Oops I did it again, I played with my cards!

Bobarella · 3 July 2017 at 9:05AM

I really hope the speeding fine is the lower end of the scale.

emmie26 · 3 July 2017 at 8:17PM

Well NSD today which was sooo hard, I was in such a spendy mood today, I really wanted a trip to home base for some garden things, but I resisted and have instead just sat and enjoyed my garden as it was and did a bit of weeding.
I've had a think about my shopping budget because I just think it is too low and I realised we are spending about £100 or a third of our shopping budget on meat from the butchers every month. I have decided we have enough in without going to the butchers this week and from now on I think we need to limit our meat to £50 a month to stand any chance of sticking to the £300 a month. We always cook from scratch and my DH has said he doesn't want cheap meat and so we will have to have some meat free days instead which he's happier with. Now I just need some meat free recipes that the kids will eat.

emmie26 · 4 July 2017 at 5:16PM

Still thinking about the shopping budget today. Today the children have been to MILs for dinner as she collected the youngest from school, DH is at work so it means that there is only me to feed, so I'm going to have poached egg on toast later on, after we've been for a run/kite flying (if it's windy enough).
Tomorrow the children have a school dinner at lunch time so I'm going to do cheesy beans on toast for dinner and have the same myself.
I've looked up some veggie recipes I think the children will eat and I think making a vegetable and lentil soup with some crusty bread once a week would go down well and falafel which I have made before would probably be OK as well as things like homemade pizza. I am terrible for throwing away the carcass of the chicken and not stripping it where I think I could probably get enough to add to a paella or a chicken and vegetable curry.

I do feel like it will be easier now that DH is more onboard. Since I've started debt busting he has been filling the gap with things that I would normally pay for, for example the shopping budget or eating/drinking out, but there is only so long he can do this when he only has about £400 a month to pay for his petrol, mobile, subscriptions and everything else. So now I think he is more accepting when I'm saying no to things.

I'm going to go and look for some mystery dining meals out for this weekend which will add a bit of fun with minimal expense :T

In worse news my MIL who i usually rely on for childcare has just found out that she needs to do jury service for 2 weeks in the school holidays which means I may have to find some cheap childcare

emmie26 · 6 July 2017 at 6:10PM

Well if it doesn't rain it pours!! I was driving to work today and heard a Big Bang and one of my front springs has gone on the car

I do a lot of miles in my car for work so I've had to get it to the garage sharpish, it is going to cost me £320 :eek: still no sign of the speeding fine but I really don't know how I'm going to afford it all without using the dreaded credit card

absolutely gutted that every time I try and save money, life comes along and has other ideas!

mummytogirls · 6 July 2017 at 7:05PM

Oh no Emmie, how much bad luck in one week. Boo to the car and double boo to MIL doing jury service. Hope you can manage to sort something xx

clearmydebts · 6 July 2017 at 7:11PM

emmie26 wrote: »

Well if it doesn't rain it pours!! I was driving to work today and heard a Big Bang and one of my front springs has gone on the car I do a lot of miles in my car for work so I've had to get it to the garage sharpish, it is going to cost me £320 :eek: still no sign of the speeding fine but I really don't know how I'm going to afford it all without using the dreaded credit card absolutely gutted that every time I try and save money, life comes along and has other ideas!

It's so hard. Sometimes it feels like 2 steps forward and 10 steps backwards. Imagine what the debt would be if you hadn't taken steps to get rid of it though.

emmie26 · 6 July 2017 at 9:36PM

mummytogirls wrote: »

Oh no Emmie, how much bad luck in one week. Boo to the car and double boo to MIL doing jury service. Hope you can manage to sort something xx

Thanks, fingers crossed we can sort something that isn't going to cost a penny.

clearmydebts wrote: »

It's so hard. Sometimes it feels like 2 steps forward and 10 steps backwards. Imagine what the debt would be if you hadn't taken steps to get rid of it though.

I do try to keep thinking this, I was just so focused on getting the debt down I really don't want to see it staying the same or worse still getting higher

but like you say after last month doing so well at least we won't be back where we started with this shocking month.

mummytogirls · 7 July 2017 at 4:22PM

Hope today has been better Emmie x

Hiddenidenity · 7 July 2017 at 4:35PM

mummytogirls wrote: »

Hope today has been better Emmie x

From me too x

emmie26 · 7 July 2017 at 4:38PM

Thanks MTG, today is definitely better but mostly because it is FRIDAY!! :T

I've collected my car and paid £320, I've put it on the credit card and then I'm going to sort it out at the end of the month when I know how much the speeding fine is going to be. I do have my emergency savings at least, I keep forgetting about that, I suppose that's a good thing really at least I'm not tempted to dip in to them, I suppose this is what it's for, unexpected essential spending. I just wish we needed an unexpected emergency weekend away instead :rotfl:

Other than the car expense I've had a spend free day. Someone at work has given me some lettuce that needs potting on so I might go and grab a gro-bag at the weekend but hope that will be money saving in the long run even if it's only for the Guinea pigs, we buy a couple of bags of spinach or kale a week, it might be worth having some lettuce continually growing that would reduce the grocery budget by a whole £2 a week haha!

I've finished work early today so I could pick my DD up but I've still got loads of work to do so I'm going to fire up the laptop and do 90mins, whatever isn't done then is going to have to wait until Monday. If I can get a bit of dreaded housework done with the DC's help, we could be all set for when DH gets in from work at about 8.30 and then we can have a nice family weekend

Oops I did it again, I played with my cards!

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