Starting my journey

mummytogirls

Wow choo you have been busy this morning! Youve made me tired just reading!! Woohoo to DH doing most of the ironing :j.

Have a lovely day xx

choogirl

And relax ....................

The boss has left the office for the rest of the day (wahoo)

The rain has stopped at last!

Mummytogirls - I surprise myself sometimes with productiveness!

I'm pinching Mummytogirls grocery shopping idea - one big shop at the beginning of the month followed by smaller top up shops each week. It will make the weekly top up shop quicker and easier as all we will need is bread, milk, fruit and veg. I need to analyse my grocery receipts tonight to find out what we spend our money on regularly and how much is spent on fresh stuff each week. Might see if Ocado have still got their special offer on for first time shoppers.

Not much else to report, moneywise everything is ticking along nicely. August and September are just going to be spent by ticking along and paying for holiday, summer holiday entertainment etc but I need to make a longer term plan from October onwards in respect of savings etc.
I'm also going to start saving for a ski-ing holiday September onwards :j

The ironing didn't get finished yesterday, the mountain is more like a hill now but I would just like to have an empty ironing basket. The duvet cover had to be re-washed ysesterday as it smelt funny when I got it out of the airing cupboard to iron it before I remade the bed. I'll have to iron it tonight and might see if I can get the rest finished as well. At least the school uniform won't all need washing and ironing this week, just a good wash for most of it before it goes to the clothes bank. DS needs new shirts as he's got paint, pen marks etc on most of his and DD has grown out of her summer dresses and they'll go back in their winter uniforms in September anyway

I can't believe where this year has gone, nearly in August :eek: The C word will have crept round again before we all know it.

Better get back to the mountain of work xx

choogirl

Good Morning

Just having a catch up and writing down my random (boring) thoughts.

Last week of full time work this week :j The boss has said that there might be another opportunity later on in the year so fingers crossed as it would help the house tidy up fund very nicely.

Tonight I'm going to analyse all my grocery receipts from the last few months and see if I can identify which items can be ordered from the supermarket on one big order, what a dull life I lead :rotfl:

I'm also going to blitz my ironing pile as I didn't manage it last night Last night I managed to watch the end of a film that I started to watch on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it (Bride Wars) - a typical chick flick but good for an hour or so's light entertainment!

I am looking forward to the kids breaking up from school - no more pack ups, school uniform ironing panic moments, school run, cleaning shoes etc. They will become ferral for 6 weeks :rotfl:

I'm so ready to have some time off work, short break to Legoland, holiday to look forward to and just recharge the batteries with abit of downtime for a change.

A friend has asked if we'd like to go camping with them for a couple of nights in August. Hmmm camping is not my favourite past time but its only for 2 nights and it will be fun for the kids to spend some time with their friends and we can have a good catch up with our friends.
Hopefully it won't rain, be cold, windy and they'll be no undesirable characters in the tent next to us! :rotfl:Apart from all those stipulations I'm sure that a good time will be had by all

Back to my invoicing :T

abba1772

i've already started the dreaded C word shopping lol couldn't resist a bargain lol

choogirl

Good Morning

Just a small catch up today as I'm really busy at work.

The ironing pile has been blitzed and the basket is now empty :j

The grocery receipts weren't analysed last night so that is a job for this evening.

I've taken a pie out of the freezer for tonights dinner (I bought it last week from Mr S in the reduced section)

Best get on xx

debtfreewannabe321

Morning Choo

I've got my three main xmas pressies in too -well i have bought them- they are still in the car mind you no where to hide them :rotfl:so waiting to go to mum's next week!

I have gone through all ds1 uniform and got him to try on everything (he SO enjoyed this, i could tell ) and decided i only need trousers, shoes & rugby shorts (which were suprisingly small :eek: think they may have shrunk they looked like swim shorts :rotfl:)

I have started shopping once every 2 weeks for a big shop. Last week i spent £80 for lots of meats, loo rolls, dishwasher tabs etc so i was stocked up on those. Then this week spent £29 on veg, fruit, bread (4 loaves reduced to 35p :T) and a few other bits and bobs that had run out. The monthly one sounds better but i'm not sure if i am organised enough to plan 30 days worth of meals in one sitting :eek: how do you do that? Just rotate the same old or is it a different meal each night~? Thinking about it we do eat a lot of the same stuff each week..pasta, spag bol, sausage & mash etc as kids are so blooming fussy! so maybe an idea....... :money:

Oh and on the subject of camping, i went once. i ended up sleeping in the car after a spider crawled into my room bit and it was really windy and scary cos of all the howling noises....i'm more of a 5* hotel with jacuzzi in the bathroom !!!!!

DFW x

choogirl

DFW - I'm not even going to attempt to meal plan for 30 days :eek::eek:

Tonight I'm going to meal plan for next week and order everything online for that but I'm also going to think about what meat we might need for the next month, go through cupboards and see what we've run out of and then I'm going to order these online as well.
I'm then going to order loo roll, dishwasher stuff, washing powder, toiletries etc on this order as well after analysing my till receipts from the last few months.

Next week I will meal plan again with a view to using up meat, pasta etc that I ordered this week but hopefully should only have to buy fruit, veg, milk, bread etc to supplement the staples that I'll already have.

We'll see how it goes, anything has got to be worth a try to be more time efficient. The only downfall that I can see is, I'll be ordering a months supply of biscuits and crisps which I don't want to be eaten in just a week. They'll have to be hidden away somewhere!

The dreaded C word :eek: I have bought a few stocking fillers, wrapping paper and cards so far.

I have to get DD to try her pinafores and skirts on as I know DS trousers are way to short for him :rotfl:

Home again and just debating what to do - blitz the utility room sounds like a good option and make some dinner before the kids come in from playing pleading starvation!

2 days left of school mayhem :j Then its 6 weeks of spending time with my little angels (hmmm will I still be saying that in 6 weeks time?) :rotfl:

Best go and do something xxx

mummytogirls

Hi Choo, how you doing?
Have you analysed your receipts yet re your monthly shop? Ive finalised mine this afternoon and its £103, so £3 overspent!

Ive got a spreadsheet with all the monthly spend stuff on such as dishwasher tablets, washing powder, cereal etc. Then im hopng that these will last and I can buy again on my next huge shop!
Ive decided all the biscuits and crisps and stuff im going to hide and bring out in the next week or else DH will eat them all!! Oh ive just read your going to have to do the same :rotfl:!!!

OMG to you buying somethings for the C word, I havent even ordered DD's uniform yet!! DD's birthday is beginning Nov and I dont even think about the C word until after that!!!

Hope your ok, catch up soon xx

choogirl

mummytogirls wrote: »

Hi Choo, how you doing?
Have you analysed your receipts yet re your monthly shop? Ive finalised mine this afternoon and its £103, so £3 overspent!

Ive got a spreadsheet with all the monthly spend stuff on such as dishwasher tablets, washing powder, cereal etc. Then im hopng that these will last and I can buy again on my next huge shop!
Ive decided all the biscuits and crisps and stuff im going to hide and bring out in the next week or else DH will eat them all!! Oh ive just read your going to have to do the same :rotfl:!!!

OMG to you buying somethings for the C word, I havent even ordered DD's uniform yet!! DD's birthday is beginning Nov and I dont even think about the C word until after that!!!

Hope your ok, catch up soon xx

Hi Mummytogirls
Thank you for stopping by, I'm fine thank you, hope you're well

I have done my analysis and ready to do an online shop, need to find a spare hour to do it, maybe in the morning. I looked at the Ocado grocery shopping and theres not enough choice, too many premium brands, no homebrands and generally not what I want so I'm going to do an online shop with Mr S. If you spend over £100 with Mr S you get free delivery if you order for Tuesday or Wednesday so thats what I'm going to do :T

I haven't bought alot for the C word, just a few stocking fillers and the wrapping paper and cards were in the sale at Mr S and Mr T just after christmas so bought those then.

Hope you're having a good day xx

choogirl

oh I've just realised that I'm now a serious money saving fan instead of a stalwart!

Well whats happening today, DH found out his payrise and we'll be getting an extra £142 per month after tax/ni so thats going to be saved each month towards house redecoration/kitchen fund etc.

As mentioned above, I'm not going to do an online shop with Ocado as they don't have what I want to order available and I think any savings that I make by using the first order offer will be swallowed up by buying premium brands so Mr S will be getting my online order this week. Might as well stick to what I know and love :T

The kids break up today so they've both had school dinners today :j DD said she didn't really fancy school dinners today but there was no way I was making pack up on the last day! I hate making pack ups, need to organise myself better in September. I've slipped back in to my old habit of rushing round on a morning making them instead of organising myself on a night and making them then. I've even made them whilst cooking the tea and then popped them in the fridge, it makes life so much easier by organising them the night before.

Better add more healthy snacks to the shopping list as the kids will be constantly eating over the holidays

Resisted the Mons**n sale again today after a friend was telling me about the bargains that she got. I don't need anything (keep telling yourself that Choo)
I'm also fighting the urge to go and buy DD some trousers that I saw in Mr As as well, DD doesn't need anything either!
DD really doesn't need anything but they will both need some new winter clothes as I didn't buy much last year for obvious reasons so this year they will need a few new items so will save the money until then!

I had a moment of weakness in Mr S the other day though and bought the super cute individual fluted tart tins with the loose bottoms. They were in the sale and had a third off, cost me £3.33 (still sat in the cupboard waiting to be used) however I have resisted that particular urge since February :rotfl:

Not much else to report, just the usual washing, cleaning and ironing planned for this weekend. Today is my last full time day so will hopefully get abit more done at home over the next few weeks :j