No-spend January/Frugal February - the no-spend challenge continues

[roguepixie]

OK - am attempting to start the second thread ... hope this works.

Hope someone posts your card he secondcoming!

Food shopping in Aldi today £42. More than i budgeted but did include a 6.99 bottle of wine. I do like a nice wine so would rather drink one good red a week. The nappies were the killer budget buster. As we only need them at night i will not have to re buy for a whole month.

I think i can still hit target...just ....but in all honesty i think i would rather spend a bit more and have a few extras. I really like fruit and only buying banannas and apples is a bit rubbish. I'm just thinking about starting my planting for veg so the food bill will plummet. Might start popping wine in the cellar twice a month with the saving for next winter :-)

Bought butter today and as it wasn't on my list i was a bit shocked at the £1.19 price tag.....has it gone up? Its interesting trying to keep to a budget you really notice what you spend on and how much things cost!

Chickens - I find butter really expensive - I generally try to buy 2 for one deals so the butter comes in at around £1 (and we'll use them both in cakes/baking at some point). Have you checked out frozen fruit (great for smoothies/pies etc) for variety too? I tend to buy fruit from my local corner shop for top ups - £1 for a huge bowl of bananas/kiwi/pineapple/plums etc. Boffin - well done on your bargain hoover. TSC - sounds like you've had a fun if not no spend time (well apart from the MIL bit) - bet someone does post your card for you.

Have spent £50 on some lovely toiletries for DH this week (all on cc of course) from Molton Brown - he's been a total star over my leg and likes nice toiletries but never buys them for himself so wanted to treat him (and managed to get around £10 of free samples thrown in).

Good day today, just £10 at ASda for pizzas for tomorrow nights tea and some stuff to go with Curry tonight, plus a salad for my dinner as I had been having my ward intro at hospital and I was starving by time we finally got out. I did however manage to bypass the clothes on sale which was torturous.

DD1 is quite keen to get a dress off EBAY as she realises any saving on the dress will go towards shoes, hairdo, and all the other nonsense she will need. Have been watching loads this weekend

Hi thanks for the tip we do buy frozen raspberries as well as freezing our own, we use them for pancakes and on ice cream. Its just difficult to not buy a melon, blueberries, pineapple, grapes, kiwi etc. ( without adding £20 to the basket) roll on the summer we have strawberries, raspberries, cherries.

Have had a NSD here. But mini Spew excelled himself last night - sicked up all his food (hopefully the first and only time I have vomit in my bra) and then didn't sleep after midnight.

Tomorrow may well be a NSD, too. We're eating up the freezer this week, while Spew junior is off his food. So our Aldi shop was a bargainous £21 at the weekend, mostly on fruit and veg.

Too tired to think of any other money-saving tips at the moment...

Evening all!

Sorry I have been AWOL - my dad arrived on Saturday night for the week, so we are having family fun times!

Spending up a bit, but not tooooo bad. Got the kids some cheap clothes in Tesco (£21.50 total) and I spend £12 on 2 new bras that were desperately needed.

Food shop was about £70 for the week.

Filled new car with fuel - £56 - to me that is a bargain, as the old car would have been at least £70!

Dad has also been taking the kids out loads, so DH and I have had some much needed downtime!

Have £110 to last til next Tuesday. Hoping we can cope!

Bad shopping day again!

£33 in local farmers' shop on reduced meat and cheese etc plus big bag of birdseed
£4.30 on a hog roast lunch for DD3 and me.
£40 in Sainsburys for nice to have non-essentials such as passata.

Bad bad day.

Has anyone tried Morrisons "M Saver" range yet ? I just wondered what the quality was like in comparison with other supermarket value ranges.
Morrisions are advertising the following : All M Savers range
White Medium Sliced Loaf - 47p
Pasta Sauce 440g - 39p
Chopped tinned tomatoes 400g - 38p
Pasta Twists 500g - 41p
Instant Coffee 100g - 47p
Strawberry Jam 454g - 35p
Long Grain Rice 1kg - 40p
Baby Wipes 72 pack fragrance free - 46p
UHT Skimmed Milk 1L - 49p
Orange Juice 1L - 62p
Chicken Fillets 1kg, frozen - £3.99
Oven, Grill or Fry chips 2.27g frozen £1.25
Unsmoked Rindless Bacon 250g - £1.20

NO spend here - Tesco clubcard vouchers arrived and as I dont need anymore pizza express vouchers etc decided to use it for shopping _ profiteroles ,strawberries,raspberries and wine

Any space on this thread for a late joiner? I posted on someone's query and this thread was mentioned, I am a try-hard skinflint but could always use inspiration and reminders to stay on the straight and narrow! Today a fairly bad day as I made an emergency oven chips dash (the emergency being I have cold and wanted some genuine stodge for tea) and bought DH's book club book plus cake etc for Valentine's.

Moo, if I lived near a Morrison's I'd give it a shot. Would avoid the cheap meat and bread, but 49p for 76 baby wipes, yes please! That beats Aldi's 80 for 79p. Long gone are the days of Pampers, or even Boots own brand. The pasta sauce might be a bit grim, but stuff like rice and tinned tomatoes should be fine - rice is rice, at the end of the day.

Hello, sparechair! We're all allowed bad days . Incidentally, home made chips are easy peasy to make and cheap as chips. I didn't actually mean to make that pun. But it would be would to delete it!

£8 in the veggie shop on salad stuff and broccoli. And a little box of baklava because DH was home not well. Otherwise no spend, took a pot of last night's risotto for lunch.

Hello All, and welcome to sparechair - always room for one more .

Had a NSD yesterday but today was slightly different: DS went to see the 3D version of Star Wars which cost £16.00 (including popcorn and a drink). Absolutely horrified to see that a 3D version is more expensive than seeing a 2D version. A child's ticket is £8.35 for a 3D film at Vue...I was .

Spent another £15.00 in Sainsbo's: fresh pasta, creme brulee's and spinach for tonight's dinner. Realise that the more I fail to plan the more I fail (and spend more).

Had a chai latte out but friend paid...she's a lovely friend .

Off to the cinema again tomorrow: G-Ma taking us to see the new Muppets film .

This might help somebody
Voucher code: VOU7765104
Valid for deliveries: 15/02/2012 to 20/02/2012
Minimum spend: £60

To use your voucher:

1. Click the button to go to ocado.com
2. Place an order for delivery.
3. Add your voucher code during checkout.

I've had an early fail today too - and completely avoidable! Bought muffins at the 'community shop' close to work which I had been needing an excuse to check out (I am happy about buying local, not happy that I didn't bother to pour a bowl of cereal out when I wasn't even in a rush today). So, now I've checked it out I know that the coffee is awful, the local produce is expensive, the snack/sandwich options are the cheap and nasty corner shop type, and so I don't need to try it out again. I spent £5 but will get £2 of that back because I bought biscuits for the office tin, so can claim from the kitty.

Today my Approved Food and Naked Wines orders are being delivered so I will be storecupboarded up.

I have just had a mid month look at my Expense Manager app and am freaked out. My four biggest categories of spending are food (£230), booze (£125), family (£118 - outings and gifts), and garden (£110). Need to have a proper think about that, when the end of the month totals come in.

Morning all

Hoping for a NSD here today..... whether is yukky, and I really just want to hibernate!

Dad is here til Saturday lunchtime, so have decided if he wants to go anywhere - he can take the kids LOL

Really should do some baking...... but again, enthusiasm is lacking (still in PJs at 10am!) so will see how the day goes.

Hope you all have a good day!

Going for my 20 week anomaly scan today may have to treat myself to something nice to eat afterward buy otherwise anticipating a NSD.

Have decided on the pushchair I want, it's original price is $679 but I have found someone who lives a 2 hr drive away selling one new in the box for $300 so I'm planning on getting it this weekend. I'm nervous though as was let go from my temp position last week and nothing new has come up yet - I may ask my grandpa to borrow $200 for it, I think he will say yes. I have enough to cover it myself otherwise but would really help - and I haven't asked him for money ever in my life so don't feel too guilty about it.

Will be taking sister with me to collect it and as it's the largest city in the state we are planning to go to a museum or two and have lunch somewhere nice also. Should be a lovely day all in all.

Afternoon all! NSD here today. Had friend & her DS round this morning, which was lovely & they brought biccies . We all went over to the park for a little while & were pleasantly surprised to find it virtually empty (although my idea of taking bike, scooter & football were perhaps not the best for a 2.11 yr old & a 3.2 yr old - they tired of them very quickly!)

DS1 now asleep & will be for a couple of hours, I imagine, so won't go anywhere this afternoon, so won't spend.

Also, on a different note, have barely eaten anything today as been busy tidying then entertaining, so that bodes well for my weight-loss (weigh-in tomorrow)!

Sorry a few of you are not having such great days spending-wise, they can only improve!

OMG!!!

Car went back on Saturday, and we got £250 cheque in the post today! Am sooooo shocked, especially as I wouldnt have said the car was in good condition LOL

Ah well, its £250 in the bank! Also had £15 in silver bagged up, so thats going in too.

Slightly annoyed, as bought the kids some new clothes on Monday and one of the items still has the security tag on it! DH has gone to the little Tesco (that doesnt sell clothes) in the hope they can take the tag off, as really dont want to drive 20 miles each way to the bigger tesco!

So far, have spent nothing and gained £265! I call that a success!

By the way, does everyone sign up to the Martin Lewis money-saving email? I got mine today & deals he mention include free Disneyland Paris tickets, free eye tests & a £1 sale at H&M! I love getting my weekly email as it just puts loads of bargains in one place & saves me having to hunt for hours

Good luck with the scan fishpond, and hope something comes up soon work-wise.

I got the vouchercodes email this morning jenduck, nothing on it that I need though, good idea to sign up to the MSE too - not like it costs anything is it!

I did a phone job interview yesterday and have a proper interview tomorrow! I doubt I will get the job, but I need to keep trying!
I am still being frugal, but need to catch up with writing down my spends. I have all the receipts though. Half term has not cost us much so far. DD bought some valentine stuff for her boyfriend (she is 10 FGS!) and I bought a £4 dvd. All the other expenses have been food like butter, cheese, bread and milk today.

fishpond good luck with the scan!!