Will the 60(ish)% solution work for us? Here's hoping!!

DaisyMeRollin

I was hoping that I could declare today as a NSD but then I realised that as today was my daughters first day back at school I had to pay out for her dinner money so it looks like that may be out the window! They've somehow also managed to go through all of the reduced full-fat milk I had stored away in the freezer except for one final 4 pinter which is defrosting now so I may need to pop into the local Lidl whilst I'm out and about anyway. I'm in two minds about the whole school dinner thing. Whilst the menu does look good it certainly isn't cheap at £1.90 a day (£365 a year! - I could do a challenge with that!) but I do like the idea of her eating a warm meal in the day. I also love hearing her tell me all about what she ate for dinner on the walk home which I somehow don't think would happen with her ham sandwiches... It would be great if I could make those Bento boxes for her but it would probably end up costing even more!

DaisyMeRollin

Today really didn't end up being a NSD! After my little girls dinner money I had to drop something of to my OH's nan who lives a few miles away, just as I got there I realised that the fuel guage on the car had dropped just below half and for some reason when it does that it gets temperamental! It seems to make up how much fuel is left once it get's below the half way point but is completely accurate above it - wierd! Anyway, this meant that I had to put some fuel in since I don't like risking it if the kids are in the car. There was another £20 gone then but luckily I have no real plans to use that car much in the next week so should last and then came the shop in Lidl...

Earlier this morning I'd been on the Resourcefulcook website and printed off a shopping list for 7 meals for 2 people for £15. I was a little dubious about whether it would actually cost that much since there seemed to be a decent amount of fresh veg in it which can sometimes bump up the cost and when I got to the till it rang up as £29.31. But... I had put some extras in so when I got to the car I totted up how much the actual ingredient items had cost and it came to £16.10! And I bought way too much of the product in some cases since it worked out cheaper (pack of 20 sausages not the 8 the recipe asked for and a 7.5kg sack of baking potatoes rather than the 4 individual ones since the indvidual ones were £1.10 per kg and the 7.5kg sack was £2.50! Bit of a no brainer really!) The extras weren't wasteful either, just food for my OH to take to work and food for the kids and I was even pedantic enough to transfer the 79p I had spent on pop from the fun-money account to cover that little luxury! Lol

So this food now has to stretch for 9 days since Fridays should be my shopping day and so long as the portions are half way reasonable it should be fine. If not I think my husband will be ordering a takeaway on the sly each night just to spite my frugality!

DaisyMeRollin

Wow, it really was a rubbish start this morning! My little girl decided that nothing was going to be right in the world and played up continuously until we left the house. Because she'd been messing about so much we ended up leaving late so we missed her school bus and I had to drive her the 16 mile round trip to school! (It's one of the few Welsh medium primary schools in the Borough so the catchment area is HUGE!). The second I got back into the house my son was sick everywhere! (He gets car-sick so nothing to worry about). So there goes my plans to NOT use any fuel today and NOT use the washing machine until I had a full load ready. <sigh> At least the day can only get better, right?

On a plus note I slowcooked a chicken last night so I can get a few days worth of rubber-chicken out of it. I love doing it in the slow cooker since the meat literally falls off the bone and you can get so many little bits of chicken and not just the big chunks. They're perfect for salads (or the chicken roll the OH had when he got home from work last night) and there's so much less waste. As soon as that lot has run out I can get cracking on the recipes I found on RC. They look yummy!

DaisyMeRollin

Another NSD! Woohoo! I've got a lovelly chicken pasta bake planned for later so we can use up the rest of the chicken and I've achieved everything I set out on my To-Do list! I like today

I'm especially liking the fact that I get to go skating tonight. I've not been for nearly a month thanks to Christmas/New Years and I've really missed it. As a bonus we've relocated training to somewhere a little closer (it's still a 30-45 min drive away but it's better than it was!), and I've managed to get a lift with one of the other girls so I only need to use the fuel to drive to her house. We take it in turns to drive but at least I get to have a few weeks here and there without having to drive.

All in all it's been pretty productive. I've downloaded the Turbo Lister as we have LOADS of stuff that we could sell hanging around and I've started to gather together all of my books to put on Greenmetropolis/Amazon. I've decided that we'll use Jan to get all this stuff organised since a lot of it is in storage down my parents so not easily accessible for pics at the moment but the next time there's a free listing weekend everything will be all ready. It's just a pity I didn't get my !!!! in gear in time for this weekend!

HappyNow

Hi, just popped in to wish you well and to say WOW at the thought of being mortgage-free at 30! What a wonderful position to be in x

DaisyMeRollin

So I've been messing around with a buget even more (it's becoming a slight obsession!) and I can't actually believe how much spend on somethings. We spend more on petrol than we do on food for us for the month! Crazy, but it was the pay off for living where we do, we could've lived close to town and spent twice as much on a comparable house or moved to the outskirts, had a cheap mortgage and spent more on fuel. At least I can choose not to go anywhere in the car for a few days but I can't really just choose to not pay all the mortgage!

I've been trying to set an actual budget for Christmas and birthdays this year since last year I went a bit nuts. It wasn't anything we couldn't afford but towards the end it just felt like we were spending Monopoly money. It's surprised me that even by being pretty stingy with the money allocated for gifts for each person it's still coming to just a bit over £500 for all gifts for the year. I really have to pay closer attention to this now since all the money for these has to come out of the 'Occasional expenses' pot and I have to try make sure it doesn't clash with a big payment coming out. Luckily my kids are young enough to not be asking for things like games consoles or expensive clothes (and they have toys coming out of their ears!) so it really won't be expensive for them. My husband on the other hand.... whenever I ask him what he wants for any occasion his first question is: "How much am I allowed to spend?" and even then he'll try to push it. He probably won't be too impressed when I give him the answer to that question this year...

DaisyMeRollin

I'm officially in love with the Resourceful Cook website :blushing:. I selected a few random meals which I though that both the kids and my OH would be willing to try and EVERY meal so far has been a keeper! I'm definitely going to be scouring that site each week and planning my grocery shop around it!

As stupid as it sounds I'm actually quite excited about tomorrow since it's payday, which means we've got a bit more money put into the 'debt repayment' account. It's been so sad seeing all the accounts have a balance in it (no matter how small!) and seeing big fat zero's next to that! Especially since the main aim is to have as much put into that as quickly as possible.

lolly_896

Hey Daisymerollin,

I thought i would pop in and say Hi after your helpful posts on my Diary (Unorganised Mum) And i'm shocked at the similarities Were are also in Wales (I'm assuming you are too given your daughter is receiving a Welsh medium education) We live in what seems the middle of no where. And i really would love to start roller derby, so much!! I played roller and ice hockey as a child and there is a local(ish) club to me, i just can't get there around my husbands work shifts!

I'm off to have a browse at the resoureful cook website and have subscribed to your thread

Lolly x

DaisyMeRollin

Wow Lolly, this is so weird. I've just had to miss the last week of Roller Derby training because of my husband working shifts and I skate for a Cardiff team! It's a little bit freaky! lol.

DaisyMeRollin

Well, I did what I hardly ever do today and went to good 'ol Tesco's. It used to be the only place I shopped (not because of any snobbery, just because that's where my parents shopped) but then I got wise to the wonders of Lidl and was converted. I had to go there today because my OH wanted to pick up something specific and had a look at the kids crafts kits which usually work out well for presents for school mates and we have a few parties coming up. You should've seen my face when the only thing slightly suitable were a few felt-art kits, but they were £3 each for a tiny box! :eek: £3 for a tiny bit of felt cut into funny shapes! £2.50 for a colouring book! (I somehow don't think I could get away with giving a Tesco Value colouring book for presents!) I honestly couldn't believe it and ended up spending the best part of an hour traipsing up and down various ailses to see whether there would be anything else that was a little bit more substanital and reasonably priced since I wasn't about to use up even more fuel to go into town. I did eventually but it really shows how much you can get conned for pure convenience. I think I'm going to have to start buying these kind of things whenever I see something appropriate at HomeBargains or the like and keeping a store at home so I never get caught out and end up spending a tenner on the first thing I see at the supermarket on the way to the party! On a good note, they did have quite a few good children's DVD's for about £3 (Horton Hear's a Who, Bee Movie, Over the Hedge, that kind of thing) so that could be a good idea for gifts since they look pretty substantial. No doubt I'd end up giving it to the kid who isn't allowed to watch TV though... :doh: