Spending for August.................

[Collision]

OK so it is 2 August and we go away on Sunday for 2 weeks.

Am trying not to spend much as last month was lots of sales shopping!

So far

Mon - £5 cinema
£ 28 Tesco for bits n bobs for holiday
£18 Morrisons

Tue - £5 for contribution to hall hire for kids to play
£1.25 for large cookie for ds!
£2 ice creams

[KellyKettle]

Hi Collision!

You seem to be doing great so far.

I'm determined to spend less this month than I did last month but we've already had some non-essential spending (mainly stuff for a camping trip this month).

I'm going to tackle our food budget this month.

I did a quick shop last night and bought meat in the 3 for £10 offer. So my plan is to batch cook today at least two meals from each. Cereal or toast for breakfast and soup, fruit or sandwiches for lunch. I am using Aldi this month for their fruit and veg deals.

I also listed lots of books and one of DHs DVD box sets on Amazon and have made £65 in a week.

So I'm off to the recipes board now to get some inspiration.

Happy Budgeting!

[KellyKettle]

Morning!

I have been reading the thread in chat_ about the impending double dip recession and it has encouraged me to get on with more sensible spending/saving.

I have just signed up to a local veg box scheme which had an offer of a veg box for £6 per week for 6 months if you paid in advance.

Planning to get meat and other bits from Aldi once a week. I'll see how much of an impact this has on my shopping cost.

[KellyKettle]

I realise I am talking to myself a bit on this thread but here goes...

Today I had a look at our direct debits and discovered that I have been paying £20 a month too much for home insurance. People kept saying it was expensive and it seems they were right.

So I have switched and used a cashback website so should also get £40 cashback too.

Meal planning has worked wonderfully well for us this month so far as has batch cooking and freezing meals. We've made fewer trips to the shops and so cut right back on little impulse buys.

And lastly, we have stopped the two-cooked-breakfasts-a-weekend habit which was costly. DH has lost weight and looks fab

[KellyKettle]

This is like having an MSE diary or something...

Ok, today I have switched utility providers, price-fixing until 2013 and via Quidco thus earning £80 cashback and saving £200 a year on fuel compared to our current provider (apparently).

I called our current provider to find out what plan were were on and our annual consumption in kWh then hopped over to Uswitch.com and looked for the cheaper deals and then went to Quidco to find the same deals with cash back. Easy.

[MrsS01]

KellyKettle - I'm with you!

I've switched everything I can possibly switch and am constantly monitoring my food bills - have taken to shopping around more instead of just going to Asda - found a few good deals in Iceland - Bread, crisps, bacon, ham, toilet rolls - far cheaper than Asda.

With 2 weeks to go before payday got £100 left for food/petrol. Will probably have to go into overdraft - but hopefully it will have decreased this month!

[KellyKettle]

Yay! MrsS

I feel less lonely on here now. Great news about the switching and monitoring. I am finding it oddly addictive which is good at the moment - makes it less of a chore.

We got some Tesco Vouchers in the double-your-points-thing and exchanged them for vouchers for Tesco's Finest. £35 of vouchers exchanged for £70 to spend on Finest range. Now, granted its hardly the cheap stuff it is free for us so we're off to there tonight to stock up on store cupboard & freezer things.

[MrsS01]

Not happy today, been trying my best but just worked out my finances and I'm already overdrawn by £50 with 2 more weeks of food/petrol/entertaining kids :(

It seems never ending no matter how hard I try and how much I cut back I just don't have enough money :(