes to hell in a handcart! I find that if I'm not very careful then, like you, we just seem to be running on the spot. Still, I'm very grateful for this thread which has helped massively this year to keep me focused.

i'm hoping to refocus @Hatty65 , and get back into paying extra on the line of credit.
the property taxes are due by july 2nd and i have a plan to pay those when our government pension arrives at the end of june, the part i paid in january is massively appreciated and allowing me some peace of mind.
once that relatively big bill is paid off, i need to turn my focus to paying down debt at a faster pace than the basic amount that i've been paying for the past 10 years.
i'll post again come july 1st, and recommit to posting progress or pitfalls.
biggest pitfall if the spring was dh getting another dog! he was certain one of the older ones wouldn't make it through the winter but he did and is doing fairly well for a 13 yr old dog. but extra pet food, several vet visits etc etc etc, it was a very selfish decision that again i need to factor into the budget.

fingers crossed the application comes through very soon. any mention of a timeline?

fingers crossed the application comes through very soon. any mention of a timeline?

Absolutely none 😀Not holding my breath, as it's the government! Vaguely hoping that maybe I'll have heard something by September, but have no real reason for thinking that woud be likely. Hope things go well for you, and look forward to catching up in a short while - we also have a dog, and so I appreciate the costs! I am adamant that this is the last one we have, but DH is stubborn about this sort of thing and is also talking about 'our next dog'...

Hello! Thanks for checking up on us @CurlsnSunshinetime4tea .... we are slowly plodding along, I've managed to increase the amount of my salary that we can put into savings - but that's about to be decimated by the fact hubby needs dental work done - a root canal, veneers and a mouth guard. Luckily some of it can be done on the NHS, but some of it will have to be private.... and that will be spendy. Just counting blessings we can actually cover it. Our cars are also on their very last legs I think, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
have been trying to stick to budget for groceries Nd haven't been doing too badly....
we have bought ourselves an instant pot after wanting one for aaaaages and I'm playing with that and hoping that might help on our gas usage - we cook a lot of pulses that can take a long time on the hob.
your nudge has given me a bit of a boost to start dialling back all the little extras that are creeping in.... (mostly it's snacks for the kids.... 🤪)

@Captainladder i cooked chick peas from dried, and used my pressure cooker like the recipe suggested. the result was perfect in 15 minutes! soak overnight first then cook.
Potaje de Garbanzos (Spanish Chickpea, Potato & Spinach Stew) - Hermann (bakinghermann.com)
lots more meat free meals happening here, partially budget driven but also waistline.
the dish is mild but comforting. dh had his with some baked chicken legs, next time i serve this (easily 6 portions from the recipe) i will serve it with a quality sausage though.

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea thank you so much for that recipe..... garbanzos are one of my all time favourite things to eat - used to have them all the time in our summer holidays in rural spain. (But they made them with meat and now that I'm veggie I don't eat that anymore and miss it!!!) I'll definitely give that a try!

no sure anyone wants a mid year check in??
as of today: the line of credit/mortgage is down to 41,750 from 52,000 in january.
dh cc is at zero, although mine is up and inaccurate as some items will be returned (no decent shoe stores where i live) estimate it will be about $800 (which is high but okay)
savings is short $200 as i chipped in to a purchase dh made and have not squirrelled money back into it.
almost a nsd; no purchases but monthly bank fees were subtracted.
which puts me in a decent position for vet fees (tick medicine for 3 dogs) tomorrow.

I would have to check where we are at at the beginning of the year but we officially broke even on enough savings in various forms to pay off the remaining mortgage last month.

From now on, it's saving so that we will have actual savings. We decided not to take DH's bonus so that could go into his work pension.

We've been very restrained in spending since the end of last year. Thanks to my pantry 'inheritance' we've spent <£250 this year on food (fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese and eggs with bits of meat for when DH was making food for watching football etc with friends).

We are about to have an unrestrained 2 day break. :)

Oh wow @2024Hackathon thats excellent progress! Congrats on being mortgage free :)

Congratulations @2024Hackathon what a great achievement! We are almost there. I have just enough in savings to pay off the mortgage which is around the £4,000 mark, and may do so in the next few months, but at the moment I'm clinging desperately to the safety net of having savings for once.

I have 2 more paychecks before I'm officially retired, and everything is still up in the air - I haven't heard whether I'm being granted early retirement on ill health grounds and really don't have a clue what we will live on in another 8 weeks or so, if I can't draw on my pension. Even if I can, I have as yet no idea how much I'm likely to receive every month (except it's probably pretty paltry). DH qualifies for his old age pension a couple of months after that, so if we can hang on til almost Christmas we might be ok on a day to day basis provided there are no emergencies.

@CurlsnSunshinetime4tea you sound like you are going steadily in the right direction with mortgage/cc which is really good news. We don't have any debts (apart from mortgage), but DH has just had a dental check up and needs £2,000 of work doing, which will halve the savings we have.

All in all I've found this a really useful thread. It has at least focused my mind on 'mindful' spending and meant that we are in a much better position than we could have been.

@Hatty65 yes it's slow, taking into account the possibility that the government asks me to return the 6K income tax refund we're still making headway on that line of credit/loan.
How long do you think it will take you to replace the 2K expense?