Giving every £ a job

Blackcats

Happy new tea towels to us Autumn embracers.

@Scott-Weiland - that is great detective work there which would make Vera proud.  I'm only sorry it's not right   The blackcats reference is a completely literal reference to my feline friends and my team are currently 2 places above the black cats you refer to. And in case PIP is reading I acknowledge another London team are top of the league because of my team's win on Saturday.

Have been MIA as we have been having great fun with some visitors from the land down under.  The sun has been shining for lots of days out exploring coast, country and the capital.  They are stunned at how much there is to see and do.  Highlights for the kids have been Trooping of the Colour, dinosaurs at the Natural Hiatory museum (both free activities other than travel costs) and yesterday's family conkers competition followed by Sunday lunch at the pub.

budgets looking ok even though we have booked a week away at the end of the month.  It's self catering with a few eating out options.  I've-got a separate savings pot set up for our 2026 Channel Islands holiday and another for our July family get together holiday.  Once a year we gather as many of our children and grandchildren as we can for a weekend away which we pay for.  We always come home feeling so happy that it's worth every penny.

i'm concentrating very hard on our grocery spends this month and aiming to meal plan and budget rather than just track spending.  6 days into the month and it's going ok 🤣

lucielle

Gosh you’ve been very busy and having lots of fun. The family holiday sounds great and lots of memories to be made. 

L

amber03

Love the Channel Islands especially Jersey. Been a couple of times, so easy to get around on the buses and island is so full of history. We’ve had a few family hols recently, love them but gosh I come back exhausted. 

Scott_Weiland79

@blackcats your a cat lover.not a Sunderland fan thats good lol 

Ahhhhh Chelsea fan lol

PennysIntoPounds

Always reading, always gracious when top of the table (*stops doing the point and laugh dance*) thank you for your help 😁

Sounds like you've been having a brilliant time, I'm glad the visitors were impressed with our offerings 😊

What lovely pots to be saving into, definitely worth putting the effort into grocery spends watching for.
I can't recall if you have much olio activity near you, so much bread and fruit n veg gets otherwise binned by shops so worth having a gander 

Sun_Addict

Sounds like you've had a great time with the visitors and you've got a lovely holiday to look forward to as well. Very exciting!

EssexHebridean

What a great time you've been having - lovely to hear it!

We'd definitely like to get back to Guernsey at some stage as from the limited amount of time we had there we did really like it. mind you a return trip to Alderney is also on our radar! 

Blackcats

Lovely to have diary visitors.  @amber03 we have hired a car when visiting Jersey and taken our own car to Guernsey.  From what we've seen the buses seem frequent and reliable.  

EH - this will be our 3rd trip to Guernsey and we've chosen the week of the longest day so that we can enjoy the sunsets over the bay outside our cottage,
PIP - we used olio a lot in the year before I retired and enjoyed the thrill of the chase and the requirement to be imaginative with our food hauls.  However, the local food waste hero gave up, more people used it and we were not very successful with being allocated anything so we gave up.

However, we are trying hard with meal planning and reducing food waste and are usually close to our monthly grocery budget.  I think I'm guilty of treating the budget as an amount to spend rather than achieving a lower spend than budgeted.  Having worked in the public sector for years we were never encouraged to come in under budget as the budget would then be cut back the following year.  In my last job my boss lectured me that my underspent budget was worse than my colleague's overspend.  I always struggled with the concept so now I can rebel with my very own grocery budget underspend and stick 2 fingers up at the old bat boss 😉

Blackcats

Our visitors have now arrived home on the other side of the globe.  We all had great fun and have all made happy memories.  They encountered England in the Autumn sunshine, and met kind, helpful and knowledgeable people at the tourists spots they visited.  At a theme park they were gifted entry tickets by someone who had booked for a group of 12 and 4 people had been unable to make it on the day.  Even the ravens at the Tower politely posed for photos with the youngsters.  We are now just enjoying a few days slowing down and just "being".  This is greatly helped by the Harrods chocolates our guests gave us.

We are planning some garden work tomorrow.  It's really not my favourite chore but I've got a bit of a plan for an hour or so which will make an impact.  I'll plant some bulbs too which when the appear in the spring always make me pleased with my reluctant autumn gardener self.

budgets all seem ok so far.  

savingholmes

Sounds like an amazing time was had by all. Lovely that they got free tickets too. It all helps.