Financial review: January

I figured that if we’re going to be serious about this mortgage free in 5 years thing, I should be looking at where our money is going before we look at how much we can start moving over in overpayments. This is made slightly more time-consuming by the fact I have the joint account AND 2 current accounts (1 personal, 1 used for mostly business stuff).

Joint account expenditure

Non-negotiable outgoings
Mortgage: £412.97
Childcare: £309.88*
Council tax: £103.00
Energy: £99.00
Internet: £11.49

Total: £936.34

Extra planned expenses
House insurance: £134.83

Groceries
Riverford: £91.42
Tesco: £134.85
Spar: £5.89

Other
Frugi: £39.95
IKEA: £131.50
lovefilm: £4.07
Petrol: £75.92 (mostly Karl)
Pets: £44.05

Grand total: £1464.49 *faints*

* there was a mistake with this figure, our March bill will be much reduced apparently

I am really, really shocked by how much we spend on groceries especially as this is what I would consider a ‘good’ month; I always considered us fairly savvy shoppers. I’ve cancelled the lovefilm account (this was supposed to have stopped last year!) and obviously the IKEA shop doesn’t happen that often. I’ve taken the fruit bag off my Riverford order as Izz has stopped eating fruit again, and ditched the eggs in favour of my butchers who sell free rangers for about 50p less x6.

Current account #1 expenditure

Non-negotiable outgoings
none

Extra planned expenses
Birthdays: £22.79
Hosting: £420 (thank you, savings)

Groceries
Co-op: £7.25

Other
Cash: £30
Eating out: £88.08 (wtf?!!)
Petrol: £81.00 (must be something wrong here…)
Monsoon: £8.70
Mothercare: £32.00 (later refunded, didn’t fit)
Hobbycraft: £29.58

Grand total: £687.40

Not sure went wrong here… I never usually spend more than a fiver on food outside the home! Petrol too, must have let Karl use my debit card because I don’t see how my little car could have used £81 worth of fuel! Eeek.

Current account #2 expenditure

Non-negotiable outgoings
I transfer £400 p/m into the joint account but as this remains MY money (briefly) it’s not exactly an expense…
Credit card: £25

Extra planned expenses
Credit card: £75 (overpayment)

Groceries
none

Other
Business expenses: £70.76
Paypal: £76.77
Amazon: £11.98

Grand total: £259.51

–

What concerns me is a) the amount outgoing this month is more than the amount incoming, and b) I somehow had it in my head that apart from the IKEA spend (4×4 expedit) that we’d somehow had a good month for spends vs. income. I’ve been toying with the idea of leaving my debit cards at home when I go out, and I think that seeing the above in black and white, well there’s no two ways about it.

February WILL be a better month.

Posted on: February 7, 2013 · Category: Budgeting 14

February meal plans (1st-14th)

Sorry about the cheaty back-dating of this one ;) I’ve got several posts in the works re: my new goal to pay off the mortgage etc but am poorly so not getting time / energy to finish them :(

(The chicken for the pie on the 10th was taken from the roast chicken I did last week and froze.)

As you can probably tell, I’m loving the ‘A Girl Called Jack‘ blog at the minute, and hope the recipes are as good as they sound (and as cheap!)

Posted on: February 1, 2013 · Category: Budgeting 4

Sensitive children & why I hate the government’s childcare changes

I’ve been holding off commenting on the Government’s proposed changes to childcare because it means admitting that I still feel guilty over a fairly major part of her upbringing so far; that there isn’t a day goes by when I don’t question whether or not I did the right thing… whether or not I’m still doing the right thing.

When my maternity leave came to an end with Isabel, I put her into nursery so that I could return to work. Financially I assumed we had no choice as I’d already dismissed self-employment and there was no way we’d be able to survive solely on Karl’s income (not helped by the fact that we were living in more expensive rented accommodation with high utility bills). Despite the cost of childcare, which was a huge part of our income back then and the ultimate reason for me going self-employed now, it seemed like the only sensible decision we could make.

Isabel is what some people call a “highly sensitive” child. I hate the term but it’s spot on, really. She has issues with noises; people (not just strangers – her own family); seams in clothes; textures of certain foods. She is very aware of the feelings of others, breaking into tears at the slightest hint of sadness in a DVD or song. She notices change; picks up on smells before anyone else can tell they’re there; is easily scared… the list goes on.

As you can probably imagine, a sensitive child doesn’t do well with being dumped in nursery for 8 hours a day. And so when we chose a nursery, we picked one with the best staff ratios, with a good staff retention rate and one where I knew that Isabel would get the one on one attention she needed when she needed it.

So when the government says oh, we’ll just increase the ratio of toddlers – crazy, rambunctious, noisy, active toddlers – to staff (1 staff member for 6 toddlers) to reduce the cost of childcare, I sit and think of my daughter in her first weeks of nursery, surrounded by 5 other children also needing one on one care and I can’t get the image out of my head of her alone, crying. Crying because it doesn’t matter how talented, how amazingly well qualified a nursery worker or childminder is, they only have 1 pair of arms. 1 lap. Less time for her, less time for the other babies and toddlers.

Isabel now has the choice over whether or not she goes to nursery (pre-school now), and her enthusiasm means I still pack her off for 3 days a week. But if I was back there, making that decision all over again knowing full well that she’d be sharing the attentions of a staff member with 5 other kids? I’d have given up employment and found a way to live off any benefits I could have claimed. And I’m guessing that’s not what Cameron wants at all.

Posted on: January 31, 2013 · Category: Parenting

False Economies

One of the things I see other people fall into the trap of too often with this budgeting lark (no, not me, far too smart.. cough cough) is buying into false economies. In other words, investing in something that appears to be a bargain but doesn’t really benefit or save money in the long run.

One thing that springs to mind is this Approved Foods website (short-dated / clearance food), which I’ve actually seen popping up on my Facebook timeline quite a lot recently. With my new financial goals in mind I had a flick through, popped about £7 worth of stuff in my basket (RRP roughly £55) and went to checkout. However, they have a minimum spend of £15, which in itself is fair enough but meant I’d have had to waste £8 to go through with it. Seems counter-productive to me.

Perhaps it’s just the timing of my visit, too, but I found a lot of the stuff listed on the site to be junk food and non-essentials. Stuff like jarred sauces may seem a bargain listed at 80p or whatever, but I can make a better tasting, healthier sauce at home for much less and have it go further too.

I found the same thing applies to a ‘Baby Budgeting’ blog I flicked through recently. I don’t want to link because the author might think I’m singling her out/picking on her (I’m really not) but her posts were on things like Boden clothes, Seraphine maternity wear, frugal valentines gifts; surely all of this stuff is frivolous over-spending on brands and unnecessaries and the truly frugal thing would be to avoid them altogether?

I know, I sound like Scrooge already.

Posted on: January 30, 2013 · Category: Budgeting 8

January Meal Plan 27th-31st

Last meal plan post of January, huzzah (and only slightly late). Not as tight on the veg this week because I wanted to use up leftovers and bought a cheap chicken to get February meals in for as little as possible (more on that at a later date).

  • 27th: Chilli & rice
  • 28th: Wraps with leftover chilli, veggies
  • 29th: Roast veggie pasta
  • 30th: Roast chicken & mixed veggies
  • 31st: King prawn curry (they were on offer)

I’m stalking freegle/freecycle at the moment for a slow cooker. I do have one, but it’s only a tiny single person style jobby so no use for big casseroles etc that’ll feed me & the kids. If I can find one, there may be an increase in stews, soups etc in the future.

Posted on: January 29, 2013 · Category: Budgeting 4