Savings

I have saved the overpayment for the car for the January already see here for my plans with this, so I have turned my focus to save an emergency fund as prompted by Elaine over at mortgage free in 3.
I had already began to think about setting up one, using an old passbook savings account
I have at the building society. Reading through Elaine's January challenge has prompted me to pull on my big girl knickers and get on with it!
I have my notebook sorted;

that little grid has 100 squares on it- £5.00 per square every time I send money across I colour in the corresponding amount of squares- I like to see how quickly they are filling up- I'm already on my second row!I can't wait until they are full, I like to meet a challenge.
I have also been recording in my little diary what I spend each day;

and any no spend days- I have already completed 5 no spend days this year. Only 235 no spend days to go to reach my target for 2014!

How are you goals for 2014 coming along?

Insurance

This month my car insurance is due. This means that I spend a while on various comparison websites trying to get the cheapest deal possible.

This year I was pleasantly surprised. The quote I have received from the insurers I have been with previously increased every year, despite me not having any accidents/ speeding points or other offences which may affect my premiums. This means that I never stay with the same insurer, I change yearly. The worst has to be the year an insurer wanted to double my premium!

So once I received the renewal letter I started to search all those sites we know the adverts for, then I looked on quidco and topcashback to see what their searches all say. Even taking into account the cash back available from these sites. My current insurer are the cheapest this year- my premium has even gone down! I am so pleased. As I pay monthly it works out at  around £4.00 a month cheaper this year. I am a happy bunny.

Making the most of what we have

If I am to achieve all of my savings goals we also need to make the most of what we already have. I have a full freezer, a full store cupboard and lots in the fridge. I don't want ot waste any of it. We will be eating out of these for the next month- longer if I can stretch it that far and I'm sure I can.

Here are some pictures of what we have eaten so far:

 
 
Yummy toad in the holes. I stopped making toad in the hole as I don't like soggy bottoms. I saw the idea for making mini ones over on Elaine's blog. Such a common sense idea- and perfect. We no longer are put off by soggy bottoms. These were delicious.

Dylan made these yummy meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce, using only items from the kitchen.

this was left over roast lamb, my stir's contribution to Christmas lunch. Eaten with some salad etc lurking in the fridge.

 

Stuffed peppers, more of the lurking salad and some cous cous

These bananas were turned into 2 banana loaves. Which once cooked and cooled were sliced and put into portions before freezing.

This is the left over turkey portion up before it went in the freezer.

These were all organised/eaten over the Christmas period.
Yesterday Dylan and I had some of the party food I bought on half price. The day before was enchiladas. They were made all slightly different as Stephanie doesn't like spicy food so has hers plan. I had mushrooms added to my chicken as they needed using. Dylan doesn't like mushrooms so had his with just meat. I used an approved foods enchilada kit. They were either 99p or 2 for 99p, either way very cheap!

 

 
 here they all are plated up!
Today we are having a roast- gammon from the freezer, veg and potatoes already in and the Yorkshires made from what was already in the kitchen. I have made enough to plate up a dinner each as a microwave dinner for after school tomorrow. Fast and easy as I know we are all gong to be tired, first day back is always a killer!
I have also portion up some fruit salad;

This melon doesn't look so great does it! Would be tempting to just through it out. But look;

inside it is still perfect!

I sliced it all up and put it in a Tupperware;

perfect for snacking on/ throwing in the blender for  a busy breakfast smoothie. I then added in this reduced water melon I bought on Friday.

 

looks like a perfect snack doesn't it. I was so good and didn't pick any- the smell of dinner cooking kept me on the straight and narrow! LOL

 

 
 

 I didn't waste the skins either- slice them up lots smaller and into the compost they went. Wait a few months and perfect compost for our garden. There has been a busy spider out there this afternoon, let's gloss over the spider dance to get tot the compost bin!



I am also trying to reduce our inedible waste so have started to save milk bottles to make a living garden fence; I have two like this so far;

I can't wait to get them planted up- the plan is for my own version of this to develop;


(picture from google)

 

Making the most of it!

As a family we hold several membership cards;
1.national trust, costs me £55.50 per year
 2.English heritage, £37.00 per year
3.gym membership 18.00 for me £10.00 for Dylan per month so yearly costs- £336!
4. zoo membership. £23 for me £19.95 per child (although Dylan's dad paid for his) so cost me £31.95 per year.

So for memberships I am spending a whopping £460.45! Put like that it is a massive amount, now these are all due at different times of the year so I am able to spread them out, but still as a yearly cost that is a lot. I need to know I am getting my moneys worth from each of these.
This year I am planning on tracking our use of each of these to make sure that they are worthwhile for our family. I am adding a page on the blog here so that I can track their use, each time we use one of these cards I will track the visit and the cost had we not got our membership. They need to at least balance with the cost of the membership- although preferably I want them to be saving me money.

Focus

I am determined to maintain focus on being frugal. I do want to still have fun days out though. Back in September I went on a day out to the zoo with family, the entrance fee gives you a year long pass to the zoo so today we went to the zoo. Stephanie wasn't with me when we went before so I had to pay for her today. However when we went to Disneyland we didn't spend all of the money I had saved. I changed up the 75 Euros we had left- it came out at around £55.00- not bad! So I used some of this to pay for Stephanie's entrance fee.

We saved money by taking a pack up. No money spent on food/drink.

We got to see lots of animals very closely. We were following one of the rangers around as he was feeding the big cats. Stephanie was fascinated that they eat horse!

As the zoo was not very busy we were able to get close to all signs/ animals. Stephanie really enjoyed reading all the information boards.

 

We warmed up in the car afterwards with a hot chocolate from the flask I had made.

 

On the way home we popped in Tesco. I got some fruit, milk, yoghurt, bread. I also got a large box of Maryland cookies for £1.50. They have been put away for when we go camping later in the year.

I spent £17.48. So less than the £20.00 I had budgeted for this weeks shopping. I am aiming to spend no more than £20.00 each week. Which means I am going to transfer £2.52 into my 'squirrel account'. For more information on this hop on over to Elaine's blog she explains it here. I am following Elaine's "30 days of thrift" throughout January in order to help build up an emergency fund. I am 9% of the way towards my goal already.

I then filled the car- I have budgeted for £30.00 of fuel per week. I filled up the tank completely the other day to get me started. I plan on keeping the tank full by topping up weekly. So then if I have a week when money really does get tight I shall be able to get to work without worry as I know there is enough in the tank already. I filled it up on the 31st December completely. Today I topped up to have a full tank again I put in 17.98. As it is under the 30.00 level I have sent over the change to my savings- another £12.02 to add to the emergency pot. bringing the total in their up to £58.69! So I am 11% towards my target. Looking at it this week makes it seem so much easier to get to the £500 target. Shifting small amounts of money as and when it's available.

 

 

Bucket list item number 30

Last night we decided to have a campout in our living room, this is item number 30 on my  bucket list.
My niece and nephew also came to stay so this was great fun for the children. The littlest is only 3 and managed to stay awake until just before 9, The girls went to sleep shortly after 10. Dylan decided it was uncomfortable and went up to bed once my nephew had fallen asleep!

we watched the Disney film brave and had home made popcorn in bed before we went off to sleep. I shared the pictures with my sister on Facebook and now have envy from my other nieces and nephews that didn't come. Apparently we will be doing this more now. I'm pleased as it is fun and the children loved it. I was a little worried that they would be uncomfortable and wake up in the night demanding beds- in fact they didn't wake until 8 am! Result!

|So items on the bucket list are happening, which is fantastic I like that we are being able to have different experiences. Stephanie has added an item of her own- she wants to go to the play park in the dark. The weather has been rather wet to enjoy a play park with out getting soaked at the moment, however, it is dry today- who knows what we will do this evening especially if the weather stays dry :-)

Progress

Item number 27 on my bucket list is to make myself a winter cardigan/ jumper. On Saturday I decided I would make a start on this as I knit slowly, it'll be ready for next winter.

However, I have been enjoying a few days of doing not a lot I have not felt like going anywhere so I have sat on the sofa watching TV interspersed with a few short visits out. I have managed this;

Yep, a whole back of a cardigan for myself has emerged off of the needles. I have surprised myself with how much I have achieved knitting wise. The rest of the cardigan won't happen so quickly as I am back to work next week. Who knows I may manage to complete this by the end of this winter.

We have plans to complete several more items off of the list by the end of 2014, stand by whilst I make plans to help with this.