Freecycle bargains and a plant sale....

Nice day today despite it pouring down this morning!

Did my Asda on-line order first thing (spent £105 and used my Asda credit card to get free delivery)

Then off to Garvald plant sale - got some lovely stuff for my newly dug border (grand total of £5.50 but got quite a bit) Had a nice spot of lunch there (2 soups, 1 bacon roll, 2 pieces lovely cake and - in the end - 3 cups of tea each!) for the total sum of £8.50.

Then off to a Freecycle shop at a local old peoples home. Went to this the last time and got loads of stuff. This time there were a lot more people than stuff and it was quite poor. But did get the following...

Large pan with lid - good heavy one for soup
2 pairs John Lewis school trousers for gd
2 pairs shorts for school for gd
2 books for me
2 pairs of funky tights still in packets for my pal
Body warmer for my pals daughter
Top for my (wait for it...) step-daughters step-daughter!

So its been a nice day....

April housekeeping - £0 (and £48.73 to come off Mays!)
Extra Holiday fund - £0
My allowance I have left - £29.79
Entertainment - £89.48
Clothes - £17
Xmas - £1
Household - £5.50
Spent with money paid back - £376.63

More frugal musings.....

Well I sneaked another trip to IKEA/Tesco/B&Q - all stuff for the kitchen out of my savings but admit to having lunch so that was about £12.

Only managed to take lunch in to work for one meal this week (made it on Friday but forgot to take it!) so I am down £5.50 for lunches. And a small grocery spend - £5.69.

So at the moment my budget is looking quite good (the only reason it is is that I am getting my spending fix by buying stuff for the kitchen out of my savings!!!!!)

I have also decided to do a big online Asda shop tomorrow so it arrives on Monday. There is only a week left of April and I actually have housekeeping left! a whole £56.27 but I let my freezers/cupboards run down as I knew the kitchen was getting done so the online shop is going to be a biggie and I don't want to just use the £53 for bits (and end up getting more!) so I will do it tomorrow and take what's over the £53 from May's budget.

April housekeeping - £193.73
Extra Holiday fund - £0
My allowance I have left - £29.79
Entertainment - £80.98
Clothes - £17
Xmas - £1
Spent with money paid back - £376.63

Pre holiday spending!

Did go a bit daft before the holiday on spending! First took both daughters up to the Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. Went when it was first opened and it was ok but the price has really gone up.....anyway, it was excellent! loved the 4d film show and the dome where you lay back and watched the stars - well worth the money as we were there over 2 hours! Then had a Kentucky chicken lunch and a wee bit of the kind of recreational spending I am trying to fight against! We have a Marksys retail shop where I got a Suduko puzzle book for youngest dd and a cricket game for my dads xmas reduced from £9.50 to £1. I also had to fork out for spending money for youngest holiday to Skye (and money on her phone) and oh had to buy some swimming shorts(£10 in Asda)

(and included in the bottom totals is 2 trips to Asda)

Dynamic earth (inc parking) - £30.50
Kentucky - £11
B&M store - £9.38 (household stuff)
Peacocks - £7 (my race for life t-shirt)
Sainburys - £16.74
M&S - £5


April housekeeping - £188.04
Extra Holiday fund - £0
My allowance I have left - £34.79
Entertainment - £68.98
Clothes - £17
Xmas - £1
Spent with money paid back - £376.63

Back after a wonderful holiday

Didn't get time to blog before I went away - thanks for the info Silver Surfer - I will pass it on to my eldest dd. I have got some receipts from before my hol as I did quite a bit of spending but will find them and add on to the totals later....

Well, the holiday was wonderful - could not have asked for better weather -the sun shone every day! The picture was taken from Muasdale overlooking Islay and Ghia (our van and car are on the right) Took the caravan touring this time - Inverary, Mull of Kintyre, Oban and Loch Tay. Best of all, it only cost a grand total of £479 for the week (that includes everything we spent ie sites, petrol, ferry to Mull etc) As it was just the 3 of us my eldest dd had to chip in a third (£479 - £160 = £319 - holiday fund of £238 so I only have to get £81 from my main holiday fund in my Freedom account) Very pleased indeed with this!

And I have a new kitchen!!!!!!!! my son put it in while we were away - cant put up piccies yet as we have to plaster, tile, decorate and put a new floor in. All this has been budgeted for in my savings account.

April housekeeping - £90.50
Extra Holiday fund - £0
My allowance I have left - £34.79
Entertainment - £22.48
Spent with money paid back - £307.25

Budget musings

Well just balanced my bank account/Freedom account from March and am very pleased indeed. Before I started this blog although not in debt, I seemed to be borrowing from one Freedom account to pay for another - this last month I have only done that for the £50 overspend in my Entertainment budget (I was going to start putting it up from £50 to £100 but have decided against it - there are other ways of enjoying things without spending money!)Although I have reduced my housekeeping I haven't been actually really on top of it (i.e. menu planning) so that's my goal over the next 2 months.

We are getting a new kitchen put in next week (will all be paid for using savings that we put aside for it - its tiny so not costing that much!)so I am not doing a big shop this week (no point - not putting it in cupboards to take it out again!) so meals will be bitty this week. I have taken my "before" pictures and will post them with my "after" pictures so watch this blog!

April housekeeping - £90.50
Holiday fund - £238.65 ( last hol cost £442)
My allowance I have left - £34.79
Entertainment - £22.48
Spent with money paid back - £307.25

2 No spend days in a row!

Now thats a first! only because I was in a bit of a mump and refused to leave the house!! Did have a lovely Easter Sunday - took all the offspring and their offspring (and a couple of others folks offspring!!) to a indoor soft play - even better my OH paid for everything!!!!! I only had to fork out for a couple of pannins and juice (£7.35) and bung my eldest a tenner for petrol and that was it! Fab day - lovely to get home to a nice stew in the slow cooker....mmmmmm (and found a receipt for OH's shopping trip - £25.50)

April housekeeping - £90.50
Holiday fund - £238.65 ( last hol cost £442)
My allowance I have left - £34.79
Entertainment - £22.48
Spent with money paid back - £307.25

A new month....

Happy days - another new month I can try my frugal ways out in!!!! Again, bought lunch and a nice smoothie (£3.75) but that was it today.....until I came home and OH announced he had been shopping......will add that up later as he "cant remember how much he spent" Aaaarrrrghhh!!! Put £50 straight into the holiday fund for our west coast trip coming up.

This trip in the van will be Inverary, Mull of Kintyre, Oban and Loch Tay - never toured in the van before (tend to just stay in one place) so should be fun. Just me, eldest dd and OH as youngest is off to Skye with her friend. So far the actual sites will cost us just pennies under £100 but for a week that's not too bad. I have even made up a menu for the caravan trying to keep costs down this time!

April housekeeping - £65
Holiday fund - £238.65 ( last hol cost £442)
My allowance I have left - £34.79
Entertainment - £5.13
Spent with money paid back - £307.25