Me and t'other half were having "that discussion" about money.....since we became debt free in 2003 I have used the American idea of a Freedom account - I have certain budgets for certain things and only spend what is in that account.....
However, since my dds wee brush with cancer (which was a suprisingly expensive time) we dont seem to have been able to get out of the bit. We dont have any debt, we are living within our means but I do feel we could do better.I definitly have not been on top of our money as I used to be.
Now that we are going to have our caravan on a seasonal pitch we will need to put away money every month to pay for that.
So we have decided to trial using cash instead of plastic. I have always been really good about noting down our spending (and only ever used debit or credit cards) and then balanced our outgoings every month. Cash has a habit of vanishing from my purse...
So my first attempt at this was to take out my £50 allowance for this month. This is to buy fripperies - little treats that I like to have.....
First test - car boot sale (big yearly one)
No petrol money (dd took me)
Took flask with tea, made sarnies, dd made home-made shortbread.
Bought:
Coalport china daffodil brooch - 50p
6 melamine plates for caravan - £1.50
Books (for youngest dd) - £5.75 (a lot of books!)
Clock for caravan - £1
Kite (for me!) - £2
Then bust out and spent £4.50 on chips!
So I will be taking my lunch to work - been very lax about that too and it was costing me around £10 per week! eek!
So when this money is gone.......its gone.....no more plastic....
Have my car-share money in another purse so at least I know I will have that!
Light up the town.
15 hours ago
We have a car account, trainpass account, christmas account, house account - maintenance, house account - saving for what we need, holiday account, all the money gets divided up and put away. I have a £75 (had to put it up from £60 due to rising costs) spending budget for two people, from this we buy food, hair cuts, toiletries, bits from charity shops and jumble sales and clothing - i buy as little food as possible and then the money actually goes in a jar to be put aside for shoes - from this weekly amount we manage to save about £10 a month which we adequately clothe and shoe ourselves with. we mainly buy from charity shops, i got trainers and walking boots but i had to save up for work shoes.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good way to budget, something that every parent should be teaching their children. Plastic is not money, when it's gone it's gone. Good luck with that.
ReplyDelete