Stop the ride, i want to get off AGAIN!!

ragstoricheswannabe

I have had a lovely weekend, but am back at work today its on days like this i wish i had picked a different job! :rotfl:

I spent the weekend doing my garden finally! I have flowers now where i once had dandelions and no longer have long grass. I now have very patchy grass as feed and weeded it, so bought some of that patch stuff so will see if it does what it says on the tin.
The front garden has been done too, my patch of weeds is now a lovely rockery. Looks a little sparse now but will be ok once the plants settle in and spread a little. The little alpine plants are cheap anyway so could always fill in extra where needed.

Have a very sunburnt back from doing it though.....ouch!

Its the last week of may (already?!?!) so not much going on money wise. I used a little out the debt fund to get flowers with but thats still looking healthy and on track.

Just a case of waiting till payday and doing junes budget.

Happy bank holiday everyone!!:beer:

ragstoricheswannabe

Well the nice weather lasted all the weekend, then been pants since!! My garden is still looking so much better, and the veg plants in their grow bags have taken nicely and started having a growth spurt. Kids each have a grow bag and love the job of making sure they are watered before bed and groan when it rains as they cant do it then.

Moneywise, we have managed to stay within budget, just!! the misc spends is well over budget (holiday not included) and so is the food (but thats not a suprise really) Gonna do next months budget in a min but we are gonna have to knuckle down with the spending again.

Am planning on putting the money budgeted for food, fuel and misc into the spending account when i get paid and then leave the other cards in the house. Will make us really think about our spends if it means scrimping on food or fuel at the end of the month.

Pips_Mum

Bet the garden will look lovely and its worth pinching a little bit from debt fund so that you have something nice to look at. I bought some bits for our garden and figured if garden is nice then I am more likely to WANT to stay home (saving money!!) rather than going our spending!! x x

ragstoricheswannabe

It looks much better than it did. Our little veggie growbags are growing nicely too, this weather certainly is helping!

Well payday has been so have transferred £100 to the debt fund, £50 to the house fund and £500 for the months food and fuel. Might increase the amount to the spends account by another £100 next month so all spends will come out of it. Will see how we do this month.

One payment to the cc is paid but will wait till next week till i make the overpayment as dont want to land straight back into the overdraft. The loan comes out tomorrow so will be under £23k!!!:D Still above where i was a few years ago but its going in the right direction, finally!

ragstoricheswannabe

Im thinkig of changing my name to one step forward, 6 steps back as thats what always seems to happen.

My car is needing fixing which is gonna cost around £800/£900!!:eek: Dont have that kind of money lying around so onto the credit card it will go bumping me back up to near £24k again!:mad:

I am trying to be positive about it and not fall off the wagon but it is so hard!!!!!!!!!!

ragstoricheswannabe

The car is now in the garage being fixed so had a lovely drive to work in the brand new courtesy car! Why cant air freshner people capture the new car smell properly?! same as the clothes dried outside smell i suppose.

Money wise we are on track as such. Still on budget with the spending account meaning less is now going out the bills account. Still havent overpaid on the halifax credit card, might wait to see what happens at the end of the month. Will really have to overpay from now on as i dont think the garage spend will be 0% so the quicker we can get the total down the better.

Food wise we are eating the last bits out the freezer. Might bump the shopping up at the weekend though as will need more bits. Time to get creative i think.

ragstoricheswannabe

The car cost us £890 :eek: but all fixed and not making funny noises.

I will be researching cheap recipes tomorrow ready for doing next weeks meal plans. What do you all eat thats cheap?? Might start adding soup to the menu with a nice crusty roll (not for me coz of the yeast )I could then have the left overs for lunch. The hubby doesnt like pasta but will eat noodles so might have to use them more for things like cream free carbonara. Cheap and quick.

Will be baking too as the kids actually didnt miss the fact they didnt have crisps in their box when they had yummy goodies. Have cut down the amount they have in their lunch boxes too as was so frustrating throwing stuff out. It wasnt their fault bless them. Think im a secret feeder and expresses my love through food. (maybe im an italian in disguise?!?!?:rotfl:) Gonna have a good baking session and freeze 3/4 of it so it lasts longer and doesnt go off. Have been doing that with the kids tube yogurts and the 2 boxes have lasted a fortnight!

ragstoricheswannabe

So with the car repairs going onto the credit card, my new total from the start of july is £23,705.55. Which means i will have to wait untill all the payments are made next month to say i am under £23k again. Thats not as bad as i thought. Its only one month behind and i can handle that. And i have still paid off £2630.88!!

Have checked at the statements for the cc the repairs have gone on and still not sure of the rate of interest i will be paying. The hubby rang them up last night but they couldnt tell us and on the statements it says that cash withdrawals will be charged but all other transactions will be 0%?????? Hoping it will be as used it within the 3 months of setting up???????

also have a few meal ideas that are cheap, gonna sort my meal plan out later.

Have been reading back over my diaries to get my mojo back after this latest knock. Given myself a pat on the back for now not going over the overdraft limit anymore and for clearing 2 debts. Need to remind ourselves of the progress we have made at times rather than focus on what we still have to do.

ragstoricheswannabe

My meal plan is all done and looks like this:

SUN: roast chicken dinner
MON: meatballs in onion gravy, mash and carrots
TUE: cowboy casserole, broccoli
WED: chicken and chorizo stew, bread and butter
THUR: chicken, rice and veg soup, crusty rolls
FRI:salmon and broccoli fishcakes, sweet pot chips and sweetcorn
SAT: Homemade southern fried chicken, chips and sides.

Shopping list done from this, hoping they will turn out to be cheap meals and the boys (hubby included) will like them.
Was going to make carrot cake muffins for the lunch boxes but not sure how to store them in their boxes without mushing the topping all over??? need to think about that one.......

not much else going on moneywise, the spending account is still on track for now. Realistically, we should have enough money in their to last till my next payday, but will see!!!

Pips_Mum

Good meal plan x x

Bad luck about car, ours is going in again Monday as engine management lights come on, dreading the cost.

You could do carrot cake muffins without the frosting or you could sit them into a plastic beaker with a bag over top, I use leftover plastic pint glasses we have leftover from a party.