Entertaing On A Budget.

How Do?

I do not know about you, but I had such a lovely weekend with my friends it seems a shame to return to work yesterday.

Whilst we were out all the time, it did end up being pretty frugal. I took out £50 for a weekend budget and ended up having a lot left which pleased me.

We were back on Saturday to ThomasLand at Drayton Manor for the little boy to visit. Up early and there for the gates opening at 10.30AM meant we got our money's worth. Closing time was 2.30PM. Only opening 4hrs is a bit of a swindle in my humble opinion, but the 2 yo was shattered and it meant his mum and I could have a quiet 1.5hrs round the shops whilst he slept.

We got in on a 2-for-1 deal, so my half cost £13 including parking, but it is just magical to see the kid's faces. As the main park is still closed and it was another blustery damp day, ThomasLand was quiet and there was little, if no waiting for the rides.  This means the toddlers can be allowed to roam free as there it plenty of space to keep an eye on them. Parents are much more relaxed under such circumstances, and therefore so are the kids.

I learnt my lesson from last time and we took sandwiches and homemade cake to eat. So only bought drinks at total cost of £3.50. I do need to invest in a flask I think.

In fact I only spent £1 whilst we wandered round the shops too.

Having visitors does stretch ones budget, entertaining is not cheap. But, I enjoy doing it and everything does not have to be Cordon Bleu. Am a big fan of home cooking with plentiful portions and tasty sauces. I had planned every meal ahead of schedule.

The homemade pizza went down very well on Friday. (pic to follow later) and I made the Lemon Torte featured on SuperScrimpers last week. It is supposed to feed 8, nope 4 I reckon. My gosh it was so delicious. Especially with a little of an already opened bottle of Bailey poured over. Yum!

Saturday 8AM, I put half of the stewing steak in the slow cooker with mushrooms, onions and a bottle of Guinness. 6 hrs on high then a further 4 on low rendered it so tender a fork made the meat fall apart. Served with a pastry lid, mash and peas, it was pure comfort food after a long day on our feet. (the boy had fish fingers). The meat for that came in at £1.20/portion.

Sunday morning we were out again, so whilst cooking some Pikelets for breakfast I roasted the chicken for lunch too then wrapped it in foil for whilst we were out. Only the veggies to do once we were back.

As expected the Chicken did 2 adults and 1 child's dinner, there is a further 4 more meals there too. Plus Sunday evening after stripping the carcass, I boiled up the bones then added left over potatoes, some stuffing and the remains on the bread sauce. My Sunday lunch soup smells and tastes divine. Frozen now for another day. That means the chicken has done 9 meals, roughly 27p per portion.

I picked up my Avon order yesterday evening at Book Club.

This came to a total of £5.50, but the bath foam will last 3-4months. I could get an alternative brand cheaper, but I do not think it is as indulgent. The hand soap was on special offer for 99P as was the shower gel at the back. They will be kept for when my current ones run out. I only buy these products when there is an incentive to do so. BTW the bath foam was reduced too!

It is back today to the £5 Challenge, I spent £1.09 today so £3.91 to last until Friday.

My savings are still looking pretty healthy, which is good as I am still trying to sort out my new front door.

Frugally yours
Abigail
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To The Batcave! (or the reality of my situation)

It takes me just over an hour to get to work in the mornings and just under to get home in the evenings, at this time of the year when I am leaving home in the dark and getting home in the dark too, I often tend to drive without the radio on for half of my journey and have a quiet muse.

On my most recent journey, I started thinking about my debt and whether the figure I had given you was entirely accurate.

I arrived home and in a very “To The Batcave” moment immediately approached the filing cabinet and began to document exactly where it all lay. Here is the result…

Overdraft           £300.00

Car Loan            £445.00

Credit Card 1      £535.94

Credit Card 2      £709.86

Total                 £1990.80

It seemed I was inaccurate in my earlier post by £40.

However, yesterday was payday and I spent my lunch hour paying my bills immediately. I knocked £111.00 off the car loan meaning that should be paid off by April, and then £25 off each of the credit cards. This is more than the minimum payment, but really is not bringing down the balance by much.

Credit Card 1 has been on a balance transfer rate of about 4% for the life of the balance and since I have not bought anything since doing this it has not worth changing for the time being as it is cheaper than a loan – my priority has been on paying off the car loan and then tackling Credit Card 2.

I really looked at the Credit Card 2 statement yesterday and realised that I am paying £12 in interest every month. My goodness if yesterday I would not pay £3 for a wooden spoon, then you can imagine my reaction to £12. So I applied for a new credit card and was accepted I then arranged a balance transfer and have got 0% for 12Months at a charge of £20.00 for the handling fee this over 12months should save me about £157 in interest and means that at least until the car loan is paid my £25 per month will actually pay off the balance and not half balance and half interest. It will be paid off within the 12months, so another reason I am glad for that 30 minutes quiet time travelling to and from work. 

If I can pay off credit card 2 and the car loan by the end of the year that is a total of £1154 off my debt.

As a slight aside, I do know I have an “excellent” credit rating, but Credit Card 2 actually cancelled their card with me about a year ago. The reason? Well I used to have a balance of circa £7000 with them until a few years ago when I started paying everything off and stopped using the card. It appears they do not like this much and cancelled the card after 18months. They could not ask for the full balance back and I was able to pay off something every month as per normal- but it does make you think doesn’t it? They can cancel your card just because you stopped extending your credit and started paying them back! There is a lesson somewhere in that.

Anyway yesterday, I paid off a total £161 off my debt. Bringing the total down to £1829.80, but interest will be added on for next month.

I also put £300 into savings but I fully expect all of that will be needed to pay for heating over the last 3 months and the bill should arrive shortly.

The one bill I have not paid is service charge for my flat. The Housing Association I have to pay, recently amalgamated with another Housing Association, and suddenly they decided I will not have an annual bill but a monthly one instead of £35.48. I did not realise and have got into 1 months arrears, so I need to toddle off to the post office and pay £70.96. I would point out I have been on the phone to them to complain at their unilateral decision making process. I think I may have used the term “sharks” in there somewhere to the poor chap on the phone.

So perhaps I should document, a free thing that I really love to round off what is actually quite a heavy post. Well this is it…

My bed. I have a kingsize bed all to myself and sleep cocooned like a caterpillar in the sheets. I have a high thread count cotton duvet set bought in better times.  I used to spray the White Company pillow spray on my sheets every night too as I love the smell of rosemary and lavender. However at about £12 per bottle, that has been replaced by the more sensible Avon alternative at about 99p (sleep therapy range) I spray it on then go and have a wash and by the time I go to bed really it smells wonderful and I never have a problem dropping off. Plus sleeping is free – if allowed I could be inherently lazy.

Got some nice plans to the weekend – will share soon.

Frugally yours

Abigail

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