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

for those wanting to do cheap gardening... there's a perennials deal on MSE but be quick!!!

An ok day today. Swimming with the dd's was half price. Then dinner at morrisons and a few bits, tea, flour for baking, eggs, milk and fruit and veg. About £35 all in all.

Got my graze box and the things look very yummy. I also gotr some vouchers for free boxes. I have 2 left so if you want to give them a go for free pm me and I will give you the code

Okay - I've been bad... I need your help.

I've cut right back over the last month or so on the big stuff.. but I just can't seem to stop hemorrhaging cash on the small stuff! I've cut our food shop from £90 to £50 a week... started shopping around for everything I don't smoke, and I haven't been buying clothes etc at all.

The things I'm struggling with are mainly; buying food at work - £20.55 spent since pay day 2 weeks ago. Going out - £73 spent on one night out and a lunch with a friend. And staying in - BIG problem, £41 so far... wine is the issue

So that's £134.55 so far this month (with 3 weeks to go) that I didn't need to spend. I need to save really badly... HELP!!

Could you take lunch to work? Have you tried adding your work day costs to the shopping bill, it's all food after all. Maybe that will kind of shock you into making a sandwich.
How about having friends round for an evening? And yes there will likely still be wine involved, but it's cheaper in the supermarket than in a bar. Do you buy wines on offer, not all the cheap to mid priced ones are bad. Dare I say it, there are a few Chilean wines avalaible over there that shouldn't break the bank, and most if them are really good

I'm sure someone will be along soon with more ideas

BOM - I am going to go perhaps against the received wisdom and say that perhaps your low food shop is the problem.
I have found that on the weeks when I try and do a really low cost shop that I often end up spending more overall - all your extra spending that you list there is food related. For me personally, I find the trick is to do a really comprehensive shop with as much as possible included in it. Then there is less likelihood of takeaway, random meals out, extra trip to the corner shop for munchies/wine etc.

If I am barking up the wrong tree then ignore me, but it is something I have noticed happens in this house!

BOMS, you need to be boring and take your lunch to work and cut down on big nights out. Can you make the one you just had your last one for the month? Next month, could you go to the cinema and for 1 or 2 drinks afterwards? If you go to the cinema late, that should still see you out until closing time. Also, instead of wine, could you just get a couple of bottles of cider or cans of ready mixed G&T etc. for the weekend?

I will have spent £16.54 by the end of today. £1.99 on a loaf and salad, £6.20 on bus fares for me and DS and coffee, hot chocolate, and 2 muffins as our weekly treat in a café before his swimming lesson. We usually share a muffin or cake, but for some reason, I thought what the heck today!

Thanks Guys - Ali - you might have a point there you know... I do bring a packed lunch but then end up hungry because my packed lunch was rather meagre!
That will be my only night out this month... but it's still a lot of money I feel. Problem is that I have earnt well for a long time and I find that I am drawn to the more expensive places

I'll try to buy tastier things with my food shop, and buy wine with the food shopping instead of ad-hoc as that might save - particularly if they do offers there...

Spent a fair bit today, but always expect to on a Wednesday as I pop into the Co-op after Edward Bear club. Spent £13.45 in Co-op on 2 x seafood selection packs, 2 x bacon & 2 x Andrex 9-packs. Spent £3.24 on Tesco on 2 x Always, some yellow label bready bits & some mash for tonight's cottage pie & cherry tomatoes. Then 50p Edward Bear fee & 7p on a toy car at the charity shop. Saw a Champneys gift pack of full-size bath foam, body lotion & shower gel for £2.50 at charity shop, wish I'd got it now, good present for somebody. Might go back tomorrow whilst DS1 at nursery!

If anybody needs any gift ideas, if you sign up to the Truprint website you get a free £8 photo mug for p&p only (£2) + 40 free prints. Only one per household, but I am getting 1 each for DMum & DMIL for Mother's day, will get one sent to my parents' house .

Welcome BOM. Can't guarantee we'll stop you spending, but at least you'll have somewhere to confess your sins, which may make you feel so bad you stop doing it

BOM

You need to feed yourself better at lunch time! I know this from experience, your body is not going to let you get away with trying to give it less than minimum requirements.

What type of packed lunch do you do? Pasta salads are good, ditto brown rice. If sandwiches do you use wholemeal bread and plenty of filling? Soups, or salads with beans maybe, lots of veg included, chopped egg etc.

Snacks could be fruit, yoghurts etc brought from home. Do you have time and inclination to bake at home, not everyone does, but you could make treats so that if you just need something indulgent it's available. Do you have a re-usable water bottle, much cheaper from your kitchen tap than the chiller cabinet. I confess a dislike of tap water myself, do I filter it. For warm weather you could recycle a mineral water bottle and freeze your water overnight, by lunchtime you should have nicely chilled water.

Well, I didn't manage a NSD, however, I spent £11.39 and I got a newspaper, a book (half price with the paper and one I am desperate to read) and two magazines with loads of high value freebies which way out match the price and are things I actually use and need! Oh and 40p to park the car!

I also discovered that each of the DC has £35 in a long forgotten building society account, so I got their books updated and am resolving to put at least a small bit of my Child Benefit in there for them each month .

AND, though this involves spending, I have discovered a £10 off a kindle code... and I am utterly desperate for one!

Thanks for the glasses link and charity shop tip . I can get a free eye test voucher from work so that is good
Went out to lunch with work colleagues - persuaded them not to go to expensive Japanese restaurant and went to EAT instead. Spent £6 - but I needed to get out as my boss is driving me insane . Just got to get milk on way home.

Need to find a haircut offer - anyone use group on?

I use groupon Janx - but you need to do your research on the places on offer as some of them are fab and some are decidedly crap. I got a great groupon offer for a cut and die at Rush hair salon - there are several across london - which i knew was a good salon (and the salon runs a continuing discount scheme of 20% off if you book your next cut before you leave - which could be in a several months time)

Thanks dinky that's really helpful.

hairdressing schools are a good way of getting cheap basic cuts - £5 I think at VS school - I was at uni in London and my friends and I used to do that (the trainees are under supervision so the tutors wont let you go out looking bad). Otherwise Toni and Guy are always on the lookout for hair models - though you dont get much say on cut and colour (a friend of mine does that - she has ended up with some out there haircuts/colours over the years).

I think my days of hairdressing modelling are over - I just don't have the time - used to do it years ago. Have got into habit of spending quite a lot on hairdressers as I have quite difficult hair- its my one luxury, but feel it has to be curbed

Filled the car up today, £56. But a tank lasts me a month, so that should be it for March. Got paid for a bit of work today, just £18 but it all helps. Nothing really exciting or money-saving to report. Spending, or lack of it, doesn't seem to be going that well this month. It's just one of those months where something crops up every day. Nothing extravagent or unnecessary, but it all adds up.

What book did you get, AnonymousBird? I've just finished IQ84, which I was a bit disappointed in, tbh. But it's nice to be able to read a book again!

spew - The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. But have several to read before I get to it....

That's on my list to read, hope it's good. I was given a Kindle for xmas, but still have a load of real books to read before I can buy more e-books.

I'm meant to be going to a focus group tonight, where I'll get a £25 M&S voucher. But Mini Spew had us up six times last night (I did four of the emergency calls) so I'm knackered. But it is £25...

March is HARD isnt it?!

So far this week.....

£80 on shopping on monday night

Thought Tuesday was going to be a NSD.... and it was til 7pm! DD2 had her martial arts grading and her insurance was due, so bang! £40 gone! (Granny had given us £20 fuel money for running her around so that did cancel out a little bit of it!)

Dog was at the vets yesterday..... annual booster.... £42.60!!! For ONE injection! Then DD1 had Brownies, so £3 as she didnt go last week as she went to a party.

Today I need to get my dad his birthday cards, I have stamps so just need to buy the cards, hopefully less than £5. DD2 has Rainbows, so £1.50. I also need to get a veg pack for making stew tomorrow so that will be £1 in Lidl providing I dont pick up anything else!

Also bought DD1 some Moshi Monsters as found a website that does them at the right price with free delivery. £20. But in fairness, hardly fair to pay £40 for DD2 to do Martial Arts while DD1 gets nothing.

Oh and £10 sponsership money for DS nursery, £10 sponsership for a friend doing a walk with her kids, and £15 registration fee for Race For Life.

A stinker of a week financially! will need to rein it in over the coming weeks!

I agree that March is hard, danjar! Perhaps because it is a longer month than February [grasping at straws]. Cards for your dad - could your DC help make one? Or do you have artwork of theirs/a photo of them that could be turned into a card? Is a nice personal touch, too.

Focus group sounds interesting spew. Is it like a product review thing? I know it's tough when you've been up in the night, but you may find you feel more alive later. Are you able to nap when minispew does? I would look on it as a chance to have grown-up conversation and most likely free refreshments, too Hope minispew is OK, btw.

I am a little gutted as I have just started to prepare paella for tonight & have noticed that the seafood says do not freeze. The one I am using has just been in the fridge, but I have another which I put in the freezer! Do you think it would be OK to give to the cat, if I perhaps cook it really well? Then it wouldn't be a complete waste!

Not going anywhere today, so won't spend at shops, but need to order photo mugs for Dmum & DMIL, so will be £4 there.

I would usually get the kids to make them, but his birthday is Sunday, so need posted today! Im never usually this unorganised, but having had shopping delivered, and being poorly on Tuesday, I didnt get to the shops sooner!

Just feels like Im a cash machine at the moment!

God I am exhausted today, I'm going to do my income and expenditure in a minute and see just how much we pay for bills and stuff then see where I can shave things off. tHAT IS IF i DON'T FALL ASLEEP AT THE KEPBOARD

Thanks, jen. The focus group is about how to adapt the neighbourhood to cope with climate change. It's being run by Ox Brookes Uni and UWE, some sort of joint project.

The little bugger is fine, just wouldn't sleep last night. Might be teeth, might not be. I think today is going to be a long one...

I can't do a NSD today, I am going near my big Tesco later so whilst I am there need to look for some school uniform bits, if I don't find them, then order on line.

AND I need to stump up £6 for DC's swimming certificates!

I also need to order seeds and seed potatoes... but the long term non-spending benefit of that spend is all very good!

BUT am using DH's car to postpone having to fill up mine today/tomorrow.... should be able to push that into next week...

So have just done the income and expenditure thing and DD's and standing orders come upto £532.74 a month. That leaves £1234 a month for shopping, clothing, running a car and entertaining a family of 6. NOt sure if that is a lot or not. I worked out that if we didn't have sky or mobile phones we could save £137! But I don't think the family would like no Sky and we do use our mobiles a lot, although we could probably do without them
I also found 3 DD's with the same name but different references and different amounts. I have no idea what they are for so should I cancel them and see who sends me a letter asking for a payment?