Welcome to the July sum up of the angelicscalliwags challenge. The challenge is on to pay off our mortgage by the end of 2017
For the rest of the posts in this series see here
How did we do this month?
We have currently paid back 14.7% of our mortgage since January of this year. Only 85.3% left. Every month that goes by we are paying less interest and more off the debt. Watching it going down feels good!
What have we been doing this month?
Budget, budget, budget
Bearing in mind we have a fairly good budget in place at the moment, we decided to only concentrate on the money we have for grocery shopping. Over the past two years goods have gone up considerably, sometimes by 50% or more. This has meant that my grocery bill (which includes cleaners, loo roll, and pet food etc. as well as food for 7) has increased from £100 to £150 per week. I’ve asked friends and apart from one, who manages to keep theirs to below £50 per week, the amount we spend seems to be fairly representative, especially given we have a huge menagerie of pets to feed and home and we have the largest family amongst those I quizzed. We probably spend about £40 of the £150 on non food and pet supplies, so average about £15 per week per person. Would anyone be willing to share what they are able to get it down to? I’d love to have some home schooler input (the majority of people I asked were two wage families).
I do know that this area is a weakness for me, simply due to disorganisation. I never write a list, I shop at Waitrose which is one of the more expensive shops to shop in and I hate shopping which leads to some very hurried shopping trips (think 30 minutes for a family of 7). That said there are many things I do well. I always buy fresh food and cook from scratch. I rarely, if ever, buy packet ready meals. I always buy Waitrose Essential brand for everything. I make everything I can myself, from bread to yogurt. We don’t ever eat puddings and we don’t drink anything apart from water (although we occasionally have a diet coke for a treat, but it is never in my shopping trolley). Problem is we eat an enormous amount of vegetables and fruit, and I like to buy my meat from the butchers and my fish from the Waitrose. Oh and then there’s mine and Gary’s snacking habit….
So I thought I’d start simply and write a menu plan. I have been known to do this before, only it takes me more hours than one week holds for me to actually complete one. Sigh. This whole shopping thing is just not up my street. Maybe when we’ve paid off the mortgage I could hire someone to menu plan, do my shopping, maybe even clean my house……well, a girl can dream, right?
What have the children been doing this week?
T11 is, as always, on the case. (one gets the feeling if I asked him to menu plan and do our weekly shop he would effortlessly bring it to under £100 again!). He has been ferrying away his raspberries into the freezer for future jam making sessions. He has a large Ziploc bag full of them already. Last year so many were wasted that this year I’m grateful for a motivated and consistent son who has it all sorted!
I didn’t realise three chickens would produce this many eggs. I mean I knew it would be three a day but I think I thought we would easily eat that many. We don’t and this is good because it means we have extra to give away. So we have had the pleasure of packaging up some eggs prettily with coloured shredded tissue paper and a ribbon and giving them to family and friends nearby. Such a blessing to be able to do this!
The garden centre is our new favourite place to hang out as a family and we try to go each week. Even the younger ones love it and ask to buy something to go in their little kitchen garden. So cute. Speaking of which, the littles are currently growing carrots, cabbages, beans and radishes in their Little House kitchen garden.
Frugal tip
Cutting our own hair. This is something we have done for years and really think nothing of it anymore. Occasionally the girls and I might go to a hairdressers as a birthday gift from Granny, but in the main it’s Daddy and his scissors and razor thing. I’ve not got a good track record with said razor thing. It seems to have a life of it’s own in my hands. It is now pretty much off limits to me on account of the near disasters my poor husband has had to contend with.
I’ve also started putting the shampoo and conditioner into a spray bottle and diluting with water. I did this less for frugality and more to help my girls to spread the shampoo and conditioner more evenly throughout their hair. Whatever the case it’s been a great idea all round and a bottle of shampoo is lasting considerably longer now (as in about double the time).
What am I reading?
I am currently working my way through this website. Many would consider this lady to be very financially savvy and extremely frugal and she is. It’s a little intimidating to be honest. I oscillate between being completely in awe of her to thinking she is slightly nutty! However, she is doing it so she can stay at home with her children, so hats off to her. In the main she has some fantastic ideas which are very doable. Gary doesn’t like me spending too much time on her blog on account of the reusable loo paper. He is aghast at the very idea of it. I, of course, in true Claire-Gary dynamics, tease him intermittently threatening him with the reusable cloth. Having made the rather easy (for me) transition to reusable wipes (Gary hates them and now simply avoids changing nappies with all his might), reusable loo cloth seems the obvious next step….No? You’re probably right. I’m not too keen either!
Washable botty cloths aside, her website site really is a trove of treasure for the frugally minded, and the excessively frugally minded will be in thrifty heaven.
What will we be doing next month?
I am going to write me a menu plan, followed swiftly by a shopping list and then I’m going shopping and sticking to it.
You see, in black and white, that looks like something a five year old could achieve. I need much prayer. I’m fairly certain I will be posting the same goals next month. In fact I could save myself a whole heap of work and simply copy and paste this post into next month’s slot.
So not really very, very hopeful of success.
I’m posting this now because I’m going to have a computer free weekend with my family. I hope you all have a wonderful couple of days.