£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

PurpleFairy26

Hi TOPM I don't think £29 on lunch and dinners is too bad for all of you, it's the household stuff that hurts your spend. We never buy household stuff from the supermarket, £ shop or home bargains here make all the difference, do you have any nearby you can try? You need to know price per litre of whatever you want from supermarket (pictures of shelf labels on your phone helps with this) so your not drawn in to it just being cheaper but well worth a look. 12 branded AA batteries are £1 in the £ shop :money:

Also milk - well worth looking at the ys section and freezing any that is reduced, we've just started doing this and it works very well. Last week 2 pints for 9p each :A can't necessarily have it for all our milk but any helps, plus having the odd pint in the freezer saves those top up shops too. Often find organic milk in there too.

Your menu sounds lovely, can I come for tea :rotfl:

Savertobe

When younger and poorer I used only bleach (a little here and there) and washing up liquid for cleaning (obviously needed wash powder and softener too). I might have indulged in a spray cleaner for some furniture and white vinegar to clean 'antique" (read just old) furniture. Its worth looking at what you use and interrogating whether its all necessary - I've heard some never even buy lu roll - must have great bidets - I think this is going too far but my budget is set at 20 per month now and we'll see how we go. I'll get back and report once I off decorating and back on weekly household chores.

I agree good menu lots of variety and some veggie stuff which I would eat more of but its rarely popular with OH.

EssexHebridean

Honestly agree about shopping around for household/cleaning stuff. I DO use the supermarket but as with most things we buy we have "target" prices to aim for - usually buy own brand stuff but if a brand is on offer and so works out cheaper then I'll buy that instead. The Aldi & Lidl cleaning stuff is excellent - I confess that I will only use the mild green liquid fairies for washing up but I do make a point of buying the HUGE bottles and again when they are on special. our worktops demand Cif Actifizz being used on them but again - I grab it when it's on special. Aldi Magnum dishwasher tablets are amazing - I'd definitely recommend. check out prices for various things in Home Bargains or B&M iof you have either nearby, and think where you can use stuff like white vinegar. The Old Style board swear by Stardrops as an all-round cleaner - it's extremely good but can be tricky to find. If you buy a limescale removing loo cleaner that savers you buying a separate one for sinks/taps etc too. We don't use separate fabric softener but usually buy the "2 in one" powder or liquid instead. A splash of white vinegar in the softener section of the drawer before tumble drying bedding/towels etc helps keep it all softer too.

Busy_Mee1

Hi TOPM - that is an excellent shop particularly bearing in mind you have party food included.

With regard to household stuff I have switched to @ldi washing tablets ( called @lmat in a green box - costs £2.79) ) They are absolutely fine and I have a couple of delicate little flowers who find some washing detergents make them "itch". I also use the white fabric conditioner (c0mfort pure equivalent) which again is fine. I also shop in Home Bargains for toiletries and other branded cleaning stuff. I don't know if you have a store locally but it well worth a look, they also do toys, cards and gift wrap at a fraction of normal price, which are great for buying in for children's parties.

emmie26

That is a good shop considering it was a cupboards empty shop. It is definitely household stuff that ramps up the spend, I've switched down as much as I can but still it makes a big dent in the budget when I need to stock up.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 31: Day 3

I find myself slightly disappointed that my tarantula friend hasn't put in an appearance this morning. Not.

re the household shop - we use Lidl/Aldi laundry powder (don't use softener), the big expenses are the Method spray cleaners and ecover washing up liquid, both because other brands make me sneeze a lot. Although I go through them so slowly (use a microfibre cloth and elbow grease most of the time, and the washing up liquid lasts ages) I don't resent that. The big costs were batteries and light bulbs, both of which could definitely be bought more cheaply elsewhere. The annoying thing is that i don't pass a HB/Wilko/poundland etc in my day to day life, so would need to make a special trip somewhere. Will ponder, when I have time to do more than make a cup of tea and head back to my computer for more work.

Have made green quiche yesterday (finely chopped frozen green veg, cream/egg/cheese quiche filling and hm shortcrust pastry) and DC1 has asked for it for lunch every day until it runs out as he loves quiche. Cheapest meal ever, so I'm not complaining.

Today I need to make a costume for DC2's Roald Dahl day tomorrow. Naturally, he wants to go as a grasshopper, rather than, ooh Charlie, or Danny, or George, or James or any one of the perfectly normally dressed children in Dahl's books! He has green pyjamas, so I popped out for green fabric yesterday which I will somehow construct into wings today, and we have green pipe cleaners for antennae, and green face paint. Just in case I was in danger of relaxing while working nonstop of website copy and keeping up with my normal work. Even for me, I'm a bit too busy at the moment, It will ease off a fraction after today, but not a lot! I love that I thought I would be less stressed and busy when DC3 started preschool. Not until the website baby was also sent into the world too, it appears.

For added fun, all the clubs are running again, so today I have DC1 and 2 swimming lessons, then have to rush back, stuff dinner down everyone's throats (hence pasties/quiche/pie every Tuesday - quick to serve and eat!) and get DC1 back out the door to Cubs.

Have decided to try to empty the freezer over the coming weeks - it needs defrosting, and seems to have all manner of unidentifiable leftovers and random frozen fruit in it. Suspect we will get a few puddings out of whatever fruit I find lurking in the depths, and some strange meal combinations.

to do today
1. make grasshopper costume.
2. make chicken and leek pasties.
3. buy wrapping paper and ribbon for DC1's birthday presents.
4. website work.
5. can't think beyond website work, it is all consuming! Number five can just be keep everyone alive until dinner time. We'll call that a win today.

to do this week
1. keep the packed lunches coming in on budget. Going surprisingly well.
2. pick up the social media again, which has fallen very much by the wayside recently, and does help increase income.
3. ebay old pram now that DC3 has stopped using it. It's got a broken part, but might get £20 for spares as it was a really expensive one originally (nine years ago! One of those 'buy better, buy once' incidents, where we researched obsessively for weeks and ended up with the perfect pram, which has survived all three DC and only broke a couple of weeks ago Good timing, as DC3 is 3.5).

to do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500 (last month was miles better than the previous average £3,900, going to try to repeat the feat).
2. get my new website finished and launched (crosses fingers, toes and eyes).
3. just work as much as possible and make some money back to recover the enormous shortfall that faces us this month!

Treadingonplaymobil

Ooh, that was a long post. Sorry.

ellen_vannin

You are doing very well Tread

Points to bear in mind for next fancy dress ideas - I volunteer in a chaity shop and we have a lot of people buying fancy dress items - also buying ordinary clothes , sheets etc just for the material to recycle into fancy dress items.Usually much better quality and price than fabic shops.
Also if you don't intially see what you want ask as sometimes more in stock room.
Wool blankets are always fav for felting projects.

redofromstart

I really like the sound of the green quiche, it'd be a good freezer use up for me too.

Treadingonplaymobil

ellen_vannin wrote: »

You are doing very well Tread

Points to bear in mind for next fancy dress ideas - I volunteer in a chaity shop and we have a lot of people buying fancy dress items - also buying ordinary clothes , sheets etc just for the material to recycle into fancy dress items.Usually much better quality and price than fabic shops.
Also if you don't intially see what you want ask as sometimes more in stock room.
Wool blankets are always fav for felting projects.

Ooh, good idea. Thank you! Haven't thought about just going in and getting sheets etc for fabric.

redofromstart wrote: »

I really like the sound of the green quiche, it'd be a good freezer use up for me too.

I make the filling with whatever I have. Yesterday it was an onion, a sad courgette, some frozen broccoli, peas and spinach, mixed with 250ml cream, a good grating of parmesan, one egg and two yolks.

Chappers27 wrote: »

Simple. You need to earn more than £250 a month. Go and get a job.

I wrote a massive long reply detailing all the childcare costs attached to this, but actually both of us have better things to do than debate that issue. Suffice to say it wouldn't work for us right now.