Stop wasting money support thread. Lets get frugal!

[LoveMyGirls]

I don't want to cut all spending I just want to cut down our spending so we can pay off the overdraught by christmas but at the moment it's not going well which is why I've decided to start this thread, those that want to join me can, those who don't want to join then your support would also be welcome.

I think if i write on here what I spend everyday I can see where to stop wasting money, it's also public so I'm open to others telling me where I could be saving money too. Any tips on organising our money better would also be apreciated.

At the moment we have seperate accounts (well one is joint but dp has lost his pin for his card)

Joint account is £2000 overdrawn. (reasons for this are I lost part of my income in August/ september and dd2's birthday and my mum's birthday too)
dp's bank - dp has just been paid he has £1000 in his bank.
Savings has £70 (went in by SO today)

Typical monthly spending is £2,470 a month

Typical earnings from next week are £3,100 per month

We have 2 childen and 2 cars (he needs his to travel for work, I need mine for work too) I shop at aldi and meal plan.

Total spend for today..

petrol £20
toddler group £2
brownies £1.50 = £23.50

Yesterday £2.20 in paper/sweet shop

Today nothing so far, though we went swimming and DH paid.
But i'm not counting what he spends!
And he did the supermarket shop yesterday but not counting that either

OD is now down to £1,820 and I've got a cheque to pay in tomorrow so it will be £1,610 and I only spent £2 today, we've got food in and petrol.

I'm just asking myself if I really need/ want it before I buy it and it's helping loads.

I've also put some stuff on ebay and I've got more to go on so will come back and let you know how much I made from that! Anyone else want to sell on ebay and post results?

So week before last:

1.98 + 12.40 + 0.60 + 28.44 + 4.15 + 4 + 86.98 = 138.55

Last week:

44 + 49 + 8.70 + 0 (!) + Fri (1.20) + 2.20 + 0 (!) = 105.10

Mon so far (0), need to go to the post office to post EBay stuff. I have only recently started selling things so making some money but not much - and i spend it quicker than i earn it on things for the boys!!
And have to get some more vests for ds1.

LMG - you are doing very well

well have been doing the same as y'all since yesterday
?47 petrol
?50 gift
?5.89 milk and bread. (which is very good for me cos I normally chuck in a mag and a choc for me, dh and dd!) Yay!

Well done dora

Have lost track slightly, have to look at receipts!

Today:
1.20 playgroup
that's it!

Yesterday:
4.40 - fruit & veg shop
5.50 - cat food
= 9.90 not bad

Tues & Mon will have to check...

Humm we seem to have gone a bit off track, I lost the back off my earrings (only had 1 pair) so dp brought me some more plus some spare backs and my car wouldnt start so he brought something for that and some recharable batteries etc so all that came to over £100 then i went to asda and spent £34 on pants, socks a jumper and some stuff to make with the kids over half term. Plus dp's car needed tax and a new cat.

Need to get back on track before my efforts are wasted!

Dp had his credit card statement and the interest was about to be added so we've paid it with my overdraught but today my overdraught is £1,308 so when his credit card is paid I will be really badly overdrawn (Probably back to where I started maybe more) but at least we won't be paying so much interest and we can have 1 debt in 1 place and work on getting rid of all debt apart from the bank loan which is being paid monthly.

So the challenge is still to clear the overdraft by christmas but we've got a way to go! I'm hopeful we can do it if we don't go mad on presents and I don't lose any customers (please all pray for me!)

This is definitely the kick I needed I am now not spending anything not essential!

Who's still with me?

Ebay sold £34 but some of that is dd's and postage is on top so not sure how much is actually mine but still got rid of some clutter and have something for it

I've still got some meat in the freezer but will need to re-stock next weekend. Car is low on petrol but as I've got up to 8 dc's next week it means I can't really use the car very much anyway so I might leave it. I need food shopping and will probably have to spend a fair bit to feed all the children (will only have 4 for dinner monday, 5 tuesday & wednesday, 4 thursday and 4 friday) They will all have already had breakfast so just lunch & snack & drinks stuff mainly.

I've also just worked out the meat I brought of the Van in town was 2 weeks ago today and I've got enough left for another week if I do sweet and sour chicken tonight, Bacon and egg sandwiches for lunch tomorrow, Roast chicken dinner tomorrow, sausage and mash on monday, spag bol tuesday, I've got left over chilli to go with jacket pots and salad on wednesday, I'm doing pizza and salad and wedges on thursday and friday will be fishfingers, waffles and veg (I'll prob have fishfinger sandwich after WW)

So £28 for 3 weeks worth of meat and we've had loads of meals for that = £9.33 a week for meat every night to feed 2 adults and 4 children 5 days and 2 dd's and 2 adults at weekends I think that is pretty good isn't it?

wow

that meat sounds like a bargain

Just had stern words with dp and said if he overspends on crap we don't need it will take me over my overdraught limit and we'll be charged so he's agreed to no buying lunch at work/ cans of pop from vending machine and no beer.

Absolutly NO spending unless totally essential and we should get there!

I'm going to do a minimum spend when I go food shopping tomorrow at aldi I'm not going to put petrol in my car unless I really need it and if I do it will only be £10.

Not sure if I can class aquafit as essential? It's £2.80 but I'm trying to keep my weight down and it's a night out and I didn't go this week?

I have also noticed I've undercharged one of my mindees parents for next week should I ask for the extra or leave it as it's my mistake?

My mistake is worth £16

i think you should casually mention that you noticed you had made a mistake and its £16 more.
im sure they will happily pay you, especially if you mention it as soon as you see them, (rather than 3 months down the line, oh by the way on halloween week i forgot to add £16 on )

I'm going to leave it, it's complicated but basically I don't want to rock the boat over £16.

I've just been food shopping and spent £60 but that is for dp's food and drinks for work and for me to feed everyone this week so that's pretty good.

Petrol is down to 94.9 per litre at tesco's so I filled dp's car for £44 as well.

How's everyone else doing?

quite good really. got one of dd's presents for 99p just waiting for seller to get back with p & p to ireland now. present costs 21 euro here. Doing xmas shopping tomorrow so will spend quite a bit, but have lists to hand so not too worried! It's great to know I'm not the only one trying to be prudent
(Incidentally lmg I would say to the parent if I were you, I'd be mortified if I underpaid my CM, but I also know how you feel...)
here's to a solvent, funfilled worry-free Xmas

Fallen off the wagon of keeping track of spending, must give self a shake!
right, yesterday £0
Although I won something on Ebay, cost £6.20 but the buyer has refunded me £6.61 (to incl fees which i hadn't even thought about) as he noticed some damage to one item, but he's still sending them to me will have to figure out what to do about that.

So actually, yesterday +£0.41

Still trying to find a bicycle bell for ds1 for Christmas, then some helium balloons and satsumas nearer the time and the DCs are done

still my family to sort out though...

JKSIF - earnign 41p for nothing is pretty good!

My bank today says I'm £1,148 overdrawn so I'm pretty impressed with that, I know dp's credit card will come out soon but still for now it feels GOOD to be less than £2k overdrawn!

LMG - you are doing well

went to local fruit & veg shop, blueberries 3.40 a punnet
even with their 10% discount = 3.06

Tesco - 2.99 reduced to 1.99

I try to keep small businesses going but really that's quite a difference.

Hi everyone, well managed to get my od down to £1.068 but then dp's credit card payment went out so today I'm £2,222 overdrawn and the rent is due out along with lots of other bills in the next wee or so plus my sisters birthday. I guess if I look at this way dp's credit card is paid so that's one less debt and my od is only back to where we started at the start of this month and if i could do that well in a month I'm sure I can do it again mind you I've earnt a lot of money this week that I wouldn't normally so thats really helped us.

I'm going to the meat van again tomorrow any suggestions on what to buy? I'm also cooking for friends tomorrow evening I'm think enchilada's not sure what to do for pudding though? Maybe cheesecake?

SS- I think once you put your mind to it, it really really is possible to achieve anything so decide how much you want to pay off and by when and just watch it happen.

Can I join? Please? I have no overdraft or cc's, but only enough money to pay the rent (no bills) until Jan, so will have to use overdraft from Dec. Spent nothing today, but yesterday spent £62 on storage as we have just moved into a v small house and because it is going to be on show I went to Laura Ashley . I hate ugly things-think that will have to change

As in I have bills but no money to pay them IYSWIM!

Hello LMGs

I'll join in but you know what I'm like, won't get to post much but at least I'll have it in my threads list .

For a little while now we've been switching from brand names to shop own and what a difference that makes, about half the cost!! Especially nappies, Asda own brand are more than half the price of pampers! Oh, and Asda baby wipes......I recently got a box of TWELVE PACKS for £9!!!! I think 1 pack of Pampers is about £2.59!!!!

Anyway, will try and read through this thread and get more tips. What a great idea