Frugal Things We Did This Week

So the most frugal thing I did this week was to keep on checking the bank account to make sure that all the transactions I had recorded were showing up. The bank account balance is often a few days out of date so then you think that you have more money than you actually have. I keep a running total on the wall by the computer which I update daily. Today the back account number is more than £100 above what I know we actually have as the credit card payment has not recorded yet. We have a card for the points to earn money off the grocery shopping and pay it off every month.

I have also been using the envelope system this month and that was helpful as it showed that I only had a little bit left in the grocery budget until next week when I can go and do the big shop for February. This was helpful as I was very tempted at the start of the week to put in a big order to a discount grocery retailer called Approved Foods. They had 16kg of organic bread flour for £9.99. This was a good price per kilogram and we bake every day at the moment. However, seeing how little the grocery budget was made me think twice and then reckon in the delivery cost of £8.99. This took the price above the local one per kilogram and made me delete the order. If I hadn't been using the envelope system I think that I would have made the order. Instead I made a menu plan until the end of the month using up what we had in hand.

I still haven't been to IKEA to spend my voucher so the petrol is lasting quite well. I returned some library books to avoid a fine. Parcelled up some more books for ziffit.com and sold one on Amazon. It's nice to think that a book we found helpful in the past is going off to help someone else.

We didn't book tickets for a Summer holiday after costing it all out and realising that we would be better to save up first. That was hard for me as I love booking a holiday and then spending lots of time researching the destination and planning what we are going to do. But instead I entered lots of holiday competitions and dreamed about winning !

It is still pretty cold here so we've been staying home and exercising inside so that has saved lots of money too !

Next week I'll reckon up exactly how much we have spent this month but inspite of unexpected expenses I think that we have been able to stick to the budget. Fingers crossed !