Only Halloween will be scary in October - NOT our finances :)

[Leilandri]

Oldies and Newbies welcome....
Can't believe we are approaching the end of the year so fast. 9 months of money-saving, thriftiness, waste awareness. We deserve a large

Evenin all! Need to come back with a vengeance! Landlord selling up so need to crackdown to pull together remnants of deposit! NSD today and should only need top up of bread and milk over the weekend. Have put 6 biggish things on Gumtree for sale (fallen out with Ebay over their seller fees!). Payday on 20th but have expenses 18/19th to pay out but can claim back should manage to add approx £300 to my savings before payday. Really must try to put savings away when I get paid, not with my remnant spend of the month!

Mum2Fergus, I know, I hate sellers' fees on ebay, but sometimes I can't shift stuff for love nor money on Gumtree and the like.

Sent out a few invoices for freelance work - one due on receipt £150 and two for $50 (yep, $) each, which will be paid in December, so a nice xmas bonus!

Fingers crossed for the interviews, Claret

Didn't spend any more money today but have just discovered dh has no overtime for the next 2 months which leaves us seriously strapped for cash, esp with Christmas and dd3's birthday fast approaching. So after bills we have £500 to last till mid December with 4 birthdays in there and dh has a stag do, plus the girls are off school for the next 10 days. One birthday is mine though so that can be missed

On a more positive note I have sold even more on fb today so that's £21 coming my way over the weekend. 1 buyer never turned up today which is a first for me so was pretty annoyed at that but I've sold tons of stuff and that's the first time it's happened. Got a few big bits to list on ebay tomorrow as I think it's a free listing weekend. Fingers crossed that stuff sells too and we might just about manage a Christmas

Mum2. Sorry to hear about the overtime situation. I know it won't be popular, but does your husband have to go on this stag do. If money is really tight, then perhaps he would understand that family needs (like food, you know) should come first. Or is he an important part of the wedding?

Also, I'm sure we can help you come up with ideas for cheap birthday presents - who do you have to get them for? And as for you, nope, you are not ignoring your birthday! Again, I'm sure we can think up some cheap and cheerful ideas to help you celebrate .

I'm currently looking for a reasonably priced maternity dress that I can wear to a wedding in a couple of weeks. Someone over on the S&B board suggested a lovely, lovely one from Seraphine, but it is £59...

Economy - might you find something fitted in the bust and then loose? You could potentially wear it again then?
Or have you tried Asos? They have some nice maternity stuff very reasonably priced.

Ended up having to top up shop on Thursday afternoon to keep us going until the shopping came yesterday which I was annoyed about - bad planning. So £15 spent there.
Yesterday was just the weekly shop - £109.

Today is car tyre - either £143 or possibly double that if two need doing. No other spending.
Tomorrow we are visiting a local National Trust place, my parents bought us membership for my birthday so that will be free. We will take a bit of picnic and probably buy some tea and cake so perhaps a £15 spend there.

Next week DS1 is getting free school dinners as part of a trial, that runs for two weeks so that will save me quite a bit on stuff for packed lunches.
I am having my hair cut on Tuesday - £30.
Nothing else planned for next week so far, although I do need to get a few bits before we go away in a fortnight. Wellies for DS1, and gloves, and some toiletries.

Alibaba - that seems so expensive for a car tyre! Is it a big car?

Wiggy, any news on dog? Ours has had two benign lumps removed over the past few years, think it was about 200 euros each time when you include follow ups and meds. Once he had to wear a big collar to stop him from getting at the wound, that was an interesting 10 days...

Good luck with job claret! Mum23 sorry to hear about overtime but good luck with the stuff you are selling.

NSD on Thursday, but ?70 yesterday on dinner and drinks with a friend...massive fail! I broke my own promise to myself not to drink cocktails...damn.

riverboat - but did you have a good time?? Sounds fab

Yes it is a big car! I drive our family car and DH has a small car for work, because he mostly goes back and forth to the station which is only 4 miles. We bought it when it was 18 months old so we got a very good deal and paid cash so no outstanding finance. It is lovely, and holds all our stuff for when we go visiting family or over to my parents place in France for a holiday.
Only 1 tyre needed today, and the others have got lots of tread left - yay!

Definitely no more spending today. I was thinking about popping into town and looking for some new boots for the winter but I cba!

Mum23 - that is crap, especially just before Christmas :( I know it doesn't help for this year, but starting from January could you put a little aside each month ready for Christmas next year so that you don't end up in the same position?
Good luck with the selling!

Alibaba have you tried blackcircles.com for tyres. You order them and pay the fitting then they send them out to a local garage that is registered with them. We always find tyres to be at least 20% cheaper.

Have managed to squirrel away £300 for Christmas over the year and I'm hoping that with some fb sales I'll have enough to cover everything. It's just bad timing with the overtime since we've moved house and everything seems to be breaking round us. Boiler is 23 years old and I'm literally keeping everything crossed that we can get through a couple of winters with it. DH is currently under the floorboards in dd3's room as we've just sprung a leak. I was sitting downstairs eating lunch and dh was upstairs having a shower and water started pouring through the ceiling. He's located the cause though and thankfully is handy :-)

Economy I totally agree re the stag do but feel such a bore saying no all the time. Especially as this is a 'cheaper' version of the real stag do which is 5 days in Barcelona. Seriously why do folk do this. What happened to a few drinks in the local pub?

Spent £20 on new light and some paint this morning for dd3's room. Carpet getting fitted on Tues but thankfully already paid for that. Just had a fb sale collected which was £5. Unfortunately have had to spend that at hardware store for bit to fix pipe. Could've been a lot worse though and at least we found it before carpet went down or ceiling came down

Economy forgot to add birthdays are my dad and bil (dh's younger bro). Also dd3 will be 2 and we were planning on a doll and pram as she just loves babies and has so many handed down toys that it's really about the only thing she could want for. That will be her complete present though I felt we could get her the doll as she already has a crib and carrier for it (hand down) then get the pram from santa but dh thinks that's stingey. I keep trying to tell him we need to economise and he agrees in principle but in reality he just doesn't really follow the plan. He always says he wants the kids to have the best and not do without. I try to tell him they wouldn't even notice if we cut back as they've 2 sets of grandparents and a ton of aunties, uncles and great aunties that all spoil them too. I've an enormous family. Both my parents are 1 of 7

Also I had my best friends wedding while I was pregnant with the twins and i just wore a top with trousers. I'd managed to get a non maternity top in debenhams sale really cheap. Just glammed it all up with lovely bag, shoes and accessories and got my hair and nails done really nice. Like you I didn't want to spend a fortune on a dress I'd never get to wear again

That Aldi razor is brilliant, really pleased with it.

DH thought it was for him. Bless.

I haven't had the energy to think about wedding outfit today. But I don't even have any smart, maternity trousers that I could wear, so whatever I decide, it's going to involve a bit of spending. Also have no smart shoes I can wear, and all my friends have stupidly big feet so can't borrow any either. Sigh.

Just read an article in the paper about the new gender equality rules for car insurance from Dec 21. Is anyone going to shop around for a new premium before then? No idea how much mine will go up as it's due the end of January, as is the baby. So, I'm thinking I might look for a good deal now and just accept any early exit fee as it'll prob be less than the hike in premium. Problem is, that we have a multi car policy with Admiral so any changes to my insurance will affect my husband, too.

Good tip about blackcircles.com, mum2, will remember that. Will have a think about birthday present ideas, too.

Been a few days since posting so a quick catch up

Thurs - NSD. Lashing with rain all day = housework
Fri - £10.03 at Mecca Bingo for a Bday night out with girlies - this included 3 drinks AND a main meal, and all the bingo for the evening... love a bargain!
Also got car MOT'ed for a fantastic £52 courtesy of Bank of Mum and Dad
Today - £21.34 in Morrisons on top up. £108 on six months car tax :(

Good luck with interviews claret I have an interview/group recruitment event for Asda on Monday. STILL haven't heard anything official from Morrisons, so the jobhunt continues

Bargains galore at a nearly new sale this morning. The organisers foolishly put it on the sane day and time as the massively popular nct sale, so it wasn't busy at all and loads of good stuff:

• baby bouncer for £5
• sleeping bags for 50p
• good quality clothes (boden, monsoon...it was organised by well-off parents!) for 50p/£1 an item
• merino wool sleeping bag for £5
• fleece sleepsuits for new (winter) baby 50p each

I think I spent around £20 and got loads. If there's stuff e don't need, I can sell it on, probably for more than I paid.

Oh, and the best bit of today so far, EconomyBoy broke his week-long hunger strike (he has survived on a bowl of cereal at breakfast and a few mouthfuls of bread and houmous during the day) and ate a good lunch, so no food was thrown away!

Very odd you still haven't heard about the job, leilandri - could you chase it up? They should let you know either way.

Spendy weekend, as I took DS to the theatre yesterday. I'd already paid for the tickets ages ago, but with travel and lunch from Yo! Sushi, it ended up being nearly £40.

Then today, he really wanted to go to his fantasy role-playing game, so I took him and spent another £15 or so, on travel and snacks, as of course the game has to be on at the awkward time of 1-2.30 p.m. on a Sunday and I HAD to get him something to keep him going 'til we got home for Sunday dinner!

So, you won't be surprised to learn just how grateful I was to receive £9.50 for a game I sold on eBay. The buyer paid cash on delivery this afternoon! :o I now have about £14 to keep us going until Thursday.

Anyway, off to list as much as I can on eBay. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Sunday.

Yay finally had a NSD!! Even made £9 on a fb sale. Got £30 due 2mrw as well assuming both buyers turn up. No plans for 2mrw and don't need anything foodwise so looks like there's a possibility of a 2nd NSD. Fingers crossed.

Had a lovely day today at the inlaws. Had a really nice meal and got packed off home with the leftovers and a pile of biscuits and a tin of celebrations :-)

Hey everyone, still here, still plodding on, feeling full of cold.

I made an unexpected £10 yesterday as I sold an old gamecube game so that was a bonus and I finished a mural so I'll get the money from that soon.

I'm just about to chase up some payments owing. There is £100 in the bank BUT that won't be there long because we both put petrol in over the weekend and we went to town on saturday, I brought some xmas bits and some stuff to make up wreaths/ candle rings to sell at a table top sale.

If anyones got any books to trade in, Amazon are offering £5 bonus if you trade in £10 or more of books.

Mine made £1.25.

Bring on the kindle and free books.

Also, mn is looking for people to trial ecover wipes, if you click on the news and events bit at the top and onto product testing it comes up. They need 250 testers and theres a draw for JL vouchers.

£3.65 total today, on milk, cake and youth club fee for DS.

Thanks for the info, fluffy.

Today is £279.81 with 10 days left until pay day

Had a spendy spendy mcspendy weekend and it's all debited today
£100.00 cash withdrawal (to pay for 1 x Pink ticket, and 2 x ticket + transport to a football match)
£10.00 cash withdrawal by DH
£6.95 in Asda
£6.98 in Tesco
£11.17 in Home Bargains
£19.99 as DH's e-cig needed replacing
£7.99 in Boots
£6.95 in McDonalds
£33.00 DH petrol
£0.69 on a kindle book.

BUT DH got a cheque for £70 for fixing someones computer that needs paying in.

£9.49 spent today at Mummy-meet on lunch and drinks for me and my boys.
£5 spent at Asda on a late tea after recruitment event.

Finally heard from Morrisons today and I GOT THE JOB.. IT's OFFICIAL!!!
Sorry to shout, but so bloody relieved!! Start with induction on 26th Oct.

Phew! I think we were all getting a bit worried about that. Do you get a staff discount too? No more signing on for you.

Excellent news, Leilandri. Congratulations! :o

Fluffy I get 10% staff discount, after qualifying 13weeks, but I use my mums discount card at the moment anyway Will just be so nice to have a few extra pennies in the kitty before Xmas.
The pay is 4 weekly, and as I've checked my mums paydates, I will get paid on the same day that we receive tax credits AND I'll get paid twice in November (which is when the 13th payment falls)

I'm doing a couple of xmas craft stalls in November could you ladies give me some help on what will work etc please?

I'm artistic, can paint and can do floristry so I thought I'd do artificial wreaths, xmas table decs and candle rings and maybe childrens wands.

Could you just tell me your thoughts on what's worth making, the size of wreath you might buy etc so I can get an idea of what people will want?

I could also do fresh flowers but I'm not sure how well they will sell at a craft fare and if they don't I'll lose a lot of money on dead flowers......

Brilliant news leilandri, congratulations!

I had a great saving during the week sd had baby last fri and I stumbled upon 2 packs of 35 Huggies size 2 for ?2 each as opposed to ?7.69 a packet simply because they were in old packaging rather than new.

Have been feeding her hubby so a small bit extra on food which was counteracted by a few of us having vomiting bug.

Was depending on hubbies sw cheque to come today to do some shopping thurs but nothing has arrived so will transfer some money from my 'untouchable' self employed income and replace it whenever his cheque arrives.

Down to last washing tablet which is very unlike me.
Getting to grips with October finances slowly!