Budgeting= The Bane of My Existence.

In our household, it is my responsibility to handle all our incomings and outgoings. It is something I hate having the full responsibility for, but as much as I try to include B he just doesn't get it. So at the moment he just asks how much he has to spend per week and my response is usually nothing...

Well not always, but with me currently being a stay at home mum that is kinda how it is working...

Some things we I do to keep the budget in check are:

• Menu Plan and create a shopping list from things (and stick to it)
• We use cloth nappies
• I was making my own laundry powder for a while, but this year I was lucky enough to win a years supply of Radiant through Digital Parents
• Use Vinegar and Bi-carb to clean with
• Bake snacks instead of buying them
• Make a lot of things from scratch eg.bread and yoghurt

When planning our meals I like to see how far I can stretch say a Roast Chicken. So for example our Meal Plan could look like this:

• Sunday- Roast Chicken and Vege
• Monday- Chicken and Corn Casserole using leftover chicken

Then on Monday I would also use the chicken carcass to make a stock and either freeze it if we are over chicken by that stage or make chicken and vegetable soup on Tuesday.

We are also a fan of lentils in this house. I love them because everyone is getting their protein and they are cheap, cheap, cheap. And well B loves them because they make him, well fart... all together now EWWWW! Yes, he is childish like that!

At the moment our goals are to pay off our credit card (yes we have one of those evil things!), and to pay as much of our mortgage in the next 5 years that we can. It is our goal to purchase another property at that stage and keep this one as an investment.

To do this I have to create a wizz bang super dupper budget AND stick to it as I don't plan on working much in the next 5 years. Ethan will only be in grade 1 by then and I would still like to be more at home with them than at work. So that there in itself is my motivation for sticking to the new budget that is currently being drafted.

What things do you that save you money? Do you budget or do you just wing it? Do you have any tips to share?


I am wanting to follow up on this topic in the next few weeks, so if you have any tips you would like to share I would love to include them in the follow up post.

{image source: weheartit}