How to budget effectively, and other boring measures

Well I've been a bit crap haven't I?! Apologies for not writing again, I have turned into a wedding obsessed monster with no time to spare on anything non-wedding related. I joke of course (that was only the first few weeks), however I have since managed to pull myself out of my pre-nuptual reverie and back into the real world. It's not as fun.

For those people who's interests do not include dresses, wedding cake or favour colours, do not totally despair for this will only take a minute. Sort of. We have been a supremely organised little couple and I think we are so on track that I am almost worried that I will have nothing to do for the next 11 months! So far we have: church booked, venue booked, dress bought, flowers chosen, car booked, photographer sorted, hotel room booked, chair covers booked (way too expensive but I can't let it go), favours bought, invites designed and honeymoon almost decided. Get us! All we need now is the bridesmaid dresses found and Tom and the boys outfits chosen and I think we'll be made.

All this brings me to the rather annoying factor of all this: MONEY. Oh how it rules the world, especially when accompanied by the word wedding. From the day we got engaged me and the man worked out a budget based on what we could save a month and still live. Turns out my budgeting was slightly out, as I have since found that my £11 per day has been reduced significantly due to external factors I had not considered...birthdays, leaving drinks, girls nights out, new winter coat... Obviously I was not intent upon staying in until next September, but each night out has left me with less and less to live on until I checked my balance today to find that I had to live on £3.74 a day until I get paid. Seriously.

All this has left us resorting to some quite significant, and frankly some might say appalling, measures to get us through the year (it is only month 1 of the budget). Tom has not been much better than I with his money, but at least he gets his lunch paid for the bugger. Anyway, cost saving measure number 1 - we are now doing our weekly shop at Aldi. That's right, the brandless, slightly foreign-feeling supermarket. To our surprise, not only is it bloody good value but the meat and veg we have bought is of better quality than some other prestigious supermarkets. AND we have been able to get a weekly shop for £25! Bargain.

Cost saving measure number 2 - dinners. Or should I say leftovers. We have always been a happy cooking type of couple and both of us are more than happy to cook dinner. A new high (low?) in all of this is what I call the re-distribution of yesterday's meals. Finding ingenious ways of using up last night's meal takes some forthought I can tell you, especially having never been good at cooking for 2. We always have leftovers and usually these get put in a small bowl and left in the fridge until we realise it's been a week and it's probably off, wherein it gets chucked in the bin. Now however all food is sacred. A bolognese becomes a chili con carne with the help of some chili (yes really!) and kidney beans, Sunday's roast chicken is thrown into a stew, the home made chicken curry is...well kept as a curry but with chickpeas added to bulk it out a bit. I am yet to figure out what to do with left over pork chops, possibly because I am not good at cooking them first time round and their dryness shocks even me.

All of this has been incredibly humbling though as I never quite realised how lazy I was when it came to having 'nothing' in the fridge/cupboard. The urge to get a curry in has never been so strong, and yet I am enjoying this new frugal me. At least for now, I'm sure the novelty will wear off in a month. So if anyone has any good ideas of how to re-distribute evening meals please feel free to give me a shout, I'll try anything!