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

I'm also considering just using our carrier when we have a second one (hopefully within the next year). Although our local gumtree and other local classified website has LOADS of double buggies for sale at good prices, so might be worth your friend looking at something similar, Jen.

jenduck my DS1 was 2.2 when DS2 was born in August. He was walking most places, but we needed an option to combat tiredness/tantrums. I couldn't use a sling due to dodgy, old woman arthritic hips, so we chose a buggypod.

buggypod.com/

It is like a sidecar that mounts onto the side of your existing buggy. It folds up to nearly nothing, and doesn't weigh much at all, yet it folds down to a little seat for older child to rest/nap. I have lots of strange looks when using it, as they are not common, but it is truly fab, and only cost £80

Today I've spent about £35, supermarket, snack and road toll. Only £1.50 on the road for me, but OH did school run, dashed back and then went to work, so he probably managed £7, plus another £1.40 coming home.

Jen, hope your friend can find something suitable from the suggestions, I agree £600 sounds a lot. Maybe I'm just sensitive to OH spending money like it's water while expecting me not too

We had a very expensive weekend, as we bought a car, and then had a takeaway to celebrate, and then my DH forgot about Mothers' Day as he was all excited about the car (which I didn't really mind) so took our DD to the shop and she chose the most enormous and expensive bunch of flowers (he said he was trying to persuade her to go for a small plant but she wasn't having it). I also spent £33 on a frying pan and a saucepan for my brother for his birthday. But we were having a bit of a blowout before really getting down to some serious economising as our move is going to cost us pots of money.
Have been trying to find cheap garden things and Birds Eye are giving away free seeds on Facebook if you like their Grow Your Own page, have to enter some codes which are GROWCARROTS, GROWPEAS or GROWCORN and then use L2025. And I can't remember if someone's already mentioned it, but Poundland are doing lots of big packs of seeds and bulbs, including 8 different varieties of veg seeds in a pack for £1, and if you buy 3 you get 1 free.

Ouboros what a lovely weekend, DD was quite right in her choice, and well done DH for letting her get what she wanted. The weekend will sustain you in your future frugality!

aspiring veg gardeners klaxon! this looks like a pretty good deal as long as you have the space to grow them all, and have the time to pot the plug plants on as soon as they arrive! (bitter experience)

I'm really not used to this whole living on one salary thing. We've had to pay our gas bill from savings, which we've never done before. And I imagine electricity and water bills will be paid from the same place. Plus council tax starts up again next month. Really beginning to stress.

Can you try to build up you freelancing a bit more Spew? Or do you find you can't really work with mini-Spew around? Round here, nurseries are £38/day or more for under-3s, so I need to be earning at least that per DC (plus commuting costs if working outside of the home) to make me working financially viable. It is a shock to the system to pay bills with savings, but we have found it totally doable.

'your freelancing' not 'you freelancing'

Spew i only have 1, 1tog one, it is pink gingham, The item number is 230762552064.

Managed a cheap day today, dinner was £4. Need to buy milk later but apart from that shouldn't need any more shopping.

Am going to look into growing veggies so a trip to poundland is needed. I want to grow as many as poss in popts though as we are dersperate to move and don't want the hassle of digging the garden up to plant and then having to replant when we move

spew some more finger food type ideas: omelette strips, curly pasta with sauce of choice, muffin pizzas (or just pizza, really - my 8mo DD loves it), strips of chicken, potato wedges, drop scones (can make with mashed banana or grated veg in the batter), fishcakes, meatballs, scrambled egg, sausage and mash, toad in the hole, fishfingers (I made some lovely ones last year with some sort of cheap white fish cut into strips, then dipped in flour/egg/crushed cornflakes - you can freeze them like that and bake from frozen - DS loved them and he is a fussy little sod, unlike DD the human dustbin).

jenduck my DS was 2.11 when DD arrived and we've never used a double, although I have had my moments of wishing for one. In the early days I used to take the sling with me so if DS got really tired or needed restraining for my own sanity I could turf DD out of the pushchair for him to hop in. He's always been happy to walk though, and loves his scooter. He's also pretty good about walking alongside - if he'd been a bolter I wouldn't have managed without a double, I don't think.

The spending continues here: about a tenner on lunch in a park cafe yesterday, although that was my treat for DS as he had his booster jabs and was a total star about it. Had a lovely day out actually, rambling round a Nat Trust park in the sunshine :) £65 weekly shop in Morrisons today, also about a fiver attending soft play birthday party this morning. So not much silly spending, which is good.

Hi, can I join? I've been lurking, and reading my way through the post, but have only got about halfway, so apologies if I ask something that has already been covered. I will catch up eventually.

I need to keep more of an eye on my spending as I'm on maternity leave and only get the statuatory minimum. I want to get into good habits now, so that when even that amount stops for the last couple of months of ml, things don't get too bad.

So far this month has been expensive, but we've had some one-off expenses coming out - birthday present (bike) and party (his first) for ds1, stroller buggy for ds2, new carseat for ds1 (at least that was in the sale), and I've just bought myself a couple of new nursing tops (all my others are long sleeved, so I need some short-sleeved ones for the spring and summer).

We don't have Aldi or Lidl near us (the closest are a 30 mile round trip), so I guess my first question is how worth it are they? Obviously if I have to pay for the petrol, how worth it are the savings?

And what about Costco? Again, we don't have one nearby (about 70 mile round trip), and you have to pay for membership, but I've checked online and my husband's job qualifies him for it, so we could apply.

We're already mealplanning, which helps with the grocery budget, and both sets of car insurance and the utilities deals expire this/next month, so I'm shopping around for those. I've also started detailing all of my expenditure (well, as of yesterday, when I downloaded a new (free!) app for my phone to make it easier)

Thanks for all of the helpful information upthread. Let's hope your enthusiasm for savings are contagious!

Hello SoTired, welcome aboard. The thread is great for making you accountable - just the thought if posting that I've spent a small fortune has been enough to pull me back form the brink once or twice and has been instrumental in stopping me shopping/spending unconsciously - probably the biggest battle of all, for me!!

To answer some of your questions:

Aldi/Lidl - I don't have an Aldi near me so can't comment. Lidl's: their fruit and veg is excellent and affordable. Their dairy produce is good too. I don't buy their meat after a poor experience of it.

Costco: I have membership there and I go about once a month/every six weeks. I would make it clear that Costco is not necessarily cheaper - you can just buy in bulk which can sometimes make the unit price better. I buy meat, milk, some tinned goods (tomatoes, Heinz tomato soup, kidney beans), toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, cleaning products, olive oil etc etc. If you can justify the journey I would be inclined to join there and go every other month or so.

Mealplanning is probably one of the most effective things you can do to cut waste and costs. I never used to do it and found that I wasted things every week. Now I plan and very rarely waste anything.

So, hope I haven't bored you senseless? We are a friendly bunch so ask away if you have any questions.

marking

Thanks for the welcome rogue. I'll try and wait until I'm headed in that direction before checking out the stores.

We got a chest freezer for the garage last year, and I spent the first week or two of ml batch cooking. We've still got quite a few meals in there, and I'm currently working through my store of emergency frozen milk (had lots of bread and milk in the freezer as ds2 was born in December and I didn't want to need to leave the house with a newborn in the worst of the weather). I need to make space in there for the summer, today's sunshine ha got me thinking of home made ice lollies

Jen, I find it impossible to work at home unless my parents can do babysitting duties. They have their own lives but are pretty good at coming over once a week to give me some time. The problem is that a lot of freelance is really short notice, so I can't necessarily guarantee my parents will be about. Hey ho. I know that we're very lucky to have decent savings, but I just freak out when we actually have to.use them. But given that I am incredibly broody and want a second child asap, I think I'm just going to have to get used to it.

Thanks for the finger food suggestions, Bender. However, the little monkey has changed the rules again - wouldn't eat any food himself this evening. Ended up feeding him yoghurt- covered toast on a spoon. Mmm.

Got an interview for exam invigilating tomorrow, so here's hoping.

I was very restrained today, I didn't by another set of coffee cups just because they were cheap and nice as pixie said, posting on here makes you think twice. Supermarket was £10 today, fruit & veg mainly, no point buying much as the new fridge hadn't arrived. It has now and is siting in the middle of the kitchen, I told the OH it was too wide for the utulity door, but would he listen?!?

So, apart from groceries I spent £3 on road tolls, £5 on a not-very-nice supermarket coffee shop salad and fruit juice. The fruit juice was nice. Then a coffee -£1.20, before picking DDs up, and they had an orange each instead of going to the corner shop. We are NOT eating out tonight, I can work around the fridge.

Still need to buy soil and try to get my vet bill payed, the bloke is never there!

NSD for me Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. This is chiefly because DH is away and I ma having to dance attendance on builders and do a bunch of other shit stuff at home and have no opportunity to spend anything whatever. Will have to go shopping at some point soon as will have no milk or juice after tomorrow, even with only 3.5 of us here (DD3 counts as 0.5 for catering purposes).

Welcome Sotired and best of luck for tomorrow, Spew.
I spent £ 21.50 today, on bus fares, a Mexican meal out for tea (in between Parents Evening and an earlier than usual Cubs outing in the city centre), a hot chocolate and a loaf, so not too bad. Tomorrow will be expensive, as I am going to the hairdresser for a colour and a trim and I have to pay for DS's next block of swimming lessons :(.

Right Mad march no more I have spent £400 more than ancipared in March !! So no fiscal easing here.Last weeks shop was £55+20 in butcher so not too bad.Spent £20 at the weekend on frivolities . Also £25 on mother's day flowers (guilt sop for not spending the day with dm). We are away again this weekend so likely to be expensive [sigh]still should be fun. Welcome wheels on the bus. I agree with meal planning, our fridge is full at the begining of the week and completely bare at the end (this is a good thing)

OK well today I put some seedlings up for sale at 50p each on my work intranet and have already had some requests. I think I am going to shift about 20 plants on Monday! Winner.

Splurged on breakfast and a cappuccino this morning in the (dreadful) work cafe - £2.20. Have to take DS for a haircut this afternoon which is something between £6-8. Will also do some food shopping at the co-op and spend the last of the £10 vouchers they gave us for renewing our insurance with them. Also need to fill up the car today.

So far this month we are way down on the rate of expenditure last month. I really think we have done it just from thinking before spending. Although I have a bit of reporting bias as DH has made a couple of significant spends like the plumber and some top-up food shopping.

Not sure interview went that well, or if I even want the job anymore, doesn't seem as ad-hoc as they were making out. On the plus side got some more freelance work, but this does mean no Apprentice for me tonight.

Cremeegg, I've just paid for our son's next load of swimming lessons - £91 for 13 lessons, which is pretty good compared to some companies. I don't mind spending money on that, as (in theory) it could save his life.

At least you went along Spew, you don't know until you try. Good news about the freelancing work, you will have to record Apprentice or catch it on iPlayer before next week - promise we won't tell you what happens!

That's good that your plants are going Lexi, it's a good idea. I have in the past bought tomato seedlings from outside somebody's house, as the hard part has been done, really!

I spent £3 today on parking at the hospital. It really is extortionate, £3 for 15 mins-3 hours, but most appointments are less than an hour, so I think they ought to grade it to take that into account. Even my cousin & aunt, who work there, have to pay the same rate, although they can get a loan

Sorry for just breezing through again- we have builders insulating all our upstairs amd I'm rushing around moving stuff mostly. Fourth NSD in a row consequently. Shall have to shopping tomoz but also have approved foods delivery coming.

Jenduck there was 2.10 between my firsy 2 and we didn't have a double but we could easily have used one as dd1 was a lazy child. She only came out her pram and buggy at 3,6 when she broke them.
DD2 and DD3 are 1,11 apart and I had a double until dd2 was 2.6 and she refused to go in her pram anymore.

Managed not to get dd1 a school skirt. It isn't worth getting one which she will never wear after the next 10 weeks especially as it will need altering. She got a nerw bra and pants instead£11

Today was swim £6.40 then dinner £15.15 then a few things for tea £11.
Should be a nsd tomorrow as dd2 has come down with something so no nursery tomorrow.

I also ordered Gruffalo tickets for dd1 and dd2 and me or dp, £30. I wish i had done it earlier as all the showings bar one was sold out and we could only get at the back, DD2 will have to sit on a knee.

AND Starlight express is at the theatre in town in October so will be getting tickets for that, another 20 each