September Snowflake Challenge: Final Update

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My challenge for September is to make an extra £300/$460 in snowflake income.
Snowflakes are a spin off of the snowball method that is used to pay down your debt faster; they are the little bits of money that you make, extra to your snowball, that speed up your debt free day; if you are debt free then you can also use any snowflakes to increase your saving rate.

This is my final update for September's challenge and I'm pleased to report that I made it.  I managed to sell some advertising on one of my websites and the money from this has taken me over my £300 target. 

Final totals:

£125.99 Amazon
£64.94 eBay
£25.71 Interest
£54.31 Amex
£43.16 Site income

£314.11 Total

All in all this has been a great month, I've got rid of a little more clutter and made some money in the process; now what to do for October?!

Serendipity also took part in the challenge; why not go visit her blog to see how she did...:-)

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Managing Our Budget: Electricity & Gas Costs

Hi all.  This is the first post in a series entitled Managing Our Budget.  For this series I'm going to break down all the items in our budget and show you how we have reduced, or how we are trying to reduce, the amount we are spending.

First up is our electricity and gas bills; a major monthly expense.

This chart shows the two year history of the cost of these two items.  Columns 2 and 3 show the pure charge before any online discounts are applied and the 4th column is the actual cost on our bill; Column 5 is the monthly charge to cover the bills.

As you can see the monthly charge has reduced from £121 to £88 already; my new goal is to reduce it to £70.



Things we do/have done to reduce the costs:

1. Pay online and receive an online discount
2. Pay by monthly Direct Debit to receive a discount
3. Use a dual fuel product from one company to save money
4. Swapped utility companies in the past to reduce costs
5. Changed our tariff plan online to reduce the costs
6. Turn off all plugs at the wall every night
7. Stopped using the dishwasher
8. Batch cook to reduce oven usage
9. Made a draught snake for the front door
10. Reduced the amount of washing cycles we do
11. Set the thermostat to 18 degrees
12. Use blankets and jumpers to keep warm in the evening
13. Set a target date for the heating to go on {1st November}
14. Line dry everything
15. Don't own a tumble dryer
16. Switched to energy saving light bulbs
17. Take short showers
18. Never use the bath

It's a good idea to review the history of your usage because you can really see where the spikes in cost occur and where there is potential to save money.  Looking at ours, the cost of winter heating is where we can make the most saving, so it's jumpers at the ready....

Some may consider this extreme, however this is not just about being frugal and saving money, it's about our family using less and consuming less, my overall goal.

Let me know, what are you doing to reduce your electricity and gas costs this year?

Further reading:

• 10 simple ways to cut spending on light and heat

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Menu Plan Monday {Starting a Stockpile}

Hello and welcome to this week's Menu Plan Monday post. I hinted at it last week, but I'm going to start planning a month of meals at a time from now on; I've done this before and stopped for some reason. It makes sense to me now though to start it again; we seem to be regularly eating the same meals and I think that I can batch cook with more purpose this way.  I will also be able to use my stockpile in a more efficient manner...when I've built it.

I'd love to know if you plan for a whole month and if so, it works for you and your family.

This week's menu:

Monday: Beef Bourguignon and vegetables
Tuesday: Mushroom Omelettes and Salad
Wednesday: BLT's
Thursday: Pasta Bolognaise
Friday: Left over Pasta and Ciabatta
Saturday: Veggie Pizza
Sunday: Sausages and Vegetables

{The pantry beginnings}

For more menu plan ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

Sunday Link Round Up: 26th September 2010

Hello and welcome to another Sunday link round up; here are just some of the articles that I've enjoyed reading this week. 

• Everything you want is on the other side of fear at Married With Luggage
• Sell Your Crap! An Interview with Adam Baker at Cash Money Life
• The Myth of the Exceptional Life at The Simple Dollar
• The Prioritized Spending Plan at Get Rich Slowly
• My Spend Less Year - Living Consciously and with Purpose at Musings of a Midlife Mom

I hope that you enjoy these posts as much as I did.

Further Reading at Move To Portugal this week:

• Stockpiling Revisited
• Do you challenge yourself enough?
• A {Fairly} Minimal Casual Wardrobe  - a peek inside my closet!

Punk My Plateau Update:  The final weigh in day is next week {30th September}, however so far during the challenge I've lost 5lbs! Yay!


Thank you for reading this week, see you tomorrow with my menu plan :-)

Get stuff done Friday

Hello all.  Today I'm working my way through a household to-do list as I want to be on top of everything before the weekend;  my schedule has been a little thrown off with my new job, so today is the day to get re organised at home.

• Clean bedrooms
• Do [all the] washing
• Do the ironing
• Cook chicken portions x 8
• Make dinner
• Walk for 30 minutes
• Return library book
• Go to supermarket
• Write 2 x blog posts for the w/e
• Sweep downstairs
• Sort my paper pile

What plans do you have for today?  I hope that they're more exciting than mine :-)

September Snowflake Challenge Update #3

My challenge for September is to make an extra £300/$460 in snowflake income. Every Wednesday {hmmm Thursday again this week!} I'm blogging my progress.

This week the money from my eBay sales came in and after postage costs and fees I made £64.94, not too shabby; I've also sold a little more on Amazon.


Total made for the challenge so far:

£124.31 Amazon
£64.94 EBay
£54.31 Amex Cash back
£25.71 Interest

Total £269.27

So I have £30.73 to make over the next 7 days to achieve my target of £300 for September;  I had planned on a car boot sale this Sunday, however I'm required to work, so I've had to cancel it....again! I'm not sure how I'm going to make the last £30; my only hope is the sale of my last DVD box set on Amazon!

Final report challenge report next Wednesday and be sure to visit my fellow challengers to see how they are doing.

:: You can subscribe to this site here and my other site Move To Portugal here. It's free! :-)

End of third quarter goal review

As we're are nearly three quarters of the way through the year, I thought I'd do a review of where we're at with our financial goals;  I'm constantly reviewing our goals as I find that it's the only way that works for me.

Being mortgage free. The mortgage has reduced by £3,685 in 2010 so far.  We've been making a small monthly over payment of £57; this is set to increase in January.

Saving a one year emergency fund. Completed. We've settled on an £11k emergency fund which is approximately 11 months of essential expenses if the worst ever happened and dh lost his job.

Saving a travel fund for a big trip to NY in 2012.  This fund is stagnant at the moment, although I will be automatically depositing all the wages from my new job into it. Current balance £1,130/£5,000

Increasing our net worth to £100k by December 2011. Our net worth has increased by £9,474 this year, however our cash holding has reduced by £2,992; all the 2010 increase has come from our home: mortgage and value.  Our long term plan for the house is to rent it out when we live abroad and continue to overpay the mortgage so that when this is paid off {2020} the rental money will provide us with income.  I'm continuing to track our net worth as it's motivational, but I'm more interested in building up passive income streams for our future financial independence.

Increasing our net worth to £400k by December 2020. See above^

Building pension funds. Hubby continues to contribute £150 a month into his work pension scheme.

Building passive and alternative income to £500 a month. In 2010 we have made an average of £71 a month from savings interest, my websites and our cash back credit cards. (this figure doesn't include eBay/Amazon money)

Saving over 50% of our income. Hubby got a promotion so we will be at 40% by the start of 2011.

Planning and saving ahead for all purchases. Ongoing.

Paying for and finishing our house renovations. We've had three new windows installed and the chimney repaired so far in 2010. No further progress.

Renting out our house {2012}. Not yet.

Getting a part time job - completed

Owning a profitable side business. I'm procrastinating on this like you wouldn't believe!


What about you, how are you doing on your goals in 2010?

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Menu Plan Monday {Grocery Spending Update #2}

This week it's time to wrap up my grocery spending challenge.

The challenge:

My current budget, for 4 people, is set around the £250 {$390} mark and I'm going to try and reduce it to £230 {$360}without sacrificing our food quality; I know I could do a lot more with beans and pulses.

My budget runs from 18th - 17th monthly, so starting next week I'll be reporting my grocery spending alongside my menu plan.

So how did I do?  Overall I spent £238.45, just over my target, which I'm quite pleased with.  I'm moving my budget dates around this month as it''s too confusing budgeting from the 18th to the 17th all the time. I'm moving to whole monthly budgeting and so from 1st October to the 31st October my grocery budget will be £230.  I'm also thinking about looking a menu planning the whole month [again] more to come on this next week.

This week's menu plan taking in to account our different working patterns:

Monday: Lasagne & Salad
Tuesday: Pizza & Salad
Wednesday: Chilli, Rice and Sour Cream
Thursday: Chicken Stir Fry
Friday: Vegetable Curry {in freezer}
Saturday: Dinner at family
Sunday: Beef/Mushroom Burgers, Homemade Wedges & Salad

For more menu plan ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

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Saturday Link Round Up: 18th September 2010

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Hello and happy Saturday; I hope you're having a great weekend so far.  I have my in laws visiting today and tomorrow, so the house has been cleaned and I'm getting ready to make us all some lunch. 

Here are just some of the articles I've enjoyed reading this week;





• Living pay cheque to pay cheque at Give Me Back My Five Bucks
• 5 Ways to Save on Organic Food at Money Funk
• You've Got to Have a Plan at Moneycrush
• 30 Minute Stuffed Peppers at City Share
• Should You Suggest Gift Exchange Rules for Your Extended Family at Money Ning
• Wednesday's are grocery planning days at The Path to Frugality

and at Move To Portugal this week;

• The sky's the limit if you put your mind to it
• Frugal Habits: Know your prices, keep a Price Book
• Mortgage Payoff Target Date

That's it for today, see you Monday with a menu plan :-)

:: You can subscribe to this site here and my other site Move To Portugal here. It's free! :-)

Command central in our home

Today I wanted to show you the 'command centre' of our home.

To stay organised I keep everything to do with our home and/or our money in one place, a dresser in my dining room.

On/in the dresser you'll find, packaging, parcels ready for posting, our cash jars, our menu plan, vouchers, my exercise planner, any incoming post, library books, library opening times, my pedometer...just about everything.  I find keeping everything in one place really helps me to manage things.



What about you, do you have a 'command centre'?

September Snowflake Challenge Update #2

My challenge for September is to make an extra £300/$460 in snowflake income. Every Wednesday {hmmm Thursday this week!} I'm blogging my progress.

This week I've; received my Amex card cash back { I thought it was next month} and although this is credited to my card account, it's still money made; I've also sold a little more on Amazon and made three sales on eBay, however I haven't received any payments yet, so I'll keep that total for next week.

Total made for the challenge so far:

£96.60 Amazon
£54.31 Amex cash back

So a total of £150.91, just over half way to reaching my £300 target.

Still to come I have the eBay sales and the car boot sale that I'm doing on the 26th...although I'm reluctant to write that down because it seems to bring on the rain every time I make a plan!

Further progress to be reported next Wednesday and be sure to visit my fellow challengers to see how they are doing.



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TV Programme call out {UK}

I've been contacted by a television company in the UK who are planning to produce a programme about people with unhealthy relationships with money.  The details are below if any UK readers are interested in contacting them; 

Are you an outrageous spender, a severe scrimper, or just frightened by finance?

Is your spending way out of control?

Or do you have money but find it difficult to spend it?

Are you living with someone whose penny-pinching is making life a misery? Or is your family unhappy because you have stopped them spending money?

Or perhaps you just can’t get a grip on your finances ….

Well, a new series is being developed for Channel 4 that aims to sort out unhealthy and unusual relationships with money.

So, if you’re fed up with scrimpers, or frightened of dire debt, and are over 18, this is the show to teach you about smart spending, healthy saving, how to manage your money and still have a life - despite the credit crunch!

To apply to take part, email money [@] endemoluk.[com] and you’ll automatically receive an application form which you can return either by email or to

MONEY, ENDEMOL UK, SHEPHERDS BUILDING CENTRAL, CHARECROFT WAY, LONDON W14 0EE

Take control of your money, don’t let it control you!

Remarkable will use any information provided by you for the purposes of selecting participants for the programme and will only share information with Channel 4 and any independent contractors involved in the programme.

{Please note that I am only passing this information on and have nothing to do with the programme or the TV company}

A new job

Just a quick post today to let you know my great news: I've got a [part time] job.  The full story of how it all happened is over here at Move To Portugal, but suffice to say I'm quite pleased. 

It's a few hours a week, anything between seven and twenty, and in my local village, so no transport costs as I can walk to work.  Yay!  I've only worked one shift so far, I have another tonight, so it's very early days, but I'm hoping it all works out well.

It feels good to be earning again!

Menu Plan Monday {Feed Me Menu Planner}

{lobotome.com}

This week I'm sharing my menu plan in action.  Every Sunday I write out my plan and my shopping list on one of these < lovelies. 

I treated myself to some LobotoMe products a few weeks ago and since starting to use the FeedME menu planner and the organizeME weekly sheet I seem to get {more} things done.

The weekly planner is great and since using it I've being far more productive; I'm even blogging to a regular schedule! 

I use it to plan my exercise, my errands, my banking, my families schedule, my appointments, just about everything; by the end of the week it looks a real mess from all the crossing out, but it works, really works. {no Jenny hasn't paid me for this post, lol, I just love it}

Anyways, onto this week's menu plan:

Monday: Baked Salmon and Vegetables
Tuesday: Margarita Pizza and Salad
Wednesday: Beef/Mushroom Burgers
Thursday: Chili and Rice
Friday: Fish, Chips and Peas
Saturday: Out for dinner with the in-laws
Sunday: Curry and Rice {Jamie Oliver Recipe}

*For more menu plans visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

Let me know what's on your menu this week.


:: Get free updates from this site here

Sunday Link Round Up: 12th September 2010

Hello it's Sunday and time for another round of link love; here are just some of the articles I've enjoyed reading over the last few days;

• The real reason your broke at Squawkfox
• Cut Down on Heating Bills with These Tips at Rainy-day Saver
• Debt Free News From a Debt Free Reader at Enemy of Debt {Jackie from Money Crush}
• 10 Things Challenge - Week 14 at Simple Organized Life

and from Move To Portugal -

• Frugal Habits I've Gained So Far
• Use it up, wear it out

Thank you for reading No More Spending.net; see you Monday :-)


:: You can subscribe to this site here and my other site Move To Portugal here.

Spending Diary - Monthly Report

I'm notoriously bad a posting a follow up to any of my monthly budgets for one reason; I forget to record my spending.

I've extolled the virtues of keeping a spending diary since I started blogging and yet fail to keep my own up to date!

My own spending diary is a simple excel sheet that I can update daily/weekly to track my spending; it takes two minutes to do, so there really is no excuse.

To try and combat this laziness I'm committing to posting a monthly 'spending diary report' on this blog; I'll post it in the first week of every month and you'll be able to see where my money is going - in fact I'll be able to see that too!

^This is an example of my monthly round up excel sheet that I'll be posting every month; this is simple to do yourself if you want to join me.

Are you good at this, do you record your spending every month without fail?

:: Receive updates from this site here

September Snowflake Challenge Update #1

My challenge for September is to make an extra £300/$460 in snowflake income. Every Wednesday I'm blogging my progress.


< Here's a lovely picture of my dining table, covered in stuff I've gathered for selling or donating this month; it's work in progress!

I've had success on Amazon so far making £75.55 after postage costs; I've sold a couple of DVD box sets including my beloved West Wing series' and some books.

I have five items listed on eBay, with more to go on, and next week I'm doing a little dog walking!  I've also advertised for hire, on a specialist website, a spare parking space we have at our house - we'll have to see if anyone wants to hire it.

Further progress to be reported next Wednesday and be sure to visit my fellow challengers to see how they are doing.

:: Get free updates from this site here

Things you'll always find in my cupboards and freezer

In the bad old days you would find me reaching for the takeaway menu at least once a week, more often twice. Nowadays I much prefer to make dinner, and although admittedly I do have more time on my hands, there is still the odd occasion when it would be much easier to reach for the phone.

To make sure that I never do this I keep certain food in my cupboards or freezer; food that can easily be rustled up into a meal. 

My favourite standby meal to make is curry so I always have chicken and chickpeas available, but there's usually enough ingredients to make a bolognaise, a chilli or a stir fry too.

{pictures from my freezer and cupboard}


What about you, what are your standby meals?

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Menu Plan Monday { + my basic diet plan}

This week I've tried to incorporate my diet into my families menu plan as it makes it much easier;

Breakfasts: Bran flakes or Weetabix
Lunch: Sandwich or Soup, Fruit, Yogurt
Snacks: Fruit, Nuts, Dried Fruit

Monday: Vegetarian Lasagna + Salad {add Jackets for family}
Tuesday: Baked Salmon and Vegetables {add potatoes}
Wednesday: Tuna Pasta Bake + Salad
Thursday: Mushroom Stir Fry + Spicy Noodles
Friday: Vegetarian Pizza {add Jackets}
Saturday: Hummus and Crudities {just me for dinner}
Sunday: Roast Chicken and vegetables {just veggies for me}

For more menu plan ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.


What's on your menu this week?

:: Free updates from No More Spending here

Friday Link Round Up: 3rd September 2010

Hello. Its Friday link love this week as tomorrow, I'm going to Paris for the day. Yippee!  I'm very excited. 

I'm going by train {I still can't believe that you can actually do this} with my eldest daughter for a day of walking...and more walking around the city; it's going to be so much fun because a) I don't get to see my eldest too often, and it'll be lovely to spend the day with her and b) it's Paris! 


Anyways, here are some of the posts I've enjoyed reading this week;

• The Wedding Budget my Pretty Pennies discusses the budget for her wedding
• The capsule wardrobe experiment at Penny Golightly
• Cutting out snacks to save money at Passive Family Income
• Going paperless with your financial documents at Money Funk
• September Challenge: Punk My Plateau at Fabulous Financials {I'm taking part in this, update to come on Sunday}

and at Move To Portugal this week;

• September 2010 Mini Goals
• Losing my attachment to stuff
• Mortgage Payoff: September 2010 progress

There's a definite new year feeling about September isn't there and I feel very motivated to get things done; I've committed to lots of challenges to capitalise on this, so let's hope it continues!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you Sunday evening with a full disclosure post {eek} on my current weight and weight loss targets.  :-)

How about you, are you feeling motivated to get things done this month?


:: You can subscribe to this site here and Move To Portugal here. It's free!

September 2010 Net Worth Update +£906

1) The increase this month is a little inflated due to the balance of our checking account.
2) We made a small mortgage overpayment of £57
3) £19,167 is needed to achieve our December 2011 goal.

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Thank you for reading.

Extra Money Earned: August 2010

Overall from different sources my goal is to generate at least £2,010 of extra income in 2010; this money can either be alternative income or passive income.


August earning breakdown:

• £83.08 Site income: I sold some advertising space on one of my sites
• £6.44 Amazon sales: Only one book sold on Amazon in August due to my failure to keep my listings up to date!
• £24.23 Bank interest: This is from our emergency fund savings. 

£113.75 Total

Total so far in 2010 £1,296.35/£2,010

These figures are an improvement on July {£54.26} but worse than  June {£199.87}. 

I'm feeling really motivated to attack my September Snowflake Challenge target, and I'm also doing some background improvement work on my websites, so here's to a money making September!

Let me know, do you have passive/alternative income goals?