“Debt is normal. Be weird.”

Chrystal

It's lovely to see you so positive.  Your excitement is practically palpable

browneyed_girl

Thank you Chrystal - the excitement and enthusiasm tends to come in waves.  At other times, I can reproduce the feelings artificially with cake but I’m not sure it’s quite the same!

As I’d mentioned on a previous post, we’d decided to make HM gifts for Mother’s Day and I’d set a budget of £20 to get any raw materials.  I then thought to have a look at what we already have lying around the house and found a lovely little wooden box that I had bought last year for DDs to decorate as a gift, but for some reason we never got round to it.  Further digging found a kit to make bath bombs that DD1 had been given at Xmas and some lovely decorative glass jars that I’ve decided would be perfect for a HM jar of smiles (essentially lots of positive quotes/messages written on coloured card and placed in the jar to be read when the recipient needs a boost - I plan on having DDs write some lovely notes and little poems about Nanny and Granny ).  Alongside some HM cakes, I think these items will be perfect and total cost now looks like it will be less than £10 for baking ingredients .

Chrystal

What fabulous ideas for presents... I bet they'll be thrilled to pieces to get those.  I know I certainly would be. (beats a bunch of flowers into a cocked hat!) 

browneyed_girl

Have had £10.85 land in my account today from surveys, which when added to the emergency fund takes the grand total up to £126.50.  Not exactly a staggering amount, but at least I’ve been able to add to it each week this year.  Even better, today has been a NSD

Not much else to report, other than I noticed a final direct debit to Sky of £1.86 came out my account today.  Not a lot, I know, but it’s another cost that I hadn’t factored into this month’s budget and an irritation when we’re counting every penny.  It does feel good though to say that we are now free of Sky TV and I doubt we’ll even miss it.  I cringe to think of how much money they’ve had from us over the past 6 years - it’s probably more than we spent on our last car!  I will be celebrating this momentous occasion with a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive (other biscuits are available).  Living the high life!

browneyed_girl

Happy weekend all!  Hope everyone is getting the chance to rest and recuperate

I love weekends and not just for the usual reasons!  Since cutting back on our grocery spending, we limit ourselves to one main shop on Mondays and a single top-up shop which is usually on Thursdays.  The weekend is therefore a time for being creative with what I have left in the fridge and cupboards - I absolutely love making something from seemingly nothing!  Having looked at a nearly empty fridge today, I would almost certainly in the past have been straight off to Mr T to pick up plenty of treats for the weekend (because the weekend is obviously the time for treats), probably spending £20-30 without even giving it a second thought.  By comparison, so far today I’ve turned some overripe bananas into a banana cake using things I already had in my baking cupboard and substituting butter (which we didn’t have) for oil.  I’ll let the kids have some of the cake for dessert with ice cream and toffee sauce, which will hopefully be reminiscent of banoffee pie!  Kids are having a HM cheesy leek and Quorn pie for dinner with some HM potato faces.  DD3 is unfortunately a very fussy eater and the only way we’ve managed to get her to eat potato is if we buy various frozen potato shapes.  Since we don’t have any in the freezer currently, rather than heading out to buy some, I’m attempting to make my own version by shaping a mixture of cold mashed potato, cornflour, breadcrumbs and seasoning.  Fingers crossed the fussy little madam actually tries them!  I’ve also got some veggie sausage rolls to make using the leftover pastry from the pie, which can then be put into DDs lunchboxes on Monday.  

Should be a NSD today and tomorrow, meaning we’ll have a grand total of four this week!  That’s level with our current record .  Let’s hope we can carry the momentum into next week!

savingholmes

I gulped when you mentioned tackling the loft - that would be a very scary thought for me
Glad your DH is helping you out selling stuff
Great that you paid a lump sum off Very
Love the thought of banana loaf. I used to make some too but I would eat too much of it so stopped for now. I love banana and pecan loaf though

beanielou

Hope the HM smiles go down well

browneyed_girl

savingholmes said:

I gulped when you mentioned tackling the loft - that would be a very scary thought for me
Glad your DH is helping you out selling stuff
Great that you paid a lump sum off Very
Love the thought of banana loaf. I used to make some too but I would eat too much of it so stopped for now. I love banana and pecan loaf though

I have to admit savingholmes that I poked my head in the loft and quickly made an executive decision to leave it for another day...and probably for DH!  I already look from room to room around the house wondering how we acquired so much ‘stuff’ - I don’t know how we’ve managed to fill an entire loft also!  We’ve already got items in the garage we can sell and I can actually stand to look in there without succumbing to a panic attack - I’ll save the loft until we’re in dire straits!  Banana and pecan loaf sounds delicious - I might have to pick up some pecans on my next trip to Mr T.  Second admission of the day (and it’s only 9am!) - the banana loaf I made didn’t even survive the night!  Every time I stepped into the kitchen I found it calling to me just to have another little sliver and I’m pretty sure the same thing happened with DH!

beanielou said:

Hope the HM smiles go down well

Thank you beanielou - I thought they were pretty good and DD3 did eat them, though not with the same enthusiasm that she has for the ready-made version.  She must have realised they weren’t the same from the appearance - the first few faces I made did look distinctly constipated... I’ve got some mashed potato leftover which is now in the freezer, but I think I’ll be using it to make potato pancakes for a weekend brunch

I’ve been keeping a very close eye on every single spend to make sure we’re staying in budget.  DH has been fantastic and sold a few more items for £33, with £20 promised for another item.  His car was in the garage yesterday so I’m waiting anxiously for their bill to arrive.  This is the big uncertainty of the month and I have everything crossed that we can find the money to pay it without dipping into savings.  

A couple of very long days at work means the housework has been somewhat neglected, so lots to keep me busy today.  DD3 and DS are playing nicely together at the moment, so I might use this opportunity to make DDs beds and sort their laundry.  I hope everyone else’s plans are more exciting than mine!

savingholmes

That's why I stopped baking - I am good cook - and loved orange loaf and banana loaf - I even tried the latter with dates in that I would never normally eat but some was really moist. I think I added some walnut too at the time. 

Great progress on 3b@ying.

browneyed_girl

That sounds lovely savingholmes - all this talk of cakes is making me hungry! 

Have sent DD1 and DD2 to school today in their world book day costumes.  DD2 already had a Hogwarts robe and scarf in her large fancy dress collection, so we added some orange hair chalk and instant Ginny Weasley!  DD1 also wanted to be a Harry Potter character but didn’t have a robe.  Instead of buying one, we found that one of my black jackets (which is some odd hybrid of a cardigan, cape and coat) was the perfect length and I then spent yesterday evening making a house badge to attach to it.  DD1 very happy with the result and we didn’t have to spend a penny!

Need to run a few errands today.  I have the Sky box to post back to prevent them charging us for it. It’s all packaged up with their freepost label and currently sat cluttering up my kitchen table - avoiding a £60 fee should be motivation enough for me to get it shifted today!  We also need to make a trip to the local recycling centre to get rid of some old chairs, electronics and miscellaneous items that once cleared will make it easier to access other items in the garage.  If we’re lucky, we might find something else to sell and help with our garage bill - fingers crossed!

DD2 has her dance classes this afternoon, meaning we opt for a convenient dinner because of all the rushing around.  Kids will have YS veggie nuggets, whilst DH and I have got leftover curry and HM flatbreads which I’ve taken out the freezer to defrost.  DH used to pick up chips or takeaway pizza for everyone on the way home from classes, usually at a cost of at least £15  Since we’ve been more organised with our meal plan, he hasn’t done this once and I’m much happier because I’ve always disliked the kids having ‘junk food’ too frequently.

From a purely money point of view, I’ve managed to cash out £13.10 from surveys and added it to the emergency fund.  We’re on course to be on budget for grocery spend this week as we have around £20 left and only a couple of items that I can think we will need.  Only additional cost today has been a mobile phone DD which is £6.26 more than expected.  Turns out that DH went over his data allowance last month and had to purchase more.  Not sure how he got through over 8GB but he’s in the doghouse for the rest of the day!