Falling Off The Wagon...

Sorry about not writing for a few days, I got home late on Friday after work. Which meant I had 45 minutes to have a bath and start cooking before The Chap turned up. Then on Saturday we went off to have a mooch round a local retail park and went straight back to his where I stayed until Sunday. The upshot is, I just had no time alone until yesterday afternoon to write a post.

I had a lovely weekend with The Chap as I always do, but I spent most of Sunday feeling guilty for my lack of frugal actions on Saturday. That stopped me posting yesterday, as I decided what to say. After sleeping on it I have decided that if writing on here I have to be honest and document fails as well as successes. More on that later.

I did well last working week, and made the £7.50 cash budget last until Friday, spending £1.70 on the last week day on a drink, crisps and a small chocolate bar, which left me with 41p left over. I am rich! Straight into the rainy day jar.

One of the reasons I was late home on Friday was I did the food shop, I spent more than I needed to as The Chap was eating with me so here it is ..

The total came in at £17.36, but this was mainly due to buying the fresh chicken at £3.30 and philapdelphia etc needed to make a pasta dish. All in all more than I hoped to spend, but I can live with it after all The Chap is definitely worth it. The food I got will last me until the weekend again, so I should not have to buy any extra. Plus work lunches are covered with the tomatoes and loaf of bread.

I did buy that pie dish on Friday lunchtime using some money I had left over from Christmas, I had wanted it for so long and if you have gone away from a potential purchase and still keep thinking about it, then I decided I was justified in buying it. Plus it was only £4.25

 Beautiful isn’t it? I love the colour and the fluted edge. Soon, I think I will have a go at a vegetable pie. Nom nom nom.

Which brings me nicely on to a menu plan for the week.

Breakfast is cereal and work lunches are toast and tomatoes.

Sunday

Lunch – final bit of left over chicken casserole over noodles.

Dinner – I was not hungry, but I did make a bread and butter pudding, here it is should do for a couple of days pudding. The photo looks a bit gross, but it was delicious and made literally by making 3 bread butter and jam sandwiches dipping milk and then chucking in a tin of strawberries and covering with packet custard and then sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30mins on 160. Am sure Jamie Oliver will tell you differently, but hey it works for me and provides a treat for a couple of days for about £1.50 per bowl (4 / 5 servings).

Monday Dinner – Left over frozen chicken pie, with cabbage

Tuesday Dinner – Some kind of egg dish, poached  / boiled etc as home late
Wednesday Dinner – Probably eating with The Chap tbc (either wed or thurs)
Thursday Dinner – Bumped crispy pancakes from last week to finish the box.
Friday Dinner  - Cooking for the chap so a tuna bake probably.

I went through the fridge and the store cupboards this week, and nothing to throw away, so some good news.

Right now that is done, I have to report a massive fail.

Saturday, The Chap and I had decided to have a day out and went to a local retail park, you know the kind of thing 2 supermarkets and lots of supersized stores – M&S, Next, TK Max etc

I fell of the wagon spectacularly, but did not put anything onto a credit card.

Jumper £20
Skirt and tights £29.50
Scarf £20

I know, just horrendous I blew ten days budget in 3 hours. However, I can claw some of it back and am going to return the skirt and tights this week to get my money back as that is one weeks petrol money.

After doing that, I got home on Sunday morning was happily tootling around when an almighty bang was heard. Thinking  “Alien Invasion!” I rushed outside armed with a slightly rusty wok and my fiercest “bugger off” ET face I discovered that a bin cupboard door had blown off in the wind. So I had to organise a repair this morning. Maybe I can claim on the insurance, but not sure as yet. There is still the excess to pay. Though not as much as my neighbour has to pay and as luckily her car cushioned the aforementioned door’s fall. OK Perhaps not so lucky for her…

I washed my car on Sunday and noticed that a small patch of paint has flaked off the bonnet, and so is in need of a repair. Bodywork is always so expensive and I think this will cost up to £200. I need to get a couple of quotes.

The door and car goes to demonstrate how important savings are and also make me feel all the more cross at myself for buying the clothes at the weekend. I really did not need them. Grrrr!

So going forward, I am setting myself a budget of £7.50 again for this week. This will not include petrol or the £15 I need to pay for another 5 weeks of my evening courses.

Pay Day is 11 days away, and then I am going to review all my expenditure for January and the current state of my debts.

A couple of things on my To Do List. I have set myself a deadline of Friday for these .

Sew button on trousers and Coat

Clean one kitchen cupboard

Finish washing and ironing.

Prepare mushroom growing kit.

Put old but working DVD on Freecycle.         

So I do need to hang my head in shame, £40 unnecessary pounds spent, that could have been either saved or £40 off a credit card.

Have you bought anything unnecessary recently that you are cross about? Comment box is now available and I would love to hear from you. Just click on the link below that say “0 comments” it is now enabled.

Must Do Better.

Perhaps Not so Frugally Yours

Abigail

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