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

At Co Op today I got

broccoli 35p
2xblue berries 29 p each
tomatoes 29p

Am still doing the Waitrose reductions.

We had 45p broccoli with pasta and anchovies for dinner.

Yum.

I have been wondering how you get money back at Waitrose when they mark something down?

Can one of you explain?

Well last week

Hovis bread was 60p per loaf

or

2 loaves for £1.10 (55p per loaf)

I got 2 loaves for 19p each or 38p and they still gave me the 10p back so the bread cost me 28p.

Broccoli was £1.99 each or 2 for £3

Reduced to 49p each and they still gave me the reduction.

Oh, I see, you get the reduction regardless of the price paid.

Thanks gossip!

Yep, you get used to the charges after a few years.

We bought a fridge freezer-£700, not biggest or fanciest in the shop, and the bargain price of -£10 to deliver it.
£20 for the cinema, -£5 on McFlurries for OH and DDs plus -£2 on coffee for me
£9 on underwear for DD1, £2 on road tolls, took the cheaper road today, OH filled up with petrol -£50 and we spent about £30 on cleaning products.

Our handy man showed up today, so I gave him a kilo or so of defrosted steak and he's going to take the kaput fridge freezer away on Monday as he will be able to get it fixed and sell it on or get a couple more years out of it.

Tomorrow is a stay at home day, finish off the defrosted steak and maybe get the dogs to walk off the excesses of the last few days. They coudn't move after breakfast today

Hi all. ourobouros I have PM'd you re garden stuff.

Yesterday we had petrol and DIY spends, but used the 'emergency presents' stock when going to a christening. For Mothering Sunday I am enjoying hot cross buns in bed (which tbh I get most weekends) and a glass with daffodils cut from the garden. Later I will get gardening time to myself and hopefully DH will do dinner while I do playing with DS.

Happy Mother's Day to all. and to you all.

Approx. £60 spent today on fruit/veg and some reduced meat from Waitrose. Got loads so will get all next weeks meals out of it.

Am busy Ebaying this afternoon so will not spend anymore today. Have to cook dinner as DH is DIY-ing the stairs - so fair exchange really . Got lovely bunch of flowers this morning so am feeling quite charitable towards DH - especially as he dashed out this morning to get them, having forgotten all about Mum's Day . I think it was my non-response to his question of "did you get my Mum anything?" that made him realise that he was waaaaaaaaaay out of order . Ah, men!! Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em

Lexi, that you for your messages re gardening stuff. I will look out for it this coming week and will crack on with planting stuff up straight away. Thanks for the tips about Marshalls as well.

Not been on for a while, & have spent quite a lot in those few days :

Thursday: £9.69 at Co-op on formula, milk & free San Miguel beer (hic)

Friday: £11.20 at Tesco on baby food, mother's day pressie for my mum & some squash, juice & fizzy.

Very rare night out with the girls (my 2nd since DS1 was born over 3 years ago!) £40 at Cafe Rouge & then £11 on a round of drinks at the next place. The other 2 ladies I was with went on somewhere after that, but I didn't have the stamina after a week of being ill & felt I had spent quite enough money anyway, so DH picked me up. Had a really good night

Today: £3.09 at Co-op on milk & eggs so we can have yorkshire puds with our roast later.

It has been a good week for freebies, though: I have received a free 4-pack of San Miguel beer, a free 18-pack of Huggies to test for them (plus a T-shirt & a voucher) & a free book to review for Waterstones.

My BIL has also put my name down to help as a poll clerk at the next local elections, so will get just short of £200 for the day for doing that.

On the downside, DCat turned up yesterday with the fur gone & a big bloody patch behind one of his ears, & that doesn't seem to have got any better (although it doesn't appear to bother him at all), so will have to take him to vets tomorrow . Just hoping we have enough money to pay them or, if not, that they will wait 2 weeks for their payment, as DH gets paid next Friday.

Sorry to hear you are having a hard time of it bumble. Adding lentils to mince/cooked meat makes it go futher,if your lot won't accept vegetarian meals .

NSD here, but only because the café of the park we had our walk in had just shut, so we couldn't get ice creams :(. Probably just as well, as we're going to eat our veggie roast dinner now, and DH made a trifle for pudding too.
Enjoy the rest of Mothering Sunday, all.

But of an expensive weekend - popped into Morrison and ended up spending £30. Lunch out today with my two dcs, mum , brother and , his girlfriend...£30.... But was v nice and as dp is away this weekend I fancied a treat
Happy Mothers day to everyone

I've not been on here in ages . Credit card bills are dropping nicely but I've wobbled in the last week.

Return to work = too many coffees and sandwiches . I think I'm just going to set a budget rather than have the double guilt of spending in the cafe and food going off in the fridge because I thought I'd have time energy to make my own lunches.

I had a bit of a splurge this weekend - bought two tops totalling £55 but they will be good for work and the rare night out. And a better quality pair of jeans (last two pairs were from tesco).

I've invested in a mooncup for me, and a second waterproof mat to get DD2 out of her nighttime nappies. Got cash back on both . Stocked up on no7 using money off vouchers, double points, extra points etc! Should have enough points to get my contact lens solution for free.

I'm quite good at justifying my terrible habits aren't I?

Haven't spent a bean here but I did forget to mention £210 for winter jackets for the DDs yesterday. OH is convinced that we are in for a heavy winter and woudn't be persuaded to wait a day or two and look for ski jackets. So, got fantastic warm jackets, but they're not waterproof, which means we had to buy the waterproof shells to go over them. He has a thing for warm jackets, does my OH- think it's because of cold winters as a child. He started off asking if I need another jacket-again- I gave him The Look.

Jen, hope DCat is okay.

Hope everyone has had a lovely Mothers Day

Thanks Chile. Just back from vets & it was a fight wound that had turned into an abcess, so vet lanced that (yuck!) & gave DCat some anitbiotics. Dcat seems fine now & thankfully it was only £50, so not too much of a budget disaster (although have to watch that wound heals up properly, or may have to go back for stitches).

Msbossy your spending doesn't sound too bad to me! At least credit card bills are going in the right direction

Hope everybody had a lovely Mother's Day. It is very quiet on here today!

Hello,

Grand total of 60p spent over the weekend. Lovely day at my parents' yesterday, with uncles, aunts, brothers, sister and my gran.

Glad to hear the cat is OK, Jen - luckily our cat rarely leaves the house (she's an old lady, only goes out to sunbathe!) so little chance of fight wounds.

Busy battling with our son at the mo - refusing to eat from a spoon, so trying to figure out meals that he can feed himself from the highchair tray. Don't want to end up throwing loads of food away, but feel some may be heading towards the bin if he doesn't stop being silly soon...

Cats are built for fighting, and abcesses are less serious in felines than humans, according to our vet, when DCat fell of the windowsill, and got an abcess from hitting the desk on the way down.

jen, sorry jencat has been injured. Don't know if this is a possibility but salty water helps wounds heal - would you be able to dab the area???? Or would you lose limbs????

spew, the dryer the meal the better if he's insistent on doing it himself.

A NSD here today - thank goodness. Am busy checking Ebay listings and a few things are garnering attention and I have managed to do a few 'buy it nows'.

What a glorious day here today - lots of lovely sunshine. Not majorly warm but it's better than the grey weekend and drizzle.

Lexi, thank you for your package. You are a star.

spew - fish fingers, cheese, ham, hard-boiled egg, soldiers?

I got £20 for my meal vouchers on Ebay whixh wasn't bad. No takers yet on the grobags but still got a week left on them.

SPent another £30 at morrisons on veggies, stir frys and a present for dmum.
NSD so far, just £10 popcket money for dd1 and chip shop tonight so about £20 today.
Meeting a friend tomorrow for a drink so a couple of £'s there with busfare, although that will be refunded at the end of the month

Thanks for the suggestions re finger foods. Yes, rogue, eating stew without cutlery has proved VERY messy!

Debs, do you have a link to your grobags? We'll be needing some larger summer-weight ones, so would be interested to see if yours are suitable.

Almost went into Costa on a quick mission into town to pick up M&S order. But didn't. So, that's £2.50 saved. Go me.

Bit of a wasteful day here. I wanted to go for a walk in the countryside in the sunshine, but hadn't bargained for the fact that it cost £6.50 return on the bus to get there! I think that's outrageous for a 20 minute (each way) journey! Anyway, I enjoyed my walk and of course, my latte and cupcake afterwards (another £2.70) and I also spent £3.20 on milk and Hot cross buns and a single bus fare home, so £12.40 altogether. Oh, add on another 70p for a can of pop for DS, as we went straight to the park after school. So, £13.10.

Spent £5.45 at Tesco on some fruit & veg, stock cubes, bread & crumpets, yoghurts & cheese spread. Also £1.90 on a cuppa at soft play (this was bad as I had a voucher for free entry & had a drink with me, I was just really thirsty ) Oh, and about £49.85 at vet for DCat.

My DCat is definitely built for fighting, he is just edging into middle age (9 in August), and, similar to middle-aged men, doesn't realise he can't fight as well as he could when he was at the top of his game . The vet reckons he'll probably always be like that! We have been advised to try & put saltwater on it - then the vet looked at DCat & said "If he'll let you" which he might (a few drops, anyway) if we do it with a pipette when we give him his food! Can't get the image of the abcess being lanced out of my mind though [shudders]!

Got no real suggestions further to what has already been said here Spew, sorry - as you know, I have the exact opposite problem with my DS2 who is a similar age They like to keep us guessing!

Oh yes, just met up with a friend who is having DC2 in August. Her DD will then be 2.10, but weighs about the same as my DS1 who is 10 months older & big for his age. They are looking at buying a double pushchair, but the only tandem one that will take that kind of weight for the bigger child costs around £600! was very a little . Have suggested considering a buggy board, or a sling for DC2 if DD1 gets tired, as it seems to me a nearly-three year old would not get value for money out of this pushchair.

Jenduck my ds was.2.6 when dd was born I never had a double buggy . The idea of the sling is a good one (what I did). Also a scooter or balance bike. 2.10 is old to need a buggy imo, except in unusual circumstances and £600 seems loads for something she will only use for a few months ...