Ah, that lovely January skint feeling!

[confusedofengland]

Just checked my bank account & I have 30p to last until Monday We had a fair amount of money saved before Christmas, but had forgotten that the balance of our holiday had to be paid by 31st December, so fortunately we just about covered that.

I have plenty of food & don't need to buy anything before Monday, so will be totally fine, just hate that skint feeling!

Having a declutter so hoping some things will sell, but no bites yet. Can't wait to start my new job once checks are completed

Anybody else feeling skint?!

Well after looking thru accounts online and counting my random cash in different bags I have the grand total of £67 to get us to mid month

We are lucky in that we have electric and gas for heating and cupboard food so it's more milk bread and meat x3 lots for slow cooker meals for the coming week.
And pack up food for dcx2 dh and older ds for the week.

It's an ass as it's not often ever that I have to literally count the pennies to that degree however I vividly remember a time not that many years ago when every week was like it

Just remembered we also need a bit of petrol

Jingle, try heading to your local supermarket near closing/reducing time. I'm going to Tesco (24 hours) for 7pm tonight & expect to be able to get enough fruit/bread/meat to last a week for my £10. You can also get inventive with what you have, we've been having leftover meals since New Year's Day & I'm going to go through the freezer, so things could get interesting

Yes.

I have council tax to pay, a bill I forgot about that is £160 and twin birthdays. All before payday which is 23.

I have about £250 so one or the other bill will have to wait, think I’ll ask the council to re-jig payments and pay in one of the months I normally don’t. The twins belong to me so I can’t rwally scrimp too much, especially as they turn 10.

We have about £180 til the 22nd 😥 when DH gets paid. Out of that we need to pay £42 to EE (2 phone contracts), at least one tank of fuel (£55) and top up food 🤦‍♀️ Hate being skint x

I've used up the veg that was lingering in the veg rack along with some open bacon and lardons a tin of soup and some left over stuffing balls in the slow cooker which we've just had for tea. Bloody lovely

I already have mince in the freezer and spaghetti/pasta shapes to do a bolognaise slow cooker meal.

Got frozen chicken breasts so a korma (also have naan breads is on the cards aswel)

Got some dried risotto and fish pieces and mash in freezer so another one

Got a couple of pizzas garlic bread and dips left over from Xmas so another one.

For frozen sausages and a sausage casserole mix (always have frozen peppers onions and mushrooms in) so another one.

Am doing well with what we have.
Just the fresh stuff. Can't beat Aldi for Vegs fruit bread butter sandwich meat and cheese for pack ups.
Oh just remembered also have raisins for pack ups.

Challenge is on

Ah yeah, we have £7.04 to last until 19th

Although have a full food cupboard

Diana I have found councils to be very accommodating to requests to delay or spread out payment, so long as you talk to them. Twins turning 10 is amazing, my DS1 turned 10 just before Christmas so can't imagine twice that! If you don't have money can you give them homemade vouchers promising something, we've done that before!

Justmarried that sounds doable but not much fun.

Jingle that's the spirit! Sounds like meals are sorted & do keep an eye out for reduced fresh stuff.

Tesco last night was fairly successful. Got shoes for DS3 (£12.50, Clubcard vouchers), fruit, veg & bread for the week (bread 12p/loaf etc), so feeling pleased with that. Just hope schools don't demand too much money tomorrow as I only get a small amount & That's mostly accounted for already

£20 in fuel to last til end of the week.

Did a proper food meal plan for the week and went armed with a list and a tight budget

Shopping at Aldi came to £46 which will feed 6 of us for three days this week and five of us for the other four.
Inc breakfasts lunches evening meals and a few snacks.

Also needed loo roll as in our house we seem to eat it
Was really pleased as budget was £67 for good and fuel and got it to £66 phew

Great job, Jingle!

I got paid my £64 Carer's allowance today & £31 has been swallowed up by a direct debit I'd forgotten And I have to find £40 for Cubs, £40 for Beavers & £40 for fencing...best crack on with decluttering & selling!

How's it going so far for everyone here?
The food plans worked well so far this week and actually not having a massive amount of choice has made meal prep apt quicker and easier.
Have got through the two loaves of bread nearly already so am going to get one tomorrow but still got plenty of everything else left.
Fuel is going to be neede in the next couple of days but have £20 ready for that.
This is the longest two weeks I've ever had before pay day

I have 18 days to go till payday, which seems like a lifetime! No money to go out but I have paid all my bills - gas, leccy, phone etc. Water came today but will have to wait a couple of weeks till I get paid!

Crimson had a letter from my water company today and mines gone upto £90 a month now 😬 so that's up by £25 a month and a bloody kick in the teeth

I've spent hours this week doing a full inventory of outgoings incmoning any extras that are due this month etc and have set a good budget with meal plans now for a rolling month at a time.

Gotta get back on track.
I don't remember being quite so skint this time last year and on paper we have more coming in than last year but between a few household utilities putting prices up this last year it's added over £100 a month to normal basic bills and that doesn't include food or fuel price hikes either.

Never mind it could be worse and we are in a much better position than many.

Everything does seem to keep creeping up in price, doesn't it This is such an expensive time of year, too, with water bills, extra heating as it's so cold & school expenses such as clubs.

I am limping along, just about. This week's money has all gone & I have 45p until Monday! Have paid fencing at least, £40. Will try to do some online surveys & get a few quid that way. Ds1's shoes are now falling apart, after he's worn them for about 6 weeks so he will now need new ones. I will buy Clarks as Tesco just didn't last him,but it will be £50+. I have found a gift card for £25, so that helps, but still a chunk of money. Then have cubs & beavers to pay, so that's next week's money (£64) gone before I blink! It's DH's birthday on Tuesday but he will have to wait for a present until the end of the month, & will do candlelit dinner with what we have in the freezer.

Like jingle said, we are better off than some, so thankful for that, but this juggling is tough.

Confused I checked my account online today and have the grand sum of £6 although I also have about £12 in cash currently.
My fuel is on red so need to put £10 in my car.

Wracking my brains at what I can middle together from the freezer for next week till pay day.

I forgot I do still have a piece of beef from Xmas frozen so am going to defrost it and do a beef slow cooker stew with half of it and the other half I'm not sure yet
It has to be slow cooker friendly so will have a ganders online.

Have lots of diff pastas so will do a pasta meal another night and lots of eggs so omelette with cheeses and vegs will be good.

We can do this

Well last night I did the final monthly budget plan and on paper it's great even with the ever expanding utility bills it's just the random spending we have to curb.

Both joint household account cards will be left at home apart from when we do the food shop and put petrol in twice a month.