The £700 a month experiment

I had my leaving do . It was a bring and share buffet. Everything I brought was from the shopping already counted. My vegan wellington went down well. I have masses of left overs too. I feel more inspired to prepare food in the morning for the day now, which will help us eat the fresh food, which is cheap* and nutritious - and it will b good to not be wasting it! * lettuce and celery and carrots - I was somewhat concerned that my son called the lettuce a ‘giant Brussels sprout’ as though he has never seen one before but it is true that I had been buying my lettuce ready torn, in a bag - and throwing it away! outgoings: £0 - we didn’t buy sweets after school as the Pokemon cards had arrived and he still had sweets left over from yesterday. Activities: homework, bring and share buffet, Pokemon card admire and sort. Concerns: G is not well and I am worried that changes at work will affect his employment. Also the balance is getting low. Achieving the full month within budget feels t...

Really good day today. Went to the school to enjoy the children’s Young Voices performance. Outgoings: Shopping £49                    Sweets. £1                   Donation to young voices £0.59  New Balance:     £182.95  -    £50.59 £132.36

Outgoings: £ 6.98 on sweets and Pokemon cards. New Balance: £182.95

TV ARIEL is due to day at a cost of £10. Out all day. Packed lunch as I have plenty of bread and salad bought in last weeks shop and at the village shop as recorded here mid week. Arial arrived. Lots of good and new tv channels. New Balance £189.93

Sunday. Preparation for the week ahead; school uniforms, batch cooking, loading dishwasher, clearing dirty plates, folding laundry. I have thought a lot about teaching my craft. And some really funny dreams about my grandfather and he did during ww2. This may be one to investigate during my time off. Unexpected expenses- the tv Ariel broke. I have ordered a new one. Outgoings £0 Income £0

Activities: space centre Dr Who special bought at Christmas and includes an annual pass Outgoings £5.25 on an alien egg and chocolate. Income: £0 Balance: £199.93 Concerns: my son has broken his tablet screen. Neither repair nor replacement are budgeted for.

04:00 on day 10. I have a busy few days ahead of me and I’m awake with my mind working overtime. Reading Facebook memes and so many are ‘It’s January 107th and everyone is wondering how long they can make £3.61 last. ‘.  So I feel I am in good company as I am starting to be alarmed at my diminishing budget with 3 weeks to go. Still the shopping arrived yesterday so that’s a full weeks food in, so I’ll definitely make it to day 17 at least. Otherwise all good. The phone works! I have got the phone working. I just hope giffgaff don’t now fix my problem so reverting the solution. Only the home insurance left to sort now. And. Should look into my car insurance - and Servicing. Went to the school for this morning’s reading cafe. It was at least instructive. Have e mailed the school. I plan to make my sausage plait today, and freeze it. Outgoings: £30 takeaway. £1 popcorn for movie night £0.25 sweets for my child - this weeks VIP at school and 60/60 in times tables - in 1 min...

Activities: school run 1.5 km Arranged cheaper home insurance which should save £9 a month. A fight with the new phone, which I need to cancel the old insurance Outgoings: a weeks groceries £49 Income:  I have received an as yet unknown amount in GEM vouchers which I will convert to Amazon vouchers when I can. New Balance: £236.43

I am ordering next weeks meals online. It sounds counter to a budget to be paying for delivery on top of the cost of the groceries, but where I live requires a journey to a supermarket so it is cost effective- with delivery saver it is slightly cheaper than making the journey. Outgoings: £0.79 on cloud storage.  No after school sweets needed today as we have chocolate. Activities: ordering shopping online                   Long chat with Gary who has come back from his holiday in Switzerland- and has brought chocolate                   Working out the new phone Income - none but 3 £8 vouchers off grocery shopping when I spend £40, so that will be £24 to the good. New Balance: £285.43

08:38 and I’m a free woman. It’s very frosty today, but as the weather improves I hope to be able to go on longer walks. Maybe get back to cycling. I dreamt last night that I bought a tandem for the school run once my child is at senior school. Activities: 0.5 Km school run. And took bin in. 1 km school run.                   Cleaning the kitchen to the soundtrack of mama Mia. Dancing while putting away bowls. Cleaning up hot chocolate as my child now makes his own, makes it for me and has even made me a cup of tea. It is messy, but it is glorious. I’ve also run a load and hung up a set of school shirts to dry as this time off is for caring for my child and homemaking. I am immensely proud of both my child and my home. It took 23 years to pay for it and to get into a position that I can take some time off to do this. It may be small, and my budget might be careful but it is my own. I am reminded that the meek will inherit the earth. Is ...

I am so happy with every aspect of my life. I walked my child to the main road and watched him across this morning. I loaded my dishwasher and selected the eco setting - which saves me 30% of the cost in energy over the normal setting. Happy, happy, happy. Activities: half a school run. 0.5 km.                   Ordered the phone                    Calculated the aggregate of each monthly budget to be £138 to cover dentist, optician, boiler service etc. This is the amount to not spend out of each months budget until it is needed. Outgoings:  £149 on a new phone                     £34 home insurance                     £1 on after school sweets. New Balance: £403.92

Day 5 is a Sunday. No money is due to go out of the bank for bills until Monday tomorrow, so today is destined to be a zero spend day. Activities: Gaming at home with my son Discussed this morning that when God was handing out responses to anger I got ‘crazed sarcasm’ . I’m well pleased with this as, given one cannot control one’s anger response once angered, it is a far better option than murderous violence say, or smashing things up. Outgoings: £0 Joys: Gaming at home with my son. Concerns: calculate monthly aggregate for future needs.

I won £100 ! So this morning I have been researching mobile phones and signal coverage. I can use my £100 to buy a phone! It feels like cheating to add £100 to my Balance but it would be cheating not to (remember Mendel) and once the phone is bought my balance will go back down again. Can’t stop smiling. Activities: Shopping in town and lunch out with my son and his Dad. Outgoings: Shoes £15 Cleaning spray, weed killer and razors £5.99 Lunch £15.06 New Balance £624. minus £36.05= £587.95

It has occurred to me that one of my challenges with this budget will be keeping hold of all of the small amounts of money that I budget for every month but need only occasionally. So for example I budget £6 a month for the boiler service and £3 for the opticians. Yet the boiler is serviced annually and the opticians is every 2 years. I could keep hold of all monies unspent in a savings account each month to cover these. But what if I have genuinely underspent so can afford to treat my child or save towards a holiday? So I am going to augment my spreadsheet to earmark and sum up postponed budgeted items, which will allow me to calculate the difference - good or bad. I’ll add it at the end of each month and can blog it here. Activities                School run 0.5 km. plus 1 km return.                Overly worrying about my budget                Composed my good...

I’ve arrived at day 2 of my challenge to live off £700 a month and so be able to give up work and commit myself to creating a home and raising my child. I never realised how much work was involved in giving up work! I have written a to do list that runs into several pages. I have eaten one meal mid morning to serve as both breakfast and dinner. While I have collected my monthly prescription I hope to monitor my health and cut down on my medication. Mostly because I hope not to need it as much. I read an article today about appliance poverty where people don’t have a fridge or a washing machine. While I have often lived without both I have a child to care for so need to include them in my budget. I will need to allow £10 a month to replace them in 5 years time. Activities: massive to do list                   Mass e mail deletion. I aim to delete 1000 e mails today.                   More w...

I have quit the rat race. I have chosen instead to be a parent and homemaker. As I have quit my job I will have little income and no welfare benefits. I am a single mum with one child. My budget is £700/month. This is my account of how that goes. Day 1 Balance £700. Activities: The school run; a brisk 1 Km walk and a chat with mums and neighbours. Cost: £0.                    Started a blog                    Created my budgeting spreadsheet                    Redirected my professional contacts after 24 years of work. Outgoings: Grocery shopping: One weeks meals and wine delivered to my door £54. Charity Donation: £2 to the Salvation Army. £2 to Save the Children. Water Bill: £28 TV licence: £13 Prescription: £9 Income: £30 in gift vouchers from work! Woohoo! Joys: Good friends and neighbours. My child’s friends and hap...