Curb spending at Car Boot Sales!

I tallied up my spending at car boot boot sales lately & was quite shocked!. One week I spent £17.00 & last week I went to 3 different boot sales & in total spent £53.99!!. Its so hard though I do enjoy going to car boot sales.  Take for instance I bought my son some Addidas Gazelle trainers for £3.00. To say he was over the moon was an understatement.  To buy these they would have been anything from £45. - £55 . Which is probably why he was over the moon as I would not of bought them at the new price!.  Normally my son wears Vans for school.  Personally I do not buy in to names & makes. I am happy to pay for good quality .
Equally I understand my son wants to be like his friends & have things that he is happy to wear.  Also it is better value to me that he likes the things he wears.  One day when he gets to an age where he can earn his own pennies, thats his choice to what he wants to buy.  
He is happy to wear t- shirts, shorts regardless where they are from. I hope I have instilled frugal ways in him!. I know he loves a good car boot sale & has a look in charity shops to.   He knows money stretches further.

Equally though I need to watch how much I spend just because it is cheaper,at a car boot.  I have to ask myself "Do I really need it?".  So I really need to work on this area drastically.  Buying thrifted bits and bobs does save me money. But I guess if i was to carry on spending like that it  would not save money. Have you got any good ideas to make me stop spending at car boot sales?!

De-Cluttering

Today sees me doing a bit of decluttering & tidying. I have opened a decluttering tab! On my decluttering tab I am listing all the things that are on route to the charity shop. I did that big car boot sale which was good. I have saved some things for ebay. Some things are still good but not quite good enough for ebay.  I do find car boot sales a lot lot cheaper than charity shops. Some charity shops are on par with new shops & sometimes some of those Primarni (primark)tops are more expensive than they are in primark. I tend to drop my clothing of at the Red Cross shop as all there clothing is always £1.99 an item. I like the fact I am donating to a good cause.As well as the fact a lot of people will not be priced out of buying an item at a reasonable price. I know of other charity shops that mark there goods more reasonable too, and those are the ones that get my goods.  I think that goods should be priced reasonable. I have been shocked at the cost of certain items.
Round where I live about 3 - 4 charity door knockers a week. I have popped up a yellow sticker saying the residents of this property do not want cold callers. Does it stop them no.I must sound like a grinch. These door charity people knock at tea times , 8 or 9 in the evening. They are hoping you sign for a direct debit monthly. I am happy to donate,sponser friends, pop money in charity boxes but I find it a real invasion knocking on my front door. Also we have a lot of elderly in our street & I think sometimes the charity knockers do not let them draw breath to say "No thank you" . I would not want my mum opening her front door in the evening.  GGrrrr rant over!
On with my decluttering   

When buying an older car is a mistake.....

As you know hubby bought a car. Well that car has gone now. It turned out to be a bit of a lemon. In total it was in & out the garage 8 times in total.  We have lost money on it.
Anyway Mr No Spend was really cheesed of. So much so that he was talking about getting a new car(not a new new as in brand new).  I was relunctant as I knew what was coming next. We have had to get a loan over 4 years of £5000 (monthly pay back £150.00). This car has done 19,000 miles. As we did not want to borrow any more than £5,000 pounds. We used some of the savings as well as the car traded in. We lost about £1200 pounds on the car & more.  In this case it did not pay us trying to be frugal. Its nice having a car that is newer. But also we have that side that doesnt like to spend money, especially in the form of a loan. Also we do not like things that take us out of our comfort Zone.  This is one instance that I did think ooh it would be nice to win the lottery. To be able to buy one outright. 

Weight Loss   
Mr No Spend has lost something like 1 stone 7 lb
Master No Spend has lost 1 stone( he does not need to lose anymore as he is very trim now, I am amazed with his determination)
Mrs No Spend(moi!) I have lost 9lbs in total( I find it harder but literally I have done it by smaller portions, eating a lot lot less bread & no treats. I fix my sweet tooth with a yoghurt with a wee sprinkle of granola on top.
Mr No Spend has given up smoking & alchol completely. Over 6 weeks ago. It was part of his new fitness regime. Much needed to I might add.  I am very happy he is looking after himself better. I always do my best to look after him! but ultimaetely he has to want to, which he does. 

Finances
We are concentrating on getting the food bill down. Also now hubby is on board we are keeping a joint spending diary. I am popping things on ebay. Emergency fund is down to £1000.00. I need to raise the funds for Ds school holiday to Germany.I have had lots of ironing work!. This has been hard as have had a bad back have had  to lots of  ibroprofen & heat packs.
First goal is to raise the funds for German school trip for DS & then to get that Emergency fund up again. As well as factoring in some fun !    
        

Car booty

On sunday I went to a car boot sale. I picked up this lovely little lamp. I took a picture of it in the daylight & one in the evening. The light shines through the roses. You touch it and it switches on & off. I paid £5.00 for it was never used.

I popped my other car boot buys on top to show you!. The little dog toy was 50p it reminded me of cath kidstons stanley!.  I bought my sister a suduko book for christmas for 50p it has a velvet flock cover. The rose bracelets were 50p for 3.  The heart drink coasters were 99p.  I bought hubby some Hackett aftershave for 99p. A Homedics massager for £4.00. I bought 2 small flower fairy tins 50 p each which contain a puzzle. I bought these for my elderly neighbour who is in her eighties but loves puzzles,her birthday is soon. They make a lovely little gift. Three rubber stamps christmas ones for £1.00.  A lovely giant Somerset company soap in a tin for £1,00. Cucumber face masque for 25p!.  I bought hubby 2 pairs of shoes £1.50 a pair. He has worn them to work today like new.

A skirt for moi for £2.00. A top for Ds £1.00. A mens M&S lightweight jacket for hubby for £2.00.  Money goes a lot further at a car boot sale. I have a gift basket filled with small gifts that have been bought at car boot sales. 

As I have bought a few things at the boot sale. Ihave decluttered

1. 4 books
2. A box of pencils
3. Thrown a broken tape measure out.

More decluttering coming!

Car Boot sale

Today I did a car boot sale with hubby. A few days ago I started doing some sorting out.  In total we made £163.00. We went with a car full & came back with an Ikea bag full & a box full. I took some drinks with us, bananas & a few oranges as snacks. A regular car boot sale I go to charge £2.50 for a cup of tea!, there was no way I would pay that for one out of a plastic cup especially. On the way home we stopped at the orange shop & bought some rolls & sandwich fillers to take home as we were very hungry indeed. It was very warm but breezy.I took my huge sun hat to shield myself from the rays especially being in the same spot for hours. Todays takings will going to the emergency fund as this money will go towards my sons schools holiday to Germany which willcost just under £300.00. We have said no to a few of the school holidays but this one he is really keen to go on.
Emergency fund took a dent for the head gasket as we had to pay £300.00 towards it.
I find that doing a car boot sale is great for decluttering. I love going to car boot sales but I am getting to the stage where I do not want to buy things for the sake of it if they are not needed. I love the green aspect of car boots buying secondhand & at a fraction of the cost.  I enjoy visiting car boots to perhaps I have a car boot addiction.
Weight loss has stayed the same nothing gained & nothing lost! 
Watching the olympics at the moment & in awe of all these aamazing athletes from allround the world
x x  

Organizing...

One of the areas in my life that I really need to get better at is organization.  Aspects of my dis-organization pop up everyday!. I strive to get better at this area.  Things I want to implement in to my routine this week!

• How many times do I list this one & it goes out the window!.  Keep my spending diary from this point on.
• Keep a to do list notebook!
• Menu plan will start this the next time we foodshop. Since we have been eating uber healthy our food budget has been over £100.00 a week & more. We want to at least half this.   
• Start using up top drawer smellies!
• List a few items on ebay (done)

Life is a rollercoaster!

I Cannot believe how much time has lapsed since my last blogpost. Life has gone up & down. DD is not home.  I think she will be staying put for the time being.  
I have been doing ironing from home & things have really picked up which is good. So much so that I am doing everything properly and I am going to grow it as a little business & do everything correctly!. 
We have managed to grow the emergency fund to £1720.00!.  The car that we bought needs a new head gasket!. Luckily the garage will cover the majority of the cost as we have had it less than 2 months but we still need to pay at least £300.00.
I did acheive some weight loss I lost 7lbs. This was done with smaller portions & cutting out the cakes, biscuits & stodge   
Still I will add more to this post soon !. But hello everyone if anyone is left!
xx