Jamiedodger's Sparkly New 2011 Diary

JAMIEDODGER

I managed to stop myself from going to the shop for chocolate last night so yesterday was a NSD:)

Have counted the money up in my purse and I have £20 not £15 so that is a bit of a bonus. I also got a cheque for £3.05 in the post yesterday for a postage refund for something I had ordered but returned a few weeks ago, that will be going in to the bank after half term.

I have almost finished the re planning of my finances and the new budget, which I will be sticking to! I have set an amount which will be transferred into my other current account each month, and this will be used only to pay debts. I would have liked it to be more but with the things I need to buy for the holiday, it is not possible to increase this amount for June, however I may be able to increase it a little for July and hopefully slightly more for August. I am also setting up standing orders from the 'debt account' to pay all the debts so that it gets done automatically each month and I don't have to think about it. I am planning on reassessing these figures every couple of months and making sure that everything is going in the right direction.

I will be spending some of the weekend going through the cupboards and freezer and am planning on having a use up week as much as possible over half term. I will have much more time to get in the kitchen so I am planning some baking in there too!

I have cut up all but one of my credit cards. I will be cutting this up at the end of next week, as I need to use it one more time to carry me over until the next payday.

My main bank account is where the money goes into. I will be transferring the debt amount out of here each month on 8th. I have also decided on a set amount of housekeeping. This money has to pay for everything else. This amount will be transferred out weekly into my Santander current account, which has a chequebook, useful for scout fees and anything for school, this also has no overdraft facility, which is really helpful as I can't then spend what I dont have.

My main aim for the next few months is to batter down my overdraft on my debt account and get myself back in the black.

So, off shopping with my nan today. I wont be buying anything but just paying for parking and buying her coffee. Hopefully a cheap day! Beavers tonight so will be paying subs of £8.

Will update later on total spends.

JAMIEDODGER

Yesterday was a good day. Total cash spent £1.20 on parking:) Nan wouldn't let me pay for coffee so I didn't spend anything except for the parking.

At Beavers last night they had forgotten the subs cash box so I will be paying double next month instead.

All in all, purse still pretty full. £18.80 left!

Off to Chichester this morning to return clothes and get a refund, so purse money will increase further although I will have to pay for parking again! I also will be paying out at the tuck shop at school this afternoon, so around £1.20 for that.

I did also pay for my travel insurance yesterday, this was paid with my debit card out of my bank account. Cost me £49.50, for an annual policy for me and four children. Went via Quidco, so I am hoping to see that tracking very soon.

It made more sense to get an annual policy as we are going to Disney in November and if I have sorted out the debt I would like to take another trip next year.

I still hoping I can make the weekend pretty much spend free. I have decided to take the kids to the cinema during next week instead of this weekend as they all would like to go.

My housekeeping hits my account on Wednesday so anything from then will be out of next weeks money, this will include my night out on friday.

Nayma12

Hi, i am new to this site. I hope you don't mind me joining your thread but was reading about your supermarket savings and am really impressed at your £89 spend on food. and wondering how you do it.

This the area i most need to cut back on. I used to spend around £700-750 a month on food(including toiletires, cleaning products and dog food) > There are 5 of us most of the time - my husband and i our 2 and my 18 year old step son half the week ( another adult really as he eats lots).

So far this month have cut it down to £580 - stilll way too high but do have lots in my cupboards and freezer to carry me through to next month.

Do you use any supermarket in particular or cook certain things which are less costly than others.

Am determined to cut back as i am about to start a dmp with debts at around £44,000 and want to live without credit cards (what got me into this mess) and buying things i don't need. :A

JAMIEDODGER

Hi Nayma:) Welcome to the site!

£89 is quite a lot for me to spend each week. I used to spend around £50 ish but food prices have gone way up, still, I am sure I can get it down from £89 per week.

I usually draw up a meal plan for the week, work out who is in for every meal and everyones likes and dislikes. What I spend each week has to feed 5 (me and four kids two of them adult sized portions) and six cats. It also includes toiletries and cleaning products.

I like to go through my freezer and work out what can be used up for the coming weeks meal plan and work it in. I don't bake as much anymore but if I do it will be on the weekends.

I do take advantage of offers when they come up and I buy a mix of Value, Generic and Brand items.

Main Value Items I buy:

Toilet rolls
Baby wipes
Chocolate biscuits
Chips
Ham
Pate
Fromage Frais
Cheese
Eggs
Breakfast juice

Most of the rest of my items are Tesco standard generic brand:

Cereals
Fruit and Veg
Tinned goods
Cleaning products (except washing liquid and comfort and I buy brand when on a very decent offer)
Cat food
Meat
Milk
Other Dairy
Condiments
Toiletries
Squash
Medications
Puddings

Brand Goods:

Sausages
Washing up liquid
Bread
Gravy
Fish fingers

probably a few others that I cant think of!

I only buy one bottle of fizz per week, this is for a saturday night as a treat for the kids. We have cereal for breakfast M-F, on saturday it is breakfast juice and croissants ( I buy the mini 12 and we have a couple each, the other two stay in the freezer for following week) Sunday I usually make up either pancakes or waffles as they are filling but pretty cheap if you make them yourself.

Lunches are at school M-F although my lot are on school dinners, they are notoriously rubbish so I still cook a main meal at night. On holidays it is sandwiches for lunch, with a packet of crisps, fruit, yoghurt and chocolate biscuit. In term time I only buy crisps for weekend lunches.

Dinners are harder as I often cook up lots of different meals in an evening, but I have got this down to a fine art and only takes around 30 mins altogether.

I try to pick a meat and make everyones meals around that, for example Sausages.

I do sausages mash veg and gravy for myself and DS2 and DD. DS1 and DS3 will have it with chips/waffle and baked beans

For a roast, everyone will eat it except DS3 (he is autistic and won't eat meat unless it looks like a chicken nugget:) he also will not eat potatoes or vegetables or gravy) I will usually do him something simple like cheese on toast with baked beans or something similar.

Puddings are usually:

Bananas or fruit pie and custard
Rice pudding
Angel delight
Jelly
After a big meal and they might have just a chocolate biscuit and a yoghurt
Ice cream with strawberry sauce and sprinkles.

Anyone who is still hungry after 6pm is welcome to make themselves toast, as chef has finished for the day!

Drinks are always milk, tea, squash or water.

Snacks are fruit, breadsticks, crackers and cheese spread, raw vegetables, raisins, but I do find it is only the younger two that snack anymore.

The children have sweets on a friday, which I buy at the supermarket on food shopping day unless it is school tuck shop like today. They also get a small 20p bag of tuck on a monday night in term time from cubs.

I buy most of my cleaning products at Tesco although I often buy toiletries at Wilkinsons, but it still has to come out of my housekeeping so I usually do a bigger shop there once a month.

I usually buy my meat once a month at Tesco on the 3 for £10 offer and buy a few of those. That week I will not buy toiletries so I usually do it all on rotation.

Week one: Meat week
Weeks two: Cleaning products (including large washing liquid and comfort) If at any point this comes on offer I will dip into savings to cover the extra spend and pay it back when this week comes back around
Week three: Toiletries (usually wilko)
Week four: Bulk buying (any cupboard essentials that I can buy in that wont get used just because they are there...cereal, tinned goods, cat food, bread for freezer, squash)

This is how I managed to get my bill right down. Also I am taking the kids to Disney in November for free curtesy of Tesco Clubcard converted to Airmiles:D

I allocate £120 per week to cover all the above and also to include £25 petrol per week, lottery and tv magazine, filters and papers (tobacco comes out of a seperate budget).

Sorry to have rambled......but I hope this helps x

JAMIEDODGER

A great days spending!

Parking was £1 in town this morning, got £15 refund on clothes I took back, plus I paid out £1.20 for tuck and £3 for raffle tickets for DD school summer fayre. Total spent £5.20, total in £15:D

Won't be spending tomorrow and the film I wanted to take the kids to see isn't out until the week after half term. Will be taking DD to McDonalds on sunday with my friend and her daughter so a few £ to spend there but nothing to spend again until wednesday so should end the week (tuesday) in credit, which will help with the following expensive week!

Nayma12

Gosh - thank you so much for all that. It is really good to see how others budget. I over buy a lot and will take some tips from your list.

I have got to do some serious cutting back. Well done on getting your free Disney trip with Tesco. That's great. The kids love that. We are going on my school trip there in July though it did cost me £360 so your deal was much better.

Will be paid Tuesday and am going to work really hard next month to decrease my food bills.

I am going to try to work all meals out on Sunday like you do - that 's a good tip as i only plan for the first half of the week then by Wednesday(Thursday if i'm lucky) its all gone belly up!.

Thanks again and no you didn't ramble .Will let you know how i get on.:)

JAMIEDODGER

Nayma - I am glad my post was helpful:)

I do find the meal planning really beneficial. I have a rough list of meals that I like to cook over the month and usually pick my weeks dinners off that list. My children aren't the most adventurous eaters, whereas I love to try different things, so on occasion I will cook up a special meal for myself on top of the meals I am doing for the children.

Next weeks meal planner is looking like this so far:

W - Eating at Butlins as Day out
Th - Pizza (DS2 does not like pizza so I will do filled pasta for him, he likes spinach and ricotta from Tesco, only takes a few mins)
F - Roast Chicken (DS3 will not eat roast so probably cheese on toast)
S - Chilli (DS3 will have Chicken Nuggets, baked beans and a waffle)
Su - High Tea as I never properly cook on a Sunday as my boys go to their dads all day.
M - Freezer Tea as it is Cubs night or will be choose your own 15 min meal, which I give kids all 20 min options and they choose)
T - Spaghetti Bolognese (DS2&3 will have either spaghetti and cheese or another quick option)

Not very exciting but they like it. I get some meals I like in there and on other evenings I will have filled pasta or maybe a big bowl of spaghetti or an omelette.

Up very early again this morning.....4.15am!!!!! Shocking!:mad:

Have done my banking online and checked everything is running smoothly.

It is a dank and horrible day here so far, although I am hoping this may change later as I would love to be able to get some washing dry on the line today! I will be aiming for a nap later on this morning to make up for my lack of sleep. Won't be going anywhere today and will be plonking myself on the sofa for an uninterrupted (hopefully!) hour of Dr Who tonight:D:T I also have last nights Criminal Minds to watch so a great evening of TV ahead for me.

I will be going through the freezer at some point this weekend to do an inventory as it is getting fairly crowded in there and I want to know exactly what I have got, especially meat wise as I will be doing a meat shop next week for the month.

Petrol should last a bit longer this week as it is half term and I don't do the amount of miles I usually do during term time. I will still put in the £25 though, as it is only one week. The summer holidays is where I save a huge amount of money on petrol.

My travel insurance has now tracked with Quidco, a nice £5.95 so very happy with that! I will be thinking about doing my currency the week after half term, then it will be just the suitcases and a few holiday clothes for me. I really need some t-shirts and I also have a pair of linen trousers that need to be taken up before the holiday, Johnsons cleaners charge around £14 for that so I will take them in after the kids go back to school.

Off to have a browse of the site and a nosey at other peoples diaries:D

Nayma12

Thanks for your food diary. Will certainly try some of your meal ideas this week. I have to cut down on my food bills.

Your travel insurance is v cheap. I need insurance fo the children when we go to Disneyland( i will be covered by my school's county policy). Did you do a search on Quidco for this?

I am also going to plan where we will eat this week aas we will be at Urdd Eisteddfod lots of days - food there is extortionate and i refuse to buy it. Mine get fed up of sandwiches if i make them day after day so may make pasta pots for a change.

Am horrified as i had £250 to pay off reminder of one credtit card before i closed the account which i have now had to use most of to buy tickets for theatre shows my daughter is in as well as £13 fee to enter the field each day i am there> Back to the drawing board! Enjoy Butlins!

Will let you know how i get on wich lunches.:A

JAMIEDODGER

I have just counted up my penny jar, which I have been throwing coppers and the odd 5p/10p/20p in since January 1st 2011.

I have just over £14!!!!

Money in purse totals £29.80 after all the spends of yesterday. I will probably spend about £10 tomorrow on parking and McDonalds. This providing I stick to no spending days for Monday and Tuesday will leave me £19.80 to carry over into next week. The plan is to withdraw £120 cash out on Wednesday for the week. Butlins, night out and baby sitter, also every other spend for the whole week. From Wednesday I am hoping to have as many NSD as possible. I am hoping for 4 NSD next week.

I could also withdraw enough cash to pay for Cubs and Beavers fees for the month, saving me writing a cheque and waiting for it to clear.

I have made a decision to cancel my lottery from now on. I have removed the numbers from my phone so I wont be able to check if my numbers would have won, which would be soul destroying if they came up after I no longer did it! This will save me a few quid each week, I started by doing one line on sat and wednesday and then Euromillions on a friday, but since they changed it to plus five and have just increased to two days of EM it has been costing me more than I would like, so I am now saving £7 per week.....£28 per month!!!!

This will be used towards my credit card as an extra payment which I will send each week as I am used to spending that £7 anyway. As I usually do my lottery for the week on a saturday I have just sent to £7 to the creditcard. It feels good but is just a start.

I am determined to batter down the food costs this week. I am appalled that my food bill has increased so much! However, I don't think I will start to see a difference in just a week. I will be seeing how I have faired over the course of the month.

I have been spending £360 in a four week month and £450 in a five week month. June is a five week month for me as there are 5 wednesdays, so I am aiming for much lower than £450, I would like to see the figure in the £300's.

I am still going over the budget to see if there are any further improvements that can be made. Fingers crossed. I am determined that this will be the last time I am paying back this blinking debt!

JAMIEDODGER

Do you use Quidco? I bought my travel insurance from the post office via Quidco for cashback.

Annual policy was £49.65 for me and 4 kids (it wasn't the basic one) I also got the 5.95 cashback. I bought annual as we are going away twice this year and if I have paid this debt back I would like to take a city break early next year. Much cheaper than single trip insurance.

Good luck with the meal planning:) Have you tried the Grocery Challenge on the old style board....fab for ideas for reducing the bill x