I’ve just gone through 12 months of bank transactions and am mortified

[Crabonastick]

I can’t believe how awful I have been with money

DH and I still have separate bank accounts. All the household bills come out of mine and he transfers me half the cost of the bills and buys the food shop....

Here are a few of my revelations

1. We spent almost as much on nursery fees as we did on rent.
2. I spent £3,884 on supermarket food on TOP OF the food shop 😭
3. over £1600 on take away and coffees
4. over £2k on transactions I couldn’t even categorise

What a bloody awful eye opener

I've been bracing myself to do this all Christmas. I've downloaded the DD and standing order list from online banking and put them in a spreadsheet but am seriously thinking of not analysing what we've spent and just to set a budget from this point forward.

Nursery fees and rent you can't actually avoid.
The rest you just need to manage better.

Well done for doing it.

I exported mine to excel once and sorted high to low.. that was a shocker. Then alphabetically to group them.

I now have a spreadsheet with all regular outgoings, plus a monthly budget for food, fuel, clothes, school etc. It keeps a running total of what my bank balance should be, then I have to manually adjust for extra shit I buy. It really focuses me, I'm smug when I buy something in budget, and it makes me think twice buying other crap, because I have to tell the spreadsheet I've done it

www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning/.

If you're still in the black then it's a shame - wasted savings. If you're in the red you can see why. Commiserations.

@mumoftwodc I would recommend analysing everything. I’m honestly horrified and feel slightly sick as the amount of money I have wasted (baring in mind this is only my bank account- my DH also spends a lot on take away!)

I applied for a Monzo card yesterday and am planning on transferring £200 a month to the account for my frivolous spends and try to leave the bank card well alone. I planned to do this before I analysed all the transactions as have been having difficulty getting out of my overdraft; no wonder why!

Ugh what a waste

In a way you’re in a really lucky position because food shopping, coffees and takeaways are the absolute easiest things to cut down on!

Buy a good thermal cup and make coffee at home before you go ANYWHERE - I take mine to the park, cinema, long drives...if you make nice coffee at home it’s probably actually better than what you buy most places anyway. Always pack lunches when you go out, and meal plan every week. With that amount extra even if you halved it you’d still be living very well.

I'm not even looking at ours but know we waste money in food and takeaways.
So we have said no takeaways in 2020 and will waste less food we buy from our main shops.

@Crabonastick I just want to bury my head and it makes me stressed thinking about it and that's why I ignore it but it's got to the point where we need to do something. Is a Monzo card good? I've not heard of it so will have to take a look.

Can anyone recommend any decent meal planners for families that like proper comfort food (cottage pie/spaghetti etc)!

I did have a very very tough year as was going through a family court dispute with my ex... £26,500 in 2019 on legal fees! Thankfully that is over now

I downloaded monzo in the summer and use it exactly as the Op plans. (Transfer my spending money at the start of each month)

I bloody love it, it’s been instrumental in getting myself back on track after finishing my degree course. (Which destroyed my finances) I Had a fabulous in—control Christmas this year (set a budget, kept below it) I use the monzo spend pots too, v useful. Have set a Christmas 2020 saver up already, and am rounding all my transactions into it.

Annoyingly I’ve found im actually fairly frugal, so no fantastic huge savings to be made here. I do a Tesco dine in for £10 instead of eating out/ takeaway and always take a flask of coffee if I go out somewhere.

But I’ve spotted eg i spend a lot on painkillers at boots, (chronic low level pain, doctor thinks it’s not worth getting prescription meds) so I shopped around and found cheaper at Wilco. So I’ve made several low level adjustments to my spending, which seem to be making a difference.

I found meal planning for us meant simply writing down what we're having each night and writing out list from that, then not straying when we went shopping. I can't do the whole freezing and defrosting thing for some reason. But we saved £50 a week by simply being organised and not straying

@mumoftwodc take a look, it sounds good but I’m not sure yet!

@HunnyMummy1993 that is very reassuring. As soon as the card arrives I’m transferring my first allowance and setting up a pot to transfer all the round up balances!

@sirmione16 that’s what we need really and we need to stick to it!

Op minced beef is your friend for chilli, spaghetti Bol, Cottage pie and meatloaf. Also mushroom risotto with or without chicken, quick and yummy. Lots of healthy omelettes and big salads.
My husband has a coffee out at least 4 days a week plus buys those Tassimo things. I think we spend about a £80 a month on coffee, it’s disgusting really.

I'm in my late 40s, and I've just gone back to putting my spending money, for fuel, take aways, food, clothes, hair appointments etc etc into envelopes and drawing out the cash when I get paid to keep an eye on my finances.

@HunnyMummy1993 have you looked at buying your medication online? I found chemists4U the cheapest for what I use.

I would recommend YNAB. It's a budgeting app and has totally improved the way we deal with money. Have a Google.

YNAB is based around an envelope system just like this.

Frenchwomen, I found a Tassimo Americanism (Kenco XL) that I like as much as coffee from a shop. I get packs of 5 from Amazon Subscribe and Save for about £15 and get one every month or so (some months I have enough left to skip it - probably 8x5 packs a year - £120 or £10 a month). I take one to work every morning in my travel cup and anywhere else I think I’ll be tempted to buy one and it’s cut down on that spending so much without any sense of deprivation at all.

Oooh, thanks Random I’ll take a look

Feel for you on the legal dispute. Be a bit gentle on yourself.2019 wasn't the year for meal planning etc, you had enough on your plate!
Onwards and upwards

My Monzo card has arrived so I’ve just transferred £200 into it. Let’s see how this goes! A trip to the science museum today and I’m packing lunches in advance.

www.johnlewis.com/lavazza-milkup-milk-frother/p3311404

I purchased one of these in December 18 and used it alongside a tassimo to make coffee to go in travel mug

I do a January no spend, see how many days of the month can be no spend apart from travel & supermarket

The idea is after the excess spending in December it helps rest the balance for January and then have more sensible spending for the rest if the year by formulating better spending habits over 4 weeks

As for food

Monday’s is meat free and Dahl is Indian comfort food, serve with rice & toasted pita bread, my favourite Dahl by miles is slimming world carrot & coconut. Stock up for making it twice by purchasing an extra coconut milk.

Tuesday
Cottage pie, simple easy and serve with frozen vegetables & gravy either homemade onion gravy or instant mix

Wednesday
Toad in the hole, eggs milk & flour veggie sausage or meat and use onion gravy from previous night. Serve with green vegetables & mash

Thursday
Chickpea & sweet potato curry with rice. Many recipes online, it’s a very nutritious meal & not expensive. Any left over Dahl can be served alongside

Friday fish & chips, dead easy to pop in oven from freezer add mushy peas and a bottle of coke for a fake take away

Saturday

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/232222/mascarpone-pasta-with-chicken-bacon-and-spinach/ Some type of creamy pasta dish with chicken & bacon or ham, serve with garlic bread & a green salad

Buy two small pints of milk and put them in the freezer, put an extra butter in the fridge. This stops those quick pop to the shops for milk or butter and it costing £40

Yes, coffee in my own mug here too. As well as meal planning. I make an extra portion and serve it in to a Tupperware dish as I serve up. This means I have a healthy lunch for work, and stops DH eating the leftovers!

I often batch cook a big bolognese, and then turn in to chilli, cottage pie, lasagne etc as needed. You can pad it out with tinned beans and lentils too.

Packed lunches instead of buying meals out, and I take a packet of biscuits / treats rather than buy expensive cakes at the cafe (but will have a cuppa!). Even better if kids have made them as they think it's a treat!

Separate saving pots which I direct debit a set amount on pay day for car, holiday, rainy day, kids activities etc. Also have regular savers for us and kids which can't be touched through the year.

Shop online for food so don't get the impulse buys.

I usually make sure we have the ingredients for nice a curry or Chinese meal in the cupboard so if I fancy a takeaway I make my own instead. Frozen king prawns can be cooked from frozen so work if you forget to defrost something.