All other decorations are down. We tend to do this when on our own for Christmas. If DS and family are here for the New Year, they get left up. The tree is up for a while longer so the twinkly lights can lift the gloomy weather days.
I notice on blogland the 'no spend' posts are coming round again. This is something we don't participate in. Usually in January, we try to reduce spending, this is particularly revelant for this January.
Our food shopping bills had grown way too high. Some of it was due to price rises, a bit to Christmas food shopping over several weeks. The rest was preparing for Brexit (over the past couple of years).
I am not going to dive into the Brexit boxes until we know what is happening post final Brexit. Plus winter has hardly got going and then there is the coronavirus.
The freezer is quite full so, in the next few weeks, we will use meat from there. Such things like legs of lamb, will of course, generate further meals to freeze and on it goes. The large shepherds pie we made ready for visitors will get eaten over two days. The baby one we did for DGD will be eaten by me, DB will have a little something else.
Other than buying meat for meals for Ruby, that should be it for January. We have just made her another 14 meals today. Our shopping the other day came to our more usual amount so that is a good start.
Food prices and all bills will rise this year, as they do every year. When doing our annual budget, we take last years figures, add 10% before dividing by 12 for our monthly bills. We have savings that have matured over the Christmas period or are maturing shortly. Trying to find decent interest rates is impossible. We just have to do the best we can.
Are you getting financially prepared for another year?
We start every year with a full freezer and are grateful for that. We have always lived below our means, so there's no real 'preparation' to do. Like you, we overspent on our food budget for the holidays, mostly owing to the unfortunate fact that she who shall not be named thought there was a ham tucked away behind all that venison. It was a turkey. We had to buy a last minute ham on Christmas eve and paid dearly for my poor planning. It was definitely a night to remember. :D
ReplyDeleteNot too much overspend for the holidays as I spread it through the year. Pre Brexit was most of it, just in case.
DeleteI shopped for what I needed yesterday. It came to just over £17. I hope the rest of January will be the same. The freezers are full, so are the cupboards and my Brexit stores are overflowing. We're all cutting down on what we eat too, which helps!
ReplyDeleteI would love a bill like that but if I can get it back to what it used to be, that would be good.
DeleteI hardly put up any decorations this year, and the few that were out were put away yesterday. Our freezers and larder cupboards are well stocked, I shan't need any shopping for a good while.
ReplyDeleteI will still have to buy as the freezer is full of loads of fruit from the garden, not too much else. Still, pudding as a main meal once a week is helping:)
DeleteI took everything down today. With no visitors here this year I just wanted them gone. I have a houseplant that I have lights on anyway. Let's see if the Tesco CEO is right when he said we won't see price rises.
ReplyDeleteI am still on the lookout for a couple of nice house plants. Like the idea of lights on them.
DeleteLike you I am hoping for a lower spending in January. However I do no spend days, which since Covid came is much easier to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteOur tree is still up, but I am thinking of removing the decorations early next week.
God bless.
We shop once a week so if I can now get back to my regular £35 each week, that will be a bonus. Managed it so far this year.
DeleteI started taking decorations down very surreptitiously, one area at a time. My Mum was laughing as while we were chatting on the phone she had all the sound effects of me stretching to take down the decorations in the conservatory, she was amazed that Alan hadn't cottoned on to the fact that room by room we were once again going 'back to normal'.
ReplyDeleteProbably a good way of doing it. Not such a shock that way.
DeleteI told dh this past weekend we will not need to do any grocery shopping except some dairy & produce. Our pantry & freezers are full plus we are getting a hog butchered in March (purchased from a co-worker. We do not raise hogs.)
ReplyDeleteWe stopped at the grocery and spend under $20(US) Normally we spend 3x that much for a normal shopping trip. We do not have to buy meat as we have our own beef and I got organic chickens last summer.
And our tree and the front porch decorations are the only ones still up. I didn't put them all up this year as I was short on time and we have the 3 little ones around most weekends. The tree will go down this week long with the porch lights. We'll leave the projected snowflakes on for the rest of the winter. I normally have winter/snow themed decorations up through Feb. but I didn't get them out this year. I will go for the minimalist look until spring. LOL
Always nice to keep something twinkling if you can. Our freezer is not huge and we don't have room for another one so have to micromanage what is in it.
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