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 :)

Ok it’s time for me to join again!
The summer is over, my oldest has just started school and I’m doing nothing but spending everyday.

August was an absolute write off - from holidays, a big wedding and an unexpected haircut!!!!!!!

I need to get back into the rhythm of free/low cost kids activities.

so far I’ve been spending everyday & I really need to reign it in.

This week, apart from the food shop, must be no spend!! Let’s see how it goes. Please wish me well 😂👏

Sold a few more things on vinted :)

Hope I’m okay to join! We moved house over the summer, and I’ve had to take two weeks of unpaid leave with DS1 who’s only just been offered a school place to start halfway through September, so half my salary at the end of the month is going to feel a bit tight! I’m dire need of a no/low spend period till the end of October and hoping this will keep us accountable 😁

Ive started a new tactic of taking cash out for the week and once thats gone - thats it
( i budget that cash )

I had a few days off due to going away for the weekend which was budgeted for.

Back in the saddle today with a low spend day, a coffee £3 and a flannel£1. Oh and spent £1 on sweets at the corner shop but happy with £5 total. I'm not aiming for nsd every day, a couple of nsds a week is my target.

Spent 40 quid today. Half of that was on a subscription I don't use but forgot to cancel. 🙈

Nsd completed ✅

aiming for another one tomorrow fingers crossed 🤞

NSD today, except for pulling the trigger on booking some Christmas events that we had already budgeted for and just hadn't got round to buying tickets.

although yesterday was a bit of a bust; spent £50 on lunch for 3 adults and 3 kids (we treated out friend and her children as she's going through the mill right now) and then impulsively ordered a toy hammock online as I got fed up of DH moaning about the excess of teddies and lack of storage for them. Especially because he's responsible for buying most of them.

The hammock looks great in DD's room. Tomorrow should be a proper NSD.

After downloading the Snoop app (free!) and adding all of mine/DH's accounts and cards, I realised we need to budget better.

This thread has been great inspiration.

Our main issue is food shopping, and last month we spent about £900 on food, including lunches at work, coffees and takeaways.
For a family of 4 and a dog, it seems crazy.
Hoping to reduce it to £600 this month.

I'll also be shopping around for cheaper internet/TV and doing less mindless shopping (Amazon prime, I'm looking at you).

I've taken advantage of the Tide banking offer and took out their business account. If you make a few deposits, they'll give you £200. I appreciate not everyone has a business account!

On a sad note, the dog chewed my car fob, which I'm guessing won't be a cheap fix. Ugh.

We have done well today. Managed a nice evening meal, beautiful brunch and to get the kids a little snack halfway through the day. Our CB comes in tomorrow so its one of those days before payday that often ends up with us completely brassic.

I am going to have to spend out on some new clothes this month end which isn't ideal but is completely necessary I have nothing but worn out stuff to wear and I'm potentially going away for a few weeks so need decent clothes to take with me.

Makes a frugal September all the more necessary

No NSDs here but still more sensible spending than normal. Yesterday:
£50 on a gift for an upcoming wedding
£95 on new boots, needed although I didn’t expect to buy them yesterday. I’ve done as @BaublesRocking has planned and only bought them once I sold the old pair on Vinted. Nothing wrong with them but I wanted half a size up and couldn’t return them. Sold them for £75 as they were brand new, so I only really spent £20 on the new ones.
£35 on dinner after mattress shopping; just picked something up to eat at home with some snacks, but did have a pint (two for DH), £20 😬 £5 over what I wanted to spend in total.
Today:
£15 on tickets to an event next weekend
£20 on a bottle of fizz for dinner at a friends. Worth the trip to the shop though b/c we had a great yellow sticker haul, got a bunch of stuff for 10p each!
With what I picked up I can probably put off a shop until Tuesday or Wednesday so tomorrow should be a NSD.

Except I’ve just realised we’ll need to actually order the mattress tomorrow so that will be a very expensive day.

Thanks for the Tide tip @Italia89 I have a business account so I will for sure check it out!

Spent 60 today but it was on something necessary and still in budget.

I made a budget a few months ago and couldn’t stick to it which has always happened with budgets as I need to buy something I wasn’t expecting, even if they’re little things which add up, and it means I need to dip into money for something else, even though the amounts I set for each category seem decent on paper, it doesn’t work in reality.
I have been altering the budget each month but I know it’s a guideline. I made a separate budget for buying furniture and appliances which is all gone now. I have been living without a table and dining chairs for a year and have had nowhere but my desk and the sofa to eat. I have spent just over £200 on a second hand table and chairs. It was a lot of money to leave my account and I have no more money to spend on things for the house. I now also need to save for a new cooker as it broke and I’ve only got an air fryer

Eating from the cupboards today and tomorrow

It's actually fab, as you don't even have to switch, it is as simple as opening a new account. Took me 10 mins :)

Looked at this and it seems tjd deadline for this offer was yesterday.
They do have a lesser £75 offer though so I may try that.

Oh dang, that is so frustrating. £75 not bad for a few clicks though!

Nsd number 2 in the bag ✅

£50 at Aldi today including two bottles of wine and enough diet coke to fuel DH’s habit for another month.
Didn’t buy the mattress, our discount code isn’t working so we have to call them up tomorrow.
I forgot to buy eggs so back to the shops tomorrow.

@dothehokeycokey I love an Aldi/ Lidl shop but at the moment my main shop is Tesco Click & Collect... stops me buying too many impulse purchases

@Italia89 Snoop sounds interesting, I'll check that out!

@BaublesRocking I bought some shoes from Vinted, went for half a size up after the last ones I bought at my exact size were too small. Shuffled round in them for a couple of days before admitting defeat, as they were too big... very annoying!!

@HowDidThisHappenDinesh I never seem to find decent yellow sticker bargains, I hear Morrisons do a lot but we don't live near enough to a Morrisons to make a trip worthwhile

Only one NSD this month so far. Need to up my game!!

Spent £35 at cinema Sunday (trying to do something ither than stay home all weekend while it rains!) and a similar amount for my niece's birthday.

Yesterday was £6 on coffees for me and work colleague (my turn) and £13 for cat food and a few other items. Aiming for a NSD today.

Sometimes it really feels like two steps forward, one step back with finances, but keep your goals in mind and don't give up.

still keeping an eye on the spending!

£33 spent on groceries today, which wasn’t bad at all.
off to a free session at a play centre tomorrow so should be no spend again! Fingers crossed.

keep going everyone, one day at a time!

@moimichme we missed the £4 cinema tickets the weekend before last, I was gutted!! Cinema tickets are usually the best part of £30 for 4 of us DTS1 had a birthday party to go to and we just couldn't get to the cinema around that.

£20 spent at Aldi tonight and £6 on two Two Good To Go bags. I mean there was nothing extravagant in the £20 but still...

NSD on Monday, had a lovely visit to our local nature reserve which is in walking distance. £45 yesterday on new pyjamas for both DC and bus fare to DS1’s new school as it was cheaper than parking for two hours. Went for a really nice walk after, I actually remembered snacks for a change, and then headed back home mid afternoon. Cauliflower Mac and cheese last night with some leftover bacon which feels apt given his chilly it seems to be getting.

Some slightly disappointing news, DS can’t start till they have funding for an additional LSA, so we’ll need to discuss what the plan is until he can bloody start school. In the spirit of probably losing another weeks pay, I’ll be aiming for no spend days for the rest of the week (excluding the food shop and two preordered books for DS’s birthday) and listing some bits on vinted and eBay. We’ve got around two months of salaries left in our emergency fund to top us up if needed, but I’d rather avoid touching it unless absolutely necessary.

@ZanyPombear I find budgeting exactly the same, it all seems perfectly sensible, but it’s so hard to stick to when to a degree things just cost what they cost even when you’re shopping around. I hope you’re enjoying the dining room table. On the note of air fryers, we have a ninja 11-1, and I can’t remember the last time we used the oven for anything! May be worth looking at if it’s a more cost effective option and would work for you?

@ElizaBalfour Did you get anything exciting in there? The last one I got was full of peanut butter about six months ago, we’re still plodding through it 😂