Its a new dawn, Its a new day, its a new life.....for me.......

......And Im feeling good!


Ok, so correction to yesterdays bill envelopes - I DO NOT pay £1125 a month Water - that would be insane! I am paying £125 this month to catch me up as I missed last months bill due to financial hardship and then each month I will be paying £63.




Now that's cleared up........progress report for yesterday.






I sat down yesterday and wrote a list of all brand named items we have in this house.....granted there aren't many that we actually use other than Heinz ketchup really and Bisto gravy everything is pretty much either Lidls 'Simply' range or Tescos Value.
Either way me and the kids raided the cupboards / Freezer/ Fridge for anything we could and if we could think of a brand name item that was similar we wrote it on our list. Then I looked on Tesco and wrote down every brand name of items I could/would use.


So far we have
Kelloggs
Heinz
Kraft
pedigree
bakers
Iams
Ceaser
Winalot
Bonio
Bob Martin
Good Boy
Misfits
Hi Life
Wagg
Deli Bakie
WEbbox
Oaktree
Branston
Batchelors
Pot Noodle
Kabuto
Meal Shot
Mug Shots
Naked Noodles
Gallo
Campbells
Baxters
Knorr
Smash
Garden Pride
Green Giant
Leo
Napolina
Crosse and Blackwell
Farrows
Cirio
Cook Italian
Parioli
Gia
kingfisher hotdogs
Richmond
bury black pudding
Edwards of Conwy
Walls
Castle Lea
Bernard Matthews
Welsh Pantry
Peperami
Herta
Peters
Ginsters
Lewis
Bisto
Oxo
Colemans
Maggi
Schwartz
Lloyd Grossman
Pataks
Sharwoods
Ragu
Dolmio
homepride
Seeds Of Change
Sacla
discovery
Old El Paso
HP
Nandos
Daddies
Hellmans
Pizza Express
Ocean Spray
lea and perrins
Levi roots
Reggae reggae
Sarsons
Nestle
Dole
Alpen
Quaker Oats
Fuel Energy
Belvita
Chewee
Eat Natural
Frusli
Jordans
Nature Valley Oats
Fruit Bowl
Sun Maid
Whitworths
Phileas Fog
Sensations
KP
Butterkist
Bernard Matthews
birdseye
Hary Ramsdens
Seriously Tasty
country Store
Lakeland
Alyn Valley
Ben & Jerrys
Moo Yoo
Vienetta
Franks
Mackies
Carte D'Or
Daim
HaggenDass
Kellys
mccains
Princes
Lancaster
Pek
spam
Tulip
Ye Olde Oak
Cathedral city Cheese
Pilgrims Choice
Scc dragon
Cadog
Colliers
Pembrokeshire
Calonwen
dairylea
cheesestrings
Laughing Cow
Seriously  spreadable
Low Low
Baby/Bel
Leerdammer
Mexicanna
Castello
Crème De St Agurs
Gallbani
Apetina
Tranos
St Helens Farm
Boursin
Activia
Muller
Village Dairy
Shape
SKi
Yeo Valley
Onken
Rachels
Danio
Liberte
Danone
Total
Rumblers
Frubes
Munch bunch
Petit Filous
Wildlife choobs
Actimel
Yakult
Jacobs
Kenco
Nescafe
Carte Noire
Maxwell house
Rappor
Douwe Egberts
Uncle Bens
nestle
ANCHOR
UTTERLY BUTTERLY
FLORA
Country Life
Kerrygold
Lurpak
Shirgar
Bertolii
President
Clover
I cant believe its not butter
Vitalite
Stork
Benecol
Jus Rol
Theos pastry
PHILADELPHIA
PRIMULA
Creamfields
Elmlea
Mattesons
Tate N Lyle
Go Ahead
McVities
Hartleys
Rowse
Gales
Bon Mamam
Ambrosia
hartleys
Birds
Carnation
Farmlea
Marvel
Angel Delight
Greens
Pearce Duff
Auntys
Edlers
Princes
Askeys
Clarks
Silverspoon
Mr Freeze
Aunt Bessies
Chicago Town
Dr Oetker
Good Fellas
cadbury
pg tips
Tetley
Yorkshire
Twinings
Clipper
Typhoo
Taylors
Murrough
Volvic
Evian
Brecon Carreg
Buxton
Highland Springs
Ribena
robinsons
Jucee
Sunsip
Vimto
Welch
Five Alive
Del Monte
Rubicon
Um Bongo
tropicana
Sun Grown
walkers
penguins*
clubs*
galaxy
Soreen
kingsmill
braces
Hovis
Warburtons
Bakers
New York Bakery
Mission Deli
Pitch
Tregroes
Mr Kipling
Fab Baaking Boys
Thorntons
Lyons

Fairy
Persil
Comfort
Flash
Sensodyne
Colgate
Listerine


As you can see its a pretty extensive list! and these are ones I had time to look up and things we use fairly regularly or will use if theres an offer.
The top five in Blue I have already emailed and praised for their product, except Pedigree who's dog treats made my dog Bruno poorly but my other dog Mabel enjoys them happily so I have put that I am unsure whether to continue using the product - but we'll see..... I'm hoping to email 5 a day and see if I can blag any vouchers/coupons :-) every penny helps after all.


Also yesterday I sat and thought about what I really want to save/accomplish etc with my frugality ad I think I have set myself a good starter amount.

£200 a month as a sideline from online jobs is nice as it helps cover unexpectedly needed money and any money over is withdrawn from Paypal and saved in my credit union account
£2 coin savers club......to be emptied every 3 months and used to pay off debts.
£30 a month towards Xmas (be this in food stamps or cash savings in a jar) = £270 by Xmas
All small change into my bottle and saving for summer holiday treats.
Im also setting myself a shopping budget of £100 a month this is with meal planning/coupons so anything I don't spend is going into a top up tub and I wont touch any more money towards food - anything then I need extra comes from this tub.
I'll save all receipts and was told to try mooching around Asda (I'm not sure where my local one is) but the price guarantee matches can save a few quid when you put them in the computer to check and most people just discard them.


Which reminds me - I also went down to visit friends in my old work yesterday and to see if I could nab a few sheets of paper for a project Ben is doing and to print off Owens CVs for him. I got talking to an old mate there who happens to be the supervisor for the shift who told me to hang on and came back with a big pack of unopened paper. Its 500 sheets and he gave me them for free and told me if I need more to let him know and when hes on shift I can pop down and grab one. I didn't end with the company on bad terms, I left through illness so Im still welcomed there, always pays to keep your friends and OK I know the pack of paper in Tesco would of cost me £2.50 but its £2.50 I saved :-)


Todays job is to Meal Plan for Two Weeks. I obviously know what sort of thing my family likes and the type of things they'll eat.
I'm hoping now that we have put a claim in for housing/council tax benefit that it means we will be entitled to free school dinners so I wont have to worry too much about lunch boxes for Ben and Holly is full time in September so if he is still unemployed by then then that is her lunch taken care of as well.
At the minute though I have to take into account there is 4 for breakfast, 3 for lunches and a packed lunch, 4 for dinners with there being 5 for each on weekends when my step son is here. In fairness though when it comes to eating my kids are pretty good. They love their fruit and veg, the only thing is unless its a sausage/fish finger or covered in breadcrumbs then my 9 year old is a bit sceptical of it. This is my own doing though as I was so keen for him to eat veg when he was a baby that I neglected to give him any real meat until he was older.....he has almost a vegetarian diet now but will eat roast chicken and ham, and fish which I guess isn't all bad.


Anyway Meal Planning is the order of the day.....and my 5 more companies to email. Oh and figuring out how to change the ink in the printer now I have paper so I can start printing my coupons


Have a productive day!

Sammy
x x x x x

Its a start..........

I spent yesterday sorting out money.

Ive decided to go for my old trusted envelopes labelled and stuck inside the cupboard door trick - I write how much I need to put in each envelope on each and then I know essential bills are paid.

My 6 envelopes at the minute to focus on are

Water ~ this is £1125 this month but down to £63 next month*
Council Tax ~ this is £115 but I'm holding off on this as we have just applied for council tax benefit so I want to see what the award is - but I will put money in there just in case.
Gas / Electric ~ My gas for the last bill was £7, the electric I'll pay £60 towards
Virgin ~ I rang and got some of our channels cancelled and dropped the bill from £80 down to £60
TV License ~ no brainer really
Kids ~ £10 for Bens Cubs subs and £4 for Holly's school snacks for the month in Nursery


*must remember to enquire about a water meter. We don't have a bath tub...only a walk in shower and so water is only really used for dishes, hand washing, toilet flushing etc.....so might be worthwhile.


All my other debts etc - according and advised by StepChange - can wait........


I've also gotten myself an old pop bottle - it fits 1ps / 5ps in it nicely and this is always the small change we find so I'm thinking I will fill the pop bottle up and then I can take it to town and empty it in the coin machine there. I'm not sure if the coin machine takes a cut though so I will have to check first. Failing that I will use a self serve checkout and use them all to pay for my goods. I'm thinking actually I could save those and put them into stamps ready for Christmas.....


I've also got an old jar - which I hope to use for coupons but I'm thinking using them instead for gift cards will be a better idea.....if I make a substantial saving on my food bill I may every so often buy a £10 gift card that I can put aside ready for Birthdays/Christmas so a few gifts are covered.


The next major event coming up is obviously Easter as well. Now I have 3 children of my own (13,9, and 3) and then another 11 family children I use to buy for. (3 nephews, 4 nieces and 4 younger cousins) and I cant forget Owens egg or he moans. My two youngest children want an Easter Egg hunt each and whilst Id usually but the 3 for £5 offer that most stores have this year I am going to Lidl and have gotten them a chocolate rabbit that comes with 8 - 10 eggs.........I'm going to get them downstairs for breakfast and then go upstairs and hide their eggs in their room each and the rabbit will be the main prize......in fairness as mean as I may sound - not getting them an actual egg - they have 9 people who buy for them which is family and not including me buying for them so one less egg wont hurt them. My sister is buying Ben a book he wants, and getting Holly clothes that she desperately needs and I think my mum is as well so they have a chocolate light Easter but they'll get their worth of stuff to be happy. I'm very glad I don't have materialistic kids - now if I could get my 13 year old step son on side we'd be laughing.

Todays plan of action is to tackle the food shop. I am paid Tuesday 8th / Wednesday 9th and I want to try and coupon it down as much as possible. I am picking up some paper this afternoon so I can sit and really get a fair bundle printed off and ready to go. I'm hoping to try and do it when the kids are in school but with an unemployed partner I get the feeling he will want to tag along which will only boost the balance again.
Im also hoping today to sit and write to companies to see if I can blag some coupons from them for being a satisfied customer :-) and maybe a few more freebie sample hunting as well


Have a productive day


Sammy
x