1st Jan:
Budget: £2
Happy New Year!! Party's over now; I worked today in the afternoon, and spent all of the morning recovering from New Years Eve party! That's all good though, as I haven't spent a penny - which means £4 to spend tomorrow. Tom has also spent nothing. Easy peasy!! We have worked out between us, however, that we may not have a huge bundle of cash left at the end of the month, because there is an outstanding parking ticket to be paid, I owe gas money, my sign language course installment will be coming out, and I have dry cleaning to pick up. Damn. Just as well we're too tired to go out and spend anything then, really!
2nd Jan:
Budget: £4
We looked in the fridge this afternoon and discovered we actually need some more food already - it seems brussell sprouts left over from Christmas are no good anymore... We went to ASDA with a grand total of £8 to spend, and we HAD to come back with loo roll, milk and washing powder at the very least. So imagine how chuffed we were: we managed to buy crisps, some veg, bread and butter, plus the necessaries, for £6.50! It was actually quite a fun game, finding the cheapest and best deals as we went around. We made a slap-up meal too of jacket spuds with chicken mayo, courtesy of my parent's pub, and some soup left over in the back of the fridge. I also made a banana cake with ingredients already in my store cupboard at 10pm at night, it was HUGE! It will serve as a welcome, free, treat with a cuppa tea when we start to feel depressed we can't afford to go anywhere!
3rd Jan:
Budget: £2.75
Long day at work today, and so didn't come home until 6pm. Using our food contribution system at work, Tom rustled up a tasty tomato beef casserole that kept us going until dinner time, then I had my usual 'frugal-tastic' meal of pepper and plum (I got this recipe from a very frugal person I know; half the pepper and the plum, taking out stones and seeds etc, then roast them together and finish off with a grating of parmesan cheese. Absolutely gorgeous, you get this sort of sweet'n'sour effect with the juices) ...And it only costs about 75p!
4th Jan:
Budget: £4.75
I got a phonecall from my Grandma today to say she'd been to M&S and bought me and Tom a load of reduced food for £12 - literally amazing! We got hotpots, risottos, vegetarian parcels and beef in yorkshire pudding. It helps that my Grandpa works for M&S and has a discount card that gets them 20% off whatever they buy! So long as Tom and I don't spend any money tomorrow, we can afford it all :)
5th Jan:
Budget: £0.75!!
Thankfully, I worked all day again today, and Tom's parents fed us dinner. It's nice to know, though, that there is in fact food at home for us when we want it. Interestingly, we never had this much food in our fridge and freezer before we started doing this. Yesterday I looked through my bank statements online, and every transaction made in a supermarket was atleast £20 or more in the last two months, and there were several of those kinds of transactions a week. I've not even spent £20 yet this week, and I have more food than ever... how does that work?!?!
6th Jan:
Budget: £2.75
A rare simultaneous day off for both of us today, and we spent the first half of the day in Berkhamsted doing jobs that needed doing, and sadly that included paying bills etc :( I needed to buy a birthday gift for my friend Jenn Allen, and so grabbed a purse in a charity shop for a small amount of my budget, then decorated it by hand when I got home. It raised the question of whether birthday presents fell into the 'necessary purchases' category, or the 'frivalous items that could wait' category - what do you think?? I decided that, as I spent SO LITTLE on Jenn's gift, it didn't affect my budget this time. Striving for an evening activity, we went swimming as we can go for free with our direct debited membership, which was also good for our waistlines as well as our wallets!! Today was, however, the first day that a budget meal disappointed us, although it could have been more down to the fact I didn't really know what I was doing; I tried to make a tortilla, with sausages, canalinni beans and sliced potatos and cheese, but it tasted pretty grim... Eugh. Really craved a takeaway, not gonna lie!!
7th Jan:
Budget: £4.75
Tricky one, tonight... Birthday meal for Jenn at possibly one of the most expensive bar/restaurants in Berkhamsted, The Kings Arms. I made sure I ate (the rest of the rancid tortilla) before I came out, and had planned to only drink lime and soda waters. It was actually an awesome night: turn's out that Jenn is friends with a chef couple, the man who is in fact Dave Philpot, winner of Best Scotch Egg of 2011!! I also met a lady called Caz who is embarking on her own crafty business this year, and has a superb product to offer the world! Watch this space for more details, I will definitely be pushing her name to you!! Jenn and Aly already knew of my £2-frugalness, but people were very interested to hear how I was doing. Dave Philpot ordered the Kings Arm's scotch egg starter (obviously!!) and after taking a bite and giving it a mark out of 10, offered me the rest to eat myself, even though I insisted I was OK! Chris, Jenn's boyfriend, bought wine and Prosecco for the table, so I got a glass of each, and Aly bought cupcakes with candles in for Jenn's birthday treat. Both of my lime and sodas came to £1.80 together, and that is literally all I spent, all night!! However, it did make me wonder whether people thought I was just being tight: no one had to give me food, or buy me a drink, but they were very eager to do so, so it would have been rude to say no!
Long day at work today, and so didn't come home until 6pm. Using our food contribution system at work, Tom rustled up a tasty tomato beef casserole that kept us going until dinner time, then I had my usual 'frugal-tastic' meal of pepper and plum (I got this recipe from a very frugal person I know; half the pepper and the plum, taking out stones and seeds etc, then roast them together and finish off with a grating of parmesan cheese. Absolutely gorgeous, you get this sort of sweet'n'sour effect with the juices) ...And it only costs about 75p!
4th Jan:
Budget: £4.75
I got a phonecall from my Grandma today to say she'd been to M&S and bought me and Tom a load of reduced food for £12 - literally amazing! We got hotpots, risottos, vegetarian parcels and beef in yorkshire pudding. It helps that my Grandpa works for M&S and has a discount card that gets them 20% off whatever they buy! So long as Tom and I don't spend any money tomorrow, we can afford it all :)
5th Jan:
Budget: £0.75!!
Thankfully, I worked all day again today, and Tom's parents fed us dinner. It's nice to know, though, that there is in fact food at home for us when we want it. Interestingly, we never had this much food in our fridge and freezer before we started doing this. Yesterday I looked through my bank statements online, and every transaction made in a supermarket was atleast £20 or more in the last two months, and there were several of those kinds of transactions a week. I've not even spent £20 yet this week, and I have more food than ever... how does that work?!?!
6th Jan:
Budget: £2.75
A rare simultaneous day off for both of us today, and we spent the first half of the day in Berkhamsted doing jobs that needed doing, and sadly that included paying bills etc :( I needed to buy a birthday gift for my friend Jenn Allen, and so grabbed a purse in a charity shop for a small amount of my budget, then decorated it by hand when I got home. It raised the question of whether birthday presents fell into the 'necessary purchases' category, or the 'frivalous items that could wait' category - what do you think?? I decided that, as I spent SO LITTLE on Jenn's gift, it didn't affect my budget this time. Striving for an evening activity, we went swimming as we can go for free with our direct debited membership, which was also good for our waistlines as well as our wallets!! Today was, however, the first day that a budget meal disappointed us, although it could have been more down to the fact I didn't really know what I was doing; I tried to make a tortilla, with sausages, canalinni beans and sliced potatos and cheese, but it tasted pretty grim... Eugh. Really craved a takeaway, not gonna lie!!
7th Jan:
Budget: £4.75
Tricky one, tonight... Birthday meal for Jenn at possibly one of the most expensive bar/restaurants in Berkhamsted, The Kings Arms. I made sure I ate (the rest of the rancid tortilla) before I came out, and had planned to only drink lime and soda waters. It was actually an awesome night: turn's out that Jenn is friends with a chef couple, the man who is in fact Dave Philpot, winner of Best Scotch Egg of 2011!! I also met a lady called Caz who is embarking on her own crafty business this year, and has a superb product to offer the world! Watch this space for more details, I will definitely be pushing her name to you!! Jenn and Aly already knew of my £2-frugalness, but people were very interested to hear how I was doing. Dave Philpot ordered the Kings Arm's scotch egg starter (obviously!!) and after taking a bite and giving it a mark out of 10, offered me the rest to eat myself, even though I insisted I was OK! Chris, Jenn's boyfriend, bought wine and Prosecco for the table, so I got a glass of each, and Aly bought cupcakes with candles in for Jenn's birthday treat. Both of my lime and sodas came to £1.80 together, and that is literally all I spent, all night!! However, it did make me wonder whether people thought I was just being tight: no one had to give me food, or buy me a drink, but they were very eager to do so, so it would have been rude to say no!
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