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Well here we are, in the last week of October. I usually spend the last few days of the month preparing and planning for the new approaching month.

 For the month of October I approached the spending of my house-keeping budget a bit differently. My goal is to be wiser, more frugal and to make our house-keeping budget stretch a bit further. So I split my house-keeping money into envelopes. One per week. This is something I used to do way-back-when. My girls were still toddlers at the time and it worked really well. I’m not sure why I stopped doing it, more than likely a move was the cause of disruption to a well-organised plan!

For the month of October, not only did I draw all my house-keeping money out at the beginning of the month and split it up, but I did the same for the girls extra-curricular activities. I was particular about only spending what I had in my envelops and not using it for purposes other than what it is intended. The result? I managed to stay within my budget for the first time in ages! Whoohooo!!

Still, as the saying goes, ‘Good better best, never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better best!’

So for the month of November I am determined to take ‘good’ and make it ‘better’. Clearly the ‘envelope‘ thing works for me. But being a girl who likes ‘pretty’ (on a budget of course) I have made fabric pouches for my weekly house-keeping money. This way I’m not stuck with tatty envelopes and I can simply pop them in my bag and I have a pretty purse containing all my notes and small change.

Using this easy-peasy tutorial for sewing fully lined zipper pouches, I whipped up 4, each with a contrasting lining. There’s one for each week – the last one will hold the 5th part-week’s money when necessary.

I also embroidered little labels for each weeks little pouch so no getting confused 🙂

Expanding on this idea – I’m thinking about making a Christmas Budget pouch for next year. The idea being that each month I pop in an amount to be decided. Then by the time that time comes when you have to start making purchases, the money is already there. I always intend on buying gifts throughout the year for the next Christmas, but it just does not work in my home. There’s always something else that pops up and I tell myself that I have ‘ages’ until Christmas anyway.

Now the thoughts I have on the actual spending of the house-keeping budget is a whole post on it’s own – one that I plan to share with you later on in the week. Again I am applying the ‘good,better,best’ philosophy. Yes I managed to keep it all on budget this month, but could I actually cut that home-keeping budget and still feed my family good, healthy and nutritious food? The evidence suggests that I can. But more on that later 🙂

Blessings to you all…