Monday 31 December 2012

First Shop of 2013 (Kinda)

Just did the first shop in preparation for 2013 as I wanted to get loads of cheap bargains especially meat, veg etc. Well, apparently 2 hours prior to the shop closing was too late and pretty much everything had gone :o( I did however manage to pick up some treats for us which will be a nice pick-us-up for when we want something sweet to eat. We bought 6 tubs of Tesco finest custard £1.50 down to 15p each (will go into freezer and is cheaper by 2p than buying value tins of custard. Value powder is 7p but milk is needed too), 3 boxes of 2 Fresh cream strawberry jam slices £1.19 down to 18p (unfortunately can't be frozen so we will eat one each tonight and the same tomorrow night), 3 boxes of 4 fresh cream Belgian chocolate eclairs £1.28 down to 19p each (to go in freezer), fresh egg noodles £1 down to 15p, 2 packets of stir fry veg and beansprouts £1 down to 10p each - these 3 will be for dinner tomorrow night along with the 3 chops I took out the freezer today. In effect tomorrows dinner will cost 35p :oD although I'm sure Ayse won't want the stir fry so she will have just noodles and raw carrot with hers, but still so cheap :oD Just wish we had have gotten loads of meat bargains. Oh well, never mind... Maybe they'll close for Easter Sunday and I can stock up then? :oD
So besides them bargains, I bought:

Loo rolls x6, 400 sheets - £1.96
Sugar 1kg - £4.50
Eggs x15 - 1.79
Longlife milk - 53p
Dairy spread for baking - 89p
Salt - 34p
Tinned pineapple - 32p
Soup mix - £1.09
Cannelini beans - £1.09
Diced chicken - £2.94
Carrots - 89p
Onions - 69p
Mushrooms - 50p

Grand total = £19.89
Am gunna try and not get any more food this week so it will keep it to £20. I'm gunna get Mike to bake some bread when this loaf runs out - I think we have all the ingredients in the cupboard. Might have to buy some fruit.  We shall see, I can't quite remember what we have. Definitely gunna cook from the freezer and cupboards where possible this week, get us off to a good start :oD

Hugs xx

Sunday 30 December 2012

Hurry Up 2013!!

I can't wait for the new year to begin so I can officially start for how I mean to go on. I've been looking at my finances again (makes me feel useful lol!) and it's quite depressing to see how much the outgoings have increased since September when I last did them. BUT I am determined it will all go well and I will succeed! i will NOT go spending to make myself feel better. I was going to allow myself £10 a month which would include bus fares, toiletries - toothpaste etc but I might even whack that down to £5 a month seeing as I get the Crochet and Quilting part works which are quite frankly too expensive but one thing which I want to see to the end otherwise it seems a bit silly to have bought so many already. Ok, just had a look and I believe there are 90 issues of the Quilting magazine (currently up to issue 47 ) and 120 of the crochet mag (currently upto issue: 8? ). Hmmm so quite a way to go with both. 43 left for Quilting and about 112 for the crochet mag which should finish in 2 years time! Yikes! Ummm I know I should really stop them, I really really know this but I won't and part of me feels quite bad about that.

One of my new years resolutions is to complete (at least) one of the magazines every month for both crochet and quilting and slowly build up the throws for each. Hmmm so if I do one each a month that would be £7 so maybe I should only give myself £3 a month? This would (in a round about way if you stretched it out until i finish the throws) make up the £10 allowance a month. Of course this would take 90 months for the quilting one and 120 months for the crochet one... And I would only be allowed to do one a month. Ummm that would take 10 years!!! Ok so maybe I will start off with £3 a month allowance anyway and see how it goes, an experiment within an experiment :o) with any luck I will surprise myself and go months without spending anything at all :oD that would be great!! My birthday is in March so I plan to ask for consumables such as a particular (yet expensive) deodorant, razors, Sensodyne toothpaste, Lush shampoo bars, feminine products etc which will mean I won't have to buy these during the year :oD I have an abundance of socks, don't take baths so have a huge bucket of bubble bath, too lazy to use body lotion so have bottles and tubs coming out of my ears! Yes, I will pass around my list to my nearest and dearest and watch as they fall about the floor laughing :o)

Well, it is 00:00 and in 24 hours time it will be next year and I can finally start properly and it's so exciting. I do have the feeling that my house in Sweden will have to wait even longer but hey, who knows, I might surprise myself! I might even do away with my mobile phone in 2 years when the contract ends!! Eeek!! That would save £7.50 a month. Maybe go onto pay as you go for £5 a month instead. Every little helps (as Tesco keep telling me). Ooh I went onto their website and put in "Tesco Value" into their search engine just to see what goodies they have and I was quite surprised I tell you! Lots of yummy different things which I hadn't seen before and will need to keep an eye out for :o)
I have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE their current packaging :oD and their new bags. The style is right up my street :o) I'm hoping to get some uber bargains with their meat, fresh fruit, veg and bread tomorrow (well, later on today) as they're gunna be closed New Year's Day so hopefully they'll be trying to shift products with sell by the 1st Jan on them :oD I made Mike clean out the mini chest freezer in the garage hehe so fingers crossed I can fill it with super cheap produce to last me all month for the price of a week!! :oD

Hugs xx

Friday 28 December 2012

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful time and staying safe and warm; and if you're in the UK, dry too! We seem to be inundated with rain lately, thankfully we're not in a flood risk area although I wouldn't like to put it to the test, just in case!

As much as I loved Christmas and seeing family etc, I'm sooo glad it's over, lol. It's good to get back to normality and get my New Years resolutions sorted and in order - one of which is to get this house sorted and in order! We had a decluttering session a while back but there's still so much I want to sort out and declutter some more (I daren't even look in the craft room!).

New Years Eve will be our last day of "decadence"; meaning that  we will have a Chinese take away to celebrate New Year. We're not too fussed about going out, everywhere is too expensive, I have a 13 year old daughter and it will probably be raining anyway! I would much prefer to snuggle up on the sofa, have our Chinese (so we can get the free scroll style calendar for 2013!!) and watch a film or tv then watch the countdown and fireworks on tv too.

1st January - The official start of our frugal year (except holidays - we had our first one this summer and if we plan it sensibly we shouldn't need to stop). I'm hoping to see the savings made increase and the debts decrease! I need to sit down though and make a thorough list of resolutions! I like lists lol, they mean I know what I'm doing, and with my memory, well, I need all the help I can get!!

Santa is on my naughty list at the moment coz he gave me a cold in my stocking and I could feel it getting worse and worse on Christmas Day and I'm still suffering with it now. I hope to be fit and well soon so I can get to the supermarket and do some frugal food shopping! I cross stitch for magazines so I'm hoping my productivity will increase once I'm better too. Did I tell you that I told my wonderful fiance about our personal "allowance" of £10 each month? He didn't seem to impressed but I'm sure when we're completely out of debt and living a happier, less worrisome life that he'll understand (I hope it will turn out that way lol).

Ooh I am introducing my MIL to the joys of recycling your old christmas cards and turning them into gift tags :o) I think she's going to give us her cards from this year and I'm gunna punch them out using a scalloped circle punch and hand them back to her for next christmas :o) we need never buy gift tags again! :oD awesome!! Although a bigger punch might be better...

I'm thinking of blogging a frugal tip every day next year... I have a good imagination so I think I should put it to use in order to help others be more frugal too :oD

Hugs xx

Wednesday 19 December 2012

A 70p French Baguette For £7.45???

Yep I went to Tesco to get some French bread for dinner to go with the homemade chicken soup (smells gooood!) and I remembered my step-son had run out of shower gel, then we used our last compostable scraps bin bag last night so I had to get them too. Saw loads of Worcester Sauce flavour (my fave!) Walkers Grab Bags reduced from 73p to 37p so I bought two - I don't often have crisps so it's a nice treat for me :oD remembered I had wanted to buy some j cloths and then I was browsing the frozen isle and saw they did value breaded scampi so bought a couple packs of them.

Baguette - 70p
Value shower gel - 30p (smells amazing!! Kinda melon-y smell)
Bin bags - £2.85 for 20 (must find cheaper!!!)
Value j cloths - 36p (I don't know if that's they're real name but it's what my Mum calls them so... They're the ones with (usually) blue criss cross pattern, for cleaning)
Value scampi bites x2 - £1.25 each
Crisps x2 - 37p each

Total - £7.45

Would have been under a fiver had it not been for them bin bags!!! Grrr!!!

So far since Monday - Food only - £27.40      Household - £3.51

So Far So Good

So yesterday I went to Tesco and spent: £7.55
I bought Value teabags  - 27p!! Bargain! Not tried them for a while but they were ok when I had bought them before... Hopefully they're still as good, if not tastier :o) I would much prefer to pay 27p for 80 as opposed to £2.00! A bag of value peppers £1.10. Oxo cubes, beef, 24 £1.50. Value sandwich ham £1.69. I also picked up some diced lamb which was reduced from £4 to £2.99. Not a huge tray but it should make a nice casserole on Friday especially if I remember to bulk it out with a lentil and pulse mix.

I think if I write down everything I buy, I'm less likely to buy too much as I won't want to type it all out :-p

So, we have chicken soup simmering away in the slow cooker for tonights dinner and I just need to buy some french bread later. Oh, and some more compostable bags for the food scraps bin.

Maybe have a Freezer Night on Thursday and them lamb casserole on Friday :o) Awesome! Shouldn't have to buy much at all, maybe even nothing. I'll try and go to Aldi on Thursday too, even if I don't buy anything I might take photos or take note of the prices of stuff so I have it to hand when working out where is cheaper to shop from for different items.

Todays spend £7.55

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Week one

Just a quick post to note how much we spent at Tesco yesterday: £15.91. This was food for two main meals, stocking up on a couple of tinned items and some loo rolls lol.

Had a yummy homemade lasagne last night followed by a yummy apple crumble (scooping away from the burnt edges - oops!). I had my daughter help prepare both meals and it worked - she now likes apple crumble and she said the lasagne was the best she'd ever had :oD awesome!! I think I'm gunna have to pull out the cheapy old fashioned English puddings recipes and make things like Jam Roly Poly and Spotted Dick. Maybe even ask my Mum to copy out her recipes for me... Eeee I do love my Mum! 

Only need to buy some ham for packed lunches today. We're having chicken wings, tinned potatoes - roasted and carrots tonight and I intend on making chicken soup with the bones - YUM!! :o) so that will be tomorrow nights dinner sorted :o) I'll just buy some french bread to go with it which is 70p I believe. I looove cheap meals :o)

Bought a few more xmas prezzies yesterday - yey! And saved £4 on them too which is awesome! I wanted to go to Aldi but I was exhausted, in pain and didn't have any more room in my granny trolley anyway lol. I think I will go in on Thursday tho... Definitely not tomorrow as I wanna be home to enjoy the yummy smell of chicken soup cooking hehe :-p ooh mustn't forget to buy some more beef oxo cubes - they have money off their packs of 24 in Tesco at the mo' :oD love it!

Yesterdays food cost: £15.91


Sunday 16 December 2012

Two Days, Two Trees

Yep, yesterday we put up our tree and today we put up Mike's Mum's tree. This year ours is pink, purple, black and white! I had bought some purple tinsel from Primark and was gunna do purple and black, totally forgetting that I had bought some pink stuff in the sales after last christmas... So I decided to chuck both on the tree! Plus some skull and crossbones tinsel that Poundland was selling over halloween!
It's one Mike put up on Facebook and he didn't take a shot with the star included lol, but it's a very nice star, sparkly black swirly metalwork with pink gems.

I have decided I will NOT buy any more xmas decs as I am trying to save money and quite frankly we could decorate several trees with the different colour variations we currently have so... No more decs for us.

I had to put a stop to Mike wanting to buy more kitchen appliances (ha has a penchant for tv shopping!!!). He said it would save us money and you have to speculate to accumulate. I just told him he speculates too much! He laughed, so all was good :o) I think I will have to give him homework - reading up on saving money and being frugal, coz he doesn't quite get it all yet.

Off into town tomorrow to do the first week of budget shopping without interference from Mike's input. I'm gunna do lasagne and only need to buy mince for that, and as I will have tho oven on I will do the apple crumble for pudding too. I need to buy a few more xmas prezzies so I really hope it's not busy in town! I hate fighting through people and queueing, sooo not fun! I'm gunna meet up with a friend too which will be nice and am hoping she can steer me to Aldi lol! We've been decluttering too so I'm gunna offload a big pair of boots to a friend also :oD yey space! I will be taking my granny trolley tomorrow hehe :-p I want to jazz it up for xmas tho... Hmmm... I probably won't, but it was a nice idea all the same...

So, £20 for a family of 4 for a weeks food? Let's see if I can manage it eh? :oD Wish me luck and good planning!

Friday 14 December 2012

Apple crumble?

No I totally forgot to make it but made some flapjack instead :-) looks and smells yummy! :-)

Day 2

Ok, so day 2 and total spent = £4.81.
Bread - £1
Potatoes - £1 (for tomorrows dinner)
Value Sausages x2 - £1.22 (for tomorrows dinner)
Apples - £1.60

Mike had to take his Mum shopping so he picked these up at the same time. Are apples really that expensive now? I need to find a cheaper alternative for sure! Might be off to Aldi on Monday so will see what they have there...

So, today we had boiled egg and soldiers for breakkie, homemade veggie soup for lunch and spag neo for dinner all of which came from the cupboards. Tomorrow's dinner is gunna be sausage, mash and beans / raw carrots for Ayse so that will be a cheap meal :oD yey! Sunday we're off to Mike's Mum's to put the christmas tree up and she's doing a sunday roast so no need to buy or cook dinner ourselves which is good :oD Then the hard work starts properly on Monday! Eeek!!

Thursday 13 December 2012

Dinner Today - FREE!!

Well... Not entirely free, but it was battered fish / breaded chicken and chips from the freezer and baked beans from the cupboard so I didn't go to Tesco today and I spent the grand total of... £0!! Yippee! Altho I did send Mike to Tesco to buy a 5kg bag of sugar (saving 50p when you don't buy the equivalent in 5 x 1kg bags) and some milk. Both of these are general staples so no splurging on extravagant items today :o) Altho he did buy me some chicken noodle soup as I wasn't feeling too well (a stupid cold that can't make up its mind whether it's staying or going!) but my daughter, Ayse, loooves it so I'm sure they won't get wasted! And I believe he saved another 50p when buying two boxes of them (cupasoups). So that's what we had for lunch with a couple slices of bread. Not sure what to have for dinner tomorrow. Maybe Spag Neo (spaghetti neopolitana / home made tomato pasta sauce with spaghetti) that's nice and cheap and I think we have all the ingredients already so hopefully another £0 dinner :o) I might suggest he makes extra sauce so we can freeze some for those days when we just cba to cook. If we still have plenty of apples in the fridge, I might make some apple crumble (yum!!) for pudding. I don't think I've managed to get Ayse to try it yet and as she's now 13 it might be an even harder task! I'll get her to help make it so perhaps she might be more interested if she knows there's nothing in there that she doesn't actually like... Yes, it's a plan... Assuming the apples are still in the fridge of course! I shall be sure to upload a piccie :o)

Did a price mini comparison between Tesco and Sainsbury's today too. Their value/basics range of tinned items - tomatoes, kidney beans were the same price but if you want peas, I think Tesco was sooo much cheaper! So definitely worth an online check before you do your shopping. Altho weighing up petrol costs if driving need to be taken into consideration, no good saving £3 on food if you end up spending an extra £5 on getting to other supermarkets! I intend to walk, Tesco is just around the corner and Sainsbury's is in town and about 40 mins walk away. There is an aldi but I need to research more of where abouts it is before I venture out on my own lol!

So there's my round-up of day 1 :o) hopefully tomorrow will be even cheaper! :o)

Just a test

... To see if i can blog from my phone :-)

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog :o) fingers crossed I will be more productive with this one than with previous ones... The reason for this blog is that I have a 10 year plan... Of sorts... I am aiming to save £20k in 10 years or less if possible, 5 years ish would be better. I want to buy a home in Sweden and run it as a holiday home. Whether this happens or not, I don't know, but either way I want to save this money and live a "better" lifestyle. I don't mean lobster and caviar dinners or anything like that, I mean better in a more natural sense of the word maybe. Making most, if not all, meals from scratch spending as little as possible on the ingredients. Also I would like to reduce, reuse and recycle more. I want to get rid of the unnecessary clutter that is my home everywhere I look and live more simply and how I feel life should be. There are loads of people with a lot less but are a lot happier. This is what I aim to live like. My ideal life would be of total freedom, living off grid, providing my own energy, my own food and not needing money at all. I think that would be rather hard to do so I have to compromise somewhat and make the best of a "bad" situation. Besides, I'm quite attached to my creature comforts of running water and a flushing loo!  Oh, and not forgetting the wonderful internet and Sky+. Telephones, oh yes I could sooo do without them lol!

Within this 10 years time span, I must admit I will have family holidays. We had our first one together this summer as my Dad sadly passed away and left a little money so I was determind to give my daughter her first holiday abroad and our first holiday as a family. Needless to say we have the bug for it now! A trip is planned for February to the beautiful Sweden to (hopefully) see the Northern Lights in all its beauty. I also am collecting the weekly magazine / part works of Crochet and Quilting and I don't plan to stop this. I don't smoke and rarely drink, so this is my little vice at the moment :-p and it will also teach me skills and give me hobbies rather than going shopping or spending money elsewhere on a whim. Who knows, I might even end up making money from it one day :o)

I want to keep a note of my spenditure so here it will be :o) I have also taken over my fiance's finances as he's terrible with money and we need to get him sorted out!! The credit card has been taken away and I intend on making sure all his bills etc are paid on time and that we still manage to eat healthily and heartily but on a strict budget. It's a bit silly to start now, just before christmas, but I'm using it as a practice run of sorts and to get me in the swing of it before the new year when the real pressure starts! Eeek!

Wish me luck!! :o) x