All my good intentions......

Learning2Budget

and I find i'm still weak! So thought maybe if I started a thread, I could read back and maybe motivate myself more.

Popped into asda this afternoon cos the fridge was bare, £20 later, but i did get enough to see us through till shopping day next wed. Bought one of their meal deal dinners to try, main, side dish and pudding for £6. It's to feed 4, and my toddler and baby don't eat loads, so thats 2 days worth of dinner for £3 a day. I still need to get used to this budgeting....must try harder.
Then had to get a birthday pressie for my friend's little girl, so that was £11.94 inc delivery but i got 10 nice books for that. I know she has two of them already, so i will give her 5 of them and put the others away for my kids for xmas.
Getting my haircut at the college tomorrow, so thats another £3.60, but i have budgeted for all these, so don't feel so bad.

Excuse my ramblings, i can see that again, i'm trying to justify my spending. So time to put my purse in the cupboard and try and have a thrifty weekend.
L2B.x

RAS

Hi

Why do you have to get your friends little girl presents? And why FIVE books if you feel obliged to buy something?

I suspect your friend finds this as hard as you do and would be happy to agree a very small token is OK.

Try finding weezl's thread on eating on 50p a day, although you might have to make that 60p now.

Learning2Budget

You're right and it was that extravagence that got me in this mess in the first place. Like I said this thread is so i can read back, learn from my mistakes and remotivate myself.
Oooh will have a look at weezl's thread, sounds fascinating, i will be full of tips that i need to learn. Thanks Ras.x

Learning2Budget

Have come to the conclusion that part of my problem is organisation. If I could make myself more organised I would spend less. Prime example this evening when i forgot to get any meat out the freezer, so ended up buying pizza!

I often end up running round last minute sorting things that i've had plenty of time to do but have just put off.
So as of monday, i am gonna become more organised, it won't be easy cos i've always been a bit scatty, but i need to find a way to do it. Any answers willingly accepted on a postcard.
L2B.x

browneyedbazzi

Organisation is a big issue for me too...I often have a freezer full of things I could cook but i forget to pull something out before work, then when I realise on my way home from work I just stop and pick something else up at the supermarket (and that's often accompanied by an impulse purchase or two).

I suppose doing a proper meal plan might help? So if i know that on tuesday I'll be doing pork chops I can pull them out of the freezer the night before or in the morning without having to think about what I fancy to eat etc

Learning2Budget

i've just started doing a meal planner, my friend gave me a laminated meal planner to put on the fridge. So that starts monday! Know exactly what you mean though.x

jimmo

A meal planner is a very good start but it depends on whether writing a meal plan out every week is something you are going to persevere with.
We have a 4 week meal plan which I knocked up on an Excel spreadsheet, laminated and keep in the kitchen.
We love traditional Sunday Lunches so week 1 is chicken, week 2 is lamb, 3 is beef and 4 is pork.
The first time we did this we struggled and couldn't think of 24 different meals to cover the weekdays so some thing we have every 2 weeks.
As it happens, I am personally becoming rather bored with the tuna pasta bake that we have every fourth Friday so I think it is time for a change in the meal plan. However, when I raise the subject it is quite likely that other members of the family will want to change other things and we can talk about that.
When it comes to weekly shopping we know exactly what we need and can use a shopping list and we find that it is much easier to avoid "bargains" that we don't actually want or need.

Learning2Budget

i have a spreadsheet of meals now, seems to be the same meals repeated over a two and half week cycle. So need to get my cookbooks out and get a bit more creative. But a 4 week planner souds a good idea. Cheers Jimmo.x

ixia

My biggest expense is food shopping I am a bit hit and miss with the meal planning really good some weeks and not so good other weeks although I do find I save money if I do it and stick to it.

organisation is definitely the key, don't know how many times I've gone to shops fpr bread and spent £30 :eek:

With regard to birthday presents I keep an eye open when there are sales etc tp pick up things for people's birthdays and always have a stash of cards in I've picked up cheaply. Look on the grabbit boards/discount vouchers etc. I know it's an expense initially but does make savings in the long run.

Good luck

atush

For a start, in the time it would take to get a pizza delivered you could make the dough from flour water and yeast, or from a cheap packet mis from tesco etc. Even with tom paste and some cheese will be a fraction of the price of bought pizza.

Learning2Budget

I know Atush, and this is what i mean about my lack of organisation. I nearly got pizza the night before but then cobbled together a chicken and bacon salad, and it tasted so good, with no guilt. But the pizza was full of guilt so didn't taste great either!

Just planning a food shop on mysupermarket, to help my budget. We were near an aldi yesterday(we don't live anywhere near one), but my toddler through a huge strop so i refused to go any further and walked out. Which made her holler all the way back cos she didn't think i'd stand to my word. One day she will actually lesrn that we don't do stuff cos of her temper, then life will be more fun. Anyway thats by the by!

Monday is the day that my life becomes organised! For today we are doing the garden and maybe washing and hoovering out the car. Hoping for a NSD and getting stuff sorted.
Have listed some stuff on preloved too.x