This month was the first month that I had a proper budget worked out that incorporated all the things I needed to spend money on. It was a new departure for me to budget this way and in addition I also gave myself reduced budgets in many of my spending categories, so I was unsure if I'd be able to stick to it for the whole month.
Thankfully, however, I just about did, and had the best month I've had in a long while without feeling particularly deprived of anything.
My Food budget was set at £300 this month, as we spent a week in Crete. I managed to stay within this budget, coming under by just £2.07, even with a bit of help from the M&S voucher that I used a couple of times.
The Household budget was halved to £50 and although I went over by £10.56, I did stock up on dishwasher tablets and bought some new to me cleaning products for the Flylady baby steps, plus some stationery to make up my Flylady control journal. (I could and probably should have made do with what I already had, but I got impulsive in Tiger, whilst waiting for my daughter to get a hair cut.)
My personal budget was set at just £25 this month and I went over by £3.77, which was good for me I can tell you. If you've been reading past round up posts, you'll know I always overspend by a lot more than this, even when I have a budget twice the size.
LB's budget was the same as mine and I came under in that I spent only £9.20 on a few bits for our holiday.
The Home budget was set at £20 this month and I went over by £2.09. This was mainly due to buying some new Hi-ball drinking glasses that I didn't plan to buy this month. My planned expenditure was on some new photo albums and a couple of new spice jars which I did buy too.
My Easter budget was set at £30 this month, to cover gifts for family members, OH and LB. I went over by £5.14, but this overspend didn't actually come out of the budget, as I used the M&S voucher to cover this.
Finally, the Misc. budget was set at £50 and came in at £1.71 over, which also wasn't too bad.
So, I wasn't quite on budget, but not far behind, so things have dramatically improved this month which is positive.
In addition to the above, my usual £100 went into savings, I took spending money to Crete and I finished paying for my new varifocal spectacles.
All the above budgets (save for Food, which will return to £400) will remain the same for the next five months, until I'm in a better financial position and then they will be reviewed. Month one was a success though, so lets hope it continues.
Next month, however, is an expensive one, as it is OH's birthday and I still owe him part of his Xmas present, so I've allocated a £200 budget for this, as he needs some new cycling gear. Other than this and an additional £15 for a school trip everything else stays the same.
Budgeted expenditure next month will be focused on timber for the raised bed covers and growbags for planting tomato plants in the greenhouse, some new perfume for me, as I've almost completely run out and getting a couple of necessary things for the dog. I may also buy some items towards LB's school uniform for next year in advance, to spread the cost, if there is any room in the budget. (You can tell I'm starting to think ahead budget wise now.)
All in all, I feel I did pretty well and managed to claw back £102.50 to pay down the overdraft I had unfortunately built up since before Christmas. This is, however, £27.50 less than I hoped, but I'm happy enough for my first month on the new budget. Fortunately, I don't pay any interest on my overdraft, but I just want it paid off, so that I can start to live completely within my means. At least £122.50 of it has now gone.
Next month, as explained above, the budget is a lot tighter and I am only aiming to pay off just another £30, but I'll keep you updated about progress there in next month's round up.
I hope your budget, if you have one, is going well.
Sunday, 30 April 2017
Saturday, 29 April 2017
Saturday Morning Scare
It's 11.55am on Saturday morning and already what should have been a relaxing day, has left me feeling like a wreck.
OH disappeared into deepest darkest Kent at 7am this morning for a cycle ride with some members of his club. This was fine, but for the fact that he wasn't around to dish out LB's pocket money and she was going out for the afternoon. I managed to scrape together enough to keep her happy. (I rarely carry any cash, but had thrown some loose change into a jar over the last week or so).
The next problem was that the back door jammed and I couldn't get out into the garden or even let the dog out. This was really annoying. The lock sticks sometimes and I can't do anything with it.
I decided to take the dog out to vent my frustrations by way of a good walk. We were having a lovely walk too, bar the sound of what sounded like a gun shot, until on entering a field, some youths started setting off fireworks in broad daylight.
Well, our little dog gets so scared of fireworks, and subsequently she made a run for it and would not stop. I was terrified she'd run onto a road, so I headed off to check the main road nearby, whilst a very kind runner went in another direction toward the horse stables to see if he could see her.
There was no sign of her near the road thankfully, so I headed back towards the stables to be told by another dog walker that someone had found a dog there. After investigating further, the runner who had gone to look for her had indeed found her. Then I couldn't find him for what seemed like ages and I was getting into a real panic. Eventually, I found him and there she was in his arms. I was sooooo relieved. It made my morning grumbles pale into insignificance. It's funny how often you think you have problems, and then life creates a much more serious problem to take your mind off them.
Anyway, the police then arrived on the marshes, as someone had reported hearing the gun shot and they were looking for where it had been fired from. I told them where I thought I'd heard it come from and about the fireworks and they drove off to investigate.
I'm now home and sat at the kitchen table typing this, trying to recuperate from the stress of the morning and wondering where to start on the things I need to do. After posting on Thursday morning, nothing I intended actually got done, as I came back from my class and just felt completely exhausted and took myself off to bed for a couple of hours. I didn't feel great the next day either, when I went back to the CS, but once I got there I was fine.
So, I guess I'd now better make a start and do some ironing, seeing as I can't get outside to potter in the garden, unless I climb out of a window that is, which I might do yet.
I'm hoping the weekend goes a little smoother from here on in. I hope your weekend is going well.
OH disappeared into deepest darkest Kent at 7am this morning for a cycle ride with some members of his club. This was fine, but for the fact that he wasn't around to dish out LB's pocket money and she was going out for the afternoon. I managed to scrape together enough to keep her happy. (I rarely carry any cash, but had thrown some loose change into a jar over the last week or so).
The next problem was that the back door jammed and I couldn't get out into the garden or even let the dog out. This was really annoying. The lock sticks sometimes and I can't do anything with it.
I decided to take the dog out to vent my frustrations by way of a good walk. We were having a lovely walk too, bar the sound of what sounded like a gun shot, until on entering a field, some youths started setting off fireworks in broad daylight.
Well, our little dog gets so scared of fireworks, and subsequently she made a run for it and would not stop. I was terrified she'd run onto a road, so I headed off to check the main road nearby, whilst a very kind runner went in another direction toward the horse stables to see if he could see her.
There was no sign of her near the road thankfully, so I headed back towards the stables to be told by another dog walker that someone had found a dog there. After investigating further, the runner who had gone to look for her had indeed found her. Then I couldn't find him for what seemed like ages and I was getting into a real panic. Eventually, I found him and there she was in his arms. I was sooooo relieved. It made my morning grumbles pale into insignificance. It's funny how often you think you have problems, and then life creates a much more serious problem to take your mind off them.
Anyway, the police then arrived on the marshes, as someone had reported hearing the gun shot and they were looking for where it had been fired from. I told them where I thought I'd heard it come from and about the fireworks and they drove off to investigate.
I'm now home and sat at the kitchen table typing this, trying to recuperate from the stress of the morning and wondering where to start on the things I need to do. After posting on Thursday morning, nothing I intended actually got done, as I came back from my class and just felt completely exhausted and took myself off to bed for a couple of hours. I didn't feel great the next day either, when I went back to the CS, but once I got there I was fine.
So, I guess I'd now better make a start and do some ironing, seeing as I can't get outside to potter in the garden, unless I climb out of a window that is, which I might do yet.
I'm hoping the weekend goes a little smoother from here on in. I hope your weekend is going well.
Thursday, 27 April 2017
Thursday at Home
After two busy days at the CS, today I'm at home catching up with tasks that need doing. Yesterday morning at the shop, the volunteer I was supposed to be working with called to say they couldn't make it, through no fault of their own, so I had to keep the shop closed for two hours until another volunteer arrived. I didn't mind too much, as I was able to get on with lots of sorting and pricing in the back room, without any interruptions. (Not a great start to the manager's absence though, but it happens sometimes).
Anyway, as soon as the afternoon volunteer arrived, we opened up and had quite a good day anyway. For once, I stayed until closing at 6pm, so I got to help cash up and close up, which is something I'm less familiar with. I was really tired when I got home at 7.30pm though.
I was the only one home last night, as OH was out cycling and LB was performing in a play with school, somewhere in North London and not getting home until 10pm ish. I just made myself a bowl of soup and chilled out, before retiring to the spare bedroom to sort more photos into albums. (I've still got two more to do and then the physical photos will be all organised.)
Today, I've not got much planned. I've got the usual dog walk, a Zumba class at the gym at 10.15 and then the rest of the day is mine to do what I want. I think a bit of a clean of the living room, more photo sorting, some ironing and laundry are the likely activities. Not wildly exciting or anything, but it will feel good when it's all done. I might even make it out into the garden for a potter, if I get the chance.
As it's the end of the month, there's no money left to spend, so I am trying to keep things simple and get the house in order, as it costs nothing to do.
I hope you have a great Thursday, whatever you may be doing.
Anyway, as soon as the afternoon volunteer arrived, we opened up and had quite a good day anyway. For once, I stayed until closing at 6pm, so I got to help cash up and close up, which is something I'm less familiar with. I was really tired when I got home at 7.30pm though.
I was the only one home last night, as OH was out cycling and LB was performing in a play with school, somewhere in North London and not getting home until 10pm ish. I just made myself a bowl of soup and chilled out, before retiring to the spare bedroom to sort more photos into albums. (I've still got two more to do and then the physical photos will be all organised.)
Today, I've not got much planned. I've got the usual dog walk, a Zumba class at the gym at 10.15 and then the rest of the day is mine to do what I want. I think a bit of a clean of the living room, more photo sorting, some ironing and laundry are the likely activities. Not wildly exciting or anything, but it will feel good when it's all done. I might even make it out into the garden for a potter, if I get the chance.
As it's the end of the month, there's no money left to spend, so I am trying to keep things simple and get the house in order, as it costs nothing to do.
I hope you have a great Thursday, whatever you may be doing.
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Freebies, Frugal Measures and Frugal Fails 4
This post my Frugal Fails have been pretty minor ones compared to my last post, but they are fails none the less. The first one being that I bought a multipack of Seaweed Crisps, lured by the ridiculously low number of calories each pack contains. (i.e. 22).
I had tried an individual pack of these snacks some months back, but had forgotten why I didn't repurchase them, namely because I didn't really like them. They taste a bit too much of the sea for my liking, so unfortunately that was £2 wasted. To soften the blow I donated them to the Food Bank as someone may be partial to them who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford them.
The second Frugal Fail was that I cancelled a gym class the day before we went away to Crete, as I didn't have the car to get there and it would have taken 2.5 hours to get there and back and do the class. As I had too many other things to do such as packing, etc. I decided to cancel. The problem was, I didn't give at least 5 hours notice, so was hit with a £3 fee for late cancellation. I wasn't pleased at this taxation on my gym membership, especially when my place was most likely taken by someone else anyway. I won't be doing it again, you can be sure of that.
The third Frugal Fail occurred when I did my weekly shop last week. I bought 3 packs of coffee for OH as he had run out and wanted some from LIDL. When I got home I realised I'd been charged for 4 instead of three and it was too late to point out their error, so another £3 lost. Very annoying.
On to the Freebies and Frugal Measures:
1) I've received a few dividend payments from the shares I bought the other month. They weren't for large sums, but every little helps. I'm intending to reinvest any dividends eventually when they total a sufficient amount with which to do so.
2) The first issue of my new free magazine subscription came the other week. I'm hoping it will help me make wiser financial decisions in the future. I had a good read through and there's lots of interesting articles in there.
3) I received another 4 free packets of seeds with my Kitchen Garden monthly magazine subscription. Choy Sum, Pak Choi, Mizuna and an edible wild flower mix.
I had tried an individual pack of these snacks some months back, but had forgotten why I didn't repurchase them, namely because I didn't really like them. They taste a bit too much of the sea for my liking, so unfortunately that was £2 wasted. To soften the blow I donated them to the Food Bank as someone may be partial to them who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford them.
The second Frugal Fail was that I cancelled a gym class the day before we went away to Crete, as I didn't have the car to get there and it would have taken 2.5 hours to get there and back and do the class. As I had too many other things to do such as packing, etc. I decided to cancel. The problem was, I didn't give at least 5 hours notice, so was hit with a £3 fee for late cancellation. I wasn't pleased at this taxation on my gym membership, especially when my place was most likely taken by someone else anyway. I won't be doing it again, you can be sure of that.
The third Frugal Fail occurred when I did my weekly shop last week. I bought 3 packs of coffee for OH as he had run out and wanted some from LIDL. When I got home I realised I'd been charged for 4 instead of three and it was too late to point out their error, so another £3 lost. Very annoying.
On to the Freebies and Frugal Measures:
1) I've received a few dividend payments from the shares I bought the other month. They weren't for large sums, but every little helps. I'm intending to reinvest any dividends eventually when they total a sufficient amount with which to do so.
2) The first issue of my new free magazine subscription came the other week. I'm hoping it will help me make wiser financial decisions in the future. I had a good read through and there's lots of interesting articles in there.
3) I received another 4 free packets of seeds with my Kitchen Garden monthly magazine subscription. Choy Sum, Pak Choi, Mizuna and an edible wild flower mix.
4) I almost managed to keep within my total allocated budget for the month of April, bar about a £10 overspend. I just hope I can do as well in future months.
5) Our holiday turned out to be a real bargain. Our self catering apartment accommodation in Crete was lovely, the best we've had so far in Europe, and cost only £300 for a week, plus £375 for flights for the 3 of us. With reasonably careful spending, it turned out to be one of our cheapest holidays yet and we had super weather into the bargain. Definite result here. Thank you booking.com.
6) I got to the end of April having only spent £13 of my £75 M&S voucher, which means there's plenty left to help me through next month and hopefully beyond. This was great news, as it is such a relief to have something to fall back on at the end of the month when things get tight.
7) Finally, through Money Saving Expert, I managed to bag some free tickets to a Spin Cycling Festival at Olympia the week before OH's birthday and I'm hoping he can take a day off to go. If I go with him, I could potentially buy him a birthday present there and it would be a nice day out for us.
Monday, 24 April 2017
Flylady Progress - End of Week One
I'm now at the end of my first week proper of following the Flylady program. I'm gradually incorporating each of the baby steps into my daily routines and finding it to be such a useful system. I have to admit that my morning and evening routines slid a little on the weekend, when I wasn't up against time restrictions or went to bed late, but I'm trying to stick to them, as not to could cause me to slip back.
It may seem silly to need to follow someone else's system for cleaning your house, and it may not work for everyone, but I'm the type of person who really responds to being told what to do and when in this context. I tweak it to suit myself, of course, but I definitely need a big nudge in the right direction when it comes to cleaning and household maintenance and this is definitely doing the trick.
I've found another ally in my pursuit of Flylady's system, namely Flylady Diane Denmark on YouTube, who is a Flylady Mentor and who has made a whole series of videos taking you through each of the 31 baby steps. She's a lovely Scottish lady, living and working in Denmark and I really enjoy her videos. I'm also still following Sophia from My Great Challenge too, and there are others out there on YouTube you can follow too.
On Saturday, I descaled the dishwasher, vacuumed and mopped the kitchen, downstairs hallways and toilet and on Sunday I cleared a clutter spot in my bedroom by my side of the bed and by rearranging a bit of furniture here, it now looks a lot clearer and will be much easier to clean.
I continued the vacuuming and mopping of the upstairs rooms and landings on Sunday too, which has gone a long way to making the house look and feel a lot cleaner. In addition, I emptied the ironing basket, so I've done quite a bit of work this weekend.
I did, however, stop short of washing my winter coats and packing them and all the winter sweaters away this weekend, as there's another cold spell forecast for this week, so maybe I'll do this next week.
This coming week, Flylady is concentrating on the Living room areas and although I'm not Zone cleaning just yet, I may join in with some of her missions and clean the living room spaces, as I haven't tackled these for a few weeks. I am at the CS three days this week though, as the manager is going away for a few days, so it depends on whether I find the time to do this.
Still enjoying the process and will keep you posted on further progress.
It may seem silly to need to follow someone else's system for cleaning your house, and it may not work for everyone, but I'm the type of person who really responds to being told what to do and when in this context. I tweak it to suit myself, of course, but I definitely need a big nudge in the right direction when it comes to cleaning and household maintenance and this is definitely doing the trick.
I've found another ally in my pursuit of Flylady's system, namely Flylady Diane Denmark on YouTube, who is a Flylady Mentor and who has made a whole series of videos taking you through each of the 31 baby steps. She's a lovely Scottish lady, living and working in Denmark and I really enjoy her videos. I'm also still following Sophia from My Great Challenge too, and there are others out there on YouTube you can follow too.
On Saturday, I descaled the dishwasher, vacuumed and mopped the kitchen, downstairs hallways and toilet and on Sunday I cleared a clutter spot in my bedroom by my side of the bed and by rearranging a bit of furniture here, it now looks a lot clearer and will be much easier to clean.
I continued the vacuuming and mopping of the upstairs rooms and landings on Sunday too, which has gone a long way to making the house look and feel a lot cleaner. In addition, I emptied the ironing basket, so I've done quite a bit of work this weekend.
I did, however, stop short of washing my winter coats and packing them and all the winter sweaters away this weekend, as there's another cold spell forecast for this week, so maybe I'll do this next week.
This coming week, Flylady is concentrating on the Living room areas and although I'm not Zone cleaning just yet, I may join in with some of her missions and clean the living room spaces, as I haven't tackled these for a few weeks. I am at the CS three days this week though, as the manager is going away for a few days, so it depends on whether I find the time to do this.
Still enjoying the process and will keep you posted on further progress.
Sunday, 23 April 2017
Coming to Life
As promised this weekend, a gardening post. One of the main things I noticed on returning from our holiday in Crete, was that the garden had suddenly started coming to life. It looked much greener than I remembered it, with bluebells flowering and blossoms on all of my fruiting plants and trees.
I had virtually resigned myself to finding that the foxes had marrauded through the raised beds and disturbed everything that I'd sown, but thankfully, although they had dug down in places, the majority of the beds were still intact, with lots of lettuce seedlings and petit pois plants still growing. It was a relief.
More good news was that many of the seeds I'd sown before we went away had now germinated. There were kale, calendula, courgette, cucumber, kohl rabi, red basil and sunflower seedlings poking through. None had been eaten by snails, which I also half expected. There's only really the tomato and sweet pepper seeds still to germinate, but I think I sowed them quite early outside, so they'll probably need a bit more heat.
All I needed to do was straighten up the covers on the raised beds and water everywhere. Simple
This weekend is the first one in which we've been at home in London for a good few weeks and first thing on my list of gardening tasks was to move my little greenhouse to reunite it with the potting bench at the end of the garden.
OH helped my by making a flat paved surface to stand it on and we carefully carried over and set it up in it's new home. It fitted in perfectly and it's a bit of a suntrap in this corner so my tomato plants, when they eventually go in, will love it. Here's a picture of it in it's new home.
The next job was to pot on lots of the seedlings which were growing fast, particularly the kale, kohl rabi and marigolds. Here they are in their new individual pots with plenty of room to grow even bigger.
I had virtually resigned myself to finding that the foxes had marrauded through the raised beds and disturbed everything that I'd sown, but thankfully, although they had dug down in places, the majority of the beds were still intact, with lots of lettuce seedlings and petit pois plants still growing. It was a relief.
More good news was that many of the seeds I'd sown before we went away had now germinated. There were kale, calendula, courgette, cucumber, kohl rabi, red basil and sunflower seedlings poking through. None had been eaten by snails, which I also half expected. There's only really the tomato and sweet pepper seeds still to germinate, but I think I sowed them quite early outside, so they'll probably need a bit more heat.
All I needed to do was straighten up the covers on the raised beds and water everywhere. Simple
This weekend is the first one in which we've been at home in London for a good few weeks and first thing on my list of gardening tasks was to move my little greenhouse to reunite it with the potting bench at the end of the garden.
OH helped my by making a flat paved surface to stand it on and we carefully carried over and set it up in it's new home. It fitted in perfectly and it's a bit of a suntrap in this corner so my tomato plants, when they eventually go in, will love it. Here's a picture of it in it's new home.
The next job was to pot on lots of the seedlings which were growing fast, particularly the kale, kohl rabi and marigolds. Here they are in their new individual pots with plenty of room to grow even bigger.
I also moved a few things around on the patio, putting my fruit bushes and rhubarb where the greenhouse used to stand by the back door. I repotted the gooseberry bush in the middle into this new larger pot to give it more room to grow. It's doing well. I now just need to repot the blueberry next to it as it's soil has mossed over and the pot is cracked and crumbling away. I need to get some ericaceous compost for this job and it's not in this month's budget, so it might have to wait until after it's fruited now.
Here's the new view down the garden from the kitchen table and as you can see it's a lot greener now. (Please note that I had my towels on the line for the first time this year. I'm not good at hanging my washing out, but I made an exception for the towels, to help them smell fresher.)
The paths around the raised beds still need tidying (OH's job) and he's agreed to make more attractive covers for the raised beds when we can get to the DIY store for some wood. I can't wait, it will make life so much easier as all the solutions I've tried are still not keeping the foxes out.
We got quite a lot done in a short amount of time this weekend, so I'm very happy. I'll keep you posted on future progress.
Saturday, 22 April 2017
A Brilliant Dishwasher Tip
As you may know if you've been reading my posts lately, I've recently become smitten with the Flylady system of home management and I am currently on Day 5 of the 31 Baby Steps to developing efficient routines at home. I'm enjoying it and finding it is already making a big difference to the cleanliness of our home on a daily basis.
Concurrently, I've been reading this book that I picked up from Home Bargains for £1.
Concurrently, I've been reading this book that I picked up from Home Bargains for £1.
I'm quite enjoying it as books about cleaning go. It's very informative. One thing that I think I read here was about ways to clean your dishwasher. I didn't actually act on it until I was doing a Flylady 15 minute declutter in my cupboard where I keep all of the products I use to make natural toiletry products and came across a part used box of citric acid. On the back it suggested using it to clean out your dishwasher periodically. You fill the little box where the detergent goes with citric acid and then sprinkle more in the bottom of the dishwasher and put it on your normal cycle (empty).
I did this this morning and the results were great. It now almost looks like new inside. I was super impressed and will be doing this regularly from now on as it is such an easy way to get a good result. Here's a picture.
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