Do you work from a budget?

[chris]

I have a lot of car cleaning products.. I used to own a nice car, and it was cleaned pretty much every week. I've not washed our new mini in a year, or the honda I bought before xmas yet though - times change!

My wife sets out a menu for the week, and to be hoenst we do pretty good on a limited spend for having fresh veg / fruit boxes delivered. The veg we used to get from tescos was horrible, and most often from the otherside of the world. We pay a bit more now, and have it locally (or just over the border) grown, which is nice.

The milk we get is from a farm in wiltshire, the difference in it is amazing - it's creamy in colour, doesn't last as long as the milk you buy in shops though (wonder why?!)

I've seen a dairy farmer on my way to work, so I may approach him and ask where he sells to - pretty sure it's the local Calon Wen stuff I was on about before.. if it is we'll switch over to him!

[hamster]

We work on a budget, which I love when it goes well, will have to revise it though because food prices have gone up so much. We shop at aldi for most things its great and have saved loads. But I realise that doesnt suit everyone.

Chris have you thot about baking your own biscuits, my OH has a very sweet tooth, and Im forever baking. The supermarket ones read the back before you eat, you might change your mind. If you could plan ahead maybe you could organise your snacks and fit in some homemade ones, hopefully it will be cheaper too. Last week found a recipe on the bbc web for those supermarket cookies, went down well with everyone. I also only buy choc when its on offer, so at mo morrisons have the 400g dairy milk for £2 which will go a long way. I make millionaires shortbread, use some cadbury and some cheap for the top layer swirl it tog with a cocktail stick for nice pattern nobody will notice!

[chris]

400g? That's not even one sitting

But yes, I do enjoy cooking/baking - just currently I don't really have the time to do it (doing work on house/garden) ! Once my mrs has popped this sprog out, I'll not feel so guilty about cracking the whip and getting her back baking

[hamster]

When the baby bits done, get some of your chicken eggs into some cakes! Think if I ate 400g of choc in one go Id be signing up for the crowns I dont want!! The dentist would be delighted!! (We've got a funny dentist)

[Hilary B]

We keep our housekeeping bill down by buying 'reduced for quick sale' items if they are genuinely economical and the sort of thing we like (or somethimes things we would like to try, but not at full price). Until recently our only local supermarket was Waitrose, and I really don't want to start using the T***o that opened a few months back! I plan meals by what we can get cheap, the market helps (veg growing is on too small a scale to make much difference, apart from the pleasure). Without actually having 'a budget' we tend to keep costs manageable, becvause I grew up in a 'can't afford that' household (mostly the smaller luxuries COULD have been afforded, but Mum and Dad had grown up when they couldn't, and it's actually a good habit, within reason).

[jonohanson]

At the moment I am on a very good salary, but I fear in the next 2-3 months redundancy will be on the cards, at the moment we use no budget, spend what we like and try to put 1 or 2k in savings each month.

If/When I am made redundant, we will go down to a budget it will be hard, but when we bought our house we made sure it was something we could afford if we had to take jobs at NMW.

[chris]

What does NMW stand for / mean?

Just fixed my gas and electricity (in the nick of time too!) and moved onto a fixed direct debit, so I'm getting there slowly

Almost finished the playroom now too, so once that's done we'll sort a budget out. If only to ease my transition into getting out of this industry!

[reetnproper]

What does NMW stand for / mean?

My guess would be National Minimum Wage

Reet
x

[chris]

Of course, d'oh!

Thanks

[jonohanson]

Yeh, NMW - National minimum Wage. I always use a full time salary on NMW as a maximum my bills and credit can = per month. That way if I ever have to take a lower paid job it means I would still be within my means.

[reetnproper]

Of course, d'oh!

Thanks

You're welcome

Reet
x

[TallGirl]

No, but we're quite careful about what we spend.

When we've worked out outgoings in the past we've made sure to brainstorm all the regular spending - and check it against real data from bills, bank statements etc - even if it varies over the year; then work out an average monthly amount. A spreadsheet helped.

One big shock was how much was going out in charges on overdraft/credit cards. Clearing that up was a first priority.