PennyGrabber's Path to Pecuniary Positiveness!!

PennyGrabber

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Still to do today:
[STRIKE]tidy and clean kitchen[/STRIKE]
bit of dusting
tidying in my room
putting clothes away
[STRIKE]go to church at 4pm[/STRIKE]
sorting out paperwork
clean the bathroom

Well, I didn't get mush else done, as you can see. BUT, I did do one leg and my face with my laser removal thing, so that's a good job done. Debating whether to do the other leg tonight, or to tidy my room. Think I'll do an hour in my room and then see how I feel...

Dinner was new pots, pork, carrot, runner beans, apple sauce and gravy. Did it all in the steamer, and then used the water for the gravy. Very ms! Plus, the pots had been half price ages ago, these were the last of them, the pork was ys, as were the beans, and the carrots were from work! Cost of around £1.25. Go me!

Wraps are done already for tomorrow. I was going to bake some bread, but then realised that I had wraps in the freezer, so I'll use some of those tom and Tues, then bake bread for Thurs and Fri (he gives them their lunch on a Weds).

Positives for today:
- nsd
- did a load of overdue housework
- used up stuff from the freezer
- taken out a chicken breast for tomorrow's dinner (sweet and sour, which will also use up a tin of pineapple and a jar of sauce)
- made a date with a friend - we've been saying for ages that we should go out, and after church we finally put a date in our diaries! That makes it far more likely to happen

Thanks to SL, I have ordered some cellular blankets, which will arrive this week some time. Just need to nip to a$da or similar to get some flat sheets. Quite looking forward to it, don't know why I haven't ever done this before!!

Right, off to so an hour in my room. Wish me luck; my room has been the dumping ground for as long as I can remember, and there's only just enough space to get to my bed! Except that you can't actually see my bed atm, because it's covered in clothes that need to go away! I'll report back soon...

Suffolk_lass

I don't want to worry you but when I checked out the John Lewis cellular blanket reviews, the vast majority of the comments were from over 65 purchasers!:rotfl:

I'm working on the theory that Mums know best!!
Have a good week
SL

PennyGrabber

I've always felt I was older than my years, so it's all good!!!

PennyGrabber

I have copied this over from the June gc, as it will serve as a reminder to me of the resolutions I have made.


Well, today was a nsd, the first in a row of hopefully a lot!! Having seen the a!di super six (thanks op), I was tempted to go midweek, but I will resist - we can do without kiwis, and I'm the only only who eats lettuce!

I had freezer roulette for lunch, and then we had pork, new pots, carrots, runner beans, apple sauce and gravy for dinner. Not particularly suitable for this weather, but it was on the shelf in the freezer I'm using up, so that was that! Anyway, I did it all in the steamer, and then used the water to make the gravy, so very ms. And, it was either value, ys or free too, so the whole meal cost just over £1! I've already taken a chicken breast out of the freezer for tomorrow's dinner, sweet and sour as chosen by ds. The chicken was on a diff shelf in the freezer, but I moved something from the use up shelf into its place, so still ok!!

Finally, I'm disgusted with myself about my stocks. I thought I was bad before, and it was my aim to reduce this year, but instead it's got worse! I've given myself a stern talking to, and I will be using up majorly before buying anything else, obv except for fresh stuff.

I have an average of £3.37/day for the rest of the year now, which is very doable. I have 3 months' worth of cereal in, same of bread flour, 15 kg of pasta, 4 kg rice, 24 tins of beans, 12 tins tuna, 8 tins corned beef, 9 tins hotdog sausages, and the list goes on. I worked out part of the problem today after berating myself. Earlier, I decided it was because stress causes me to forget what I have in or buy extras 'in case'(please don't make me do an inventory, think I'd top myself!), but I've just realised something else too. I've got so much better at being frugal in terms of how much I use, but haven't adjusted accordingly in my shopping! For example, I know that I use 170g of pasta for the three of us for a meal, so I weigh it out, whereas the old me would just tip a load in and always have leftovers. Also, I make 1 chicken breast do us all for a meal by padding out.

Resolutions:
- lots more nsds (25 in June is the aim)
- no, and I mean NO, stocking up!
- continue to meal plan from what I have in
- not buying any 'bargains'. I already have too much!
- only buying in the basics each week, eg milk, fruit and veg, yoghurts, loo rolls, etc
- remember that I only feed the children four times a week (this has also been my downfall, buying enough for us all for the week)
- not buying any more meat until all used up in the freezer (including the lidl weekend deals!)

I feel like I'm starting the ms journey from the beginning all over again.

Still, at least the house is tidier... Look to the positives!!

PG x

Long_tall_sally

Well done Penny Grabber> There are lots of positives there really! I should weigh out our pasta as I always tip in too much! Not sure though that my kids would appreciate 1 chicken breast shared even by the two of them as they both can easily eat one eat particularly my son who is a BIG meat eater!

Did you manage to tidy your bedroom a bit?

CW2

Hi Penny Grabber,

I've spent the last few evenings reading your diary from the start and just wanted to de-lurk and say how fantastically I think you are doing. Your positives for each day are a great reminder of all the little efforts that add up to big changes; you should be very proud of yourself. I'll subscribe and continue following your journey if that's OK.

CW2

PennyGrabber

Long_tall_sally wrote: »

Did you manage to tidy your bedroom a bit?

I'm 'lucky' I guess, in that my children don't eat loads - they've always eaten pretty much everything, just not much of it!

And yes, I did manage to tidy my room a bit! Last night was the first night in longer than I can remember that I went to bed with nothing on the bed! Going to do 15 mins more this evening too.

CW2 wrote: »

Hi Penny Grabber,

I've spent the last few evenings reading your diary from the start and just wanted to de-lurk and say how fantastically I think you are doing. Your positives for each day are a great reminder of all the little efforts that add up to big changes; you should be very proud of yourself. I'll subscribe and continue following your journey if that's OK.

CW2

Ah, thanks! You're more than welcome to follow my journey to ms/os/type thing!!

I spent a lot of time in depression, and it was thinking about the positives that got me through some days, and it's a habit I've just kept going with.

PennyGrabber

Ok, so here goes for today.

Positives:
- nsd number two in a row
- invited ex sis-in-law to meet up over the hols
- sorted out the concert for Friday night with mum
- lush cheap dinner, sweet and sour. One chicken breast, one tin of cheapo (Sains) pineapple, one jar of cheapo sweet and sour sauce, one cup of rice and a handful of peas. Allowing the chicken breast to be £1, which it prob wasn't that much, the meal cost less than £2, and I have half a tin of pineapple left and a bit of s and s sauce too, which I'll use up tom. I also made extra rice, so I could try out JJ's breakfast ricey pancakey things!!
- Simple pleasures: I'm just eating some hm bread and cheese - I love the crusty bit of hm bread!
- the vicar really likes the song I found for school to sing for the Jubilee, and asked me for it so we can do it in church too
- olb looking fine. Need tax cr to go in, so I can afford to pay the other pots and purses now!
- managed to fix the handle on my kitchen door without needing to call anyone out. That's a load of money saved (for now, at least!)

However, a few failures to report too. I forgot my sister in law's birthday is today, will have to send card tomorrow. Haven't had enough to drink today, so I have a drinks headache. I suffer quite badly from them unless I drink loads, so really must make this a priority. CBA to do any more tidying now, don't really want to make the sandwiches for tom either!

I've got to be up early tomorrow, as the bin men come at half six, so I think I'll do the sandwiches, 15 mins in my room, and then treat myself to an early night with a pint of squash. Then, when I'm up early tom, I'll do some of the stuff I should've done this evening.

Off to update my £/day, and then do a bit of stuff!!

PennyGrabber

I did it! I made the sarnies, sorted out the fruit for tom, loaded the dishwasher and put it on, and now I'm off to bed!

Night night,

PG x

ps - aims for tom: nsd for gc, check olb, unload dishwasher, eat los, tidy up my room some more (30mins instead of 15, as I cbb to do it today!) Plus do a meal plan from now until 11th June, now I know when I have the children through the half term. WILL MAKE PLAN USING WHAT IS IN!!!!!!

PennyGrabber

Wow, I've been missing for over a week!

I've been so busy, that I haven't even been reading the gc every day.

Still, I did the weekly shop on Saturday, it cost me £7.80! I was really chuffed with that. We had a jubilee party at work, and I got some los to bring home - box of 70 cocktail sausages, box of 12 mini pork pies and a pack of 12 mini eggs. I have to take an offering to the vicars' house this afternoon, so guess what I'm taking?!!!

The concert was awesome, I really enjoyed myself. Unfortunately, I spent a fortune (£50 plus fuel), and I realised that I have a balance on my cc again now too.:mad::mad:

£241 isn't a huge amount of money, but I need to pay this off. I can't let it get back to how it was before, so i need to tackle this now.

The positive I can draw out of this, is that I thought £50 was a huge amount of money, which means that my attitude to money must've changed a lot.

The other thing I have done this week, is empty out all of the boxes around the house that have food in them, and put them onto my dining room table. I still have the pantry and the cupboard under the stairs full, but this way, I have made myself feel so bad about what I've done, that I don't want to stock up at all when I go shopping... (This may be an @$$ about face way of doing it, but whatever works, right?!)

I'm also not going to add up how much I spend in June (controversial!). Instead, I am going to work on getting my daily allowance up to £4. This seems to really be motivating me atm, so that's what I shall do, until it stops working, then I'll think of something else! It means that I won't want to spend out on a big shop or a stock up, as it takes my allowance down. If I can spend less than the allowance per day, it'll go up!

Right, I'm off to the first of our parties today - need to get burger rolls, chips and dips (none of which I have in my house!!) for this one, but that's from the ents budget.

Catch you later,

PG x