Cleggie's frugaltastic journey to financial freedom!!

valerie57

Hi Cleggie. Well done for moving so quickly to set this up and sticking to your list. Once you decide to do something you move fast!!! I agree that porridge is a great filler. For treats you could consider HM muffins too. You could do savoury ones (with a bit of cheese, you don't need much) or put a bit of fruit in. Good luck.

cleggie

Woo-Hoo!

My Ex just came to pick the kids up for the day and gave me £100 towards the kids school trips that they are going on!
I already have the money for the kids trips, as i put it aside months ago, so i wont have to touch my bank account this week as i'll use the £100 for petrol, milk & bread, and anything else i need ( i need to top up my print account at uni).

I am debating whether i shoud use the remainder of the money to stock up in breakfast items? What do you all think?
The reason being that i have loads of food to make meals, but barely any to make breakfasts.

My aim for this week coming (but not every week) is to not enter any supermarket at all from Mon-Fri so i am thinking about popping to lidl to get the breakfast/lunch stuff today.

Any opinions would be grateful!


Thanks Valerie and Baroley for saying hi, its lovely to have the support of everyone on here (and other threads too) and it really does make the world of difference!
Porridge oats it is then!

cleggie

Valerie, i dont suppose you have a recipe, or a link to one, for those HM muffins (both sweet & savoury ones) do you?

PennyGrabber

Hi Cleggie! We've just come back from a cinema trip. We only ever go on a saturday, when it's £1.25 each, and we take a little tub each filled with sweets from our stash!! All in all, a very ms trip! Plus, we had a great time, which was even better.

For breakfasts, it depends how much time you have. I have always found that a warm/hot breakfast fills you up better, and lasts longer. Not sure if that's real, or just how it feels! What about waffles? I'm considering investing in a waffle maker (Andrew James are really good co, but cheaper to buy through fleabay than from their own site). All you need is a bit of batter mixture, then you can drizzle all sorts of stuff on top, or add icing sugar for sweet ones, or cheese and bacon for savoury ones. You could even make the batter the night before and leave in the fridge, so all you have to do is cook them. As you've got a little windfall, would it be worth investing? Inc postage, you're looking at £36. Seems like a lot, but them how much does an egg and some flour cost?!

Also, what about one bowl of cereal and then a bowl of fruit and yoghurt? You could make yoghurt quite cheaply in a flask or your slow cooker. I don't like this type of yog myself, as I don't like natural yog, but my friend tried the one I made and she liked it!

Ooh, something we used to have as kids that filled us up more, was a mashed banana underneath the cereals! Makes them taste soooo much better! I esp like that under honey nut cornflakes!

Today, I have finished off my monthly ins and outs budget, with allocations for xmas saving, ents (£100, but that includes my pocket money, and all saved from here will go towards summer hols activities, hoping to balance out over the year). I have also found three old purses, to put different bits of money in. I figured that having cash for gc works well, so I'm taking that to the next level, and doing for ents, gifts and petrol too! Luckily, I have a big handbag!

I LOVE being a TA. All the good bits of teaching, without the cra**y bits! No planning, marking, parents' evenings, staff mtgs, etc etc etc, but I get to have fun with the children anyway. I am lucky, in that I cover PPA once a week, which actually amounts to a third of my pay :eek:, and I do take my class when the teacher is ill or on a course, paid at supply rates. I don't really want to go back to full time teaching now, having had a taste for this life, hence the major budgetting! If I can cope, then why would I go back?! I love my evenings, weekends and hols too much! I get to spend real time with my children, and I can't put a price on that.

Have a good day - ONLY BUY WHAT YOU NEED AT THE SM TODAY!!!!

Spiggle

cleggie wrote: »

Woo-Hoo!

My Ex just came to pick the kids up for the day and gave me £100 towards the kids school trips that they are going on!
I already have the money for the kids trips, as i put it aside months ago, so i wont have to touch my bank account this week as i'll use the £100 for petrol, milk & bread, and anything else i need ( i need to top up my print account at uni).

I am debating whether i shoud use the remainder of the money to stock up in breakfast items? What do you all think?
The reason being that i have loads of food to make meals, but barely any to make breakfasts. ... Porridge oats it is then!

Hi cleggie, brilliant bonus there. Oats don't cost a lot and so you don't need to blow the full £100!

You're obviously over the moon with getting the cash, and who wouldn't be, but it's probably better to hold on to it for a day or so and have a darned good think about how you use it to its very best. :think:

Do you really want to store goods for the sm?

On the oats front, I always do what my dear old Mum used to do and put them in a pan with the milk/water overnight with the lid on. Or these days in a micro bowl with a cover I suppose! The oats are then scruptiously smooth and creamy after you heat them up in the morning. Mmmmmmm, might just go and make a bowl!

Anyway, hope you stuck to your list, got everything you needed and don't need to go in a sm again this week! :rotfl:

Take care,
Spigs

cleggie

Afternoon!

Well, i worked out what to do with the money:


-I put £30 petrol in the car, which means i wont have to use any of 'my' money next week to get to uni and back or for my trip to the local town.

-I went to L!dl (after writing a list) to get breakfast stuff + bread and milk, and spent £13.47.:j:j:D

I got some porridge oats (from tesco, value ones), yogurt, breakfast muffins, Bagels, crumpets, the l!dl version of coco-pops and some tea cakes and a few other things that i needed. Totally forgot bread though! D'oh!

Then i got home and put the change (and remaining money) into my container that i save money in (kind of like a sealed pot (SP), but its not actually sealed!).

So, normally i would have spent the whole £100 in dl, just because i couldnt resist stuff...but i think £13.47 is a MUCH better total!

I shouldnt need to get any food (apart from Bread, and milk if we run out) until next friday, nor should i have to put petrol in the car.

cleggie

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi cleggie, brilliant bonus there. Oats don't cost a lot and so you don't need to blow the full £100!

You're obviously over the moon with getting the cash, and who wouldn't be, but it's probably better to hold on to it for a day or so and have a darned good think about how you use it to its very best. :think:

Anyway, hope you stuck to your list, got everything you needed and don't need to go in a sm again this week! :rotfl:

Take care,
Spigs

Oops, i did spend SOME of it Spigs (see above post) but i was MUCh better, HONEST i was!!!!:D

Florenceem

cleggie wrote: »

Valerie, i dont suppose you have a recipe, or a link to one, for those HM muffins (both sweet & savoury ones) do you?

Pancakes - sweet or savoury are a good hot filling brekkie.

Florenceem

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Hi Cleggie! We've just come back from a cinema trip. We only ever go on a saturday, when it's £1.25 each, and we take a little tub each filled with sweets from our stash!! All in all, a very ms trip! Plus, we had a great time, which was even better.

For breakfasts, it depends how much time you have. I have always found that a warm/hot breakfast fills you up better, and lasts longer. Not sure if that's real, or just how it feels! What about waffles? I'm considering investing in a waffle maker (Andrew James are really good co, but cheaper to buy through fleabay than from their own site). All you need is a bit of batter mixture, then you can drizzle all sorts of stuff on top, or add icing sugar for sweet ones, or cheese and bacon for savoury ones. You could even make the batter the night before and leave in the fridge, so all you have to do is cook them. As you've got a little windfall, would it be worth investing? Inc postage, you're looking at £36. Seems like a lot, but them how much does an egg and some flour cost?!

Also, what about one bowl of cereal and then a bowl of fruit and yoghurt? You could make yoghurt quite cheaply in a flask or your slow cooker. I don't like this type of yog myself, as I don't like natural yog, but my friend tried the one I made and she liked it!

Ooh, something we used to have as kids that filled us up more, was a mashed banana underneath the cereals! Makes them taste soooo much better! I esp like that under honey nut cornflakes!

Today, I have finished off my monthly ins and outs budget, with allocations for xmas saving, ents (£100, but that includes my pocket money, and all saved from here will go towards summer hols activities, hoping to balance out over the year). I have also found three old purses, to put different bits of money in. I figured that having cash for gc works well, so I'm taking that to the next level, and doing for ents, gifts and petrol too! Luckily, I have a big handbag!

I LOVE being a TA. All the good bits of teaching, without the cra**y bits! No planning, marking, parents' evenings, staff mtgs, etc etc etc, but I get to have fun with the children anyway. I am lucky, in that I cover PPA once a week, which actually amounts to a third of my pay :eek:, and I do take my class when the teacher is ill or on a course, paid at supply rates. I don't really want to go back to full time teaching now, having had a taste for this life, hence the major budgetting! If I can cope, then why would I go back?! I love my evenings, weekends and hols too much! I get to spend real time with my children, and I can't put a price on that.

Have a good day - ONLY BUY WHAT YOU NEED AT THE SM TODAY!!!!

I had an electric yogurt maker when my children were growing up - youngest is 31 now! It made six pots of yogurt which I flavoured with fresh fruit or some from the freezer - we grew our own soft fruit. I also added a bit of - I think it was Nesquick - came in lots of flavours - powder and liquid. I used to keep a small amount of the yogurt to use as the next starter.
I found it so much cheaper than buying yogurts and I knew what was in them. I had six hungry children to feed on a very tight budget - so I have been thrifty all my life. I used to use a mix of evaporated milk and water to make the yogurts. I never found the yogurt maker after I moved - must have been in the one cupboard that was not emptied!

cleggie

Florenceem wrote: »

Pancakes - sweet or savoury are a good hot filling brekkie.

Ooh, sounds yummy, thanks Florenceem. Bacon and cheese with pancakes sounds like a lovely filling and warm winter brekkie!