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

[economymode]

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

£10 or so today, on bus fares and hot chocolate and cake. I used up my loyalty card to get one of the hot drinks for free in Cafe Nero and I have another loyalty card to redeem next week.

Thanks for the tip, fluffy!

I got my car insured with aviva, £237 with £80 cashback off quidco. £157 for the year and no admin charges if you do them online.

Admin charges really annoy me it's just a way go squeeze more money out of us.

Topcashback confirmed my mobile phone cashback,£60.60 back for a £7.50 a month contract. It pays for the cats vets bill.

Dh is positively green with envy, he didn't want to bother with the cashback because he couldn't wait to go and get a new phone.

AARRRRGGGGGH took cash out for shopping so as not to overspend. So far so good. Then I went to the supermarket with DDs. Not good. They were jabbering on at me, in stereo, while I paid and I used the card instead of the cash . Also paid for something DD2 was supposed to be paying for. I've told her she owes me the money, on principal. So, that was £40 plus £53 on petrol. Plus I bought them doghnuts as I needed coffee.

OH isn't getting paid this month, again, as well as last month. I'm heading into town today, need to exchange a couple of things and get papers signed for BUPA. I don't want to ask the vet how much we owe, but it's only going to cause him stress in addition to me to avoid it. Poor chap was at the Dr yesterday with high blood pressure because of too much work related stress.

Turns out I CBA to drive into town today, I'll leave it 'til next week and get a few more birds with the one stone.

Just £1.60 yesterday - 6 books @10p each from library sale (some decent paperbacks) and some veggie burgers from Iceland for £1.

Spending today working as got another editing job to do. I guess this stops me spending money, but it's so nice outside that I don't want to be stuck in all day.

Adora - it takes a while to get used to using cash rather than card, don't worry!

Bad day yesterday in that apparently my Jobseekers has been suspended due to me not applying for enough jobs - I don't see how a minimum of 12 per week isn't enough?! Will be appealing the decision, but will still be £71 a week worse off in the meantime :(
Spent £18.50 yesterday in Primark on single quilt, pillows and sheets for DS1 who is moving into a proper single bed this weekend.

Spent £50 in Morrisons this morning on groceries.
Have got an interview in Morrisons this afternoon, so I am hoping that I get a job soon......

Will have to go to meatman and Aldi tomorrow, so probably be another £100 gone there, but I have mealplanned for the whole month so won't be buying anything frivolous. £20 of that will be going solely on nappies..
Going to fill up the car tomorrow too, before all the DD's come out on Monday and leave us skint again :(

Hope everyone is having a good weekend

Been a few days since I checked in...NSDs on Wednesday and Friday, about three euros on some salad bits in supermarket on Thursday. Could have been a lot more as originally was supposed to go out for dinner with a friend, but in the end she came round mine and I cooked, much better for the wallet.

Have just done the weekly shop, but - big error - DP came too! So of course ended up spending 116 euros instead of the 80 I'd been aiming for. Grrr.

Adora, I can imagine how you felt with the cash/card thing, things like that are so annoying.

Leilandri - thats awful, I can't believe that 12 applications a week wouldn't be enough, that's got to be a mistake? Can you challenge it? Either way, I hope you find something soon. Would you get staff discount if you worked at Morrison's? That would be awesome!

Leilandri that is dreadful :( How can that possibly be right, you hear of people who apply for almost nothing and still manage to get it. Fingers tightly crossed for the interview.

I've had a few NSDs this week, I bought myself a new winter coat which wasn't cheap but needed and it will last me years.
Shopping delivered today - £113. The only thing I need now is nappies.

Payday on Wednesday and I've reviewed the bank statements etc for the month and we've done ok. I have really cut back on the random spending. I no longer go past Sainsbury's to drop DS1 at preschool because he is in Reception this year, and I hadn't realised how much I was popping in for one thing and buying £20-£30 of bits and bobs.

NSD today. Baked cakes with store cupboard stuff and made apple crumble with apples from garden. took kids out for long sunny walk in woods. Now they're out with a bunch of friends building a bonfire in the back garden.

Leilandri that is madness - do they tell you how many you need to apply for? What an anxiety to have to appeal it and wait for money.

racingheart sounds like a very back to nature kind of day :)

The cake I made for dp's work was only ok, gutted I spent so much on vanilla pods didn't really taste better than escence.

My grocery spend this week was only about £45 but dp had a day off so we spent £10 on savers getting him lots of right guard and he wanted me to buy lottery tickets and pizzas for dinner tonight rather than making with food we have in do so a bit irritating. Men! DP would now point out it's my totm. I seem to have abandoned cheap reduced bread in favour of breadmaker but I think we are having withdrawl symptoms!

Almost NSD today. £1.20 on sweets for DC after footie match. And I'm off to buy some butter (on special offer :) ) after tea. But had a gorgeous day watching their footie match, going for lovely autumn walk, having a peaceful bubble bath and reading a mag, helping DC with fun (for once) homework and music practise and ended up with DH's final BBQ of the season.

Total spend all weekend: £9.20, including £6 DC pocket money and tonight's butter. Sad eh?

Can't comment on DH's spending though :( . Spotted a box from Majestic Wine when he swung by after the match. He spends as though he were employed, and he isn't and hasn't been for some time.

It's quite often the men racingheart, we get being frugal. I think of it as bread and butter today for jam tomorrow.

We are in a hotel this weekend and had a row last night as I didnt want to spend nearly £50 on food for one meal, I can feed both of us and the cat for not much more than that. I had a sandwich in the bar instead.

I read in good housekeeping about a site called everythings £5, its an auction site.

Spent £125 on groceries today, £35 of that at the meatman (and I got an awful lot for my money as I got there as he was packing up, and he likes to leave with an empty van) and the rest of that in Aldi. Apart from milk, fruit etc, that will be us done for groceries for this month.
£50 on filling up the car, but that will last all month, hopefully abit longer as I have no long journeys planned.

Went to a carboot with DS's, spent £5.45, got 3 new books for DH for Xmas, never even been opened from the look of them, 2 Thomas Tank toys for DS's and a Tigger aswell to replace a broken one at home.

Spent £15 on mid-sleeper bed for DS1 this evening too, to move him on from his toddler bed.

Thankyou for your supportive comments. I have no idea what they class as enough jobs per week. I have worked out that since I have been claiming, I have applied for an average of 14.3 a week - so far only 2 interviews from that - shows how hard it is to find employment at the moment, and that is with 7+ years of managerial experience in the field that I am applying for :(
I shall definitely be speaking to someone once I've recieved my letter.....

I think what they mean Leilandri is that you haven't applied for and accepted a zero hours contract at £4.17 ph for which you buy your own uniform, that is four bus rides away. You workshy layabout, you!

Leilandri good luck with the interview and dealing with the benefit thing. Sounds like a nightmare.

I agree that it's frequently the men who don't "get it", we had to take the car in for snow chains and as OH nipped off to look at Porches he asked the sales manager to "sell that" (a Jaguar) to me. The bloke knows me though so he just organised a coffee and left me alone . Seriously, OH is almost frantic about losing the plot house and still looking at fancy cars

I've had a few NSDs, OH is off on a long trip soon so he stocked up on dog food and while he's away the general food bill will be lower. We had lunch out today while walking the dogs - sandwiches and chips so not extravagant. He paid and I think it was just over a tenner. Had to get DD1 more underwear yesterday ( she's 11 and changing rapidly, so last week's undies are no longer suitable) that was £16 yesterday. This week I need to get washing powder and dishwasher stuff so a more expensive grocery week than usual.

Hi All, I haven't posted for a while as I'm in exam / revision hell at the moment and so have been heavily reliant on DH to keep the household going!

Last week ended ok apart from £10 on Dine In in M&S. Oops.

This weekend was pretty thrifty - £15 top up shop in Tesco but that was DH spending and he bought beers, snacks for DD (even though we had loads already in the cupboard) and other non essentials!

I've got a big Ocado shop coming tomorrow as I can't get it together to do an Aldi / Lidl shop this week. I had a 20% off code to use so I've got quite a lot coming for my £65.

Today and tomorrow should be NSD's.......apart from the Ocado order of course!

Leil - that's crazy about the job seekers allowance. I really hope that you are able to successfully challenge the decision.

Ali - you sound so similar to me. I hadn't realised how much I was spending without thinking about it. I also have a Tesco right near DD's nursery which I was visiting all the time. It's still a small victory every day when I go past without spending anything!!

Hope everyone else is ok and had good weekends.......right, back to the studying

Are we starting a new thread for October?

Just updating for the last day of September: NSD, a good way to end the month!

well my update for sep is my grocery spends were about £70 p/w but hope to get them a little lower for oct - still its an improvement.

Oh yes please can someone start a thread for October! This one has been quite interesting to read and I need to get my compulsive spending in check

Someone witty needs to think up a title including the word "October".

I am not witty.

New Thread Here