Frugal Feb gives way to Money-Saving March. Now featuring austerity health and beauty tips!

[Lexilicious]

Third thread after first and second

Let's get saving and enjoying our frugal wins!

summary of links so far
www.organizedhome.com
www.supersavvyme.co.uk/
womenfreebies.co.uk/
www.lovemoney.com/
www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/discount-voucher-codes/
www.poundland.co.uk/top-tips/gardening-2012/
www.purlbee.com/
www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk/halfterm
www.makeupstop.co.uk/
www.approvedfood.co.uk/
www.goodtoknow.co.uk/money/cheap-food-deals
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions

BIG spend day yesterday - £98.46 over 3 supermarkets, plus £2.15 at chippy . However, this should be pretty much it for groceries this month, except for usual top-ups of bread, milk, fruit & veg, formula & nappies.

I also made a special trip to Morrisons (8 miles away) to benefit from their deal where if you spend over £60 in-store, you get 15p/litre off petrol. I don't usually shop there & it was OK, but didn't have a lot of things in stock. I also found (as I do in most supermarkets, tbh) that the special offers were not so great as they are usually on branded products & work out more expensive than own brands - which is what I usually buy. Interesting experience, though, & I managed to resist the cafe!

DH went to the Co-op yesterday evening & got bargains galore, using the same system duchesse did at Waitrose - it's really good! For £23.90 he got 4 whole chickens (each will do 3 meals plus soup for us + 2 small DC), 2 packs of breaded haddock fillets, 2 packs of chicken strips, 4 packs of pork chops, 5 single pints of skimmed milk, a 6-pack of mini pork pies & a bottle of shandy! Our freezers are groaning now, and I imagine we will have roast chicken on Sunday!

Today have got to nip to Sainsbog's to get some of their yummy value cornflakes (about 30p/pack & nearly as yummy as Kelloggs, imho) & also have to post a book that has sold on Amazon (but already have lots of stamps) & will probably get bus back as treat for DS1, so anticipate a small spend.

In my Excel spreadsheet for March, I am listing money/rewards (eg Clubcard points, vouchers) in as well as out, so that should be interesting

Have a good Friday, everybody!

Didnt have a NSD yesterday and won't today either as need to do food shop.
Yesterday DH took £10 out but that did his lunch and family dinner ( I was working late). I also went to shops to get a reward for DD2 for not having the dummy (which hasn't worked as she has her dummy and i am too tired to argue) so spent £6 in Disney shop, £2.01 for snack for her, £3 subway for me (usually go for a mcd so healthy and cheap!) 50p for car park and then on way home from work £2.40 in the co-op for a loaf, 6 pint of milk, two croissants and a pastie all reduced. Love the co on my way home from work!!

Today will only be a food shop but taking advantage of the £60 deal at morrisons an DH going on a night out so money there. I'm supposed to go out tomorrow night but think I'll pass and that will be about £40 saved .

Taking a note of everything we spend this month not just on the card but cash too. Will be interesting to see where it all actually goes!

Just marking my place! Loving all the hints and tips, will definitely need them when we move in the next few months! And now really or we will never get to move

Am doing well at spending little - had another of DD's rolls for lunch yesterday, she forgot it and texted me offering it if I wanted it :)

Except that stuff has come up - specifically my battery dying on Sun night, which I discovered when I was about to set off for a take-away to treat myself

Ex and me tried to bump-start it, but you can't do that these days, says nice RAC man. We got it a fair way from the house, but not far enough that I didn't have to add Home Start cover to my RAC - but this is good, in a way. I got it cheap (~£40 not the usual ~£80) as I have been with them for 29 years (ulp!)

Anyway nice RAC man turned up, tested battery which was caput, luckily I have somewhere local I can go, got new battery for £40 which is a good deal compared to places like Kwik Fit.

So I claim (sort of) pound wise.

Ex is still on my RAC membership. As he did try to help, I am leaving him on until renewal in the summer.

Sorting the car done on Mon, btw - wasn't that desperate for a take-away! Battery from the RAC would have cost £69

I took DH and DS out to Zizzi last night for dinner - as a reward for myself too because I worked in London yesterday and spent nothing other than the oyster fares!! Which is bloody amazing given the ability London has to make you feel incomplete without a takeaway coffee cup in your hand...

Called up the voucher codes website as I came home on the tube and gave DH the option of Zizzi or Prezzo, got both codes anyway. We had an enormous pizza, a really nice risotto, three tapas type dishes and two small beers for £34. Full price would have been about £9 more. I've just wolfed down the (considerable) remains of the pizza for lunch.

Today I am going to find out how much we can overpay the mortgage (pound wise?) and buy coffee and plant trays from 99p type shop.

Lexi can you claim back unused oyster money? I have £3.30 left on mine plus the £5 deposit and I won't be going back to London until 2014 when I take dd1 for her birthday.

Dig the 'big shop' today and spent about £140 again. I did a cupboard inventory yesterday and took it with me so I didn't buy yet more chicken nopodles. They might only be 10p but I have 10 stocked up. Just have to do the freezer next. We had breakfast again but that is less then a tenner and so yummy and it's staying in there.

Have to go and get ds from school (1o mile round trip) as his transport bus is off the road so the tank will be nearing empty when I fill it up with diesel using the Morrisons 15p off deal. I usually put around 25-30 litres in so I will save about a fiver.

Dont know anyone that has reclaimed their oyster money debs - but look on the tfl website which should give you details to do so if you can.

After saving lots of money am now going to have to spend lots of money - we have mice and they've been in our drawers so binning all the open flour etc, buying tupperware boxes and getting men with poison and mesh to kill the buggers...

probably debs - go on the tfl website and see if they have a section on it. oysters have a serial number on the back do you might put it in and they'd switch it off if you see what I mean.

'You can take your Oyster card to a Tube station ticket office for a refund of your unused ticket or travel value and the deposit if applicable.' Alternately, you'll have to post your Oyster plus a covering letter to Oyster Ticketing and Refunds, 55 Broadway, London SW1H 0BD. (but if I were you I'd register the card online so that you're protected if it goes missing.

also

www.tfl.gov.uk/termsandconditions/901.aspx

Buggering hell ... just lost my post . Will try to recapture the essence of it ...

Have had an epic fail (DS terminology) of a day. Spent £20.50 in diesel then spent most of it blatting up the M1 (and back) to Costco. And, spent £263.00 in Costco .

Did get tons of stuff that will be used over the coming months and meat for March but still ... that's loads isn't it??? Will do better and not spend much in supermarkets this month.

Also have to buy wool as DS has requested a fleece (if that is the collective noun ) of knitted dinosaurs!! Oh dear lord ...

Blimey Rogue - what did you buy at Costco for all that money???

dinky, minced beef, salmon, chicken breasts, diced venison, toilet rolls, baked beans, milk, eggs, potatoes, parma ham, mozzerella, pineapple, apples, calgon, fairy tabs, tracksuit bottoms, 2 x books (present), parmesan, olive oil, plain flour (not exhaustive). But, to be fair, there are 48 toilet rolls, 2.8kg beef, 1kg venison, sack of potatoes, 90 fairy tabs etc etc ... so multi-amounts - meat will do the month, potatoes 1 x month plus, fairy tabs will do 2 months. . I usually go to Costco every other month and not all shops are that big ... last one was the December Christmas shop so have done 2 months on some of the stuff bought then. Still bad though ...

£4.39 yesterday and NSD today. Not too bad methinks. I made sure I took all my bits to the hospital appointment today and got the fares refunded. So spent £12 but got it back again before the end of the day. That counts right? :o

Well it sounds like you got an awful lot for your money Rogue so not as bad as it sounded initially. As am housebound and cant get to shops have had to spend £100 on lots and lots of tupperware as part of operation mouseproof!

Epic fail here as well. Hardly dare to post, but will do so to make.rougue feel better. £63 in sainsbury's yesterday on "a few bit" . No meat, fruit or veg in that .Oh dear. Today had much needed haircut, then bought a new dress. Not good not good at all

Thank you ladies, for being so kind, gentle and forgiving.

dinky ... dare I ask ... how much tupperware????? . However, if necessary to repel the mousey hoardes then it's ok. You must have quite a lot though ...

naughtymummy, thank you, you have indeed made me feel better. Must ask though ... how much was the haircut and dress??????? Come on, you know confession is good for the soul ........

grownup, well done you, it definitely counts .

Have to go to school club tonight as well (I volunteer and can't miss as I am the only first aider) so that will be another £5 to DS for his monthly sugar overload ...

Dress was £25 but bought tights and gloves too , haircut was £100 with treatment and tip. In my defence am going to a weddding tommorow.:)

Enjoy your wedding, Naughty. Hope you get rid of the mice ASAP, dinkystinky. You might feel like you spent a lot, roguepixie, but I bet you would easily spend more than that if you were doing a weekly supermarket shop.

I spent £20 on paying my childminder, £3. 15 on milk and salad from M&S , and £27.35 on a day out to another town. That was for travel, lunch, two coffees and a traybake. So £50.50 in total.

Aw I love costco only been a few
Times as don't have a card but remember spending £90 and that included a snow jacket by o'neil that has lasted 3 years and everything else lasted months!
Need to actually see if my mum has a card as have sorted out a big cupboard to stock up on things and bulk buy. I looked back over a few years money files and we tend to struggle with money from august to November for some reason so if I can be really really good we can stock up for then.

Spent £70 exactly at morrisons today but that should last at least 10 days apart from bread and milk. Got tonnes of stuff too. (actually was £77 but have a discount card)
Also got Easter eggs and stocked up on medicine. Very productive!

Dd1 first ballet class tomorrow so £5 for that but hope to not spend much more

hmmm, not good. After spending £57 yesterday, I spent £34.25 today.

DH, I and DS went out for a big old breakfast today as DS wasnt at nursery. Also got some bits from corner shop.

On the plus side, sold old fridge for £60 and old freezer for £30 so made £90 today!

My savings account is sitting at £686.20, which we only started saving at the beginning of January, and hopefully, by the end of June will be at £2k. That is our moving fund, so heres hoping, as we move on 2nd July!!!

Tomorrow will be a bread/milk/ham shop, so hopefully not more than £10.

Other than that, we should be close to NSDs until Tuesday for the weekly shop!

Total for Feb is just over £900. Spent £13 less than in Jan. I am shocked though, I thought we were doing really well. We spend £15 on food A DAY. I need to really reduce this.

naughty, that's a good deal on your dress and also a good spend on hair. Enjoy the wedding.

CremeEgg, you are right. If I was buying this stuff, in that quantity, from the supermarkets I would probably spend half as much again.

DanJar, that's some good saving...keep it up.

Have Ocado coming tomorrow as am nearly out of my tea ... can't find it anywhere apart from central London and am NOT going in there to get tea!!! Ocado do it so I order it in bulk every few months. My DMum drinks it as well so I order for her too.

Apart from that should be NSD's this weekend ...

reckoner, £15 per day for how many people? It does seem high but depends a lot on how many people it is feeding. Also, is that just for food consumed at home or does it include sandwiches etc for packed lunches?

Btw just wondering does anyone's other halfs moan and groan about money saving and watching pennies? My DH resents it a little I think that I know where every penny goes and is in charge of the money. He does admit though that's why he loves me and wouldn't be able to do it but on other hand makes me feel like the bad guy when saying no to unnecessary spends and meals out. (or when he wants to ruin a nearly NSD!!)