The Big Adventure

Karmacat

Its a tough life, isn't it, £30 on food and wine at M&S :rotfl:

Goldiegirl

We've had our M&S credit card for many years, and do a lot of our monthly spending on the card, to get points for vouchers which can be used for any purpose in M&S


However, we keep getting offers for £5 off a £30 food shop, which we don't take up. In a previous life, I'd be quite happy to do a 'top up' food shop in M&S, but not any more. The only food stuffs I now buy in M&S are very occasional treats for me. They do lovely low salt crisps, and some fish cakes which are low enough in salt, for the odd quick meal.


My pension came in today, so a new month has started.


The previous month was a long 'five week' month for us, but we remained within our budget. This included 5 supermarket shops, four coach trips booked and shelving for the garage purchased. Income £1510. Expenditure £1500.89. I feel a certain Micawberish pleasure at those figures.


I should add that the freezer and glasses that we have bought were paid for from our savings, as these items are one offs.


One item de-cluttered
166) a set of 6 coasters to charity

Mint1955

Just to say I love hearing your tales and that budgets are working etc. Life is obviously better for you both and you are enjoying the new ways xx

Karmacat

Great budgetting! The shelving is a one off too, but the fact that it fits inside your monthly budget, and that during a 5 week month, is a credit to your organisational skills. Enjoy your evening - a job well done

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Very impressed, Mrs Micawber. We have yet to go under £1500 but I always add everything in the spending diary, whether one off or not so I may distinguish between the two next month.

All the best,

Squirrel x

Goldiegirl

Mint1955 wrote: »

Just to say I love hearing your tales and that budgets are working etc. Life is obviously better for you both and you are enjoying the new ways xx

Yes, it is very true that life has improved. I realised a couple of weeks ago that I had lost that tense feeling across my shoulders that I had when I was working

Karmacat wrote: »

Great budgetting! The shelving is a one off too, but the fact that it fits inside your monthly budget, and that during a 5 week month, is a credit to your organisational skills. Enjoy your evening - a job well done

Dunno about my organisational skills - it still seems more like luck than judgement!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel wrote: »

Very impressed, Mrs Micawber. We have yet to go under £1500 but I always add everything in the spending diary, whether one off or not so I may distinguish between the two next month.

All the best,

Squirrel x

We decided to remove any larger discretionary spends from the 'normal' budget. These are the sort of spends that we didn't have to do, but we wanted to do. If push came to shove, we could survive without a new freezer and new glasses, but we'd still know that we could live on our monthly income

Goldiegirl

We sold our old freezer on eBay for £57, which was higher than I'd hoped for. The buyer picked it up about an hour ago.


We picked our new glasses up this morning. I've been wearing my normal vision ones and they are very comfortable indeed. My sunglasses are just a little loose, so I'll pop back to the opticians next week to get them adjusted.


I've pushed on with the de-cluttering and did another couple of drawers. I'm up to 178 items now. I keep saying to myself it'd be nice to get to 200 by the end of the month. But then I remind myself that I don't have targets anymore, so I'll just do what I feel like

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Absolutely. You can just do what you like!

ljaneyr

Great spending Goldie :T And fantastic work on the decluttering without targets

I'm keeping a close eye on our overall spending total this year. One thing still to reduce is to get rid of sky but unfortunately we don't have a normal tv aerial. It will all be sorted when we renovate though

Goldiegirl

We haven't missed Sky at all, so it's been an 'easy' way to save money for us.

It's an earlier than usual start for us, as the car has gone in for it's service.

We took it to the garage for just after 8am, and got a bus back home. I have to say, the price of bus tickets is ridiculous! For a 10 minute bus ride home it was £3.50 each. As it was before 9am, Mr Goldie couldn't even use his bus pass. At least he'll be able to use it on the return journey.

So, not much doing today - I'll just try and get some of the housework out of the way.