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

janx, I have used a yogurt maker and it makes lovely yogurt. Lakeland do a good selection of the cultures and flavours etc - probably all on their website.

jen, sorry you are not well, there are some grim bugs out there at the mo.

lexi, I too am in the hosepipe ban area (North London). I already have a waterbutt which I use. We have our shower in the top bathroom which most of use, most of the time. DS will occasionally be allowed a bath in the huge bathtub in the other bathroom but is uses mammoth amounts of water so we really try to limit the use. DH did fabricate a way to pipe the water from the top bathroom (if you collected your shower water in the bath) down to the garden below but it involved hanging the hosepipe out the window and using gravity to draw the water down ... very ingenious but not very attractive and likely to get you into trouble 'cos it still looks like you are using a hosepipe. Am going to have to try something else as it is a really excellent way of recycling water. I was told by the Green Doctor that we should all be aiming for a 4 minute shower . Add a zero on the end of that and you approach the time my DS spends in there

Well done to everyone who is having a cost-cutting March. I am thinking of re-naming it on my accounts as Monstrous March as money is leaking away at the moment. Must do better ...

Right proper post now I'm on the laptop not my phone!

spew - we hope it will be a good party! We won't drink half what we bought but the wine rack was looking very bare and we find it is much more cost efficient to buy in bulk and take advantage of discounts and then the extra 5% for buying 6+ bottles at a time than it is to include a couple of bottles in the weekly shop every week. We usually drink wine that costs around £10 a bottle having paid about £5-6 a bottle for it, sometimes less.

Lexi - DS1 (3.8) was out in the garden yesterday and instead of coming inside for a wee he just went on the compost heap DH and I happened to see him from the window and just creased up laughing. He was obviously really proud of himself for having the idea!!
I would like to only flush for no.2s, but DS1 gets freaked out if there is anything in the loo - a tissue or god forbid a wee. We have small cisterns, half-flush buttons and that will have to do.

jen that sounds grim, hope you are on the mend tomorrow.

I am chuffed because the guy came today to measure one of the bedrooms for carpet. We are shuffling round and putting both boys into what is currently the spare room. We had thought we would need to spend about £400 on the carpet, but it is going to be £240 fitted because of a discount that is on atm so that means I can get paint, new curtains and pole and light shade all within that £400 and have enough left to buy takeaway on the day we do the painting!!

NSD here yesterday. Am anticipating another today as not going out. Have made bread today to prevent having to go near a supermarket before Thursday (seems to be the day our Waitrose does its marking down so I combine with picking the older girls up from school, thereby saving their bus/train fares).

I'm interested that some of you are finding it less easy to be frugal this month as that's been my experience. Think that my will-power/planning ability only stretches so far. That and DH getting a month's work near to the local Waitrose means he pops in at the end of the day. Just because they've reduced something doesn't mean you have to buy it. Good news is that I've found a 6-month temp job. Money ain't great but it gets me back into the workplace and keeps me away from the shops.

Yes, will let you know when I finally get round to smearing avocado over my hair!

Think we're going to have to get an electrician to come and look at our wiring - the trip switch is increasingly being thrown when I switch on one appliance or another (never the same appliance), so think our circuit might be overloaded. I'm really beginning to miss two fixed incomes each month.

Another NSD for me today. Not surprising as I only had to go and get dd2 from Nursery then go to the Clinic so I bypassed the shops.
Tomorrow is swimming again so will be an easy £20 there with dinner.

Our main money goes in bank on Friday and I am doing a bit better this time and will actualy have money left in the bank on Thursday, not a great deal but having some money left is a bonus.

NSD so far - brought in lunch to work. Tomorrow will be pricey as going to lunch with friends. Dp away at weekend - feeling a bit sorry for myself as was hoping for a mothers day lie in

I appear to have completely lapsed . What have I missed?

Recent victories do include lots of free samples of toothpaste, several Approved Food orders, and so on.

An announcement - if you go into Starbucks tomorrow and introduce yourself, you get a free Tall Latter. See you in there.

For mother's day I got a free personalised mug off a website that I heard about on MoneySavingExpert, with a cute picture of me as a little girl on it and the words 'Happy Mother's Day', and a free card from another site recommended by MSE. Very cheapskate but really nice, actually!

Free photo printing.

Here

Boffin I was going to do that, but didn't get round to it in time! Will have to hunt down some goodies tomorrow...

Thanks for all your get well messages, feeling a lot better today - not quite 100%, but getting there! Have had a very lazy day again today, so another NSD (DS1 at nursery all day).

Just had somebody ring up (in the middle of changing DS2, who weed on me) & ask me about doing some interpreting in a couple of weeks' time. Explained patiently that I am a translator who deals with written documents, rather than an interpreter who you would use eg at court. Her response was "Well, it says translators & interpreters on the website!" Well, yes, it would, as the two are usually grouped together, but certainly all I know & trained with do either one or the other (although I did not say this to her). She was still a bit miffed & hung up without another word, evidently blaming me that yell.com don't sub-categorise... Funny how little things get under your skin sometimes, isn't it!

Ah jen, they always ring at the worst time. I had to do self-checkout at Boots the other day whilst negotiating with a client at the same time. Was impressed by my ability to multi-task but lovely girl overseeing the tills gesticulated at me that I could get another bottle of shampoo in their 2 for 1 offer and then very sweetly went off to fetch it for me. I think I wasn't giving the business transaction the attention it deserved. I often wonder how clients visualise my set-up -I can pretty much guarantee it doesn't involve deftly switching CBeebies on with one hand while repairing to the hall sharpish to avoid tinkly theme tunes filtering into the call.

I haven't spent much today (£8.42), but some of it went on rubbish! Treated myself to a Greggs doughnut after the gym for elevenses (normally I have a banana. Today I had a banana and a doughnut) and we had chipshop chips for supper after I collected DS from Cubs (homemade frittata and salad for tea earlier.

Hello, can I park myself here too? We're in the process of buying our first house, so the money saving needs to commence straight away We don't do too badly most of the time, but DH and I are both bad for low level frittering. He works (fritter hot spot: buying lunch when too busy to make his own), I am currently a SAHM with two little DC (fritter hot spot: trips to cafes to while away the time!) Can't wait for the nicer weather to come and stay so we can stop going to bloody soft play so much.

The house we're hopefully buying has a small courtyard garden, so I will definitely be trying to grow some fruit and veg. Used to have an allotment and miss it terribly.

Ooh look at my super Waitrose bargains tonight.

got some reduced green beans for 69p but they were off so I took them back and got a double refund of £1,38

Picked up peeled sprouts for 39p

Then I got long stemmed broccoli which were £1.99 each or 2 for £3. They were reduced to 49p each. I got 4 packs which meant that 4 packs were £2. With the offer on of 2 for £3 I got loads of money back.

So 4 packs of beautiful broccoli and brussel sprouts cost me the grand total of 39p!!!!!

I feel like crying. Someone, possibly DD1, turned the fidge freezer to minimum. With temp. inside the house hovering around 30 degrees C the salmon I took out for today's dinner was warm to the touch. Ditto chicken, sausages and dairy products. Ice cream was liquid, I may be able to use that for smoothies, I'm clutching at straws here.

Dogs had the salmon for dinner, I can't face sniffing the rest tonight. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to dump food because of someone fiddling, or leaving the freezer door open. All I want is to be able to feed the family and send the DDs to school with a good lunch without having to drive to the shops every day. We're not within walking distance.

Anyway, today's costs,
Road tolls-£4
Coffee after school run -£2
Supermarket -£15

Prospective costs tomorrow
Road tolls-£4
DCs therapy -£80
Gift for birthday party on Friday-no more than £10
I'll probably need a snack, but plan to be home for lunch.

Oh Chile, that's one of my worst fears - we have so much in our freezer that I would weep if it all defrosted. That's why I want to get an electrician out, as when the trip switch goes, everything switches off, including the freezer.

There's nothing you can do really, other than take a deep breath and accept what's done is done.

Bought a pair of PJs and a hoodie from Sainsbury's for the boy's birthday in May. I was at a complete loss for what to do yesterday pm, so I did just wheel him round the supermarket to kill time (know where you're coming from there, benderbender).

for Chile. We went on hol for a week once, OH turned off the electric, knew there was some reason he shouldn't but couldn't think what...

Realised when we got back.

At least the dogs will be happy. Pink that sounds like something my OH would do. He did once rush back to get an ice block and rush out again leaving the freezer open just a fraction. Then of course it must have been my fault we returned from our weekend away to a defrosted freezer, until he remembered. The step-son was impressed because when I wrote a list for OH to go shopping the first item was ice-cream

Oh well, best start sorting out the dog's breakfast, lunch and dinner-at least I can palm some of it off on them instead of binning it all. I knew there was a good reason for having 2 German shepherds

Chile, that's an absolute nightmare... for you but you have very happy dogs . Could you cook some of the stuff quickly ... I mean cook all of it - you could re-freeze some things after they were cooked and therefore not lose the lot. However, you would need to do the sniff test prior to cooking to check whether it was edible.

Anyone in the market for clothes ... John Lewis has alot of stuff on the reduced rack at the moment ...White Stuff, Joules, Sandwich, Whistles etc - all have reduced rails - only a saving if you need the stuff though .

MIL has very very kindly offered to stitch my french door curtains for me. My sewing machine has had a 'bit of an episode' and won't work properly so she has very nicely offered to sort them out for me. Lovely MIL . She's also collecting DS for me this afternoon as I am being taken out on a client/corporate jolly. Do have to leave stuff for DS's and DH's dinner though ...

Definitely having a Monstrous March ... can't wait 'til the bloody month has finished and we can get on with Abstemious April

Welcome bender (not there's a phrase I never thought I'd utter . Glad to have you on board.

CremeEgg, Greggs!!!

Gossip, NO! I will not look . I am having an awful month so do not want to see your beautiful broccoli, thank you very much ... seriously, well done

My aim is not particularly to have NSD but to get value for money and things I like in a frugal way. I like coffee cake, and am pleased to have got co-op coffee cake marked down from £2.38 to 99p. I'm fussy about cake (usually prefer my own baking) but the co-op Truly Irristable ones are lovely. There's only me, what a shame I shall have to scoff it all myself

Pink that is really my aim, to get value for money. We are haemorrhaging cash in all directions this month, but I can see what we are getting for it so I don't mind too much. It is the months when we spend loads but I feel that we haven't done anything, or bought anything in particular that annoy me.

Chile oh no, what a nightmare :( Our old freezer did that when DS1 was about 4 months old. Loads of lovely meals that I had made double and frozen, plus meat, bread, everything all ruined. I cried!

rogue - Monstrous March indeed. Hideous!

Today I have returned £100 of items to Boden, but had to pay £9 on postage Still, a £90 net gain.
Bought nappies which are on offer in Sainsbury's atm, and also got a very good deal on 3kgs of shin of beef to make a casserole for DS2's party at the end of the month. £38 total supermarket spend.

Tomorrow might actually be a NSD, no plans at the moment apart from park if the weather is as nice as it has been this afternoon.

NSD Tuesday and Wednesday for me.

Chilena- nightmare! Things go off so quickly in the heat. Can you tape the controls with gaffer tape up so no-one can access them without serious effort?

In the interests of economy experimentation, I made some crumpets today. They were really easy and a lot nicer than shop-bought ones. For the cost of 1lb of bread flour, half a pint of milk, a sachet of yeast and a tsp of salt and sugar you get 18 yummy crumpets! You do need crumpet rings (but you can use egg rings if you have them) or you can just let them go free-form and you get pikelets, which are thinner and spreadier.

£13 at Tesco yesterday.
£30 on fuel today as I was practically on fumes, but that should comfortably see me through best part of the next week. We only use DH's car at the weekends and his his three quarters full!

Other than that, a NSD here. Wallet firmly closed. Accompanied school on a day trip so even got a free lunch! Though of course, I will get a bill for DD's trip fee....

I need to do a shop tomorrow, but going to plan carefully and do lots of HFW Veg suppers and a very cheap piece of pork shoulder for our roast. Don't need any wine, just a few beers for DH, so it should not be an expensive shop. And I have £7 off £50 at Tesco which will be used tomorrow. I can pick up the Mother's Day cards as part of that shop....

I need two more tyres - so that's £220 - but it will have to wait until the turn of the month. They are still safe, and I don't do a lot of miles, but I can't leave it too much longer....

Not too bad this week. Got 2 mothers day cards for 1.48 at card factory. Spent £5 in poundland on cleaning products and toiletries ,£65 in morrisons and £11 at butchers, so came in on budget of £80 just ! Jenduck sounds like a total nightmare, I reckon I have £30-50 worth of stuff in my freezer would be gutted to lose that, not to mention the labour of prepared things. You seem to be taking it much better than I would !