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.....

£2 on a snow shovel from halfords. £1.94 after tcb. They'd run out of sale ones so I had a £10 substituted instead. It will never snow again now I've bought one though.

£3.70 eBay postage but I charged £5 anyway so it's covered.

£5 petrol.

I'm listing some stuff on eBay later but I am seriously scraping the barrell now.

NSD yesterday and today :-) Tomorrow is dh's birthday tea though so that will be a spends day.

£7.06 between Tesco and the discount store, and just sent DS for takeaway pizza (£11.60, if my sums are correct! ), as it's been a loooong day and we need a treat!

thanks for all the replies!
I menu plan and am generally pretty good at sticking to budgets, but I'm not sure if I could stick to one weekly shop! maybe I should check out online shopping. do people find that it's easier, online? less temptation????

Did a small shop and stuck to the list. The shop was done after nursery drop off and before work so a very quick shop. £5 for cereal, cucumber, juice pack and washing up gloves.

Thought I'd better post again after my pitiful self pitying post at the weekend. Dh and I had a household finance summit(!) on Monday and have reworked our plan (again!) but feel happy with it and I feel much more positive.

This week has been okay from a spending point of view but have struggled without a meal plan so I need to sit down and plan for the rest of the month. I get paid on Friday thank goodness and I'm still doing quite a few extra hours at work as we're short staffed so that'll be nice at the end of Feb.

Will get the Mirror tomorrow for the aldi voucher, thanks for the warning fluffy

Not a great day money wise. Unbelievably after me not getting registered with an NHS dentist yesterday I developed a horrible big sore on the roof of my mouth last night. I had to reinstate my denplan for two months in order to get seen by my old private dentist. That cost me £43.90. Saw him and left with a prescription for anti-biotics. However, boots wanted to charge me £14 as it was a private prescription. I went back to my dentist and had it changed as I have an exemption card. I also borrowed a bus ticket from a work colleague saving me parking costs in the city centre. On a positive this sore is good for my waistline!

£4 in for various collections at work.

A colleague bought some m&s vouchers from me for face value so that's £60 that will cover my dental mishap today.

Got my graze box. Not bad for a freebie but now I'm having trouble cancelling my account. Swines.

I ate mine in under an hour. Felt sick for ages afterwards.

NSD.

Hope your month heals quickly Picnmix

North glad you are feelling moré positive, that's always a bonus.

Blue hope DH enjoys his birthay tea.

£4 for PTA film night at school and £2.50 for dh's lunch should be our only spends today. Oh and 50p on the Mirror for the aldi voucher of course!

Sorry I think I've missed something but what is the Aldi voucher for (yes u know, Aldi )

bluedog the voucher gives you £5 off a £40 shop. There's also other vouchers in the paper which give 30 or 50% off specific items like cheese, flour, fishcakes.

NSD, as DS forgot to pay £2.50 for breakfast club.

Thanks picandmix

55p on the mirror.

£3.40 on breakfast and lunch at work. Bit annoyed at myself for being disorganised and not making my own but it's the only time I've slipped up this month and the canteen is cheap so I don't feel too bad.

Silk I definitely find online shopping helps me stick to a list and you can see the total adding up so you can alter things so you keep to a budget.

picnmix financial Sod's law! Hope you find an NHS dentist soon x

northender I just had to scroll back to remind myself of your weekend post. I didn't think you were self pitying at all! I remember commenting to myself after reading about your family visiting 'I know that feeling'! It's lovely for people to visit but so hard to suggest you all have a teetotal beans on toast dinner to guests!

NSD so far today but I need to buy lunch stuff for tmrw as mil visiting and I don't think il have time tmrw. We'll see. Don't really want to go out now I'm home for the night.

Spent £1.50 yesterday on chocolate digestives. Diet not going so well this week ! Also the £70 for our B&B has come out of our account already so I've taken the money from our healthy looking grocery budget. Still have £66 until end of month and I have plenty of nappies, a 6 pint milk and bits and bobs in freezer and cupboards so I'm pleased with that. Just hoping half tank of petrol stretches otherwise that will have to be eked out of food budget too!

NSD.

Another rotten mouth day. Called the dentist as feels worse today do he asked me to go back to see him. That was £3.90 on bus ticket. After much farting around I have an appointment at the dental hospital tomorrow morning. Luckily for me I manage my own diary at work and have lots of flexi time owing.

Lunch was super noodles for 49p. I was very optimistic when I made a sandwich last night. £25 on petrol and 55p for the mirror.

Is the dental hospital free? You must be really bad.

Im assuming it is fluffy but right now I'd hand over a lot of money if it sorted me out. Don't want to put anyone off their dinner but the dentist took a photo of the roof of my mouth as he's never seen anything like it [proud] I looked and it was not a pleasant sight.

Have you taken enough pain relief? You can take ordinary paracetamol with ibuprofen.

Hope they can sort that out at the hospital Picnmix.

I have come back into the frugal fold after a couple of disastrous months.

I have just been paid, so fresh start for end of Jan/Feb. It's MOT, service and tax month in Feb tho, so praying the car gods will be kind.

I have been a money-frittering nightmare. It all grew to a head last night when I blew £20 on sale chocolates after reading a thread on here. I need to get a grip.

So, I'm back and ready to be financially astute.

Sympathy picknmix. Anything with your mouth is just awful. Hope you get it sorted soon .