£29,303...Enough is enough!

PurpleFairy26

If you haven’t already you can also get a mattress topper at a very reasonable price which should also make a difference. 

WelshKitty85

New mattress due to arrive on 25th turned up yesterday. Made it up with fresh bedding & new pillows, had a shower before bed, and slept like a baby. This morning is the first in a long time that I've woken up not feeling tired, and no neck pain! 

WelshKitty85

The grocery budget is now at £270.68/£300 and needs to last another week. We've got plenty of food in the cupboards and freezer, so I'll do a meal plan around that today. We'll need a top up of milk, bread, fruit and veg. Plenty left in the budget to cover that.

DC2 and i went foraging through the community orchard and around the incredible edible beds this week. We collected leeks, apples, pears, blackberries, and a small strawberry plant. I've also got some rhubarb in the garden that needs harvesting. I need to decided what I'm going to make with it all and spend some time this weekend cooking & preserving.

savingholmes

Glad you slept well. The foraging sounds fab. 

WelshKitty85

I was full of energy this morning after a decent nights sleep so managed to be quite productive. It's  been a glorious day here, so got out in the garden early, harvested some rhubarb, transferred some crops into bigger planters, and did some general tidying up. Also feeling very proud of myself for turning some old packaging materials into a mini greenhouse instead of buying one.

Moved into the kitchen when it got too hot outside and baked an apple and rhubarb pie, an apple and blackberry pie, apple and cinnamon oat cake slices, and some cupcakes. Most will go into the freezer for future puds/ lunch box snacks, but I am going to give into a cupcake once I've had a shower.

I've made a start on a meal plan. Tonight was spaghetti and meatballs. Tomorrow will be roast chicken. I've told DC2 he can use his cheese making kit tomorrow to make mozzarella, then we can use some of the left over chicken on a pizza. Hope to also get an additional 2 meals from the chicken, maybe wraps and risotto.

PurpleFairy26

Sounds like a lovely productive day. Baking sounds fab, I think a cupcake was definitely deserved! 

Love maxing out meals from a chicken. Particularly a risotto as you need about a handful of meat finely chopped to go in it. Fajitas are a favourite in our house with left over chicken. 

savingholmes

The baking and cooking all sound tasty. Can I come? LOL

WelshKitty85

@PurpleFairy26 we love fajitas too. Aldi do a spice mix for about 30p which is really tasty. It's such a quick meal that everyone loves and they don't even complain about all the veggies I add in.

@savingholmes you're welcome any time!

DS went out to meet a friend yesterday so didn't make cheese for the pizza. So we had chicken and mushroom linguine today instead. Still got lots of chicken left.

I've done some work on my spreadsheets today, including budgeting for upcoming annual spends. I'm currently able to cover DD's musical theatre fees, home insurance, 3 birthdays and Christmas from our easy acess savings. By the end of the year, I will need at least another £550 to cover DH's car insurance and my MOT (I expect to need 2 tyres). I expect to have around £1400 locked away in other savings by then, but don't want to touch these as we will lose out on bonus payments if we do. So, I want to make at least £150 a month to add to the easy access account to cover these expenses and have a little left over to carry forward to next year's expenses.

I've got £30 pending in TCB so this will go straight to savings once available. I've been doing quite well for PA surveys lately so will make an effort to keep checking for available surveys. I stopped completing yougov surveys for a while as it takes so long to cash out, but have made an effort and completed 3 in the last few days. I'm close to cashing out a £10 am@zon voucher from SB and also earn am@zon points on my CC. I had planned to spend these on some copper kitchen utensils. But I might considering getting some cheap black utensils (£2 from b&m and will still match the kitchen) to tide us over, and save the vouchers for Christmas. I've currently got £56 in clubcard vouchers. I'm going to look into converting these into their partner reward vouchers, worth 3x their value, if there is any I could use for Christmas gifts. If I could use both of these for Christmas then I could divert around £200 from the christmas budget to the car expenses. I've still got loads of items to list for sale, mostly low value items but there's so many of them it will soon add up.

I'm still mainly working from home, and we're being told they don't want us to return to the office, so this should keep fuel costs lower for another couple of months at least. I want to make an effort to keep on top of the grocery budget going forwards. I've budgeted £300 a month, but would like to get below this without feeling like we're scrimping and having no treats. I'd also like to get back to eating healthier, and cutting down on sugar. I need to research some low cost healthy recipes that all the family will eat.

We went for a nice walk this evening and collected some more pears, blackberries, and some sweet corn. Unfortunately, the heavens opened on the way home. I must remeber that shorts and a white tshirt are not appropriate clothing when the forecast is for rain!! 

WelshKitty85

I did a top up shop this morning, hopefully the last shop from the current budget. Grocery spends are now upto £296.50/£300. I forgot to get eggs so will have to try and manage without until next week, but I did manage to pick up a Lidl fruit & veg box. Carrots, potatoes, aubergine, pepper, ginger, cucumber, lettuce, grapes, apples, bananas. All for £1.50. I've used the lettuce and cucumber to prep pasta salad for work lunches the next 2 days (I've had permission to work from the office). I used the huge pepper and some ginger in a stir fry tonight, with the last of the roast chicken. I'm planning to use the aubergine (and maybe carrots) in a veg chilli that will be a quick lunch when I'm working from home. 

I also spent £32.46 on DC3s birthday presents. It's not until November but there was a lovely wooden play set in the sale for £25 (it's an awesome Castle complete with dragon!) and some other small items with his favourite paw patrol characters on. I'd budgeted £50 for his birthday, but as he'll only be 3 I don't think he needs anything else, so the remainder can go towards my other annual expenses.

WelshKitty85

The last couple of days in work were really busy. I'm not complaining though as it's makes the hours go faster. I've got 5 days off now, which I've been looking forward to. Today has been quite chilled. I've done a bit of tidying, and my parents visited for the first time in over 6 months (I've seen them when dropping off shopping etc but they haven't spent any quality time with the DCs). DC3 was so excited to see them, it was lovely.

DH has booked a house valuation for Monday, so we'll have to do some more cleaning and tidying tomorrow. We're not likely to be moving any time soon but it will be interesting to see what it's valued at. We didn't have a proper valuation when we bought the house. We already lived in the street and made the owners an offer whilst chatting one day, and they accepted. It wasn't even on the market. It's got me thinking about the future though and I'd like to move somewhere a bit more rural and with more land. That's not practical while the children are so young, but gives us something to aim towards once they have all left school.

For now we need to keep taking little steps, chipping away at the debt and squirrelling away the pennies. Today I have:

• Cashed out £10 (amazon voucher) from SB
• Earned some more SBs
• Completed a yougov survey
• Completed a £4 PA survey (will cash out £8 to savings once approved)
• Sold a £5 item on eBay. Postage label printed ready to send on Monday.