A big thankyou for you!

Had to say thanks to you guys!

For the last three months, we have been budgeting on our shopping. We started in April with a monthly budget of £260, easily came in under, did May with a budget of £220, then started June with a budget of £200. We anticipated going with looking at £50 per week, then when I got paid found out my occupational sick pay ran out, and also had some baby things to buy which we took out of shopping budget (baby due on Tuesday!), meaning the last two weeks' shops of the month we have just under £40 for instead of the £50 we were already challenging ourselves with...

Anyway after some intense scrutiny of this board during the week, picking up loads of hints and tips along the way, we did our weekly shop yesterday and managed to come in well under at £35! This based on menu planning which we have been doing anyway and some bulk cooking and freezing. We even bought ourselves a cheap bottle of white wine to wet the baby's head with, something I really wanted to do (just the one glass though as don't want baby to feel the effects in her mummy milk!) - whether she decides to come this week though, we will have to wait and see - I am convinced she will be late but that's another story!

I have been worried anyway about how we will manage as I will be on reduced pay for the duration of my leave, other half is a full-time student and works part-time so things quite tight, but it has been a real revelation to discover that even accounting for easy cook meals (am assuming we won't want to be doing a lot of cooking with a new baby around!) by my very particular standards, we can manage a very exciting meal planner for £35 a week - if we have been working with £200, then £35 a week means we could reduce it down further to £140 potentially every month, thus freeing up money to throw at other debts - not bad for a starting goal of £260 per month I don't think!

So (that went on a bit didn't it?!?!) I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has read any posts I have posted, and offered any advice, it has really helped me feel very positive to do with our money and also managing on maternity leave - and makes me feel very happy knowing when I go back to work eventually things will be a lot easier with us in the practice of moneysaving!

:T for all of you!