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

Okay, all the stuff I mentioned was actually in the fridge part, apart from the ice-cream. Said fridge is warming up, so it looks like it wasn't DD1 with her whipped cream habit after all. So, food gratefully received by dogs was 4 chicken breasts, 3packs sausages, 1 of bacon and of course the aforementioned salmon. I didn't have to sniff anything, the aroma of manky chicken whafted out when I opened the fridge.

I may be able to salvage, because the freezer is still quite cold, half a leg of lamb-already cooked, 2 portions of veg curry, frozen, ha ha, veg and a couple of steaks. Most of the contents, though, is already cooked.

Does anyone know if cheese is bad for dogs? One of them likes it but I don't know if half a kilo of assorted cheese will be too much in one go.

I spent £5 on road tolls today, came home to sort fridge between school run and shopping. £5 on lunch and £2 for popadoms to go with the veg curry.

I'm off to find a quiet corner now, so that I can scream in private.

Thanks for all your ideas

The cheese should still be fine to eat! Many people don't even keep theirs in the fridge at all. If it looks unappetizing because it's gone oozy, incorporate it into dishes! Otherwise the dogs will really enjoy it- it's fine for them!

I reckon if the freezer stuff has stayed cold that it ought to be fine tbh. Just refreeze it !

I forgot to ask, duchesse, how did you cook the crumpets, what sort of pan? I've made them but had to hack bits off the bottom of then pan I agree though, much much better than shop bought.

I followed the BBC recipe to the letter chica, which involved wiping oil over the bottom of the pan with kitchen roll.

Thanks duchesse, the freezer bits have started defrosting though?? I plan to use what I can of the cooked stuff while the other meat defrosts, then start afresh. I'm leaving it in situ for now to keep it cold.

I'll see what I can do with the cheese.

Thanks duchesse, I followed my recipe to the letter too, wasn't a bbc recipe though, I'll look it up and have another go.

Plus £11 on birthday gift, need to build up my gift box again tht the DDs are back in school.

Sorry to hear about your freezer disaster, Chilena, but you're being far calmer and more resourceful about it than I. Years ago, my mum accidentally switched off ours while housesitting for us while we were away for the weekend. We had to throw away about a week's worth of food we'd stockpiled in the freezer, as we knew we'd be broke after our little jaunt :(.

Expensive day here. Not even sure how much I spent, but there's not much change from £60.

Oh Chilena what a nightmare. My freezer door keeps sticking so it often springs back open and we don't notice. My rule is if the frozen food is going soft then I cook it. If it has melted and started to smell then it gets thrown. I can't wait to get a new taller freezer, I just have to pay my mum back for the nice new fridge she helped us buy.

Not too bad day today, luch for 4 in MOrrisons £17 then stuff for tea £10

Used to veg curry, with the left over roast lamb, for dinner. There's a bit of lamb left so I'll have that for lunch tomorrow and use the minced beef for the DDs packed lunch. I have no idea why the thing isn't working, I've put the thermostat back to the usual setting but it's having no affect. At least the freezer section is still cold enough keep the food from going off while it thaws.

The dogs are never going to want their Pedigree after this week!

I think the reason I'm not climbing the walls right now is that I've had a fair bit of practice at this game. My freezer door also pops open sometimes, I'm always checking it -and the OH has managed to defrost it more than a few times, but this time the fridge seems to have packed up. It's so annoying. For me it's less about the monetary value and much more the waste of food. I see people here who have nothing, they can't afford to educate their children or take them to the Dr and they never, never waste even a scrap of food.

Had to get fuel this evening, -£68, should last me about 3 weeks, maybe 4 if I limit my trips to the city.

Well, a NSD day yesterday, although I agree with others that my aim is not necessarily to have NSDs, rather to just get value for money on purchases.

Need to pay for some dungarees I 'won' on ebay and will do the Aldi shop today. I'm baking a cake for mothers' day, so need to get coconut milk (mum loves all things coconutty), other than that I'm sorted. I always thing home-baked/made gifts go down well, and I generally have the supplies in so don't cost loads. One thing I intend to do is to get Killner style jars from £land and then put ingredients for cookies etc in them (in layers). They make nice gifts.

We're off to Wales for a week on the 24th, so need to get planning cheap days out. My parents are going to give us National Trust membership for a joint b'day present (not until July but they're going to do it early), so will see if there are any properties nearby that we can visit while away.

They're also giving me £40 for the boy's birthday present, which I can use to buy some new clothes for him. Got a basketful on John Lewis waiting.

Oh, and I have an interview next ween to do GCSE exam invigilating.

Taking the kids to the library this morning. Will get a book for DH and am taking a packed lunch for them (I'll eat when I get back from dropping DS at preschool).

Am planning to spend money on a can of value cola, since I was watching Superscrimpers last night and saw the tip about cleaning toilets Since we're hopefully moving out soon, anything I can do to help sort our manky toilet and get some deposit back will be worth it!

My frugal beauty tip, prob already been mentioned, is Inecto coconut body cream from the pound shop. £1 for a big tub of lovely coconutty stuff that lasts for ages.

chile - at least you are getting something from that food with being able to feed the dogs!

spew - whereabouts in Wales are you going? I know a few areas and might be able to give you some tips?

Anon - commiserations on the tyres. My summer wheels need to be refurbished before we can put them back on the car, so that is £300 we need to spend at the weekend. Aarrrrggghhh.

Today isn't going to be a NSD. I need to buy a birthday card for DH, and get some new potatoes and broccoli for dinner.
I planned badly this week with shopping and meals etc, and it has all been a bit haphazard and I have spent far more than I needed to if I had just been a bit more organised.

Hello there waves Finally feeling somewhere near human, so very pleased about that, especially as I have a very rare night out planned tomorrow!

Yesterday went to Edward Bear in the afternoon so spent 30p on fees (didn't have enough cash in purse, will give more next time) then £1.26 in Co-op on some naice ham & 2 packs of Petits Filous (the yogurts actually cost 27p for the 2 packs because of special offer + yellow label ). Then £5.85 in chemist for some Nytol herbal as have been waking up for about 3 hours at around 3am every night this week & I didn't think it was aiding recovery. I only woke twice last night & only for a few minutes, so it must have helped

DH is home from work today, as he is not involved in today's filming, but he has just gone off to investigate whether what fell on the road when he dropped DS1 at nursery was something from the car, or just a branch or similar . So keeping everything crossed!

I have just downloaded a free audio book from audible.co.uk, where I have got 2 weeks' free membership & around £4 cashback, so I look forward to listening to that. Also, yesterday I received a pre-publication book from Waterstones to review. If you just 'like' them on their Facebook page, they are always offering free books to review, you just have to email them when you see the offers (I looooooove books!)

Chile what a nightmare about your freezer Sounds like you have it all sorted now, but if you have any left over, could you even take it to people who you know could use it?

Rodriguez welcome! I saw that Superscrimpers, too! I'm going to have a look to see if I can get any of the rest of the series on C4 player, or whatever it's called! Re the toilet - a hard work but effective way of doing it (if limescale) is completely empty it of water, put Viakal or similar on for at least an hour, scrub until you can scrub no more, flush. Then, bizarrely, drop a denture tablet + warm water down there a couple of times a week, and you should be OK.

Chile, I feel your pain. One time DH turned off the freezer for some reason known only to himself as we went out to door for a two week holiday abroad. Only I had just stocked it up with all manner of food and it was stuffed to the brim. We came back to a smell like someone had died in the house, and it was so bad I actually had to more or less dismantle the freezer, bleach everything and leave it out in the hot sun for days to get rid of the smell of death. Since then I have taped the plug and socket and put a big notice on it saying DO NOT SWITCH OFF! And we also now have a freezer with alarm.

Jenduck, glad you're on the mend.

Spew, good luck with your interview.

In the past, when I've had a freezer full of food in peril of waste I have been able to pass some of it on. Here it's standard to have full time help, basically a maid even though the word they use is Nana. I don't like this and have tried not towing the line but it just doesn't work. So, anything I thought we wouldn't use would be donated to our nana for her family. Now, though, I have a live-in with no children who eats practically nothing and avoids meat.

I have someone coming round later to pick up a few bits. The dogs only get what's already turned, because they don't care how much it whiffs

So, spent -£2 on road tolls and I don't need to go anywhere until this evening so that should be my grand total for the day.

Added up my spend from yesterday and it wasn't quite as bad as I thought. £51.51.
Today was a much more reasonable £1.10 on a bus fare :).

Weekly shop today was £61 in Waitrose. That amount includes £20's worth for a friend that is a gift from me to her. Our spend for us was therefore about £40 and includes some bargains but not as many as usual (I got over £30 off on various offers on a shop a couple of weeks ago- was rather pleased with myself). Notable bargains were 3xstewing steak on a 3 for £10 reduced to £1.29/pack (one went to friend virtually free to me thanks to offer) and 2 packs of feather steak (5 per pack, enough for us all,) reduced to £1.55/pack. I wonder if the red meat message from yesterday is biting already...

Chilena- in third world countries with no safety net it seems mandatory to employ as many people as you can afford in the house- this is certainly the case in Thailand where my sister lives. You mustn't feel guilty about that! You are not responsible for the fact there's no social security in Chile- you just have to do your bit.

Only £4.35 at coop today on snacks and some reduced caramel squares, not good for the diet but everyone loved them.

Got ' big shop' tomorrow so a big spend there, we are running low on a, lot of cleaning things. I did that supermarket checker on an old list and found I am saving quite a lot compared to the other big supermarkets, up to £40 on a £140 shop. I guess I will stay shopping at Asda.

Duchesse, that's what I keep in mind when certain people back home criticise(I never said a word about MIL)? The lady who works for me gets health ins. and pension contributions in addition to a salary, and that is what is important to her.

Anyway, just bought some salad and a couple of yoghurts as OH is returning tonight from a business trip, and drinks for DDs and myself, came to £6. We will probably be buying a fridge freezer at the weekend. Talking to OH we worked out that this one is ten years old and has moved house four times.

Tonight's dinner is roast defrosted chicken with salad, I finished off the left over roast lamb with a defrosted pack of veg for lunch.

Hello All, Happy Friday .

I have just checked my fridge, freezer and cupboards and, with the exception of some fruit and veg, will not need to shop for the rest of the month. Unbelievable amount of food. Just shows me that I have lost the plot a bit with regard to knowing what I have and shopping for food when I don't need to. Must get myself back on track and make new lists of store cupboard supplies and use up what I have before buying more.

Have to agree with aiming for frugality and value for money over NSD's. I don't seem to be able to manage more than one NSD a month - there is always something leaving my purse, even if it is just £1!!!!

Had a brilliant, and free, evening out on Wednesday, courtesy of a very nice friend. I went to the Champion's League game (Chelsea -v- Napoli) at Stamford Bridge. Awesome night and didn't cost a bean. Will need to buy a nice bottle of wine for friend to say a huge thank you. Then yesterday got invited to my Dad's brithday lunch out (as was not at work). So nice lunch in Wagamama's . Tonight is Irish Legends -v- English Legends at The Stoop - cheap tickets courtesy of DS's school. DS is meeting the players and taking part in a small schoolboy match during half time - as I he sold the greatest number of tickets (along with other boys taking part) - so does that mean I should be playing rugby . It should be fun and apart from Oyster fares to get there has only cost us £25 for three tickets!!

Ooops, there's the door. Back later.

Looking back through my app, it seems the 14th, 10th and 5th were my NSDs this month. Today is the first day since 9 Feb that I have bought lunch rather than bringing from home but in my defence I bought two prepared salad pots for £3.50 this morning from a Tesco Express on the drive in and they are now both in the work fridge, so one of them will be Monday's lunch. I also bought a croissant and a cheese twist and scoffed them in the car (naughty!).

I picked up my water butt yesterday, and then did a food shop (big Tesco). I'm not sure whether to call it a weekly shop or a top up shop. Neither, really. Some 'weekly-type' things like milk, cereal, but mainly focused on a meal plan for about the next 5 days.

My March/April/Lent objective of not spending money carelessly is going really well, although some impulsive/luxury purchases have probably just shifted to DH - like going to the supermarket for essentials and coming back with packs of sliced spanish charcuterie...! We have some big spends coming up but we are in control of them. Plumber on Monday to hopefully fix the bath tap. Painter soon after that to finish decorating the bathroom.

Did the big shop and spent £180. They had a clothing sale so got dd2 and dd3 some more trousers which they needed and some nice tops which they didn't need but they were really cheap. We also needed 2 lots of dog food, cat food, loo rolls, kitchen rolls which bumped the bill up. We are sorted for most things now for a while so next fortnights should be just food