In May 2012 I had my baby son and started maternity leave for the second time, knocking my family income down by over £800 per month. Surviving on Statutory Maternity Pay taught me to budget, and how to feed a family of four on only £20 a week. Nowadays I'm back to working, but still juggling the demands of two school-aged children against the reality of self-employed income.
I went against last week’s meal plan and bought a chicken for yesterday so that I could incorporate chicken into several meals this week (penance for splurging on Domino’s). In case you missed the last entry, the chicken turned out to be a weird, mutant bird with dangly neck bits, but was fairly yummy all… read full entry »
Part of my ongoing meal-plan series… Monday: Meat pie Made from the mince that I was supposed to use for last week’s cottage pie, but we had a last minute splurge on pizza (delivered) instead. I guess that puts the cost at some £20+ … the most expensive meat pie ever! Tuesday: Prawn curry I’ve… read full entry »
Part of my ongoing mission to save money this year, these things have saved me money this month… 1. Cancelled our lovefilm membership I’ve fallen in and out of love with lovefilm over the years because of billing issues, scratched DVDs etc but having been fine with them for a while it’s come to the… read full entry »
Thank you for the support (comments, retweets etc) on last week’s meal plan: it was cool to see how many of you also meal plan. Definitely reinforces that I’m doing the right thing to help with this budgeting malarkey. Anyway, on with things… Monday: Chicken risotto Chicken (which only cost £4 in the end) from… read full entry »
As promised on twitter, I’ll now be sharing my weekly meal plans with you lovely folks. I’ll include costs where possible (and you’re welcome to tell me if I’m over-spending) and recipes when I remember to type them up. Monday: Quiche with salad The eggs are leftover from last fortnight’s order from Riverford and the… read full entry »
I’m on a mission to reduce our outgoings over the next 12 months. We’re not massive consumers anyway, which I think makes it harder to make significant cuts. Nonetheless, these are things I’ve done this month which I know has saved us money. 1. Cooking thrifty eats I don’t recall who shared the link to… read full entry »
Now that I’m on maternity leave for the next 12 months, my monthly income has more than halved. At the end of my leave (last 3 months) I’ll be earning zilch. Nada. Nothing. With a mortgage, childcare costs, usual household bills etc I need to find ways to make all that fit. We have savings,… read full entry »