Monthly budgeting thread

[Msbouffet]

Anyone up for a budgeting support thread?

I am trying not to spend money beyond food and essentials.

Taking it one day at a time. No plans to spend money today-goal is to avoid temptation to spend!

The bigger goal is paying off credit cards and (ironically) getting a favourable loan for a second hand car.

In the post today I got a nail polish I ordered which is non toxic. It is quite a nice salmon/orange colour for summer (better late than never, my old favourite L'Oreal one got used up). Also a lovely card from colleagues to say thinking of you due to a recent situation.

I saved loads of money during lockdown but now I'm going out again the impulse spending has come back!

An example is that DD asked to go to B and M for cheap face masks, I ended up spending £20 on Christmas and birthday goodies.

I've spent an absolute fortune on DDs birthday on Sunday. She didn't want anything in particular so asked for a birthday stocking and I've spent a lot more on bits than if I had bought one decent present.

I've also just ordered an expensive Lakeland half sphere cake tin and some candles and will need to spend at least £5 on the fancy cake with ganache I want to make. Amazon prime is dangerous.

I went for a meal with my friend at Harvester on Monday, we live an hour away so meet up there as it's half price. On Wednesday I took DD to Tesco for breakfast on their last day of half price food and that was £7 gone.

I needed to spend £150 on academic books which was painful so now need to organise selling the old ones and I should get around £60.

My goals are to use up all of the food in the freezer, it's so full I can barely open it.

I need to change my breakdown cover or convince the AA to drop my price which will save £14 a month.

I need to cancel my paid for email account and switch over to something like GMail.

Budgeting is my new obsession - got little else do in lockdown now it is too dark to run after the kids are in bed.

I have started my own blog called www.themumsguidetomoney.com - I would love some topic ideas to write about.

So far I have covered Maternity Pay, shopping for babies and toddlers, childcare and working. It is a safe space for money topics - we do not talk about gimmicks to make money, surveys, MLM or joining my team.

Next week I will be posting a Christmas budget feature.

What are your top tips for Christmas money saving? I would love to feature them in the post.

Remembered to take lunch and coffee to work today. No spend day then failed miserably as I'm hormonal, a soft touch and ended up buying one of my service users some lunch as they hadn't eaten in a few days. Also seemed to end up giving away an insane volume of my sanitary pads stash, so will need to replace that.

Feeling very ugh, and trying to avoid spending as I know it won't make me feel any better about the world. Considering bed to avoid totally busting out of my budget.

@MoneySmith

Budgeting is my new obsession - got little else do in lockdown now it is too dark to run after the kids are in bed.

I have started my own blog called www.themumsguidetomoney.com - I would love some topic ideas to write about.

So far I have covered Maternity Pay, shopping for babies and toddlers, childcare and working. It is a safe space for money topics - we do not talk about gimmicks to make money, surveys, MLM or joining my team.

Next week I will be posting a Christmas budget feature.

What are your top tips for Christmas money saving? I would love to feature them in the post.

The only tip I have got is not to buy presents

To be honest we stopped buying presents for adults years ago. I hate shopping and xmas shopping madness makes me sick

We have 4yo at home so we buy him one present from Santa and one from mum and dad. That is it. They are decent presents and we spend about 100£ on them. I hate tat and we only buy quality stuff which can be used and reused.
I also try to reduce use and buy less. Our son is obsessed with Lego and has loads of it but he plays with it all the time. Builds his own toys.

We try to explain to him that buying loads of toys is bad for a planet and that using and reusing stuff is good thing to do.

Christmas is not about presents. We do give, donate, bake etc. We give our time to others but we do not buy presents.

Filled up my Monzo pots which gives me just the most pathetic thrill

I spent a good part of yesterday choosing photos for my pots, got to look the part 🤣. Only been joined up a week but love it.

@MoneySmith we only do token presents for adults now - DH has a large extended family who buy a crap mountain between them every year for DS so feel obligated to give them something. We don't do takeaways, we tend to get an M&S meal deal a couple of times a month instead so save the bottle of wine from that and give those away. It makes more sense to us than wasting it.

Realise that sounds tight beyond belief, but we were easily spending £500 just on extended family before we started doing this

12 bits of clothing to list on eBay photos taken just need to upload them. There's probably more if I'm honest, but I'm going to keep proper track of what I'm wearing and review the in the new year.

Banned myself from buying clothing on eBay. Half the stuff I have to sell on was stuff I bought on there that didn't fit or look right somehow.

Need to catch up on reading the thread.

Finding it ridiculously hard not to spend money atm...keep browsing clothes...is it some kind of primeval harvesting urge? Also is it going to rain forever? We had a car picnic at the National Trust place so today has been No Spend. Stepping away from The Internet. I got a fringe trim yesterday. Might paint my nails.

Hi, may I join in?

I have been budgeting and tracking spending for some time but lost my way a bit earlier this year during lockdown and with online shopping too. Some unforeseen house, car and health expenses arose but I was getting back on track. However, September was a 'no save' month, just as I knew it would be, with annual health cover €1500 and the first half of uni fees for DS, €1500 for the first semester. With the balance of fees due in February I hope to save €300-400 towards that per month from cutbacks and savings due to working from home (for as long as that is feasible). My weakness is grocery shopping. I do a great budget on paper but it goes out the window as I can't resist a bargain or three when I get to the supermarket. Nothing frivolous mind, and it all gets used, but I do need more willpower to just buy the items I go in for. So far this month I have spent €214 on groceries and am going to see how long we can last on that. Ideally I'd Iike to reduce my weekly shop to fortnightly, or longer, intervals.

So my budget situation has changed quite a bit! I'll be starting a new job within the next few weeks, which ups our income and mean we can stash more in savings, I'm honestly really excited to be able to redo our budget and throw some more money at the £15000 target.

Slight downside of this is now my work wardrobe needs an overhaul, I can't really get away with jeans and trainers anymore. At least I'll only be in two days a week at the moment, so can get away with just getting 2 smart outfits for now (not that I really know where to begin!) allocating £100 to this as I need shoes as well. Thankfully seems to be lots of sales about. Will also look in my wardrobe for anything I could smarten up. I get paid again this week, so I'll take money from that to cover this and finish Christmas shopping.

Realised my Christmas shopping is nearly done, just need to get DS some pyjamas, a board game/bottle of wine for my parents, a jumper for DH and two vouchers for SSIL/SBIL. And something for DN. Need to order Christmas food this week as well.

Hows everyone else getting on?

Congratulations on the new job!

Good luck with the work wardrobe.

Food spend still good as I'm doing it online. Someone in supermarket commented they hadn't seen me for a long time! I have spent a bit on snacks and a takeaway but last week was stressful (had some major hospital test results) so moving forward. Being tight until next payday now.

New development here, I will be taking a pay cut next year. Not sure if different role or less hours. My choice for health reasons.

I haven't splurged although there has been some 'essential" Amazon spend- sheets, vitamins etc. Sold another item on Vinted. Bought amazing suede boots for 10 on Vinted, unbelievable bargain, look great almost new and bid on second pair of jeans which actually fit! Making do with current jumpers for now.

Loads of work deadlines on. Started exercising a bit more.

Too spendy! Bought a printer and ink for 105. Some vitamins as I start a new medication. A third Amazon Alexa in the sale (20 from 50). About to spend silly money on a medical check up but needs to be done. All this means my overdraft is ouch. Still can't cancel Fit Bit and now Cronometer!

On the good side I am getting my plans and priorities in order.

I am going to name change on MN as it has been a while. Will be redoing my finances on payday as I think now I have possibly a clearer idea of what now until March looks like. Looking forward to what the progress will look like.

I am a bit lax at updating the thread but keep on going and encouraging each other budgeteers!

In a bid to curb any impulse purchases, I’ve moved all money other than £30 to my savings account. All bills are paid and I don’t need more stuff in the run up to Christmas.

Bought a super cosy work dress reduced to £36 from £79, which will mean I have enough work outfits to see me through into the new year.

Feeling a bit down at the moment. The excitement of the new job and getting my career back on track has been offset by DH announcing we’re moving again in August. I’m really hoping it’ll be somewhere decent and I’ll be able to transfer, but just feeling generally ‘ugh’ about it. It’s both motivating me to save, yet also spend to make myself feel better. Hence why I hid my money from myself in another account!