Stop wasting money support thread. Lets get frugal!

[LoveMyGirls]

I don't want to cut all spending I just want to cut down our spending so we can pay off the overdraught by christmas but at the moment it's not going well which is why I've decided to start this thread, those that want to join me can, those who don't want to join then your support would also be welcome.

I think if i write on here what I spend everyday I can see where to stop wasting money, it's also public so I'm open to others telling me where I could be saving money too. Any tips on organising our money better would also be apreciated.

At the moment we have seperate accounts (well one is joint but dp has lost his pin for his card)

Joint account is £2000 overdrawn. (reasons for this are I lost part of my income in August/ september and dd2's birthday and my mum's birthday too)
dp's bank - dp has just been paid he has £1000 in his bank.
Savings has £70 (went in by SO today)

Typical monthly spending is £2,470 a month

Typical earnings from next week are £3,100 per month

We have 2 childen and 2 cars (he needs his to travel for work, I need mine for work too) I shop at aldi and meal plan.

Total spend for today..

petrol £20
toddler group £2
brownies £1.50 = £23.50

My money saving plan is not to ever go to the shops! Okay so I am now set up with:
Milk from the milkman
Bread from the breadmaker
Vegbox once a week
Internet shop once a fortnight

I never need to leave the house again! Seriously though, this is good as I am easily tempted and I also have to drive to the shops so that uses petrol. DD1 goes to school by minibus, I walk DD2 to the childminders down the road, and I work at home, so I rarely have to leave the house!

What I really must do now is starting planning and buying for Christmas so I don't panic and over-buy / over-spend at the last minute. Maybe a Christmas budget . . . .

bramshott - that is sooo organised
i'm far too chaotic to sort all that lot out

have started some christmas stuff, mostly just the kids stuff but still...more organised than usual.

so today:
£1.20 playgroup
£11.43 Lidl fruit, veg & raspberry plants for DH
£5.81 Asda yoghurts & stupidly a Lightning McQueen car for ds1 who then played up and hit his brother, etc. so it's gone into a cupboard and may wait till Christmas at this rate!

= £18.44 not too bad

Can I join, please?

We are about £2500 overdrawn and I'd love to clear it but I'm awful at not spending.

Have done big shop at the supermarket today (£86) but think this will last us for at least a week including lunches for me and DD. I am going to try to spend nothing apart from a bit more fruit and veg midweek and maybe a comic for daughter. I also need to buy some face cream but forgot it in the supermarket so need to get that. I'm going to take out £30 on Monday and see how far I can get on that. DH buys food at work but is under strict instructions to be very frugal (he's too fussy for me to bear having to make lunch for him everyday and he'd never do it himself).

Forgot to add £10 that i donated to charity for another MNetter

Fri:
no playgroup as boys sleeping/didn't want to go so saved £1.20
bought fish and chips to share for lunch - £4.15
friends for afternoon - £0
and talked dh out of ordering pizza for dinner
= £4.15

today:
£4.00 - batteries for DS1 toys
...

Collected Ebay purchase - 0.29
Town:
£9 stocking fillers
£2 chocolate brazil nuts for dh for christmas (if i don't eat them beforehand!)
£64.50 - £48 new winter coat, on sale, £7.50 toy for ds2 for Christmas, on sale & £9new top for me, on sale

=£77.79

oops, but i do love my new coat

About £4 for newspapers today!

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

hi dilemma
yes we have a battery charger, so i do recharge what i can but it was an "EMERGENCY MUMMY!" and we didn't have any the right size

add another 9.19 to yesterdays as i paid out for an ebay bundle of bob toys for ds1's christmas. think that's him mostly done, a few stocking bits. need ideas for ds2 (8months and has loads of toys from ds1 already!). plus need to make sure the grandparents are on the low-tat plan for this year

today need to pop out for milk and something for lunch, maybe just some cheese and ham.
trying to find some nice boxes to store photos in as albums have gone to album-heaven!
shouldn't be too pricey a day though.

oh and i'm ignoring newspaper costs as dh pays and i have tried to get him to stop them being delivered every day as i don't have time to read them anyway!

Nothing today. Hoorah! I haven't actually left the house, though, so will have more of a challenge tomorrow.

£15 on new black winter coat (from Asda, fab coat for price!)
£24 on food shopping + 2 DVDs for Christmas presents, then realised I already have one so will take it back - £5
= £34

• £10 for babysitter tonight as my orchestra committee is meeting =£44. not great

more Christmas shopping & a birthday:
mothercare - 14
woolworths - 8.50
Claire's - 11.50
= £34.

And need to get more nappies from asda later...

just got nappies for £10, having the 2 DCs with me helped me save money! needed to be in and out before they fought with each other in the trolley, lol.

so £44 today + £5 for sitter tonight while i'm at orchestra
=£49.

Just went back through my posts for the last week or so:

Tues - 49
Mon - 44
Sun - 86.98
Sat - 4
Fri - 4.15
Thurs - 28.44
Wed - 0.60!
Tues - 12.40
Mon - 1.98

Admittedly i have upped the Christmas shopping the past 3 days to try and get started/finished asap.

still, quite a lot, must try harder

Forgot to take my lunch to work, bah. So about a fiver on a sandwich, crisps, chocolate, orange juice and an orange.

Have also ordered DD some books on Amazon but not counting that as they are for Christmas.

Oh think I'll join you ladies! I've been very good this week taking left overs for lunch rather than buying sarnies, however today I have already spent £20 on petrol but hopefully that will last me til next week. Might nip to town and get some more christmas shopping - at least with the credit crunch I now have an excuse to buy cheapo presents for people I don't really like but have to buy for family

gallus - that is true about the credit crunch

horton - how annoying about forgetting lunch if you're not counting christmas well....i can't be *rsed to go back and take out christmas expenditure now

today
4 - fruit & veg shop (10% off day today so cheaper than usual)
0.70 - treat for ds1 and me in sweetie shop

=4.70 pretty good!

hang on + 4 on ebay for dh present

=8.70

Hi everyone, I'll be back later to catch up!

OD today stands at £1,985 so at least it's under 2k! Hurray! Need to get me in the black by Jan though

I brought 2 whole chickens, 15 chicken portions (leg and thigh) a bag of brasing steak, bag of mince, tray of sausage, bag of bacon all for £28 off the meat van in town so then I went and stocked up on packets and tins and jars of stuff I can use with it to make in the slow cooker so I'm chuffed with that hopefully it will last a while!

Bargain!

Today: packet of pork scratchings, 90p. I couldn't resist.

LMG - under 2k, it's progress

horton - pork scratching, hmm not my thing but go for it!

actually spent nothing today, that's right, nothing

stayed in this morning, lunch at a friend's (we took cakes we had made yesterday), other friends round this afternoon.
cost = a few biscuits and time tidying up

Ooh, well done!

thank you

won't happen again!

I've just been to town and I only spent 80p on car parking!

Then I ran out of washing up liquid and bread so there was almost £3 gone damn!