Cleggie's frugaltastic journey to financial freedom!!

cleggie

Afternoon all!

Just been shopping at L!dl and spent £37.52. Included a massive box of washing powder (£9.49) and 24 loo rolls (cushelle- £6.99).

Hoping that i can get away with just that amount for this week (my week is from Fri-Fri), but as usual i will probably have to get milk and bread in Mr T at some point this week!

cleggie

Oh darn it.
The handbrake cable on my car snapped, so i am going to have to get that replaced now. Its a never ending flow of expenditure!!
I have been quoted £40-£45 so not too expensive. Thank god i have some money saved for things like this!!

Things to do today:
Avoid SMs
Check OLB
Write meal plan- i have a real issue with this one. I dont know why! I kepe meaning to do it, but it just seeems so much stress!!

Suffolk_lass

cleggie wrote: »

Oh darn it.
The handbrake cable on my car snapped, so i am going to have to get that replaced now. Its a never ending flow of expenditure!!
I have been quoted £40-£45 so not too expensive. Thank god i have some money saved for things like this!!

Things to do today:
Avoid SMs
Check OLB
Write meal plan- i have a real issue with this one. I dont know why! I kepe meaning to do it, but it just seeems so much stress!!

Thank goodness for those savings! I know it is annoying but that is why they are there. I get really protective of my emergency funds but we really shouldn't give ourselves a hard time about them because they stop us going into debt when the emergency things happen. So well done for having the savings! :T

I hate meal planning too. This week (being the first week of March) I decided to not do the shopping myself so it needed to revolve around stuff I've got with DH taking a list - obviously the freezer and storecupboard but also half a butternut squash in the fridge so I started with that - so one night will be curry with that as a side dish - probably prawn or chicken (both in the freezer) with a jar of C00p sauce (the healthy choices one is large and £1.19 and already in the cupboard). I've always got frozen peeled garlic and frozen chillis and a few onions and rice so that meal is already paid for. I won't bore you with the rest of the week but that is sort of how it starts. I'm boring about breakfasts; either cereal or porridge with berries of some sort (one little superfood extravagance) and take pot luck or nothing for lunch (usually at work).

Meal planning has stopped me from buying extra meat by mistake but I haven't totally sorted it. I had loads of milk left on Thursday so we had macaroni cheese which helped with that!

I don't know what we are having from day to day but I know roughly what the week will be and I find leaving one day blank means I get imaginative and try different things (otherwise I get bored and stop doing it - it feels constraining somehow). Anyway, I'll stop rambling - good luck with March!
SL

cleggie

Thanks SL.

I think for meal planning, from now on i am going to list 7 days worth of meals and just pick which one i want daily. Makes it much easier that way for me i think!

You are right- thats what savings are for, and thank goodness i have some!

Florenceem

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Thank goodness for those savings! I know it is annoying but that is why they are there. I get really protective of my emergency funds but we really shouldn't give ourselves a hard time about them because they stop us going into debt when the emergency things happen. So well done for having the savings! :T

I hate meal planning too. This week (being the first week of March) I decided to not do the shopping myself so it needed to revolve around stuff I've got with DH taking a list - obviously the freezer and storecupboard but also half a butternut squash in the fridge so I started with that - so one night will be curry with that as a side dish - probably prawn or chicken (both in the freezer) with a jar of C00p sauce (the healthy choices one is large and £1.19 and already in the cupboard). I've always got frozen peeled garlic and frozen chillis and a few onions and rice so that meal is already paid for. I won't bore you with the rest of the week but that is sort of how it starts. I'm boring about breakfasts; either cereal or porridge with berries of some sort (one little superfood extravagance) and take pot luck or nothing for lunch (usually at work).

Meal planning has stopped me from buying extra meat by mistake but I haven't totally sorted it. I had loads of milk left on Thursday so we had macaroni cheese which helped with that!

I don't know what we are having from day to day but I know roughly what the week will be and I find leaving one day blank means I get imaginative and try different things (otherwise I get bored and stop doing it - it feels constraining somehow). Anyway, I'll stop rambling - good luck with March!
SL

I am SO the opposite - always have been a list person - Virgo! I don't think I would get off to sleep at night if I hadn't got the next day's dinner sorted. I like to get whatever we need for the meal out of the freezer at night and into the fridge - so it is properly defrosted. I write a menu in my diary - not set in stone - if a bargain comes along - change the meal plan. I find planning a menu saves so much money.

cleggie

Florenceem wrote: »

I am SO the opposite - always have been a list person - Virgo! I don't think I would get off to sleep at night if I hadn't got the next day's dinner sorted. I like to get whatever we need for the meal out of the freezer at night and into the fridge - so it is properly defrosted. I write a menu in my diary - not set in stone - if a bargain comes along - change the meal plan. I find planning a menu saves so much money.

See, i am the same as you with the lists in every other way apart from meal planning! (I am a Libra- insdecisive!).

Barbeduk

Sorry to hear about the handbrake cleggie, just typical isn't it.

Very impressed that you have emergency savings. Once I've finally paid off the CCs I will do the same dammit!

Good luck with the menu planning, I have a rough idea at the beginning of each week but it helps that we more or less eat the same stuff all the time. Definitely creatures of habit!

PennyGrabber

I have tried meal planning a few ways, and now have a system that works really well for us.

I used to plan a month in advance, breakfast, lunch and dinner, all allocated, one big stock up shop, follwed by weekly top ups. That failed for me.

Then I planned a month in advance just for dinners, and made sure I was stocked up on breakfast and lunch things. That was ok for a while, but very time consuming, and didn't allow for leftovers or ys items, and I was filling my freezer faster than I could empty it, while still doing the major stock up shop and weekly top ups.

Now, I plan a week in advance, and try to only shop once a week, for what I need that week. If I see a bargain, I will buy it IF we will use it soon, otherwise I can just wait til it's on offer again. So, the planning bit: each week, I plan on a Thursday or a Friday, depending on whether the children are with me or at their dad's. They each get to choose one dinner they want for the next week, and I choose the rest based on what we have in. I used to not allocate meals to days, but I've wised up to my habits now, and I DO allocate now, because I work the leftovers into the plan, plus I can organise according to how much time I'll have that day to prep the meal..

Eg - this week's plan is as follows (breakfast always cereal/toast, unless it's a special occasion/the weekend and we fancy a change):
Sat
Lunch - tom soup
Dinner - party food

Sun
Lunch - lo party food
Dinner - pie, chips, carrot and peas

Mon
Lunch - pack ups, philli and crackers for me
Dinner - Cottage pie (chosen by DD)

Tues
Lunch - pack ups, philli and crackers for me
Dinner - just me, so something ood

Weds
Lunch - pack ups (ex dh does these), philli and crackers for me
Dinner - just me again, prob lo from last night

Thurs
Lunch - pack ups, philli and crackers for me
Dinner - sausage casserole (chosen by DS)

Fri
Lunch - pack ups, philli and crackers for me
Dinner - lo sausage casserole (need a quick meal as come back late from swimming lessons. I usually do enough on the Thurs that we can just microwave the leftovers onthe Friday. Sometimes I'll change the pasta/spud/rice bits, but often we just have exactly the same.)

Hope this helps a bit. I find this works much better for us now, and the children feel like they have some choices too. I remember never knowing what was for dinner until I sat down at the table, let alone choosing a dinner! I can now take advantage of ys/on offer things. Oh, by the way, the rule is, if you chose it this week, you can't choose it next week! That way, I can have some form of variety too. The children often choose things like tomato soup/hedgehogs/meatballs and pasta/cottage pie/fish pie/spag bol. They rarely choose roasts or chip-type things. Maybe they just haven't realised they could do that!!!!

cleggie

Morning All!

Thanks PG, you seem very organised to me
My kids arent interested in choosing meals (i have already tried that one), as long as there is food on the table, and it doesnt included mushrooms, they are both happy!
The same as you, i think that weekly planning is better for me, not monthly planning.
Its odd that now i have changed over to planning the GC weekly, it seems much more doable! My monthly aim was £250, and i changed it over to weekly and gave myself the budget of £60 a week.
In a 4 week month, thats actually only £240...£10 less than what i was originally planning on a monthy spend, but it seems so much easier to see it as £60 a week! I have no idea why!

The kids have been moaning that there arent enough snacks in the house, so i am going to have to come up with some cheap ideas for snacks. I have already been making flapjacks, which have gone down a storm with myself and my 7 yr od, but my 12 years isnt keen on them at all.
Both the kids eat a LOT of food, easily more than i do in a day, i have no idea where they put it all, they are so skinny!! Mind you, i think they take after their dad as he is 6ft 3 and a beanpole, but eats everything in sight!!

So, my next plan is to find snack stuff that i can either make or buy for cheap. I am going ot have a look over on the 1st page of the GC for ideas. I think i remember the £1shop doing snacks and stuff, so might have a look at those next time i am in town, which will be tomorrow.

Got to take the cr to the garage to get the handbrake done today, and also pick up some bedroom curtains that i reserved from argos. they were in the clearance bit, reduced from £24.00 down to £5.99, so very pleased with that!

Things to do today:
Check OLB
Pick up curtains
Take car to garage

MunniMuncha

Cleggie you were on my mind for alot of the day yesterday - I was desperate to go to L*dl but really didn't need anything and I've spent most of my monthly budget already with over 2 weeks to go:eek:. It was hard, really hard, but could breathe at 5pm as I knew the shops were then shut:D. Spent the day cleaning windows instead as well as washing and drying and cleaning tiles in downstairs cloakroom.:j

Think next month I might change my spend from monthly to weekly, and, like you, I try and budget £250 (4 adults - well 3 adults and a 14 year old DD, who eats the same as us) so £60 seems alot better doesn't it - which will then give me a £10 contingency for the couple of days that are over the 28 days each month - so thanks for that:T