Chanie fabulously looks after her pennies...

chanie

A new start
I started this post over a year ago, but never got it going. I did join another thread on DFW called 'Learning to think like a frugal person'. I learned so much over there, I thought I'd take the plunge and start my own spanking new thread.

This thread is about me having a fabulous life and not feeling deprived, or that I'm missing out because of lack of money.

Its about making my money work for me and stretching the pennies.

chanie

The reason? I got a payrise, which I should see at the end of this month and I will be around £300 a month better off. The last time I got a payrise, it got swallowed up in general living costs. Whilst some of the money needs to go towards general living costs again, I want to make sure that any extra money is put towards good use.

I live with OH and our 2 pre-school children in London - I work full time and OH works part time, as childcare costs are so expensive and I earn more than OH (we have a bit of role reversal going on). The debts we have are overdrafts, which are manageable, but we do want to get them down.

chanie

a fabulously frugal easter sunday

I'm planning an Easter egg hunt in the garden for the children tomorrow. I've bought a few packs of eggs from Aldi for the children to find. Plus, a few other items like bubbles,easter activity books and cress seeds. Hopefully, it will be enough to keep them entertained for a few hours tomorrow. I spent about £10, which I'm pretty pleased about.

On a less frugal note, I made up some little easter baskets for my nieces and nephews, with lots of small eggs and a few sweets. I thought it would be something 'different' and cheaper than buying eggs. Some of the children have gone on holiday, which means I could have got away with not buying them anything as we won't see them over easter. That's the problem with planning ahead sometimes!!!!!!! Oh well, I'm children enjoyed their easter treats.

iammumtoone

Hi Chanie, I remember you from FMGs thread I posted on there a few times myself in the early days, but found it too hard committing to reducing debts whilst I was living off benefits.

Well done on your pay rise. I am in a similar situation myself as I have found myself a job I am still living on the amount of money I received whilst on benefits (ok if I am totally honest a bit more ) any extra is going towards my debts. My job is only temporary so I am determined to become debt free whilst I have the chance and the means.

Good luck with your diary, hope it goes well for you.

killerpeaty

Wow massive congrats on the pay rise! Good luck with your debt free journey!

iammumtoone good luck also, great job getting a job.

chanie

Thanks for comments. I really appreciate my pay rise, so I want to make the most it.

a fabulously frugal birthday
Ds turns 4 this week and he is really excited - he says he wants cake for his birthday!!! It's lovely to watch him getting excited, although the downside is that birthdays so become more expensive from now on.

His frugal birthday consists of -
Venue - at home, we are going to hire a bouncy castle.

Present - we got him a bike, which was half price. I could have saved a bit more, but this involves jumping through some hoops and I wasn't sure I could do what I needed to do in time. LESSON - get organised earlier!!!

Decorations - saved from last year, so I will reuse them.

Party bags - again, left over from last year. I've put a few bits and pieces in them,but I'm not going overboard, as most of it will end up in the bin. They've got bubbles and tattoos from Amazon and a drinking straw and space dust from the poundshop. The cost of each bag is about 60p.

Nursery - I managed to get some free books from work which he can give to his nursery friends plus a cupcake each. I'm really pleased with my freebie books!!!

Food and drink - not going overboard, so it will be nuggets and chips for the children. I bought crisps and squash when they've been on offer, so I've saved a bit on the food.

Cake - we ordered it from Costco today for £13. We let Ds choose the cake and colour, so he is really excited.

Total cost for his party is under £100, so I think we've done okay.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter.

chanie

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd pop in and say hello.

I had one minor fall off the wagon last week. Since the beginning of the year, I've been really good with bringing breakfast and lunch into work from home. On Thursday, I really felt like something different and treated myself to a breakfast roll for £2.25. It wad unbudgeted but, I'm not going to beat myself up over it as I've been goid otherwise.

giblet1979

Hi,
Has the party happened yet? If so, how did it go. Sounds like you did a great planning job
Gib x

chanie

Gib, the party was yesterday.

The weather report said it was going to rain, so we went to a soft play instead of getting a bouncy castle. It worked out much cheaper, but we had to buy the children drinks as the soft play was really hot. The drinks were really expensive, so I do feel I was conned. Luckily, it was only relatives that attended so the drinks were shared!!!

All in all,Ds had a lovely time, so I'm happy.

chanie

Pay day was yesterday (yay!!!) and very much needed. My raise wasn't as much as I thought it was going to be as my student loan is still coming out of my pay, even though I've paid it all off. I need to wait for my p60 before I can get it stopped and get my refund. My car tax was also due, so most of my raise has been swallowed up this month, so I haven't actually done anything in terms reassessing my new finances.

As I won't be seeing the full benefit of my raise this month, I've decided to use May to focus on 'getting my environment in order'.

Organise me
papers - Our papers are stored in plastic wallets in magazine racks, but the racks have become disordered, so a clear out is due. I've already shredded some old papers I had, but there is still more to do.

Insurances - I'm going to write down in my diary when all of our insurances etc are due so I have enough time to check quotes etc. As we don't always open our post until the weekend, we miss dates etc.

food cupboard - have a major clean and clear out

chanie

what being fabulous means to me

The bank holiday weekend got me thinking about what being fabulous means to me. It's about making my money work as hard for me as I have to earn it. It's about stretching every pound to make it go further.

I follow another debt free diary called 'learning to think like a frugal person' where we use CBT principals. It has really helped me. One of the p
Steps is about giving yourself credit for all the good frugal things we do, k I'm going to continue this, but later as I have a whinging toddler to see to now.