2017 - Spend less, live more

Bobarella

What a bargain!

chanie

My focus for February is about focussing on our grocery budget, as its got out of hand recently. This is partly due to us not thinking about what we are buying, but also, the children are growing and eating more.

We do our main food shops in Lidl/Aldi.
We also do a monthly trip to Costco for store cupboard ingredients like rice, pasta, laundry detergent etc.
I like getting fruit and veg from the market, but I don't always have time to go.
The children go to Breakfast Club/After School Club, plus both get free school meals as in early years/ks1 (will have to pay for DS from September
OH and me normally take packed lunches for work.

With that in mind, my target is £70 a week (including cleaning products and laundry) with an additional £50 in Costco, for now.

We will be going shopping today, so I'll report back.

Bobarella

I really found it easy feeding my son until recently. He is now at just over 8 years old eating the same as us pretty much. So it does cost more. Good luck with your grocery mission.

chanie

Today, Mr C popped to the supermarket and spent £30 on groceries. Hopefully, this should last us until the weekend, as we are only around for dinner during the week.

Yesterday, I had a partly expected spend. DD, has been moaning about her shoes and so we tried on some in Next, which she complained about. So, we popped into Clarks to get her measured and they said she has narrow feet, no wander she was complaining. So, I ended up parting with £35, which is more than I had planned, but DD is happy!! I felt like such a bad Mummy, as I was buying her a size smaller, when in actual fact, the shoes were too wide for her. DS never had shoe problems, so it never occurred to me that DD would. We will have to get her some new school shoes now as well. Other than that, it's been a fairly uneventful weekend.

chanie

Happy February


Here are my 2017 goals, which I posted on another thread and forgot to copy over here. Quick progress update.




Reduce overdraft and save more.
Not very good at the moment, because Mr C's work has been a bit sporadic since just before Xmas, but is starting to pick up.

Loose weight
I've lost about 1.5lbs.

Smarter shopping - arget of £800 savings on purchases through surveys, discounts, freebies and anything else to save money.
I've saved about £65.

Only buy what I love - don't make do. Focus on quality.

Home fabbing - decorate rooms, New soft furnishings. Again, focus on quality items.
Plan to tackle the kitchen when the weather gets a bit warmer. Luckily, it only needs painting.

Keep on top of paperwork at home. I've saved about £300 on my car insurance and I should have moved companies years ago.
No insurances are due for renewal for a while yet.

Keep on top of Xmas for 2017 - I've done relatively well, but not as well as last year.
I plan on buying few bits in February

Hair - I'm growing it, but I'm thinking of getting some colour in either balayage or highlights.
I have a hairdressers appointment booked for early March.

Wear more jewellery or accessories.

Buy a new work wardrobe - cheaply.


Read more books.
I've read 1 book so far and have nearly finished a second book

Try new recipes and bake more.
I'm in the process of signing up for a breadmaking course. I don't eat lots of bread, but I thought it could be useful to learn the basics which would be handy for family picnics or taking as gifts for when I visit people.

Bobarella

That's a tricky one about your daughter's shoes. Unless you get them measured constantly they can change size quite quickly. Ah well all sorted now.

chanie

As we come to the weekend, I'm pleased to type that we've managed the week without topping up the grocery shopping. I did buy a few bits whilst in town, but that was for convenience. I spent £8, which was on fruit and veg, soft drinks and ingredients for a new recipe I wanted to try.

chanie

I'm having a bit of a rough time at work and this quote is really relevant at the moment - am posting in case anyone needs inspiration.


Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

chanie

frugal family fun

We had a nice family trip today. DS is learning about the Great Fire of London and so I thought it would be good to take him to see the sights in London.

We took a packed lunch so we didn't have to buy food when we were out. We need to do a food shop, but we managed to knock up a decent picnic.

We drove into Central London. By the time we'd pay to use public transport, the costs would have been the same. We timed our parking so that it only cost us £5.

Our First stop was the Museum of London as they have an exhibition on about the Great Fire. Me and Dd got in for free, so we only had to pay for OH and DS, which was £20.

Then we went to Pudding Lane and to Monument. OH waited in the car whilst we climbed the Monument and it cost us about £7.

So, in total, we spent about £30, which is pretty good for London. We could have easily spend double that.

On the way home, OH suggested we see Buckingham Palace as DS has been asking questions. Unfortunately, the road we needed was blocked off so we abandoned those plans. On the way home, we heard in the radio that there were protests in the area, so that was probably the reason for the toad closure.

Bobarella

Ha, we did almost exactly the same day out last year. Is your son in Year 2 by any chance? It was the last day out we did as a 3 before DD joined us. So I didn't go up the monument either but I have been before on my lunch break when I used to work in the city.