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.