No More Spending.net

Menu Plan Monday (Menu planning the whole month)

2012-01-30T10:13:00.001Z

I'm attempting to keep my grocery spending at £150 for February and to improve my chances I've taken inspiration from ~~copied~~ saving for travel, and tried to menu plan the whole month....I've done this before, with little success, so we shall see how it goes! ;)

Meal plan for the next 7 days;

Monday: BLT's without the L Sandwiches!
Tuesday: Soup and Seeded Bread
Wednesday: Pasta Bolognese
Thursday: Chow Mein Noodles with Broccoli
Friday: Chicken Balti & Rice
Saturday: Shepherds Pie & Veg
Sunday: Leftover Shepherds Pie

For further menu planning ideas please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

What's on your menu this week? Have you tried monthly menu planning?

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Weekly Spending Update #4 (January 2012)

2012-01-29T16:46:00.001Z

Weekly Spending:
Monday:
No spend day
Tuesday:
£11.77 Grocery
Wednesday:
No spend day
Thursday:
£9.00 Window cleaner
Friday:
£2.00 Library*
Saturday:
£30.40 Grocery
Sunday:
£62.85 Airport Parking (£9.43 cash back due)
£19.08 Travel Insurance

Lots of spending this week, but only £2.00 in the January No (Low) Spend Challenge - I loved doing this challenge and my personal spending for January was £5.15?!? Yay!! Thank you so much Carla and my fellow Challengers for keeping me focused! :)

Grocery budget: My January goal - to keep the grocery budget below £180 (Normal budget £216.67)
After doing the shopping yesterday (I went to Aldi and Morrisons), my grocery spending for January comes to £184.67 - a little over budget, but not drastically.....

....now to see if I can stick to £150 in February...eek!!

Other spending:

I took advantage of the 15% cash back available on airport parking for our April trip - It's usually 10%,so it made sense to do it today, rather than wait for February. I paid £62.85 but will receive £9.43 cash back in a couple of months. I also booked our travel insurance for the same trip.

Okay that's it for January - I'm finalising our budget figures tonight, after hubby has left for work (he's away until Wednesday). How did you do? Did you take part in the challenge? Are you looking forward to the February Challenge?

*The £2.00 library charge was for reserving two of the three Hunger Games Trilogy....which I think I'm going to love!

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Saturday Link Love (28th January 2012)

2012-01-28T07:35:00.001Z

Good morning! What plans do you have for today? I'm working this morning and then visiting a friend this afternoon...which will be then followed by a quick trip to the supermarket. I also need to finalise the budget for January and set the budget for February, but this will have to wait until tomorrow!

Okay onto the last of the January links that I have saved in my reader.

How to Win at Monopoly and Real Life at Money Talks
So What Do I Want To Do? at American Debt Project
Good Words for Wednesday at Frugal Beautiful
On Taking Financial Risks: Living on the Road at Budgets are Sexy
2012 - The Plan at Mutant Supermodel (have you tried this exercise/way of making plans?)
Get Out of Debt in 2012: How Much Do You Owe? at Yes, I Am Cheap
Chocolate Covered Raspberries at Debt Free By 30....because I ♥ raspberries!

Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow with a spending update.

PS. Have you joined Carla's brilliant February challenge yet? :)

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February Low (No) Spend Challenge

2012-01-26T17:13:00.000Z

Okay we're off again for February and this time Carla is holding a double challenge; a Low (No) Spend Challenge and a De-Clutter Challenge. I'm taking part in the Low Spend Challenge only and so I need to set my goals and my rules.

My financial goal for the challenge:

To add another £250 from our regular budget to our monthly mortgage overpayment

How?

By keeping our grocery spending below £150 (Usual £216.67)
By not spending the £168.37 usually budget for water and council tax (no payments this month)
By keeping my personal spending below £65 (Usual £80)

The big challenge will be keeping the grocery spending low again, but it's a short month and hubby will be away for 5/6 nights which makes it a little easier. I've done a store cupboard/freezer inventory today (I took pictures for another post!), and I'll be menu planning and using up as much stuff as I can over the coming weeks.

On March 1st I'm hoping to get our mortgage below six figures for the first time and this is my carrot!!

Are you joining the challenge? If so, what goals do you have?

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Grocery Spending #4 (January 2012)

2012-01-25T17:29:00.000Z

No big supermarket shop for me last weekend, just a couple of trips to the small local supermarket to top us up. I spent £11.02 Saturday and £11.77 yesterday which brings my total grocery spending for January to £154.27. I set the budget at £180 for this month only and I think I'm gonna be okay. I will need bread and milk on Saturday, but we definitely have enough in the freezer to keep us going until next Wednesday.
I've made a promise to myself to do a full food inventory tomorrow - I keep putting it off - but hubby is away a little in February too, and I'm thinking of lowering the budget again. A full food inventory will help me to plan for a lower budget.

Okay that's it for today, I'm off to eat some houmous (yum) and catch up on my blog reading. Have a lovely evening :)

PS. Mortgage snowflakes: Today is a good day as I managed to increase the mortgage overpayment (due next week) by £216.21 extra snowflakes...£13.86 from recycling an old mobile, £200 from extra income earned and £2.35 from a small cash back payment. Woot! We're getting so close to five figures now, that I can almost taste it!

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Comparing Our Budget 2010 vs. 2012

2012-01-24T11:17:00.000Z

I don't tend to look backwards but today, after having caught site of an old post on this site, I though it might be interesting to take a look at how our 2012 budget compares to one from 2 years ago. I would go back further, but it's difficult to make a comparison because I was working full time then, and still paying off credit card debt.

I've listed our essential expenses and and our personal spending allowances. As you can see the amount is less today than it was back then, due to the most part to there being 3 of us in the house now, compared to 4 previously.

Mortgage: stayed the same....thankfully
Council Tax: Annual increase of £30.72
Water: Annual increase of £13.80
Gas/Electric: Annual decrease of £312 (one less person in the house)
Line Rental: Annual decrease of £15 due to paying an annual, not monthly bill
Contents/Building Insurance: Decrease of £144.48 (now a combined policy)
Life Insurance: stayed the same
Grocery: £999.96 less due to one less person to feed
Digital TV: £10 of that my daughter pays for so our cost has increased annually by £60
Tv Licence: about the same
Social: Now included in personal spending
Gifts: Increased by £180
Personal Spending: Reduced..but I forgot to included my iphone cost (£35) so this makes this about the same.

I'm not perfect when it comes to getting the best deals, but I do try to get them when I can. My main aim is always to keep our essential expenses as low as possible - I have this dream figure of needing less than £1,000 a month to live on - we're not there yet (by a long way!!) but if we manage to clear the mortgage, then we will be. We could obviously get a lot nearer if we gave up TV, but that would be one step too far for us both. ;)

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Menu Plan Monday (Use it up week)

2012-01-23T18:23:00.000Z

I'm a little late posting my menu plan today, but here it is. Simple meals Monday to Thursday and then hubby is back on Friday in time for the weekend.

Monday - Poached eggs on toast
Tuesday - Tuna Pasta Bake
Wednesday - Vegetable Soup
Thursday - Chilli on Jacket Potatoes
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Baked Haddock Portuguese Style (my favourite fish dish)
Sunday - Chicken Fajitas

What's on your menu this week?

For further menu plans ideas please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

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Weekly Spending Update - January 2012 #3

2012-01-22T17:09:00.001Z

Monday:
No spend day
Tuesday:
No spend day
Wednesday:
No spend day
Thursday:
No spend day
Friday:
No spend day
Saturday:
£11.02 Grocery
Sunday:
No spend day

Woot 6 no spend days! Although I did nearly get led astray by Am*zon....I put five books into my shopping basket, but quickly emptied it...I could feel Carla watching me lol. I've now ordered most of the books from the library. Much cheaper at £1.00 a book!

I decided against a big supermarket shop this weekend as hubby is away working again for most of next week....it's really helping me to stay within my grocery budget. I'll need to pick up some bread & cheese within the next couple of days, but apart from that my daughter and I are eating from the cupboards.

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Saturday Link Love (21st January 2012)

2012-01-21T06:31:00.000Z

Good morning! What are your plans this weekend? I'm working this morning and then this evening my daughter is coming to visit. It's her first visit since Christmas and I'm really looking forward to seeing her.

I haven't talked about my eldest daughter too much on this site, but in 2005 she nearly died from the brain virus encephalitis. The initial stages of her illness, and subsequent hospital stay were without doubt the worst 2 months of my life and something I still find very hard to talk about.....probably why I haven't mentioned it on this site before! Anyway we had to delay her university studies for 2 years in order to give her brain time to recover (at once stage she had no short term memory at all; you would reply to her questions as as soon as you finished speaking she would ask the same question again). But now she's very well again, has finished her degree and just before the holidays managed to secure herself a new job with a brilliant company, which is the reason for her visit. She starts next week and probably wont have time to come again for a little while. I'm making us all a curry this evening and we may even open a bottle (or two!) :)

Okay onto a few of my favourite posts from the last seven days;

Are you falling down the frugal rabbit hole? at Retire by Forty
My vision board 2012 at Life DOESN'T Begin at Retirement
How Balance Transfer Roulette Almost Landed Me in the Crazy House at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
Ten years ago at We may be poor, but we are happy - I urge everyone to read this post
My 5 Year Plan at Making Sense of Cents (I do love a 5 year plan!)

Over at Move to Portugal this week

January Mini Goals (Mid month update)
Kitchen Equipment

That's it for today. Have a wonderful weekend :)

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Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

2012-01-20T15:44:00.000Z

The following is a guest post.

Identity theft is on the rise nationwide, as more and more people are getting their names, addresses, and even Social Security numbers stolen and used illegally. There are many ways you can protect yourself, but here are a few important ones that everyone should do.

The Mail

First, make sure you are protecting your identity on your mail. If you get credit card offers, make sure that you shred them. Identity thieves can use that information to open accounts in your name, and you wouldn’t even realize it until after it was done. Also, never keep mail in your car. Too many people leave their mail sitting on their dashboards, which allows passers-by to see their name and address. If it is in your car, keep it concealed, like in the glove box.

Online

There are many scams online that are trying to steal your identity. One of the biggest is phishing emails, which look like regular legitimate emails, but are actually fraud. The scammer is trying to get you to send back your account information so they can take advantage. To avoid this, only use trusted sites. If you get an email from your bank, don’t reply. Instead, go to your bank’s website, or call your bank’s known phone number. That way, you can make sure you are in the correct spot, and not a scammer’s website.

At Home

Finally, at home, make sure that you are not disposing of sensitive documents in the trash. Many people clean out their files in the Spring around tax time, and they don’t know what to do with all those old bank statements and brokerage statements. It is essential that you shred these documents. If you don’t have a shredder, many community centers or local Chambers of Commerce offer shredding days or recycling days, where you can dispose of these documents securely, for free.

Whatever you do, remember that your identity is the only one you have. You need to take these simple steps to protect it, because if someone does get a hold of your personal information, it can be costly and time consuming to get it resolved.

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January No (Low) Spend Challenge Update #3

2012-01-19T08:00:00.003Z

January is without doubt the best month for me to do a No Spend Challenge as I have no inclination to go anywhere - I much prefer to stay under a blanket keeping warm, than leave the house.....I have left it a little bit though, but only for work and walking ;)
I've also spent quite a bit of time searching the Internet for good holiday deals. There's nothing like cold weather to get me craving a warmer climate! I think I've found a good deal for Portugal in September, I just need to get my daughter organised with booking holiday leave, as she and her partner are coming with us.

Week 3 of the challenge and so far I've spent £3.15 on posting for my son. Grocery spending, which I hope to keep below £180, is at £131.48. I'm going to do a store cupboard/freezer challenge for the rest of the month which should help keep me to stay within budget.

How's your No (Low) Spend Challenge going? What are you doing to help you stick to the challenge?

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Do You Have Enough Insurance?

2012-01-18T07:13:00.000Z

The following is a guest post.

A home is one of your most valuable assets, and it is important that you insure it appropriately. There are literally thousands of different options for insuring your home, so it is important that you do a diligent property insurance comparison. Here are some important things you should look for when comparing different insurance policies for your home.

Coverages

While this may seem counter-intuitive, it is essential that you look at your coverage options. Every policy is a little different in what it covers, and you want to make sure that you are fully insured. There are typically these classifications of coverage for properties:

Dwelling - Like it sounds, this covers your dwelling itself (not the land, since the land is always there no matter what). Typically, insurance companies will cover the dwelling to a certain percentage - such as 80% or 90%. There are also different options, such as paying for actual replacement costs, not just the value.

Other Structures - This covers the other structures on the property, which could be a detached garage, a outhouse, pool house, or even a large porch. There is usually a similar limit to the dwelling on other structures.

Personal Property - This covers the property inside the buildings, such as your furniture. It also covers theft or loss, including from fire. This amount is completely variable based on what you tell your insurance agent is the value of your property. Be honest, or else you could overpay, or not have enough insurance.

Extras

Some insurance policies also contain personal liability protection, which could protect you as the homeowner if someone was to get hurt on your property. Second, some policies offer extras to cover living expenses should you have to rent while your home is being repaired due to a covered event. Finally, some policies cover all kinds of additional expenses: debris removal, landscaping repairs, identity theft loss, and even some repairs.

Bottom line, it is extremely important to compare all your various policy options. There are a lot of nuances that need to be looked at when comparing different property insurance policies.

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Grocery Spending #3 (January 2012)

2012-01-17T16:24:00.002Z

It's my goal to keep our grocery spending below £2,600 (£50 per week, £216.67 per month) for 2012. We are three adults and one extra during school holidays. I'm trying to eat healthily and lose weight, as well as move further towards a more local/organic diet. I shop once a week (supermarket and farm shop).

Despite keeping within budget my food shopping just lately has been anything but frugal - I haven't been shopping around, or using the farm shop. However I'm hoping to do better over the coming weeks. For starters we're going to be eating from the cupboards for the rest of the month, and then in February I'm going to do much better with my purchases.

Grocery buys this week;

(sorry for the glare!)

Total spent: £26.92+ £3.81

£1.00 Clementines
£0.75 Wholemeal bread
£0.79 Break Stick
£1.82 Organic eggs x 6
£2.50 Bacon
£1.75 Sausages
£6.00 Organic Minced Beef (£6.44)
£0.89 Penne
£1.59 Ryvita!
£0.34 Basics Rich Tea
£0.68 Basics Food Bags
£0.84 Mousse x 6
£1.55 Organic Milk
£1.05 Water 5L
£3.13 Soup x 5
£0.74 Barley water
£1.50 Pepper Stir Fry

£2.52 Balti Sauce x 2
£1.29 Fruit Bread!!

I made a mistake with the soup. I meant to buy 5 for £2 but mixed in a different type of soup and so missed the offer! Oops!

Total grocery spending for January £131.48

I'm still very hopeful of hitting my reduced target of £180 for January. How's your grocery budget looking this month?

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Menu Plan Monday (Four simple veggie days)

2012-01-16T11:20:00.000Z

I grocery shopped yesterday and this is what we're eating this coming week. My eldest daughter is home for the night on Saturday and we're having curry; her favourite.

Monday: Stir Fry Veggies + Broccoli
Tuesday: Soup + Bread
Wednesday: Spaghetti & Meat Sauce (freezer)
Thursday: Soup + Bread
Friday: Pizza and Home made wedges
Saturday: Chicken Balti, Rice & Naan
Sunday: Breakfast for Brunch

For further menu plan ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

What's on your menu this week?

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Thinking of Remortgaging? What you need to know

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000Z

The following is a guest post.

Many people want to stay with what they know and if they have had their mortgages with a certain lender for so many years, why change it?

They have developed a level of trust with the lender and get good service and support from them, so there is no need to change.

If you have recently started your own business or have moved to another job, you will not easily be considered for a remortgage. What is required is for you to be in a steady job for some time; stability is needed.

The lenders need to be reassured that people can repay mortgages before they will allow them to borrow money. A proven track record of a job or income is what they will look for.

Misconceptions

*People think remortgaging is too expensive. But would you not be missing out if you could find a better and more competitive deal elsewhere?

Is it not in your interest to research the market from time to time? If you can find a better deal at another lender, you can put yourself on a better financial footing.

*Many mortgage deals have early repayments charges and this stops many people from looking elsewhere.

In some instances the new deal will be better even if you have to pay repayments charges at your current lender. The idea is for you to keep an eye open for deals and then to do the math.

If there are no repayment charges on mortgages, all the better. We all need to save where we can and since a mortgage is an expensive item on our monthly budget, it makes sense to get the best deal possible.

Do not throw money away by not comparing your current loan with what else is on offer. Many people are complacent and content with their mortgage and the time and effort that is required to remortgage puts them off.

*Another misconception is that people believe they can only remortgage if they move house and that is not the case. At any time during the duration of mortgages, the lender can move.

Hidden Costs

It is true that there are costs involved in remortgaging. If the savings of the new loan is less than the cost of the move, the move is out of the question.

The idea is to pay less and save more, not the other way round. Also true is the fact that arrangement and exit fees for mortgages have increased in recent years. This should, however, not stop you from looking.

Best Deals

In a time of economic uncertainty, a fixed rate mortgage can be to your advantage as it would be easier to manage your fixed monthly costs.

It also helps with future planning and is invaluable when it comes to drawing up and sticking to a monthly budget.

Choosing the right types of mortgage for your situation is vital. Selecting mortgages with variable rates will be to your advantage if interest rates come down. If they don't, it only creates uncertainty about what next year holds.

If you opt for variable rates, you will never know from one month to the next what your monthly repayments will be. If, however, the rates come down, so will the repayments and you will have extra money in your budget, which is money that you can use for emergencies and luxuries.

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Weekly Spending Update - January 2012 #2

2012-01-15T15:16:00.001Z

Monday:
£43.27 Grocery
£120.00 Annual Telephone Line Rental

Tuesday:
No spend day

Wednesday:
£3.15 Postage (for son)

Thursday:
£7.72 Grocery

Friday:
No spend day

Saturday:
No spend day

Sunday:
£26.92 Grocery
£3.81 Grocery

Lots of grocery spending this week but we have stocked cupboards and a stocked freezer.
On Thursday I nipped into our local store for some cheese (I forgot to buy it on Monday), and while I was there picked up some individual porridge packets which were on offer - not a very frugal way to buy it, but perfect for lunch at work and a lot cheaper than buying lunch out; I'd rather eat porridge instead of a sandwich as it's more filling.

So far in January I've spent £131.48 on grocery and I'm still hopeful of keeping within my No (Low) Spend Challenge goal of £180. Mind you hubby is away working a.lot. this month and it's really helping to keep the costs down!

Other spending this week was £3.15 posting a parcel to my son and the annual charge for our telephone line rental (£120).

How did your spending go this week?

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Saturday Link Love (January 14th 2012)

2012-01-14T08:18:00.002Z

Good morning and welcome to the first link round up for 2012. Before I get to the links I want to say a BIG hello to all my new followers and subscribers - I have over 500 subscribers now....which absolutely blows me away....it's truly amazing. Thank you so much for reading along and supporting this site, and if you haven't already, please say hello. If you're here because you're trying to get debt free I'd love to hear from you, then we can all get totally debt free together!

Here are just a few of my favourite posts so far this month;

An Epiphany on Home Ownership at Budgets are $exy
How do you get gazelle when you have nothing left to sell? at Daily Money Shot
How I De-cluttered My Life in 48 Hours at Blonde on a Budget
Create a One Year Financial Plan at Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$
A Five Year Financial Plan at Debt Free by 30
How we're saving money this winter with our heat at Making Sense of Cents
Double The Funds, Double The Fun at Minting Nickels

Okay that's it from me. I'm working this afternoon and tonight we're watching a film - Sarah's Key. Have a great day and remember: Be frugal out there! ;)

Further reading from me over at Move to Portugal:

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The Sealed Pot Challenge

2012-01-12T16:48:00.002Z

My friend saving for travel started the sealed pot challenge back in December and because I love a challenge I had to join in. I'll let sft explain the aim of the challenge;

Little bits and bobs of money are squirrelled away in an assortment of SEALED POTS and the result is....A NICE CHUNK OF MONEY JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS, OR TO PUT TOWARDS HOLIDAYS... OR A TREAT, OR LOTS OF FUN when we open them in DEC 2012!Following the CHALLENGE couldn't be easier as you simply get a pot (mine is an old gravy tub but others have posher types), make a hole for cash (if not provided), make sure it's sealed so you can't open it, chuck your spare cash in it and then ON THE 3RD DEC WE WILL OPEN THEM TOGETHER! It's not a competition, we just will support each other here to keep going with ANOTHER CRAZY SCHEME TO SAVE MONEY!

As luck would have it it's our wedding anniversary in early December and so it seemed the obvious thing for me to save for. I'll definitely have enough for a meal out, but I'm hoping to be able to surprise hubby with a night in a hotel, the one where we got married. :)

Now just in case you thought that I was good a crafting let me present to you my sealed pot:

Oh the horror! It does the job though.....lol....:)

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Ways to get out of debt

2012-01-11T16:18:00.000Z

The following is a guest post.

There are a huge number of sites that offer debt advice but despite having paid off a large amount of debt myself, I rarely do it. I've always had a simple approach to paying off debt and that is: cut your outgoings as much as you can by focusing on your needs, not your wants, and then channel as much of your spare money as possible to your debt.

If I was to offer debt advice then after reducing your expenses I would then tell you to start increasing your earnings potential. This may be at your current place of work by working smart and getting a promotion, or by taking on another job outside of your working hours. Please do remember though, the trick is to increase your earnings, without increasing your outgoings. I originally worked myself up the career ladder and increased my spending to go along with it. Then all that happened was that I ended up further in debt.

Something else that is so important to do when you’re trying to get out of debt is to stop spending immediately on anything non essential. Spending on meals out, books etc has to stop. As soon as you have that light bulb moment you need to stop spending on credit cards immediately. You have to resolve there and then to stop using them. If you dare to, cut them up and start using cash. If you’re not quite feeling that brave, then put them in the freezer for the short term and resolve to cut them up in a month or two.

After doing all that you could then start to sell your stuff. You’ll be amazed at how much you can make through off loading your possessions. I had great success selling a lot of my clothes on line. Obviously you’re not going to get back the price that you paid for them, but anything that you do make is money that can go towards your debt.

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January No (Low) Spend Challenge Update #2

2012-01-11T07:44:00.001Z

My No (Low) Spend Challenge is going really well, and up until now I've managed to avoid any personal spending at all this month, but it's about to end as I have to post a parcel to my son.

When he went back to university after the holidays he left a few t-shirts behind and he 'needs' them, so I promised to send them to him. To save on costs I turned a clothing shop carrier bag (very strong) inside out to use as a posting bag. I've also avoided further spending by writing thank you letters (for Christmas gifts) instead of buying Thank You cards - the letters seemed much nicer anyway and I'm going to do that again. Luckily I had stamps in my purse.

For entertainment we've taken advantage of our free for January film subscription - so far we've watched Larry Crowne and The Switch - however there's no chance of hubby getting bored at all this month as there's lots of football (NFL, College and Soccer), on the TV! I've been keeping busy with a little de-cluttering and sorting out. And walking. Lots of walking! I don't like it, but I've been forcing myself!

How's your No (Low) Spend Challenge going? Is it making you resourceful?

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Grocery Spending #2 (January 2012)

2012-01-10T08:33:00.000Z

It's my goal to keep our grocery spending below £2,600 (£50 per week, £216.67 per month) for 2012. We are three adults and one extra during school holidays. I'm trying to eat healthily and lose weight, as well as move further towards a more local/organic diet. I shop once a week (supermarket and farm shop).

You can tell from the products that I bought on this weeks grocery run that I'm in a better food frame of mind, but, it remains to be seen if we can continue to eat like this on a £50 a week budget. A lot of these products were on offer and M. is working away a lot - so no packed lunches need to be made for him.

Total spent: £43.27

£1.00 Carrots
£1.89 Apples
£0.87 Mushrooms
£1.12 Broccoli
£1.55 Bananas
£1.00 Onions
£2.00 Potatoes x 2 (£3.30)
£2.53 Butternut Squash
£2.00 Seeded Bread (£2.60)
£1.55 Branflakes
£1.59 Sweetcorn x 3
£1.38 Chopped Tomatoes x 2
£2.50 Crisps (£3.04)
£1.35 Oreos
£1.75 Raisins
£1.48 Yogurt
£0.98 Natural Yogurt x 2
£0.42 Water
£2.15 Sausages
£4.00 Chicken x 2
£5.00 Pasta Tomato Sauce x 3 (£8.34)
£0.80 Value foil
£1.99 Toilet Rolls
£1.50 Value Micro Fibre Clothes
£0.87 Refuse sacks

Total grocery spending for January
£93.03/£216.67

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Menu Plan Monday (Lots of veggies)

2012-01-09T12:01:00.000Z

I made a mad dash to the supermarket this morning (hubby needed the car back) and despite forgetting to eat breakfast before going, I made (mostly) good food choices. Lots of veggies! So here is a quick menu plan as I'm now rushing to get ready for work. I'm not sure where the time went this morning! Anyway here we go..

Monday: Organic Pork Sausages with Roasted Veggies
Tuesday: Soup and Rolls
Wednesday: Pasta, Tuna and Sweetcorn Mix
Thursday: Stir Fry Chicken + Noodles with Veggies
Friday: Spaghetti Bolognese (with veggies)
Saturday: Vegetable Pizza with Home made Potato Wedges
Sunday: Beef Burgers/Mushroom Burger

For further menu plan ideas please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

Have a great day! What's on your menu this week?

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Weekly Spending Update - January 2012 #1

2012-01-08T07:30:00.000Z

Monday:
£42.40 Grocery

Tuesday:
No spend day

Wednesday:
No spend day

Thursday:
No spend day

Friday:
No spend day

Saturday:
£6.37 Grocery
£0.99 Grocery (White Vinegar)

Sunday:
No spend day

Woot!! I got through the first week of Carla's No (Low) Spend Challenge, managing 5 no spend days. I'm so pleased because it's getting me in the right frame of mind for the other 51 weeks in 2012.

I'm also doing Saving For Travel's Sealed Pot Challenge and this week I dumped quite a few coins out of my purse into my pot - I get paid weekly and most of it goes into the checking account (£520 a month), but I get an odd pound and some change as well, which I just put into my purse for the occasional grocery items I need to buy from the local shop. This week I bought some vinegar, which I use for cleaning.

How did your first week of the challenge go?

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Ongoing 2012 Financial Goals Progress #1

2012-01-06T08:30:00.000Z

Our December budget was our first budget for 2012, so to track our annual financial goals progress I'll be doing a monthly report around this time every month.

1) Reduce the mortgage to less than £83,000 by December 31st 2012. The starting balance of our mortgage for this goal was £106,322.34. The regular monthly payment + overpayment (£1,457.66) went through on the 1st and the balance is now £104,411.74. - £21,411.74 to go!

2) Contribute/save at least £3,000 to our future financial freedom. We made a pension contribution of £201.34.

3) Save at least £1,000 for house repairs. Added £53.21 with leftover budget money.

4) Save £900 for gifts. We made a budgeted deposit of £75 to this account + added an extra £4 to round down our checking account. Balance £79.00

5) Save £1,300 for a family holiday. Because of the extra income I earned in December, we were able to add £650 to this goal.

6) Save £4,000 for a trip to Washington/NY in 2013. No change.

7) Save £700 for a mini break to Italy. No change.

How often do you track your financial goals?

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January No (Low) Spend Challenge #1

2012-01-05T08:16:00.000Z

January is a great month to do a 'No Spend Month' or even a 'Low Spend Month' and so when Carla announced the challenge I didn't hesitate to sign up. What a great way to start 2012, by attacking your financial goals from the outset!

Day 5 of the challenge and so far so good. I'm trying to go the whole month without any personal or miscellaneous spending and to date I'm doing okay - I've spent zilch! But there's still 26 days to go and so I must.remain.focused.

My rules:

No miscellaneous spending at all (I normally have a budget of £80)
Keep the grocery budget below £180 (Normal budget £216.67)

Grocery: So far I've spent £42.40 and later today I'm going to update my food inventory and make a plan for the whole of January. I may even take pictures as I need to kick my own dieting butt and there's nothing like full food cupboard exposure to do that! I'm even thinking of starting a weight loss diary over at Move to Portugal....I probably need to get brave and just do it - I need to make myself accountable. Anyway enough rambling for now. If you're taking part in the challenge. Keep going and good luck. :)

Are you taking part in the 'No (Low) Spend Challenge'? If so how are you doing?

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