Ongoing Journey to being a Frugalista..

beanielou

brizzlegirl wrote: »

Thanks beanie - hope you’ve good and it’s not been too hot for you... xxx

I am ok thanks
Not too hot at all xx

PurpleFairy26

Glad you've managed a few extra dats away particularly with the good weather.

As a comparison on food, we too have a budget of c£25/person/week. I know we could do it on less and some months we do, some we don't. Although 2 months ago I set up a separate account just for food (rather than spend from the budget held in the joint account) and although I've been tracking food spends on a spreadsheet for 3 years, (which cut down our original high spending) this seemed to help again and we have seen it notch down again. Not sure if that will last but nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.

Our life insurance etc... is £110 a month and then healthcare through benefit at work so probably about the same all told.

Have a good week. Purps.

jwil

Glad you've had a good few days away

brizzlegirl

Thanks all - PF I thought I had replied but seems not.

Thats interesting - I am trying for £25 pppw but it will change when DD1 goes to uni. I have asked OH to cook a lot of Dahl and stuff which we can just put in the freezer for easy meals. he's dead busy at the moment but hopefully in a week or two we can fill up the freezer with HM 'ready meals'. the life insurance etc is a mixture of stuff we got years ago (so cheaper) and some top up ones for when I was FL - but am reluctant to change now as you never know and in this kind of thing I am risk adverse.... car insurance etc we always compare or try and get a freebie eg. meerkat..

A lovely weekend. Lots of relaxing which has been lovely as its back to school next week. exercise has been amazing this week - really focussed on it (10 hours of classes!) and have felt so much better for it. YNAB is looking ok for both August (once my expenses are paid by work) and for September. Will do some scores on the doors shortly

xx

PurpleFairy26

brizzlegirl wrote: »

Thanks all - PF I thought I had replied but seems not.

Thats interesting - I am trying for £25 pppw but it will change when DD1 goes to uni. I have asked OH to cook a lot of Dahl and stuff which we can just put in the freezer for easy meals. he's dead busy at the moment but hopefully in a week or two we can fill up the freezer with HM 'ready meals'. the life insurance etc is a mixture of stuff we got years ago (so cheaper) and some top up ones for when I was FL - but am reluctant to change now as you never know and in this kind of thing I am risk adverse.... car insurance etc we always compare or try and get a freebie eg. meerkat..

A lovely weekend. Lots of relaxing which has been lovely as its back to school next week. exercise has been amazing this week - really focussed on it (10 hours of classes!) and have felt so much better for it. YNAB is looking ok for both August (once my expenses are paid by work) and for September. Will do some scores on the doors shortly

xx

Wow 10 hours of classes. Kudos.

Glad all is straight wth the funds and budget. I'm planning on using some freezer goodies up (so I can fill it again :rotfl:) definitely helps for lunches and evening meals and avoids that dreaded t-away. Also autumn in perfect for soups and stews, which both cook well in sc and freeze well. Win win.

Igamogam

I set a budget of £60/week for all food, toiletries etc for 2 adults and a none fussy cat. We eat local meat and veg when possible - but I tend to bulk buy meat monthly and freeze and we have a door step milk delivery included in that. We eat well I would say and cook from scratch. I use only cash when food shopping which I try to do only once a week - cos I hate shopping - so when I get to the beer aisle if there is no money left for beer then..... oh dear The meal plan of course keeps us on track. We do have weeks of 'living out the freezer and stores'. Some weeks I spend very little and others I may just go over but so far so good - whatever cash is left over goes towards next weeks £60. Having 2 young adults in the house all summer has seen the food bill rocket - not use to boys and crikey do they eat...constantly :rotfl: but they have both paid their way so I am on target allowing £3120 for the year This has been a new 'thing' for me this year and I am loving it. Did go back to using cash only, a few years ago but this year I have stuck to the budget too....eyeopener!

Seasidegal58

PurpleFairy26 wrote: »

Wow 10 hours of classes. Kudos.

Glad all is straight wth the funds and budget. I'm planning on using some freezer goodies up (so I can fill it again :rotfl:) definitely helps for lunches and evening meals and avoids that dreaded t-away. Also autumn in perfect for soups and stews, which both cook well in sc and freeze well. Win win.

Got to agree about those classes! Phew!

Also about the soups and stews. I'm looking forward to getting the slow cooker out again!

brizzlegirl

Thanks Ig! Good to know it can be done. We also have a doorstep delivery of milk.. part of our plastic reduction scheme.. we actually only spent £250 this month on groceries but it was hardly a typical month as we were away a lot. We will see how next month goes..

Back to school this week? It’s a sunny day here - nice and clear so feeling optimistic!

SSG - I am using my slow cooker for rice but you’re right - stews and stuff - bring it on..

Lots of love ladies and thanks for stopping by

X

brizzlegirl

Hi all :hello:

Just popping by. A great week here, lots of work but survived..had a very sociable weekend which was lovely, especially as the sun shone. Managing to keep the spends in check, just, do need to make sure DD2 doesn’t always use the bus to get to her new school....and need to ensure that a big uni spend I put on a CC gets paid off as soon as I get paid. Our grocery bill is getting much better - largely from only buying small amounts of only what we really need. What an outstanding revelation :rotfl: gawd I am not the sharpest knife am I ?!! :rotfl: I am also socking away the savings for my various pots for the car maintenance etc etc. I also now have an EF again which stands at £1k which after the summer I am pleased about. It needs to get to £2k soon but that will take time. Need to stash away the money for the tax bill first. But at the heart of it am cautiously optimistic. Only another 3 months and we should be out of the worst stage and then by end of Spring next year we should be debt free... can’t blooming wait.

Have a great day all

Brizzle xx

brizzlegirl

Oh and need to sort out the scores on the doors. YNAB was playing up last week. But we reinstalled the app.still on free to use Classic so it’s sometimes wobbly..and now it seems to be working again. Looks as if we spent 79% of our income ...I could have made it look better, but that was just by increasing my income via a withdrawal from the ISA so a more accurate statement is that we didn’t spend 21%. Not in line with where we need to be, but still at least it’s a buffer. And that takes into account this summer’s holidays. All the cards are paid off apart from the ‘static’ ones where we hold the existing debt. So basically we are just working from 1 main account which certainly focuses the mind...

Laters xxx