Join us for a Jubilantly low-spending Jubilee June

[louiespence]

New thread for June....welcome all!!!

onthredge you got a lot for £39.50. My DH spent that on a bottle of champagne last week .

The sun is indeed shining in London, wonderful!

Can't remember when I last posted as grandmother is here. She's insisted on buying a lot of stuff so it's been a cheap week.
Thurs: NSD
Fri: NSD
Sat: £15 on congratulations present for pal who has just graduated and £10 on booze for a BBQ.
Today is food shop day, I'm hoping to bring it in under £50.

Have a good day everyone!

I'm going to have to give the car away at this rate! Have reduced asking price to £2,150 (assuming people'll haggle it down lower) but still no takers. Have put an ad on AutoTrader but only had spam responses so far.

Just went to mow the lawn, only to find the flymo cable is completely mangled. We got it free from my brother, after he mowed through the cable but then my dad did a bodge job to get it working again. However, after 3 years, looks like the cable has finally bitten the dust. Seen you can get replacement ones for £9.99 on ebay though.

Well, spent nearly £100 today . To be fair, it is all on stuff that will last (store cupboard stuff) but still ...

economy, I know I mentioned Ebay before but maybe £10 to list there might shift the car - it does get out to so many people that way. It might be worth it?

face, it's been nice to have the sun back in London, hasn't it?

Friday: £4 for DS1 to enter a soft play centre.
Saturday: £14.38 in morrisons, on fruit, cheese, catfood, sugar and coffee.
Today: £3.45 in co-op on milk, and some corn-on-the-cobs.

We're so skint til Friday - have £4.26 to last the rest of the week now :( The freezer is well-stocked tho, so should be ok

I'm so glad that our home is rented. Our roof in our utility/playroom is leaking - already had the builders out to fix the broken tiles, so looks like the felting will have to come off. We have rising damp in the downstairs loo, so that needs stripping back and re-plastering, and yesterday the boiler cut out so the engineer came today. Apparently it has been fitted by a bunch of cowboys and has been condemned! AND because it is fitted in the loft, the landlords also need to fork out for a fixed roof ladder and mains wired light - so glad it's not our money or we'd be in a cardboard box by now!!

rogue, do you mean £10 or 10%? If it's just £10 then yes, but I thought they took 10% of the final sale.

I do actually have someone coming to come and look later. Hurrah!

economy, I think you are right. Just had a look at Ebay and they are charging £10.00 to list a car at the moment (either auction or Buy It Now). The final value fee varies but looks to be 10% of final sale figure, up to a value of £40.00. So, you are looking for a maximum of £50.00 to list it on Ebay for a week (assuming it sells and you pay the max for final value).

That said, good luck with the person coming to view it later.

leilandri, that sounds crappy to say the least. Sorry your utility/playroom is leaking - I hope it gets sorted out quickly... and the boiler.

I've had one, an NSD, yipeeeeee! It's been a while.

We collected DDs from a friend's but didn't need to use the toll roads and ate at home so didn't spend anything

Tomorrow won't be a NSD as I have to do the supermarket shop.

Well done adorabell
rogue so much for the sun, it's miserable today. Where abouts in London are you? We are west.

I spent £56 on food shop yesterday inc wine and nappies. I'm hoping that will mostly last until Saturday, we will need a few extra bits of fruit and veg in between.
Have a good day everyone.

I need to join you with this. I have £40 to last me until next Thursday! I need to get some food with that, sawdust for rabbits and dinner money. Thankfully my petrol tank is full.

I'm going to send my youngest with packed lunches Thursday and Friday this week and all of next week so that should save a few ££. My eldest has £10 in his cashless catering account so once that's gone he'll have to take packed lunches too.

I'm meeting my Sisters for lunch Wednesday and i'll have the cheapest thing on the menu plus a free soda water. I'll park in Tesco and walk into town so i don't have to pay for parking and then i'll go and get a small shop to last us until next Thursday. It's a pain living so far from Tesco because if i run out of anything all the local shops around here are so expensive.

From next Thursday i'll have £100 a week for everything except direct debits. So that's all food, petrol, pocket money, dinner money, school trips, clothes, shoes etc. It's going to be very tight but it will stop the panic every month when the rent is due because they'll be enough to cover it.

I meant to say as well that tomorrow i will go to the market to get the fruit and veg. I usually get 3-4 bags full for £10.

I've also got stuff listed on Ebay and have loads more to add.

Today should hopefully be a NSD.

So proud of my 3-year-old DS who came shopping with me and picked out mostly Value stuff and didn't pester. I picked up one or two things and he just said "Hmm, no Mummy, not that one, that's too 'spensive, I think this one" (I can only think he remembered me saying that on our last shop, because he doesn't understand the value of money yet). Got to the checkout having spent less than £35, which included some toiletries, and with what we've got in the freezer/cupboards, should see us through till Friday!

Thanks for that Face, I'm feeling the need to just not spend right now. Last night OH actually realised just how much it was much cheaper than in Britain tho he's spent on two pedigree puppies, next he'lll be complaining about the cost of feeding them.

Super you're tackling it the right way. Rent is the one thing that has to be paid and causes so much stress if you can't manage it.

I haven't left the house yet, so nothing to report so far, but the supermarket is on the agenda for today.

I know face!! What a bloody miserable day ...it hasn't stopped raining. I am in the NW of London.

My Ebay listings are ending today. DS's old bike didn't sell which s a shame as it is a good one and in excellent condition. I will relist it to end next Sunday - I find it a good time to end listings as people are in and full after a good Sunday lunch. At the moment the listings that are coming to an end stand to make me £100 - am hopeful there will be some more activity before they finish so maybe a few more pounds??

NSD today as it's my two shifts day at work so no chance of spending. Had to get DS's Rx filled so that was free.

Oh ... and got a free Prime month and a £5 voucher from Amazon - goodwill gestures for a messed up order (not their fault, it was the courier that messed it up) but nice of them to offer when I contacted them to vent my anger highlight the problem.

Hello everyone. I have finally faced up to looking at my online bank account and it was about what I thought. Not too bad but not too good either . I am determined to budget for the rest of the month. Honestly I am hopeless!

Rougepixie £100 is great! I ran out of stuff to sell on ebay a while ago!
Superduperdoo sounds like a plan!
Whitesands start them young! I wish my mum had with me! My DS will ask "does it cost too many pennies?". Poor thing, he must have heard that phrase about 20,000 times.

Glad to see the weather is looking up towards the end of the month, DH's birthday weekend away will be very expensive if we keep having to find indoor activities to stay out of the rain!

Where do you live adorabell. I hope it's a darn site warmer than it is here.
rogue well done on eBay. I need to get on board that boat, I'm just being lazy!

Aah pressed send too soon.
greedy glad it wasn't too shocking

Spent £3 on some fruit and an uncle hens rice thing as I was bloody hungry at work and it was a busy shift.

Am marking my place.

Starting tomorrow as half term is now over. Tomorrow should be a NSD.

Well, I've made £140.00 with another £30.00 to come in on listings ending tomorrow. Feel very pleased with that ... it all goes in my "hope we go on holiday this year" fund .

face, I find the hard bit about Ebaying is the photographing/listing -it takes forever. At least you can just press "relist" on the things that don't sell .

Aiming for tomorrow to be a NSD as I know I have a spend coming up on Wednesday.

Face, we're in Chile, South America. It probably is warmer, but we're in autumn and so nights and early mornings are cold.

Did a big supermarket shop today - £100, shouldn't need to buy much more other than veg and fruit towards the end of the week. The was a lot of store cupboard stuff and lot's of cleaning products, so shan't be spending as much next time.

Tally for today,
£100 supermarket
£2 road rolls
£8 after school snack/weekly treat.
£25 pens etc for school for both DDs

Yesterday was a good day. I didn't spend a penny and i sold something on the fb selling page for £5 and found £1.70 while i was cleaning.

Today not so good i am so annoyed with my 15yr old son. I've just counted my meagre pennies in my purse and there's £2 missing! Now it was there last night and my 6yr old hasn't taken it. He knows how tight things are at the moment so i can't believe he's done it.

I was already cross from last night with him. I feed OH every night even though he doesn't live here. Since we broke up and got back together he's been buying food for us whenever he goes shopping. Now twice he's bought a 72 pack of chicken nuggets (not my favourite thing to cook but if it's free then it's fair game) and no one but Ds1 has got to eat any of them. He'll wait until i go out or go to bed or out and he'll cook them for himself. I've told him not to do it countless times and i feed him well so there's no excuse.

Last night i was in the bath and he cooked himself the last of the chicken nuggets plus a chicken fillet. Now there's no chicken nuggets left and there's not enough chicken fillets to feed us all. Again i told him how tight things were and if he's still hungry after tea then have some beans on toast or something not something i can make a meal out of.

He does it all the time. I bought ice cream and Ds2 and I had one cone each then he ate the rest of the tub. If we have biscuits or chocolate or cakes he'll eat them all and leave none for the rest of us so i don't buy them anymore. The classic was last week OH was treating us to pizza and Ds1 said he didn't like pizza could he have something else so we got him a burger. Ds2 and I shared a pizza but we couldn't finish it so put it in the fridge for the next day. When we got up Ds1 had eaten it despite not liking pizza!

As well as that i told him to make sure he washed up after himself but when i got up he'd just left it! I'm going to be having serious words with him tonight and he'll be having no pocket money this week for stealing from me.

Sorry this turned into a rant about my son but i'm so angry. It's not fair us scrimping and saving all the time if he's going to undo it all.

Oh Super, so sorry you are having difficulty making your eldest understand the technicalities of budgeting. I think 15 year olds, and especially boys, are incredibly thick headed with regards to not eating everything in the fridge/cupboards etc. My DS is 12 and will always ask if he can have something ... although I have yet to see whether that thoughtfulness extends in the teenage years. He is, however, hungry all the time and will eat and eat and eat and ... you get the idea. My friend, who does have a 19yo, always says that she can't shop for the week because he will eat everything. When she explains, for the umpteenth time, that all that food was meant to last X days he just shrugs, says he was hungry and wanders off. Absolutely refuses to acknowledge that there is anyone else in the house that may want to eat!!! Teenagers (again, boy's in particular) just seem to consume everything, are constantly hungry and would eat carpet if they had too .

On another vein, my DH constantly wonders why our food bills are so high (regularly in the £120/140 bracket per week...for 3 of us) - I point out to him that it is him that eats most of it, to which I am treated to a 'hmmm' and sigh and off he wanders .

I am sorry he has helped himself to your purse too. Again, teenagers just don't seem to 'get' that they can't have whatever they want whenever they want it. Could you make him responsible for something that involves budgeting to make him understand how important this is? Maybe the food shopping or lunches??? Probably a silly idea but something practical might have a greater impact.

I can see how this may not cheer you up , sorry. Just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.

Oh super. Not sure what to say really. I remember my mum buying lots of value bread for my brother so he could eat toast to his hearts content. Maybe you could try giving him a food budget for the week and let him do his own food shopping?
I've spent £5 on milk, potatoes and a few little bits in Co-op.
I've got £120 to last me 16 days, it's tight but should be do-able.

Thanks I've had a chat with him so we'll have to see if it sinks in. When i said that yesterday i had to sell stuff so i could have more money to buy food he looked a bit shocked. I've also told him exactly what he can and can't help himself to without asking. I've just got in with my youngest and he hasn't eaten anything that i can see. He's also listed some stuff on ebay to pay me back the money he stole. As long as we're all on board it should be ok.

I've spent loads today so will work that out later once I've cooked tea.

My parents have been on holiday to France for the past 10 days but they called today, before returning late tonight, to ask me to put some groceries in their fridge. I had to embarassingly say that I didn't have enough money to do that for them
My lovely mum then told me where her bank card was, and her PIN, so I was allowed to take out £20, get their groceries and keep the change :) Got all their bits, and some juice, bread and bananas for us, and still had £6 change - so we definately eat until payday now!! Phew

Super

I hope the chat has worked, him selling things to pay back sounds positive, fingers crossed. I don't have teenagers yet but remember boys in the neighbourhood thinking it was cool to steal cash out of "mum's" purse.

Spent heaps today, had a bite to eat out with DD2, who was off school, then took both DDs to see Dr., then supermarket again.
So, £4 snack
£160 in the clinic
£12 in the pharmacy
£35 in the supermarket, although DD1 is paying me back £6. I bought convenience food and veg as DDs are signed off school with flu and I'm feeling rough too. Veg will be shredded for a healthy boost + ready made foods for easy food.