Sorting through my rubbish

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi £wise and Trixie

Thanks for the comments and re-assurance about the tax, there was a time when I always could afford a years car tax without thinking about it and my cars were always serviced every year!!

It WAS very sweet of DH, I think he remembers the date because he has been paying for it ever since!!:rotfl: We've been together 9 years now and it has flown by, still remember the goosebumps I'd get whenever I saw him! OK, enough of that, you can put your buckets away now!

I'm also at work and off to a team meeting in a mo so just popped on. Blown my NSD as I just spent £3.30 in the local bakers, so much for bringing my lunch to work (homemade Winter Squash Soup), I succombed to a very large cheese topped roll and a large caramel cake for the kids, slap my wrists! OH and a bacon and cheese bake 'cause it was cold and I was hungry!!!!!:o **goes of whistling**

Back later

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trixiepix

You so make me laugh about the cheese n bacon bake, sounds like my kinda trip to the bakers:D

Besides the car tax our car is due for it's service and at the mo that's not going to be fitting into the budget anytime soon!!!

Awww, so cute with you and yr DH, we've been together 22 years and married for 17!!, i was ofcourse married at 12 - lol !!!! it's passed in the blink of an eye.

NSD again today thanks to bootseys loyalty card paying for my sandwich!

Booked our budget £9.50 break today (well £9.50 each!) so something to look forward to and makes it easier to focus on debt repayment now there is a 'treat' in a few months - ofcourse the money could have been paid off of my debt but a bit like dieting i guess you need to have a plan you can stick with and if that means booking a £40 holiday so be it!!

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Trixie,

How lovely to have a break to look forward to. Don't think we will get a holiday again this year, it wasn't too bad last year 'cause we had a couple of weddings to travel to and so turned them into mini holidays but nothing on the horizon this year:(.

I have booked the Feb half term off and 2 weeks in the summer so even if we don't go away it will be nice to chill with the kids and not have to watch the clock.

I was lead astray by the [EMAIL="B@@ts"]B@@ts[/EMAIL] 75% sale this morning on the way to DDs school, was quite restrained though, got SIL and DS1's g/f's birthday pressies for next month and a couple of gift packs for men (I always struggle with things for the fellas), S&G tin for my friend and a couple of the S&G EDT gift sets so a few more pressies sorted out.

Brought lunch to work and had to pop to Morrisons for work stuff and picked up huge bag of carrots reduced to 14p and large bag of parsnips for 19p. DH and kids have Winter Squash soup for dinner with part-baked rolls or left over toad-in-th-hole if they don't want soup. Curry tomorrow and spag bol Friday, probs do lasagne on Saturday with the rest of the bolognese so that will take me to Sunday without doing a food shop (apart from about £5 on bread, milk and my bargain veggies today), actually can prob manage a roast on Sunday depending on the veg situation so may even be Monday!:T

Not too bad a day all in all and I am finding this 'not shopping for food' quite fun.:D Deffo gonna carry on this 'challenge' until end of March and see how little I can get away with spending and use up some of my huge stocks.

Helping my lady tomorrow so a bit more cash for the boys' birthday fund, worked out my budget and it's very tight, glad I have paid for the train tickets, tube passes, venue and lunch already, just snacks and drinks to find on the day and then the big family meal mid March!

Right must dash, sorry if I've waffled tonight, just typed things as they came to me!

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trixiepix

I noticed the 75% off sale but have been tied up so far this week so bobbing out to the shops tomorrow to see if there is anything left!!!!

I had NSD's until today, when i was meeting a friend for lunch and even then only spent £8!

You've inspired me this week to seriously look at how much i'm spending on food in between the weekly shop, so this week have been asking DH to bob to the shops on his way home from work to pick up the bread/milk we need as he is so much more focused in the supermarket than i am!!! if i go in for milk i end up with £20 worth of shopping, he just gets milk!! and so far we've only spend £3.00 on 'extra bits' - that is absolutely unheard of, long may it last!!

You're doing brilliantly on not spending money on food unnecessarily and for me this week has been a bit of a reality check on how many of the bits and bobs i think we normally can't live without, we've not even missed! - shopping day tomorrow, wish me luck!!!

xx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Trixie

Well done on the £3 shopping week!!! It really is shocking how much one can spend on things that are perceived to be essential when there are already cupboards full of food at home. As you say it is so easy to spend £20 on a bread and milk shop!

Tonight we had our curry and tomorrow we are eating up the left overs from this week, the spagetti bolognese has been put on hold until saturday!

Helped my lady deep clean her kithen today and then came home and did a blitz of the house. Still remarkably tidy and organised at home since the pre-mas blitz!! 4 loads of washing done. Kitchen cleaned and all the floors hoovered and mopped.

Had a delivery from Next today, the L!psy dresses i ordered as I liked my NYE one so much. 3 dresses arrived and 3 dresses are going back! Really dont like any of them:T So no more money to be deducted from my Crazy Clothes Challenge:T.

Just had a lovely hot bath, used up 2 more Yves Rocher products, so 11 items gone this year, enjoying a glass of wine now, feel I have earnt it this week:beer:!

Good luck with the food shopping tomorrow trixie, stay focused, we will help to keep each other on the 'straight and narrow'!:D

Good night

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3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Evening,

Nothing major to report today.

However, I have discovered a great thread on here 'Every Penny's a Prisoner'. It's basically about 'capturing all the escaped pennies', you know the ones that are lurking at the bottom of your bag or under the sofa and also making the most of pennies you save on things. Savings are counted in pennies as 1200 pennies sounds so much more than £12.

After reading this thread I have decided that from 31 Jan I will;

• Continue to save £2 coins for Xmas 2012
• Any loose coins under £1 left in my purse each night will go in the 'slummy pot' and this will either be used for debt repayment or towards Xmas, this also applies to any found money.
• Every time I shop the savings shown on the receipt and any vouchers used will be paid off my debts.

I will be dealing purely in cash from this date in a bid to keep a tight reign on things.

I am hoping that by only having notes and £1 coins in my purse I will think twice about small spends.

I'll keep a tally in my signature.

Right off to bed, have a good one

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trixiepix

Hey hun,

I'm trying the do the whole cash only thing at the mo as it makes me far more aware of what i'm spending when i physically see the money coming out of my purse rather than just flexing my debit card!

I put £20 in my purse on Saturday of last week and tonight i've still got a pound left, i'm amazed with how far it's stretched this week!! i spent £8 on lunch with friends & £11 on DD2 school lunches for the remainder of this week and next wk (she alternates school & packed lunches) and i still have £1 left which will go into the cash tin. I'm certainly not saying that is viable every week as some expenses are unavoidable, but there is a lot of spending which is completely unnecessary.

Popped into bootseys this morning and from present/xmas savings managed to cover all of my female friends/family pressies for the rest of the year (apart from my lovely mum) with gifts that were a quarter of there original price - i was really pleased as didn't think anything would be left !!

Ooh and i'm definately gonna check out the 'penny' thread!!

xx

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi Trixie,

Well done with the fantastic budgeting this week, if only we could all live that cheaply every week.

I'm really suprised at what you managed to get in [EMAIL="B@@ts"]B@@ts[/EMAIL], I popped into my local branch today and there was nothing left apart from a few bars of soap!! Glad I was there first thing Wednesday morning and got a few bits but was in a hurry so should probably have bought a couple other pressies whilst I was there.

Took DD to pick up her new glasses today, DH gave us some money to go for a coffee whilst we were in town. She had a present to return to a local shop, it was only £3 but it was faulty. She managed to buy 3 craft kits in their sale for a total of £4 and a box 'How to be a Wizard' set with a cape, hat to make, stickers and tattoos and a book all for 25p!!!!!!!:eek:

I was very good and spent just £3.50 on a few bits and pieces.

Just used up another toilettery whilst enjoying my bath and now enjoying a glass of [EMAIL="Th@rntons"]Th@rntons[/EMAIL] Chocolate Liquer (birthday pressie from DH). Spent the afternoon sorting out the toilettery stash (now in priority use order - is that sad?) Also sorted out my huge stock of tights and hold-ups, deffo don't need to buy any for a VERY long time.

Feeling quite angelic as I ordered another pair of Irregular Choice shoes half price from Next but have decided to send them back :A. However, I also received a lovely black shift dress which has been reduced to just £16, it's a sleeveless and in a lovely heavy fabric and fully lined, basically the perfect LBD that fits beautifully and can be dressed up or down for any occassion. I have decided to get it with my gift card DS1 gave me for my birthday. Will adjust Crazy Clothes Challenge total accordingly.

Off to finish watching Notting Hill for the gazzillionth time and enjoy my choc liquer! :beer:

321

3_kids_2_jobs_1_dog

Hi All

Busy day today, sorting out bedroom !!!!, ironing and cooking.

Just had a lovely bacon, chicken and mushroom pasta dish with marscapone sauce, all from the freezer. Made a lovely eve's pudding with apple and blackberries (again from freezer) and 2 Lemon cakes with lemons left in fridge from Xmas!


So upbeat following last weeks anti-grocery shopping that I have decided to keep it going this week and into next (well right up to paypay on the 31st). Have bought 2 loaves of bread today and have plenty of milk, might have to buy some potatoes and fruit. Have done a meal plan (evenings only as breakfast and lunches are ok) and it looks something like this:-

1. Lasagne and chips (with left over bolognese from yesterday and chips from freezer)
2. Homemade pizza (scone mix from cupboard, hm pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese all from freezer). Hopefully be enough for kids lunches the next day too.
3. Turkey curry in slow cooker (My evening shift at work)(Turkey from freezer)
4. Turkey and Ham pie (both meats from freezer), again may be enough for lunches too.
5. Chilli in slow cooker (another evening shift) (veggie mince from freezer, will definately make enough for 2 meals when bulked out)
6. Homemade fishcakes or maybe fishpie (will need to buy potatoes)
7. Roast beef and vegetables (joint in freezer)
8. Evening shift again so the rest of the chilli for every one else
9. PAYDAY!!!!!

Can't believe I have all of those meals and apart from buy some potatoes they will cost nothing. It is shocking how much I would have spent in the that time believing we had no food in!

Off to do some more planning, may be back later, I'm on a roll!

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trixiepix

Well done you !!!!! - you are just soooo organised ((((envy envy envy))) :rotfl:
I love hearing about the meals you prepare and how ingenious you are with using up the leftovers & meal planning.

Oh and where to do i start with the praise for spending so little on food whilst using up the food that you still have:T

Well, shopping last week was still around the same amount as usual but i did buy some baking ingredients (and was being paid for the cakes) and some more storage boxes to continue with the attic sorting. so although the amount was the same the food shopping was actually cheaper - if that makes sense!!!!;)

This week i'm gonna shop online, and then at least i won't be tempted by the visual offers, think i'll do Mr T's and try to find a free delivery code.

Payday on Friday - thank the lord - its been a very longgggggggggggggggggg January!!

Have a fun day xx