Jolly japes in July (only if they are frugal)...!

[needastrongone]

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Hope your mum is ok audit

I can totally understand that Love. My secondary school Higher French qualification was the hardest thing I ever did, because languages don't come naturally to me at all. It made me very proud to have done it. Oddly I still have nightmares about accidentally signing up to do a second degree course, where one third of the course is French.

Ds is bashing away at learning minecraft next door. I really don't get why it's so exciting. I'd much rather be building something in real life.

Spends this weekend - €102.30 on Tesco delivery, €1.40 on newspaper. Found €1 fri eve & €1 sat eve when out & about, what'll I find today

Of to national trust today with pic nic. Nsd planned.

Great post copper. Sums it up really well.

We have been up and about a couple of hours as DD's first session is early but we slept from 9.30pm. DD is tired though, she's had a busy and stressful few months.

Pencilled in a quiet week for us all as last week was a bit too busy really. All good though.

Oh, the Minecraft years. The bug well and truly bit both of my DC, but particularly DS I recall. Think they were about 7/8 years old.

Will be an NSD.

Morning everyone, first time I've added a pic so hope it works! Despite not posting regularly I have been writing down every. single. spend! It's been an eye opener and I'm a bit if I'm totally honest and paying here to shame myself into trying harder next month.

On paper we don't even have this much spare cash. In fact in a budget a recently drew up I allocated £400 for groceries (pretty spot on there!), £140 for petrol and £70 for everything else. £610 for the month when we actually spent more than double that. Despite that we haven't needed to use credit it just means that our savings suffer and going forward into 2018 we will need that surplus money for childcare and increased mortgage payments (we're planning some building work).

I'm setting myself a target of reducing our spending by 10% each month so this month's budget is £1138.33. We are on holiday at the end of the month so I have allocated an extra £300 from savings plus our £100 food budget for that week. Any other spends will have to come out of the standard budget.

The 'food' category is our eating out spends - something I desperately want to reduce. We're spending on average over £70 a week which could be a really amazing meal out each week but it's not, it's small spends here and there. Obviously we'll be eating out on holiday but we also have a kitchenette in the hotel so will try to have a few meals at home.

Please feel free to judge and comment....!

Nsd today. Currently making pancakes fried eggs and bacon for breakfast. We have no maple syrup. So am subbing golden syrup instead. Sad times in our house 😭😂😀😉

Four of my eBay things will sell today. Yay!

Bit of cleaning to be done but apart from that no plans. May try and drag dh out for a walk or something.

Waitress you are right the food category can be reduced. Why do you end up buying food out is the first question to answer. Then you can look at ways to start to reduce it.

theWaitress I know what you mean about it accidentally turning out double. This month a lot of money slipped away on private medical care for us. It was very effective but when I work out the numbers at the end of the month it really blows a hole in the budget. I think your idea of aiming to reduce by 10% is a good one.

Our grocery bill was very low this month. Down by 30%, just because of the weather.

Waitress, I think reducing by 10% each month is a really good idea. Not drastic but definitely doable.
Do you meal plan? Life is right, why do you eat out ? Is it because you are in a hurry and have no time, are too tired or harassed or have nothing in. Perhaps having a few convenience meals from the supermarket in may help.
But, hey, well done on managing to work it out in such detail. And not using credit.

Life is correct, once you know why you eat out stopping it becomes easier to stop.

Yesterday was £15 Chinese takeaway.

Ahem. Breakfast in bed anyone? and I didn't burn the bloody bacon!! 🥞🥓🍳

We've slipped back to a weekly Macdonalds. Sounds little, but there's a lot of us! A meal for the 4dc is about £20. Dp and I had tea (mushroom orzo pasta from HFW veg book) at home. But we needed diesel in the big car, so were passing, and the kids were hungry 'right now'. I also spent £30 in the coop, but got 2 chickens, and 3 lots of reduced meat, reduced berries etc. Went just at the right time for once!

My matched bet made me £10.17 from a free £10, so not sure why, it was meant to be £9.57. I am trying to transfer money from the bookies to the exchange today (have £100 to move) so will try to do that with minimum loss once the horse racing gets going at 2pm. Then I can withdraw from the exchange back to my current account.

Until then the unruly garden calls.

Thanks for replying! Life you're right - il concentrate on the 'food spend' this month as I know I can reduce it (holiday aside) and I should start thinking about the whys as well as the whens.

Ive broken the food spend down into a few categories:

£136 meals out - one with family, one for my birthday (and includes the cost of a babysitter) one pizza with friends. Im happy with this amount of spending, especially as it was a birthday month and the first time we've booked a babysitter in over a year.

£32.23 food 'on the go' - unnecessary spends, a quick sandwich here, a Greggs when I'd missed breakfast etc. Always close to home and with a bit more organisation, totally avoidable.

£18.85 teas and coffees - could easily be reduced. Some are lovely coffees shared with friends, but we could easily do that at home. Some are just when I need caffeine - sleep is cheaper!

£30 food and drink at a concert - totally avoidable, everyone else had taken drinks and picnics. However this is a very rare event for us so won't be repeated month on month.

£73.95 drinks - one night out with friends, three lots of lovely sunny pub gardens on the way back from day trips, one wine at bookclub, one surprise 60th birthday. All avoidable and better for our health as well as our pockets. Il miss you sunny pub gardens

Waitress, I think the fact that you've got such a handle on your spends and you don't go into debt is brill. I also think reducing by 10% is totally realistic and doable.

Agree with life, if you identify WHY you spend, you can then try to possibly eliminate some of the causes, for example just maybe not being organised etc.

Wouldn't say you need to knock all those lovely social events though waitress, just a couple less would make a difference overall.

That looks lovely, Em. We had pancakes too but with fruit and Greek yoghurt and lots of maple syrup

Waitresses your spending breakdown is brilliant and exactly what we need to do. DH and I were discussing this yesterday. We are going to see if we can live off his salary only. My salary will effectively be used on childcare (out of our joint account so not just me paying it but iyswim) with about £200 left over I think. Hopefully we can save that every month for birthdays, Xmas, holidays and emergencies.
On a different subject, Waitresses did you manage to get both twins napping together? One is always ready for a nap before the other and he wakes up just as the other goes to sleep. This makes it very difficult to get anything done! They will both sleep in the pram but I don't think I can drag DD1 out for 3 hour long walks every day!

Waitresses that's brilliant work there, breaking it all up. I totally empathise as we are similar - disorganisation leads to a lot of spending! I am gradually improving it though, things like buying more portable snacks with our weekly shop so that costs more, but compared to the cost of buying individual bags of crisps in newsagents or Boots meal deals it does save money. I should invest in some small Tupperware that can be used for fruit/veggies etc and also probably one of those ice block things to keep it cool. We spend so much time travelling between clubs that we are rarely home at lunch. I do need to get more organised about the evening meal though as I get so tired. DH was sometimes doing the main meal at lunch before leaving for work if we are home, but the Caglets are still hungry for a hot meal at dinner. DH is currently working 8 shifts in a row so we've gone for easy stuff that I can manage just to get me through, as expecting too much of myself will just have me reaching for the takeaways etc.

Also I would definitely rather eat out than get a takeaway too, I totally hear you on the small spends adding up which is frustrating. I think for us it is worth planning a meal out. We sometimes get a takeaway from Pizza Hut for example but I realised we could eat at the buffet there for about the same price and enjoy it far more as a treat.

TLDR: we are super disorganised which makes us spend lots on food but we are gradually getting better!

Oooh Pizza Hut buffet!!! Le yum!!!

Dh was impressed by my breakfast making. He was asleep when I did it. So he woke up to a plate of food. 😀

Conversely, our spending on food is pretty high, as we don't eat out much and make packed lunches, but I do then feel okay with using Sainsbury's and M&S (and Aldi!) because of this fact.

Its finding what works best for your circumstances. We had more coffee and ice creams when the DC were little for sure.

Good way to wake up!

I really need bacon waffles and maple syrup now.

May do Pizza Hut buffet in the next few weeks as we are thinking of a group trip to see despicable me 3 (I can't check previous page now but was it wreck going to see it? Do tell if it's good or bad please ). Barely ever see new films at the cinema but might make a day of it with home ed buddies and I can use clubcard for the movie. Loads of us did the buffet after a film festival thing last year and it was fab - the kids all crowded into a round booth and the grown ups sat chatting at nearby tables. Definitely one of those "why do people think home ed kids don't socialise" moments :o (seriously you wouldn't believe how many people assume our kids are loners)

My two haven't tried minecraft yet. Keep telling them once the house is tidy LOL

Agree need there are loads of different circumstances for families that affect spending. Health/fatigue and home ed related travelling are my biggest food-spend issues but I don't have the stopping for coffee thing - not through any willpower (of which I have bugger all), I simply don't like coffee :o DH doesn't either, he will sometimes pick up a tea but not often. We don't drink alcohol at all really either, so save money instead well we would if I didn't make up for it in chocolate consumption

Again the alcohol is merely fussiness (and coeliac in DH's case, so no more beer) not willpower!

I think we would have lots more takeaways if we had a car actually, barely anywhere we like delivers so we would probably end up getting carry-out if I could drive (Nando's anyone?). But then we would not spend as much time travelling between clubs and changing buses in town a gazillion times a week, so would spend less on that. It's really interesting when you start thinking about how your individual lifestyle affects so many spending habits! :)

Ah thank you for the kind understanding and empathy. It's a bit embarrassing to be on a frugal forum and realise I've spent so much on stuffing my face !

I'm going to aim for easy wins first - fewer coffees, soft drinks rather than alcoholic, a stash of easy snacks and preparing for any situation.

Yesterday was a case in point - drove 2hrs to see my mum. Had taken milk for babes and timed between breakfast and lunch but then dd needed a wee and by the time id stopped and unloaded all the children I ended up buying a sandwich for them all to share for the remainder of the journey. And it cost a squillion pounds as it was from the ultra-posh Gloucester services! I could easily have anticipated this and taken a sandwich with me but I was being far too optimistic that I'd do the journey in one go.

Snuggly mine have been napping at the same time but only since around 6-7months old, before that it was just as and when, I had to stop them sleeping in the buggy so that I could introduce cot napping. That's now worked a bit too well and now they never sleep in the buggy, even if we've been out all day !