Struggling along as best I can

in_need_of_direction

Survey sites? I know when I had no income, the extra £20 in a month was a lifeline

nannygladys

Hi there
INOD - I have tried surveys before and I didn't seem to qualify for a lot of them, think it may be the age thing, but thanks for the suggestion.

I'm hoping if I can shuffle the budget about I will be better equipped, it's all about organisation and I'm fine setting it all up but never seem to follow it through for long, I found it very difficult to get used to having a basic state pension when I have always worked- lesson here, pay into private pensions, save, learn to budget etc etc!!!Lol. Bit late for me now but you young ones take heed!!! I need to pull my bgks up and just get on with it.

Anyway went to the lottie today to do some watering and bought back some courgettes and kale, so had those in a risotto tonight, followed by a couple of strawberries and some raspberries with yogurt for afters. Froze the rest of the raspberries for the winter months.

Looking after youngest dgs for one daughter just for a couple of hours (Mri scan) and the eldest dgd from my eldest dd tomorrow for the day, each equipped with their lunch boxes!! Salad for me courtesy of lottie and garden and ys bargains from last time I shopped. Bedtime I think, nite nite.
Nannyg
 PS I have very little coffee left so that will be the first spend tomorrow. 

nannygladys

For my reference I'm going to put all my spending in from my £15 as I go along so I can see where I'm up to. Oh and again for transparency (for me) it's another dgds birthday before I get paid , but I do have a pot for birthdays and Xmas that I save into each month, thank goodness. (I have 6 dgc by the way which is why I started it a few years ago)
Nannyg

nannygladys

Well been to the bank, £15 taken out and £4.36 spent on a loaf of bread and a jar of coffee. 
Lunch: salad sandwich
Dinner: kale, courgette and carrot risotto (same as yesterday), followed by jelly and yogurt.
I can see some strange combinations coming up soon.
Feeling quite positive about this next week, I WILL do it. Looking at how to cut budgets more, and although it may  only be a small amount it will help, I will also pay cash for groceries etc and go back to an envelope system and put my dd card away until next pay day.

Hope everybody is keeping OK, when I was at the supermarket people still wore masks and distanced, nothing seemed to changed much here at the moment. 

Grandma duties again tomorrow, but I don't have to find food but its an early start for me - the only one in the week though thank goodness, I'm an owl not a lark!!! 

See you tomorrow
Nannyg

nannygladys

Hi everyone

Well no money spent and grandma duties done for today. I have a day off tomorrow as dd1 has the day off, but back to it Thursday and Friday with two of them -  two sisters this time, but it's only for about 4hrs, dd1 and hubby work for the nhs on opposite shifts so until holiday club kicks in I'm covering this week. I love it really as its quality time I don't often get!! 
I went to water the lottie tonight and came away with another load of raspberries, courgettes and peas, so dropped the raspberries and a couple of the courgettes off at dd1 as I already loads! It's nice to gift fresh veggies and fruit. Pasta dinner tonight with courgette, tom's, onion etc
Anyway off to bed.
Take care all.
Nannyg

peony40

Morning nannyg, glad you are feeling more positive now about this week.  I will be following along as money is very tight here, and will be getting tighter over the next few years.  Trying to squeeze as much as I can from every penny.

All your fresh produce sounds lovely and tasty.  I am going to attempt some container vegetable growing next year, I am somewhat apprehensive as even when I attempted to grow some salad greens indoors I failed.  

Enjoy your day off.

[Deleted User]

Hello Nannyg, I have just read your posts, I wondered if our story might help you.

At one stage we had a Bank loan to pay off debts. I used an old programme of microsoft called my money. I went through all the bills we had to pay and listed them on the date each month they had to be paid. I also included an amount for shopping, and a very small amount of pocket money. Things like house and car insurance, servicing and tax were calculated on  yearly base and then divided by 12.  and goes into a separate account, so if there is a bill I pay it from there. I also included payments in from pensions. What was left went in an extra payment to the loan. It took me two years to pay it off at the same time as building up an emergency fund. I found menu planning invaluable. We do grow a lot of our own veggies and fruit during the summer, the soft fruit I use in the winter in jellies and such like. Each month I did a freezer audit which showed what I had in the freezer and planned meals accordingly. Then I did a weeks shopping list for things I needed or had run out of. I managed on £30 a week for two of us. I shop mostly at Aldi. I did notice a big change when I had to order from Sainsbury or Morrison during the lockdown my bill went up quite a bit.

There are two of us and my husbands pension is a lot bigger than mine, we rent a bungalow from the local council and also have council tax. We get a small amount in housing and CT benefit. We do not see that it is paid direct to  the council. I know you own your own house, but if you are on a limited income have you applied for CT benefit?

Because I used the my money programme I was able to forward forecast what I would have spare at the end of each month to pay off the loan. I used a seperate spread sheet to enter regular payments to the loan account and also the excess we were able to pay off. At the end I managed to save about £1500 in interest.

This may not work for you, but it did for us.

nannygladys

Hi everyone

peony : 
I've grown some carrots in containers this year in my garden and I noticed the ants have nested in it!! So I'm leaving them in there so they won't go elsewhere lol! Not sure if it's working. I love going to the lottie, and my dd1 usually pays the rent on it as a present.

Csarina:
I think my biggest problem is the menu planning, I do a menu go and buy the food then can't be bothered, change my mind or have something else. I have got to just follow the plan!!, I've been thinking of only planning for 3 days a week and then eat out of the freezer or just use what I have in for the other four. Do you manage to stick to your plan or do you put choices in it? I don't know why I find it so difficult to stick to one. Regards council tax, I think I will look into it as my pension is a couple of pounds over the limit for pension credit owing to something to with serps (whatever that was back in the day) and I don't have a private pension, I'm just glad I went without to buy my own place all those years ago, I don't know how people manage to pay rent without private pensions etc. I do have a budget planner book that I use but the last few months it quite obviously isn't working that well and I need to try and claw a few pounds back from somewhere so I don't run out of cash again. I just need to work out the best place. I may have to overall the annual bills, or cut down on present money or something it's going to be a bit of trial and error but menu planning is the one thing that we do have some control over and I should be able to keep to a menu plan but ....

Anyway no money spent today so that's ok. I have 2 dgc tomorrow for about 4 hours and no food for them is required (bringing lunch boxes) but when I was looking through cupboards the other day I came across a packet of dolly mixtures (still in date) so I saved it for the youngest one, the older one doesn't like those sort of sweeties!! I was never that fussy when I was a kid!!! 

Right off to bed, the moon looks very orange/red tonight.
Thank you for the suggestions.

Nannyg

[Deleted User]

I work a 4 week menu, print off a calender from the internet and use that to plan on. Things are not set in stone, I do change things around, but mostly we stick to it. I admit I do buy 8 ding meals from Wiltshire farm foods. There are occasions due to my various ailments when I just do not have the strength to cook. I also cook doubles, eat one and put the other in the freezer, schedule the frozen one another day.

The menu planning I have done ever since my children were teenagers and I was working full time, they could do the veg etc and get the meal going for when I got home. 

Friday we usually have fish and chips which I cook myself. This week we have had 1 salad supper, 1 ding dinner, chinese for me and a beef hot pot for DB. Tonight sausage, new potato's beans and carrots. We are still picking raspberries so rasps and cream for dessert. I cook a roast on Sundays and any leftover meat is sliced and frozen in meal size  portions. We often have cold meat on Monday. Saturday can be an all day breakfast, gammon, egg, tomato and fried bread.

nannygladys

Hi everyone
A bit of an earlier post today.

Csarina : I like the idea of the monthly menu plan, I will write a list of my go to meals and start there. Today I went to the lottie after dropping the girls off to do a bit of watering. I came back with some kale , even more raspberries another courgette and some peas, so I had half the kale, all the peas, froze the raspberries and the courgette will be made in a bake with rice in a few days, so that's my starting point. I will have to make allowances for the veggies, thanks for the advice, I'm going to persevere with the menu plan and I like the idea of having a few meals in the freezer, I normally just have the same meal a couple of days running and also some "fridge/pantry" nights.

Had a lovely day with dgds, I made little pots of jelly for them and served it with ice cream after they had their lunch boxes, it was all food I had in, and they both loved them such simple little things are best. I have them again tomorrow and if it's a bit cooler we are going a small walk - their request not mine!!! 

Oh and no money spent - yay

Anyway off for a bath to cool me down a bit.
Nannyg