It's time to begin.....

greensalad

Wish it was nice here. I was hoping to take advantage of the sun for washing my bedsheets but it's gone all grey! 

Kakiste

Went to the beach in the end. Not the cove one but the one in town on the front. We had fish and chips for lunch from a cafe sitting on the beach - husband paid for everything as I covered all the entertainment costs when we went out last weekend. It was lovely. 
3 more days and then I'm off for the summer. Still got loads to do before the end of Wednesday but that's typical for the end of the year. 

thriftyish

Hello! Huge congratulations on the pay rise, that's fantastic, you are making brilliant progress! I really wish we had a food group near us, but even without the food group stuff, your food budget and meal ideas are impressive. I have been taking notes as I've read through your diary for meal ideas - thanks for the inspiration. I also love your attitude to sewing and the extra income, you are really making me think I have skills I should be using! 

Kakiste

Thanks!  
A lot of my meals come from the BBC good food recipe site but there's also Jack Monroe's website, cooking on a bootstrap thats incredibly low cost cooking. I made some of her turkey mince and chickpea burgers last week and they were really nice.

Chrystal

Just read through your diary from the beginning and want to say Congratulations on everything you are doing. 

You have such a  'can do' attitude that it's infectious   You've made me feel guilty about being so slap dash with meal planning that I've decided to give myself a kick up the backside and try to get at least a bit organised.!

Kakiste

Thanks, that's a really nice thing to say I found that when I didn't meal plan the cost of shopping spiralled up and I bought more in the weekly shop, and then during the week we'd look and go 'oh if we just had x then we could make this' and then I'd go and buy that additional item, costing us even more. Meal planned means we've covered our bases and at least have 7 meals in. (I've carried on getting the frozen pizzas so if my husband is being difficult and not wanting anything on the meal plan list then I can just whack the pizzas in) 

Kakiste

Exciting news! (Having a great month for these announcements!)

Husband has decided as we have hit thebhalf way mark to transfer his parents £5,000 that we've collectively saved - paying them back half of what they lent us. So my signature counter has jumpedbfrom £16k repaid to £21k! 
Also- if you notice that the figures are pretty much the same, on August payday in 2 weeks time I will officially be across the halfway point and will have paid back more than I owe. 
It's such a good place to be in.

Kakiste

On holiday. Lots of sewing planned for the next couple of days but not this evening, having an evening off.  

Kakiste

Did some more sewing today- getting the next lot of orders ready for sale. Once I've got another two pairs cut out the remainder will all be scraps for snaller projects nd I've been ask by two people this week if I'll have any more for sale soon so I want to crack on with that whilst ive got the time off. I'm going to have a complete break from school planning for at least 3 weeks before I throw myself into planning next year. 

I'm doing a round trip tomorrow to collect my mum for her To come and stay for two nights. She's a bit of a nightmare and very difficult so I think ill be doing lots of sewing whilst she plays with my daughter so that I don't go too mad.

DancingInTheRain

Congratulations on the payrise. Your debt busting plans sound fantastic.
There's a few other receipt scanning apps you may want to try - Receipt Hog, SnapMyEats and Huyu.