Got to get a grip of this...

E2006

Ive spent some time this morning working out when my wages will reduce, to what approximately, approx budget for then, and what needs paying for before then. I have a couple of hundred pounds owing on a debenhams card which I want rid of. I dont use it anyore, and have just been chipping away at it with low payments, but Ive decided that I want rid of that as that will mean all we have is the virgin card on 0%, so only one payment going out each month. I dont have enough spare each month for the next 3 months to pay it off with the existing budget we have planned, and I dont want to reduce the amount going into the maternity savings, so have decided to do PADs to that card, and use any money that I manage to save from the weekly budget to make additional payments. If I manage to throw £20 per week at it, by the time LO arrives it should be down to just over £100 which I will pay off in one final payment. So thats the challenge for the next few months...it just tidies the finances up further.

We're still sticking to the weekly meal plan. The fridge is pretty bare but everything is getting used up. We've just made a load of cheesy mash with some potatoes that have been there for weeks and this has been portioned up for the freezer. We've also used the last few scraps of bacon, and a few OOD eggs along with some sad left over mushrooms for brunch and the last of the OD eggs have been made into egg mayo for DH's packed lunches.

Ive also done a freezer inventory and we have enough for 17 individual meals so thats next week taken care of - we will only need mimimal bots of fresh for the packed lunches so hopefully will be able to pay a decent amount of the D card.

E2006

Im home from work today because Im not feeling well . I was sent home yesterday afternoon, and went in again today but just dont feel well again. Im so frustrated because Ive just had a week and a half's holidays over Christmas and should be fit and ready to manage the last few weeks before starting maternity leave! Still, its the weekend now so hopefully I will shake this off and be better by Monday.

Ive checked the bank accounts online. Ive made a payment of £1.20 to the D card just to tidy up the loose change in the accounts...every little helps

Ive also withdrawn the last of the budget which now has to last us until 21st January. TBH, by the time I pay for DS's birthday party tomorrow what we have amounts to a bit less than a weeks worth of money which needs to last us 2 :eek:. I have plenty of food in the house, and have been this afternoon and bought some fresh top up bits. The problem area is the amount of petrol we use, which cant be shaved in any way. We need a minimum of £50 per week (£20 for me and £30 for DH), and there's no movement on this like there is the food. So thats going to take whats left of the budget. We have savings, but we WILL NOT touch them. We cant use the credit card (nor would we) as we purposefuly dont know the pin number, so we have no choice but to get through these next 2 weeks....and theres nothing I like more than a challenge

E2006

Ive been through the fridge/freezer and cupboards and have meal planned for the next 10 days. I have enough food left for evening meals to get to pay day but decided to leave the last weeks meal plan until just before then so we can decide what we fancy making with what we have left (otherwise the menu may get a bit repetative!). Lunches are packed lunch for the 3 of us - sandwiches, fruit, biscuits for the boys and a cereal bar for me and I have everything in that I need for this; bread (although may need another loaf for the last week) along with cheese and onion/pickle, and eggs (for egg mayo) as fillers. I also have some crisps, mini cheddars and loads of christmas sweets and chocolate as treats. So the meal plan looks like this, but may be moved around depending on what we have going on these days (some days DS isnt mentioned because he has tea at either my mums or MILs):-

F 4th: Veggie pasta (and garlic bread for DH)
S 5th: L: Soup & sandwich (Me & DH)/fishfingers, veg and chips followed by jelly & ice cream and then cake (DS - at his party)
S 5th: D Home made chinese (me and DH)/ beans on toast (DS)
S 6th: L: Sunday lunch at MILs
S 6th: Cheese burgers (DH & DS)/crumpets (me)
M 7th: Steak casserole, mash roasties and veg
T 8th: Southern fried chicken in pittas with salad and chips
W 9th: Baked potatoes with cheese and beans
T 10th: Chilli & rice (me & DH)/ boiled eggs and soldiers (DS)(light tea before kick boxing)
F 11th: Salmon stirfry & noodles (me)/chinese style chicken curry with egg fried rice(DH)
S 12th: Spaghetti bolognese & garlic bread for DS & DH
S 13th: L: Sunday lunch at MIL's
S 13th: TBC on next meal plan

E2006

We had a viewing on our house yesterday - they seemed really positive, so hopefully make an offer. We have our eye on a couple that we like, but one in particular, although we will need to make a really cheeky offer to get it to the amount we want to pay (we've set ourselves a budget and wont go above it!). Its a brand new house on a new housing estate - its the last house left and we viewed it last October. They were really keen on getting it sold then and tried to offer us a part exchange but the figures didnt suit us so we said no. The house is still vacant now and they told us last year that they already have their new site that they want to get started on so hopefully will accept our offer. We can only but try! If they do go for our offer, with the existing equity we will have to put down as a deposit, we will have one heck of a house for a very affordable price!!

DS's party went really well. One of the guests also offered to get us some extra discount as she worked there - we ended up saving almost half of the cost of the party :j. DS also got quite a bit of money as gifts, so can now buy himself some bits he has been after for his kickboxing (headguard and gloves) which amount to £48 and which we have been putting off buying for a while with Christmas coming up. With money he got for Christmas too, he will have quite a bit left over which he can pay into his bank account.

E2006

Some changes to the meal plan. We didnt have the HM chinese last night because in all the prep for the viewing I forgot to lift chicken out of the freezer :mad:.
MIL is away today and tomorrow too so no sunday lunch today. Ive also taken off the allocated days, because I suspect the remaining meals will be moved around to suit. New pan looks something like this:-

F 4th: Veggie pasta (and garlic bread for DH)
S 5th: L: sandwich (Me & DH)/fishfingers, veg and chips followed by jelly & ice cream and then cake (DS - at his party)
S 5th: [STRIKE]D Home made chinese (me and DH)/ beans on toast (DS) [/STRIKE] McDonalds
S 6th: L: [STRIKE]Sunday lunch at MILs[/STRIKE] Soup and crusty rolls
S 6th: Steak casserole, mash roasties and veg
Southern fried chicken in pittas with salad and chips
Baked potatoes with cheese and beans
Chilli & rice (me & DH)/ boiled eggs and soldiers (DS)(light tea before kick boxing)
Salmon stirfry & noodles (me)/chinese style chicken curry with egg fried rice(DH)
Spaghetti bolognese & garlic bread for DS & DH

E2006

Still doing well on the meal plan. We had to make a couple of changes - but only for things we already had in. We had a viewing on our house last night and they didnt leave until 7pm. DH wanted to grab a takeaway but I stayed strong and we had beans on toast :T. Tea tonight was going to be chilli and rice, but when I defrosted it it was bolognese, so we had that with jackets instead - I really should label the food that goes in the freezer! Meal plan looks like this for this week:

F 4th: Veggie pasta (and garlic bread for DH)
S 5th: L: sandwich (Me & DH)/fishfingers, veg and chips followed by jelly & ice cream and then cake (DS - at his party)
S 5th: D [STRIKE]Home made chinese (me and DH)/ beans on toast (DS[/STRIKE]) McDonalds
S 6th: L: [STRIKE]Sunday lunch at MILs [/STRIKE]Soup and crusty rolls
S 6th: Steak casserole, mash roasties and veg
M:Baked potatoes with cheese and beans
T: Southern fried chicken in pittas with salad and chips
W:Beans on toast
T: Baked potatoes and bolognese
F: HM chinese

Just tomorrow to go and then I need to plan for next week. We have very little cash left to last, but do have loads of food in the freezer. We will just need some fresh bits, fruit, milk etc so not a big spend. We have around £25 for that next week and if we manage not to spend any more then the savings remain intact!

Only 10 days until payday :j

E2006

Well we have £30 to last us the next 9 days. Ive meal planned - lunches and dinners, and Ive been grocery shopping this morning. I spent £6.54 in Mr A and £11.71 in Al** so £18.25, and for that I got 3 bulging bags of shopping, so not bad going! I replenished some baking goods (ashamed to say I havent baked in ages - the earlier 4/5 months of my pregnancy wernt easy so Ive fallen into the trap of buying treats rather than baking them, but back on the wagon now...) and the plan is to make iced Lemon cake tomorrow, some chocolate cornflake cakes for DS (melting down some of the mountain of Christmas chocolate he got), and possibly some twinks. Im going to make soup for lunches during the week, fruit and sponge cake to have with custard after a couple of the lighter teas during the week, and I think DH will be suprised at the variety of tasty food we have this week with such a small amount of shopping. The reason is because I really thought about what we were having and got creative with what we already have in, rather than aimlessly buying bits and then having no clue what (or motivation) to actually make.

Ive made a pad of 69p to the CC. Not much but every little payment chips a little more of the balance away.

Only 8 days until payday :j

E2006

4 days until payday :j
We had to take some money out of the savings for petrol :mad: Neither of us could manage until next Monday so we've used £40. Its not that bad, and the plan is to put it back on Monday when Im paid but Im so annoyed we had to dip into it! Still, we've done a lot this month and have managed really well to get this far, and as I said to DH, its so nice to know whatever happens we have money to fall back on. I never want to be without savings again!

Im so tired now, and so ready to finish work - only 3 weeks and 2 days left. The thing is I need to get to that point because Ive worked out how much needs to go into the savings/be paid off the holiday, and my maternity leave cant start any earlier than 11th Feb. Never mind, it will come round quick. Work sorted out my breakdown of earnings for the 9 months Im off, and it should be just enough for u to manage without touching the savings (and hopefully allow us to save for Christmas as planned and put money to one side each month for clothes etc for the kids).

I also want to fill the freezer with lots of HM 'ready meals' for after LO arrives, so Ive been working on a meal plan. Im going to start at the beginning of Feb buying the ingredients for 1-2 different meals (aiming to get 2 portions of each type) each week and build up freezer stocks that way rather than doing it all in one go. Im not sure how Im going to fit it all in the freezer though :think:

No more PAD's yet, but hopefully once I get paid I can start again...

E2006

Pay day today :j. Savings pots topped up, some money paid to the holiday and CC's paid. Just need to try to stick to the budget this month!

We took some old gold into a local jewellers at the weekend - it was the smallest amount and was bits we had had for absolute years - I dont wear yelow gold now, so it was never going to be worn again - we got £190 for it :eek:. Seriously, there was hardly anything there and we expected about £60-80 tops and would have been chuffed with that amount!

On a :mad: note, someone crashed into the back of DH this morning on his way to work. There's not loads of damage, and the other party's insurance will cover it, but its just an inconvenience. Apparently the person who caused the accident just wasnt paying attention to the fact that all of the cars in front had stopped! DH was stationary at the time so took quite a bump, and had to go to be checked out as his back was very sore afterwards. He's been told its likely torn muscle and has been given codeine to take. When he came out of the hospital he had a parking ticket (he was parked in a street where half is permits and half is not - he was in the half that's not permits only so will need to appeal it. He then came home, and whilst eating a biscuit snapped his tooth! He's having one of those days....

Thankfully Monday is over.....:o

E2006

Its my wedding anniversary today:heart2: although DH has gone out tonight!! I dont mind..we didnt have anything planned and I said he should go when he was asked. Its just the boys getting together in one of their houses for a boys night in (lol) so a cheap night (just the cost of some bottles of beer). We were given some money for Christmas to book a mini break for ourselves, so will do that after the baby is born and that will be out anniversary treat. Im too far pregnant to be bothered to do anything at the minute to be honest

DH's mum gave us a 'meal' from M&S to enjoy in the house as she knew we wernt planning on going out. Its 2 huge pieces of salmon, veg, dessert and wine. We are off out for lunch tomorrow and I agreed to take the dessert, so as the dessert that came with the meal is a full summer fruit pie (that serves 6) I will take that. It also means that if we have the salmon for dinner on Monday night, I can save the mince I bought for lasagna and make a huge batch of chilli/bolognese to start my freezer stocks for when Im on maternity leave

We needed to change our mobile phones today. Rather than going to orange we went to phones 4u and they threw in loads of freebies - £60 worth on the same price contracts we are already on (which is a fairly low contract) as well as better handsets than we would have got with orange on the lower contracts. We also bought MIL's birthday pressie today - and as I had a voucher for the store we went to, the gift that should have cost £25 only cost £10!