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

If the account is in your name you could cancel and sign up in your dh's name and vice versa.

Fluffy I thought of that, too, but wondered if they go by account holder's name or address?

I think it would go by the name, after all it's a contract like any other.

Cant believe how much sky costs.

Got to be worth a try . Agree Sky is expensive, although we got it at half the regular price as we switched from Virgin & have broadband & phone too, plus got cashback. When our contract is up, we will seriously reconsider it, though, as we can get most stuff on freeview/internet, except sport, which DH can go to pub & watch meaning I don't have to sit through 90 mins of football which bores me

Fluffy - we did that a few years ago, when we moved house, from my name to DH to get the "new customer" deals (plus free installation and upgrade to Sky plus at the time). Not sure how I would make that work this time around as we aren't moving so as jenduck says, the same surname/address thing might catch us out... but will give it some thought to see if I can think of a loophole!

jenduck - I did wonder about that. I had a leaflet from BT Vision the other day offering a remarkably cheap package, but that didn't include the sports (plus the new F1 channel which you can only get with Sky) and I really use the Sky Plus on the Go and Sky Record apps etc on my iPhone so am keen to stay with Sky (plus I do actually think they are great - never ever had any problems with them in 10+ years of using). It's just darned expensive.....

Sadly, I am not in a virgin TV area.... and Sky will know that.

Had a miss-hap in the kitchen yesterday, all I did was fry an egg and I ended with hot fat in my eye. No major damage, but £70 for A&E plus £15 for eye drops and I have to go see a specialist tomorrow. That'll be another £50.

Other than that, £6 on road tolls yesterday and this morning. £15 on cinema, £10 in McDs

Didn't mean to post yet, oops!

Later today DD2 has her therapy, £40 there, but there are no more treats this week.

Our TV providers here don't do any deals, either you want it or you don't. There are only a couple and the market isn't big enough for competition to really take off. I think we pay around £80 per month, but I may be out of date with that. It's in OH's name because it's such a sexist society that's just the way it works here and I can't be bothered to keep up with it. The mobile phone market is opening up though, Virgin are trying to break through.

Anonymous you could always tell them you are thinking of switching to BT Vision. Worth a try! If not, does BT Vision have similar features to the Sky ones you like?

Chilena sorry to hear about your eye, that is really bad luck! Hope it heals quickly.

Just 50p spent today on fees for Edward Bear & 10p on an Ben10 wallet that D1 spied at the charity shop. Edward Bear gave us 2 Easter eggs, one for each DS, although DS2 probably won't eat his as he's not had chocolate yet (that I later saw selling in the Co-op for £4 each ) & a religious book for DS2's birthday on Easter Sunday, which was lovely. Managed to resist the Hot Cross Buns they were dishing out - 12lbs lost over 8 weeks & I don't want to spoil it now!

Jenduck thanks, and well done with weight loss

Hope your eye syarts feeling better soon, Chilena. It sounds very sore :(.
I spent £27. 17 today. £15.92 on a t.v. guide, bus fares and a pre-swimming/after school snack for me and DS, and £11. 25 on advance cinema tickets for "Pirates" on Saturday. Really looking forward to seeing it :).

Seem to be hemorrhaging money on hols, but having a great time. Flat has free wi-fi, which I guess is good thing, but I have just bought the hairdryer mentioned in this week's Swears By. In my defence, I got it from ebay for £35+p&p and I've had my (woefully slow) one for well over 10 years now. In fact I bought it while at uni in Swansea, so it's only fitting that I get a new one in the same location(ish).

Purse strings will be well and truly tightened when we come home.

SKY do charge a lot but we wopuld be lost without it in our house. Me and DP watch a lot of films, comedy and sport and the dd's watch kids channels. No idea how to get them to charge lower but if/when we move |I might see about DP getting it in his name and going through a cashback site.

Not too bad a spend today, dinner at supermarket+ some more shopping £50. I am spending a fortune on fresh fruit and veg, it better pay off at next weigh in. Then another £50 in petrol(half a tank), just in case they do strike

I phoned SKY to reduce my subs-cancelled Sports, ESPN and the HD. Went from £60 p/month to £24. It can take up to a month for the cancelled channels to disappear (apparently) and in that month they called me with an offer to upgrade again. I got HD free for 3 months then half price for 9 months and sports channels half price for 12 months...result for me!

We have Virgin broadband and phone (and I think it comes with a very basic TV package which is a total waste as we have no TV!! The decoder box is just gathering dust in the corner. We watch anything we really want to see on-demand like iPlayer). DH has been getting annoyed with Virgin's dropouts of the broadband service (when it won't buffer the streaming programmes or live iPlayer Formula One, so is going to change us to BT Infinity soon. He tells me about it, I'm a technical sort of person in many ways, but on this topic I have that strange floating feeling where I understand all of the words individually, but haven't the slightest idea what he's on about overall... I will remind him to do it through a cashback site though.

Had a bit of a spendy fail yesterday in B&Q's garden aisles... now, set this in the context of having earned £12.50 this week on my veg plants, but I bought DS some garden tools, DH a sign for his shed (will probably be a father's day present from DS), and me some fibre pots for more seedlings and some colourful bulbs for the front garden. £21 altogether (so, £8.50 net!), and I have got interest from other people around here for my next batch of sales.

Hi all,
We have the pox in residence! DD3 is now on day 2. I had to take DD2 to school at 5am (she's leaving on a school trip to Greece) and ended up having to take DD3 with me as she was awake and complaining after DH had spent most of the night tending her while she thrashed and moaned... We ended up in the 24 hour Tesco at 6am trying to find Piriton and discovering it's no longer considered suitable for under 6s. I spent £6.64 on some Vanish (on offer), some milk and some calamine lotion.

I have also just spent £43.72 on Approved food order that included Whole Earth chocolate hazelnut spread which we hardly ever have because it's usually too expensive.

Got to go to Waitrose later for weekly shop but not expecting it to be huge as now have loads of (reduced) meat in the freezer and only need a few things.

duchesse for a minute I thought you bought Vanish to use on DD3's pox spots Sorry to hear she's ill. Half-termitis is rife. Everyone chez Bender is sick also.

Spendy fail this week for me really - bought picnic stuff today instead of making as I was being driven mad by two ill whingy kids and just wanted to get out of the house

Broke out today after being good all week! £4.80 on tea and coffee in a café for my friend and I, £9 on travel, £12.10 on a delicious lunch at the art gallery cafe and £13.46 on some stuff that wasn't in stock online at Sainsburys. So, in total, £39.36.

Duchesse, piriton syrup is ok for babies. I liked them on facebook to get a £1 money off voucher.

Bender I was desperate and bleary-eyed.

Oh I could weep!

So, after a horrendous 5 week month and running out of EVERYTHING I spent £135 at the supermarket today. I got loads of deals, BOGOFS, reduced stuff, and yet it still cost a fortune.

OK, I had to buy cleaning stuff, baking ingredients and I did buy a lot of tinned stuff too but, honestly, its too much isnt it??

WHY cant I get my food bill down? I buy own brand cleaning stuff, toiletries only when on offer, I stock up on freezer stuff when I can...ds2 is a fruit monster so I buy a lot of fresh fruit and veg. I try to buy organic and fairtrade too when I can.

Come on, what I am doing wrong?

Have tried Aldi etc and have not been that impressed with the fruit and veg or meat (although the choc is very nice!) Have also tried the local farmers market but not been very impressed either...I bought potatoes and when I got them home the ones at the bottom were rotten!

I am trying to bake more, but tbh the price of ingredients is

Am having family round on easter sunday for a buffet - how on earth can I do it and not break the bank???

Bec, I think buying organic/fair trade is the problem, I would love to have everything organic etc but I just cant afford it and we have bills to pay so that takes priority.

We spent £33 this week on all food from Aldi but I only buy frozen veg.

I buy marked down fruit from morrisons eg

Kiwi 4 for 19p
Mango 2 for 35p
Avocado bag 45p
Melon wedge 19p
Nectarines aldi 1.09
Bananas 68p from aldi.

(and a ham hock for 99p thats made 5 bowls of soup and will be a casserole tm).

I splashed out on a pedicure (blame me for tempting fate when the weather turns!) and a mini manicure today. The pedicure was on offer at £10 and it cost £19 for both. I gave the beautician a £2 tip. I had to pay the childminder £20, I spent £2.20 on bus fares and £3.75 or so on some Method cleaning spray (does anyone use this range? I've heard good things about it) and chocolate. So, £50. 95 in total.

Oops! Slight miscalculation there. £46.95.

I've been bad, two bottles of wine today - seriously, I can only guzzle one at a time so why did I buy TWO?!? Now I'll have to think about which one to open first.

Bender I hope the half-termitis clears up. One of mine has been at home this week with a back-to-school stomach bug. We're in the southern hemisphere so our school year is back to front.

So, yesterday I spent £5 on road tolls and £3 on bread
Today, £5 road tolls, £12 on wine and fruit juice.

There'll be road tolls again tomorrow as DD2 is playing volley ball at school. Maybe cinema too, if I have the energy and inclination in the afternoon. Next week I need to get a birthday gift for a friend, but it will be something simple so not extortionate. Oh, and dog food, we're almost out and if I neglect them after the feasts from from my broken freezer they'll probably leave home.

I had started to avoid the peak road toll on my homeward journey by sitting in the car with my coffee and a book, but this week I've been dragging a whingey child around so I've had to bite the bullet and get back home pronto.

Becaroo, I buy fairtrade bananas from Aldi and they're pretty good. As is the rest of their fruit and veg. Maybe it depends upon your local branch. I often buy whatever is in their 'Super 6' offer for fruit and veg.

Also, the baking ingredients at Aldi are great. They're a fairly recent addition to our branch - range of flours (for general baking and bread/pizza), baking powder and bicarb, free range eggs (18 for £1.99), dried fruits and nuts, icing sugar, caster sugar, soft light and dark brown sugars...and all at very reasonable prices. The only baking stuff I don't buy at Aldi is cooking marg (I get a massive tub from Sainsbury's for £3.something) value choc from Sainsbury's at something like 30p and decorating stuff.

As for meat, Aldi does free range chicken but everything else I get from our local (free-range) butcher. But I'm vegetarian so don't buy it too often as it's just for husband and 11 month old. I get organic milk from Sainsbury's (two of those 4-pinters for £3, one of which goes in the freezer).

Their tinned tomatoes and beans are fine. And their passata is great (I use that to make pasta sauces, rather than buying jars).

Their baby wipes are great and good value (80 for 79p) and so are their nappies (we usually use washables, but, for example, we've had the boy in disposables while on holiday this week) at £4.99 for 48. Toiletries are fine, if not overly luxurious. Although I do often buy shower-gel etc at Coop (own brand) as that is BUAV approved and cheap. Aldi non-bio washing powder is as good as branded and so are their dishwasher tabs (50 for £3 something).

Our weekly shop at Aldi is normally under £30 and Sainsbury's top-up is normally under a tenner.

Hope I don't sound like I'm preaching, I'm just a bit confused as to why your Aldi is so rubbish!