Meagre May ... watching our bank balances go up instead of down

[roguepixie]

New thread for all of us .

Glad the hen weekend went well louis, that treatment sounds amazing.
I've got to pop to the supermarket today, hoping to spend £30ish. I will prob have a coffee with a pal too so aiming for less than £35 today.
Tomorrow and Thursday will be NSD as I'm at work.

so of your spa treatment louis

£2.50 spent on Monday for all-you-can-drink coffee at a regular mummy meet-up venue, drank about 5 lattes to get value for money!

Today I have to go charity shop trawling, as we have broken 5 dinner plates since moving in here (stupid tiled floor) and now only have 2 remaining! Also have to look for some vests, sleepsuits and cute tops for DS2, and I need a top up from the supermarket too so will be a few quids spent today.

Leilandri

I bet you were bouncing off the walls after all that coffee, well done though 5 for £2.50=bargain

OH is hoping to get his rather large deposit back, at last, company is still playing silly buggers but the middle man has offered to sort it as said company is damaging his reputation and he also has money at stake. Also, OH has been paid, so he should be ale to sleep now.

I'm having a couple of days at home, trying get caught up with housework etc, so not spending much this week. May need the get new dog bushes if I can't find them.

As close as I can get to a NSD here today, only £1.60 on the roads, nothing else. It can't last though as the car is almost down to fumes, must remedy that tomorrow.

Not such a great day today. Car went in for one new tyre and came out with three. I'm also £124 worse off. However, I have decided that I think I'm going to sell my car. I don't use it enough to warrant paying oodles of tax, petrol, insurance et etc money on it.

70p for a can of diet coke, not too bad!

Not a bad week so far but, ds has trashed our computer so have to get a new one. We can salvage all our things from this one so am swapping them onto a reconditioned one so next week will be £200 lighter

The crappy weather means not much chance of days out so saving there but we are so bored.

Oh my bargain of the week was a 6 pack of pampers baby wipes from asda for only £2.50! I bought 6, should last me a couple of months

A bit of spending to catch up on, been another expensive week!

£69 on Tuesday for haircut and colour (colour half-price though as Tues appointment, so still a small saving on usual cost). Then another £60 at Aldi on the weekly shop.

Wednesday was another £60 filling the car with petrol and £12 on 2 bottles of wine that were on offer (going to friends for her birthday on Saturday so I technically 'need' them).

Then I spent £4 today on lattes for myself and a colleague, a little treat as we were going into a long, potentially tough meeting.

Will have to spend a bit more before the week is out on present for my friends birthday. We also need a new suitcase for our holiday, which is going to cost £££, will have to have a shop round this weekend, don't even know where you go to buy a suitcase, probably Debenhams or John Lewis (definitely £££ then!)!!!

Thanks for the tip Issimma. I was in your position about a month ago, and had to cancel my cleaner, though I really didn't want to. It's been okay though and not as hard as I imagined to get back into a routine of doing it all ourselves again. And the £140 a month I am saving makes it feel worthwhile !!!

I have also swapped my Ocado shop for an Internet shop at Tesco and shopping at Aldi. This has made a big difference to my outgoings! I find that grocery shopping on the Internet stops you browsing and picking up those luxuries essentials!!

Had a bit of a spendy day here, gift for a party tomorrow was £10 reduced from £18- then I spent £25 in the supermarket. £3 on coffees and then dinner out after the DC's therapy was -£30, therapy was -£40.

I bought myself a Scrabble to use my Nectar points. Here the points expire after the 20th of the month, unlike your Nectar points. During the summer, when a lot of people take two months holiday, they very graciously allow the points to accumulate for 3 months.

Tomorrow I have to get sports kit for school-again, they keep changing it and anyone not in the right kit gets a negative report, which annoys me no end.

We've had a fault on the phone and so had no Internet but now, I'm back

Had a reasonable day, just £20 at Sainsburys on party present and a few bits. Ordered present for friend at Amazon for £10 aswell. All necessary spending so no treats!

Need to pop to Aldi for some fruit and veg today but should be nothing apart from that! DS has swimming lesson then party and then we are going to my friend's for her birthday!

Spent about £10 on oyster bus/tube fares yesterday as had to go into DS's school to collect him as he wasn't very well. Then spent about £4.00 on snacks as he hadn't had lunch at school (apparently Friday lunch is horrific as it involves fish ... never a good school dish) so was hungry. Managed to get him a Dr's appt so he was seen yesterday afternoon.

Looking for NSD's today and tomorrow - I need to get right back into the frugal habit and mentality. I have been fairly slack about it lately but am seeing worrying trends so need to really apply myself and do all the right things: like meal plan, shop for those meal plans, re-check larder and freezer etc.

OK. Making stock and will make a big pan (vat ) of soup today. Have pulled ham hock out of the freezer so that, with lots of veggies and a bit of leftover cooked chicken will all go in the soup.

For some weird reason I have loads of smoked salmon in my freezer . A nice 'problem' to have I admit, but strange that I have packets and packets of the stuff ... lots of smoked salmon for us in the coming weeks.

Herbs are growing well on the garden. However, the blasted slugs have got to my french parsley ... bloody slimy buggers . Will cut it back and see if it sprouts again but don't have much hope. They left all the curly parsley alone ... I obviously have connoisseur slugs here .

Have DS's birthday coming up. Have arranged a trip to see Horrible Histories Barmy Britain with his friend from school. Think he just wants a few friends over this time so that will be cheap and cheerful as I'll only have food to buy/cake to make. The present will be a different matter but hope to keep it within the realms of affordability ... he is wanting one of those PlayStation Vita consoles (yet another bloody console) but we shall see.

I am so proud of myself, spent £22 in Lidless , £12 on butcher and that's it!:). admiittedly it is the end of the month and the freezer is well stocked, but still really pleased.

Just £24 for me today on a top up shop at Aldi. Still amazed at the prices there - today for example broccoli for 55p, a packet of blueberries for 79p, less than half the price I used to pay and the quality doesn't seem any less!!!

Well I have had the fun job today of categorising (sp?) our chest freezer as 3 times this week I've gone out and bought bits for tea only to find them already in the freezer when going to get something else out I have put list of contents into a poly-pocket taped to the lid, so I can now check quickly before buying more!

Have managed to cook a lovely least I hope it's lovely, it's still cooking Sunday dinner from the freezer alone. Roast chicken, cauli&broccoli cheese, forgotten bag of ready-to-roast spuds (bought in for early days after CS 9 months ago!!) apple&rhubarb crumble for pud. Just have to make some custard, but thanks to Approved Food I have loads of that in the cupboard!!!

Went to a car boot sale today and spent £5 on some veggie plants, as my cat has decided that the veggy patch would make a better toilet and has dug up lots of my lovingly (and frugally!) homegrown seedlings Got lots for my money tho, so will be able to sell/swap some leftovers with my family :)

Dont forget you can par boil spuds and then tray freeze them for roast potatoes, just chuck them in hot fat and cook.

Our cat did his business in the tomatoes last year. It never recovered.

Aldi have a lot of salad stuff for 39p this week, baking pots, spring onions, tomatoes, cucmber, beetroot and mangos.

Fluffy was it the cat or the tomatoes that never recovered?!?!

Have cleared the ground, planted new veggies and erected a net over them to keep cats off. Have also hung some old cd's up, as apparently they don't like the mirrors spinning around.

Fab idea about the potatoes fluffy, I'd never thought of that. I have some that are 'going over' so will do that tomorrow :)
I miss Aldi. It used to be down the road from us, then we moved. Was ok as DH continued to work next door to it, and would fill up his backpack! But now it's a 35 mile round trip to our nearest branch :(

Mega spendy weekend , I have no idea how much as OH paid and I don't want to know. We were entertaining newbies, did bowling then dinner

I only spent £35 on a hockey skirt, they didn't have DD2's size, and a wheely rucksack for DD1. See, I didn't spend much at all

Prices at Aldi are amazing, think I would miss it if I moved!

Yesterday was a huge spend day! £120 on two suitcases for a start. Then £25 on a Mobigo electronic game thing, to keep ds1 occupied on the plane. To be fair, I didn't actually spend all of this as he was spending his £20 birthday money from one of his Aunties, so I just put £5 towards it. Then £2.50 on car parking and £1.95 on a coffee.

Them to my shame we forgot to defrost the chicken as per my meal planner so I spent £16 on a Chinese takeaway for our tea!

Have decided that I am definitely selling the car. And am really looking forward to it! No more tax, services, insurance, petrol...public transport is good (enough) where we are, and although expensive, it's nowhere near as pricey as all the costs associated with owning a car.

Well done spew that's a huge decision to make :)
We only have the 1 car, and I'm the only driver. It is surgically attached to me! In fact my saying is "God gave me two feet - 1 for accelarator, 1 for brake!" I would really struggle to be without our vehicle, BUT if we had 2, we would defo be selling 1 in the current climate. I know from DS1 that he would probably be alot happier if we had to catch busses everywhere!

Anticipated spend today - £2.50 on serious caffeine high all-you-can-drink coffee at Mummy meet up. £4 buying a second hand sleeping bag thingy for DS2, £12 to my S-i-L for some Happyland stuff that she grabbed at a carboot yesterday. DH has taken £10 to work to pick up a chippy tea on the way home as we have friends coming over and no time to cook (well that's my excuse! :))

Hello, new saver here!

I've been meaning to take control of spending (for months and months) so hopefully this will be the push I need.

I have done a lot of making from scratch for the last few months (nicest pizzas ever with homemade base, olive oil, fresh mozzarella from Lidl and passata with a bit of dried garlic for the sauce, I'm never buying Goodfella's again)

I spent ?11.20 in M&S this morning, but that was for the makings of lunch for work for about 4/5 days.

I checked my leccy bill online today (I'm on one of those saver plans where they estimate your usage for the year and charge the same amt every month)

I just realised there are two standing charges on the bill - one may be for the night rate meter which hasn't been used in about 5 years. So if I can get rid of it that would be a nice saving pity I didn't realise 5 years ago

I haven't seen my niece and nephew since before Easter, and will be seeing them this weekend. I went through the emergency pressie drawer and found a little toy for my nephew (5) instead of an Easter egg (if I had bought him one it would have melted been eaten by me by now). My niece is only 18 mths so won't have a clue about choccie, unless it's under her nose - so I found a lovely scrap of material and made her a dress (I think the scrap cost ?5 in a bargain bin in the fabric shop).

So I'm aiming for a few NSD's this week, fingers crossed