Planning Ahead

Afternoon Peeps!

I’m a bit behind today as we are having a lazy day indoors, to hide from the gale-force winds outside!

Mr.B and I were having a nice little chit-chat this morning, part of which was finances. We know we have some changes coming up (ends of contracts etc) and we were looking ahead. We’ve spotted a bump or two in the road.

We know there’s Christmas and the car MOT and several other things, but looking back as well as forward has brought to our attention another issue: The bumps in our road are the school holidays. (Don’t get me wrong, we love the holidays but financially-speaking they are bumps.)

We do low key activities and such to not blow the budget, but the average week of school holidays adds £20 to £30 (or more) to our spending on food and petrol.

Food I sort of get because we’re all home and often have a friend over, but petrol when there’s no school or work? Part of the reason is running kids places and visiting friends and family. (Also, exciting things like dental check-ups and doctors appointments!)

I don’t want to stop the fun things, but until now it has been taken from somewhere else or even from the savings. We can absorb it this week of half term, (joys of having a budget) but 2 & 1/2 weeks at Christmas and Easter and 6(!) in the summer will require some planning ahead.

So that’s our challenge for today. How do you plan financially for holidays and treats and special occasions? Have you noticed your food bill go up when the kids are home? Let me know in the comments below how you deal with it.

Have a safe and snuggly Saturday Peeps!

Anna x

P.S. Are you proud of me? I did a whole budgeting post that wasn’t about Christmas! 😉

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