Mrs S, family life and debt

wishingthemortgaheaway

MrsSave wrote: »

Yes, it includes all household things (cleaning products, nappies, wipes, etc) as well as wine It's very, very rare for me to eat a meal without meat as well!!

How about a little challenge between us? Under £60 a week for groceries & houshold in April?
I'm not going to include 'one off' things in this though. So, in March 'one off houshold goods purchases were':
Spare set of keys cut
Proving basket for sourdough.

Do you accept the challenge?

MrsSave

Payday tomorrow :j I've budgeted for April, just waiting for the money to hit the account so that it can be transferred.

There's one more school day until ds1 breaks up for Easter. I've put some money to one side for holiday activities. We've got a busy weekend planned, but nothing too expensive (hopefully). I'm going to do an Easter egg hunt here, and have already bought a few eggs for it.

I need to meal plan for next week. It's so difficult, though, with not knowing where we'll be because of the holidays. I'm really aiming to stick to my eating plan as much as I can and keep losing weight!!!

MrsSave

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

How about a little challenge between us? Under £60 a week for groceries & houshold in April?
I'm not going to include 'one off' things in this though. So, in March 'one off houshold goods purchases were':
Spare set of keys cut
Proving basket for sourdough.

Do you accept the challenge?

That sounds like a fab challenge. I'm definitely up for that!!

MrsSave

I've been paid so have transferred money to the correct accounts. I've also paid ds1's next batch of swimming lessons and made a small overpayment to the mortgage :j Once I've budgeted for the month, what ever round number is left goes to savings and the odd pounds and pence go towards a mortgage overpayment. This was £9.77 today, so not a huge life changing, paying off the mortgage 10 years early amount, but a start.

One more day of work, then see whether I've lost any weight and then 5 days off :j Work is super busy at the moment though, and we are short staffed due to sickness which means today should fly by!!! I was planning on going in early, but have so far spent half an hour on finances :rotfl:

MrsSave

:j 5 days off :j

I lost 2lbs this week which makes a total of 8lbs in 4 weeks. I'm pretty happy with that. Still quite a bit more to go but it's definitely going the right way!!!

I had an email from mse cheap energy club to say that my cashback for switching energy suppliers has gone through, but may take a little longer to reach the bank account. :j The £25 will hit the account next week hopefully. I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I'm thinking partly savings, partly mortgage overpayment and partly in my personal account. £10 in savings and my account, £5 towards the mortgage. I then feel guilty because it's not going towards the boys, but I know that I budget plenty for them each month so they never go without, if things are tight, the first place the money comes from is my personal Spends!!

I popped into Tesco earlier to pick up a couple of 'picnic' type bits. We've got a few days out planned over the Easter holidays, and it will be far cheaper to take along food. That money is coming out of the Easter days out pot that I've put some money aside for.

MrsSave

We had our first Easter Day out yesterday. We took a picnic (and ate in the car) and spent the afternoon following clues to find letters to make a word. It was great fun, ds1 won an Easter egg and we did lots of walking and had plenty of fresh air. We ended up spending £15 (£2 on parking, £3 on the hunt, £6 on a train ride for us all and £4 on 2 ice creams).

We're going to a fun day this afternoon so will eat lunch at home first. It's free entry but I'm sure it will be easy to spend money on rides etc there. We'll give the boys a set amount of money and stick with that. I need to get ds2's feet measured (again!!) so will see if we can fit that in today as well.

debtaghh

Well done on the weight loss.

MrsSave

On Saturday we gave ds1 a budget of 4 rides (£1.50 each) and he was fab. He stood in the middle of everything, looked around at all the rides, and made his decision. Ds2 was too small for them, next year it's going to cost quite a bit more. We did get ds2's feet measured, and they had grown. £34 on shoes for him!! We picked up supermarket pizzas for dinner (£4 in total) so minus the shoes we spent £10.

Easter Sunday was a nsd (they're very rare at the moment). I sorted an Easter egg hunt for the boys ready for when they woke, we had a massive roast dinner and then the boys had a birthday party. Yesterday we were out again so had another picnic in the car. We visited 2 museums (1 free and 1 we had to pay - £14). We did then eat out in the evening, and that came to about £44. I have budgeted £60 for the Easter break, mr S has given the same amount and we do still have a little left :j

We're all off again today, but going to have a quiet morning and lunch at home and then take the boys out with their bikes/trike this afternoon. Should be a nsd (unless an ice cream is bought!).

I did my food shop yesterday. I spent £42.23 in Aldi and then £7.03 in Tesco. £49.26 for the big shop so I have about a tenner left over for the fruit and milk top up.

It's back to work tomorrow after a very full on, fun weekend.

I've received my £25 for switching energy suppliers. £10 has gone to savings, £10 is in my account and £5 has gone as a mortgage overpayment. I've overpaid by just over £15 this month, which isn't loads but a start!

wishingthemortgaheaway

Evening Mrs S, just checking in with our £60 a week challenge. I've been shopping today for this coming week. I was planning on going tomorrow, but have decided to go out for the day with Pickle, so, after 2 week's shopping done, groceries & household goods stands at £92.14 so, technically £46.07 a week, but I may end up with this being a 4.5 or 5 week month. So I think might not be as good as it looks.

MrsSave

Wishingthemortgage I've kind of cheated (if you can call it that) this week!! My mum was with me when I did my top up shop, and paid for it!! That means this week I actually spent just over £49, but would have been almost £60 if I'd have paid for the top up. Food shopping again tomorrow, but I have quite a lot in so shouldn't be too expensive (famous last words!!). This is a 5 week month for me, which I don't like!! You're doing well!

Things are still so up and down here. More people with their opinions. I'm actually really surprised by who it was this time, and the public way she has gone about slating me. Even Mr S is totally unimpressed and told her she was out of order. She couldn't explain to him why she did it, but just cried and cried :mad: I'm quite amazed at how many people are so fast to turn their backs on you, and are happy to start/spread untrue things.

The positive of this is my weight loss :rotfl: I lost 4lbs this week, which means I've now lost 12lbs in total. It's definitely going the correct way, but I can't wait now to start seeing some results.

I took ds1 to the cinema this afternoon to see Peter Rabbit. We both really enjoyed it, but it did cost almost £21 for 2 tickets, and the kiddies snack box for him. I'd made a roast at lunch time, so thankfully I didn't want anything!!

I really need to get my head back into housework this week. I need to sort through all the toys, and need to put away a load of clothes. I have hoovered downstairs and the stairs this weekend, and given the kitchen a pretty decent sort out, but I do feel things slip and get on top of me sometimes. I need to get back to making lists - I was writing a 'chore' list for myself every weekend with tasks I aimed to do by the following weekend. Marking off the chores one by one was a great incentive to do more!! I'll make a list tomorrow for this coming week.