Manic Money Monitoring March continues

[lilacclery]

First time doing the thread! Feel very important

Wages were up last week & down this week but I wasn't spendy so accounts look ok.

Yesterday & today are nsd as will tomo & Fri too hopefully. Away at weekend so food out is essential, dinner & acccommodation for sat & breakfast Sun morn is already paid in advance.

Will fill in spends from last Fri to Mon later
peonies I'm reading Marie kondo at the moment

Well eventful day.

Went to put air in the tyres and the tanker driver hit our car with one of his cones! I opened the door and shouted 'Oi you just hit our car!' He did say sorry...

Then as we were driving off mark Owen walked out infront of us and we nearly ran him over.

Went for a nice pub roast bil paid so nice of him probably cost £80/90. The dc enjoyed stroking all the dogs in the pub, one of them was massive.

Home now

at Mark Owen spotty

NSD today.

Lamb tagine tonight, there's loads so will last 2 days. Pea and ham soup. Roasted butternut squash and pasta. Shepherds pie, Jack Monroe's bacon, cheese and cauli bake, and thai fish curry will all feature this week .

Spent £12 on two pairs of trousers for dd, one pair is black and I am wondering if she would get away with wearing them for school, they are yoga pants but I don't see that anyone could tell they aren't 'proper' school trousers iyswim. Dd is so tricky to buy for as is not at all girlie so won't wear skirts or dresses but also has some sensory issues so clothes have to be really soft and comfortable!!

£8.50 on a swim costume, its the next size up so hoping it will last her a while.

£3 on an Easter dvd!!

Annoying if the 25% starts this week but couldn't really wait, she had nothing to wear tomorrow!!

I was involved in the last thread & since then, I've spent a bloody fortune!

I've started councelling, privately which is £35.00 a session! I'm debating weather to do it fortnightly instead of weekly

Personal training £15.00 per session!

Also bought an E-cig - £25.00 but not used it much so still purchasing cigarettes!

Although I have put most of my wages away £1000.00 & will mostly be trying to live off £80 per week for a while.

spendy day again. Paid Plumbers bill 115.01, camping for August £56, shopping £44, have a dance bill but might get away with not paying until end April. 17 is sainsbury was more but converted nectar points.
Feels like there is more buy I forget.

Two NSDs yay!!... and Dh has given me £70...
Will make up for some of the overspend on this month ..

NSD.

spotty my Dh would've put his foot down. He's not a TT fan.

Nor are we really. He did say sorry. I can only assume that his floppy hair got in his line of vision. He lives down the road.

Oh feck, the House of Fraser sale is on, I might have bought something

(oh well, on line clothes shopping is only 'on approval' isnt it? .. I'm sure I wont like all 3 tops ive ordered .. )

I had my long-awaited day out with my freebie train tickets today. I took my mum and we had a lovely day (if slightly wet!). She insisted on buying me a cardie I liked even though I'd been determined we wouldn't shop and she treated me to lunch.
I paid for a couple of coffees, the bus to the station and a tip in the restaurant, spent around 15 quid in total so a cheap day out!
Going to Asda tomorrow, soft play on Tuesday and meeting a friend for coffee on Wednesday so no NSDs planned but they shouldn't be too spendy either.
We are aiming to pay off my interest free credit card asap, should be doable in a couple of months now I'm back at work. After that we want to save enough to buy our car outright when the lease ends as that will save us a lot each month. If we are lucky enough to have another baby in the next couple of years that plan might change! I feel really motivated now that I've realised both of those things are feasible if we are really careful with money.

Only spend some emergency potatoes today.

DD1s birthday party went well - total cost was less than £110 so really pleased! Included £40 hall hire which was I'm grateful about because it rained so much... Always seems to be weird weather the day of her party.

Am just making green lentil ,rice and veggie salad for work lunches this week .. Yum..

Will add some peppers, chopped feta and maybe either h/b egg or some chorizo in also and using my h/m salad dressing dijon , cider viegar , honey and olive oil .. All things I have in..

I also have lots of reduced mushrooms , so will make some other veggie dish withthese.. soup maybe

That looks delicious Laska thanks for the link.

Has been quite a frugal weekend here. Dh found a pub that served free food before the football so that helped him keep spending down. £35 yesterday on fish, cheese, veg and a few other bits. Apart from shopping for Easter eggs on Wednesday we should now get by until the end of the school hols (made easier by being away for a few days). Made broccoli and blue cheese soup today for mine and dh's lunches for a couple of days. Lasagne from freezer for tea, fish pie tomorrow.

Have almost done with the de clutter now and feel so much better for it. I now need to sort out how to store and organise keepsakes and get rid of all the stuff that's sitting in the conservatory waiting to be despatched to the tip, the family down the road, charity shop or ebay!!

Feel really focussed now on our aims for this year which are to get the driveway done and to buy a new bed for ds. Think it helps to focus on what the frugality is for, whether it be repaying debts, avoiding increasing debts, going on holiday etc, it keeps you motivated. Someone today was telling me how much scrap gold is selling for so I'm going to try to find a necklace I have somewhere which is quite chunky gold and of no sentimental value.

Glad party went well tewi. Children's parties seem to be around the £200 mark so I'm very impressed with your spends.

About £17 on Easter eggs for dc which I know is way too much but I was talking to some other parents and realised this'll probably be the last year the Easter Bunny visits my pfb as she's getting older and wiser and that made me so I wanted this Easter to be great. Probably spent about a tenner more than I usually would and we'll be eating chocolate until August but worth it I hope

Kate Obviously I don't know enough To tell you what To do but when I started councelling I really needed the weekly sessions, then it went To monthly before I even realised I was ready for the change.

NSD Today, raided the Zombie earthquake emergency supply for school
donación.

Too tired To catch up properly but will look at your link Laksa and read all Tomorrow.

I think weekly is good for counseling too. I used to get anxious beforehand. (but feel better after) and the routine was helpful.

iamnot - we were quite lucky with the party in that someone gave us loads of card ages ago and we have quite a lot of craft stuff anyway so we managed to come up with a lot of craft activities without having to buy too much extra - there is lots of what we did buy left so the kids will have lots to do for the rest of the year!

Annoyingly there was also still lots of leftover food even though I purposefully bought as little as I thought was realistic. However, cheap frozen pizzas went down well and were cheaper than sandwiches which is what we have done before.

Your week's meals look really good for only £42 frazzled! I would be very pleased.

Morning all. Trying to get lots of washing line dried this morning before rain arrives so the spin dryer is on overtime! Ever grateful to fluffy for the idea, it's fab .
Planning budget days out for when we're in Devon staying with pil. When I was de cluttering yesterday I found a Plymouth aquarium ticket which we got in the Easter hols last year, valid for a year and as Easter is earlier this year, it's still valid. Just need to find some pictures to stick on it and dig out photo ID to take with us. Sounds like the weather may not be great so we need rainy day options.

babsmam use a pin and make a hole in the pointy end, then lower it gently into the water with a spoon. I re-read Delia's How To Cook book the other day and she's made me an egg-spert She also says choose the right size saucepan so they don't crash into each other www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/hard-boiled-eggs.html

I've been away from this thread for ages which is ironic as I've been through a hellishly busy frugal time - working extra hours in the evenings, lots of earnest conversations with DP, tearfully accepting a free loan of DM, etc.

Anyway, the cash is finally flowing (hurrah!) and I can start putting money back into the places we took it from to get us through this tough patch. DS starts pre-school after Easter now we get the free hours, only a couple of mornings a week to start, (£15 on uniform, £10 on registering but otherwise free). He's very excited and think it will be a nice free "outing" for him twice a week instead of paying for softplay.

Hope to do better next month on the April thread...

Hello everyone, late comer to the March thread as it's payday tomorrow for me. I've had a very expensive March though (Mothers Day, 3 x birthdays, baby shower, meal out, which has left me in defecit for April already. I have repairs to make to my car - and the car tax - to pay for in April so it's gonig to v.tight.
Will keep an eye on this thread, and see if an April one pops up as I will definitely be monitoring my spending!

£13.50 on lunch for the dc plus coffee and cake for me at the garden centre.

Morning all

Bank: £257.47 (was £308.70)
Purse: £0.00 (was £0.00)
Jar: £72.75 (was £72.70)

Grand Total: £330.19
Reduced by: £51.21
Days to payday: 16
Buffer money: £103.98
Proper Savings: £574.29

Spend's:

£51.23 – last week's groceries which came out today

Budget looks like this: £381.40
Petrol: £156.50 // £112.50 spent // £41 remaining
Groceries: £300 // 180.10 spent // 119.90 remaining
Interest: £8.80
Bus fares & Kids activities: £16.80
My bus fare: £14.50
HSBC credit card: £12.70
Leaves for everything else....£116.49

I definitely think I'll be breaking into the buffer money this month too as I don;t think I can make £116 last over two weeks and I can't cut corners anywhere else (i.e. grocery) with it being a five week month. My hair desperately needs cutting too which I'll get done tomorrow. I've also got another night out next Saturday.

Bah car failed mot. Waiting for repair bill. Tyre and a light but the tyres will be pricey as it's a sports model golf plus.
Thanks miss for the tip. Will try more for easter crafts.
Pay day tomorrow and what a month it has been. Would like to think April will be better but I'm not sure.

I NEED some new converse and I NEED a denim dress for the summer. Sigh.

I've just put a chicken in the oven. Going to have it with rice and peas.