Things don't always go to plan!

Well as the title says things don't always go to plan!

We recently had an issue crop up and of course we had to get it sorted as one normally does but which unfortunately in many a case for most people causes financial issues. So my grand plans of trying recipes for the holidays have gone straight out the window. This also has a knock on effect which makes one tighten the financial belt and we must therefore cut back on what we can. I would be lying if I said I was not worried because I am worried! Now I will say one thing I am a prepper and because of this we do have a well stocked pantry and a reasonable amount in our freezers that can see us through a month or two of lean financial times for us humans and I have cut down our food budget so now our new budget for the month is £240 or around $304 for my family of 4 (It used to be £320 or around $406) so this will be the budget for the next month or two or maybe longer if need be. I also do not have to worry about personal care products other than toilet paper, as I bought a lot of shampoo,conditioner and body soaps when I found them on offer. I also don't have to worry about clean clothes as I snagged a great bargain on laundry soap and have at least 6 months worth of it on hand. The only real issue is making sure all of our bills and debts are paid as well as having enough feed for our animals namely our flock of chickens and enough money to put into our holiday cards as a gift for my husbands family as it is something my husband likes to do!

Now like most people in this day and age we have debt and store cards/ payment plans etc and as in our case we were able to pay everything in a timely manner and still had a bit left over of takeaways (fast food) and so we thought we were in a good spot money wise. But once a financial issue hits hard that good spot quickly goes out the window!  It could not have happened at a worse time of year on top of it all. Now I did thankfully plan a bit ahead and I did get some holiday gifts for the kids, it's not as much as I was hoping  for but they do have gifts! Thankfully my oldest (7) is not overly hard to get things for and my youngest (3) really has no clue what is going on and is not bothered!  I am worried about my husband being able to give his family what we normally give them for christmas which is a bit of cash so that way we don't buy something that they don't like or won't use.

Now I will admit I have tried budgeting in the past and I will fully admit I am stupid and could not figure it out and no matter what I did or who I turned to for help to figure it out as it seemed to me like is was always geared towards someone running a business/company etc. Well I finally found someone who explained it so my stupid simple self could understand it and they to are a housewife just like me. So since than I have figured out roughly what my husband will bring home after taxes every month (thanks to listen to taxman and finding out what the government thinks he will make for this year), I have also given us a smaller food budget and looked ( and still looking to cut cost else where) as to help cover our chicken feed and maybe pay off a bit more off our debts. With that said I am hopeful I can cut my reduced food budget by half so instead of £240 around $304 I am hopeful I can get that down to £120 or $152 for the next month or two. I am also looking to cut costs even if that means I am forced to watch ads for streaming services ( side note I think it's rubbish they have now started to do ad's on streaming services I mean hello that is why people went with their service in the first place and now they want more money for ad free. Not like their service is cheap in the first place!).

I will say as of Dec 17th I did manage to get a renewal deal on our tv,home phone and net package and we have shaved off at least £23 ($29) for now off that bill, I also renewed my sim only cell phone plan so I have hopefully around £5.88 ($7.46) from now til the end of march I have to wait for a week or two before I can do the same for my husbands phone. Also as of Dec 17th I have now cancelled our amazon prime saving £8.99 a month (around $11.50). I have also cancelled our lionsgate+ subscription saving £1.99 (around $2.60) a month but only until Feb I think then it was to increase to £5.99 (around $7.60) this is because I don't watch it all that much now! I also cancelled our youtube premium saving £12.99 (almost $16.50!) a month! Those are the only things I could think of thus far to cancel or renew, This will save us around £52.85 ($67.06) a month starting next month so far if this changes I will put a edit down at the bottom of the page. Now I will admit there maybe a month that we do buy a monthly prime membership to order bulk herbs/spices or a large amount of toilet roll etc so I will need to keep that in mind and plan accordingly.

Now with the above said we have also been informed that a price increase to our gas and electricity will kick in next month and in seeing how we are on a flex tariff where our price could go up or down but if the prices do a large jump up then we are probably going to be in more trouble money wise and in debt to the gas & electric company. So we did make the decision to lock in a price which we will be going from £140 ($177.65) to £193.57 ($245.62) a month which I am hopeful will be more than enough to cover us. We also had to look at a new mortgage offer as a variable would cost us too much a month, say instead of paying £350 ($444.11) a month it would be £650+ ($824.78+) a month we would not be able to do a £300 ($380.67) difference. Thankfully we got a great 5 year fix that is only £108.11 ($137.18) more than what we are currently paying and we can manage that! I also know our council tax is going to go up this coming year from £118 to most likely around £124 so that has to be worked in..

I just realized I hate numbers and math! But it must be done and it falls to me as my husband bless him works long hours to make sure we have all we need and the things we would like.