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.....

Also took the plunge and got a PT second job which will be seasonal (exam marking) - just need to send off my bank details/NI stuff to them today and it should mean in June/July I get a bit extra tries not to think about all the marking

delasi I am at your discount skills! I never seem to see anything discounted, must go at exactly the wrong times!

delasi I have order 27p midget gems and 60p choc ices from tescos - these are our sweet treats post hotdogs for out 'home cinema' night i.e. we close the curtains!

Oh now theres a thing artemis I could mark this summer..but have toddler...meh?

ashamed It's a good idea, but alas DH would rather go without! He only likes cake, bread & butter pudding, M&S cream cakes or naice crème caramel/brulee/panna cotta (can't get the cheap stuff past him!). So baking it is

Artemisa Ha, DH just calls me stingy!

delasi i have started planning in puddings properly to meal plan. it stops snacking and its an improvement on the wine

I made an pineapple upside cake yesteday, I found a recipe for one egg as that is all I had.

I have recently made baked rice puddings - went down well. Fruit in jelly, fruit & yoghurt and natural honey. I found a rhubarb pie in tesco's bakery last night for 20p, so I have put in freezer but ordered custard to go with.

5 fresh cream eclairs for £1 at tescos

I should probably bake more puddings. The DC and DH would love it. DH complains he HAS to eat CoCo Pops (own brand not the same, apparently) because there are no desserts. I - quite politely, I thought - pointed him in the direction of the baking cupboard.

I do really fancy the slow cooker rice pudding.

Been pretty good with my spending, nothing unnecessary, though am going for a social evening with PTA which involves a meal out that I hadn't budgeted for at the start of the month.

£30 microwave
£13 scotch for dh to say sorry
£6 more groceries and wine. I've eaten most of our weekly shop
£2 ovenproof jug in homebargains for cooking peas etc in the main oven

£3 for lunch today because I've eaten all the sandwich stuff too

Approved foods sometimes do packet cake mixes very cheaply, covered in hot tinned fruit and custard it's a lovely pudding.

I've found my old flask so I can take tea to work now.

£10 on petrol. Had to pick DS up from nursery early as he's been sick and has a temperature. I am generally fine and happy being a single parent but I find it so stressful when he is ill. I feel almost overwhelmed at the responsibility of making decisions about whether I should take him to the gp, hospital, give him food etc. Anyway, off topic!

ilovepicnmix Hope your DS is feeling better soon and that you can relax a bit too. I think most of us regularly veer off topic anyway! Would be terribly miserable if we refused to speak about anything other than frugality...

Creme follow your instincts, plus a doctor would rather see an ill child who is ok to go home than a really ill one they have to admit because its progressed to far?

I'm a HCP and I've never resented the worried parent, especially when it's the flipping HV who's panicked them.

Don't forget the deli counter for mark downed hand carved ham/turkey.

ARRGGHH I keep spending my grocery fund on slimming world stuff! I'm going to have to be mega frugal to come in at budget never mind under it.

Kids stuff: £82.45 remaining
Everything else: £280.75
Food: £112.08 remaining
Petrol: £154.34 remaining

DH hasn't touched his pocket money yet, he's been doing really well and living off his betting winnings. Shame he won't let me "have" his pocket money though - it would nicely pay "his" road tax.

Wombled a receipt from Asda which the previous incumbent had left in the basket I picked up so I'll be putting the bar code into the price promise website tomorrow when I get to work (can't do it from home as no black ink in printer).

New job phoned me, both lots of references received so job offer should be imminent (woo)

Lost 4lbs at SW tonight which is 7.5lbs in two weeks. Trouble is I have so much to lose that no one including myself can even see a difference yet. I hope I can stay motivated.

Oh picnmix hope your little one is feeling better or at least tucked up snug x

overthinker well done for resisting! I am constantly having similar thoughts about dd and she is not even two yet - it's going to get worse isn't it?!

I know artemis fuel bill is so high. Totally our own fault. Completely OD'd on central heating last year. Now wearing dressing gowns at all times (although I did turn heating up a notch earlier when a neighbour popped in for a cuppa!)

NSD for me, yeah!

3frugalthings: re-used a food bag and some tinfoil today (am usually a bit wasteful in this dept); made DH eat leftovers from last night that he didn't really like first time round! (Mwah ha ha!); dug out kitchen paperwork as payment went out today and I'd thought it had finished last month, turns out there was one more to go, ok this didn't save me money but is another example of how checking my online balance every day is helping me to keep on top of my finances (good or bad!)

Crossed post with you claret. Love the wombling!! Well done on weight loss - that's half a stone and is bloody amazing!

ilovepic hope your DS is feeling better soon!

£5.29 in Tesco; £3.50 on two birthday cards and a jiffy bag; £4.95 posting the said jiffy bag to Ireland (birthday present for my niece) and £1.60 on sweets for DS. So, £15.34 total.

Hi there, my first spend today of the week. £3.50 in farmfoods, on milk snacks and grapes. They do a lovely punnet of grapes of £1.00. £34.00 for dds rainbows fees. I won't have to pay anymore now until September so It's not too bad. I just forgot to include the fees in this months budget. I also had my hair done, £35.00 for cut, blow and colour but this was in my monthly budget so I don't really include this. My car is in the garage tomorrow. I so that could be painful. I am very pleased though to go from Monday to Wednesday without spending money.

NSD but dh did the grocery run today. £24. On weeks is, bread, ham, milk, cheese, tea and some other randoms. That's it. Only reason why we did the shop today was we ran out of bread.

I had a promising start. Had a couple of NSD this week and trying very hard to stick to one shopping trip. Worked ok til the cat demolished the entire box of grub earlier than anticipated. Though co op is quite reasonable so was cheaper than a supermarket trip. I am so bad at the just buying the one thing I went in for.
Had a bash at eBay, stuff I had decluttered. Sold ok but the postage is a stinker. I used their calculator for pricing (as didn't want to price out of market) but I am still out of pocket. Its a bit of a swine really as was hoping to plow through all my second hand murder mysteries and flog them for 50p ish as I have read ten times backwards hey ho, crack on.

£40.62 in Aldi yesterday, my meal-plan has gone out of the window though as it was based around the super 6 that I'd seen on the website and it was completely different when I went into the store! ilove hope your DS is feeling better, have been a single parent when DD was very small & it used to get on top of me sometimes (although I wouldn't have changed it!), go with your gut instinct..........

Dh gets caught out on eBay p&p, everything costs £4 to post apparently. It's more like £7 on shoebox sized parcels these days. I've noticed that high postage doesnt seem to put people off though. I've sold old hair appliances like dryers & straighteners first time even though its £6 to post it.

£5 on a food flask in John Lewis, it says it keeps hot for 6 hours so we shall see. It's going back if it doesn't. It's £10 cheaper than the thermos one on amazon.

Picked up my e cloth mop & emailed to claim my price match of £4. It will save me money on hot water because you just wet it, wring it out and use it.

NSD so far, but DS will need £1 for his bus fare to Scouts later.

Have a good weekend everyone .

Resisted urge to buy kids pizza as Fridays are always a rush before youth clubs etc! Pasta and sauce with garlic bread quick and easy. Meal planning worked this week let's hope we can keep it going!!

thank you all for your suggestions to me re cheaper deals in the supermarkets. That's a good idea to go on the days of national events or big sporting events.

I blotted my budgeting copybook today by £3. Bought a chocolate fondue set in a charity shop - am getting fed up of having Christmas chocolate still hanging around! but am not mentioning the out-of-season, ludicrously expensive strawberries that I then had to buy to dunk IN the aforementioned chocolate!

My wombling paid off as the receipt has generated me a £1.91 price guarantee voucher, and also my own receipt was worth £0.93. I've transferred it to the Xmas fund which is now at £25.58.

Am going shopping tonight with a receipt. To farmfoods, to Aldi and then I'll get the rest from Asda tomorrow (I'm addicted to Asda now). I was going to try and do a 2 week shop but with £112 left and 2 full weeks to go, I'm going to just buy what I need for this week.