Just say NOvember

[economymode]

Want to cut back on unnecessary spending this November? Then you've come to the right place!

I'm starting off the month by seeing if I can switch to cheaper fuel tarrifs...

economy I can't see an issue with that, tbh I think I would always try to pass it on as empty as possible!

Well I need to be here with a vengeance now. DH's current contract has been cut short and he is finishing on the 7th of December. Just hoping that he can find something else to start before Christmas, otherwise we will have to start dipping into the savings in a big way.
We found out on Friday morning, and have managed to not spend a penny since then, apart from the shop which was delivered in the afternoon - £81 for the week and that includes lunch for all 4 of us. I will need more bread, milk, squash and fruit but that is all.

Thanks, Ali. I really don't want to put any more than necessary in, but do wonder if I'm being a bit tight. If I'm not the only one who'd do it, then....

Sorry to hear about your husband's contract. Have you managed to put money away in case something like this happened? My advice would be to completely minimise your food shopping - go through your cupboards and work out what you can make from what you already have, even if it's not a favourite. Then you only need to buy the basics - fresh fruit & veg, milk etc.

Ali, I'll keep my fingers crossed for your DH. Talk about bad timing...

Congrats on the new car, Economy.

£22.47 in town yesterday, on bus fares, shopping and coffee and cake. NSD today, but might pop out for a choccy bar before the Co-op closes...

It's been a sad week, as I saw a solicitor about filing for divorce on Friday. Lots of you here were lovely, when I told you he'd left me for an O.W. in June, 7 weeks after we were talking about another DC and finally getting a mortgage...

to all.

Thanks :) We do have some retained profit in the business, and also personal savings which in combination would keep us going until March/April without having to cut back - obviously we want to use as little of it as possible!!

Next week's food shop will be minimal, we have got lots of stuff in the freezer and cupboard that can be used up. We've done most of the Christmas shopping, and we're going to my parents for Christmas itself, so we haven't got the expense of food or hosting.

CremeEgg - I don't think I was posting on this thread, but I saw other threads of yours about it.

Oh, CremeEgg, I think it's you that deserves the . I hope you and your son are holding up OK. I have no experience of what you're going through, but I can only imagine how emotionally draining it must be.

Thank you, Ali and Economy. :).

Had another spendy day here, DDs did their Christmas shopping, I got a top up food shop and we had snacks out

So, £2.40 roads
£10 snacks
£20 supermarket
£34 underwear for DD1
£25 DD's shopping

Cremeegg how are things now? I hope you and DS managed to have a nice weekend.

Ali good luck with DH's work. Mine is travelling for work now.

Put a speculative post on the FB page for the town we're moving to asking if anyone has a fridge freezer for sale and someone has replied! They're selling one for £50. I had budgeting £300 for one so this could be a big saving!!

Going curtain shopping today. We need curtains for 2 windows 90"x90". I've budgeted £150 but I'm going to try to bring it in under that. Someone suggested B&M bargains but I'm not sure about curtains from somewhere so cheap...

We've got curtains for a big window like that from Debenhams, they were £100 4 years ago and are fake suede material, they look really nice up though. The curtains in this rental are cheap and look it.

If you have any designer outlets or homesense near you they do nice curtains cheaply. Or wait for the sales if you can bear it.

Got new pyjamas in TK Maxx, cyberjammies for £12. They were £45 and are really warm. My old ones were kept together with wondaweb so needed replacing. They had loads of really nice CK pyjama tops but no trousers.

Other than that it was;

Aldi £37 for all weeks food.
Vacuum Bags £9.75 (the old one wasnt just full but solid)
Argos £10 for grease filters for the extractor. The owners one was solid with grease. I think they must have deepfried everything from breakfast cereal to biscuits in this house.

£26.12 on shopping from Tesco and Lidl, £4.10 on local bus fares, avoiding heavy rain as much as possible, and £2.20 sending off an eBay parcel. So, £32.42 total.

Have you recently moved, fluffy?

Renting. Moved in June. Took me till Saturday to realise the extractor was full of grease

Yesterday was shopping day, so £30.something in Aldi. £7 in Sainsbury's on toddler vits and 2 big bottles of organic milk.

Also spent £18 on waterproof dungarees for the boy. I figure these will stop him trashing his clothes outside so will pay for themselves.

£3.95 on a wrap top from White Stuff (via charity shop) that wraps nicely over the bump.

£21 additional premium to swap to new car on the insurance policy. Renewal isn't until Jan and they won't let me renew early.

Fluffy, I miss the days I could rummage through TK Maxx without a whinging toddler. Might have to see if I can do that again soon. Once this baby is born and I've shifted the weight, I want to treat myself to a new wardrobe as I'm fed up of not having any nice clothes, so will have a look there for clothes on the cheap. I love their kitchen stuff too....

It's hardly top priority, fluffy. Been here three years and it's not something I've ever checked!

Hang in there, economy. It's a nice treat to look forward to.

£2.50 on bus fares today .

Ive found eBay good for clothes, I got an all saints jumper for about £20, it was £80 in the shops.

The quest for a spindryer continues .

No luck yet then? :(

OK, too many bus journeys to account for at the moment ... 10 and counting I think!!! £140 on food - much of it store cupboard and freezer so that's my 'big' shop for the coming 3 weeks - then it's Christmas so it's only the turkey and veggies to buy.

Hi cremeegg, I hope you and DS are holding up? I recall your other thread.

fluffy - would freecycle be any use? Have never used it myself but have seen many references to it on here ... it might be worth a look?

It's not easy to join freecycle, it's like a big clique.

Dh keeps saying I don't need one

I have been reading this thread with interest; to be honest we are not in any financial problems but it is good to hear of how to save money.

With regard to curtains, if you are anywhere near a Boundary Mill store there are usually some fantastic bargains on curtains (and other things, but someone upthread was looking for curtains). I bought two pair for my shower room recently - they were £25.00 a pair, but because I sew I was actually able to make two pairs out of one pair because they were full length ones and I only wanted short curtains. So two pairs of curtains for £25.00 (I seem to remember that the full price of a pair was £72!)

Hi, another one who needs to cut back here

I spend too much on the basis that if I need something then I may as well spend the money this month than wait. But it means that over the past 3 years I've developed an impulse buying habit that I hate, especially as I hate clutter too so I look at my house and soo wasted money everywhere. So, I'm aiming for NSDs and to wait a week between thinking I 'need' something before I commit to buying it.

Wish me luck! I'm using you guys as inspiration.

Don't be embarrassed Mint everyone's welcome here. I'm abroad and so you'll see my posts refer to road tolls daily, and Drs visits. I don't post re school fees as I don't think about how much it's costing. I do know what the costs are, I just block it out after OH and I have discussed the latest increases

Today I spent double in road tolls for school, saved an hour morning and afternoon as the old road is being resurfaced plus buildings going up either side too.

So, £5 on roads
£20 on ingredients for Xmas pudding, which is madness but I can't buy them here and it's OH's treat.

Yesterday it was just the roads, I stayed home allowing my fever to kill off some of the cold I have.

Oh, almost forgot the dentist today. £45 for the lab to make a crown, £267 for the dentist to do the work, that will be claimed back as will the £280 from two weeks ago. Same tooth, different process.

Tomorrow I'll need petrol and I need to get the car washed before the weekend. OH likes a shiny car and he knows I don't do car waxing so he just says "can you get it cleaned, please?"

Friend gave me a gift card, so if I can shift this cold I'll have a little spree on Friday. OH won't get paid this month, nothing last month and only a paltry amount in Sept, so we're into using reserves. Freezer is still quite full and I have emergency food that I don't want to use in case we have another earthquake so we won't starve. OH has also stopped over feeding the dogs, after the vet dropped some heavy hints and I said "you've been giving them how much ". Dogs are bit put out but they'll get used to it

Well everything is going wrong here. Car needed two tyres and tracking so £244. The oven has packed up. Repairman coming today. I think it's the element which went a few years ago and cost £70.

On the plus side I got a Sainsburys online shop offer through the post for £12 off a £60 shop but it was for new customers only. So DH has been signed up at the new address and will be having his very own shop delivered for the first time on Wednesday next week .

Trying to decide between Netflix and Lovefilm at the moment. We will have fibre-optic broadband and a virgin TiVo box so I think Netflix should be okay. Anyone care to share their experience of either?

The curtains are sorted!! My DM has two spare pairs of 90" x 90" plain cream curtains. Not the colour I want but I can't find the green I want anyway and cream ones won't offend.

I can't remember who mentioned Boundary Mill. Yes I am near to one but I've found them to be very expensive for curtains in the past. It might just be ours though. It's supposed to be the "flagship" store. Have had fabulous bargains on clothes though - I think my best was Jaegar trousers down from £90 to £8.

mint don't be embarrassed. We probably shouldn't be here either but, although we have a good income, we're currently paying £800 mortgage and will be paying £1400 rent from next week. We've also paid £2.5k removals and we have £2,100 deposit to pay next week. It's crippling us. Hopefully we can rent the house out and cover the mortgage but I'm beginning to like being thrifty and these ladies are luffly.

Join in. I'm learning loads!!

Welcome, mint :).

Thanks for the welcome.

helena I have Netflix and its great. I'm in Cumbria with a fairly slow broadband connection and it's the same as watching tv for me. Apparently it does a clever thing with dropping the quality vv slightly if the connection is a bit slower so there's never any buffering. We have free view and netflix (£6 peronth) and I can't remember the last time I bought a DVD.

I'm with both children today so it may involve a trip to the bakers for a cake for DS but that's it.

mint I'm not too far from you at the moment - currently live 45 mins from South lakes and an hour from Keswick. We move to Sussex next week though.

Interesting that Netflix works on a slower connection too. I like the immediacy of Netflix and at £6 per month it's fab value. We're just ditching Sky's movie packages as they're expensive and it seems to take ages for stuff to come onto the non-box office channels.