Sensible September

[HowDidThisHappenDinesh]

Back to school and back to budgeting… a thread for us to keep each other accountable in sensible spending.
New posters welcome :)

Hey
Im definitely up for sensible sept..
Other than an expensive prebooked sun roast lunch we have on the 8th

Should be a NSD here. We did the budget on Thursday and it’s looking rough, I’ve had my hours cut at work so while I look for additional work elsewhere (or convince them to increase them again) it’s going to be a tight couple of months.
Still, we paid off the credit card almost in full save for some personal spends that will be paid later in the month. I did a food shop yesterday to hopefully see us through the week. £40. I’m aiming for about £100 a week or less.
On the positive a regular monthly bill is coming to an end next month and I’m planning to shift the extra money into savings. We don’t save enough for my liking at present.

I'm in.
Due to the way partners pay falls we managed to save a lot last month which is great.
Hoping for a NSD today. Just about to take toddler DD for a walk at a nature reserve we have annual passes for then probably water play this afternoon.

Work wise - utilise LinkedIn and cv library and indeed.

Do any of you do surveys on attapoll or sell stuff on vinted/ Ebay?

I sell DD old clothes (the ones in good condition) on Vinted.

I'm in. Our budget was decimated over the summer 🥲

I need to stock up on a few bits for a hospital procedure in a couple of weeks, and get a last minute gift for a party DD is going to next week. But need to get on top of finances again!

I’m in.
We are having work done on the house and there will some hefty bills to pay at the end of it, so I really need to stop spending.
The plan is to do dry September ( or whatever it’s called). We do spend quite a lot on wine 😬
No meals out. Cook from scratch and stop buying expensive meal deals.
No clothes or gadget purchases. I will be buying a couple of tins of paint as I want to upcycle some existing furniture.
Spend lunchtimes going for a walk instead of going to the shops.
Spend the weekends doing diy and de-cluttering. Sell some more stuff on vinted.

I'm in. Like many, summer holidays (plus some Illness this summer) have made for two ridiculous overspending, so children back in school this week, and budget back to being respected 👍 should be a NSD today as time with family today.

I had a NSD last fri

I'm in too. Overspent over summer hols so have small credit card balance that I don't usually have going into the new month and I e low wages in sept due to working less hours over august 😩 need to watch the grocery spends and no extra spending. Feeling commited but it's only day one. In theory it's easy, in practice it's harder.

My resolution is more about parenting than saving money, but we have a routine of going into town on Saturdays and wandering around the shops, particularly the charity shops, and end up buying cheap toys for DD which she doesn't really need. We've noticed that she's getting more materialistic and expects us to just buy everything she wants and throws a strop when we say no, and also does a lot of whining that her legs are tired and she wants to be carried.

So in September, we're going to stop going shopping on weekends and start going to nearby parks, woodlands and farms, steer clear of any gift shops and make her walk. We will also save a bit of money (although tbh most of what we end up buying is £2 teddies etc.) but that's not really the goal.

Do any of u use quidco or top cashback?

Also if any of you have your mobile on o2 - air time rewards is good

In 2023 i did 4 bank switches
Via u switch

Made over 700 gbp tax free

First direct

Natwest
Lloyds
(Maybe nationwide )

Different banks have different switch deals

Think theres a TSB one atm but im not eligable for that 1

Thanks for the new thread @HowDidThisHappenDinesh, sorry to hear about the hours drop, fingers crossed something comes up for you soon.

I'm back in for September, I have ambitious savings goals to reach by the end of the year, I'm going to have to work hard this month and keep on track with NSDs. My expenses go up in January so now is the best time to save as much as possible.

Today is a NSD, I've transferred some money into savings. I need to look at cancelling my phone contract as the contract is coming to an end soon. I've sorted two birthdays for the kidsbeginning of October already so hoping to nail the NSDs.

I'm up for this. We have budgeted £150 pw for everything, including the odd school club etc. We have a big get-together planned on the 27th so would love to save some money for that if we can spend less, it would be better.

Fortunately we have all school uniform sorted for the next year and school shoes a half size bigger to move into when they need to. I would like to be as frugal as possible before Christmas to make it the best it can be.

We have three big-eater kids and two adults along with one dog and four cats in the house.

Just a basic question: does it count as a NSD if it's the day a DD/SO leaves your account? That sounds stupid as I write it,but as all of them our essential (though the paying oyf the CC obviously covers some 'bad' spending) I just wondered how others conceive it.

Yes. I sell on ebay. I look for beauty deals which I can split up and sell separately. Advent calendar season is incoming so hope to make a few bob there, or at thr very least secure my own supply of products for very little.

I wouldn't count this, no

I do count it as they are accounted for in my budget. So I'm logging days I don't spend any of my 'extras' money.
However I don't count days that my DP has spent money as it all comes from the joint account. I know other people do count that.
Whatever works for you.

Having spent over £100 at Lidl today and not seeming to have that much to show for it, I'm definitely in!! No alcohol in that either - some meat but it was reduced and will make a few meals. I remember when I first started shopping at Lidl/ Aldi, £100 would have got me bags and bags worth of stuff - today it all fitted in 4 bags

@Autumnchilltime summer holidays are just so ruddy expensive! Apart from having an actual holiday, it's the cost of holiday clubs which is a bit of a killer... but we don't have any family nearby who can/ will have the DTs regularly, so not much option. My friend has her DS (same age, almost 9) at home with her whilst she WFH but all he does is play on Minecraft and watch YouTube all day, which I don't think is particularly good for him and would send my two loopy, an hour or so and I need to get them off screens! DTS1 in particular is incredibly moody and bad tempered if you let him have too much screen time...

@HowDidThisHappenDinesh sorry to hear about your working hours, what a pain. I could actually do with increasing mine as we're really busy and I only work till 3, but if I did then any extra pay would be more than eaten up by childcare costs

@ElizaBalfour You probably already know, but I know many don't, that summer holiday clubs for kids can be claimed as childcare expenses through UC if you claim it, so you can get 85% of the cost back.

Thanks for the commiserations @psuedocream3 @ElizaBalfour , I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this but I’m in the third sector and charity budgets don’t go very far. Hoping extra funding will come through asap, or that I find some freelance consultancy, but we’ll be ok until then as long as I stick to the budget.

@Autumnchilltime I don’t count bills or subscriptions as I’ve already budgeted for those. But it’s up to you, whatever keeps you motivated I would say!

Speaking of, yesterday I’m counting as a NSD as the only thing that left the account was my (budgeted) veg box subscription. I base my meal plan around whatever is in the box, keeps things interesting! Today would be the same except annoyingly I forgot one ingredient for dinner tonight so I have to pick that up. I packed lunch and coffee so I’m off to a good start for the month.

Thank you for the new thread.
I'm finding this has been an expensive year, big birthdays and we had our first holiday abroad (due to big birthdays) for years. I have a weekend away with a couple of friends at the end of the month, accommodation is paid for already.
This week, I need to get some food shopping and have a haircut booked.
I have some more cat sitting and another possible one so a few quid in.
Buildings insurance and car insurance both due next month. Great.