This week I will make:

-spaghetti bolognaise
-soup
-bbq chicken with rice and veg
-baked potatoes
-leftovers

This week we will have:

-toastie and tomato soup
-baked potatoes with either tuna or baked beans
-beef casserole
-fish and chips
-leftovers for me when hubby is at work

I made tomato soup today while I was making SG's food. I also made chicken stock for the first time. I've got a tub in the freezer and one in the fridge. I better make more soup this week then to use up the stock.

We went to the baby market again today. We got a baby walker for SG for £15 (RRP £50) and some books for Christmas.

What a week it has been! I meant to do my usual meal planning update at the start of the week but I just didn't have time.

I've got my receipts in front of me so I want to keep track of that first. It was mostly little shopping trips, they all add up though:

19/11: SCOTMID £8.06 (reduced fresh meat)
20/11: ASDA £82.28, only £12.14 out of pocket due to savings cards (xmas shopping)
21/11: MORRISONS £7.88
22/11: ASDA £13.69

I have a lot of food in the house. The only things I should need to buy soon are formula and nappies. Plus bread and milk too when we run out.

This week we got all of our belongings from my mum and MIL. It's amazing how much we have, I feel like we have moved in again. We're actually getting to use wedding presents that we hadn't opened yet, so it feels like Christmas has come early in a way.

Meal planning has went out of the window this week. I cooked the chicken a couple of days ago so we had that last night with some microwave rice last night for a quick meal. There's some left so I'm going to make chicken stock for the first time. Hubby wants a chicken sandwich tonight so I will make that.

I spent my £5 free gift card yesterday. I got a cook book, 200 slow cooker recipes.

On the way home from dropping hubby off today I heard on the radio that some stores in the UK are starting to have Black Friday sales. Anything to get more sales I suppose.

I need to start thinking about my 2013 goals since I was unrealistic about this year's, especially with having a newborn and being on maternity leave. I will try and make them realistic and manageable this time.

Yesterday I done some more Christmas shopping. I bought children's books. They were on offer, 3 for 2. Also, spend £15 and a get a £5 gift card. I spent £15 exactly. I was going to use the gift card for some more Christmas shopping until I decided that I deserve a treat, so I will buy myself something.

I have £40 of my high street vouchers left. There is also £30 on an ASDA savings card. I need to get my little cousin's pyjamas and birthday present with those. Also need to get another gift for the grans, most likely a photo book.

I seem to only update with meal plans. Boring but it makes me feel organised. Here's this week's:

- roast chicken with potatoes and veg
- steak fajitas
- something with leftover chicken
- macaroni (i always end up making something else so I want to make it soon)

Our flat is very slowly coming together. It seems to be at a snail's pace though. I'm going to have to order a carpet for our livingroom soon. SG can crawl backwards, and a little forwards. Right now we have tiled floors, so she hasn't been able to crawl on the floors. I read the children should spend as much time as possible on floors etc. I don't want to hinder her development, and it's not safe right now for her. That reminds me, we also need a stair gate too.

We've decided not to spend a lot on SG for Christmas (my mum took this to mean that we weren't getting her anything!) We don't have a Christmas tree or decorations so we have to buy those first. For SG we are just going to get her a few things that she needs, a few books too. My mum has spent far too much on her already, and she said she still wants to get her more. I told her not to bother but she's determined. I told her that lately SG is happy with the remote! (with the batteries taken out, of course)

I am going to make:

honey and mustard chicken (never had it last week)
smoked sausage pasta
hot dogs with french fries
omelette and chips (we have a lot of eggs)

As usual I will have leftovers when hubby is at work. I don't need to buy anything for these meals.

Until payday. I'm counting down now. No reason to stress though. I plan to do as little food shopping as possible between now and then.

I had baked potato and some leftover sausage casserole with it. I sprinkled some cheese on top. There wasn't any sausages left so it was really just sauce. I've never had that for dinner before. However, I didn't need to do any prep so it was good. Quick and easy.

Hubby has got overtime for tomorrow morning. I think he has had three or four extra shifts so far.

Last night was our first Halloween in our own place. I made up bags of sweets to hand out to the trick-or-treaters. Well, we didnt get any so I now have sweets that I can easily take with me when I leave the house.

My meal planning is going ok, although I have more leftovers than I thought I would. I had to make vegetable soup a few days ago because I had so much fresh veg that needed to be used up. Also MIL gave us a dozen rolls so we had some with our soup.

I got a letter from my power company, Scottish Power, informing me that their prices will be increasing from the start of December. Great.

As for my menu, I think this is what I will make this week:

Monday: macaroni with garlic ciabatta bread
Tuesday: herb and garlic chicken with potatoes and veg
Wednesday: sausage casserole
Thursday: tuna and sweetcorn pasta
Friday: leftovers for me (hubby at work)

If I hadn't paid £1 for parking today, it would have been a no-spender. Oh well, maybe next time.

My mum took me out for lunch. We had McDonald's. I haven't had one in a while, it was good. The food court was full of people. It amazes me where they get the money from. Most of the tables were families of four. That's at least £20 surely.

We have a wedding reception to go to tomorrow. The plan is not to spend a lot. Fingers crossed.

I just googled "fiscal fast" after reading NGG's post. I like the idea. Maybe I can persuade hubby that we need to do one soon? You never know.

Went to a baby and toddler market today. Spent £30. Got S's outfit for Christmas Day, plus a few other dresses and tops. Also got a bouncer for only £5.

Needed petrol: £20

Bought a subway after we had been to the market: £10 (impulse buy)

I decided to get tomorrow's dinner ready today since I have more time. Chicken curry is cooking in the slow cooker just now, I will reheat it tomorrow when we come home.

I headed to the shops today, with my list in hand. I went alone. And I walked. It's only a twenty minute walk. My reasoning for this? If I know I'm walking home I'll buy less and I save on petrol too.

I spent £23.18. Bought a few impulse buys (multipack of chocolates that were £1 and a few tins of soup at 50p each, which DH will take to work) I got roughly half of the items that were on my list. The rest of the list can wait.

Next week's meals are looking something like this:

Monday - chicken curry
Tuesday - hot dogs with fries
Wednesday - macaroni with garlic bread
Thursday - mustard chicken
Friday - soup and a toastie? - dinner alone
Saturday - something quick, have a wedding reception in the evening

This will be my 500th entry

Hubby got lots of overtime.

Got a letter from the council, our council tax is now half of what they were originally saying. I think it's due to when we moved into the property.

I used my slow cooker (crock pot) for the first time at the weekend. I made chilli on Saturday. We had the leftovers for dinner yesterday. I want to try using it more in the future, think it will definetly save us money.

I have started Baby S on solids. Made a batch of food for her yesterday. I'm not buying jars of baby food for her, it's healthier and cheaper for me to make my own. She seems to be liking them so far

We have a wedding reception to go to in a few weeks.
After that, it's MIL's birthday so I've been looking into cheap personalised gifts.

Savings has been wiped out to a measly £2. I had £70 but I had to withdraw the money because my credit card payment has increased.

My payment for tv licence got declined because I was a few pounds short. There's money in the bank now but a double payment will be taken out next month.

Next month is also when we start paying council tax. Almost £200, of course hubby will pay his half.

Hubby is going to try and get overtime next week.

Things are bleak here. A few weeks ago we moved into our permanent new home. We didn't have any white goods so had to order them from the catalogue. Still trying to set up home now, although we did get some furniture from friends.

Moving into this new place has meant that my credit card has taken a major hit - we had to pay utilities from the old flat, I put some shopping on it. I'm going to cut it up.

I've achieved nothing this year. I don't know why I bothered to make goals at the beginning of the year. It is too depressing. I didn't even want to blog about it, but it's lying if I don't.

It's been so long since I've blogged I don't know where to start.

First and foremost, my little girl is doing well She is almost twenty weeks now. Time has just flew in. I can see her first year going by so quickly.

We are slowly adjusting to having our own place. This month we actually managed to agree on a food budget (£40 per week) We now have a shopping list on the fridge. We went shopping last week with our £40 and came back with £12. Hopefully this will keep happening. I've got a coupon for Morrisons so we will go there soon.

Hope everyone is well

My updates will be few and far between now. We moved into our own place last week and we don't have internet, we can access it at our parents though.

We're both trying to adjust to having our own space and running a household. We have a big notebook that we use to write down all of our upcoming expenses. We've been food shopping. Since it was our first one we had to buy some essential items so it was more than a normal week will be. We're going to use up all of the food that we have before we go shopping again. We only have a fridge so we have to buy fresh.

I can see my goals for this year taking a back seat. My savings have been used buying stuff in for the house. I need to upodate my sidebar. I will try my best to meet some of my goals.

I've been trying to think of some cheap meal ideas. We bought in a lot of pasta so that will be one of our main dishes I think.

My baby is girl is 16 days old now.

Before she was born people told me how much time she would take up and I honestly thought they were exaggerating, but they weren't. It's the little things like leaving the house - it takes us ages to get ready before we can even go anywhere. Then we leave, thinking we're organised, only to have to come back to get something for her. Once we're out things don't move any quicker either, I've lost count of the amount of people that stop to have a look at her and ask about her.

But I'm not complaining.

Hubby went back to work today, his two weeks paternity leave is officially over. I wish he could have stayed home with me forever.

I haven't been financially focused at all these past few weeks. We used the credit card yesterday to buy a few things for baby that we needed - hubby reasoned that we need them before payday, and we'll pay it back. One of the things we bought was a baby carrier, which I love using. Also we bought a canopy for the pram now that the nicer weather is coming in.

Baby S is sleeping while I write this, otherwise I doubt I would have managed to update. I know my mum is here but I'm trying not to ask for help unless I absolutely need it.

On Friday a little baby girl called Sophie was born. She weighed 8lb 1 and a half oz.

Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post.

I'm feeling a lot better today. I seen the midwife today and she made me feel relaxed. I'm just going to forget about what my friend said. She is one of those people that overreacts, and she definetly takes things OTT. I haven't spoken to her at all today and, it's a bad thing to say, but I feel better for it. It's been so long since I've seen her I'd forgotten how worked up she gets me at times.

I watched one of those maternity programmes tonight - I've been avoiding them - and it actually wasn't that bad. Plus, I've been reading up about breathing techniques so I'm feeling calmer now.

Hope everyone has a great day!

I met up with my friend today. She's expecting her second child in a few months. All we spoke about today was baby stuff and I left feeling useless. The amount of things she said that I hadn't even thought about, most of them were just silly but some of them were about the actual labour. She was surprised that I haven't got a TENS machine for during the labour, honestly I hadn't even thought about it. I've been reading up on breathing techniques. I missed the antenatal classes because they clashed with my appointments, and I got a few of the days mixed up, but I have been reading up online. I was supposed to be relaxed after meeting up with her but now I'm worried (and exhausted from spending hours walking about the shopping centre)

To top it all off, I spent more than I'd planned to on lunch. My £3 subway turned into £10 at pizza hut!

I've been slacking on the financial front lately, at least that's how it feels. I haven't made any financial goals for this month. I think it's going to be a tight month: my final car payment is due. Also my maternity pay started this week so my next pay will be lower.

Baby is due in nine days - we've been trying to get last minute things done. We're almost there, although I do keep worrying that I might have forgotten something.

CC2 increased my limit. I'll be staying away from it.

My massive catalogue bill should reduce dramatically by May, if I've worked it out properly.

Today is payday, and my birthday too. I spent the morning paying bills. I paid extra to both credit cards. However, since I have been bad and used CC2 recently it won't make an impact for a while yet.

I've tried to do as little as possible today. Went out for a walk with the dog, came back, had lunch and napped. Tonight we're going to in-laws for a birthday meal. Tomorrow will be a takeaway. Last night hubby took me out for an indian, just the two of us. I'm really appreciating our time together, I know it will disappear soon when baby arrives.

Today was payday. I phoned in sick one day last month so my pay was less than normal.

I'm not going to put any money towards my regular savings this month (apart from the automatic savings). There's two reasons for this: I want to build up my car fund and we will be buying baby stuff so I'd rather the money went there. My MOT is due next month and I don't want a repeat of last year (I had cleared CC1 and then after my MOT I added £770 to it) I'm really hoping that it won't be half as bad this year, so I'm trying to be prepared.

Hopefully having a car fund this year will benefit me. Also, I spoke to hubby and if it comes to it I would rather take money out of savings to pay for any work that needs done. I just don't want any more credit card debt, especially with a baby on the way. I'm confident that we will be able to replenish any money taken out of savings... but I'm hoping it won't come to that.

I paid extra towards both credit cards. Hubby gave me £80 towards CC2 so I paid that straight away.

My final car payment is due in April. We're starting to put money aside for it since it is double my usual payment. By the time April comes I will be on maternity leave and not receiving full pay so I have to be organised.

Baby fund will be wiped out tomorrow. We're going shopping. I have a list of things that I need to get. We're going early, I hate the shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon.

It's Christmas morning here, and I'm the only one awake. I decided to check my updated catalogue statement to see what my minimum payment is after ordering my mum a new washing machine this month (old one broke). I was expecting an increased payment of maybe £22-£25, not the same as my payment this month: £67. Eek! My minimum payment is now something like £119 compared to £70 which is what I paid this month.

Hmm.. didn't make sense until I viewed my transaction history. I thought I'd ticked the box to pay it up over 52 weeks (interest free). Nope, I'd ticked the 20 week box instead.

It'll be ok, I'm just stressing.

Hope everyone has a nice Christmas when it comes

It feels as though more money has been going out than coming in recently. I had to take money out of savings to pay my road tax. My plan of saving up for it failed miserably so I will reinstate it next year. More money will come out of savings when we buy the pram from our friends, but that will be after Christmas. (I don't grudge that though)

Christmas dinner is costing me and hubby £30 each. We are both paying for my mum, who has no idea that any money will be exchanged. I wouldn't mind if we were going to a nice restaurant but we're not. We're going to in-laws. In my last post I thought my mum was only being charged £10 but I got it wrong, it's £20 for her too. Hubby said there will be cocktails. That'll be nice for the people that can drink them.

My credit card took a hit last week. My mum's tv broke so I bought another one for her - with my credit card. She has given me half of the money already.

I haven't added to the EF yet.

I need to post a few Christmas presents this week, and buy a card for hubby and my mum. Apart from that, I'm done. It definetly helped saving up for Christmas. We've already agreed that we will be doing the same next year.

It's the first of December already, I can't believe it. I will be helping my mum put up the tree later, and then I will be wrapping some presents.

As far as my yearly goals are concerned, I didn't do well. Hopefully next year will be better as far as completing goals. I need to start thinking of my 2012 goals soon.

I don't know if I've mentioned this in here yet but the three of us have been invited to MIL's for xmas dinner. It was her turn this year. Months ago MIL was talking about booking a place but now it looks as though we'll be going to hers. Fine. Well, husband mentioned to me the other day "remember we need to put money aside for the meal" Meal? We never booked anything. No but we've to give MIL money towards xmas meal. £20 each for us, £10 for my mum. We'll pay my mum's since I don't want to have to tell her. So that's £50 from us she will be getting - money that's better off elsewhere in my opinion.

I don't understand to be honest. I might be naive but I thought that when you invite people over for dinner, you don't make them pay. Bring drinks/desert yes but paying? Am I just wrong? The three of us could have a meal here for less than £50 I think. Apparently MIL keeps saying to hubby how she can't afford this, can't afford that. The usual.

I can only think of one goal for this month so far, and that's to add to my emergency fund.

It's been ages since I updated. I've either been too tired or lazy to update.

My Christmas shopping is basically done. And I have paid cash for all of it. Next year our plan is to save up high street vouchers again, and start a savings card at ASDA. Next Christmas the baby will be here, but we won't be going crazy since he/she won't be old enough to appreciate or understand it. I think it will just be little gifts.

Speaking of the baby, I had my second scan at the start of the month. Everything's ok - blood pressure, measurements - but they want me to go for two more growth scans to check on baby. I think it's because I was underweight when we found out.

I'm beginning to notice that everyone seems to have an opinion when you're pregnant. I'm sick of being told that my bump's tiny, I'm looking pale, I'm having a girl cos of how I'm carrying (but we won't know till later when I'm bigger, apparently) The list goes on. Of course it doesn't help that there is a girl at work who is due the week after me and she is showing more than me - she was bigger to begin with though...

Back to finances: we're going to buy our pram from one of our friend's. It will mean taking some money out of savings though, and using the baby fund.

Since it is practically the end of the month I thought I'd better update. I managed to complete all of my October goals. The one I'm most pleased with? Not using my credit card.

At the start of the month I thought I would take my credit cards out of my purse so they didn't tempt me. Well, I didn't do that - they've been in my purse the entire time. So glad they weren't touched.

Hubby and I have been talking about our finances, specifically making cutbacks. Right now we've not cut out anything but it will happen soon.

I want to start my Christmas shopping in November. I've saved £100 of high street vouchers. Christmas this year will be bare minimum for everyone - I'm thinking of doing some homemade gifts, maybe fudge or something? I'll look into it.

I hope October is better financially for me than this month has been. We seem to be spending a lot just now, whether it's actually cash or my dreaded credit card. However, I did manage to achieve my goals, although I know £20 in the baby fund is a small start compared to what we will actually need. The money will be used after Christmas when we start baby shopping.

Next month my goals are:
[] don't use credit card
[] complete car fund
[] tell friends about baby

I've been a really bad friend recently - I've been avoiding getting in touch with my friends. I know why: I'm not ready to tell them yet. I hardly ever see my friends so I don't feel like we're close, but I will tell them.

In other news, I seen the midwife today. I was a bit worried because I've hardly put on any weight. She said that everything's fine and I've nothing to worry about. I thought she would have weighed me to compare with my last appointment, but she didn't. She did let us listen to baby's heartbeat again though.