Austere April - Frugaleers continue to the next quarter!

[Leilandri]

Come and join us for another frugal/thrifty/down-right stingy month!

NSD today (so far!!). determined not to go to shop...so didn't drive! lol. determined to lose belly fat too (I'm a size 8 but have a belly hangover)... so walk to school, then to work, and will do the reverse trip in 2 hours... :)

hopefully today is NSD 9?

Tbh if I had to pay tolls every time I so much as looked at the car it would get on my baps too.

Bought new bra from M&S outlet seeing as there is a 25% off code, it cancelled the postage charges at least, so £13.25 but its out of eBay money. The code is midwek25 if you want it.

£21 for post re-direction.

Wow, thanks for all those links, fluffy.

Enjoy your cd, adora :).

I spent £40 at Morrisons, which is the bulk of next week's shopping (and a few treats too!); £7.30 on travel and £3.80 on a lovely vegetarian breakfast at Morrisons cafe. So, £51.10 in total :).

Woohoo I've been chosen to review pampers nappies on here. 30 free nappies winging their way to me :)

Spent £8 in Tescos and £2 in the Card Factory but got quite a lot for my money so pleased.

I think your road tolls are horrendous Adora. To be fair I don't know how far the journeys are but it seems very expensive and it would annoy me too.

Need petrol today so will have to get the debit card out.

I'm doing my Aldi mega shop on Saturday do I'm just writing gin on my list.

Helena

Into town it's about 30/40 km depending where, but to school it's only 15km. I can get most places without using that road at peak time, just can't get to school on time in the mornings without it. I also don't need to rush back so I use the old road. When OH does the school run he pays £2.55 twice, either to get back here or go to the office.

So, road on school run £2.55 and nothing else today. DD1 is off school with a mild stomach bug and wants to go out just to look at the price of the sweets she can't afford until tomorrow. I've said no.

Well done on those trials.

Creme thanks, I am

Oh no, my brain always goes to mush the instant someone asks me to do something. I'll try to get it working again have a think about it.

Hello everyone - signing up here for May really. It's a 5 week pay month for me and its going to be tough.

All my bills are on DD. I'm aiming to take a cash amount out each week (starting today) and only spend that in the week. The cupboards are full and I need toe at our way through them.

I've been decluttering & getting our flat slowly sorted and my inner shopper is wanting to RAMPAGE!!! I'm not, but it's inner turmoil and noise and self-harrassement, and I want all this spend spend spend internal noise to quieten down.

And save some ££ too of course.

Hello BeCool and welcome.

Could you get your inner shopper to write a list, and then veto the items that you don't actually need? Just think of all that lovely refreshing space you've created and how wonderful and calm it feels without crapula cluttering it up.

I treated myself to breakfast out after the school run, it's cold and dreary this morning and I'm shattered so I had 2 coffee and toast with avocado. £5. I need to get a few bits later, pizza for DD's sleepover and cash for next week's tolls so that we can stay home and avoid temptation all weekend .

DDs are going to buy sweets for the aforementioned sleepover with their own money. DD1 is especially excited at the prospect of a giant gob stopper, she was telling me how enormous it is, " 28 square metres" took her a few minutes to realise what she was saying.

thanks AdoraBell - I will try a list.

The thing is I/we don't NEED anything (apart from a ball and a book for DD2's birthday next week). I don't even WANT anything. It is a combination of old habits, and new ways clashing internally & I think the old habits are so interconnected to all different parts of me inside - it's like a big long scream in there.

But I think if I write whatever it is down, when my mind grabs hold of it, then that might help.

If I visualise this I see a huge raging sea inside of me, and I am trying to pour calming oil onto it, and failing.

Hi there, signing up and signing in for May too :) Potential redundancy for DH and hopelessly spendy habits means that I have to get some financial control.
I've been lurking for April and reading all the great advice on this thread and have cut back loads with meal planning and going to Aldi instead of Waitrose (was spending up to 200 a week on food, snacks, magazines, coffees and stuff) But having aimed for 10 NSDs I have managed precisely ZERO, something always seems to catch me out at the last minute. So far an NSD today and can't see what I'd need to shell out for but with two teenage DDs it's unpredictable :(
So have done a spread sheet, going to rely on just cash each week like Becool so I can try and squirrel some cash away ready for the worst.

Count me in for Moneywise May!

I've just reduced my hours to a 4 day week, so while I'm LOVING having a whole day off mid week to do all that stuff that I never otherwise get to do, I'm going to have to be stricter on the budget to make up for the missing millions pennies.

That's one hell of a gob stopper Adora. It would keep them quiet for ages though.

Welcome to cathy, becool and Melanie.

Well, had to send some shoes back to shoeaholics, £6.30 2nd class recorded. It would have been cheaper to resell them on eBay. Live and learn.

Yep, Fluffy that's what thought, if only it really was that size

BeCool I know exactly what you mean. You can turn it around with time and positive thinking, you just have to keep practicing.

Cathyand Claire I have two pre-teens, I squirrel the cash I need away so when they ask for X Y and Z I tell them there's no money. DD2 actually asked for my purse one day to check the cheeky mare and I had 20 Chilean pesos, (we live in Chile) about 26 pence. That wiped the smug look off her face.

Ha! Ha! Good one, adora :).

£3.84 today, on bread and a Frijj from Tesco, and bus fares home.

Welcome all newbies!

Went to softplay today but my lovely sister paid as she owed me some money so a nsd today 14/12. Yesterday I spent a load as picked up some pressies for my babies birthday. He is going to be 4 in a few weeks xx

Bought the weekly shop today. At Aldi's. for under £40!!! I'm very chuffed. Included chicken, veg, cereal, nappies(!!), a face serum (damn you s&b! But it was £3.49!),,yoghurts, milk... Etc. I have made the meal plans for the following week so I really shouldn't need to do another shop till next weekend. Hopefully.

Good weekend all! Tomorrow am going for a girl day out and hopefully won't spend on unnecessaries. Sunday I hope to declutter some more.

Thanks Creme I struggled to keep a straight face at time

Welcome also to Melanie.

So, bought 2 pizzas and a bag of mixed salad, just under £10. DD1 spent all her pocket money on sweets I expected nothing less and DD2 spent about half. We're definitely staying home all weekend as DD1 has twisted her ankle again. She thinks we need to rush to the clinic, but I don't need to pay £60/70 to be told she needs to rest it and use a support, which I have already put on it. If it's not improving by Sun. pm I will take her purely to get a cert. for sports at school. I love the fact that they put a big emphasise on sport but the downside is that only a Dr's cert. gets them out of it even with an injury.

I also get that panicky feeling and for me the only way to deal with it is to buy what's needed immediatley so that I know I don't have to spend money, IYSWIM. I can't get past the OMG I have to spend money on X next week stage and focus on anything else when it strikes. Took out the £26 I'll need for tolls next week and the petrol I put in on Wednesday should last a week if I don't need to go into town.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.