Vets bill

Heaven help us! our bunny (a cute dwarf lop eared called Bonzo) has been "off" recently so took him to the vets last week - they thought it was his teeth and gave him antibiotics (£26 thank you) and he had to go to the bunny dentist today - he had his back teeth filed down and is now a happy bunny - that will be another £58 thank you! Thank heavens for savings!

Otherwise - breakfast at Asdas (my eldest dd and me as we had to have the bunny up at the vets at the crack of dawn!) - £7
Visit to the pictures to see Wild Target - a British comedy with Bill Nighy which was quite good - £5.60 for both of us
and £4.60 on stationery for youngest for school.

June housekeeping - £90.27 left (might be able to put this in the holiday fund!)
Extra Holiday fund - £28.50
My allowance I have left - £12
Entertainment - £24
Household - £68.60
Spent with money paid back - £423.63

A few bargain buys

Again - been too busy to blog! I sold my dining room table and chairs as they were really too big for the small alcove they were in. Got £100 for them and the set I wanted were in IKEA for £89 so off we went.....and of course, didn't just stop at the table set! in total spent £157 but included a wire basket set to put my fabric stash in. The ongoing saga of the back room mess has now been resolved and I have moved things round - hopefully it will stay tidy now (have pictures on my camera of before and after and when I find the lead to put them on the computer I will post them on the blog) I also took piccies of my old table and the new table and will get them on.

Been doing very well on the meals out - only 2 this week - IKEA (£11) and a fish supper between myself and eldest dd at the market today (£6) Bought 5 new cushions for my sofa for £5, 3 books at 50p each (quite dear but I really wanted them!) and 5 nice poppy table mats for my new table for a total of £1!

Also been doing well on the grocery front - stuck to my menu and shopped today just enough to last me until my next on-line shop next week (£44)

June housekeeping - £90.27 left (might be able to put this in the holiday fund!)
Extra Holiday fund - £28.50
My allowance I have left - £26
Entertainment - £24
Household - £64
Spent with money paid back - £423.63

Another grandson....

Baby Kaidan - born last night - 9lbs 6 0z

Busy week

Hence no blogging! Went away for a few days in the caravan on the spur of the moment down to Lauder to visit friends - had a smashing time - cost £45.50 for the site, spent £26 on groceries for the van. Went down to the Common Ridings at Hawick and spent a grand total of £6!

Took packed lunches to work (only worked 2 days this week) so spent no money there...

Did the Race for Life today up in Edinburgh in the pouring rain! Walked 5km to raise money for Cancer research - did it with youngest dd (13) and my pal Linda and her dd Lisa - my eldest (the one who beat cancer) came to see us despite being full of cold which was nice. Didn't think it would cost anything (apart from £2 bus fare) but we ended up buying some wonderful Angus Aberdeen beefburgers cos we were starving (and didn't fancy carry a picnic on the walk!!) so that was £12.



My menu plan is working brilliantly - no more popping into the shops for bits so saving quite a bit at the moment. Added to the 21 meals I had planned are meal 22 - barbecue at my pals stuff with burgers/sausage/rolls from the freezer and meal 23 was shepherds pie made with left-over lamb from the lamb dinner and meal 24 was just cheese and crackers as my mum and dad came up and bought a big lunch!

June housekeeping - £134.27 left
Extra Holiday fund - £28.50
My allowance I have left - £43.50
Entertainment - £24
Spent with money paid back - £423.63

2 jumble sales....

Off we went yesterday to a big scouts jumble sale at Gullane.....find I'm being very discerning in my purchases - I just love looking at other folks stuff!!!! Bought.....

Box of 43 magazines - quite old ones called Out and About which gives reviews of areas in UK to visit, and reviews of motorhomes and caravans - hours of entertainment for £2

3 paperbacks for £1

Cute summer bag with cherries on it - 50p

Came back and went to our neighbours for a wee barbecue as it was such gorgeous weather (I took along beefburgers and sausages I bought with this months on-line Asda shop for such eventualities!)

Woke up this morning to rain but didn't dampen our spirits as another jumble sale this time up at Garvald which is a lovely wee village. Spent £4 on 2 bacon and egg rolls and 2 cups of tea.

Bought - 4 paperbacks for £1
Fleece cosy toes for new grandsons pram (hes due this Saturday coming)
Babys first blankie (with a blue teddy rattle)
Thick Reebok coat for gs no 1 for the winter
Bag of brand new school socks (around 10 pairs) for gs no 1
(all above for £2)

So had a lovely weekend!

June housekeeping - £134.27 left
Extra Holiday fund - £100
My allowance I have left - £43.50
Entertainment - £4
Spent with money paid back - £423.63

Frugal finds

In all this domestic bliss forgot to post pics of my latest frugal finds.

First pic is an instrument of torture - sorry, that should read exercise thingy given to me by my neighbour who is moving house. We have all had a go on it, screamed with laughter and probably will never go on it again so will put in on Freecycle.

- the tables I got at a car boot sale on Sunday for the princely sum of £5 and have 4 folding tables tucked under it (also bought a wee clock for the caravan for £1)

Another no-spend day (I'm on a roll here!!!!)


June housekeeping - £134.27 left
Extra Holiday fund - £100
My allowance I have left - £50
Spent with money paid back - £423.63

Domestic goddess!

Lovely day today - nice warm wind so done 5 loads of washing! All dried and put away...

Found some interesting peppers and cherry tomatoes at the bottom of my fridge, cut them up with some onion, thyme and drizzled them with olive oil and put the in the oven to roast - will make up some cous cous and that will be the basis of my salads for lunch for the next two days.

At the same time I made and cooked 2 lasagne (1 for tea and 1 to freeze). I made enough white sauce to use for another lasagne later in the month to freeze (might make spinach and mushroom lasagne a la Frugal Queen) I also squeezed in some cherry rock cakes and peanut butter cookies!

This is when I appreciate my new dishwasher - also when I got the kitchen put in I got the electrician to put new sockets in - before we only had 2 for the whole kitchen! so I now have my Magimix on the bench as opposed to at the bottom of a cupboard so I can use it whenever I want - home-made coleslaw to go with the lasagne!

O -and no spending today as I was too busy in the house.....

June housekeeping - £134.27 left
Extra Holiday fund - £100
My allowance I have left - £50
Spent with money paid back - £423.63

At last - a menu!

Well - raided all my cupboards and freezers (I have a small one in the kitchen and a huge one in the shed), made up a menu and did an Asda order. I am sooo proud of myself! My Asda order came to £101 (used my Asda credit card to get free delivery and Asda points - this is always paid in full by a direct debit every month so its like using a Switch card but with extras!) I always use Asda on-line - found Tesco to be terrible.

That £101 is for the whole month!!!!!! My big freezer has quite a lot of meat (bought on special offers) in it so this is using it all up. I have made up a menu for dinners for 21 days - although this is not quite a month there are also meals which can be made out of left overs or bits from the freezer(some meals are the same - batch cooking)which hopefully will make it up to the full month...

1 - Tomato and spinach pasta bake
2 - H/M Macaroni cheese
3 - H/M fish pie
4 - H/M fish pie
5 - H/M Chilli con carne
6 - Wild rocket pesto pasta
7 - Lamb shanks
8 - Roast beef dinner
9 - H/M Lasagne
10 - H/M Lasagne
11 - H/M meatballs and pasta
12 - H/M meatballs and pots
13 - Pork joint dinner
14 - Beef stir fry
15 - Chicken, broccoli & pasta
16 - H/M Salmon pie
17 - Lamb joint dinner
18 - H/M Spinach & mushroom lasagne
19 - Sausages & mash
20 - Toad in the hole
21 - Turkey with lime and coconut

I have also ordered quite a bit of flour etc as I intend to do a lot more home baking

June housekeeping - £134.27 left
Extra Holiday fund - £100
My allowance I have left - £50
Spent with money paid back - £423.63