Personal Grocery Challenge

I have noticed on a few other blogs, and other websites that there are a fair bit of personal challenges going on - decluttering, debt repaying etc, one that I like the look of (and indirectly helping in our debt repaying) is the Grocery challenge - Now as a family of 5 plus a dog we normally spend about £50 per week and this includes normal food, packed lunches, cleaning, toiletries, and pet food which I dont think is too bad? but there is always room for improvement - and so for the rest of March I am going to try and reduce this gradually by £5-£10 and then to reduce this by £10 permanently from April onwards so that our grocery shopping will be £40 per week, I have been inspired by the book title Family feasts $75 per month (I assume this is per person as it is a family of 10(I think) )which by my calculations is roughly £48 and I know I cant spend out £48 per month for a family of 5 (as much as I would love to !!) so that is the challenge and to obviously not scrimp on the quality or quantity of the food, I'll let you know how we get on.........

Thrifty Thursday

This morning I was going to start from scratch on the Thrifty Thursday tips, but I got to this afternoon and we had an unexpected surprise.... we recieved free tickets to the panto for this afternoon- and I love the panto, so off we went, it was Owens first experience of panto season and he was up and clapping along - for those readers abroad that dont know what a panto is it is an English institution !! it is basically a fairy tale but with men dressed up as women, the hero, the heroine, the love lorne friend, and the villain. The whole audience participates, the banter between the actors and the audience- 'He's Behind yoooouuuuuu!', it is an experience and until you see one you cannot appreciate the fun. so that was a great thrifty day out.!


So for today Thrifty Thursday, as I said I was going to go right back to basics, and that is the rule that I think should be top priority is to look after the things that you have, by all means declutter and organise to your hearts content but if you take care of the things you have and maintain your household correctly then it will be cost efficient in the long run as you wont be replacing lost, broken items saving you pennies right from the start.. more tips next week x x

Menu Plan Monday

Yes, I know it is technically Tuesday but in my defence the kids had a teacher training day yesterday and didnt go into school until today and basically......... I've lost the plot !!

so until my mind catches up it is still Monday !

With me the New Year brings a desire to get on top of things and to KEEP on top of them (therin lies the difference) we are still plodding along with the spending/saving ratio and because of this and also partially inspired by other blogs I have read January seems to be use whats there month - basically instead of nipping off to the supermarket at the drop of a hat - use up what you already have in the freezer/cupboards which may be a tact I bring in maybe a week per month (probably the last week) or even if it is just for the last couple of the days of the week to tide us over until the next big shopping trip.

So by using these tactics I have gone through the stocks and surprised myself and have managed to come up with 14 meals - which just goes to show the surplus that most of us have lurking about - it means that I may have to go out for vegetables to add but the basics are there.

I have:

Corned Beef Hash, Shepherd Pie, Spagetti Bolognase, Mince and potatoes,Omelette, Chicken and Chips, Roast Dinner, Home made meatballs. Lasagne, Cowmans pie, Scouse (Stew) Sausage Cassarole., Stir Fry and Fried rice

so that is me for menu plan Monday/Tuesday, I will take 5 now and try and convince myself that it is infact TUESDAY now ! lol x x

Until next time

Money Monday

Well its around again, Monday, Monday, money round up Monday, its the start of the month, so it is a round up on last month so apart from the little hick up when the baby was in hospital and the spending went a little awry, we had a pretty good month only slightly over budget which is a good start as we only started monitoring the situation recently, so with a few tweeks here and there we should be pretty ok this month.

heres hoping !!

Money Monday

For this post I thought honesty would be the best policy. Now that the kids have gone back to school I have had a mid year recap on what we set out to do in our resolutions. Financially we are still pretty much in the same situation, but has now come to a head and needs to be addressed - not because it is getting worse but just because I am fed up of the money situation dragging on.

So anyway after going to the bookshop to try and find a book to help us in our situation, there isnt one definitive book that I could find that deals only on tips to get out of debt, sure they all contain a chapter on getting out of debt, but then the remaining 3/4 of the book is not relevant to me, why would I need chapters on savings and investments???? give me that when I am OUT of debt, plus all of them held some information but not all, and then I thought, surely the first step in saving money.... is to not spend money on a book telling me how to save money !!

After an indepth look at our finances we are just under £17,000 in debt, (this doesnt include the mortgage) included in this is a £12,000 loan which we took out over 20 years in order to keep the payments down to a minimum but looking at the small print it totals (when you add the interest)that we would owe £35,000 !!!!!!!!!. since looking at our finances I have figured a way that all debt can be paid off within 7 years - without it being too much upheaval or cutbacks.

I also chose to share this information with you at the START of my journey so that we can all live it together if you choose to join me on being debt free rather than sounding all preachy at the end of it, yes it will be tough, yes there will be times im sure I would rather throw the towel in and buy something pretty and blow the budget, but all I can hold onto is that light at the end of 7 years (if not sooner)

We have already had a kick start to our budgeting by default - the second car (which has always been needed for Mark to get to work at 5.30am) failed its MOT and needed to much work to put through so that was scrapped, profit (£80) but on top of this we do not need to pay £120 p/yr Tax, £40 p/yr MOT, £300 p/yr Insurance, £65 p/mth Petrol. so in all it will save us £1240 p/yr

So in order for Mark to get to work now we are in the process of trying to find a small 50cc scooter/moped for him to ride(its too far for a bicyle)which on average will cost us £500 to buy, £15 p/year tax, MOT £15 p/yr, £100 p/yr insurance and £8 p/mth petrol Saving us (without including actual purchase price of scooter) £1014 p/yr.

I have picked up some other tips frugal living, budgeting, saving tips whatever you want to call them, so over the next days, weeks, months, years I will share them with you along the way.

wife and mother

Now what I am about to say will go against what a lot of people agree with or have strived to achieve over the past few decades.

I am a Housewife and Proud of it

When I had my first child I went back to work part time and it broke my heart to leave her each morning at nursery, luckily my husband is very supportive and so when I had my second daughter and then my son said that if I wanted to stay at home then he would totally support my decision, which trust me is no soft option to stay at home.

I work harder, longer and have picked up a wide spectrum of skills that I would have never experienced through sitting behind a desk in an air conditioned office.

I love the warm feeling that you have when you watch the old 1950’s films where the mother stays at home pinny on baking all day (not that it happens in reality!!) I don’t feel that I was born in the wrong era, I love the independence, and strength that modern day women have, but I personally feel that my best job is to stay at home, running a busy household and making sure that the children are ready and to respective classes on time.

During my time as a housewife I have learnt to

Budget as a single income family, which is no mean fete as hubby is a postman so not earning millions – yet !

Time Manage – trying to co-ordinate 3 children, 1 husband, 1 dog and 1 rabbit, remembering, school, after school classes, parties etc

Cleaner – refer to previous post and my 6 binbags full, and that’s just the start.

Cook – working out how to cook nutritional food, healthy, within budget and more importantly that the kids will eat, not always the same thing

And these jobs are only the ones that spring easily to mind, if I was an executive I would be hailed as a wonder for my multi-tasking and paid a small fortune, yet I do all of this for nothing, just for the love for my family, the respect from my family and the wet sloppy kisses that I have off the kids when their faces light up when I am there every morning and afternoon to pick up and drop off at school.. we have very little money spare….money can’t buy everything….and do you know what….. I wouldn’t have it any other way x x