Money Matters

I have been monitoring money a lot this year, and cutting back where I can. Very few impulse buys happening now. I am not perfect I occasionally buy things just because. But never things costing very much.

I have been earning money where I can, I have had payouts from quidco and topcashback as well as inboxpounds. I have sold several things on ebay. I have been keeping stock of what we have. We have been eating out of the freezer since February we are getting down to the last few dregs now but will keep going until it is empty without buying anything.

I have also cancelled our gym membership. I have been paying £28.00 per month. Yet adding up the cost of visits we have only used £33.10 worth of visits since January so I shall be going pay-as-you-go from now on!

Even the children are getting used to me counting the pennies, Dylan can understand the price labels in the supermarket and work out which item is the most cost effective based around price per kilo etc. Stephanie reads the money side of the labels and will tell me which is cheapest. They will both usually choose something to ask for because 'this one costs less'. I think these are fantastic skills for them to build on which will hopefully pay off well for them when they are running their own homes. Even if Stephanie is adamant that she will be living with me forever. I am under no illusions this opinion will change a lot over the coming years.

I like to have something to look forward to and for us it is the coming May half term. We are planning on shaking out the tent from it's winter storage and heading off to somewhere like Devon. Usually we will decide as a family. The last couple of time we have been away we have surprised
Stephanie by not telling her where we are going. She has requested that this time we don't tell Dylan and surprise him.

If the site we are looking at has availability it will cost us about £13 per night. We will take most of the food from our cupboards with us meaning that this little holiday will be very inexpensive. The area we are looking at has lots of walks, beaches etc nearby so will be very much in our price range.

Looking forward to some lovely quiet time. Oh yes campsite says no signal on site for mobiles. It really will be peaceful :-)

Photo taken from internet, not my tent :-)