Going to get rid of my mortgage!

bbh30

Forgot to say, I tried the downshift challenge on diet coke today. Bought some Sainsburys own coke instead of my usual pepsi/branded coke zero. It is horrible!! Tastes like really strong pimms- I will (force myself) to drink the whole bottle but dont think Ill buy it again! Must find a supermarket with pepsi/coke on offer and get some!!

Also, just applied to do some exam marking in the summer, fingers crossed, it will bring in some extra pennies!

Matt_The_Chippy

I saw Coke Zero 2litre for £1 today in Tesco. I hate the own brand stuff as well.

bbh30

Thanks Matt, Ive got to go to a supermarket tomorrow to get food for the boy's party- so maybe Ill go to Tesco and take advantage of their offer. Will have a hunt around online and see if any other offers are running.

Not a good day today money wise. We managed to get my car started (finally!!) by jump starting it but even after I had taken it for a drive, it still wouldnt start again after I had stopped it. So I finally succumbed and bought a new battery. They were £60 in Halfords but Ive ordered one online for £35 which should arrive tomorrow (price included free delivery!). The husband says he will fit it so hopefully that will be all my problems sorted! We do luckily have a "car account" in which we pay about £250 per month which covers all tax, insurance, MOTs, repairs etc for both cars- so the money for the new battery will come out of the car account. A good job too as my insurance is due next month also. So luckily I should still be able to make a healthy OP next month even though we have a couple of big expenses.

The boy had his birthday today and we gave him 3 presents. We normally buy the kids loads of presents for birthdays and xmas but its always too much so we decided we wouldnt buy any crap. We got his new bike, a pair of cycling gloves to go with the bike, and a little magnetic play theatre. He was absolutly chuffed to bits!!!! I was so pleased- I was a little worried as it looked a bit "bare" but he was so pleased with what he did get and played with it all before and after school non stop- he wasn't overwhelmed like he normally is. Im sure he will get a load more stuff tomorrow when he has his party after school. Ive made his birthday cake ready for his party (chocolate- as requested!!) and all Ive got to do tomorrow is buy the frozen nuggets and chips. Ive also got to go into the woods to hide my Gruffalo characters which the little boys are going to find. They are all made and ready to hide. I just hope it dosnt snow tooo much and ruin the party and Ive already had one parent worrying about the weather- I worry Im too relaxed about it- I tend to just wrap em up warm and get on with it but she was really quite worried about her little boy coming into the woods with us tomorrow. Eeeek!

One OP of £2.42 made today- just a tidy up of the bank account. Pay day is getting closer and the husbands pay day is on thurs which is really close- can't wait!

bbh30

Sooo tired tonight!
Son's party went really well- the kids really enjoyed running around the woods looking for the Gruffalo characters! We came back home for pass the parcel then chicken nuggets and chips followed by ice cream. A good time was had by all I think! Really pleased with the party as I think it cost me about £12 in total, incuding all the food and party bags. That was for 10 children, so really pleased with that. At pick up, one of the parents commented that we always work really hard with the kids parties- and I did reply that it was nothing to do with working hard but more to do with the fact I refuse to pay £100 or so to go to some soft play centre!!

It was my day off work today and I went to Waitrose this morning to get my free 2 pints of milk (had a coupon from their free newspaper thing they give out at the weekends), then I went to Tescos where I bought all the party food but also all the branded stuff we like to eat, e.g. husband likes Alpen (other museli wont DO), I needed some Coke, and other odds and sods. The total bill was £45 but I had £20 worth of coupons!!! I kept scanning more and more coupons- I was determined to use them as Ive been carrying them round for about 2 month and they expire in a couple of days! I didnt realise they would add up to so much but I was really chuffed that they did, so only spent £26 on the debit card.

The trip did reaffirm my hatred for Tescos though, I find them money grabbing and they play dirty tricks in my opinion, e.g. changing their prices really often. Plus every time I go to Tesco I end up spending more that I wanted to- that is my main reason for hating them!!

Car is now working as husband has replaced old battery with the new one- he's not all bad!!

I am hoping for all NSDs now until the husbands money comes into the joint account- should be about monday I think??

Octobergirl

Hi bbh:wave:
Love your new diary, have subscribed. I too have found a noticeable lack of snacks now that I'm being frugal with the food budget- I feel like I should have lost a couple of stone already:D
It always shocks me to find the fridge almost bare, it's always been crammed full up til now. I've also put DD on gluten free, so haven't bought any biscuits, she was less than impressed at getting an apple after school, but as you say, both children are cleaning their plates at dinner time:T

bbh30

Great to hear your children are eating well also at meal times! Its amazing! Ive also started putting less into their lunchboxes for school and for once- they are actually eating everything I give them (including the fruit!!) and not bringing stuff home again. Its just feels so much less wasteful. They are not fading away by any stretch of the imagination but instead of grazing (a bad habit for them to get into really) - they have a good appetite for their meals.

Another NSD for me. Ive had a good day as a local lady on a fb site was advertising some old Good Food magazines for free which I snapped up. So I collected them and now have plenty of reading fodder and new recipes to try. I actually had a kind of adapted version of a sweet chilli prawn recipe I saw. Looked delicious but I didnt have half the ingredients needed so ended up substituting:
prawns- used sausages from freezer left over from xmas!
lemon- no fresh ones so used half a can of lilt left over from a trip to beach last summer which has been sitting in my fridge ever since! Husband can now drink the other half.
Added loads of other veggies we had in- carrots, red onion, chillis, mushrooms and a handful frozen sweetcorn with some noodles also. Was delicious actually and I dont think you would know I used half a can of Lilt instead of lemons!!

1 week today until pay day- I am almost giddy with excitement! My application to do some exam marking has been approved so far and has gone into a "holding pool" so fingers crossed Ill be able to do some in May/June. Im trying to think of other novel ways I can make money- Ive done surveys in the past but they seem to take an inordinate amount of time.

Kids have non uniform and a cake sale at school tomorrow so they will need money for that. Would it be really mean of me to make them pay out of their own money?? They both have piggy banks full of cash!! I always just give them the money for these things but it might help to teach them the value of money also. I don't know. Will ponder.

bbh30

Hooray the husband's pay has reached the joint account! Just done a money shuffle around and transferred 60.01 to the mortgage. I will do a big transfer when I get paid and we have more to play with. I've got 2 hen dos to go to this month. One wedding to go to also. And both cars are due car insurance so can't overstretched myself.
Must get off to work.

bbh30

Another NSD for me- its fairly easy to do no spend days when Im at work for most of the day.
Made another meal for dinner out of leftovers- red lentil curry- looks yummy (gonna eat it later when the husband is back from running) and all made from store ingredients. The kids just had some eggy bread for their tea with fruit salad for pudding as they aren't too keen on curry.
Ive decided to go shopping to the market tomorrow morning. I need to stock up on fruit and vegetables and I reckon the market is the cheapest place to do it. I bought all my fruit and veg for xmas from the market and it was all really good quality and fairly cheap. If I get a chance Ill pop into ALDI for some of their super six offers.
The other thing I need to stock up on now we have some money is meat. We have pretty much eaten all the meat out of the freezer now apart from a few sad looking fish fingers. I used to get big packs of meat from Costco and freeze them in individual portions but I dont want to do that now as my Costco card has expired and Im not sure its worth renewing it.

I might also do an order of the Mr Suds washing powder from Ebay Ive been reading about on here. Anybody used it and if so, whats it like?? You can ony buy it in such massive quantities- I dont want to be lumbered with it if its horrible!!

bbh30

Spent quite a bit of money today! Myself and the girl child went into town with the intention of going to the market to fill up on fruit and veg. Started off with a trip to the cashpoint and withdrew £20 - but when we got to the market, the fruit and veg man wasn't there!! There was all the artisan breads, expensive cakes, fish man, meat man, local cheeses etc but no fruit and veg man!! I have no idea where he was! Its the first time Ive ever been to the market and he hasn't been there, so we were a bit disappointed.
We popped into Waitrose to see what special offers they had on and if they were giving out any freebies in their weekend magazine- I ended up buying 4 bottles of shampoo- I really like pantene and they had it on BOGOF- which is the cheapest per bottle Ive seen it anywhere. So that should last me a couple of months.
We came home fruit and veg less so after lunch, popped to ALDI to fill up on their fruit and veg. Ended up doing a big shop there and getting lots of cupboard filllers (but they still had no bread flour!!) and spent £81. That should last me nearly 2 weeks though, I might have to get more milk and fruit/veg next weekend but Ive got enough meat to last us pretty much the next 2-3 weeks. Most of its in the freezer now, apart from the reduced bit of steak we are having for dinner tonight!

Just made a £80 OP also, so feeling quite positive. I spent alot today but the week *should* be pretty full of no spend days. The boy child is going to another party tomorrow but Ive already got a present in the present cupboard for the birthday child so no expense there. Might need to fill up the car during the week- will see if I can stretch it out as much as possible.

bbh30

This MF wanna be stuff is really addictive! I like nothing more than an evening on my computer playing with my spreadsheets and working out how much I can afford to OP each month. And I love reading all the tips on ways of reducing outgoings- I reckon it is seriously all about being organised rather than be tight, and planning ahead.
So, we havnt had a NSD, but we did have a low spend day. When the boy child was at a friends party, we took the girl child out on her bike. Stopped off at the park for a play and then a quick trip into the cafe where we all had a drink and she had a packet of smarties- all for the grand total of £3.50. Still, the husband offered to pay out of his "pocket money" (i.e. the money he has for his own personal spending and can spend it on whatever crap he likes!!) so it hasnt come out of the joint acc or my money which is good. We had a lovely long walk while the girl child cycled and had a nice chat. We talked about growing our own veg and fruit more this year but I am the world's worst gardener, and he spends quite a lot of time away with work so Im not sure. Maybe Ill just try with something easy- but I say that every year and the money we spend on seeds just ends up being wasted as I am so rubbish at gardening.

Ive had a great time in the kitchen today baking for the week ahead. Ive made bread rolls (put double the amount of yeast I normally put in by accident but they have ended up really light and fluffy!), Ive made loads of flapjack for lunchboxes, and Ive also made a mincemeat cake. I saw the recipe for that on old style and thought I might as well give it a go seeing as I had some mincemeat left over from xmas. That is still in the oven but it smells nice!
We havnt used the car at all today as we have walked/ cycled this afternoon and made the boy child cycle to his party (with us!).