Money Management Boot Camp ..... anyone interested?

[Twiglett]

OK the house of twig has been overspending drastically in recent months, so I'm about to start sorting it out again (took my eye off the ball you see)

I know we do style and healthy living makeovers on here

Anybody want to join my Money Boot Camp? Get control of your money and stay in control?

NB this may be well over my head though but I'm pretty good at this normally

sign-up if you wanna try .. we could start next month?

oooh maybe I need an ipod

CD stop making excuse, if you want it hat much buy it, but dont fritter away all your oney o non essentials and not knwo whre your money gos thats all!

b*llcks ths lapto it wont type proprly!

maybe you should buy a new one

thanks helpful!

im not doing well, well i am but on the budget thing we are £150 down with just the essentials, balls!

sorry
I am norty being flippant

nah i found it funny! cant wait till i start work and we can afford things again!

then again i wish dh hadnt run up £11,500 worth of debt, that would make things a lot easier!

lol CD

Bit of an eye opener this spending diary thing. I planned to spend 30p or whatever a packet of sweets is for DS which I promised him for after his pre-school booster. That then turned into a few other bits then I realised I hadn't paid for DD's piano book. I needed change for that so bought myself a magazine and a packet of lockets. Before I know it I have spent nearly £10 that I haven't thought I would. Combined with a bill for £108 for DS's top up nursery fees, it hasn't been a cheap day.

Have looked at Uswitch and am going to see if I can reduce the cost of our boiler insurance.

I just went through my food cupboards, fridge and freezer, and I have enough to last the entire month ( it's pay day tommorrow ) probably more like 6 weeks. There are enough "nice" meals for about 2 or 3 weeks, and the rest will have to be budget type meals - tuna pasta etc.

There are 3 packets of fishfingers in the freezer, and a monster bag of oven chips, to keep the children happy - and I have 13 opened boxes of cereal .

I have tonnes of ryvita and other crackers, cheese, jars of olives etc so snacks and lunches no problem, and plenty of biscuit making ingredients. There is tinned fruit, jelly etc which has been there for months, I buy stuff, put it in the cupboard, forget it's there and buy more stuff. I'm not doing another big shop until everything has gone.

I should only need to buy bread, milk, fruit and veg, and possibly eggs. Maybe some more cheese and bacon. I have washing powder and other cleaning stuff. I will probably have to buy loo roll, baby wipes and maybe nappies towards the end of the month.

I usually spend about £150 a week on food ( yes I know ) and reckon I could save about £500 this month.

Celery you could be me .. I have a blitz mentality and have to have a stocked store cupboard .. also believe in buying in bulk to save money, but I'm not sure that's that valid

not sure whether I'd shake at the thought of emptying the shelves and freezer .. but I shall give it a go

You do all realise this thread is making us turn into our mothers/grandmothers? Shall we start saving stamps at supermarkets as well? And re-using envelopes and saving bits of string? And getting kettles and irons mended rather than just buying new ones?

it's not even Boot Camp yet .. that doesn't start till October

is it bad to re-use envelopes

Oh I'm starting on 25 Sept which is when DH gets paid. I count that as the start of my financial October.

Other thing is that the problem these days is that it would cost more to get your iron/kettle fixed than to replace.

I know what you mean about getting things fixed and how much it costs...still doesn't stop my dad hoarding things to be fixed "at a later date". He is the clutter king (much like Twiglett and Celery are the storecupboard queens)

Sleepless - no, very good to reuse envelopes. Economical and environmentally friendly too!

Evironmentally friendly to get things fixed too, just not always economical.

I have the free Paul McKenna Emotional Spending CD from the Sunday paps the other week.
Was initially doubtful, but although have only listened to first bit, seems quite good............anyone listened to all of it?

Well have just been to Aldi for food shopping and spent £38 then spent £7 on baby milk from chemists. If I have done it right then I should be able to only top up bread and milk the rest of the week until next thurs.

Yep, I'm in.

Just received credit card bill . August is always an expensive month (four out of five birthdays and school holidays) but it's enough to make me realise we need to think about what we're spending a bit more.

Will have a look at the spreadsheet over the weekend (and splurge for our wedding anniversary before we start, lol).

I'm in. And skint!

I got my redemption statement and have had a quick look round this morning.. If I take out a new mortgage over 25yrs I could save £100 a month on my mortgage. I don't intend to pay off the mortgage on this house as I'm not 30 yet and it's only a 2 bed.. so I'm figuring taking my mortgage over 25 again (rather than 20) wouldn't be a big issue. Some looked like I could save £150 a month. I'm getting fairly excited about all this now.

Ok
I was a good girl last night and we sat down and did a meal plan for just over a week.
We will start it next thursday as thats when dh gets paid and we can go shopping.
I was very good and took into account dh's shifts and when we're out etc.
Very pleased I did it.

Hey Mascara thats fab!

Well done NBG! do your shopping online and always cheack the 2-for-1 page and special offers before you start. Much easier to see all thge offers online than in the shop

mascara and nbg ... well done

once again I've had to nip to the shops... but have people coming for lunch

I've worked out that if I stopped entertaining (and its always on a casual basis) and feeding every kid in the neighbourhood I'd a) be rich and b) be miserable