The 2 Year Freedom Plan & 2015 Beat The Budget Challenge

I_want_a_baby

Well £14 into the tin from craft sales :-)

There were 6 things left which I can use as Christmas gifts to give.

We replaced our firebricks today, I'm sure we saved a lot by doing this ourselves!

I did write a list of the cleaning products the other day, lots of duplicates and half bottles! I am going to attempt to sort through the clothes and toys this weekend.

Tomorrow I am going to a local town to try and break the back of the Christmas shopping. I'd like to get the Father Christmas stuff and most others ticked off. Ideally I would like to have finished present shopping by the end of November. I have budgets per person, a spreadsheet tracking what has been bought and how much is left to spend so hopefully I can stay within or under budget :-)

I have two airers of clothes drying to avoid using the tumble drier, I dug out an extra blanket for the sofas as it was a bit chilly and I also bought 5 x 33p face cloths so I can use flannels instead of wipes for mucky faces & hands!

Happy today, still need to go food shopping tonight as the fridge is bare! Oh and took the car to the garage and only needed one not two tyres which was £61!

IWAB x

I_want_a_baby

Thank you for the thanks Ches, Roomontheend & DawnW :-)

Lovely to know that my ramblings are being read, and helps me to stay accountable.

So the food budget came in at £1 over budget, but I stuck to the list and we genuinely needed everything bought. We literally had no bread, no butter, no ham, no squash. So not too concerned.

I won't shop for food now again until payday.

Only a week to go and then I can tally up the month, hopefully my spreadsheet columns will all still be green and not red. They turn red when the balance goes below 0! In theory I shouldn't overspend at all so that should never happen. With my food budget being £1 over I will have £1 less next month.

Another two loads of clothes drying by the fire this morning, I'm not sure if it's my imagination but the fire seems to be kicking out more heat with the new firebricks. So much so I turned the thermostat down last night. It is showing 15c but the digital thermometer we have put next to it shows that it's actually set to 18c now. Down from 19.

I've ironed the work shirts, re stuck my sons name tags on (saving money by not loosing school uniform!). We've also polished all our shoes - saving money by looking after what we have got :-)

Now I need to get ready for Christmas shopping :-)

Happy Sunday everyone

IWAB x

tryingtodobetter

Just popped in to say that I love reading your thread as it is always so positive. You seem to be doing really well with saving little bits here and there (which soon add up) it has been really good inspiration to make me look at what I am spending.x.

Moneywhizz

Thought I would just post to let you know I read your diary regularly and am amazed at what you achieve each day. It is great to see how well you are doing on a limited budget. Keep up the good work and I'm sure that debt will be gone before you know it.

I_want_a_baby

I think I am a but too excited to have comments on here lol! Thankyou both, you are so kind. I really can't wait to be debt free!

So today's Christmas shopping was a success in that I am almost finished, only a few bits to get.

As for the finances, ill have to update that later as I haven't had a moment to update my spreadsheet yet.

I cooked a chicken roast dinner today, leftover chicken & stuffing have gone in the freezer, leftover roasties and a yorkie and veg are in fridge.

Two tubs of cooked sausage have been put in the freezer, which were leftover from lunch that hubby cooked.

We've made progress in our bathroom too, hubby put up a mirror, a shelf and a cupboard and did lots of siliconing.

The last load of washing was done and I also washed the kids coats. All dried in front of the fire and put away.

I am so tired! Exhausted almost. But we have achieved so much, a very successful weekend. So I shall go get the Christmas gifts out of the boot and then retire to bed for the night!

Thank you all for your support!

I'll try and update with some figures tomorrow xx

IWAB x

I_want_a_baby

Ok, off to bed now, I promise!

Just sorted Christmas gifts out and listed one more thing on ebay :-)

Night x

roomontheend

It's not surprising that you are exhausted you have done so much. By the way what is snowman soup? Is this just water?

I_want_a_baby

A night off tonight I think :-)

My daughter was up through the night & I need sleep!

Snowman soup is a very Christmassy bag containing got chocolate, mini marshmallows & a candy cane, there is a poem I printed off google that goes with it to the tune of Let It Snow!

Did our banks and it's not looking too bad. There are a few £s I can save, but I'm going to wait until payday before 'reporting' them on here :-)

Night all x

roomontheend

Oops I could only imagine it was water haha. But it sounds better your way.⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

I_want_a_baby

Lol, I'm not sure where the name came from but I had never thought of it being melted snowman - could do that as well I suppose!

So nice lazy evening last night and went to bed at 8.15! It was much needed.

Loaded another item on ebay this morning - a total of 8 on there now - no bids yet though.

Right off for the school run x