A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Lots of people seem to rate George at Asda for kids clothes - if you have a store with clothes near you is that worth looking at if M&S's drop in quality no longer make them worth paying a bit extra for?

Under budget for groceries is great - is there anything you can tweak for the rest of this week/next to make things stretch further and make further savings? (Anything with mince as a meat ingredient in my house generally gets a few handfuls of red lentils thrown in, and for bolognese sauce I often use roughly equal quantities of mince & very finely chopped mushrooms which also works well to bulk out and stretch the meat without it being noticeable that it's less meaty.

I often buy clothes in the supermarkets for the kids. Luckily 14 isn't too brand bothered and happy to have stuff from Primani. Unfortunately 14 is also a 6' man size child. At 14 they're still running and climbing and generally being silly so clothes take a big hit on wear and tear. He's got a 34" waist and it was £17 for two pairs in M&S as they still came under schoolwear. not many shops make children's clothes past the age of 16 which he grew out of around age 13. TBH I think a lot of manufacturers clothes sizing is very out of date now from when it was all originally decided.

This weeks shop came in at £78. That included toilet rolls, planned meals for all of us - using up some bits from the freezer, and packed lunches. I just need to watch the odd £5 here and there that I manage to spend in the express shops. I definitely think transferring to a Monzo pot next month will give me a clearer idea of what's being spent in this category.

My food week goes from Weds - Tues as I have online delivery on a Wednesday as I am home early that night.

This weeks meals are:

Weds - Spanish omelette & Salad
Thurs - Cod & home made chips - (fish already in the freezer)
Fri- Bubble & Squeak with pork & bramley apple sausages
Sat - Prawn stir fry
Sun - Beef tagine - (diced beef already in the freezer)
Mon - Pork loin milanese with rice (Pork already in the freezer)
Tues - Pizza - from freezer

GeorgianaCavendish wrote: »

If you have any M&S clothes that could be donated to charity, Oxfam will give you a £5 voucher. I think you have to spend £35 to get £5 off, but if there are certain things that you always buy from M&S it is worth knowing.

I don't think I do have any clothes from M&S. I usually only buy their trousers for 14yo and jeggings for me. They are generally out of my price range and I find the supermarkets often do quite nice clothes too. Although I am on a clothes ban for myself. I bought two skirts for work in the January sale with money my MiL gave me and apart from undies, don't think I will need anything until summer where it will be a couple of t-shirts.

Whilst looking at my budget again, I realised there are a more things I need to budget for. I "may" have mentioned I'm about to start studying, but to do so I have to have membership with the professional body. This is £113 a year for a studying member. Also the dog... I save towards his vets fees and prescriptions but not grooming. He is groomed around 3-4 times a year (he's a spaniel with long hair and long tatty ears) and it's usually around £35-40 a time. And no, I really can't do it myself!

So it may take a little longer to get the overdraft & credit cards down, but at least I'll have funds for the planned things as they come up.

Naomim

Naomim

I'm very concerned about the overdraft interest going up considering how large ours is. I hadn't actually put the OD as part of our debt figure or into my snowball. I re-did the snowball this afternoon to include the OD at the new interest rate of 39.9% and it'll be about £100 interest a month. So I think my next step will be a money transfer within the next couple of months. I just want to make sure my budget is working properly and settled before I apply for anything as this is how much of my cc debt built up in the first place.

Naomim

lucielle

Ouch to the interest!
L

Naomim

lucielle wrote: »

Ouch to the interest!
L

Indeed! :eek:

I think a money transfer card will be the way to go. I just have to make sure that we keep to budget and not go in the OD at all which is why I want to be a bit cautious now whilst the budget is new and make sure we are sticking to it properly and it's not "aspirational".

I can't facing ending up where I am again and adding more debt.:(

Naomim

Naomim

A quick note before I run off home for the weekend.

I've had 3 NSD's this week which I'm happy about. Also last night had to do some life admin for the in-laws that saw us getting home late. Instead of stopping off and picking up fish & chips or KFC, I made a quick stiry fry. It wasn't great, but saved a lot of money.

I'm also constantly tweaking the budget. I REALLY want it work properly and not be left with unexpected costs. So far so good, a few bits and pieces come out of the bank account unaccounted for and tomorrow have to get 10yo her Scout uniform for investment at the end of the month. But OD still going downwards so I'm a happy bunny.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Stay frugal

Naomim

Naomim

Evening,

Payday on Friday. I think everyone is counting down the days! I have £7 of personal spends left. However the great news I have my budgeted pots. I will need petrol and dog food before the end of the week and there's money in the pots and the overdraft has come down. MrM has run out of personal spends. He's ok for lunches as I'll make them but I'm hoping he can vape for the rest of the week.

I've done my online food shop for the week, £74 so far but know I need to add a couple of bits.

I start my new course tomorrow after work. I'm so nervous. Spent part of Saturday staring wistfully at pens & pencil cases in WH Smith like I did as a child. Then today, I raided work's stationery cupboard for a pad, pen & ruler.

I've also listed one item on Ebay. I have loads of stuff- mainly clothes to get through, but the idea of doing loads is overwhelming so I thought I'd do one or two things at a time. Baby steps.

Hope you all had a good Monday.

Naomim

lucielle

Have you thought about selling the clothes in bundles via a facebook selling group, you have no fees then as well
L

Naomim

lucielle wrote: »

Have you thought about selling the clothes in bundles via a facebook selling group, you have no fees then as well
L

I used to when the kids were babies but now I think I have so much stuff to sort out and it's all different sizes. I'll have to see how much I have.

I hadn't thought about bundles though so thank you!

Naomim

Naomim

Hooray, it's pay day for me :j but not too much happening really.

I've logged onto both kids school accounts and paid off a bit of their respective school trips, one school meal for 10yo as they are celebrating Chinese New Year next week and a couple of "workshops" where they have outside people come in and run sessions.

In my prolific account I have £17.41 to cash out and £3.77 pending so I'm waiting for the end of the month before cashing that out and whacking it onto my Barclaycard.

This week I went to watch BGT Judges Auditions being filmed. Free tickets :T but we had to get there early so there was lots of waiting about and ended up eating dinner out at an unplanned cost of £17.

Not much else to report, feeling a bit, meh. I fell down two stairs last night and jolted my back and this afternoon I can't stop sneezing and my nose is running. Hoping the end of the day comes quick and I go home, have a bath and get into bed.

Naomim

lucielle

Hope you feel better. A nice hot bath with some bubbles might help?
L