My money saving, money making journey

Sellurgranny

Hi Hadalbm:wave
similar problem at my house... we've gone from 4 to 3 since DD1 went to uni getting used to doing smaller quantities. Ive noticed a real reduction in my food budget tho as she eats for England plus the other two arent so fussy.

You'd be proud of me today though... i had a leftover portion of chinese noodles that i made for tea last night whilst the girls had chicken wraps and potato wedges.

hooray its almost the weekend ... slightly scared though that I'll spend too much money. Ive withdrawn my allowance already so hopefully not. Thanks for looking out my diary its nice to have some moral support. Hope i can do the same for you :T

SurG x

Hadalbm

Sellurgranny wrote: »

Hi Hadalbm:wave
similar problem at my house... we've gone from 4 to 3 since DD1 went to uni getting used to doing smaller quantities. Ive noticed a real reduction in my food budget tho as she eats for England plus the other two arent so fussy.

You'd be proud of me today though... i had a leftover portion of chinese noodles that i made for tea last night whilst the girls had chicken wraps and potato wedges.

hooray its almost the weekend ... slightly scared though that I'll spend too much money. Ive withdrawn my allowance already so hopefully not. Thanks for looking out my diary its nice to have some moral support. Hope i can do the same for you :T

SurG x

Lovely to hear from you again. Our son went to Uni in Sept too so in first time in over 20 yrs I'm now cooking for two. Has made a huge difference to food bill here too but costing us a fortune in Uni accommodation fees etc. So proud of him though so willing to make sacrifices ourselves to support him.

So glad to hear you ate your leftovers :T Really does help to reduce the food bills even further.

I'm looking forward to weekend too ..... it's been a long hard week at work. We have an expensive weekend in front of us I'm afraid as we are out for a meal with friends tomorrow night (been arranged for ages and postponed twice already) and then going to see our son at Uni on Sunday which will mean we are eating out again. I do have money left in my entertainment budget from this week which will cover tomorrow's meal and then Sunday will come out of next weeks as I budget from Saturday to Saturday. Feels good that I have accounted for it :j

Hadalbm

Had another really good day today. I think I really have had my 'light bulb moment'. This diary is definitely helping with my motivation.
For the 4th day on the run I've had another no spend day which feels so good.
My lunch today was a repeat of yesterday as there was still some of the cream cheese to use up. Again I enjoyed it and I haven't once felt this week that I've missed out on anything by taking a packed lunch. In fact I've enjoyed what I've had more than what I used to buy. Savings on lunch today is another £4.08
I have to admit that I was tempted this afternoon to buy chocolate but I managed to resist which was good for the finances and my waistline!!:rotfl:

In addition tonight I have made lots of extra money by signing up to another cashback site (which paid a bonus of £20) plus a further £1.61 on other sites that I've started to use.

I've also requested a payout of £25 from one site which should be with me later this month. This will be paid into my emergency fund account.

Weekly budget no change since yesterday

Grand total in save or make challenge = £82.33

Hope everyone has had a good day too?

Hadalbm

Very busy day yesterday at work then we went out in the evening so didn't have time to post.
For lunch I took a portion of a left over pasta dish from the night before. This portion cost 95p to make so I made a £4.05 saving on the cost of my lunch. Feeling really proud of myself as I have managed a full week at work without spending a single penny :T

In the evening however we went out for a meal with friends. This had been arranged for ages and already been postponed so we decided to go even though we didn't really want to spend the money. I'm glad we did though as we had a really good night. We went to a Chinese restaurant and spent a total of £42.43 for a three course meal and drinks for two of us. The food was excellent and we did have the money in our entertainment budget so I don't feel too guilty.

We also had to put petrol in my car. This cost us £21

As I said in my earlier post I draw my £200 budget each Saturday so today is officially the end of my first week and I'm feeling really excited that we actually have money left.

Money left in budget:-
Grocery budget £7.24
Entertainment budget £18.63
Petrol budget £3.95
Other budget was untouched so has £20

Total savings from budget in week 1 = £49.82 which I think is pretty amazing?!!! This money will be transferred into my various savings account and my budget for week 2 reset to £200

Yesterday I didn't have chance to make any extra money but I did make the saving of £4.05 on my lunch.
Grand total of save or make challenge = £86.38.

Again I'm totally amazed at what can be done with some effort and motivation. I am going to have to wait for some of this money to be paid out from survey sites etc but when it arrives it's going to be put directly into savings. I have already requested a payment of £25 for one site that should be hear at the end of the month.
The money that I've saved on my lunches I'm going to also transfer from our current account to a savings account so that it doesn't get 'swallowed' up on bills etc. It will be really nice to see it grow.

Summary of achievements at end of week 1 is therefore :-

Signed up to lots of survey and cashback sites to make a bit of extra money
Had a total of 4 'no spend' days
Made a saving of £49.82 out of £200 weekly budget (nearly 25%)
Made or saved a total of £86.38 which met my target of an average of £10 a day

At end of week 1 I'm feeling so motivated. So pleased that I finally 'had a light bulb moment'

Hadalbm

I have to say that I'm now really enjoying my money saving journey.
Had another really good day yesterday which was a fantastic start to week 2.
The surveys and things that I've been doing online are really beginning to add up. Yesterday I made £7.01 which I was really pleased with.

After our successes with reduced yellow stickered items last weekend I decided to nip to the supermarket late afternoon to see if I could find more. Once again I managed to save a small fortune on bakery items, including bread, wraps, pitta bread and rolls at 19p each, fresh steak pies reduced to 37p each (had 4 for tea last night and other 2 in freezer) and fresh cream cakes reduced to 29p a pack which made a nice Saturday night treat. I also found fresh yeast reduced to 15p a pack which was fantastic as I had been on the look out for some as I do like making my own bread and pizzas. I have frozen this in portions and have enough to make at least 8 batches of pizzas.
One of my biggest savings however came from potatoes and they weren't even on offer. Normally I buy ready washed potatoes in 2.5kg bags at a cost of £1.99. Instead I bought a 12.5kg sack of unwashed potatoes for just £2 !! Yes I need to wash them but for a total saving of £7.95 then I'm more than happy to put in that effort.
In total I spent £21.61 which also included milk, wine, sausages, cheese, gravy granules. As we already have lots of fresh and frozen veg then I hoping we won't need to spend much more this week.

I also saved a further £3.12 by making my own breadcrumbs from bread we already had that needed using. I simply dried it out for 15 mins in a low oven, allowed it to cool and then blitzed it in my blender. I'm now storing it in an airtight container to use in recipes. Normally I would have just thrown the bread away and then bought breadcrumbs when I needed them! I'm hoping these will store ok?

Finally I received a free packet of Heinz tomato seeds through the post that I got from a freebie website. It's so nice to receive something other than bills. I have in the past grown fruit and veg in my garden and have decided to give it another go this year to help reduce my food bill. The cost of tomato seeds varies greatly depending on the variety from packs at less than £1 to others that cost as much as £4.99. Since the Heinz variety are not available for sale then I've estimated their value at £1.99 which I, adding to my make or save savings.

Week 2 budget :-
Grocery budget £50 - £21.61 = £28.39
Entertainment budget £80
Petrol budget £50
Other budget £20

Week 2 Make or save £10 a day challenge :-
Saved on yellow stickered items = £11.69
Saved on buying unwashed potatoes = £7.95
Saved by making breadcrumbs = £3.12
Made online surveys etc = £7.01
Total on day 1 of week 2 = £29.77
Grand total since start = £116.15 which is an average of £14.51 a day

Going to have a spendy day today as now going to visit son at Uni so will cost in petrol plus tea out but there is plenty in the budget to cover it so I'm not going to worry about it. Feels so good to be in control for once.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend too

Sellurgranny

Hi Hadalbm, enjoying reading about your money saving progress so far - you've made some brilliant savings already just by swopping a few of your spending habits without feeling like you're being deprived. I think that will really help with not feeling like you're having to go without. I dont know about you but I get such a buzz out of saving money wherever it may be. My BF thinks Im a bit bargain crazy and says he cannot be bothered to do all the little money saving things I do. Even comparing car insurance is too much of a chore for him!

Hope you've had a nice visit to your son at Uni today - mine DD is coming home next Thursday-Sunday so that'll mean lots more food shopping this weekend but of course it'll be nice to see her.

SUrG x

Hadalbm

Sellurgranny wrote: »

Hi Hadalbm, enjoying reading about your money saving progress so far - you've made some brilliant savings already just by swopping a few of your spending habits without feeling like you're being deprived. I think that will really help with not feeling like you're having to go without. I dont know about you but I get such a buzz out of saving money wherever it may be. My BF thinks Im a bit bargain crazy and says he cannot be bothered to do all the little money saving things I do. Even comparing car insurance is too much of a chore for him!

Hope you've had a nice visit to your son at Uni today - mine DD is coming home next Thursday-Sunday so that'll mean lots more food shopping this weekend but of course it'll be nice to see her.

SUrG x

Hi It was really lovely to see my son yesterday. We did spend money on petrol, parking and a meal (plus stuff from the bakery for his supplies) but it was worth every penny.
It is amazing how much can be saved though by just thinking differently and by writing it down. I think I'm now becoming addicted to saving
I think my hubby thinks I'm a little crazy too but he's happy to go along with it. We've been in debt for so long that I think he can see the benefits of my efforts. The way I'm looking at it now is that every penny helps.
x

Hadalbm

Yesterday was a bit of a spendy day as we went to visit our son at Uni but it was so lovely to see him.
We always take him out to eat when we visit which is one of the reasons why I set such a high entertainment budget in my plan. I would rather cut down on the grocery budget (which I have considerably cut) to allow us to be able to visit him, and our daughter without worrying about how we can afford to take them out. That doesn't mean to say that I'm not trying to find cheaper ways of having fun when we are with them.
Our meal yesterday was really reasonable for the three of us. We ate at Nandos which is one of my sons favourite places to eat and the bill came to a total of £32.62 I guessed that he would choose to eat there so I remembered to take my work ID badge with me as I get a 20% discount off the price of my meal. In the past I would always forget to take my badge as little savings didn't worry me. Gosh, how I've changed in just a few weeks? Also I don't particularly like fizzy drinks but in the past have paid for the refillable one at Nandos and then quite often just had the water out of the ice machine. Yesterday I decided to be brave and ask for tap water. They didn't give me the impression that it was a strange request and gave me a glass to help myself from the ice machine at no charge!!! This saved me £2.45 plus £2.48 with the food discount. That's nearly a £5 saving that in the past I would have just paid without thinking.

I didn't have time to make much money yesterday other than 17p on one of the survey sites. Doesn't seem like a lot but every penny really does help.

Week 2 budget:-
Grocery budget - spent £6.35 on pasties and other bakery goods for son. Total left in budget = £22.04
Entertainment budget - spent £32.62 on meal. Total left in budget = £47.38
Petrol budget = £50
Other budget - cost £6.90 to park at Uni (really is no other option). Total left in budget =£13.10

Make or save £10 per day challenge:-
Saved £2.48 on food discount and £2.45 on drink at Nandos
Made 17p on inboxpounds
Total yesterday = £5.10
Total for week 2 = £34.87
Grand total = £121.25 which is an average of £13.47 a day

Hadalbm

Going to post properly tonight but feeling so good at moment because both myself and hubby have just had lunch at home!!

Due the working patterns that we both have we more often than not have Mondays off together which is really nice. However over the past few years we have always had lunch out when both off together on a Monday. This is usually something in a local cafe or deli but it usually costs us at least £15. Today despite the fact that we have to go out shopping for some bits I forgot on Saturday we decided to have lunch at home before we set off to save money. We do still have enough money in the entertainment budget but we are planning to go out with friends on Fri evening so we want to save what we have for then. Before starting this diary we wouldn't have given it a second thought.

Anyway we have had tuna mayonnaise sandwiches using up one of the many tins we have in the cupboard (we have loads as we have always picked them up when on offer whether we needed them or not) and some of the bargain bread that I bought on Saturday. The bread was a lovely seeded loaf and despite being reduced was still lovely and fresh. We also had salad using up stuff that we have had in the fridge. Result was a really tasty lunch that we both enjoyed and which cost just 90p for both of us.

As I keep saying it feels so good to be in control of our spending

Hadalbm

Well I don't know where to start with today's savings. To say we've had an amazing money saving day is definitely an understatement. It started with the savings me made on lunch which I posted about earlier and then went on and on :j

We took a trip to a local supermarket and got the most amazing yellow sticker bargains. These included beautifully fresh yellow, orange and red pepper reduced from 60p to 24p each. We eat lots of peppers and they freeze really well when chopped so I picked up a total of 16. These are all now chopped and safely stored in freezer with a saving of £5.76.
In addition they had pink lady apples reduced from £3 to £1.19. As these are our favourite apples and they store really well we bought 3 bags saving a further £5.43.
Another item on our shopping list was tea bags. We decided to try a basic brand at just 20p for 40. I don't drink tea but hubby has tried them tonight and says they are absolutely fine. That's another saving of another 99p.
The basic cat litter we bought last week was also fine so we bought it again saving £3.70
We also earned 68p in nectar points. In addition I remembered that I'd forgotten to add my match points to my savings from Saturdays shop so that gives me another 11p.

The total cost of our supermarket shop came to £27.36 which was more than what we had in our grocery budget but I couldn't pass the yellow sticker items. They will save us lots in the long run. To keep my budgets on track I decided to move the money we spent on sons bakery items yesterday to my 'other budget' on the basis that it wasn't spent on us. I also realised that the two bottles of wine that I bought on Saturday should have been allocated to entertainment budget instead of grocery budget. By reallocating both of these all budgets are still well on track :j

After visiting the supermarket we called at a local specialist coffee shop. We have a Nespresso coffee machine that takes a certain kind of pod. These are not cheap but we buy them as a treat and they are much cheaper than having coffee out at a coffee shop. The bad news is that the shop is stopping stocking them but the good news was that they had 2 boxes of 10 pods that they had reduced to half price. This saved us another £3.50

This evening I've spent an hour or so online doing surveys etc and I've managed to make £9.41. I've also got a free graze box on its way which would have cost £3.99 to buy.

Summary of budgets
Grocery budget = £22.04 + £6.35 (sons bakery items) + £8.80 (wine) - £27.36 (today's shopping) - £3.50 (coffee) = £6.33
Entertainment budget = £47.38 - £8.80 (wine) = £38.58
Petrol budget = £50 - £20 (my car) = £30
Other = £13.10 - £6.35 (sons bakery items) = £6.75

Make or save £10 per day challenge:-
Today's savings:-
Lunch at home saved £14.10
Yellow sticker items saved £11.19
Swapping cat litter and tea bags for basic brand saved £4.69
Half price coffee saved £3.50
Made today:-
Loyalty points 79p
Online surveys etc £9.41
Freebies:-
Graze box £3.99
Total make or save today = £47.67
Total in week 2 = £82.54
Grand total since start = £168.92 or an average of £16.89 per day.

This is now getting a bit surreal ! Would never have thought that I could save or make this amount of money.