Rising to the top of the ocean - and staying afloat!

[Deleted User]

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

So .... have decided to set the Bus Fund at a revised total of £54 which would cover 2 weeks on the buses (10 journey ticket on wee bus = £14 plus 10 journeys on big expensive bus = £40) and is also nearly the difference for 4 weeks bus travel .... :T:T:T

:j:j:j:j Savings goal reached:j:j:j

I know it's just a little one but ... honestly, I never manage to reach any savings targets so really chuffed!:o

Well done One milestone reached! x

rising_from_the_ashes

Thanks all ... really chuffed I've managed to get the money saved as I am useless at it

Will need to think of another wee thing to save for now!

Beanielou I sooooo agree with the bus fares - we're penalised out here so much being in the sticks and there being no competition - you can go anywhere in & around Edinburgh for £1.30 (incl out to places like Musselburgh etc which is a fair distance) and yet going from where I live to work is £4 .... and it's only 20p more to go to the next village which is another 7.5 miles away grrrrr:mad:

rising_from_the_ashes

So ... popped to the nurse for blood tests, then into work & had a chat with a couple of my team - it was really nice to see them after all this time & they said I was looking better than the last time (probably around 5 or 6 weeks ago) so that's good.:)

Popped to the garage & got my new tyres fitted :T - they've put them on the back (had wanted them on the front) but TBH by that time I was so tired I've just left it .... I can always get them swapped over later if needed but the front ones have only done 6,000 miles anyway so not the end of the world!

Have a huge pile of ironing to do and really need to hoover - but think that'll wait until tomorrow.;)

lurvlyloz

great news on the tyres & nice to see your work colleagues

rising_from_the_ashes

Grocery budget ... HELP!

Really need to get to grips with this as has been mentioned ... I spend a ridiculous amount for 1 person - but dietry things do play a huge part of that eg my milk is around £1.30 / litre :eek: which when you compare it to around 44p / litre for "normal" milk - that's a huge difference.

Same goes for cheese etc ... and bread .... really hard to find own brand things like Oat*abix let alone value ones

Anyway ... trying to work out how best to split my budget.

It works out at £140 / month or £420 / quarter - this year I tried doing a quarterly budget of £160 / £130 / £130 so I could stock up on things like toiletries every 3rd month at places like Home Bar*gains - really as I can't justify fuel for going there more often.

It worked OK ... but I thought I'd go back to 12 equal months this year - really as I've got loads of toiletries etc in :T

BUT I was reading the new Grocery Challenge Thread for Jan and someone mentioned they had 5 weekends between Dec - Jan pay (they shop at weekends too) so now wondering if I should split the budget like this?

Not sure if this would be too hard to keep track of though All I know is that I must stick to it this year ... it's going to be even harder with everything going up but there is no more money for these!

Any ideas / thoughts / suggestions welcome:)

Mrs_Toast

Hi Risingfromtheashes. I don't know what your dietary requirements are but I am gluten free as I have coeliacs disease so if I can offer any help you're more than welcome to ask.

I have also joined the grocery challenge so I'm sure we can both do it if we plan

rising_from_the_ashes

Mrs Toast .... I may well take you up on that offer as I have absolutely no idea how you can manage to feed 3 people on £30 / week :T .... and with specific dietary requirements :T

I can't do that just for me!:o

How on earth do you find everyday products (pasta, bread, cereals etc) that are cheap?

rising_from_the_ashes

I know I spend a fair bit on diet c0ke:o but since I've kicked the cigs consumption of this has gone up a [STRIKE]bit [/STRIKE]lot

Can anyone recommend own brand DC that tastes OK - tried Mr A stuff and it's vile!

welshdreamer71

Tesco coke zero is lush and im an avid doet coke drinker and also love pepsi max and totally agree that the asda one is vile I tipped it out as even the kids wouldnt drink it...

Im in the same predicament as you regarding the 5 week months and this is where I always fail so im thinking £55 a week where its a 5 week month and £60 a week when its a four but use the extra £35 either to do a toiletry butcher or homebargain top up for housy bits maybe... hope you find your answer too, I really dont envy you with the gluten free etc shopping its extortionate !!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Ohhhh thanks for that welshdreamer - will grab a bottle the next time I'm at Mr T to try