*** This is Sparta ***

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

OK confession time. I have sinned. I went to buy eggs and also came home with some strawberries £2 for two punnets and some posh ice-cream reduced to £1.99. There, feel better now.

July should be OK moneywise - but of course we are heading towards the dreaded school summer holidays. Dont get me wrong I love having the kids at home but financially its a nightmare. Sadly we are way past the days of spending the afternoon baking biscuits or glueing egg boxes together to make models and everything gets so bloomin expensive.

LoveaDove, I am loving your positive vibes (and your colours!!) - I need a bit of that getting out of a rut thing. I need a plan.

But first I need to chivvy DS2 into the bath and then into bed! Enjoy whats left of the weekend all.

krustylouise

Hi all,

Sorry I've been away for a week (ish) I haven't done any good shopping as my last weeks shopping was a big one and I had enough to last this week too but I did put £30 petrol in the cr so now I'm I've budget for that too! Dd and I are off to butlins next Monday and we're getting quite excited now as its the first holiday we've ever been on and dd is nearly 6 hope you're all well x

NinjaSavingKat

Good MORNING to you ALL!!!

How are we all holding up? Seems like the challenge gets more and more quiet as the month draws to a close. Don't give up on me now - I will MSE had a button to press so I can go by all your names and push a "check in please" button. Only cause I am nosey and want to know where you all are and what you are up too...:rotfl:

Cold day here in London Town - my office is ever colder! I have a massive cardy on that I "permanently borrowed" from a work colleague! :T:T:T

SFD planned for the day as it was yesterday - totals to be updated. I doubt I will make the alloted requirment for the month but I gave it a shot and clearly failed miserably with the whole CC issue...

Made burgers last night, brought two along with a salad and baps for lunch. Smoothie for breakfast and a home made sugar free muffin (sweetened with apple sauce) and a lot of water...Roll on lunch I say!

Imaginary wish list added onto Cotswold Outdoors just to see how much it would be to kit up for a camping expedition - only £755.. :rotfl:... Keeping wishing I hear you say!

I am liking the ideas for July - I shall be giving it a super duper think tonight. I have the house to myself, don't start until late tomorrow and am planning on doing nothing tonight unless the cinema takes my fancy again - may I suggest Despicable Me for all you adults out there. Barely any kids in there yesterday when I went with my friend! Lol!

Right - more later!...

ONWARDS TO THE BITTER END!!!!!

NinjaSavingKat

Oh....foodage budget is complete. Along with Mother's £10 surprise. I am sure if I had adequate stocks I could do this again and keep it at £50. Right now I am feeling a little bit annoyed that my pennies for food wasn't ENTIRELY seperated from everything else - postage for an ebay parcel etc . I was starting to feel a little fruit and veg deprived, learned that not all yellow stickers purchases are a good find and that I can live on lentils for two weeks straight!!!

his_missus

Grocery budget: £247/£240
Fun budget: £67/£80
Holiday fund: £350/£350
ISA fund: £0/£400
Debt repayment: £129/£140 (+£250)
SFDs: 7/20

A SFD yesterday. I had an almost Hubby free day yesterday ( he was out of the house for 12 hours:D) which meant I could get on with his birthday pressie. Charged up the e-reader I've bought him and put on it some free books. Did a bit of crafting and only left the house to go to the bin.

Today should be a spend free day hopefully, nothing I need to buy.

Looking forward to July's challenge and, as all the birthdays will be out of the way apart from Hubby's on the 4th, I should really be able to embrace the challenge a bit more than I've managed this month.

thriftylass

Sneaks in quietly...

Hello, gonna catch up with recent post soon but confession time first. I bought shoes....I needed them as I just had to throw out two pairs that were walked through at the soles (and now only had two winter boots and a pair of worn our ballerinas left). But did I have to buy 4!!!! To my my defence they were the first bought in about two years and cover a multitude of occasions: sporty, business, night out, casual, comfy etc. And they were all reduced brand items bar one which was £7 cheapie so will hopefully last again at least two years. Total spend £80. The rest of my budget is not looking pretty either.

Crawls back out to try and rescue the rest of the month

Siouxsie32

Afternoon everyone Only 6 days left :j Budgets all still looking good here. I did a small top up supermarket shop (mostly to get Quorn sausages on the 3 for 2 offer so I got 3 packs for £4.40 plus a few little bits and bobs. I used 3 pennies that I found on the floor, along with a 3p Price Comparison voucher previously wombled along with some coins from my coin jar to reduce the bill and paid the rest from my Food Budget. I still have £5.25 left in my food budget, which is over 10% so I'm happy. I don't think I'll need any more spends before next week/month. When at the supermarket, I found 3 pennies, receipts with unclaimed Clubcard points (87p worth) and a 51p Price Comparison voucher so Tesco is becoming my new supermarket of choice thanks to the sloppy customers!

Oh, I also did a midnight emergency trip in my PJs to get ice cream :eek: Only Ben+Jerrys was going to hit the spot so off I trundled and picked up a tub (reduced to £2.44...took this out of my misc budget as strictly speaking it wasn't really food) and ate the evidence in one sitting - oh yeah, I know how to have a good time!!!

Does anyone know a good way to clear drains? My shower room smells a little and I noticed the other day that the water wasn't draining away quickly when I showered so I wondered if there was a blockage somewhere? I was just going to buy some of the Mr Muscle style drain cleaner but you may know of something cheaper/more effective??

Other than that, I'm just keeping my head down. Enjoying everyone's updates though! Don't go all quiet, keep them coming!
So, as of today, my figures look like....
Food: £44.75/£50
Petrol: £50/£50
Misc: £40.52/£100

thriftylass

Siouxsie32 wrote: »

Does anyone know a good way to clear drains? My shower room smells a little and I noticed the other day that the water wasn't draining away quickly when I showered so I wondered if there was a blockage somewhere? I was just going to buy some of the Mr Muscle style drain cleaner but you may know of something cheaper/more effective??

Lemon juice (real or concentrate) plus baking powder, soak/let bubble for 20 min, rinse with boiling water from the kettle. Seems to work in our shower and gets rid of the smell too.

Doris65_2

Hi All

Have had a quick add up of my totals and the petrol one is ok,
the food one is over, because I totally took my off the ball over the weekend and went to local farm shop!!!!

But is just a quick add up so will look more closely and report proper totals,

I have got a spread sheet waiting for July, so I'm hoping that it will help me keep track of what I spent where etc,

On the SFD front I think its in the late teens, again I will report back.

However, the OD, I might just make it, or almost probably only be in it by £10-£20, so huge huge huge improvement in just one month.

Next month I want to be in the black and have some money left over, never thought I see that day,

So thanks to you all, I don't comment much, but I do read everything and it keeps me very motivated,

You are a lovely bunch

Dx

nannygladys

Hope everyone had a good weekend, another SFD for me today, so Im getting there slowly.

Nothing to report really, just been to work, and having HM soup with yellow sticker rolls for tea followed by my last scone:)

Roll on July:)
nanyg