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[BigSkies2022]

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NSD today again thankfully.
Am watching frugal vlogs on YouTube. Very interesting food for thought 🤔

@ememem84 congratulations on getting back to work.

NSD day here. Working from home and i got all the outdoor cushions etc put away as rain is expected today. After 2-3 weeks of sunshine. Virtually unheard of here in Ireland.

This weeks menu is

Pastrami spiced chicken on the BBQ, Orzo pasta salad and a potato and chorizo salad
Pesto pasta
Egg fried rice either as a main dish or alongside something else.
Mexican something, either fajitas or more of the pork i froze last week.
Stuffed peppers or Homemade Pizza

Going to try my best to not go grocery shopping outside of bread and some fruit for small childs lunch. We are away on holidays on the 30th so i need to eat what we have in stock. I'll report back on how that goes! i think i am addicted to grocery shopping.

£65 Iceland but mil owes me £10. £34 Aldi

LSD £6 deposit for eyebrow tint in two weeks.
All being well, I'm stocked up until the weekend. Got a small leeway of £20 -30 for groceries.

Hope the cruise is now going well @chimichangaz

Yay for the first day back at work @ememem84

£40 on a bike from Facebook for me today. Needs a bit of TLC but I really needed a bike. Previously had quite expensive ones and they kept getting nicked from our farm shed so I’ve gone cheapo this time. It only really needs to bomb around the farm and keep up with kids on the odd family ride.

£139 in Sainsbury's, which is steep, but included 4 new dinner plates and 4 new side plates which added £44 to the bill. Needed them as PILs visiting soon and current stock of everyday plates have a few chips and need replacing. Should be able to manage NSD for the remaining week as we now have plenty, I can start my batch cooking for June's house guests as well.

Good morning everyone 😊
Just been to Morrisons and spent £26 .
Taking my Mum for Coffee which will be £13 , regular order so l know how much it will be ☺️.
Not further spends today 😊
Have a lovely day everyone 😊

afternoon.

spends today £50 topping up my bus card for the bus into work tomorrow - actually going into the office!

and £170 on school lunches for the dc for the next half term.

credit card balance is at £1000.19. Payday on Wednesday next week (28th) but i won't be able to clear it then as am still being paid reduced wages to go with my reduced hours! but hoping to be back to full pay in June.

£20 prescription, £31 boots, £6 ds work snacks for work experience
something else

DParents stuff today, so now a bit knackered. NSD. Repeating last night's dinner - poke bowl featuring ginger, garlic and soy sticky turkey mince. Turkey mince is a good neutral protein base - who knew? In a bowl with basmati rice, raw pepper, baby spinach, avocado. I could eat this all day, every day.

NSD yday.
Only spend today is £75 paid off on the credit card!

Ooohhh dinner sounds amazing @BigSkies2022 .
Have fun being back in the office tomorrow @ememem84
Pay day here so bills have gone out. Money made from eBay moved to savings which made me very happy. Spent £6 on Eco friendly cleaning products which I had budgeted for. But no other spends.
Found two books in the community center library that look good. Unsure how that library works so may ask when I'm next in and see if I can borrow them. I may need to exchange for books I have. Which I have plenty of. Means I don't have to buy them so this pleases me.

£1.35 bag of crisps
Made £7.50 on Vinted

Tomorrow turning into a bit of a difficult day - DM had a fall while Dsis away and other siblings not much help so need to check on her and also get to work. I think I'll need to pay more than normal for lunch and parking. Can't be helped.

@Mochi1fudge i hope your mum will be ok. These are the times when previous frugality pays off and lets you absorb the extra expenses.

@BigSkies2022 your dinner sounds lovely. I must try turkey mince again.

dinner tonight was Mexican pork fajitas with guacamole, roasted peppers and onions and a black bean and corn salsa.

today was €75 on summer camp fees and €32.70 amazon on 2 new hairbrushes and 2 sink strainer plugs.

White green - the bike sounds like a great spend!

Spent around €80 on monday including €60 unplanned medical expenses. €70 yesterday on unplanned prescription.

I get paid on Friday and my spare cash is just about gone now. I still have a bit left over to buy bread and milk and pay the bills, but all other spending will have to be on hold for a few days. I've seen new Jerseys that I really want to buy for DC, but will have to put that off.

Looking back on the month, I think the spends went well. I transferred to saving pots on pay day, I was able to buy a new phone and lived well and comfortably.

What vlogs do you watch @MaryGreenhill?

It sounds like a successful month @Imperfectpolly . Well done!

Your poke bowls sound lovely @BigSkies2022 . One of my favourite meals - but I’ve never made it with turkey mince. Will try that.

I spent about £30 on Amazon on Monday. All needed house things - such as a washing up bowl and light shades etc and they had been in my Amazon basket for a while. I also checked and they are the only Amazon purchases I’ve made in May. This is unheard of for me! I used to buy so many unnecessary spur of the moment purchases. Feeling fairly proud. Definitely don’t feel like I’ve been missing out.

I had a NSD yesterday.

Today should be a NSD or LSD. Dd wants to buy some T-shirts, but she’s using some money a family member gave her. I might fund a bit of it depending on what she picks/needs.

I hope you all have a good day.

Went shopping at lunch for a few things for holidays. now i actually need very little but there is a part of me thats conditioned to buy new things for holidays!

Had to return a pair of shorts to Penneys and then bought a swimsuit and coverup, 2 candles on sale and some bath bombs for small child.

Got insect repellent, wild deodorant refill and dry shampoo in boots and paid with points.

Small grocery shop for €30 to cover lunch items and plane snacks. We are not flying for over a week but i am an over organiser who likes checking things off my list!

Met a friend for lunch today but we took our own food and had a picnic in the sunshine (between the rain showers!)
Still having migraines so went to buy painkillers between meetings £1.67 (also snuck in some crisps) need to book up an appointment as it's been two weeks of pain now.
Then a colleague at work is walking 12 miles for charity so gave her £5.
Was meant to be a NSD but a LSD instead.

Meal plan this week:
Thursday - picky bits like hummus, crackers, sea food sticks and olives as per usual
Friday - shop bought pizza and garlic bread as I'm working in London until late so need a quick shove in oven meal
Saturday - BBQ bits like corn on cob, jackets, coleslaw, halloumi and salad.
Sunday we are out so OH will pay
Monday - honey glazed salmon with salad and cous cous
Tuesday - celery soup
Wednesday - vegetable stew

That's a good way to look at it @pistachiosanscream thanks. Ended up parking at DMs and jumping on the bus to town, much cheaper than parking.

£5 bus fare
£9.50 lunch. Nice independent noodle place for a treat after what feels like a long week so far! I needed to sit at a table and read my book for 20 mins rather than eat a Boots meal deal at the desk.

Came in and DD is making chocolate banana bread so top up shop, aka excuse for sweet things, can wait until tomorrow.

WFH tomorrow so lunch at home.

Half term next week (so soon!) and DDs birthday so spends coming up! 😬

@frugal25 that's a long time for the migraine to persist, hope you can clear it soon. I also suffer from them although have much better control of them since I started preventative meds.

Bought a wrap for lunch today for €3.75 from Tesco. Then bought a sour dough roll this evening as I was peckish 🙄

NSD today thankfully.
Raining here today .
Have been loving Chelsea flower show on the box😊
Hope everyone is ok 😊

NSD here, but have put £48 worth of skincare in my Amazon basket.

Salmon teriyaki poke bowl for dinner. Weights workout and home manicure. Will be giving my new Gymshark leggings an outing tomorrow, but still no sign of my Skims underwear! Not sure when I last waited for pants with such anticipation!

Today I spent £4.10 on a pink lemonade, at the PTA meeting. It was delicious!

And thats it for today 😊 x

Morning.

steamed my fingers this morning making popcorn for the kids for their morning snack. ffs microwave popcorn.

have also had a fight with dd re getting dressed. she didnt want to. i won. because she had to go to school so she needed clothes.

working from home today. was in the office yesterday morning. so nice to be in.

Ouch @ememem84 , hope fingers are ok. I hear you on the battle to get dressed. Well done for winning and lovely you enjoyed being back in the office too.
Managed to fix my migraine. I worked out last night that it was a muscle contracting in the back of my neck and causing the pain so looked up some stretches to do and the pain just vanished. Bonkers.

A spendy day today. Urgh. Makes me feel sick these days.
£6 for play group
£103 in lidl. Double what I had budgeted for so need to tweak budget now. All my friend's birthdays are end of May so I bought gifts and cards. 3 are on the same day! Always expensive around this time.
£58 on earrings for best friends birthday. Well. The site charged me twice and they are sending out two pairs (?!) but luckily I have so many birthdays I'll keep the second pair for one of these.