Our £20,000 Life

Cinny91

Morning!

Payday today. Will be paying £134.53 off the CC. I think we should be able to clear it before they add interest. We've paid £115.06 off it so far this month, plus the £134.53 today and the £100 currently to one side for the loan. So frustrating when we clearly have a decent income, it's just purely bad money management. In total since DH's payday before Christmas we've saved/cleared £1850.69. I did recieve a Christmas Bonus in that period which helped massively, but I am wondering if we could shave a month off our DFD of March 26th, 2021

Aiming for a NSD which should be easy. Tea is sausage, chips and veggies.

Out tomorrow for a playdate for O. Doing free things but will take some money if we end up at a cafe (not a huge cafe fan myself but seem to have a gift of making mum friends who love them!) Also need to take O to get some new school shoes, but we dont go to the Big C so it wont be too expensive.

Happy Friday!

Cinny91

DH only paid £84.53 off the CC, money for the loan is now at £150

Yesterday O wanted dumbo on DVD so we counted through his money box and I went to get it after tea. Technically not a spend, but hes been very happy so far just looking at the DVD case.

On today's shopping agenda we have the joy of school shoes. Will be going to shoe zone so should be around £10. Only got to get him through until July :j

Put money to one side for his singing group next week, and £5 for when we take my niece out. Have £23.12 in my purse so we'll see how far that stretches. Nothing really needs buying until I do the food shop on Wednesday. Planning an Aldi shop next week so I'll be starting my hyper speed packing training this evening. Will try to remember to pop in for their flyer to see what the special buys are for our meal plan.

Jacket potatoes with tuna and salad for tea tonight. DH has started chomping at the bit for a takeaway, he says hes just testing my resolve but I know what hes like. I have zero intentions of ordering any takeaways this year, and I'm not willing to let this wave of motivation be another let down in a couple weeks.

Cinny91

Today's spends:

New shoes - £8.00
Snack and drink for O - £1.30

Had a lovely time at the museum. They have a brilliant garden you're free to make use of, and always have amazing events on once it's not freezing. Very glad I remembered my gloves today

Went around 5 shops to find the shoes. This no online shopping business is great for the budget but annoying in practise. Was 4 places to find Dumbo yesterday too!

Cinny91

Spends today:

£6.80 - Wilkinsons (toiletries for DH)
£9.86 - Aldi (part top up shop, part me not being organised enough with the shopping)

Have the deals to look through to decide our meal plans. Soup and sandwiches, or just beans on toast is still doing me and DH fine for not spending much ££ and I bought enough soup this week to keep us going a while.

Made crispie treats for supper tonight too. All the chores for today are pretty much done, bar a load of laundry to put away later. House is tidy, uniform ironed for next week, school bag already packed. Quiet Sunday to read some more of my book we all walked to town so as the weather is hit and miss we can stay indoors now

savingmore

sounds like a contented sunday. well done. me coming down with the lurgy everyone else has had over christmas.

Cinny91

Same here, Savingmore! Can't get warm and I've got all the starter signals that DH had with his. Fun isn't it! Do hope you're feeling better soon.

Bank is at £120 but I don't think we'll be as wealthy as we were last week. Food shop on Wednesday, and O's monthly football DD starts coming out this month at £28. I still think we'll be able to save £100 on Friday, and DH gets paid the following Friday. Have £14 left in the bill account too so will go through and see what's left to come out.

Savings to one side for the loan is now at £165.35 :beer:

Tonight's tea is left over roast pork sandwiches and soup. Cursed myself with yesterdays post as this morning I came back from the school run to find DH had written up the meal plan for this week (well, from Wednesday) Chicken fajitas, toad in the hole, burgers, curry etc.. think we'll be headed into some fierce B-word-esq negotiations tonight. Happy to keep a few, but we have so many ruddy tins of soup and beans that I'm not giving up after a week :rotfl:

Cinny91

Yesterday DH spent £22.90 at M0rrisons and truth be told.. don't really understand what he bought for that bar there being some more oats and butter in the house? I'm a little frustrated between that unexpected spend and him wanting to switch up the meal plan. I'm holding firm on the budget where I can, but I feel like I've lost a little oomph in that we're not on the same page anymore. Did explain this all to him last night, and how I'm determined we won't lose steam like we have done before so today I got back from the school run to find DH had wiped clean the meal plan and written "Peter Pan Buffet" in its place. If anyone remembers the scene from Hook :rotfl:

Here is the slightly slackened compromised meal plan:

Wednesday - toad in the hole
Thursday - beans on toast
Friday - shepherds pie
Saturday - chicken fajitas
Sunday - roast chicken dinner
Monday - left over sandwiches and soup
Tuesday - beans on toast

Have pretty much everything in for "extra" meals, just need the meat (sausages, chicken, mince). Have tortillas in the freezer, a jar of salsa in the cupboard etc so I'm hoping with shopping at Aldi we'll spend sub-£30 this week.

Paid £7.10 off DH's CC :T

Cinny91

Cinny91 wrote: »

Wednesday - roast chicken thighs and vegetable rice
Thursday - beans on toast
Friday - shepherds pie
Saturday - chicken fajitas
Sunday - roast chicken dinner
Monday - left over sandwiches and soup
Tuesday - beans on toast

Message from DH to say he'd gone through the fridge/freezer and picked the meal for tomorrow night. Happy is an understatement, feel like we're back on the same page and I can put the food shop back to Friday now as it's just O and I on Thursday with beans on toast which we have things in for.

Spends for today:

Library - £1.30

Collected an audiobook I ordered for my friend, he's our old neighbour and registered blind so had the added £1 to take out CDs. Which is fine, it's a book about mining I've been listening to on my audible from before I cancelled it - anyone else I'd just give my log in too but as he's 93 with no internet it wasn't an option. Dropped it off when I stopped by for my weekly catch up with him, just hope he enjoys it

Also toying with the idea of getting O and myself a Paddington based curriculum to work with over half term. I know the lady that makes them, she's incredibly talented, it's under £10 and something we can return to as many times as we like through O's education. So I'm going to do more research later and see about working the pack cost into our February budget.

Silver_Queen

Would it be worth having a looser meal plan for the sake of OH? For example, rather than being specific on what you're having each day, make a weekly plan of X number of meals, and each day you pick which one you want?

Cinny91

We've tried that before, and we do swap things around if we fancy it, but I feel like not having x meal on y day 90% of the time leaves us with wasted food. DH has never been good with meal plans, but because groceries can play such a huge part in cutting back on spending I'm being more of a stick in the mud with it than I normally am 🙈