STOP-tober First Tally

....because much as I spend so much time and effort on simplifying things (with some considerable success, it must be said - even if I do say it myself - but then, who better to know ?), my wiring appears to be such that complexities arise wherever anything is left unchecked for more then, oh, about three seconds....

And that would be my way of saying that, instead of running a 25th-24th no spend budget (payday to payday's eve, that is), which is how I run all my budgets, and which would make sense - I chose instead to run a 1st - 31st no spend month, throwing it all into disarray.

Luckily, as the first results are in, it hardly matters, because I achieved my goal of refilling my £500 baby emergency fund (meaning that's a small fund for everyday emergencies, not a bank account for babies), and then some.  I'll wait for my pay to hit the bank account tomorrow before doing the transfer and confirming the final numbers, but it looks as though we will have over £500 unspent money at the end of this pay period, in addition to money coming in that was additional to our normal wages, and which has already been squirreled away in various savings accounts.

Compare this to the £4.34 we had left at the end of last month... And it suddenly becomes very clear that STOP-tober was very much worth doing, even if we didn't do all that well when it came to actually not spending any money at all, which was the idea.  Spending far less than usual though comes a very close second !

And the reduced food budget of £150 ?  Afraid I busted that one - came in at £153.35.   Compare it to the £227.24 for the previous month though (which actually lasted only three weeks as we were away for a week in September !) - once again, I could have done better, but I am happy enough with what I did do.

As for NOT-vember ?  I don't think so.... OH has already started buying Christmas presents, and all that worn out stuff ?  Some of it at least really needs to be replaced.  I will probably attempt a 7-day Fiscal Fast or two during the month though, but more on that later.  Plus October proper hasn't finished yet, which means that the necessary spending will have to wait a few more days, just because.

Speaking of things that need replacing, OH reckons that my freezer contents list needs to be re-done.  This is normally done every couple of months or so, as the printed text disappears, only to be replaced by crossings out and pencilled-in squiggles.  What do you reckon, is it time yet ?  I can read it alright.... ;o)

And for dinner tonight, saag aloo from the freezer.  DD looked at it and said " That looks like it's got lentils in !"   Well, duh.  It's frugal, it's a curry, it's a midweek dinner.  Of course  it's got lentils in ....