Judicious January Jangling & Juggling *blows budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

Sorry, couldn't resist going overboard on the J's

Happy new year y'all. Welcome to expert budgeteerers, newbies, lurkers and de-lurkers. We're a very friendly, non-judgmental bunch so please use this thread as you choose whether it's as a spending diary, to confess your money sins, ask for help or have a general whinge at the cost of living.....

Well the dc and I made pizzas this morning for lunch and it was delicious and so cheap. Bought two packs of pizza base mix from tesco, 75p each. I mixed passata (32p in Aldi) with tomato puree and mixed herbs that I already had for the sauce. I had a pack of grated mozzarella in the freezer from when they were on offer a while ago and used up two slices that would otherwise have been chucked I suspect. The pizza was delicious although I only had a bite. Pizza not allowed on SW! A great, incredibly cheap, meal and the dc had great fun making it.

Hi TheNight :)

Have you got online banking? Or do you have recent statements around?

I got a real shock when I read through mine in detail, seeing just how much I fritter away without thinking! But it's been a useful exercise, I think I'll be much more mindful of my debit card use from now on!

I've made another couple of positive steps today, I have just called to close a credit card I haven't used in a while, i'm trying to neaten things up and simplify life I now just need to do another account in dh's name, again not used in a while, it was a 0% thing from a while back.

I have also just switched my mortgage (10min online with the same lender) it's now fixed for 5 years in anticipation of interest rates increasing at some point in the future. I was on 2.5% variable (2% above Bank of England base rate) but have fixed at 3.09% which is slightly higher, I think monthly payments are £20ish more, but I know for the next 5 years we know what the payments will be. Long term mortgage plan is once this fixed rate finishes we will have only 7 years left to go and then maybe we can reduce the term to 5 years and fix again for 5 years. We'll see what life throws at us by then though.

Next thing to sort soon-ish is the lease car which doesn't end til June but I want to see what sort of offers the dealership will give us, their website shows one with free insurance for a year, which is appealing but I don't want to lose my full no claims etc so not sure how that would all work. I think a short chat with a salesman is in order, maybe this weekend because until I know my mind will keep thinking about it

I'm so far sticking to my plan to make lunches for work, ok i've only been back 2 days but still it's a positive start

i've also had a bit of an epiphany today, was talking diets with a colleague and he said that if he eats a biscuit in the morning and goes to get one in the afternoon he'll think "no I won't have one as I had one this morning". That's not how my brain works AT ALL. I'd just eat them both and then have one in the evening too

I'm wondering if there's something about just not being very disciplined ingrained within me, I'm a bit overweight, not hugely but could do with being a few stone lighter (or is that more than a bit overweight, add deluded to my list of faults?!) i'm the same with money, i just think "ah well it'll be alright, so we're in o/d does it matter? No savings? nevermind!"

I think I need to get my eye back on the ball with both diet and money, will they go hand in hand??

Ooh you've reminded me eddas I need to prepare something for my break tomorrow. I only get 15 minutes as I do very short hours but I'd rather have a sandwich from home than end up really hungry at 2pm and buying random crap on my way home

Online. What buggers me up though is if I use my debit card in a shop and it takes a few days to go off my available balance.
I'm toying with just taking enough cash out for the week and seeing how I do.

It's things like popping to the shop for milk and coming back with milk, biscuits, sweets for the kids etc

AbbyLou we used to buy the Kids pizza mix from ASDA (came with sauce too) but they seem to have stopped making it, although their pizza base mix is 70p still. Top tip from Delia though, is that you can freeze pizza dough. Once the dough's risen, divide it into portions, and then freeze them in bags or boxes, then when it defrosts it'll rise up again. This is probably the one type of batch cooking we ever do because dough is so time-consuming.

TheNightIsDark we use cash for groceries - we take out 250 quid for the month, so if you only take a couple of quid with you then it's easier to stick to buying what you need. Someone pointed out to me once that bread and milk is always at the back of supermarkets - the buggers!

I'm hoping that the food budget will help in both issues eddas.

I wouldn't have the discipline your colleague has either. What I do try to do though is save my treat til right before bedtime (and often end up falling asleep before having it anyway)

We just started getting pizza base mix again. I once made stuffed crust with it - DSD actually still remembers it about 5 years later!

I often fall into the trap of forgetting that debit payments often don't come out straight away. It's easily done!

Eddas Those are not faults, the are traits.

The biscuit trap ( or cake/chocolate/sweets, Name your poison) sounds so familiar. I didn't even realise I was doing it úntil I was going over my Diary and had a lightbulb moment. Do you keep a dary? I find it helps in many different ways, I now understand why I over eat and over spend and so it's easier to minimise the damage.

Well done on the packed lunches. Another thing that might help is only having a small amount of cash, don't take cards out. Then you can't buy lunch.

We collected the gas guzzler as not sold yet - boy has s it been gazzling gas while there, DH is . Spent Loads yesterday, DH did anyway, supermarket in town so we stocked up and loo rolls were on offer. We never run out when the offers are on so I always buy them regardless. I think he Spent about £120, but I was busy packing bags so not certain.

I think I am going to start taking cash out for shopping. I'm ok on the weekly shop and pretty much stick to budget but again it's the bits inbetween. I'll nip in for bread and milk and spend £20 on crap. The problem then is, it eats into my monthly money. I am also toying with the idea of actually taking out all my available money at the start of the month when I next get paid. I pay all my bills money into the joint account and then have a few bills that come out of mine. I know exactly how much these are each month. Then an extra £300 is left in my account for the shopping. I am so tempted to take out the £300 and put it to one side for shopping. Then work out how much I have left and take it out bar about £20 as a contingency. I think it would really help me decide how much I want something! I already take out my Slimming World money and my £6 for pub lunch on a Friday each month. I'll have envelopes everywhere! I think I would feel better knowing I can just leave my bank account alone and it will cover all it needs to. If I have to take cash to buy something it's more of a conscious decision I think.

NSD - apart from childminder, but am working - freelancemama, I'm one of those too!

Dinner defrosting from batch cooking , and tonight's crazy-exciting plan is meal planning, and watching telly on netflix (free trial which I must remember to cancel!). We used to go to the big supermarket near us every Friday - cup of tea and meals for the kids beforehand, then a takeaway curry box on the way home. That would have been £15 unnecessary spends a week at least. Feel sick, but have mended my ways and sending DH off to Aldi in the morning.

was intending a NSD today but Iceland had all their Xmas joints half price so stocked up for the month-saving in the long run!

Hi all

NSD yesterday and made my mum a birthday fish pie....frugal though - frozen left over spinach, basics frozen white fish, white sauce with mustard, mash and sprinkling of left over xmas cheese....yum

Spent £7.24 today in tesco....desperately needed tampons (sorry tmi) but got a 3 for 2 offer on own brand so £3.98 for 60! Also got veg oil, milk and some baking pots.....just had one for lunch with basics beans and cheese.

Right off to muck out DDs room whilst she's out with her dad

Ok....a bit more spending.....decided to get travel insurance for a holiday at end of March...long saved for! Went through cash back site (first time!) and although the insurance cost £70 for the 3 of us, I got 28.87% cash back so I'm quite pleased and it's one less cost to think about for the holiday now! Yay

£9.61 at Tesco; including a 10 metre roll of Christmas wrapping paper for £1.40, 3 sets of 8 tags for 49p each, silver tissue paper for 70p. So apart from cards and gifts, next Christmas is all wrapped up .

Sorry, £8.61.

I think it's beter, if possible to take out all your housekeeing at the beginning of the month. Sometimes I go over my allotted money because of toiletries etc but might not spend so much another week so as long as I have enough in my purse I don't have to take my card out.

Spend £7 in gargage shop, £3.99 of that was on a box of chocolates - for myself . The rest was bread milk and peas.

I find staying away from the supermarkets best for saving money but it's not always practical. Where I wait to pick the DDs up has a garage and shop. There was Ragu on offer, in Asda it was on offer for £1. It was £1.59 in the shop but you got 2 free. My local spar always have offers on to.

IKEA came in at £170 including lunch and also included is a birthday present for DS's 4th birthday next month (a pop up castle tent). I was so much more mindful of exactly what I was buying and why I needed it, instead of just buying things because they were cheap. Everything I came home with was needed and also they gave me some new hinges for our old TV unit for free - the doors have been hanging off for about 6 months :-) and they only had the posh soft close ones. Shame... All fitted now and lookin great, the kids can get to their DVD's now without risking having a door collapse on them!

Have also put together the Expedit unit with 'help' from the children, it looks great and I'll fill it up tonight :-)

AbbyLou - have you tried using a Warburton thin as the base of a pizza and putting pizza toppings on it? I think they work out at 5 syns per thin.

www.amazon.co.uk/Austerity-Housekeeping-Sandra-Bradley-ebook/dp/B00HIRN942/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388773129&sr=8-1&keywords=austerity+housekeeping

This book is by a mumsnetter, it's free at the moment. Download it, it's well worth it.

I'll post later properly.

Definitely a spend day today but was planned that way. Took a shopping list for the first time ever, usually I buy online but as we were already going to be out and we really only needed a few basics, it made sense to pick up stuff on our way home. Did not go off list, not even once! £13 on groceries and £15 on supplements (H&B penny sale ), sorted now on the latter for a good few months and it was only the stuff I actually needed.

For those who are thinking of taking cash out budgeted for groceries, we used to do the same and it was really handy and helped us stick to our budget. We'll be doing something similar if we end up shopping locally as the local stores usually only take cash. As it is now, we have reversed and spend almost always on card as it makes us more conscious - it's interesting how everyone has different reactions to things, but for us when cash is in the purse or wallet it suddenly becomes 'free money' because it's no longer in the account and then it just disappears I have a set cash purse now which is for money taken out deliberately for things to stop us from squandering it!

fuzzpig,i'm the same with work, I don't officially get a break, my choice to work 5 hours straight around school hours, so I don't actually have time to buy any lunch...but I work above a bakers so I sneak out also not good for the waistline mmmm

I'm liking traits adorabell I might try a diary but I think I probably just need to be honest with myself. I know why i'm overweight but I don't seem to be bothered to do anything about it. As my wise mum would've said "there's no such thing as can't" so it's not that I can't do it, I just don't have any willpower. I need to find it!

I have now cancelled dh's cc as well so both the nil balance one's have gone, just the one with a balance to go that might take more than a couple of mins online!

Now where did that money tree go????!