£50,000 in 3 years diary. Can I do it???

RoxieW

God I HATE my corner shop. I know people moan about the big supermarkets taking business and support local business ect but perhaps more people would shop there if they didn't take the absolute !!!! and exploit the fact that if you are shopping there its prob because you are desperate! bought a pint of milk - 60p!!! 60p for a pint! Compared to 40p at Tesco. I think thats disgusting but i was desperate and it was too cold to walk to the supermarket. It just really annoys me - if I didnt need them when I ran out of milk or bread I'd say I hoped they lost all their business and closed. Shouldn't take the bleep out of their customers.

RoxieW

Hoping for a no spend day today.Coby cant go to his little pals b'day party (not because I'm tight - just because I dont drive and dales at work) so there isn't a pressie/card to buy for that. Dales going out of his xmas night out with the boys tonight but he'll be paying for that from his pocket money account so thats all fine. May get my friend round for a takeaway though - if she's free.

Cant wait for tomo - dale and i are going out for dinner for the first time this month - (two weeks in!!) Really looking forward to it as a nice TREAT and am gonna really enjoy myself, thats for sure!. The only dinners out we have planned are tomo and the weekend before new year with friends (instead of new year). So I think thats quite restrained. Hopefully I can stick to it!

Kaz2904

The only thing that's struck me so far is your costing for meals. Ie carbonnarra £4. How are you making it because it shouldn't cost that much?
How about reducing the meat content and adding some veggies? Cauliflower, broccoli and baby carrots are nice with it. If you have fresh broccoli in the fridge then you can use your veg peeler to slice the stalk thinly.
If you did this you could probably ditch the garlic bread or make your own ish with some garlic butter on bread in the oven?

It is an eye opener looking so closely at your budgets isn't it?

You are going to struggle with your grocery budget from now on because food is spiralling in cost. I think you can get there if you take a wander over to the moneysaving oldstyle board.
TTFN, Kaz.

RoxieW

Hi Kaz - and there was me thinking £4 for 4 people was a cheap meal!

I normally make it using garlic, single cream, egg yolk, bacon and fresh tagliatelli. Plus a garlic bread. Bacon is around £2 and the tag £1 so its a small cream, garlic bagette etc accounts for the other pound. Not sure how I could trim it down further and i think i may have a revolt on my hands if i made it without bacon and used veg instead. Will have a look at the OS board thou, thanks for the suggestion.

Another nice surprise in the post today. A £40 frankie bennys voucher from a complaint that I made (the service was very bad, they served our first drinks AFTER we'd eaten our main courses!). So thats good. Its a free meal out over the festive period - yey!

I may have mentioned that my dads been very ill and had a leg amputated - well, spoke to him today and he seemed a lot brighter so thats good.

SortingIt_2

Hi Roxie,

Hope you are well. Have been keeping up on your thread, although don't post that much. You are doing great!

I too thought that £4 for a meal was good so guess I need to re-think that one too! I guess if you add up a £4 dinner over the course of the month it would total £124.00 which is quite a bit not to mention everything else!!

Sometimes it gets hard trying to do this but we all get there in the end, no matter what our goals.

I hope you enjoy your meal tomorrow. I too have a treat this weekend OH (not financially linked!) is treating me to a stay over night in London and a trip to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland tonight, we have ice skating, toboggan and big wheel to look forward too. Bless him. Also means I don't have the horrid 2/3 hour commute home from Waterloo! Woo hoo!!

Take care xx

benbenandme

Roxie, don't know if you've seen it or are interested, but amazon are doing those bumblebees for £9.99

RoxieW

Ooooh sorting it! how lovely. its things like that that i really miss about not working in london anymore and staying down there 2 - 4 nights a week (i quit in sept to be SAHM). And oxford street of course but its prob best thats not right next to work anymore. still, nothing could make up for the fact that I was away from my kids half of the week. esp at this time of year. it was horrible last year missing alot of the xmas build up with them. i'm loving it this year.

I fell off the wagon today. I wasn't gonna mention it and almost just let my thread slide into oblivion as i'd been naughty. but, you know what,no. I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna get on with december - enjoy december and indulge myself at xmas and not feel guilty about it. I'm still gonna record it cos its the only way I'll know how much I can or cant save. Then Jan I'll be on the budget with renewed vigour!

So....I popped to Sainsburys for milk and, if I'm honest, to whet my appetite by perving on all the xmas goodies and seeing what I want to get when we go 'big' shop. I bought milk eggs bread etc, then a couple of extra bits for my cousin for xmas (makeup bits) even though I've bought her loads (I like to spoil her abit, she's 12 and a sweetheart) then - now bear in mind both boys need new winter coats. Cobys is too thin and he's currently freezing in it but I was trying to hold out for the sales and just put him extra layers on underneath, but they had lovely thick winter coats half price (£9 instead of £18) so I bought one each for coby and todd.
whispers guiltily - I also bought a scented candle - ahem........
I know I know. It was a total total impulse buy that I could live without but its soooo cute with a little blue reindeer decoration........

Anyways. I've been naughty. And I know its only going to get worse as we've got the big xmas food shop to do. But I'm gonna be honest so we know how much of dales bonus we can save and how much we've spent. No point head burying in sand is there?

Please dont be harsh....

RoxieW

hey benben. will look at that and let MIL know, thanks very much. She's commited to getting them one now so I was breathing easy but with so much talk of how hard they are to get hold of I'm hoping she's managed it! I've told the boys not to be disappointed if they dont get one though, as I'll let them get one with some of their xmas money after all the madness has calmed down. Do you have everything you need for ben?

RoxieW

oops also forgot, bought sainsburies mag on a whim thinking it'd have loads of lovely xmassy stuff in it but it was jans booo! will pay for itself though as there are two vouchers in there that I intend to use for xmas treats.
I also naughtily got'sod it' syndrome and took the boys the the cafe for tea (as dales eating out). I had soup and they had macaroni cheese - came to £5. Still, I was gonna get a takeaway tonight but wont be doing now so hey, prob saved money in the end!
gonna go write my xmas cards now - GOD I LOVE XMAS!!!

lilmissmup

Just found this diary, good luck with it all, have you checked out slicethepie? Its a money earning website, you get paid for rating music, you start on 3p a track but goes up to maximum of 21p a track, if your at home with the kiddies might have some spare time? Theres more on it on the up your income board.

I am with you on the magazine thing but i get so bored in the kitchen at lunch i have to have something trashy to read!