Roxies £3K diary - help!

vasseur

RoxieW wrote: »

Got lots of money books out from the library. One particularly laugable one is the thrift book by India knight. A middle class lady who lives in a wealthy London suburb who recommends buying investment pieces such as cashmere jumpers that will last instead of cheap high street clothes. Haha. It is quite ironic really given that she must have got paid a fortune for telling me to make my own jam lol. They didn't have any Martin Lewis books unfortunately

I read the blurb on this one and thought it was absolutely ridiculous. I'm sure we could all teach her something. Cashmere pieces instead of high street ???? I can't even afford high st at the moment :rotfl:

I have the Martin Lewis Money Diet. Obviously that is very good. I also have Alvin Hall - Your Money or Your Life. Very good. He used to be on the TV, speaks a lot of sense.

Don't worry about waffling on. I do in my diary too but it does help me stay focussed, besides through reading everyone elses diary it makes you feel that you're not alone in this and can also get some othermoney saving ideas. Have you read Memory Girl's diary ? She often puts her scrummy recipes in.

museumworker

*delurks*

I have a copy of the thrift book, I think it is quite light hearted - I gave one to my sister who loves it! But agree it is probably not of enormous use to :money: types! The links are quite good - I discovered supermarketownbrand through that, and also the tip about dry cleaning clothes in your tumble dryer using the kits you can get was quite good...

*relurks*

RoxieW

Hi museum worker! I did find it amusing so read it all lol. And to be fair I was also interested in some of the links and I also liked to section on xmas and parties. It was a free fill of a couple of hours anyway!

Have got a headache tonight so on the soft drinks which has to be good for the bank balance. Feels wrong on a weekend night though!

Cant believe that after we cancelled camping the weather has stayed fair :mad: still have had quite a nice day. Got the boys new school shoes - Clarks ones but from the retail outlet so at a third off. They didn't have to come out of the weekly budget though. Then went to try lidl for a shop. Only had to do a top up shop after last week. Tbh it wasn't very successful. I didn't really find it that much cheaper than telcos apart from for fruit and veg and there really was very little choice. Am not surprised people spend less there - theres hardly anything to buy! And I had to buy less healthy options - there was now brown pasta or rice for example. And I didn't find it as cheap as farm foods for drinks, yogurts etc. I don't think I'll bother again. If I have to do a small shop I'll go to farm foods and the market.

When we got back I made some scones with the boys while lo had his nap. Our first scones and they were a great success! Delicious and we made 20 scones for about a fiver (including jam and cream!) The only trouble is that use had 3 today already! We.re going to be a family of fatties at this rate. Making the crumble tomorrow as well with the blackberries we picked yesterday. Also planning on trying out geocaching with the boys tomorrow. It sounds like something the boys will enjoy, but had to pay 10 dollars to download the software for my phone. Am hoping it will make walks more exciting for the boys and provide some interesting free entertainment am also going to make a yummy Sunday dinner with my ridiculously expensive lamb joint. Am hoping there!ll be some meat left over so any good ideas ladies? Maybe a cheap
curry recipe that doesn't require millions of expensive spices?

RoxieW

Morning all - sunday roast, geocaching and getting some work done hopefully today! Although it is currently throwing it down Grrrr. So we may go see Toy Story today and go geocaching tomorrow. (Geocaching btw for anyone who doesnt know is a treasure hunt - google it)

Well now that OH has been paid we're out of our overdraft and there's no reason I can see for us going back in! Have done our incomings and outgoings for next month and there should be enough left over to cover our spends for our holiday end of Sept.

Still going to continue with the £10 a day challenge and the £200 a week budget and start a saving pot now! Who'dve thought saving money could be exciting too??

RoseRed

This is fantastic news! I can't believe that you have cleared it so quickly.

I can see that it'll be big motivation to keep going, I've got a month till I start Uni and want to blitz as much as I can. I know I'll feel so much more positive if I can make a huge dent in the debt.

Enjoy your Sunday!

museumworker

Congrats on clearing overdraft - it is a totally addictive feeling saving money, once you've got the taste it is much more rewarding than spending it!!

Re: Lidl - I love it there. The olive oil, parmesan, chocolate, tinned toms, jam and muesli are all better than you get in sainsburys/waitrose imo, and much better priced. They have won lots of the Q awards for these products, so its not just me who thinks so! It does take a bit of getting used to though. What I do with my DD is buy their plain yoghurt (the greek style 10% fat is really thick and creamy - kids need the fat - about £1.80 a kg and lasts weeks in the fridge), and then put a large dollop of jam on the top, which she can then stir through. Result: a fruit flavoured yoghurt without loads of rubbish added, for pennies. Plus she loves the stirring . In terms of drink, she can have water (tap!), milk or juice. I buy their apple juice, just the concentrate (although I think Asda Don simon is better, i get that if we're shopping there), she can have that plain or with their fizzy carbonated water - half and half. That way she is not used to expensive sugary bottled drinks.

geocaching sounds like great fun, would love to try it. Have a good day!

RoxieW

Evening ladies!
Mw yes I'd probably agree in those items. I spose it's the kind of place where you can get a few bits and bobs but not a big shop. I guess I just need to give it a go and see what works from there and what doesn't. I spend a fortune on fruit juices lol. I also buy squash and fizzy drinks for me ( to help me cut down on the alcohol). I Used to buy the organic juice at £2.99 a carton!

Changed the plans today. Went to see ts3 and to pizza hut. It was the lo,s first time at the cinema so I ended up sat in the cafe with him after an hour! Can't wait till we can all go as a family again. Don't think well take him for a while now after today. Pizza hut have a kids eat free deal so that was good, although its a good job I checked the reciept as they'd added a bottle of wine on to the bill! Still, it gave me a good excuse not to knave a tip lol.
Had a little tiff with OH as we were discussing buying a travel cot ( which I don't see the point as we've managed this long without one ) and I said I can't get one out of the budget. His response was that the budget will have to stretch. Well then when we got to pizza hut he wanted to order a medium pizza to himself instead of an individual one. So I said no, that's not maki g the budget stretch is it. He had a sulk on but ordered the small. Thats the problem with him. He thinks the budget can stretch and stretch!
Despite the pizza I'm currently super hungry! Waiting for oh to make me some toast
Aswel as the day out I also cleared out our under stair cupboard. That was a job and a half! But at least it's done now.
Treasure hunt and Sunday roast tomo then I really need to knuckle down to some work - deadlines are looming
Hope everyones enjoying their bank holiday weekends!

RoxieW

Ps good idea with the yogurt. I'll try that. And another thing - whilst xlearing out the cupboard found some more to eBay woop!

Mags30

Do you have a local Aldi? I don't like Lidl at all, I particularly dislike the W5 cleaning products but I get on rather well with Aldi.

vasseur

RoxieW wrote: »

Evening ladies!
Mw yes I'd probably agree in those items. I spose it's the kind of place where you can get a few bits and bobs but not a big shop. I guess I just need to give it a go and see what works from there and what doesn't. I spend a fortune on fruit juices lol. I also buy squash and fizzy drinks for me ( to help me cut down on the alcohol). I Used to buy the organic juice at £2.99 a carton!

Yes I agree with Mags - have you got an Aldi? I think ours is better than Lidl although you can get some lovely things in there still. The things I like (from Aldi) are the pizzas, chicken kievs, sausages, baby wipes, ginger bubble bath, chocolate mousses (we'd never have bought them before but they are only 39p), mayonnaise (good as Hellmans IMO), brioche rolls (divine), cereals....I'm suer there's loads more but it's a case of trying stuff out. I am so impressed with the quality.

What I do is make my list, get as much as I can from Aldi, then anything I can't get there I get from one of the other major supermarkets. It has saved me about £20 p.w. and I'm only shopping for 2 so imagine how much you will save on your shop. It was a bit of a faff to start with because I like to just do one big shop a week but when I've only got to get about 10 extra bits it's not a hardship and I'm into the habit now, besides the amount I save makes it worthwhile.