We are about to pull the purse strings soooo tight!

Alice_in_Poorland

Well Saturday morning already. I’ve had my weekly outing to the supermarket, and have just spent the last hour analysing the bill. All 184 pounds of it. £18 clothing, £38 on alcohol (including Father’s Day presents), £12 pet food, £11 on toiletries, £6 on bits for birthday cake, leaving £99 on food. Out of the £99, £26 was fruit and veg, £25 on fish and meat and £9.50 on cereal. Out of the balance that is left I would say £20 of that is on snacks. Unnecessary snacks you might say.  I do try where I can to use shops own brand but I did notice that two of the real boxes had gone up 50p per box from last week. 

OH has offered to go next week. It will be interesting to see what the bill is then (he’ll have a list and I know he will stick to it).
Other spend this week are the window cleaner. Keeping up appearances and all that. 

Ordered DS3 some trainers. I’d ordered some but they were too small so have gone back for a refund. The next ones I ordered from the Adidas website. I just thought I’d see if there was a discount code available. Found one with 20% off plus free postage. Total cost £27 I think that’s a good buy. 

Today I’ve pegged three loads of the line and it is drying a treat. We’ve got an appointment booked at the local tip so OH is just loading the car to take a load of rubbish. 

Just done meter readings, we are £46 in credit. 

Now here’s a thing. Our broadband is currently out of contract with EE this month so I’ve been looking a prices etc. OH and DSs would love Sky back for the football. They are even willing to forgo their Christmas and birthday presents.....so they say.  We currently have a broadband and telephone package with EE and having had a quick look it is a mind field to changing it (well it is too me!) It certainly is an expense we could do without but.........
xx

Alice_in_Poorland

...and in a blink of an eye it is Saturday again. Weekly shop done, £135. Haven’t broken it down completely yet, but did spend £14 on serum and stuff for my hair, at least £18 on other toiletries and toilet roll and £10 on alcohol. This is the only shop we do, so much better this week.  The only other spends were £28 on weed killer, ant killer, a pair of new snips, and a plant pot.  Plus £40 on petrol. 

Even though the non essential shops are open I have no desire to go round and even window shop.
I've got 3 loads on the line, we had a little rain shower but I did leave it out. 

Tonight we have having a get together with friends all social distancing but it will be good to see everyone. We are taking our own food and drink so saving money.....could this be the new norm?

I wonder does or has anyone ever won anything from the surveys that come up on the bottom of the receipts? 

Anyway off to change beds and a bit housework.
xx

Lookafterthepennies2020

Alice_in_Poorland said:

Well Saturday morning already. I’ve had my weekly outing to the supermarket, and have just spent the last hour analysing the bill. All 184 pounds of it. £18 clothing, £38 on alcohol (including Father’s Day presents), £12 pet food, £11 on toiletries, £6 on bits for birthday cake, leaving £99 on food. Out of the £99, £26 was fruit and veg, £25 on fish and meat and £9.50 on cereal. Out of the balance that is left I would say £20 of that is on snacks. Unnecessary snacks you might say.  I do try where I can to use shops own brand but I did notice that two of the real boxes had gone up 50p per box from last week. 

OH has offered to go next week. It will be interesting to see what the bill is then (he’ll have a list and I know he will stick to it).
Other spend this week are the window cleaner. Keeping up appearances and all that. 

Ordered DS3 some trainers. I’d ordered some but they were too small so have gone back for a refund. The next ones I ordered from the Adidas website. I just thought I’d see if there was a discount code available. Found one with 20% off plus free postage. Total cost £27 I think that’s a good buy. 

Today I’ve pegged three loads of the line and it is drying a treat. We’ve got an appointment booked at the local tip so OH is just loading the car to take a load of rubbish. 

Just done meter readings, we are £46 in credit. 

Now here’s a thing. Our broadband is currently out of contract with EE this month so I’ve been looking a prices etc. OH and DSs would love Sky back for the football. They are even willing to forgo their Christmas and birthday presents.....so they say.  We currently have a broadband and telephone package with EE and having had a quick look it is a mind field to changing it (well it is too me!) It certainly is an expense we could do without but.........
xx

Virgin are advertising a broadband only deal atm and if you go through quidco theres usually about £100 cashback offered x 

Alice_in_Poorland

Lookafterthepennies2020 said:

Alice_in_Poorland said:

Well Saturday morning already. I’ve had my weekly outing to the supermarket, and have just spent the last hour analysing the bill. All 184 pounds of it. £18 clothing, £38 on alcohol (including Father’s Day presents), £12 pet food, £11 on toiletries, £6 on bits for birthday cake, leaving £99 on food. Out of the £99, £26 was fruit and veg, £25 on fish and meat and £9.50 on cereal. Out of the balance that is left I would say £20 of that is on snacks. Unnecessary snacks you might say.  I do try where I can to use shops own brand but I did notice that two of the real boxes had gone up 50p per box from last week. 

OH has offered to go next week. It will be interesting to see what the bill is then (he’ll have a list and I know he will stick to it).
Other spend this week are the window cleaner. Keeping up appearances and all that. 

Ordered DS3 some trainers. I’d ordered some but they were too small so have gone back for a refund. The next ones I ordered from the Adidas website. I just thought I’d see if there was a discount code available. Found one with 20% off plus free postage. Total cost £27 I think that’s a good buy. 

Today I’ve pegged three loads of the line and it is drying a treat. We’ve got an appointment booked at the local tip so OH is just loading the car to take a load of rubbish. 

Just done meter readings, we are £46 in credit. 

Now here’s a thing. Our broadband is currently out of contract with EE this month so I’ve been looking a prices etc. OH and DSs would love Sky back for the football. They are even willing to forgo their Christmas and birthday presents.....so they say.  We currently have a broadband and telephone package with EE and having had a quick look it is a mind field to changing it (well it is too me!) It certainly is an expense we could do without but.........
xx

Virgin are advertising a broadband only deal atm and if you go through quidco theres usually about £100 cashback offered x 

Thank you for the info. I have to confess I’ve never used Quidco. I know when I very first started this journey... years ago....Quidco was recommended a lot. I think I’ve been lazy about it.  I should check it out. 

Xx

Alice_in_Poorland

It’s Friday morning, certainly a lot cooler this morning. I’ve been pegging the washing out at night then getting in about 9ish in the morning. Stops it burning to a crisp. 

A bit of a disaster on the money front. We paid £150 for a job at home to be done, and they have been total cowboys. The most annoying thing is is that OH could of done it. He has been saying he was going to do it for about 3 years but it was getting to the point where it was a necessity. So with all the other bits we have had to do I thought I’d get this done and we be finished. I did check them out but there you go we’ve been stung. I won’t be getting them back and I’m partly to blame because I didn’t get a written quote and when I queried it with him he said they’d done what I’d asked for. They have sort off, just a very shabby job. Lesson learnt.
On the back of that disaster and the fact that we really haven’t eaten that much this week I’m not doing my usually shop this week.  But we do only need a few fresh bits, and things like we started the last toothpastes so I’ll get a couple more, we need rice, and quite importantly we are running low on hay fever tablets. OH did say he would go and get these bits.

Sit down for this one......I’ve sold some bits on eBay and FB market place. Made £23, it’s a start. 

Xx

Baileys_Babe

@Alice_in_Poorland we buy our antihistamines online, as it is so much cheaper.

Alice_in_Poorland

Baileys_Babe said:

@Alice_in_Poorland we buy our antihistamines online, as it is so much cheaper.

Hi BB thank you for the post. I’ve ordered some antihistamines and some pain killers online. Made a great saving. Appreciate the tip. 

Xx

Alice_in_Poorland

A lovely fresh bright morning, two loads out on the line, shopping done and just had a lovely cooked breakfast. 

Last week we didn’t do our usual shop but I hitched a trip to c0stco with a friend. £103 later....ouch! Did make a few crazy purchases like home made cinnamon bun mix. 

This mornings shop was £131. We are still mainly doing the 1 shop per week.  Tomorrow we are meeting friends, so will take a picnic. I’m trying to make this picnic a cost effective as I can. 😃
We are starting to go back into the office on a rots basis. The dress code is casual, thank goodness for that!

Have a great day.xx

Alice_in_Poorland

I can’t believe we are nearly at the end of July.  I’ve just updated spending diary/budget., and our current debt figure stands at £4200. Although it’s still on the way down i can’t see that we will pay it off before the end of the year. But we will keep plodding. 

We’ve done the meter reading this morning currently £54 debit, with a payment due on the 28th. 

I’m back in the office now so petrol spends have gone up this week. I spent £35 on petrol.
Food spends have been a bit out of control, now that it’s easier to pop into the shop on the way home.  So I did a meal plan before we went shopping yesterday, and although food shop came in at £122 we won’t be going shopping during the week for ‘bits and pieces’.
Its a bit of a chill out day today, we’ve got a few jobs to do around the house and I’ve got a line full of pegging out.....what more could I ask for. 😊
Have a great day.
xx

trishx

Arh Alice, it must really feel within grabbing distance now! Safe to add your DFD back into your footer do you think? 2021 could be a fresh start!