children, cross-stitch and chocolate. Chickywiggles debt-free diary

tellmeitsfriday

Someone's excited

chickywiggle

Thursday 18th August

Train tickets (2 adult + 1 child + railcard) home to visit family/ go to wedding £43 (booked well in advance as return tickets normally £119)

still gotta get some milk/ bread/ baby food later when hubby get home.

chickywiggle

Friday 19th August

:mad:ohhh why oh why oh why do I bother :mad:

went to morrisons this morning for essentials (baby food) - which i got 10 for £5 BARGAIN!!
Might have slipped the boys some new plates/ bowls in the basket - the old ones were too small for DS1. £5.
And (feeling guilty for not getting DH pringles yesterday that he wanted.... I was NOT paying £1.75 a tub!!) I got him 2 large bars of diam milka (half price at 57p each).

Nipped to Asda for some bananas as forgot to get them - £1.


THEN DH rings me............ can i go to the pub after work (he is allowed to go on a monday night only).... explained that we were now working to a tight budget and what was the point me trying to get finances sorted if he is going to go and waste money in the pub?! So he tells me (stroppily) that he will come straight home after work. he should have been in half hour ago and no sign!!!!

I GUARENTEE he is in the PUB!!

So I repeat WHY AM I BOTHERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

perhaps in 3 weeks time when I tell him we have £1 to do a weekly shop on he'll realise I was being serious about cutting up the credit cards!

chickywiggle

Week 1 - a summary

Well for a first week I don't think I did too badly. Yes there were a couple of slip ups but it wasn't a huge amount.

There were 2 big purchases (washing machine and mattress) but these were needed ASAP due to the old ones being on last legs/ dead.

(will do this later as just realised the total i was running is not how i want to list it here and need to re-jig it)
Cash Expenditure:
On essentials: £136 + £6.50 vouchers
On required luxuries:
On birthday/ christmas presents:
other:

Vouchers or points used:

£365 in 365 days fund dipped into?



And I stuck to the meal plan + we only had the 1 meal out/ takeaway.

chickywiggle

Week 2

The aim:



£40 £80 max on food shopping - hubby wanted to "help"
£20 max on eating out/ takeaway
£25 max on random stuff
£20 on days out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Meal Plan:
slight change after having hubby make decisions over weekend.

Saturday (20th): scampi, chips, peasgammon, egg n chips
Sunday: roast chicken, potatoes, yorkies (will need to buy chicken) takeaway pizza
Monday: chicken and bacon pie (with leftover chicken), mash, carrots
Tuesday: homemade KFCchicken and bacon pie (with leftover chicken), roast potatoes, carrots
Wednesday: gammon, egg n waffleshomemade KFC
Thursday: pork steaks, mash, sweetcorn
Friday: scampi, chips, peas


brekkie is normally one of:
- porridge with Jam
- toast
(occasionally bacon or sausage sandwich)


Lunch is noramally one of:
- cheese/ham/ egg sandwich, crisps, carrot sticks
- cheese on toast
- spaghetti on toast
- beans on toast

chickywiggle

Saturday 20th August

Had a lovely day with the boys today, took them to their first funfair and had a picnic/ play in the local park. Spent £4 in total (on 3 rides)

Stopped to buy milk on way home - £3.50 (i sware it'd be cheaper to have a cow!)

Picked up a couple of DVD wallets been needing to sort DS2's dvds out - £3

chickywiggle

Sunday 21st

Trip to carboot sale. 3 puzzles and 2 games for DS1 - £4...... Really :mad: as one of the puzzles has a bit missing!!!

Stopped at Asda for chicken and bananas - £5.

Boredom (and toddler hyperactivity) got too much so took DS1 & 2 (and hubby) swimmng for first time in over a year. £10 entry (+ £3 on choccy and drinks....must remember to take some next time). Trouble is I now have the swimming bug (so does DS1) and would LOVE to go more often if I could afford it.

takeaway pizza for tea cause apparently he was too hungry after swimming (he had a sarnie at 10am) to wait for me to cook tea!! - £12

chickywiggle

Monday 22nd August

Another fantastically helpful day from hubby!

Went into town to settle the 2 old loans, paid off all the CC's etc.

Could he wait till we got home for dinner?? could he h**l!! £10 in mccyd's!!

pair of swimming trunks for DS2 (realised yesterday he only had 0-3m (only just fit) or 9-12m (drown him) + a weening feeder pod £12.

Asda shop - mostly essentials (£20) + baby (£12) + cleaning products (£6) + helpful hubby (who the F needs £2 a time shower gel!!!) - £40

on the plus side banked £50 of £365 in 365 days change.

WAHOO all money settled and we are left with £1,500 (loans didn't cost as much to pay back as expected) and hubby tells me he needs £700-800 for the club trophies etc because instead of saving the subs as they came in he flippin spent it all (I can account for about £350 of it) !!! he didn't notice it cause it was in £5-£20 at a time!! Good job i did take out more then we needed or we'd be straight back at square 1!!


Will be really glad come the 1st September when my new finance month starts all this money malarky is sorted and I can start this diary and budgeting properly.

Debating getting a cork board (and DS1s A3 sugar paper) and breaking down the monthly money so HE can see how easily it goes down and hopefully respect the budgetting!.....

Dorastar

chickywiggle wrote: »

Sunday 21st

Boredom (and toddler hyperactivity) got too much so took DS1 & 2 (and hubby) swimmng for first time in over a year. £10 entry (+ £3 on choccy and drinks....must remember to take some next time). Trouble is I now have the swimming bug (so does DS1) and would LOVE to go more often if I could afford it.

Might be worth asking them if they have any deals or cheaper swimming times - ours has a mums and tots one where you only pay for mum in the week and a splash zone for older kids which is a 2 hour long free session during summer. Don't know if any of the nestle or asda vouchers are any use for swimming but might be worth looking at as well.

Keep up the good work mrs chicky:)

chickywiggle

Dorastar wrote: »

Might be worth asking them if they have any deals or cheaper swimming times - ours has a mums and tots one where you only pay for mum in the week and a splash zone for older kids which is a 2 hour long free session during summer. Don't know if any of the nestle or asda vouchers are any use for swimming but might be worth looking at as well.

Keep up the good work mrs chicky:)

thanks.

we don't pay for them yet as they aren't 5 - just 2 adults. i used to take toddlerW to baby splash which only cost us about £3.50 but a) it was carp and b) its not on a day hubby is off and i can't take the 2 on my own (humph!)

I do seriously think tho if you are taking a child under 5 it shouldn't be full adult price as adults don't exactly get any benefit from it!