Abstemious April ... the trials continue

[roguepixie]

Righty-ho, here's the April thread.

After a disastrous March I am more than ready to get to grips again with all things frugal.

Spew if you were ever to see HPs profit model and realise how much of their other business they prop up with the profits they make on ink...

Today I need to go into town and get some things from boots, and also paperchase. I may take the boys out for lunch, DS1 has had a boring holidays so far with me being poorly!

Marking place!

Weather is just pants today so that coupled with lack of finances means a NSD for me. Will need bread and milk tomorrow but am hoping that is all, although I do want to go to aldi to get some easter egg hunt stuff.

nsd day here today - much needed after yesterdays trip to York!

Weather here is rubbish too debs Got all excited by the snow to watch it all melt away

Got all the easter stuff I need for dc....also got some extra eggs for a an egg hunt

Ds1 at hospital tomorrow so will need some money for car park etc

Grocery del tomorrow but only £50!! Will need some more bits on saturday but shouldnt spend more than £10.

Already paid for the craft morning on friday for dc....hope they enjoy it!

Bought SILs b say gift yesterday and ordered my sis's gift from amazon so thats taken care of. Dn's gift is in the loft. Bought all the cards I need - just need to write them!

Am cancelling hair appt on friday...just cant afford it this month

Need to really budget food wsie from next week!!

Just had a lovely morning at the park with DSes & a couple of friends. Our local council is doing quite a few free Easter activities, this was 'Play in the Park' & was 2 hours of games, toys & crafts outside in the park. DS had a brilliant time & we went on the swings, slides etc too. Just a shame we won't be able to do the Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday or Mad Hatter's Tea Party on Monday as ILs will be here so will be busy.

Spent £4.55 on lunch for DS1 + snackage for me at Tesco. Also spent £13.73 on coffee (instant and ground - only to get back home to find a voucher for Carte Noir had come through the post!), Calpol (DS2 teething really badly atm), Easter eggs for 5 nieces & nephews coming on Sunday (1 lot we don't normally see till after the event so I get theirs in the sale usually!), yoghurts & a new bath mat.

Will also spend £31.55 on a Smart Trike (ELC version, anyway) I got on Ebay for DS2's 1st birthday.

And DH has just rung from work to say that the Costcutter down the road from his office is closing down & selling stuff off, so do we need anything? He says he has just spent £4 on loads of cheese & pates, & I'm sure there will be loads more to come! Quite tempted to drive down there myself for a browse, I love things like that!

Totally agree re printer inks being expensive. We always find that if the printer is being sold cheaply, there's a fair chance the inks will be very expensive. We have a Kodak now, which is fairly reasonable (b&w and colour cartridge for £20).

rogue I was also looking at going to the cinema with a friend, but it is £10.80 for an adult's ticket (Odeon) . I have signed up to the Puppy points thing with Andrex & will earn a ticket that way, eventually! When I was a student (admittedly 10 years ago) it was £3 for a student ticket!

jen, I was just so at the cost. I can remember the days of £3.00 per ticket. I even remember the Saturday morning cinema at £1.00 a pop!!!

jenduck do you have the Minor Ailments Service in your area? You can get children's paracetamol etc. for free that way. I only found out about this recently!

Spent £2.55 on milk and £2 on parking today, as went to the park with some friends. Very pleased to dodge cafe drinks/lunches again. Also spent £38 on the cat's medication but will get some or all of that back from insurance.

Gave my leftover parking to somebody else as I was leaving too, so feeling good about that :)

Ooh, thanks Bender Have tried to look it up, but can't really make head nor tail of it, so will just ask at my local pharmacy. We got through quite a lot of Calpol so that could be very helpful!

I had an inkjet printer until I worked out that if I bought a laser printer off amazon for £65 the refill toner was only £45 for a genuine part.

You send the empty cartridges (I dont really understand toner etc) back to Brother for free and they recycle them.

One refill lasts me over 18 months, I do lots of business printing but it works out cheaper for me.

Last time I went to smiths for an inkjet refil it was £18 and it only lasted me a month.

So, printer inks.

I bought refilled HP cartridges from an online shop - two for £10.99 so great value. Black one worked fine for a bit, but has now stopped. Do you think this is because HP are sneaky and make their printers only accept 'new' cartridges. In fairness, I got the printer from freecycle so didn't spent £s on it!

My inkjet was hp, I only put branded refils in it, after the original one ran out all the others didnt align properly.

So it would print a page of text and a picture of a bird everytime I switched it on.

Can I join?! Know its a bit late, normally just lurk in these pages and get tips! I can only spend £60 a week (on everything) till the end of the month! I am trying to get out of my ever increasing over-draft. My freezer is full, so only need to stock up on things like bread, milk, lunch box stuff and fresh fruit and salad. Do you think its do-able? I seem to spend loads on food, always reduced but seems to be posh food wouldn't normally buy but as its reduced I get it. Think I need to eat to my means!! I am such a food snob and love eating lovely things but must realise I can't afford it

Hi, nsd Monday and Tuesday, today was shopping day and I am fecking knackered after lugging baby carrier and dd1 round various shops and trolley blowing away in wind at lidl! Nobody at lidl offered to help me either (should not be surprised) I was absolutely shattered when we arrived home.

So, £39 in lidl, £12 in home and bargain and £11 in wilko (nappies 2 packs for 7 quid which is quite good). Bought no meat though as got quite a lot in freezer and no alcohol which I will need for weekend so DH will have to go to butchers for BBQ stuff and off licence for booze! Only going to take one bottle of wine and four cans to each "do" so won't be more than a tenner hopefully. Need to put petrol in car but will do that tomorrow.

Oh, forgot to add £1.40 on parking and £5 on friends bd pressie, was very good and took my own bottled water though so no drinks and snacks bought ate nice lidl chocolate as soon as arrived home

£14.66 in M&S, on an Easter egg, hot cross buns, salad, milk and a few treats, £3.30 on bus fares for me and DS and 70p on a paper and a chocolate bar. So, £18.66 in total.

Was it the giant walnut whip CremeEggThief?

Btw, welcome Ispy. Careful shopping should see you keep to your budget, especially as you have a full freezer. What about your local fruit and veg stall? They will save a few pennies.

So close to a NSD here. Had my 2 DS's today plus 2 of my friends kids to entertain. Took them to surestart centre for easter crafts for £1 for the lots of us! It was excellent, three of them made an easter basket (complete with several choc eggs) easter card and paper chains. Got to play with loads of toys and a sensory AND had a hot x bun and a drink each. All for 25p each, bargain

Another NSD planned for tomorrow, as I will be cleaning the house after todays havoc activities. Both DS's are in nursery so I should be able to get some baking done ready for the weekend too.

Sorry, roguepixie , didn't see that one in my M&S :(. My mum, who lives in Ireland, sent a cheque of £10 for DS to choose himself an Easter egg. He opted for a white chocolate robot one.
I bet the giant Walnut Whip is much tastiet, but DS doesn't need to know that!

Ahhhhhhh, the Eggbot . DMum has bought DS that one ... very popular I think. Tbh, the giant walnut whip always seems to be tucked away in the corner of the Easter egg display ... perhaps all the staff are secretly hoping they won't sell and they'll get to get them ... cheeky, sneeky buggers .

I wouldn't be at all surprised, roguepixie :).

Not a good day here,

Roads £4 on school run then another £2 in the pm
Ice-cream & small Easter eggs £6
Pool maintenance chap -£40
Lunch with DD2 who was off school £12
Smiley face erasers for DDs £1.20
Therapist £40
Dinner with both DDs £26

DD2 also spent £18 of her very own money on art supplies.

I still need to get easter eggs from us for the DDs, tofay's purchase was on behalf of Aunty. Tomorrow the gardener needs to be paid £140 for the month plus materials.

Dreadful day yesterday.

Boots, parking, books and clothes for the boys, sandwiches out, 3 prescriptions for me, a couple of birthday cards and some note cards and thank you cards (I like to have some at home).

Total, £185.

But, that is my random shopping for the month done. Today will be a NSD. Tomorrow the shopping is being delivered and will be expensive because we have guests this weekend but then that should be it until Tuesday.

alibaba ooohh I feel your pain! Dc need some new summer clothes and sandals/crocs but goodness knows how I will afford it

I find e bay pretty good for jeans...not so good for tops/pjs etc

Bec - sainsbury's have 25% off all clothing until Monday.