Creative Chaos

Creative Chaos

Monday 29 February 2016

How's the budget going?

Remember a few weeks back I put myself onto a $500 cash a week budget? (US$329; UK pounds 237; Australian $461).

Well it is going brilliantly! (Remembering that this is MY self - imposed budget - not what the husband spends nor the entire household budget). For me it covers petrol, food, things like scout fees, clothing, shoes,haircuts and everything else I might (or NOT REALLY) need/want like stationery, wool, fabric, post office, book things.

(Luckily I think we need zero clothing/shoes for the next year bar soccer boots and a pair of shoes for the oldest - my boys only tend to need 1-2 pairs of new shoes an entire year! Two wear whatever shoes they like to school and that usually is their choice of the same pair of sneakers day in day out all year long and one has no uniform.... We bought a few items of clothing each in Hong Kong and the boys now tend to wear the same thing all year round only throwing on a hoodie in winter!).

We've managed to grab a few free petrol vouchers via our credit card and my little toyota corolla only uses around $120 worth of petrol an entire month (Being such a homebody lately helps!).

So the deal has been $500 is the upper limit and nothing on the credit card (which is always paid in full every month anyway). In four weeks I've spent a sum total of $1300, which is $700 under budget!

I am so pleased with myself and took myself of to Spotlight (working within the weekly budget!) for a spot of shopping with a 40% off voucher and a bunch of bargains and wool and fabric already at discounted prices. I really only needed the knitting needles...

My purchases:




The fabric all up was $45 which will make me a skirt, a dress and 2 pairs of winter pj pants. The buttons worked out to be $2.08 (should have bought more!!); wool at $2.77 a ball; Simplicity patterns were $15 for 3 (usually $11-17 each!) and the ribbon for future swaps was $1.38 a roll. Great  super bargains and a whopping saving of $97.31 in savings too!

Now to carry on with the budget - the husband really was not convinced that I could do this, but I have. Looking forward to  record low visa bill ! Cash is king as long as I keep to said budget!!

4 comments:

  1. Cash is king .. .. .. I learnt that when I did Debt Collection and had to put my debtors onto budgets.
    Well done you !! !! !!
    And lovely purchases

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  2. Well done you! I've always been a card user, (same as you card paid off in full each month) but lately I've been using cash instead and I've become quite protective of my little stash!!! You're house sounds the same as ours when it comes to clothes etc.

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  3. Well done for sticking (and coming under!) budget!! Love the fabrics, especially the melon slice and dandelion prints! :) (is it dandelion print?)

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  4. Good work Kimberley. I am always fascinated by how people budget, and how they organise their finances. If I had come in so far under budget I'd have been tempted to spend the $700 I'd saved on something really nice!

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