November Numbercrunchers *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.

Feel free to post a daily spending diary, to ask for advice or just for a general money moan.

Evening all. Spent £9.50 in Tesco and reckon, other than milk, that should do me till next weekend. I had a pack of mince in the freezer, bought last week, so made a huge chilli in the slow cooker today.

This afternoon I spent £5.15 to get into a local attraction and a ball for DS. The friend I went with owed me a tenner, which I'd forgotten about, so that was a nice surprise.

£2.50 on cheesy chips from the chippy . Nom, nom, nom!

I sell DS' s old toys mainly- Lego; Playmobil; Meccano. Also board games and playing cards/ Top Trumps always seem to go for me. I've also sold a few pairs of my boots and shoes, household items and a Pandora bracelet.

God, it sounds like I love eBay, but I really, really don't!

Used shoes go well on eBay, if you know what I mean

I have lots of Lego but all jumbled together. Don't think I could split into separate kits, as we no longer have most of the boxes, so not sure I can sell it on eBay, except as a job lot. We have lots of Barbies and similar, also lots of Buildabears. They might sell?

Solid I have never tried selling Buildabears but they are expensive to start with and are a well-known brand so I would think they would be a good seller. In my experience the Barbies themselves don't sell so well, but the outfits and accessories do. It is difficult to remember which bits go with which dress but DD always remembered, somehow! Now DD is older I have a lot of GCSE textbooks which I have paid a lot of money for - I have been very disappointed that these haven't sold at all in eBay. Someone told me that you can sell this for a reasonable amount on Amazon so I need to investigate that.

Fluffy, I think I need to make mine sound more used/worn than they actually are, as the ones that have only been worn a handful of times don't seem to be selling for me .

2 NSDs, Fri & Sat, probably another Tomorrow.

Had a couple of NSDs towards the end of the week. Did the weekly shop yesterday and spent about £20? At sainsburys. Didn't get any meat though as we have a freezer full. So this week I'll be trying to reduce the freezer and eat our way through it. Bought bread, fruit, veg, noodles and some other things like cleaning products and deodorant. Lets see how I go.

Can I join?

DH and I realised that we're ever so slightly overdrawn at the end of each month. When we did a monthly income/outgoings assessment, we were really shocked - a quarter of our income is going on car payments, and diesel. (DH has a long commute, and mine is long-ish.) A QUARTER! So we're looking to get out of the finance deal on my car, at least. Then it'll be getting comparative quotes on car and household insurance, as like most people we just carry on year to year with the same providers.

To my great distress, we've also cancelled our weekly cleaner .

I'm trying to have as many NSDs as I can too.

Artemis, I loved your tip for freezing salad for soup!

Fishandjam, write to the car finance company and ask what your voluntary termination figure is. Basically once you've paid off a certain figure on the car you can hand them back with no fees. It's in the T&C.

But there is a caveat. The car goes to a company who assess the condition of the car and any excess mileage. If they do invent or exaggerate damage you have to fight your corner. They did it to me but dh rang them up and they only charged excess mileage.

Should be a NSD today.

Hello ladies, I've not managed to get on Mumsnet on my laptop for a few days (busy) and I'm useless at typing replies on my phone so I've been a bit quiet. Just spent a bit of time this morning updating my spends spreadsheet with the receipts in my purse. Still being a budgeteering ninja though and tracking everything so I know exactly where I am with money.

Did well with my shopping this week; I went to Farmfoods without a list so just chucked some items which would form the main part of a meal into the basket as they're always cheaper than buying them in the supermarket. I spent £43 something in there and when I got home I wrote down what I had got, did a meal plan, and bought the rest of the stuff to make full meals, pop and sandwich stuff from Morrisons the next day spending £41 something so I've got £181 (ish) left in my grocery account and have enough evening meals to last until 21st November so I certainly shouldn't need to spend all of that £181 this month (woo).

Petrol budget has £178.20 remaining in it; no idea whether all of this will get used or not. Not sure whether DH will have any work mileage this month to bulk up the funds a bit. 18 days to get through until payday. 1 full tank tends to last DH around 12 days and me around 22 days. His tank is bigger than mine and I'm a better driver than he is ;-)

Everything else budget is approximately £310 left and I have a night out to go on this Friday and have spent £60 on clothes for myself this month which is a bit naughty of me although I desperately needed some new knickers as mine were falling to bits and I have worn the denim skirt every day since I bought it. (#Justification) but I do need to say to myself "Claret, your MOT is due on 23rd November, how are you going to pay for it, with fresh air?" every time I think of spending frivolously.

Still haven't bought any Christmas presents and DH is due a bonus which we hope he will get at the end of November, but if not, it'll be the end of December so my presents will have to go on the credit card until the bonus comes through. I'm not going mad this year anyway.

I'll have a read back of the thread now.

claret You have made me feel better as I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet either!

I was discussing with DD 17 yesterday what she would like for Christmas - I normally get her one main present and then a few little bits to open. Now she is older I can tailor the little things to items she can use which she would otherwise spend her own money on, which I know she will like. She has asked me for some stationery bits - I love stationery. I also am not going mad this year as we have had an expensive year all round.

I'm here Monikar just to make people feel better about themselves :-D

claret I am surrounded by people IRL who have everything bought and some have even wrapped it all up already - how depressing is that .

I'm going to struggle to get any Christmas bits out of this week's budget but will do my best. As the dc are getting major presents at Christmas, there won't be much extra to fill their stockings. I was thinking of getting some freebie perfume/cosmetic samples. Does anyone know do they give them out at the counters in Boots/Debenhams etc?

Went to town for church. Ended up having lunch out. £40 (for 4 of us). Went to m&s to get thermals for kids and underwear - £35? H&m for DD's clothes £26? Clark's was a frightful £62 for 2 pairs of shoes for the boy. Argh. I'm depressed.

I'm flying out of here on work a week Monday for a week. I'm going to have to stock up on food for everyone next week. I've also got a couple of hours now to cook my way through some food. Leftovers will be frozen or eaten as lunches. Whatever else well, dh will have to sort out. Lol. Oh dear.

NSD. First of the month .

£2 on a cider.

So glad some of you are buying thermal undies. It does make a difference, we hardly have the heating on before 5pm most days now.

We went to a local wildlife park today sp that was £10 in. Took our own lunch but I bought drinks for me and friends which was £6 something. We went in their car though so no petrol spend for me. £1.99 in the gift shop but DS but that's put away in drawer for his stocking now he's in bed He's too young to remember what's he got.

Today was a NSd in our house. And am selling things on eBay. So have made £25 today. Dinner out at mils. And as she's off on holibobs this week she gave us all the leftovers to do something with. Cold lamb. Mmmm. I smell a lamb korma.

NSD Today. Probably another Tomorrow as DD1 now has this cold virus that's doing the rounds. Will catch up properly Tomorrow.

Out and about this weekend, took packed lunch and resisted all the 'but I need' pleas. Had a couple of birthday parties to attend but Card Factory cards and presents bought ages ago at 70% off kept the cost down.

I cooked 2 different soups this weekend as my carrots were starting to look a bit sad. It's portioned up and in the freezer. I also bought a 3 pack of courgettes from Aldi but I only needed 1 so the others went in a cake. In future I might be better off walking the extra 20m to Sainsbury's and buying a single courgette. But would I be able to just buy 1 thing?

Must investigate thermal undies! I've found thermal tights from Asda to be good. They do keep you toasty. I wear them on Mondays because I sing in a choir on Monday nights and we rehearse in a church - boy it's chilly!!!!

Spendy weekend for DH's birthday but it was less than we usually spend.

Need to get to Argos to spend my free £40 before it expires.