Missy’s Surviving the storm so we can dance in the rain.

missymoo81

Ok so I am currently sat in an empty house. Which never happens. I might go and sit outside with a coffee actually. It’s such a lovely day. Washing is in the machine I might even try to put it in the line today. 

I need to work out budgets and have a look at the smart meter. Also stop recording rubbish on sky etc so that I don’t feel bad turning it off over night as it’s always recording something. 

I’ve been looking at cat food prices yet again. I’m going to have to get some delivered I think, as the cheapest place is online as lidl never have any anymore. Ill
Have to take the amount off the grocery budget as I include everything in that, it costs about £20 per month now to feed them. 

RelievedSheff

Wow. How much do your cats eat?

A 2.5kg bag of grain free dog food that our dog has is £4.50-£5.00 depending where we buy it and that lasts him about 6 weeks.

missymoo81

Hey @RelievedSheff we have two bengals, they eat tinned meat cat food 3 x a day. The big cat is 7kg. So they eat A LOT. We tried giving them biscuits but small cat just vomits all the time and big cat can’t chew them as he’s had to have half of his teeth out. 3 tins last them both 2 days. 

missymoo81

I’m having a look at things that I can buy in bulk. Where do you all get your dishwasher salt and tablets from? We have a MaKro card for the business wonder if it would work out cheaper from there. Had a look online and it’s all just so expensive in Supermarkets!

WinterWarrior

I have a big dog and 4 large cats…it’s roughly £200 a month for them 😖 Cats have a mix of sachets, biscuits and their body weight in treats. I shop around, sometimes am*zn is cheapest, sometimes zoopl*s.

missymoo81

Oooh scratch that. Lidl do an all in one tab that includes both. I know one of you lovely lot said that on the other page. But I didn’t realise lidl did them and that they were cheaper than the ones I get in Tesco. So I’ve grabbed some of those should last about 2 months. 

So have spent a little of next weeks budget. Spent £5.45. I bought some fake Mars bar things, I have a voucher to spend in Costalot coffee. But I want to make the most of it. then we can all have a drink and instead of getting cakes and treats we can have one of those instead. Only cost 0.62p so happy with that. 

I’m really trying to think more about what we do. I’ve also bought some oat cakes for 55p as after school snacks, rather than hot cross buns or chocolate bars (coffee shop excluded 😁). I’ve also started putting one and a half slices of ham in the childrens sandwiches. As when I put 2 in it just hung out the end anyway. Not a big saving but that’s 7 more a week we can use for the following week. It all adds up! 

Bought some 30p white chocolate As have some frozen berries so going to make some berry and white chocolate muffins along with some flapjacks and banana bread whilst I have the often on for dinner later. OH is struggling with having less snacky things, so some nice flapjacks and muffins with added fruit and protein powder should fit the bill!

Just at the school waiting for the children, oh and Lidl didn’t have any cat food again. That’s 3 times I’ve been in now. Definitely need to order some.

joedenise

@missymoo81 - Lidl often have their dishwasher tablets on Weekend offer which reduces the cost quite a bit; definitely worth looking out for and stocking up if you can.

RelievedSheff

WinterWarrior said:

I have a big dog and 4 large cats…it’s roughly £200 a month for them 😖 Cats have a mix of sachets, biscuits and their body weight in treats. I shop around, sometimes am*zn is cheapest, sometimes zoopl*s.

Ouch!

That's more than some families spend a month on food 😲

missymoo81

@WinterWarrior cats are so expensive aren’t they, I’m trying to bring the cost of the cat litter down too. In total the cats cost us £50 per month to keep. Not including insurance. I’m going to bring it down to £30, they’ll have to just get on with the cheaper litter.

missymoo81

Morning,

I hope everyone is ok? Got work this morning and evening but have the day free. Work is down again this week with 5 sessions of people being away or injured and have had to refund someone who moved away.

Going to drag OH out for a nice walk later. He’s still very down. We usually go out for breakfast several times to work etc. But today I’m going to take coffee and maybe make some bacon butties for us to take on our walk then work At home later instead. 

I’m going to have a good look at money and budgets today. Not sure I’m bringing in enough compared to what’s going out at the moment. 

Things I’m doing at the moment. Along with the things I’ve said in my previous posts. 

Turning the dishwasher off on the dry cycle. It always dries it’s just not constantly heating up. 

Really thinking about food and spreading it out over the week and making sure I can stretch it for extra meals. For example last night was sausage and mash. Using some very sprouty potatoes, broccoli that was def past it’s best. And some sausages and pigs in blankets that have been lurking in the fridge since xmas. Children had pitta bread pizza as had cubs. And I saved them enough sausage and mash to have for dinner tonight. Whilst the oven was in I also cooked some more banana bread,
I m going to work out the cost of the banana bread to make sure it’s cost effective.