September Spending Challenge

September Spending Challenge

Hello!
I've not been on blogger in yonks. But I'm back to participate in my friends September Shopping Challenge 2016.

Lori has 5 rules for her challenge.
Grocery Shopping - she is allowing herself two days a week for getting the messages in.
Budgeting - they have fluff money, she is aiming to use that after paying all bills etc instead of before.
Spending money - aims to keep better track of this as currently tied up with the grocery account.
No Spend Days (NSD) - she has firm no spending on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and only spending on the 2 days she does the grocery shopping.
Exceptions - they are allowed to eat out 1 night a week using only their spending money.

Lori is a family of 5 with both parents working, mine will be slightly different but sticking with her 5 rules, to fit my family of 2.

Grocery Shopping/ messages - I'm going to allow myself 1 'big' shop per week to get all the essentials in, and 1 top up/forgot shop.
Budgeting - I'm going to meal plan and actually stick with it. I've never managed to do a meal plan before that I have ever stuck to so this will be the big challenge for me.
Spending money - I need to work out how much spending money I actually have, how much I can give as pocket money.
No Spend Days (NSD) - aiming for 15 NSD, so that is 10 days of actual spending on the messages i.e. food, cat food, clothes, toiletries etc. and 5 other days where I can spend on what I deem essential non-essential items. Kind of goes with the spending money as it may not be food/clothing related, but it might, so giving myself this lee way for my first challenge.
Exceptions - Christmas shopping. If I spot a bargain, I'll pick it up, like last night Lego was half price on some kits, so I picked up 3, one for my nephew and 2 for my son.


My NSD doesn't count things like direct debits, standing orders or my son's fitness activities. These will be factored into the budget, but not included when assessing NSD's as some of these are cash only on the day.
Similarly any activities I plan for myself, will be in the budget but not classed as a spend day even if it falls outwith those 10/15 shopping days, as they are planned for activities that I can't pay any other way.

We go watch Ice Hockey. It starts back in September. I plan on including treats as part of my food budget and take the stuff with us, if we don't have anything with us, then we don't get to eat at the game, its not going to kill us, we won't starve, and the kid will probably moan, but that's great character building stuff, right?
Same goes for at Ice hockey practice, it takes us an hour to get there and an hour back. I will start packing lunch again.

I've went through my bank accounts and recorded everything on this great wee spreadsheet. For August their are cash things that are not included , I'll add them if I remember them but for September I WILL FILL IT IN!
Every single day!

Night 17

I got my laptop back on Sunday, I ordered a new cable for the power pack. i installed all my security that was recommended to me. And i properly joined in with a conversation on my facebook with my friends. Then it was half eleven before i knew it. Jumped to bed haha


In the past few days I have had 3 people tell me they have not slept 'for worrying'.

I don't shout about it, but I work for a debt collection company. I have to call people and ask when the next payment will be because that have missed the one they were supposed to be paying. I'm actually supposed to call and try and get a payment asap. I can't force myself to add to someones problems so I ask when the next payment will be and advise what happens if no paymnet made, and ALWAYS stress to them that if they can't make it to call us before so we can work something out.

Back to the worry over debt affecting your sleep.
Back in the day, when my depression was really bad, I could NOT sleep. No matter what I done. I was constantly tired. I would force myself to be busy during the day to tire myself out, yet come bed time, my brain just didn't shut off. The nights that were the worst was those ones where your eyes are asleep, but you are not. Not the same as the ones with your eyes open just thinking, this is the one that you sometimes have before you drift of, a bit like purgetory, you know, just outside the land of nod. I hated those nights.
And still do if I get them

When I was a student, I picked Stress as a subject to write for an English report, and all the fantastic advise out their is 'Don't Stress/Worry about it'.
Easier said than done.
My advise would be 'Take Ownership Of It!'
What is your main worry? I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that most peoples worry boils down to money. So sit yourself down. Get some bank statements/recipets, whatever method you haev used previously for tracking your money.
Write it all down.
Direct Debits - amounts and what dates do they come out.
Standing Orders -amounts and when they come out.
Cash Bills - When do they need to be paid.

Now your Income
When do you get paid?
Extra money?
Benefits?

Does  it add up?

If you look at my mock, (figures estimates and some things missing) you will see that out of £1000, my direct debits and standing orders leave me with £ 241 each month. I now need to divy that between everything else like food, groups for Lyle and petrol. Novemebr was a 4 week month so 4 x £3 for Lyles Karate
£241-£12 = £229 (karate)
£229 - £40 = £189 (diesel)
£189 - £50 = £139 (savings)
£139/4 = £34.75 (weeks)

£34.75 each week to buy food, days out, birthdays, school extras/fun days/donations etc

a 5 week month is a lot less, cause its £15 for karate, £50 for diesel,  savings stay the same.
£126 a month or £25.20 per week. for absolutely everything else.

Now, when I had debt and train fare to add into that, and not as much income (my monthly income was £299, and from that I had to still pay the mortgage, £135 train fare, £410 every 4 weeks for child care, no c/tax as i was a student, no benefits as i was a student, i did get child benefit, i got NO help towards child care, in all honesty I do not know how i survived! I did have an £800 overdraft, and I was really extremely lucky if i ever had £50 of actual money in the bank, most times it sat at minus x hundred.), I did not put anything away for savings.

My advise. Own the money that u have.
Call up any companies you owe money to. Tell them exactly what you have. Ask for an Income and Expenditure form, fill it in, put in an offer of payment. If you have a few companies to pay, show what you are offering to all the companies. See if you can offer a smaller amount just now to get another bill paid off quicker, then splitting the money you would normally pay once cleared, between the remaining companies. Try and show time scales. Advise what the alternative is i.e. not paying anyone and going down the bankruptcy route, where no one benefits. 

Do this over one week, If you can, get to a CAB or Financial Fitness or Money Matters type place, get them to help.
In the mean time CUT OFF everything that is of no need.
cable/sky tv? really you NEED this? can u not survive without your eyes glues to the telly?
tv licence? if you can do away with your tv altogether then even better. (stay within the law on watching play back tv)
coffee? I've never understood the NEED for coffee shops coffee, especially not at £2 or £3 for a coffee/tea/hot chocolate. buy a jar and make it at home, take in a carry mug/jar thing you know, the insulated travel mug.
mobile fone? is it imperative that you are contactable every minute of the blimmin day?
Internet? can u use the library/works net instead?

Every family is different. Back then I chose to keep both my fone and virgin package.
My fone was £15/m on the plan i had. i needed the internet for uni. to get rid of my tv package and take a net only package would have worked out more per month. i did check it out.
I didnt do charity shops then, i do now tho. I became an expert at shopping at tesco. knowing when certain foods went on sale, i learned how to cook good food cheaply and quickly

It is do-able. It is hard, but to get to a stage where I am no longer scrimping to get by. I am not well off, but i have less worries and i sleep more and that my friend, is the aim of my game!

No Christmas Cards please,

We're frugals! and givers. Just not wasters of money (postage), and trees!
I do have cards that i got in the sales a few years back that son will be giving to those in his class as it helps with his writing.



22 meals for £3. You say it can't be done? A Girl Called Jack says otherwise.
I have not been on her blog for a long while, but had a wee look at that post today, which ties in with me not sending out christmas cards IF i see you daily, instead I am donating food to the local food bank and church.

It won’t be easy, but you will have encouragement.
It won’t be without pitfalls, but you will have someone to pull you out.
It won’t be without personal challenges but you will have cheerleaders to get you through.
It won’t be without dark days but we will help you see the light.  - NinjaSavingKat



Just Say No November - I would love to join in these types of challenges, butt he way I shop it is not possible. Although with a bit more organising I'm sure I could.

Homemade Washing Powder

Making your own Washing Powder:

You will need
Borax
Soda Crystals
Soap Flakes

The recipe I had was something like this; 6 cups of soap flakes, 3 cups of soda crystals, and 1.5 cups of borax.
What I do is slightly over half fill my glass jar with Soap Flakes, then half fill the remaining space with Soda Crystals and then half fill again the remaining space with Borax.

This works for me. I use roughly 1 tablespoon of this shaken powder for a big load or dirty washing, and roughly 1 teaspoon for small loads. I put it in the drum with the clothes.
There is no 'smell' with this.

To add scent, I use essential oils instead of Fabric Conditioner depending on what I am washing.
My 'go to' oils are Tea Tree, Lavender, Lemon, Cinnamon, Citronella and Patchouli. Citronella is a new one for the summer, to TRY and reduce the amount of Midgies that attack.

Christmas cakes for teachers

I made banana cupcakes for lyles teachers and support teachers, I iced them with cinnamon butter icing, that sort of tasted like ice cream!
Some have the little toppers, edible snowflakes and some glitter sugar.
I would really love to go to a cake decorating class.
Boxes and toppers came from Wilkinsons, snowflakes from lakelands and sugar glitter from Tesco .

Miss Turtle

Here is Miss Turtle, for Lucy Elizabeth, given as a christening present.

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square 2

I knew I would not have enough wool to do same as square 1, so tried a fancy granny square, my first time doing long stitches. It is 1 or 2 rows short :(

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square 1

This is square 1 of the new blanket.
38 chain
Sc, ch1
That is all.

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Puffy Blanket

My pattern for this Puffy Blanket is:
Using 2 balls of wool simultaniously (it is a wool eater!!! you have been warned.)

In multiples of 3, chain to desired legnth (I done 30 lots of 3) plus 2

Row 1: single crochet into 2nd chain from hook, 2 double crochets in same stitch,
skip 2
repeat til end
chain 2 and turn
Row 2: single crochet into the next single crochet space, 2 double crochets in the same space/stitch,
repeat till end
chain 2 and turn
Row 3+: Repeat Row 1 and 2 until desired legnth.

I shall add a picture when it is finished

This would also make a lovely warm scarf. Working with 90 clusters (+2) as a measurement should give a good legnth to the scarf.

If you use this pattern, please can you link back to me on blogs and pictures (including via facebook and any other social networking site)

You can use this pattern to make to give as gifts or to sell as well, but please always link back to here
thank you and enjoy :)

Peter Pan

I left the seams and stitching visable, as i thought it looked better, and more like what a child left to their own devices would do

Baby Slippers

Baby Slippers, the cream are georgous!

Christmas Tree

got pattern from Crochet Today, should be a garland of trees to hang up, but I made them individually

Thank You

Made this for my sons nursery when he finished up last summer.

Jumbo Cupcake

My Jumbo Cupcake
decorated by my 3 year old son :)

I did have more pics, but they must not be uploaded to the comp yet.

Need to find cake boxes big enough to fit so I can use as birthday presents.

Getting decorated 

 

 also need to get better at piping icing

Baby Blankets

Some Pictures of different baby blankets i have done.

 This one is cream and lilac, think it was my first attempt at a granny square blanket

This blanket i made as part of my sons nursery 'world around us' thingy, they send them all off to an orphanage in romania at end of Jan.
Took me 2 weeks, i get bored very easily, so gave up rather quickly... the wool was donated to the nursery

I am rather please with the way it turned out, and i only had to buy 1 more navy wool to get it to that size.

I love this blanket, although the pictures are not of it completed. i added on little pink bows about 5 rows up, so it could be folded over or out flat and would have them as a nice border.
The blanket looks small, but it stretches out and is made to fit a car seat - the recipiant said it fits perfect in their pram

basket weave

The Basket Weave stitch i followed from TJW1965 on You Tube.
I got soo many comments about this scarf and hat that it always made me smile :)
(please excuse the mess in the background or the fact my son is a little, erm lacking in clothes.! )

Baby Booties

 My First ever pair of baby booties made, got the pattern from a knitting mag extra, cant find it now to give the details unfortunately, or to make some more!
I do find these very cute
I used a baby wool which has a sparkle going through the wool so the booties look nice and 'glittery'

 made a pair of baby high tops, but missed 3 rows that would make them taller (do'h)

Baby Blocks

 This one i sewed up instead of crochetting up, and was the first one i done, so i was really please with it

These are all knitted, think it was 16 stitches by 27 rows, then crocheted together, then i cut out letters from felt and sewed on.
i stuff with toy stuffing and in some i added a few small bells so they made a noise when the baby shakes them.

They can go in the washing machine, and so far, no one has said that they come apart.
make a great wee christening present.
and relitively quick to make (for me, a few hours spread over a week and 1 was done)