A Frugal Life for Me!

nowpanicking

Littletinks wrote: »

Hey NP.

I hope you've had a better day today. I totally understand how you felt about 'having' to stay in. BUT you should be really pleased with yourself. It's days like that when it's easy to think 'sod it' and spend money that you don't have or haven't planned for. Celebrate your Will power and how awesome you've been. You are doing an amazing job! Sending you a big high 5!

X

Awww thanks Littletinks high 5 right back at you:T

I have managed to spend no money, zero, all weekend which is a minor miracle

The last 2 weeks are definitely tough... It just feels like a bit of a waiting game tbh. I am meeting up with my friend on Friday tho so something to look forward to.

NP x

nowpanicking

So it's been an extremely quiet weekend which isn't so bad. I haven't even used the car to make sure the petrol budget isn't overspent.

House is looking nice and tidy which is a bonus . Plus I've managed to get a lot of reading in which is also good. I've been healthy eating all weekend but I am fancying some chocolate so determined not to have any. There's none in the house anyway so it would require a spend which is definitely not allowed!!

Funds are :

£29.59 Groceries as mentioned in one of my earlier posts, this budget suffered a bit during the week. Will have to be super tight with this now
£10.09 Petrol
£29.39 tobacco
£20.63 my personal spends took another £10 out in cash as there were a few work collections and the hot rolls I mentioned previously
£55.02 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£2.42 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£10.53 house
£0.98 bal cfwd from last pay
158 65 total

£4.70 n purse

£11.00 cash for school lunch

11 days until payday.

NP x

Siebrie

Dear Nowpanicking, I have just read your diary from the start; after two failed attempts, you now seem on the road to see it through! Go you!

On the rolls you bought, I will say: if that is your worst, don't worry!

How old is your son now? Is it time to start teaching him to cook, maybe recipes for fake mcd's? I'm a bit worried that he sees his Dad getting away with doing nothing (from your task list it seems you do all the shopping, cooking, ironing, and maybe laundry and cleaning?).

Maybe you can have a specific category 'husband's booze', just like you have for cigarettes, to make it stand out?

Do you know the book (it's a collection of news letters) 'The Tightwad Gazette'? By Amy Dacyczyn. One of her articles deals with the division of labour when one pwrtner works outside of the home, and the other stays at home.

nowpanicking

Siebrie wrote: »

Dear Nowpanicking, I have just read your diary from the start; after two failed attempts, you now seem on the road to see it through! Go you!

On the rolls you bought, I will say: if that is your worst, don't worry!

How old is your son now? Is it time to start teaching him to cook, maybe recipes for fake mcd's? I'm a bit worried that he sees his Dad getting away with doing nothing (from your task list it seems you do all the shopping, cooking, ironing, and maybe laundry and cleaning?).

Maybe you can have a specific category 'husband's booze', just like you have for cigarettes, to make it stand out?

Do you know the book (it's a collection of news letters) 'The Tightwad Gazette'? By Amy Dacyczyn. One of her articles deals with the division of labour when one pwrtner works outside of the home, and the other stays at home.

Hi Siebrie, v thanks for popping by

My DS is 12 and he is pretty good at helping around the house (when asked ). He'll wash or dry dishes, irons his own school uniform, puts away his clothes, tidies his room. He has helped with cooking in the past so this is something he could do more of.

Tbh my OH does pretty much everything around the house and garden. I'll tend to do a bit of housework at the weekends but not much. I do the cooking but only because I enjoy it. OH would be more than happy to cook the meals as well. I do the shopping because I do the meal planner and look after the money/budgets. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a control freak so am more than happy to take this on. I'm fairly happy with what OH does around the house at the moment as I can just concentrate on work and my family and not really worry about the washing getting done etc.

I realise my lists may sound like I'm doing everything but that is definitely not the case.

NP x

nowpanicking

Morning everyone

Very, very cold here but the office is nice and warm at least.

The funds are looking tight but I think I'm going to manage until payday. I do have a friend visiting for a couple of days so this will be the tricky part, trying not to spend too much.

Last night I did my meal plan for the week and my shopping list. I have just under £30 left in the groceries budget so it will be a frugal shop!! I do have a couple of meals in the freezer which will help. I think I can do my shop for around £26 which leaves a few £ for milk etc during the week.

Will update later on once I've been to @ldi.

Have a good day everyone. Stay cozy :coffee:

NP x

Moneywhizz

You are doing really well sticking to your budget this month. This is obviously going to be a tricky week not going over your budget. Since its the last week do you think you could move some of the extra money you have in the house/dh's personal spends, days out, into the food budget if you find that you are short on the food budget, especially since you have a friend staying with you? It will be tempting to just say its the end of the month and it doesn't matter so much, but going over would mean your budget for next month is even tighter. Good luck, I'm sure you can do this.

enthusiasticsaver

As there is £55 left in your OH personal spends pot as well as £29 for his tobacco will you be moving that £55 somewhere else? What date do you reset your budgets?

nowpanicking

Moneywhizz wrote: »

You are doing really well sticking to your budget this month. This is obviously going to be a tricky week not going over your budget. Since its the last week do you think you could move some of the extra money you have in the house/dh's personal spends, days out, into the food budget if you find that you are short on the food budget, especially since you have a friend staying with you? It will be tempting to just say its the end of the month and it doesn't matter so much, but going over would mean your budget for next month is even tighter. Good luck, I'm sure you can do this.

Hi Moneywhizz! Thanks for popping by. It has been a spendy few days but I am still within budget, just!! OH has spent some of his money as well, on DS not himself. OH is actually doing really well with his £80. He will have money left I think which he has asked that I add to the holiday funds which I will do. I'm pretty much out of groceries budget as the @ldi shop came in slightly higher than I thought. I have a grand total of 58p left. So I think I'll post the budgets as they are and then move some of the bits and bobs into the groceries budget to cover milk etc during the week.

NP x

nowpanicking

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

As there is £55 left in your OH personal spends pot as well as £29 for his tobacco will you be moving that £55 somewhere else? What date do you reset your budgets?

Hi enthusiasticsaver,

I'll move the spare funds from tobacco into groceries but anything left out of the OH personal spends I'll move to the holidays savings account. Payday is 7th Feb so not long to go!!

NP x

nowpanicking

I've had a nice couple of days catching up with my friend and I am still within budget so really pleased with myself :j

I've updated my annual budget spreadsheet and everything is fine there, dds ticking along as normal. I've also spent the morning doing a bit of checking out the spends over the last few weeks. Actually, I'm fairly comfortable with most areas. There has been a couple of mid week spends on food that are a bit high so I need to get better at just picking up what I need... Milk and bread usually and no extras!!! I manage to stick to my list for the weekly shop so no reason why I can't for the top up shop.

So funds are as they stand:
£0.58 Groceries
£0.08 Petrol
£7.89 tobacco
£1.61 my personal spends
£19.61 OH personal spends
£0.00 DS pocket money
£2.42 Family days out + £1.53 in cash
£0.00 school lunches
£2.05 house
34.24 total

£4.95 n purseI took out £20 on Friday and already had £4.70 in my purse so this is what is left

£0 cash for school lunch DS opted to have money more than once last week so that's it gone

4 days until payday. :j