February Challenges

So, the grocery budget is staying pretty low and so far I have spent £69.41 on a bulk shop for the month, £10 on school lunches for MasterShoestring and £11.48 on top-up groceries for this week, things like bananas and milk. This makes a grand total of £90.89, so I don't think the spend will be as low as last month's but I still think that we will come in under the £170 budget.

Finally, we did manage to get MasterShoestring some new school shoes, he has gone up a whole size and is now in a Men's size 8. The old ones were a 7 and have lasted the best part of a year so I guess on a cost per wear basis the value for money was not too bad but handing over the £75 for a new pair was painful ! It is budgeted for as we get £82 a month Child Benefit, but I am hoping that if he gets into the 6th Form in September the school no longer insists on black lace up leather shoes !

Spending so much on new shoes and with paying for new trainers still to come, the clothes challenge for MrShoestring and I is even more important. I knew that MrShoestring was really needing a wardrobe clear out, as he had lots of jumpers he never wore. So very reluctantly he agreed to look at every single piece of clothing as I brought them through to the sitting room, where he was nursing a cold in front of the fire !

The end result, 3 bags of clothes for the charity shop, a jumper mended and loads more room in the wardrobe, every shirt and pair of trousers now has its own hanger. Definitely no new clothes needed, just a more efficient use of the old ones !

The gift account got a boost this week as well, as we received an interest payment of £7 and a feed-in tariff payment from the solar panels of £37. The grand total now is just over £90. A few more pounds and we should have enough for the rest of the year !