stick to a budget

We still go overdrawn each month as our outgoings are more than our ingoings, but we do have budgets & control it. The main problem is we can’t afford to run the car & it cost £500 last month to be taxed & insured.

Having online banking is a great help as I can see straightaway what’s going on & pay bills immediately.

I now have an egg money a/c that I use for housekeeping & pocket money. This helps alot as it separates the cash out from the rest of the bank a/c in Barclays.

It’s fun to play with it online too!

I went to the Sheffield bookcrossing meet today & went up to Lush. As I’m on a budget, I only bought 2 things – Big shampoo as it’s great on my hair & I’m running out of the aussie shampoo I’m currently using & a lime lip balm as again it’s that time of year & I need lip balm. Andy saw the lush bag & asked what I’d bought. He said he wouldn’t have minded if I’d trated myself to some of the new Christmas things, so maybe I will next month.

I’ve had extra things to buy this week including:

Sleepsuits for Holly

Vests for Holly

Bedding set for Kate

Birthday present & card

Harry Potter book for Andy (paid for with my pocket money)

so I took another £20 out of the cash machine today as we went to the Pontefract Liquorice fair with Kate, Holly plus 2 friends & bought jacket potatoes, fish & milk on the way home for dinner this evening. Outings on a hot day are expensive when you buy ice-creams & drinks for 5 people.

I’m feeling a bit down over not managing with the £90 as I do need to keep the spending down as when we borrow £10k for home improvements, I’ll have less than the £400 a month for us to live on I currently have. I was feeling very pleased at spending less than £100 every other week, so I guess I feel I could have done better.

I’ve stopped listing what I buy as £100 cash a week is fine so far.

We’ve amended it to £90 for groceries, necessary toiletries, clothes etc & £10 as my pocket money. So far this week, I’ve bought books & chocolate with it. Yay! :)

We have £400 a month left over once the mortgage & bills have been paid, which is where the £400 comes from. Things will be a lot tighter soon as we need to borrow money for the roof, new boiler, new kitchen etc, so I may not be able to have pocket money for much longer.

Andy was feeling a bit sorry for himself last night as he was talking to a colleague who earns the same as him, but has no children. Him & his wife have £2,300 per month after mortgage & bills, but I think that our children are worth it, don’t you? :)

£16 something Tescos (check receipt)

£1.10 books in charity shop for the Unconvention

50p ice-cream for Kate

£1.16 2 packs of nappy sacks

54p chocolate

50p ice cream for Kate

£12.00 new shoes for Kate as her feet have grown

£2.99 beach shoes for Kate

£1.00 2 bottles of mineral water as I was melting

£6.49 formula milk

£6.75 Groceries, mainly fruit & veg

60p present for a BXer

£7.99 Toiletries in Boots

£2.80 3 ice creams as we were all melting

£1.95 Buzz action figure prize for Kate’s potty training

40p bar of chocolate

£6.62 Tescos Groceries

£6.69 Boots Formula milk for Holly

£9.34 Home Bargains Massive haul of barbie things for prizes for potty training (well worth the money if I have less washing & cleaning to do, believe me!)

Asda Groceries (Andy, need amount)

60p Book from charity shop as reward for losing weight

OK, we started today properly & will only use cash, no debit cards.

I’ve got £100 in cash for the week, will see how I get on.

I’ll type up a list each evening of what I’ve spent it on, so I can produce a proper budget over the next few weeks.