No spend January?

[corinewmoon]

After he festive blowout and considering ive got some big bills in January, (MOT, car tax, insurance) I have decided to try a no frivlous spending month. There is nothing i really need to buy, (apart from new school jumper and coat for DS) .
So I will be taking my lunch to work every day,
I will avoid costas,
and i will limit my self to one bottle of wine per week
I will aim to spend £200.00 on food shop for the month
I will not go for leisurely stroll to the shops during my lunch break.

Any one else want to join in. ?

Well I've had 3 no spend days on the trot, bar paying for school lunch and snack fees. I even managed to have a £50 anti ageing facial for free yesterday courtesy of a beautician friend who was learning new techniques with a trainer and needed a model - 90 minutes of heaven! I expect to spend no more than £45 in Tesco on Saturday which will be my final shop before dhs pay day - rather embarrassingly I have spent in a month what I would often spend in one trip to the supermarket, the family have still had well balanced meals and noone has scurvy or rickets yet. Usually by this time ive had to squirm a couple of hundred from dh to see me through but this month, despite having an extra £186 coming out in direct debits from January onwards, I expect to have £200 left to pay for my car tax and a new tyre! Feeling really positive about no spend February esp with the council tax break!

nearly pmsl at Boffins ds1

After Monday's big spend.
£10 DD1 pocket money
£2 DS school money
£13 KFC dinner
£8 Chip shop tea (me and dp were too full up to have much tea)
Tuesday was loads better, I only spent £7 on dinner for all 4 of us
Today a bit worse.
£6.40 Swim (dc's go free)
£1.20 snack
£16 dinner for four at morrisons
£10 shopping at morrisons

I am however still under budget this month, main money comes in Friday and I have £100 left, will probably be swallowed up in bills and petrol but we have had months were there was nothing left.
Will spend a lot on Friday with main shop and Gas to pay, £100 savings to squirrel away and £30 to mum to pay for fridge

Spent $32 on petrol today. Unavoidable but will last me through February. Applied at bank today so hopefully will get some temp work out of that. Lunch today - leftover fajitas, supper today - leftover chicken casserole with fresh steamed broccoli.

Baking jacket potato tomorrow to use up more of the chili!

Good luck with your job hunting fishy. I hope you get something soon.

Love your DS's comments - cuts straight to the nub of the matter, doesn't he . I love the way they think/speak .

Well done Iammummy - it's quite addictive isn't it?

Tip: you all probably know this one but I think it bears repeating seeing as we are all about saving and getting the most out of things...when you come to the end of your tubes of lotion/handcream cut the tube in half. There is generally quite a lot of the product left in the tube that you can scoop out - often more than one use's worth! One end slots inside the other as well so if you have more than one application's worth in the tube you can cover it until the next use.

Btw, thanks for the link Mackrel - I will have a look at that.

Dinner tonight - salmon (freezer), rice (storecupboard) and veggies. Dessert will be homemade mississippi mud pie - all storecupboard ingredients.I have a great recipe if anyone wants it?

Have a great day everyone.

Hi all
Only tiny amounts of spending so far this week on food topups and an Ocado order which is lasting us very well.
DH has his GCSE English exam today and he needs to drive quite for to the test centre so I think we need diesel.
We are quite lucky with the car we have. Its diesel, 64 mpg and the tax is £30 a year. Our previous car was huge, used loads of petrol and cost a fortune in tax.
The cat has his jabs at the vet tomorrow. I expect it will be around £40. It does mean he's up to date with the jabs, been checked over and will be able to go in a cattery if we go away anywhere.
I think we need a new thread soon.

Mmm would love that recipe!

I have been watching this thread as have spent too much this month and on top of christmas, I now really need to cut back, or no treats in holidays! I have put by £100 to spend on activities etc in half term but apart from that i am having a no spend february!, I will bake own bread and cakes,biscuits etc, use up freezer stuff for meals, and i intend to spend no more than £50 a week on groceries. Does anyone have any veg box reccomendations? roguepixie, please can i have your mississipi mud pie recipe?
Im also going to write everything down that i spend just to see where the money goes each month!

Morning all :)
Should be a low spend day for me today. I have a stinking cold so need to get some cold&flu remedy, banana's and bread. I also need to pay for my Book People order at nursery (£10 for 2 recent Jamie Oliver cookbooks, Bday pressy for DSIL )
I am baking a banana cake today with our decidely dodgy bananas, and an apple and mincemeat crumble to use up the last of the Xmas food. Other than that I have a very exciting day of looking after DS2 and laundry

Have a good day everyone x

I (and especially DH) would love the mississippi mud pie recipe too.

Morning all - big Ocado delivery yesterday which helped me stock up the freezer with fish and meat (big back of Ocado chicken breasts only 7.49 - offer till 24 Jan I think, Ocado wild salmon also on good offer) and various items on specials. I think we can now get by with just topping up fruit, veg, bread, eggs and milk for the next 3 weeks. Am going to try to check out our nearest Aldi this weekend - its abit of schlep from where we live but hopefully will be worth it.

WOOHOOO!!

I've just checked my emails, and I've been invited to an interview for a new job. Even the minimum advertised salary would triple my current salary, and the maximum.... well I'd be planning a holiday, that's for sure!
Please keep your fingers crossed for me, it's on Tuesday

rouge STOP BUYING POTATOES.... NO DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. STOP!!!!

fishy - good luck with job hunting, hope you find something soon.

reckoner I want your car, my tax is £260,

Finger, toes and everything crossed for you Leilandri

stepaway from the potatoes madam...yes YOU with the trolley full of pom bears and naice ham

MN spies are everywhere........

MISSISSIPPI MUD PIE

PASTRY: buy some ready prepared short crust pastry

or

260g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
110g unsalted butter
(makes enough for 23cm pie dish)

preheat over to 170 deg C

Mix flour, salt and butter in an electric mixer until you have a sandy texture. Add 1 tbsp of water and beat until well mixed. Add another 1 tbspn of water and beat until you have smooth dough. Add a little more water IF dough is a little dry. Wrap dough in clingfilm and rest on fridge for 1 hr (the dough ... not you )

Roll it out so that it overlaps a 23cm pie dish, trim excess pastry. Scrunch up greaseproof paper, flatten out again and lay over pastry, tip in baking beads/pennies. Bake at 170 deg C for 10 mins, remove paper and beads and bake for a further 10 mins.

FILLING:

150g dark chocolate, roughly chopped, plus extra, grated with a cheese grater into shavings, to decorate.
50g unsalted butter
30ml golden syrup
6 eggs
300g soft light brown sugar
1tsp vanilla extract

350ml whipping cream

Preheat over to 170 deg C.

Put chocolate, butter and golden syrup into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let base of bowl touch water). Leave until melted and smooth, then remove from heat and leave to cool slightly.

While chocolate mixture is melting, put the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a electric mixer (or bowl with handheld electric mixer) and beat until well combined.

Gradually beat the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture on slow speed. Make sure the chocolate mixture is not too hot, otherwise it will scramble the eggs. Beat thoroughly until smooth.

Pour into the partially blind baked pie crust and bake in the preheated over for about 35-40 minutes. Check regularly after 30 minutes to make sure it is not burning. The baked pie should be firm to the touch but still have a slight wobble in the centre. Leave to cool completely, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

When you are ready to serve the pie, whip the cream with a handheld electric whisk in a large bowl until soft peaks form, then spread over the pie and finish with chocolate shavings.

Serve.

Sorry, that was epic [grim]

I can honestly say that the above recipe is excellent. DH, who is really hard to please especially with food, loved this pie. DS, who has inherited his father's 'food snob' credentials, would have knawed through concrete to get to this. It looks pretty good too so is a good 'I'll bring dessert' offering to a dinner party/get together.

Warnings headed ladies ... I will not buy potatoes today ... no, no, no, no, no.

Leilandri - fingers, toes, arms, legs crossed for you on Tuesday. I will send up my prayers to the great spirit and send positive vibes your way.

Good luck leilandri when will you hear if you've got it?

Cor sounds scrummy rogue

lexilicious here is the link for the templates, I find them invaluable. Just a shame they cannot be stuck somewhere permanently
organizedhome.com/
includes meal planners, master to-do lists, daily to-do lists, shopping lists, freezer inventory, larder/pantry inventory

Meant to say ... the emoticon at the end of the epic recipe post was meant to be (not [grim]).

Silly, silly rogue ... must proof message before posting ...

£135 on boiler/plumbing repairs today. Actually less than i thought it would be so not all bad. All repairs done now

Apart from that no-spending today.

moomoo that link takes me to the site but won't let me look/download the checklists......?

bossy if you put into google organizedhome spelt the american way it should come up but the address is www.organizedhome.com

Off out to the theatre tonight with DH and my parents (xmas present) but in interests of the no spending I had advised my parents to eat at home am taking a bottle of water and some fruit for the interval for us all (instead of spending on overpriced drinks/icecream as would normally do as STARVING by 9pm) - and to save transport costs am going to walk to meet mum and dad at the tube near the theatre after work.

Have also managed to book in for massages for DH and I on sunday using vouchers given to us for our birthdays by my lovely sister (who has agreed to babysit DS1 and DS2 too) so v happy in a frugal kind of way. Definitely worth digging through your old birthday cards/money off vouchers to see what you have lurking in there - can be a nice surprise!

£62 yesterday on basics in Waitrose
£20 today on 18 packets of bulbs on sale and a pair of toddler gardening gloves

This thread is working rather well as an accounts book.