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

£4.99 total for today- bread, bananas, bus fares and a coffee.

Had a bit of a spendy weekend, at least Saturday, it was a long weekend. DD1 had friends over for a proper birthday celebration. Cinema and pizza followed by a sleep over. They were not impressed with OH's arbitrary decision to take them to daddy's favourite very good but that's beside the point steak resturant for their 11th birthday. So, that set me back £20 at the cinema, £15 at Pizza Hut and another £10 on frozen yoghurt. Ladies, the mice are playing while the cat's away. I've been budgeting for it for a couple of months.

Rest of the weekend I didn't spend a bean, but today I needed more caffeine returning from school run, £4 for coffee & toast with mashed avocado. Then £3 on roads, peak rate at school run time. I need to get groceries and change the school shoes I bought last week. Next weekend DD2 is having her friends over to celebrate her birthday.

Lielandri congratulations on the job, well done

Three consecutive NSD's here partly as almost broke but mainly due to vomiting bug haven't been anywhere, tomo will be the same and then thurs will need some groceries.

Enjoying seeing things get used up in cupboards, cleaned out baking press yesterday, made list of few bits that are needed, and discovered a packet of batter so changed menu plan a bit and had bangers mash Yorkshire puddings and gravy today to use it up. Stretches meat bought for an extra day : )

Spent £18 in Morrisons today on fruit, milk, toddler formula and calpol. DS2 is cutting more teeth and has reverted back into a fruit bat!! So strawbs, grapes, blueberries, satsumas and mangoes are making up his diet at the moment with a chocolate spread sarnie thrown in as a treat can't wait til next year when most of our fruit&veg needs should be met by the allotment :)

Joining in. Spent way too much last month (OD £200 ) and DP may get made redundant next month so need to rein it in a bit.

The biggest problem is socialising so I have invited people round for stuff rather than doing anything else but have best friends bridal fitting and meal after to attend (I'm maid of honour) so that and my Dad's bday present is all excess spending this month. I have put a lock on the wallet!

Bonjour all. And massive congrats, Leilandri, that must be such a relief!

NSD yesterday, but will be spendy today - need to fill up with petrol at Sainsbury's (have voucher for double nectar points) and get a few bits and bobs. Then have also just bought Little Mermaid DVD for £10 for niece's xmas present (triple nectar points on ebay!).

Welcome, ethel. Socialising at home (either yours or your friends') is a great money-saver . Hopefully this thread will help you save a few pennies.

Leilandri that is brilliant news - congratulations!

ethelb - fingers crossed for your DP. Is there any mileage in him starting to look for a new job - you never know something better might come along?

mum23 - we have used blackcircles.com in the past, in this instance they weren't the cheapest though which surprised me!

Mixed few days, needed petrol, new wellies for DS1 and I had my hair cut yesterday. All necessary though, no frittering.
Today I have ordered some boots for the winter, and bought some new pants and a cardigan.

Tomorrow will be a cheap day, I am going to a friend's for lunch so just need to take cake.
Friday just gym - so £2.70 for creche. Also the weekly shop will be delivered.

Total for today: £13.51.

I had an ENT appointment at the hospital, so had a coffee while I was waiting and a chai latte and brownie afterwards. Then, I popped into M&S for a couple of carrots, milk and some frozen pre-chopped onions! The ENT consultant gave me permission to use them from now on, as I seem to be getting worse and worse with chopping raw onions. My chest is still feeling a bit tight today from chopping up a small onion for soup on Monday lunch time! I have wanted to try them for a long time, but felt too guilty, since I was either leaving them out of recipes when I really couldn't face dealing with them, or putting up with not being able to breathe for the last year or so. Anyway, it's £1.10 for a 500g bag in M&S, if anyone else either needs or wants to try them!
I also picked up a nice Advent calendar for DS in there for £2. They have a good selection for £2-2.50.

I spent £50 on groceries yesterday after school. So far today £4 on roads, but I still have to go to the dentist. I need to book the car in for service but keep forgetting to call the garage. school shoes still need changing too.

Cremegg Dr's orders, bonus I also struggle with onions, they seem much stronger here in Chile, but not as badly as you. I hope the pre-chopped onions work for you.

Thanks adora. I just thought I was extra-sensitive with them, but when it gets to the stage where you're finding it hard to breathe properly for a few hours after chopping one small one or you're making curry without any, time to reach for the ready meal version! The consultant has taken away the guilt now, and I'm wondering why I didn't give them a go when I first heard of them, only a few months ago!

NSD today. Had friend over for coffee and defrosted birthday cake this morning. My Dad came round and extended the chicken run this afternoon so that they won't trash the lawn over the winter, but still have plenty of space too. Then MiL came over after work. She took DS1 out for a walk to the shops, where he informed her that "Mummy has no pennies for treats right now" so they came back with choc muffins, cookies and haribo. I was abit but also rather at his honest declaration!!
Will be spending £18 tomorrow on some FB clothes for DS2. Also have to go uptown to exchange my Bday PJ's from DH, so have to try to avoid spending then...

NSD here. Total accident, I hardly ever get them.

If I wasnt so lazy I'd like an allotment, I'd get kicked out for not maintaining it.

Leilandri congratulations on the job.

Alibaba now you mention it I remember DH complaining last time that blackcircles weren't as cheap as in the past. Maybe more people have discovered them and they've sneaked the prices up.

Well I've been doing well this week. Managed 2 consecutive NSD's on Sunday and Monday. Then on Tues I was £20 in Aldi and £10 in Sainsbury's getting fresh fruit, bread,milk etc to get through the week. Kid's on school holidays and are eating me out of house and home. 10 bananas since yesterday. Seriously! Could be worse I suppose, it could be crisps. Today I managed another NSD. Getting quite addicted to these

Monday I had £30 of fb sales collected and Tuesday was another £15. Had a time waster 2day and I've a £32 sale to be collected 2mrw hopefully.

Put carrots in the fruitbowl, way cheaper than fruit but still packed with vitamins and beta carotene.

NSD yesterday and today hopefully.

I'm planning to NSD until Thursday next week. Wish me luck!

I'm looking forward to my Kent Veg box though. 3 weeks of veg and eggs for £23! If you live in the SE use their 3 week half price box offer: www.kentvegbox.co.uk/

Thanks economymode. DP is too anxious and dperessed to focus on looking for a new job as well as tring to keep this one I'm afraid. Luckily I have been saving quite a lot all year but it is all a bit rubbish

£2 off a £10 poundshop halloween stuff

£41.55 on next week's food shop (£3.99 from M&S and the rest from Tesco and Lidl), until I just had to pop to the Co-op. Wine for £5.99- fair enough, but wine and green beans and sweetcorn came to almost a tenner! . So, £51. something on food shopping.

Also spent £34 on new school shoes and protection spray for DS, £7.10 on bus fares and £4.95 on hot chocolates in Costa for us. So, somewhere between £96 and £97 total!

I need to post 3 eBay parcels and my mum's birthday present tomorrow, but that should be all.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend :).

Spendy day today, but mostly not by me!
£50 in Sainsbos on new shoes and black trousers for job. (Bank of Mum and Dad)
£62 in Clarks on new shoes for both DS's. (Bank of Mum and Dad)

Did spend £2.04 in co-op and £2.85 at chippy. Both for my neighbour and friend who's DS has been very poorly (A&E visit last night) so she hasn't left the house and needed supplies. I will eventually get this money back - hopefully with some good Karma attached

This weekend is going to be expensive.......we have £63 in the account BUT theres a toy sale on at a ladies house this morning and she does toys so cheap I can't afford not to go and get all the xmas pressies for the kids (got about 15 to buy for) then this afternoon I'm going to the wholesalers to get stock for the craft fairs I'm having a stall at, I need to buy the stuff now so I can start making things to sell, we are away next weekend and I've got the dc's off school for 2 weeks so I'm running out of time.....
Tomorrow we are going to ikea to replace a couple of things that have broken, I estimate a spend of about £150

I will earn it all back to pay it back within the next few weeks but it will still send us overdrawn for a week or two.

Haven't been on this thread since Monday. Surprisingly little spending!

£289.93 to last 5 days to pay-day!

£70.00 cheque paid in for DH
£25.00 mileage paid in for DH (but the petrol hasn't debited yet)
£10.00 - cash for DH
£6.59 - co op
£10.00 - cash for DH
£8.29 - Morrisons
£30.00 - cash for kids activities next week
£20.00 on having my nails done

I still need to do a full week's shop, and I will also need some petrol but I feel I've done quite well this week.

Leilandri - congratulations on the new job.

And I myself have a new job too! I got one of the jobs I was interviewed for on Tuesday with an extra income of £500 per year but sadly I have to work 3.5 hours extra per week for that so in effect my hourly rate has gone down BUT it's so much closer to home so petrol will reduce somewhat

Congrats on the job claret :)

NSD today. Both boys are poorly, so they're having a PJ and movies day.
I am pureéing megaloads of apples from MiL trees, nice to have a stock in freezer through winter. Also making pizza dough, pastry, pizza sauce and crumble mix, big vat of spag bol mix, and a large amount of curry sauce too. All from store cupboard/fridge and will be handy to have in freezer when I can't be arsed to cook

Been doing well this week. Wed, Thurs and Fri were all NSD's. Mainly because we hardly went out

Today however was not so good. Spent all my fb sales money on birthday presents and halloween costumes. Quite pleased with myself though as that was extra cash and if I hadn't bought those things I'd probably just have frittered it away. Also because I've bought the gifts nice and early rather than my usual last minute effort I've actually spent less on the gift but it has a lot more thought put into it. Plus now all my birthdays are covered up until DH gets paid in December.

Got another spendy day 2mrw as I've a meal out for a friends birthday but hopefully it won't be too spendy as it's looking like we're going to need a new boiler as our 1st gas bill has arrived. 4 weeks was £200! We don't even have it on much but there is no seperate switch for hot water so we have to run heating to get water. So it is costing a fortune. Pricing up new boiler though as we can't keep paying that every month. We did know it would need done eventually when we bought this house we just hadn't anticipated it being this soon

This week I've managed to keep the groceries under £70, and DD2's birthday celebration has turned out cheaper than planned due to a car problem. She had planned bowling followed by food if you can call it that at McD's. Instead we had burgers and hotdogs here followed by DVDs and games. The 7 of them are currently upstairs discussing what to do next. tomorrow will be an NSD.

Try an extra jacket on the water tank, turn the stat down to 60 and turn the boiler up to max.

A tank of water should only take 20-30 mins to heat up.

Most water boards will supply tap inserts for free and shower regulators for free. Not for power showers though.

If you don't have a dishwasher get one second hand, they save a lot on your electric and gas.

2 nsd due to a virus. Yay for me. it's the best way to save on heating, become a furnace!.