Pixie's pulling her socks up...the next diary!

pixiechick99

I have managed to put off going shopping....Sunday I couldn't be bothered, yesterday I had no time and today was too foggy:rotfl: so will go tomorrow and instead of keeping to the £31 until Thursday I shall start my fortnight of grocery money a day early and put the money in the grocery account. Silly to keep to the £31 until thurs then go back to T's over the weekend for another shop:D

I am pleased with lasting til tomorrow without shopping...we had enough for meals in the freezer, i just bought toilet rolls, milk, pears and an onion yesterday to keepus going.

I've used up my stash of portioned up mince in the freezer and there's not much chicken. Over Xmas we won't cook for 3 days and no doubt when I come home from Mums on the 27th she'll pack me off with lots of goodies:T

I've meal planned until the end of next week, shopping list is done...I'll go tomorrow afternoon. I should finish work around 1.30 so will get it out of the way - and I must go, no putting it off, we have a very sad fridge now, girls not impressed:rotfl:

The letting agent did their check today so the house is lovely and tidy, going to keep on top of it (I always say that;)). Just got piles of ironing to be done.

Right, off to get the cottage pie sorted, mmmm:j

Coco114

Hi Pixie
Sounds like a good plan with the shopping. If that were me I would probably have gone and got bits (so bye bye to the £30) and then still gone shopping two days later !

Do you mind me asking roughly what you spend on groceries a week ? I have two strapping boys and they eat constantly
So do you set a weekly amount or give yourself xx amount at the beginning of the month and just make it last ?
Sorry for questions but you seem really organised and its the one spend I always come unstuck on !

Coco x

pixiechick99

Coco114 wrote: »

Hi Pixie
Sounds like a good plan with the shopping. If that were me I would probably have gone and got bits (so bye bye to the £30) and then still gone shopping two days later !

Do you mind me asking roughly what you spend on groceries a week ? I have two strapping boys and they eat constantly
So do you set a weekly amount or give yourself xx amount at the beginning of the month and just make it last ?
Sorry for questions but you seem really organised and its the one spend I always come unstuck on !

Coco x

Hi coco:wave::wave:
I get my tax credits weekly and I allow £65 each week for groceries - here's how I organise it...
I have a grocery account that the food shopping comes out of, also have a 'grocery float' account where, each Thursday, I move £65. I used to organise it monthly, in that I stashed away £65 a week for a month then moved the £260 each month into my grocery account ready for the month ahead. But I found I was having a huge shop a the start of the month and then having to cut down for the oer3 weeks! So now I just save 2 weeks worth of tax credits, so having £130 every fortnight. It seems to work for me. It did need me using savings to start it off as I needed to use a few weeks money to build the float up. I had a lot of student loans about 2 yrs ago so I could do it.

The 2-weekly £130 seems to be working fine. I've managed to have some left over some weeks, so I just pop that in savings.

It's just me and 2 teen girls, so I sometimes think I could cut back, but they like a good meaty meal each night. I also usually buy toiletries and couple of bottles of wine out of the money. Girls don't eat breakfast, don't take much lunch (eldest eats at school and that £40 used is separate) and I don't eat a huge amount! I can imagine boys having big appetites than us!:D

Hope that all made sense...it probably sounded more long winded and complicated than it really is:rotfl: I just needed my grocery money separate from my general day to day spends or my bills money, and found if I just used £65 each week it didn't allow for doing a big shop one week, then msybe less the next, so 2-weekly works for me:)

rising_from_the_ashes

:santa2:Hi Pixie .... I'm not a Christmas person but just love the waving Santa!:o My Christmas is really quiet too - just me, DM & DF (and all the 4-legged hairy ones!). Will be even quieter than normal as still stuck in the house so I'll miss all the parties too - boo hoo!

pixiechick99 wrote: »

Food shopping came to £61 yesterday. Poles, how do you do it on £40 a week?! I am sure I could keep ours down, but I never manage to:o

polesalot wrote: »

Our food shop comes in at £40 because there's only 2 of us.

I struggle to keep mine to £40 and there's just me A lot of it is dietary ie milk accounts for around £8 of that ... but still!

pixiechick99

Rising....I'm feeling a bit more Christmassy now - working in a primary school helps, our little 5 year olds are rather excited;)

How are you recovering now? Is your Crohns settled now? Mine is behaving for now, just the normal tiredness, but who isn't tired at this time of year?:rotfl: Can you drink regular milk? I avoid all lactose now, I think it affects me, though my doctor didn't want to do a test...and my consultant wasn't very interestde:o So haven't been diagnosed, but I still avoid it. I won't be getting enough calcium I doubt, which I should do something about. My hospital aren't the most helpful, never seen a dietician either which I'd like to. Oh well, you just plod on!

pixiechick99

Food shopping came to £79:eek::eek:

No toiletries, but dd did buy a magazine at £2.50 which she owes me and I bought the Christmas Radio T1mes:j - £2.80 on that, so I'll shuffle money from spending account to cover those. So groceries were £74...still seems a lot though I did get 2 big packs of mince to portion up for the freezer, a pack of frozen chicken, drumsticks and frozen chicken steaks and nuggets that dd2 has with her jacket pots - that'll be enough for 4 meals.

Hopefully an early night here. I'm going to go get my pjs on now and not move from the sofa for a while, sounds like a good plan:D

Coco114

Ah thanks Pixie that makes sense....
Actually , the two weekly thing sounds like a blinking good idea. Worst case if you overspend one week you only need to cut back for one too if that makes sense ?
I only have a savings and current account (been meaning to use separate "pot" accounts) so that should be the first thing to sort

I have gotten back into a bad habit of everything going in and out of one account and it's way too dangerous for me !

Thanks again Pixie , I will be quiet now and go back to reading your diary

Take care xx

rising_from_the_ashes

pixiechick99 wrote: »

How are you recovering now? Is your Crohns settled now? Mine is behaving for now, just the normal tiredness, but who isn't tired at this time of year?:rotfl: Can you drink regular milk? I avoid all lactose now, I think it affects me, though my doctor didn't want to do a test...and my consultant wasn't very interestde:o So haven't been diagnosed, but I still avoid it. I won't be getting enough calcium I doubt, which I should do something about. My hospital aren't the most helpful, never seen a dietician either which I'd like to. Oh well, you just plod on!

Glad the Christmas spirits coming your way:D I'm actually really not a Christmassy person but think it's because I've not been out much, I'm quite enjoying all the cheesy tunes in the shops when I'm in briefly for bits & bobs!:o

Still off work & had a "blip" a couple of weeks ago & nearly ended up back in hospital again - touch wood, it seems to have settled a bit (to where it was before the blip - not totally IYKWIM).

Saw my consultant on Mon & had all my meds changed which was a bit disconcerting - also now on infusions ...... hopefully it'll work (or it's surgery - which I really don't want!).

Lactose ... nope can't do that which is why my milk bill's so expensive - it really annoys me that dietary products (that are a need) only come in small packs and cost so much :mad: Add on the other lacto*free stuff and that's where most of my excessive grocery spend goes!:eek:

Funnily enough, I'd never seen a dietician until I was in hospital - and it was only when I asked if I could, that I did. It was a real eye opener and I've been eating stuff for years that I shouldn't and not stuff I should .

Can you get referred somewhere else?

I'm really lucky as my consultant is fab - listens & gets it. He's got a great team of Drs & Nurses ... it's really up on research too thanks to this lady http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/4984

Coco114

Me again - I just read your post that started ... My food shopping came to £79 .... :rotfl: Glad it's not just me

Coco x

pixiechick99

Coco114 wrote: »

Ah thanks Pixie that makes sense....
Actually , the two weekly thing sounds like a blinking good idea. Worst case if you overspend one week you only need to cut back for one too if that makes sense ?
I only have a savings and current account (been meaning to use separate "pot" accounts) so that should be the first thing to sort

I have gotten back into a bad habit of everything going in and out of one account and it's way too dangerous for me !

Thanks again Pixie , I will be quiet now and go back to reading your diary

Take care xx

I love my various accounts:D I have groceries, spending (just general bits, petrol and any treats), bills, grocery float and an empty 'extras' account that I often stash eBay earnings. Oh and a savings account - all with same bank so I can easily move around.

I did think :eek: at today's shopping...but it's ok as I haven't done a big shop for about 12 days, plus that's me meal planned until next weekend. Hopefully will just need a few fresh bits before then.

Don't go too quiet...I enjoy the company :rotfl: