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.....

waiting Eggs freeze and so does milk. Be positive you won't need to order them for a while now. You've just reminded me that I need to revist my online shop which is due on Friday.

Accidentally put newish black jeans in wash with whites so 89p on colour run remover. I think it's actually made one top worse but everything was ruined so was worth trying. I blame pregnancy hormones!

The milk can be frozen, eggs too. Seperate and freeze yolks in amounts you think you'll use, do the same with the whites. Try and work it into a meal plan. Spanish, or whatever, omlette, carbonara, pavlova for weekend desért, etc. you could do fresh custard, Lemon curd takes about 8 eggs, I use Nigella's recipe. could you make cakes To freeze? Most simple cakes freeze Well, just slice and put in a food bag then defrost as needed.

Do you snack at home? You can boil eggs and store in the fridge To snack on. If you have cauliflower, or any veg really, boiled eggs can be added To a curry, cut in half and added right at the end To warm them.

I once accidentely ordered 10 kilos of bananas

Was the meat in their list of your favourites? If so can you deleté it?

Freeze everything you can To make sure it's not wasted.

^^that was meant forWFPW

You're welcome

Here 50 Ways to use banana's.

It's a mistake you won't make again, like locking yourself out the house.

Back to work today, which is never fun after a holiday... but it was a no spend day, so that made me feel a bit better!

NSD! Finally! See going back to work is good for me (says she who nearly collapsed from exhaustion as not used to the 6am rises and can't sleep yet coz DCs are not in bed yet!! Argh!

NSD again for me today.

However, warning light has come on in the car so need to have it diagnosed tomorrow. Could be expensive. All crossed fingers, toes and prayers gratefully accepted to make it an easy, cheap fix.

Waiting... Amazing shopping list you got there. But what great solutions! I love doing this v simple dish.

Couple (or more eggs!!), chopped French beans, onions chopped. Mixed together, bit of soy sauce. Fry. Scramble it around. Lovely. With rice.

NSD.

NSD

Will try for a NSD tomorrow.
If I buy three lots of chicken say in tesco for 10 pounds can put it all in freezer and just buy lots of veg in Aldi should be ok rather than getting tesco delivery.

NSD number 3!

I'm also on the not buying clothes for a year thread so I'm working through all the unworn things in my wardrobe to see if I can alter them to make me love them and wear them. More frugaleering!

£23 on petrol and groceries. Dinner money paid £25 for the week .

Had Tesco 20p value curry sauce today in our cookery lesson and it was lovely!

Didn't buy any big groceries today, just milk, cream and coriander. Still got some stuff to cook (at least 2 more meals with leftovers from them) plus plenty bread, eggs, cereal, tinned goods etc. Going back to work a touch earlier than planned so have to rejig things, probably doing our first proper grocery shop of the year on Thursday and see if we can't get some good deals at the local shops.

Tonight I thwarted DH's plans To take me To an útterly fabuloso and uber expensive restaurant for my birthday this weekend. We will now be going To a fabuloso restaurant which is merely a bit expensive if we don't share. Which is where I secretely wanted To Go, and we always share anyway.

Don't yet know what Tomorrow holds but Wednesday DD2 has an early morning blood test, that's likely To be expensive, plus breakfast treat for under going a Two hour blood test, checking for growth hormone.

wimsey that has made me giggle! I'm planning a quiche this week with left over Christmas cheese and salad from Aldi super six which should use a few of our eggs...not quite 54 though!

We went to the cinema last night - £17.50 - why is it so expensive?! We chose to go last night as my mum is staying so could babysit. We only go a handful of times a year since having dd and it's something we really miss being able to do on a whim. Plus we needed a first day back at work treat. Our 'everything else' budget is getting used up fairly quickly but I've had a rummage in the shed and found some kitchen and bathroom paint and some gloss so hopefully budget for redecorating will be reduced.

So today is supposed to be the most depressing of the year and I've decided to start 5:2 today. I have an egg boiling which il take in to work to have mid morning and a weight watchers 51 cal soup for lunch.

Morning all!

Spends:
£4.20 on 7 first class stamps (I have a pen-pal)
£1.75 on budgie food

Budgets:
£154.34 remaining in petrol
£162.10 remaining for kids
£369.01 remaining in the everything else budget
Morning all!
£254.97 in groceries.

Will really have to reign things in a bit as DS2 has his birthday in early Feb and he wants a futsal party instead of a present or day out, and that will cost £150 for him and 12 mates. Obviously I can cover it but I have been frittering again (yes Amazon Kindle that means you! I seem to spend more time looking for cheap books to buy than I do actually reading) so I need to start being Mrs Iron Willpower again when it comes to spending.

I still haven't received the make up that I ordered from MUA (8 working days, they said 5) and I haven't had a dispatch e-mail so I have sent them an enquiry asking them to refund me if it is not dispatched today. 8+ working days for an order to be dispatched is really poor even for this time of year.

Morning.

So, garage can't do anything until next week, which delays the spend. Won't be hyper-expensive but a trip to the garage never costs less than £100, does it? Will obviously list when I have the final sum.

Need to do an online shop - not sure where all the food has gone??? . It's like I have fridge fairies who visit in the night and eat it all.

At the moment though, it's a NSD, 6 out of 7 so far.

Only spends today unless I get sick of the rain and go to soft play £3.30 sending DVDs that I sold on amazon. That doesn't count, right?

Your juggling caught my eye so thought I'd just check in

What I really need in this New Year to balance our finances is some more work/a new job.

Meanwhile it should be possible not to spend more than we have coming in as I recently calculated that we have an average/median amount of disposable income. But I don't know how anyone does it I really don't!

Do you find shopping vouchers/ loyalty cards are a help? I'm very lazy about signing up for/ using these, and think it's one thing I probably should do to stretch those pennies a bit further? Also doing a weekly shop at our local LIDL instead of too many bits and pieces at the Co-op? - though Co-Op has a £5 voucher scheme going on this month (for next shop over £20)