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

[roguepixie]

New thread for all of us .

Am back from osteopath ... £80.00 lighter but, much more significantly, mucho mucho less pain ... yaaaaaaaay . Things are still a bit tender and I, apparently, have hypermobility which means that when I wrench a muscle/sprain something I have a problems because my lax muscles allow extra movement!!!! Great for flexibility but not for anything else. Lots of core work to do .

etti, "his feet are like cubes". . That has made me smile. I commiserate because DS has long, narrow feet which means that we are limited to the seemingly super expensive section of the shoe shop

Ugh hypermobility doesn't sound much fun! I am glad you are in less pain even though the purse is lighter!!

As for my son's feet - my mum said quite recently "he has such huge hands and feet - does this mean he will be tall?" - surely thats just DOGS :o ?!??!!

Anyway, I digress, does anyone else genuinely find Aldi much cheaper - I certainly have and there are only very few things I haven't been able to find in there, despite ours being quite a small store. I have had to adapt my shopping a little I think though.

Duchesse I've been avoiding that kind of thing-I did go to some when she was really little but everything on locally now seems to be aimed at breast feeding mums, which I'm (sadly) not. That said I haven't tried out churches, will have a scout around...

etti, at your Mum. However, think the same applies to children . I was looking at prints of DS's feet and hands the other day and, though small in comparison to now, they were quite big for a newborn. Don't want to scare you but DS is now 11 and is taller than me at 5'8". He has size 8-9 (adult) feet and wears clothes for 16 yo or small/medium mens sizes (he's tall and lean with a swimmers body so wide shoulders, no hips and long legs). It's expensive as there is tax applied to adult clothes and, added to that, he grows like a weed so we are constantly replacing clothes and footwear.

Btw, welcome to all newbies.

Marking my place.

D0G, welcome. Wow, that's quite a lot to have to save in 2 months. CAn you manage it technically? If you can, start straight away by NEVER but NEVER leaving the house with your bank cards or more than 10 pounds on you. Do not go to the cash point more than once a week.

Some people take out their budget in cash for everything at the start of the week and use only that. Would that work for you?

Rack up the NSD as much as possible- choose cheap or free alternatives to everything, purchases and days out. Free is best for days out. Consider what you already have about the house. Is there anything that you could sell to make money? Anything that you could re-use or upcycle instead of buying an item?

OK, D0G, what sort of shit are we talking? Clothes, magazines, coffees out and about? Bits and bobs that you panic-buy?

May I join in?

We have a small overdraft in out joint account but small or not, it wasn't there last year Everything just costs more. Not helped by the fact that the bonus i was expecting isn't coming this year and I was planning to use that to pay for our holiday chalet in Cornwall. Hey ho....

Shop in Aldi. Use a spreadsheet to keep track of expenditure. Stopped spending on inessentials like cinema and meals out.

Need to see chiro but can't afford even with my cash back plan so using TENS machine and trying to exercise.

Added to which DH is a total nightmare! So I am leaving his overdraft to him to deal with - he pays money into our acccount and I look after mine and our joint account. He can deal with his own shit....

Right well after to NSD today I have spent £90. That's £45 on petrol for the week, £20 on the electric key and the £25 on perishables that we needed to top up on.

Really pleased we didn't by a load of crap we don't need, no matter how much we wanted it.

Aiming for another no spend day tomorrow and again Thursday unless I order DD's birthday present online. Fingers crossed.

D0G, do a "stock check" on the contents of your larder/cupboards/fridge and freezer. For one, it's amazing the shit you find in there and, secondly, you can pan meals around the things you have thereby using the stuff before it rots/grows mould/constitutes being labelled an alien life form and also knowing what you have means you don't buy the same thing again.

Don't know how you shop but I would recommend going to a fruit and veg stall and a butcher - cheaper and, over time, you build good relationships with them and they pass savings on to you.

I know Ebay is a pain in the butt, but spend a day photographing and listing it and you won't have to do it again - what doesn't sell can be re-listed. I Ebay quite a lot and always post here when there is a free listing weekend. If you are spending unnecessarily on clothes then a stock take on your wardrobe might reveal some more items that can be Ebayed???

Hello to OrmIrian and jaquelinehyde.

Wow, this thread has got busy! Boy's 1st birthday today, so been out for lunch to a children's bookshop/cafe place. Horribly overpriced but they were happy for him to crawl about all over the place, so I guess you pay a premium for that. Then tea and cake at my grandma's. Total spend for the day was £16 something plus whatever that cost us in petrol.

Also got a bit of proof-reading work to do tonight, which I'll get paid for in two months. On the plus side, the money for work I did in Feb has just come through.

Will catch up on all the posts later.

Happy first birthday to your DS, Spew :).

Total spend of £5.30 today, on bus fares, coffee for a friend and me and milk.

Happy Birthday to Mini-Spew. I hope he had a fun day.

OK. 1 May.

Went to Waitrose for shopping and bargains.

got mini muffins 30p for lunchboxes

peaches x 5 - 49p down from £2.50 Got 3 punnets but will sell 2 to friends.

Spent £19 in total but got loo roll and cleaning stuff etc

Need to do a shop at ALDI and get

tins tomatoes asTooTightToPay79pPerTinInWaitrose
loo roll
crisps and biscuits
fruit and veg

Am also trying to look in the cupboard and make meals of what I have. I found a packet of lasagne. Got mince in freezer so bought cheese for Bechamel.

Had lots of potatoes so last night we had JP with cheese and beans and bacon and coleslaw.

79p for tinned tomatoes at Waitrose? Bloody hell, Collision!

And thank you all for MiniSpew's birthday wishes. I don't think he really gave two hoots but a nice day was had by all!

Toddler groups only cost a pound and you normally get a drink too. Also if you dc sleeps go and read the mags or go on the computers in the library.

Hi there, have been reading the tips on the April thread with interest, and thought it was time to join in properly with the start of a new month. Would have been a No Spend Day if I hadn't had such a bad day at work, as I bought a magazine on the way home. But at least it's calorie-free!

I make my own lunches for work 3 or 4 days a week but I'm really going to try to increase that to 5 days a week this month.

Decided to give Lidls a go at the weekend after reading recommendations on here. Picked up some fruit and veg that was a lot cheaper than my usual supermarket. It's further away but I can get to it OK with my local train/bus season ticket, so at least there's no additional outlay there. And Lidl's is on the same road as a couple of those 'cash4clothes' places, hoping to take assorted kids shoes and clothes there next weekend, which should raise a few quid towards more Lidl shopping!

I tried selling a few bits of outgrown baby equipment on ebay and other local websites, without much success. So I decided to try one of those 'baby sales' a couple of weeks ago (a bit like an indoor car boot sale). Made over £100 (our holiday deposit!) and cleared lots of bulky items (steriliser, spare buggy, baby/toddler toys, books and clothes) from our loft. It was good fun too chatting to people when they came to my stall. Definitely worth doing if you're having a big clearout.

Anyway, hi everyone and hope May's a good month :)

Hi everyone :)

New month, and DH and I have just sat down and gone over April's expenditure - and we are in the black, but also feel like we've got really good value for money.

We had a lovely but very expensive weekend in London this weekend just gone, but we had budgeted for it so that's ok although I did wince when I totted up!

Spending today

• £50 cash to give to carpet fitter tomorrow morning
• £11 in Sainsbury's

Spending coming up this month

• £400 to get DH's car through the MOT (bloody thing he should never have bought it!)
• £200 for two night's hotel for my cousin's wedding
• £600 aside ready for our holiday in June

Apart from those things it should just be the usual food, fuel and bills.

Thanks to this thread we have cut right back on frittering money away on small items (coffees, magazines, snacks, takeaway etc etc), and it is really showing.

Tomorrow should be a NSD.

ettijetti

You don't have to justify spending money on your face oil to anyone other than yourself

Even though we all like to encourage each other to spend less most of us are not watching what others spend, just trying to keep our own spending in check.

You'll get lot's of helpful tips from posters here, and welcome to the club.

Good lord already 50 posts.

Spent $50 on a pack-and-play bassinet that I will need for the babysitter's house when I go back to school and DS needs childcare. It was reduced from $80 on sale to $60, and I bought one that had been repackaged so further down to $50.

-$23 on some maternity shorts which may very well go back as my bank balance is dipping very low.

-$20 on Lion King blu-ray and DVD set on sale from $30.

-$6 on some sleepsuits for DS.

-$17 on pizza

+$20 from sale of jeans on eBay - will cancel out the Lion King movie I bought.

Total spend = $96.00 - only $50 of which was a good and needed purchase.

Very bad day. VERY bad way to start May.

feel almost like I'm addicted to spending on things I don't really need. For several months I was in a place where I could not spend literally a penny on anything and now that I have a (very small) income I feel like I need to make up for those months sort of?? Very bad and feel very guilty and bad about myself today