Money Saving March

 Hi everyone

  Thanks for reading my blog I really appreciate it, I know I haven't posted for a day or too but things have been manic here and desperately trying to finish off a big piece of work and a big welcome to  Pam . Anyway I hope you all continue to read and post comments x

Here's ten Things I have done this month to stretch them pennies

1) Set  a very strict grocery Budget of £ 550 and actually coming in under budget at £498.43 was so pleased with myself stores are a little low though.

2) Cooked from Scratch. 

3) Used my slow cookers.

4) Cooked in bulk saving time and money!

6) Baked cakes and pasties.

7) Used my frugal shopping and baking to provide a Birthday treat for my lovely niece.

8 ) Bagged myself a few whoopsie bargains to stretch the budget even more.

9) Created my grocery spending diary to monitor prices/ value

10) Freezer inventory so I know exactly what I have got and what we actually need to buy.

 As You can see There all based around the grocery budget but felt I needed to master this before  starting  a new stage in my money saving/ thriftiness and i was successful and came in over £ 50 under budget. This has really fired me up and this blog really does help keep me focused and enthusiastic  times are hard at the moment but hopefully it wont be too long till I really start to make even more significant progress in reducing outgoings.

  What have you done this month to stretch them pennies. Where did you make the most significant savings? What kept you focused? When did you start to make significant progress?

        Jen x

27th March

 Hi everyone , sorry I never posted yesterday have just been so busy preparing to return to work

Let myself down a little recently with my money saving. Today only, I spent £30 on an emergency birth certificate as i mislaid the original, £12 on petrol and then realized i needed new shoes for work too!  Its costing me a fortune to go to work!

But things got better I found out that the lovely Karen is feeling better ( I love checking out her blog and looking at all the beautiful things she makes) and thrifty living is still about and blogging  so pleased to hear that too. I find it really inspiring to read other peoples thrifty blogs and find out what works for them.

Things got slightly better now I have my penny pinching on, went  to check out the whoopsies  at our local shop and found some real bargains......

• 5 loaves of bread x 20p
• 2 packets of 6 ice buns x 24p
• 3 large pizzas x 63p

 I love a bargain as we all do but really cheap whoopsies are few and far between now so was really pleased with my find  shame there was no meat but you cant have everything.

 I have also completed the freezer inventory and its looking much tidier and emptier now. Got quite a bit of meat including 6 whole packets of lean minced beef will probably just make bolignise, burgers and a sheperds pie. I am a bit stuck with what to do with the rest of the mince, meatballs are out the question I have several packets of them too. What do you make out of mince that's cheap and easy to prepare? And what inspires you to be thrifty?

Budget Birthday

      A super busy day here two birthday party's in one afternoon! I spent the entire morning decorating fairy cakes for my nieces birthday and my icing bag split so the cakes frosting does look a little rustic. 

  Now I was a little low on funds to buy a gift for her this year so my sister I would make some food to contribute towards the party. I made 24 chocolate chip cookies now i did struggle to get these cookies in to a decent shape before baking but they did taste delicious 

 Does anybody remember when a national newspaper gave a way an Iceland coupon a day for a week. Well I took full advantage of this offer and the grand sum of £12.00 acquired £70 worth of party food. Now I know  this is not the most desired party nibbles but it has proven to be a reliable source of party food when time is an issue and I would so do it again. The only downside is it took me forever to cut the dam coupons out. So I also donated  a few packs of that too. Unfortunately whilst my sister was cooking it she got a bit distracted and some of it was a little well done but perfectly edible.

 I also found this Bargain One Direction cake whoopsied for  £2.26 one evening last week and popped it in the freezer to save for my nieces birthday. I was a little concerned the icing would be damaged by freezing it but it was in perfect condition and my lovely niece was absolutely thrilled. Not as thrilled as my sister though who got a fab little party spread free. I really enjoyed doing this though all that baking was a bit time consuming it did save me the cost of a present and everyone appreciated the effort I went to. It got to me thinking about future birthdays and how I could create a present for minimal cost that would be really appreciated   I was considering something crafty. I am not particularly good with my hands so it would have to be something simple. Do you make birthday presents and what do you make?

Snow

 Not much to report today regarding money saving Except the sudden expense of having to replace my windscreen wipers this evening. I had just dropped DD3 off at a party when the wiper just popped off and somehow I managed to snap the connector whilst trying to repair  the dam thing. Unfortunately though it had been snowing not to heavily on and off all day ( never get decent snow here normally) So there I was stuck in the snow with no wipers at that point the snow starts to come down heavier ! It was to far to walk so I ended up sat in a freezing car for nearly three hours in the snow. Till my friend manged to get some wipers to me it was very kind of her I wouldn't have driven in that snow unless I really had too. Well  by the time i got home  baby Ipie was not impressed at having to wait for  her bath.

 I am just so grateful I had left her at home on this occasion. Anyway it has highlighted to me that my poor car needs some tlc and unfortunately I am a bit too poor this week to put it in for a service so am considering putting it away in the garage for a couple of weeks. I cant risk anything else going wrong with it and getting stranded with the kids somewhere . It also highlighted to me that I need to start a  car fund and put a little away in it  each month to pay for general repairs,service, mot etc.  So when things do go wrong with It I can actually afford to get the work done straight away. Does anyone else have a spefic car fund? Or know any good breakdown rescue deals?

My 72 fairy cakes!


 Thanks to everyone who left such lovely comments and  welcome to my lovely followers . Also a great big thank you to Karen who helped me resolve a technical issue and install Google follower on my blog. I had been trying for absolutely ages and couldn't find the gadget to install it.

  Had another productive morning making 72 plain fairy cakes using the same food processor that my mum used when we were kids( still works perfectly 27 years later).  Haven't made these for ages and 72 may sound like a lot but I did give a dozen to my sister  for her children and then froze 2 dozen for pack lunches . We scoffed the rest for part of our after school snack and for pudding( think I need to work on my portion control). I never added any icing as i was a little unsure of how it would freeze and felt they would be far healthier without it and the best part is they only cost about £2 to make. Where else can you get 72 cakes for £2! I used to spend about £5 a week on lunchbox snacks for the children. Now I can just go freezer diving.

  There,s not much else to report on the thrifty front as time was limited today as I had to go and watch my daughters Easter performance and then take the children to an after school club. The plus side to my busy day is that I haven't actually brought anything so grocery spends remain the same and neither have I thrown anything away.  Go me ! I will get the inventory completed tomorrow and create my grocery spending diary. Off to bed now its really cold here and we are expecting heavy snow.


 

 Obtainable Goals

  Today I have been reading a few other peoples blogs and have noticed how much people have achieved with their money saving ways. While this has inspired me its also highlighted the fact that   the thrifty changes in our behavior need implementing one step at a time in order for them to be successful and balance against other demands on my time. So I am going to address one problem at a time .

 It is well known amongst frugal folk that grocery shopping for a family is very expensive and when you have two adults and six children in the house that becomes very very expensive.  My current grocery budget is £550 a month but that does included formula and nappies for baby Ipie,pack lunches for 5 children as well as all toiletries and cleaning products. I am determined to come in under budget and so far this month have spent the grand total of £340.45 on these items. I do however have a jam packed chest freezer, two full cupboards and two bowls of fruit.  I need to stop shopping but there always seem to be something we need like bread or loo rolls so out I pop to the shops .  I think the key thing here is to get organised and to plan ahead to keep me out of the shops by compiling an inventory, batch cooking and a grocery spending diary so next time I do the huge shop  I will actually be buying the stuff we actually need for the best price.!

 A Spot of Baking

 Yesterday morning proved to be extremely productive!  Using the pastry that my eldest daughter had made at school (previously I would of  chucked it in the bin) I  manged to make these jam tarts and it only took me five minutes to prepare!

 All it took was a quick roll out of the pastry and chuck in a few spoonfuls of jam (basic range of course) and Voila a dozen snacks for the children who were extremely pleased scoffing the lot. There was a little bit of pastry left over so in a true money saving style I made a couple of Cheese and onion pasties for lunch .

 Now I am not much of a cook  so am really pleased  with the results here and hopefully with practice my baking will improve

 Inspired with the results of my baking session I then got out my two slow cookers and made bolognese and  scouse .   I  really tried to stretch the bolognese sauce out and added two cartons of passta, two whole punnets of  reduced price mushrooms, onion, garlic, mixed herbs and 300 grams of mince.  It was lovely and made a nice change of not having to cook in the evening. Another bonus was there was enough left to feed us all again. So i popped it in an ice cream tub and froze it for another day.

  Now this may seem like an obvious thing to do to others but I did  generally leave the cooking to my other half  not any more. I am going to continue to experiment with healthy recipes and bulk cooking in an effort to lower my food bill and improve the health of famyil

 Not a good start to my blogging but no time to post today had to go and look after my little sister. Will update my blog tomorrow and post some photos of my busy morning!

First ever blog!

Hey its my first ever attempt at blogging so expect a few hitches while I get use to it. I am a mother of six children of varying ages and have decided that enough is enough and really need to become more financially savvy. This blog is going to chart our family's journey in scrimping and saving towards paying off the credit card and towards our new home.
   I was inspired to create this blog by frugal themed bloggers who have achieved so much with their thriftiness . My main theme till I start my new job will be old style money saving in the home and living as cheaply as possible till I start my new job. Thanks for reading so far and keep a look out for my daily posts i Promise they will become more interesting!