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.....

Another NSD yesterday (well apart from DS' breakfast club money but that's budgeted for). 4 so far this year!

Re using up chocolate - rocky road is good for disguising cheap chocolate. I use cheap digestives or sometimes those boxes of broken biscuits you get in bargain shops. Few marshmallows and some dried fruit and you've never know it was recycled low rent Santa!

Thanks ohhelp, however I did rather spoil things yesterday evening by going to Asda instead of Aldi. Our local Aldi closes at 6pm and I'm going to have very little time at the weekend to shop so thought I'd get ahead and do it on my way home from work. £59.61 later (even sticking to my list and having to buy expensive things like hair dye & razor blades) and all of a sudden instead of being under budget with petrol savings I'm dead on with a couple more bits to pick up AAARH!

Will be my first spends of the week today. Gave dd 20p for toast at break. dh has lunch at work on Thurs and fri as the meals are good in work canteen and only £2.50. He then just has a snacky tea.
Going shopping for a few bits today but will stick slavishly to my list!

Just spent £4 on Xmas cards too. Original price £13.

Hello!

i've de lurked to join please! after a year of lurking

Aiming to get my self debt free by September. Just have one last loan which will be all payed off this year and a small amount left on credit card. I want get into the swing of meal planning and Food budgeting better with my 3dc,dh and Dc 4 due april. doesn't help that Dh and ds1 are ganits

thanks Helena for choc advice!

OhHelp - I must say when I was in Tesco's the other day there did seem to be some post XMas bargains around - for example big discounts on large cuts of meat (eg lamb)
(We're veggie though so didn't apply to us)

And as I mentioned I was pleased with my half price Tefal jug kettle at £17 or thereabouts (needed one as old one busted this week)

But don't say I led you astray if you're having a NSD ....

I would def recommend freelance life for something that fits around the kids (can do nursery run, and later school run, before and after work). I would book childcare though - the idea of working while the kids play is not practical in reality.

NSD fail yesterday on steam mop (£25) and today on fluffy rabbit slippers for DD (£6) and a few hairclips w 70% off in the Accessorise sale for party gifts throughout the year.

Who was asking about freelance? For us it's definitely worth it - always someone able to attend school plays, important appointments etc, and I loathe and despise the whole 9-5 thing. Saying that, DH was self employed and went back to proper employment (at a lower salary) because he much prefers the stability of a known salary. It's good that one of us does!

Freezer meal again tonight - a choice of leftover portions of lasagne, curried veg soup or macaroni cheese for me and the DCs (DH away with work). Am going to get out a joint of meat to slow cook tomorrow too, as I have a load of veg and tinned toms to use up.

Ooh, and NSD today! I feel actually in profit as I bought a dress in the sales and I'm going to return it as it isn't perfect and was still fairly ££ in the sale.

Success!

Finally did grocery shopping in local stores - first time I've physically gone out and bought groceries over £5 worth in over a year It was great! The butchers is really good, spent £19 on far too much plenty of meat, the prices are better than the supermarket as is the variety. Original fishmongers and grocers I'd found weren't much good but it turned out there are 2 others in the same area which are also really good. Again both places had great variety and I already have plans on what else I want. Then picked up a very big loaf in the bakers. That lot was about £40 in all. Then spent £5 in Tesco on milk, biscuits and drinks So about £45 in total.

We usually spend about £50 (groceries, I count household stuff separately) at Asda in an online shop, but we get lower quality and also far less in the way of meat, fish and fresh produce. We normally pick up more frozen bits and tins because they're cheaper, so I'm pleased with today's shop. Have more than enough food for the next week and a bit beyond that or to freeze (now that the meat & fish drawer is empty).

I think that having to go out and get stuff has also made me more conscious of what I buy, not only because I see it but because we have to cart it back ourselves! Still considering what we'll do for cupboard staples - cereals, tins and also toilet rolls, kitchen towel etc - the Asian store near us where we get rice also does cheap tinned tomatoes, but other things like baked beans or sweetcorn are better bought elsewhere. I'm thinking that when we're nearly out of those items I'll do an online shop somewhere like Asda, so maybe once a month, or pick stuff up when I'm alone, not sure yet. Just discovered Iceland deliver here, free over £35, so maybe I'll compare their prices.

Sorry that was a bit long on groceries

hi delasi you might be interested in this blog then.

ayearwithoutsupermarkets.com/

Well done, Delasi.

Hope they were able to do the blood tests today, adora.

NSD here.

Thanks for the choc idea helena! Is there such thing as a healthy, freezable rocky road? Maybe more chocolate flapjack? You've given me the idea to make a desert type bar that I can freeze and send with dd to nursery as a pudding after lunch.

£8.98 spent in B&Q on brushes and mini roller. I really hope the paint I have stretches as cheapest white bathroom paint I could see was £17 and I won't need a whole other tin.

Thanks for the link NK5BM3 and for the nod Crème That's a really interesting blog, I've saved it to look through more thoroughly later. At current we are still using supermarkets as our local Tesco is the cheapest place for milk but when we go into the grocers and butchers next week I'm going to try and look more and be less amazed by the sheer amount of food

The main things we get from the supermarket are milk, eggs, Ready Brek (or equivalent), soft drinks, cereals (for DH!), Rich Tea biscuits, butter, some tins (tuna, sweetcorn), condiments (mayo, relish, mustard) and basic household (toilet roll, kitchen towel, washing up liquid). We have plenty of all of this at the moment so I'll do some searching around and see what the alternatives are instead of defaulting to the supermarket - we might just be surprised --again-.

We cloth nappy, other baby stuff is bought from Boots, making laundry gloop once we run out of detergent and buy other cleaning stuff from Poundland. Rice, pasta, herbs, spices and pulses come from the Asian food superstore.

Welcome nahmate

I'll post later

Hi All, need to catch up on this thread...it's moving like wild-fire.

Okay: spends ... £74.00 on grocery delivery yesterday, £40.00 on diesel today (should see me through to the end of the month). I also spent £40.00 on top-up veggie shop today at Sainsbury's but used two gift cards that we got as a "thank you for using this service" type promo so, free, yeah??

Delasi we've just moved to a town with a butchers, grocers and bakers for the first time ever (suspect there is a fishmonger too, but haven't looked yet). I'm rather excited about leaving the supermarket for most of our shop now!

Possibly If you're like me and easily pleased a bit of a foodie then you'll love it!

Currently Googling dates for local farmers markets... that may not be such a frugal idea

Half price sausages in lidl this weekend, it's bacon the week after. Guess where I'm heading this weekend?.

NSD for me but dh buying fish and chips so about £3 each for that.

Remember that washer dryer you all told me to eBay? I got £80 for it. We were both gobsmacked, my jaw was on the floor. There's me all set to pay the council £20 to take it away! Thank you.

In other news I hate the dishwasher the builders put in the house, it's a rubbish electrolux one & I'm going to stab it. I need to save for a nice bosch logixx like we had in the old house. Dh is totally against me replacing it. It's worth saving for expensive appliances, usually they cost less to power, use less water and you don't get the rage every time you empty it.

Dh has his new account with his £100 in it.

There's a lovely butcher near us who only sells locally reared meat and has an on site abattoir so it doesn't have a long journey before slaughter but its £14 for a chicken , if I win the lottery I would use him all the time.

Fluffy that's good result for washing machine :)

pasta bolgenese for dinnn bolgenese pasta bake made for freezer.

Nsd other than petrol for work already in car though from nye although will have to fill up again Mon at latest

house nsurance done n will get £22 cashback through quidco - back using it as stopped for some reason which was stupid probably when got a smart phone n use laptop alot less.

spanglemaker I doubt I'll ever be an employee again if that answers your question? What's making our situation stressful is that we're both freelance (DP does a little bit of office work each week) and look after DS while the other one works. So we're down to effectively one salary but it's an uncertain one.

But SO worth it for the flexibility in terms of being able to do what's needed for DS and being there for things when we want to. And I'm sure it'll be easier when he starts school - being freelance full time is quite different from part-time fitting it round a demanding adorable "client"

But you don't get sick pay or compassionate leave and you have to be more disciplined and be prepared to work at odd times.

Was on track for an NSD today but then had half an hour to kill so popped to my local shopping centre. £1.50 on 4 Bernard Matthews chicken things which should have been £4. Good for some weekend trashy meals for me. I then looked at the Christmas reductions in Tesco and got silver wrapping paper and loooaads of chocolate for £3.86. Not needed but I cannot resist a chocolate bargain! This included some wee doughnuts to take into work tomorrow.

turnoff how have you got on today? I've been out of the office a lot today so I've not found today too difficult. Might retire to bed with a book now as this is my danger time.

Fluffy I have to watch myself to not get caught up in naice food We live near a well known premium butcher, the chicken is cheapest £11.50/kg Made sure I steered well clear of there today! Nearly got wrapped up in the deli in that area too today until I remembered I don't want to spend £4 on a small loaf of bread. And well done on the washer dryer!

Going to eBay some stuff but probably closer to Spring as it's mainly clothing and more S/S appropriate. However I also have some baby stuff to eBay, off to see what they might normally go for... not expecting much but every little helps and all that

Oh and hello nahmate

Well done on your machine sale fluffy I've got a load of never used reusable nappies that I should sell but can't get my arse in gear. You might have just inspired me!