Wednesday 2 November 2011

Budgeting

I downloaded a clever little app for my iPhone a few months ago which allows you to track everything you spend in the month. At the start of the month you enter in your budget for the next four weeks, and it has several categories including utilities, groceries, hobby/entertainment, pet, household, clothes etc.

If you ever want to see where all your hard earned pennies are disappearing to I would highly recommend downloading this money management app. Best of all, it was free too so tracking your finances needn't cost you a penny.

And best of all you can save all of the data on your iPhone and export it to excel for future reference.

How do you work out and stick to your budgets?

xx

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Meal planning

Over the last few years while I have been trying to save money I've found it's essential to do a big weekly food shop, usually at the weekends to stock up on food for the next week. This is because otherwise we tend to find ourselves nipping to the local, rather more expensive shops or reaching for the take away menus or heading out the door to eat out.

Since moving to our new flat six months ago, which is situated on top of a shop amongst a parade made up of every type of takeaway food you can think of its too easy to think sod it lets just go to the fish and chip shop- however, I don't particularly want to eat fast food for dinner every day, nor do I want to spend a fiver on food at lunchtime. Therefore, having the cupboards stocked up means I can (usually) rustle up something relatively healthy in a hurry.

Here's my meal plan for the next week:

Monday-

Breakfast- I had a half day so made sure I used up the last egg and the last of the milk which went off today. I made scrambled egg and baked beans on toast, washed down with a coffee.

Snack- Some sushi from the big pack I bought from the Korean supermarket at the weekend. The sushi from here tasted sooo much better than supermarket sushi and at £3.00 I got three servings out of it too. Two apples from my mum's apple tree sliced. A packet of Halloween pickled onion Pombears stashed in my desk draw.


Lunch- I made some thick Japanese noodles and put them into miso soup which I took into work. It wasn't one of my tastiest combinations and think I will stick to noo

dles with stir fries in the future.

Dinner- I chopped up the last of a courgette and red onion clearing out the vegetable draw, cut up some tofu and stir fried with fahita spices. I wrapped the mixture in tortillas smeared with some mayo, and it was delicious!

Tuesday-


Breakfast- Porridge with cinnamon, sultanas and flaked almonds with a thermos of coffee for the train.

Lunch- Pasta with homemade tomato and vegetable sauce from the freezer which I made a few weeks ago.

Snacks- Two apples from the apple tree. These are the last in the cupboard, so tomorrow I'll go home to re-stock my supplies.

Dinner- I'm heading home for dinner tomorrow so it will be something homemade by my mum.

Wednesday-


Breakfast- Ready made Chocolate porridge from a sachet, or perhaps something more interesting depending what I can find in my mum's kitchen cupboards.


Lunch- From home.


Dinner- Tofu, frozen stirfried vegetables and coconut rice.

Thursday-


Breakfast- Porridge/cereal/toast and coffee.


Lunch- Leftover dinner from last night.


Dinner- Jar curry sauce, rice and chicken (need to buy)


Friday-


Breakfast- Porridge/toast/cereal


Lunch- Out for lunch at Nandos with Monster.co.uk, there's nothing tastier than free food!


Dinner- If hungry after Nandos will probably have something simple and light like baked beans on toast.

What will you be eating this week? Do you plan your meals in advance? xx