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.

Need to catch up! Had a good start to the week with a NSD and a relatively low spend day! Wednesday was expensive due to £70 Tesco shop and £17 at Aldi.

£3 on Thursday, buying a drink for myself and friends at a dance show at a school, bargain!

Today not so good, £20 on40th bday present for friend and £50 on meal and drinks out.

Still sticking religiously to meal plan and shopping lists, so costs are definitely going down!

Well, it's only 11.40am and I have already spent £71.00!!!!! Went to fill car up this morning and that was the total!!!! Still, DH has to have the car for work so it needed to be done. Will be NSD for the rest of the day and probably tomorrow as well.

Spent £24.00 yesterday as popped into a new deli, close to where I pick up DS from school. It is owned by a friend so wanted to show support. Some lovely stuff and good prices too. Lots of organic, preservative free foods and some gluten free food too.

$23.50 at a car boot sale on a swing, bouncy seat, 2 pair nice trousers, and Gap fleece for incoming baby.

Yesterday $13 on some tea and vitamin supplements for pregnancy ... And $10 on takeaway food - very bad self. Regret having to write it here so hope to contain myself more - was really craving a milkshake though.

Reserves - $140 food benefit until May 8, and $520 cash. Not great but not terrible.

Oh and $12 service fee from bank

OK, purchases in the last week include:
63 quids last Saturday in farm supplies shop on chicken feed and a fair amount of reduced meat.
85 pounds on Thursday in Waitrose including bag of shopping for neighbour in dire straights. This shop included 4 whole chickens (3 of em were 4 quids down to 2.29 on a 3 for 10 pounds offer), and 14 (!) packs of king prawns, full price 2.93, on a 2 for 5 pounds offer, reduced to 49p a pack--> 6p per pack when you take off the discount. Bob's your uncle. Gave some away to neighbours, put lots in freezer.
9.67 top up shop in Sainsbos yesterday.

Also 21 pounds in The Range on storage boxes- am decluttering.

I got a taste card for free off one of the freestuff sites.

Half price meals out when we go to Dartmouth, 2 places there accept them.

duchesse well done for helping your neighbour

Okay, so yesterday OH decided to take the scenic route to the shool thing, £1.20 saved but it took nealy an hour to travel 8 miles, luckily it was only a fun day so being late wasn't a problem.

We spent £20 on food & drinks, that covered lunch, snacks, sweets & drinks for 4. Much fun was had by all.

Then we went shopping, OH needed computers for the office £Loads of quids
Supermarket £18
Dinner £50

Today, Zilch

Oh, and today we found the uniform bits that DD2 had lost, which I went and bought replacements for on Friday the shop doesn't do refunds, only credit notes

A spendy few days here, £73 in Waitrose, £19 in Sainsbury's and then £100 in Homebase yesterday.

The Homebase shop was paint for the boys new bedroom and some veg to grow in the garden plus cat repellant. 15% off everything and all necessary purchases though so I don't feel bad.
We haven't frittered anything over the weekend. No coffees out, or takeaway or anything. I realise that this was our downfall and I think we were wasting £150+ a month on those kind of purchases.

This week I need to fill up my car, pay my cleaner, £10 dry cleaning. Meals including DH's lunches are all covered until Friday and then we are away for the weekend.

Not too bad a weekend on the spending front for me, after an expensive Friday!

Saturday was £17 at Aldi and £2.75 on a drink and snack for me whilst I watched ds1 have his swimming lesson.

Sunday was just £1.68 on a box of eggs, so virtually a NSD! I also planted loads of potatoes, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes, so I am really hoping that some of these grow into something edible! My strawberries that I planted a few weeks ago are looking ok I think, they are alive at least!!

The contract on my phone is coming to an end this week, so I'm hoping to go onto a SIM only deal to save me some £££. So my mission this week us to get that sorted. DS1 has a few birthday parties coming up in May so I am also hoping to get some bargain presents for those in advance so I don't end up overspending in a hurry on the day of the party! That is this week's economising plan!!

Happy Monday Everyone .

NSD yesterday - mainly because DH took DS to his martial arts as I have hurt my back and couldn't manage doing it myself. He hardly spends a bean so it meant that nothing was spent.

At home today so no unnecessary spending. Have a Waitrose delivery coming a bit later but no other frittering.

duchesse, what a lovely person you are for helping your neighbour ... and what bargains!!

chile, sorry you are out of pocket for the newly found uniform ... get that credit note and use it for bigger sizes later on. Glad you had a good weekend though.

Yeay for bargains.

Re my neighbour, I only get them a few bits of veg and stuff and they don't get anything fresh from the food bank and she has a bowel condition that means she needs enough fibre in her diet. It's no big deal, and I'm glad to be able to help. It's tricky though, she's very proud and is mortified to be in this situation. When I was little we were really badly off and people helped us a lot. I'm just glad to be able to help her.

Still very nice thing to do Duchesse.

Just saved myself £38 a month on my phone contract by moving to SIM only deal, hooray!

Not a bad weekend, but expenses from earlier in the month mean the bank account is looking a bit sad.

Still, I did some ad hoc admin work today and should get £30. Also I am awaiting payment for some freelance work but have a horrible feeling they won't pay me until May as I submitted the invoice on Feb 29th, which they'll count as March.

Dinner out for our anniversary tomorrow using a Pizza Express voucher and skipping spinning tonight (£1.50) as I biked to/from 'work' today.

Well, I saved a little today, DDs couldn't manage finding a table in an empty supermarket coffee shop without a fight, so no snack after school.

So, roads-£4
Coffee with a friend -£6
Supermarket-£20
1hour's exercise -free 'cos I have dogs, but now my legs are killing me

Tomorrow is stay-at-doing-housework day, so no spending apart from roads

Wednesday I have to go to the capital and do a few bits, I'll aim to take snacks

I has spending to report:
7.90 on car parking Had to go to town for a combination of things for a long time and couldn't be bothered to move the car after the first 2 hours which would have cut the cost.
2.30 on coffee
11.70 on top up shop in Morrison's

No spend day, due to my grandmother passing last night

Will need to spend tomorrow on an outfit to her memorial service as have no maternity clothes for such an occasion. Feet have also gone up a size so need shoes as well.

Oh dear Fishpond, I am sorry. I know you were close to her.

Is anybody going to be bothered about what you wear to the funeral, especially when pregnant? Did she have any requests regarding clothing at the funeral? (some people specify no black for example).

She didn't want anyone to dress up, but of course we are going to blithely ignore that somewhat. I just don't want to feel like I didn't impart a sense of importance to the occasion, iyswim? She has been cremated so there's no viewing or burial, I think I need to do as much to make it really concrete for me - I'm still in that fuzzy autopilot stage where I haven't properly realized she's gone forever I think.

Oh fishy, I am so sorry. I know from your posts that you were incredibly close to your Grandmother. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Regarding the clothes - can you get things that will see you through the rest of your pregnancy - a nice pair of black trousers and loose black top/shirt? They can be worn later as well????

Be kind to yourself and take care.

Rogue xx

Fishpond I'm so sorry

Definitely get some clothes that you can wear later on in your pregnancy as well.

Fishpond

So sorry for your loss

Fishpond

Very sorry to hear your sad sad news. Take care of yourself xx

So sorry to hear of your loss, Fishpond :(.

Fishpond that is really sad news, I am really sorry to hear that. I hope you are coping okay. My thoughts are with you.

Yesterday was a £4 spend on plant food and bread. Monday was more expensive as paid £49 for passport for ds2 along with a few pounds for recorded delivery. On the plus side I took ds1 to the library where he rented a DVD for £1.60 for the week! Much cheaper than buying one, will definitely do this in the future. Never had anything but books from the library before!