September is here and our money-saving steps up a gear

[economymode]

Starting us off for September. Newbies and old hands welcome!

£41 in Aldi this morning. Might be a new record...I think it's because I stocked up the baking cupboard so needed 3 types of flour, 2 types of sugar, bicarb, baking powder, yeast etc. Also loo roll (not for baking...), which we don't have to buy every week. Even so, prices there are increasing (still great value though) - their 15 pack of free range eggs have gone up 20p, for example.

Then £2 on some building blocks in the charity shop for EconomyBoy and £3 in Iceland on frozen med. and Oriental vegetables (the latter are an experiment for stir fry).

Shoop, I do know the gender of the next EconomyBaby, but am keeping schtum .

Boer, I too am very impressed with your restraint in Sainsbo's - we had to pop in last week and I commented on how glad I am that I don't do the weekly shop there as there is SO MUCH CHOICE! At least with Aldi, you get what you're given!

Leilandri, very jealous of your M&S (not literal) steals!

Epic fail today - £10 M&S Dine In and then a big splurge on a couple of dresses from The White Company for work. I got 20% off but still came to over £100. I needed some new autumn winter work clothes after post baby diet, but that was slightly excessive, even though I know I'll get a lot of wear from them . I'll be listing some of my old fat clothes on eBay to try and claw some of the money back.

economy good for you keeping the secret! I'm the worlds worst keeper of secrets so would have told everyone by now!!

Does anyone know where I can get nice lidded cardboard boxes from - slightly bigger than shoe box size? I want to do mulled wine kits for Christmas presents for some foody friends and whilst I want them to look nice, I don't want to spend a fortune on packaging!

Sorry for the essays today.....don't quite know what's come over me!

The dc school keeps sending home tempting after school classes. Because dp and I didn't do any kind of clubs really as children we find it really hard to say no especially if its something that might be good for them (and certainly better than watching tv, which is what often happens, I think they do too many already though.

Yes Boer how did you manage to resist the lure of sains bargains! I bought 16 richardson sausages for 1.60 originally planned to slow cook them but think grill from frozen best bet and wait until I have good quality sausages for slow cooker.

The yoghurt worked!!! Not much cheaper than buying it but art least its organic.

Lovely to hear baby talk. I loved being pg but a bit at the end of my teather at mo so think 3 is enough for me ... well at least for now

Shoop if you divide the dresses by predicted likely wears then do some algorhythms and equations multiplied by longevity and likely hand onability the white company dresses might work out to be v reasonable

My spending spiralled out of control a little but think I have come very close to target. Had a look athe works spreadsheets and it has made me think I should be budgeting for things like prescriptions, presents, dentla hygenist (dentist said I need to go - have never been before so putting it off) , clothe etc over r the winter months.

leli you are a fabulous shopper! The tea towel is inspired

I spent £27 in sainsbury's yesterday, but we went to a free toddler group and then the park in the afternoon.

Today has been a good day too - weekly shop delivered for £52. I will need to get a couple of bits in sainsbury's tomorrow, but £20 should see us through until almost next weekend.

grr went out hunter gathere like for 13p bread - did get one loaf but also kit kat chunkies and choc digetives (they were half price but still) also needed baby wipes and goats milk which are slightly more expensive than in sainsbos (tesco express 1 min away from house) Need to stock up on baby wipes and kitchen towel but being without makes me more likely to use cloths.

ali it sounds like you had a lovely but frugal play day :)

Hello peeps

Spent too much today warm PJs for me for our kinda camping trip next week - I got severely cold camping in the summer and the forecast is snow for next week- £30 - groceries £50 and far too much on roads £6. Over the weekend I need to buy salad stuff. Going to a BBQ and have been asked to take 2 salads. Host actually asked for 1 salad & 1 side dish but I coldn't think of what side dish. DDs have spent at bit more of their credit, that's their lot for a while now as I use my CC and I don't want to pay any interest.

Well done on all bargains everyone.

Shoop - maybe Ikea for the boxes? Or Wilkinsons sometimes have that sort of thing too, as I remember. Failing that, I guess you could find something on ebay if you did some digging.

Yeterday wasn't as bad as it could have been. ?3.40 on a sandwich for lunch (couldn't face another home made cheese sandwich, getting sick of them), ?1.50 on two tins of baked beans (imported so have to pay a premium) and then ?30 on an evening out to celebrate a friend's birthday. I withdrew 30 euros at the start of the evening and vowed to myself that I wouldn't start paying for stuff on the debit card. Sure enough I ran out of money earlier than I would have liked, but I just stuck to drinking tap water afterwards and it was surprisingly OK. I was impressed with my own will-power, but I don't think I could manage it every time!

Have fun at your BBQ Adora

Well done, river :).
Have fun, adora :).

Amazing willpower power river, I am going out with friends this week and not sure I can be so strong. We are trying to teach dc 1 &2 to ride bikes so we got up really early and went to some abandoned tennis courts. Still deliberating on more classes for dc. Spent £11 in tescos including stock up bits and picnic bits.

Spent £2.70 in Morrisons yesterday on some bread, milk and sausage rolls
Spent £10 on petrol.

Went out with my Bestie last night to celebrate our silver anniversary - 25 years since we met in primary school. Redeemed a voucher for Mecca Bingo so we both had our game sheets for free. Spent £6.49 on 1 bottle of delicious Bulmers cider, 1J2O and a portion of cheesy chips. Seriously cheap in there!

NSD today as at allotment all day.
Should be NSD tomorrow too :)

Enjoy adora
shoop try Card Factory nearer Xmas - or look in TKMaxx?
Economy Congrats on 20wk scan, glad all is well. Well done for keeping your secret.
Well done with your resolve river

I have fallen in love with Lidls prices and food;

Cucumbers = 30p instead of £1.00 at Tescos,
Fresh salmon = £2.50 for 2 fillets instead of £4.00 at Tescos.
Creme Cramel= 75p for 6.
Bordeaux wine £3.50 (very nice wine)
7 chicken thighs= £2.50

yum yum yum.

Went out shopping again today, OH wanted DD1 to have "proper" walking tourers for our trip. Those were £30, £2 on the roads. I need to buy salad things tomorrow.

Hello top haven't seen you before so welcome. Well done on your Lidl bargains.

economy glad the scan went well.
Lielandri how sweet, glad you had a good anniversary night out.
riverboat well done

90 euros on the weekly shop yesterday. Had hoped to spend a bit less, but ended up having to replace nearly all our cleaning products which ran out at the same time, and saw some things on special offer which I stocked up on. So not too bad I suppose.

Mecca Bingo sounds amazing Leilandri! My 30 euros the other night bought me three small glasses of wine and a plate of distinctly cheeseless chips...

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster - £102 spent in Sainsbury's. A lot of that was wine, we got 12 bottles of very good wine (RRP £10+) for an average of £5.50 a bottle. That will keep us going for the next 3 months.
Some very reduced lamb for dinner plus vegetables and few other things that I had missed off the delivered shopping, and birthday cards up until the middle of next month because I had a voucher to get extra Nectar points for buying £4 worth of cards in one go.

Today is going to be a NSD.

Tomorrow DH is taking lunch with him to work, and I won't need to buy anything or pay anything. Same on Tuesday.

DH has also been offered 2 contracts, both of which would keep him in work for the next 9-12 months. We are just waiting for paperwork and then we'll decide which one to take based on who looks likely to pay the invoices in the most timely manner! Huge relief, and means that we can plan a bit.

pookey thanks for trying to make me feel better about the dresses! I still feel a bit guilty but have spent ages listing stuff on eBay. If and when that goes I'll start to feel a bit happier!

Aldi shop was great. £42 but that bought loads and loads. Freezer full and fridge full. Meals all planned for the next 10 days. I did buy some felt and other bits off eBay yesterday too in preparation for making a felt advent calendar - there's a thread about it over in Arts and Crafts.....drool. So a bit spendy but it will keep my hands busy in the evening and stop me from drinking a bottle glass of wine!

Thanks Leil and river for your box suggestions - We have a TKMaxx and a Wilkinsons very near by so I will have a rummage. Failing that I'll wait till a bit nearer Christmas and try the card factory.

Ali I don't know your background, but it definitely sounds like great news about your DH.

Adora your road tolls sound like a nightmare! Do you have a Decathlon near you? I found them to be quite reasonable for all kinds of outdoorsy or camping things - just in case you need anything else for your trip.

Hope everyone's having good weekends

NSD here today
Must've slept funny on Friday night as my neck and shoulders were aching yesterday but with some pills and deep heat I soldiered on. But that was not the case today, even moving my head has been making me feel quite sick :( So I have spent the day chugging pills and gradually doing housework.
Have managed to clear out our wardrobes and have 3 black bags of clothes to take to Cash4Clothes in the morning for a few pennies, and have sold £6 worth on Facebook.

Don't plan to send much tomorrow - £2.50 on Mummy meet coffee, and we need potatoes for tea. Child Benefit on Tuesday... Woohoo!!!

shoop

Nothing close enough to avoid the tolls unfortunately, we're abroad so don't have all the same shops. I got the salad to take, £10. No tolls today, green grocer is now well established at the roadside, even doing deliveries too.

Ali great news on the contracts.

No spending planned for at least two days and minimal spending for the rest of the week.

Unexpected NSD for me yesterday. Spent all day gardening, baking and doing music practice. We were going to go out in the evening, but couldn't be arsed in the end. Stayed in and watched a DVD instead.

Congrats on the thrifty Sundays all, it seems like everyone did pretty well

Oh and Leilandri, I hope you're feeling better - my DP had exactly the same type of neck and shoulder pain after sleeping funny last weekend. Stupid man insisted on going to his sports training anyway and made it ten times worse. After a week if painkillers its finally getting better. So take it easy, don't push yourself.

drove to aldi for first ever shop there spent £28 but included an award winning white burgundy type for £4.19. Got razor set mentioned on here for 1.89, thanks for that tip. All in all will go again but makes sense to make use of shops I can walk to such as lidyl and sainsburys.

First no spend day on sun!

Thanks river feeling much better today. Allotment planned tomorrow, but I shall ensure that DH does the hard work

Got £4.50 for a black bag of stained clothes at Cash4Clothes :)
Spent £7.35 today in Lidl on veggies for tea, and some beer and biscuits for BiL's Bday pressie which I forgot all about

Should be spending £15 tomorrow on some pre-loved clothes for me, as long as they are ok when I collect, but will hopefully get 12 new tops for that money.

Pookey Well done for discovering Aldi! I love it there, although I now have to drive to another town for the nearest one :( The razor set is ace, and so is their shaving gel to go with it :)

What a day! EconomyBoy dropped my laptop on the floor (climbed onto the table and shoved it off while my back was turned) and has broken the screen. Thankfully we've been able to hook it up to the tv with a special cable so no work has been lost, but I will need a new computer. Going to wait until Windows 8 is out, but that's a few hundred quid I wasn't planning on spending...as I do some work from home I do need one.

pookey - that was me that mentioned the Aldi razor. No complaints from MrEconomy yet.

Oh and there's a free Approved Foods delivery code until midnight on Wedneday - enter ship45 at checkout. You have to spend at least £45 and your basket has to weigh under 50kg.

economy Oh no, the laptop! We had a similar thing with DD1s lap top meeting the floor a couple of years ago. NSD for me today, yippee.

Is there a website for Approved Foods? OH is seriously looking at moving back and I couldn't find them on tinternet.