Judicious June... the frugaleers continue!

[ArtemisatBrauron]

For those who like to plan ahead... god why is it not pay day already...

[northender]

Where do I start??
Had to get the car patched up as we need 2 cars- £143
Car needing the radiator topping up daily so isn't going to last long
Have found a car to replace it but that means loan repayments of £250 a month for 3 years. (The car should be good for at least 6-8 years if we look after it)
Got home tonight to find scaffolding surrounding our house. We need the guttering and fascia boards replacing but weren't expecting it to be done so quickly. That's another £2100. That's covered by an allowance dh gets annually but he won't get it until the end of July so will have to rely on the overdraft until then
Then there's the spending review that was announced today, thank you Mr Osborne. Further career/pay progression for dh unlikely even though he achieves his objectives (and more) every year and has cut the budget of his workplace by a third (£12m to £8m) without a big dip in performance. It makes me so

Rant over!

[Fluffycloudland77]

I know just how you feel, somedays you just feel like it doesn't matter what you do it isn't enough.

[AdoraBell]

Thanks for all the well wishes.

Kinky I hope you all have a great time on your trip. The resort hotels are on another level, I went .years ago and we stayed 'outside' and tried not to envy the guests 'inside'.

Spangle I know what you mean. I don't know many people who have felt the cold air coming off a glacier on their face or heard the crack as pieces come loose before hitting the water. I'll always remember those sensations, and watching penguins waddle past me to the water - the Pacific rather than the splash pool.

North

I'm out shopping, all my socks have worn through so I'm buying replacements.

[AdoraBell]

Okay, that's me done for this week

Socks £8 for 7 pairs
Last of the groserías £20
Roads £2.40
Parking £3

Nowhere to buy socks locally despiste 2 súpermarkets. I looked moré closely at a gorgeous paír of boots that I don't actually need, with the exchange rate they work out to £160 so I shan't be buying them, even if I wasn't trying to be frugal.

[ExasperatedSigh]

Yesterday was very spendy. £37 in the supermarket, then £135 for ds to start karate.

Will be.spending £7 taking them to a music class this morning, other than that, nothing.

Going to the 'welcome to Reception' meeting at ds's school later, eek. My baby!

[roguepixie]

Aiming for a NSD today. Have cancelled the window cleaner (would have cost £35, DH likes clean windows and we live on a hill so it is hard to clean the outside) - will just have to venture up the ladder myself...eek.

Have managed to avoid starting the curtains so far this week so really need to get myself in gear and get the first one underway. DH will be home on Saturday (working away) and he will have something to say if I haven't at least started.

Will also be putting unsold stuff back on Ebay - will drop the prices a bit and hope everything sells...fingers x'd. Lovely, lovely DMum has been through their DVD/CD collection for items for me to sell in order to raise a bit of cash.

Spent £32.00 yesterday, before I found out just how bad things are, sadly can't return anything so will just need to suck it up. Met friend for coffee (£1.95) but she bought me another tea and lunch (we shared). Won't be doing that again as felt like a complete free-loaded - horrible feeling. Will invite her here (if DH not around) instead of going out next time.

Am taking DMum and DDad to the local nursery for their plants. Was going to buy a parsley plant but won't now. Will be nice to see them anyway.

Hope everyone has a good day today.

[northender]

Morning everyone. Feeling brighter today .

Dh and I had a long chat last night and he feels much more optimistic than me about the money so hopefully some of that has rubbed off!

I did manage to get 6 months road tax included with the car and a service so insurance is the only other thing we need to sort now. We can also claim some road tax back from the current car, an insurance refund and hopefully sell the roof bars for a few pounds. It may even be worth something in scrap value.

I bought 2 Daily Mirrors today, thanks fluffy. Will bring the next aldi shop forward a few days and split it into 2 so I can use both vouchers (£5 on a £40 shop)

We were going to get someone in to do some heavy work in the garden but dh is going to start it on Saturday with my dad and his chainsaw to save unnecessary spending.

Good luck with your ebay stuff rogue, every little really does help.

Have a good day everyone

[gingysmummy]

hi i lurk on her but i have never posted before, daily record are doing £5 of a £40 spend in aldi today,typical i went to aldi 1st then noticed it when i was getting petrol,never mind i can still use it next week

[roguepixie]

Two items sold on Ebay. Yippee. Hope this is an indicator of how well the items will sell ... .

[roguepixie]

Posted too soon ... meant to add that I went to the garden centre and managed to not spend a bean . DMum bought me two french parsley plants (£3.00 for the two) - I like the french parsley over the curly one weirdly. She had also cut me some beautiful peony blooms from her plants in the garden - so lovely and smell beautiful too.

So, still a NSD for me.

[Fluffycloudland77]

£7 on eBay parcels, oven chips and a daily mirror for the aldi voucher.

There's a recipe for homemade dw powder on the dripak website, I can't remember exactly but it's only two ingredients so bound to be cheap. Can you tell I'm running out of dw powder?.

Making bread and laundry gloop tomorrow.

[roguepixie]

Busy day at chez pixie.

1. Post Ebay sales off (No Spend as postage factored in)
   
2. Post job application (NS as have stamps)
   
3. Make Jamaican beef patties
   
4. Make Lentil soup
   
5. Make Pea & Ham soup
   
6. Clean the house (before DH arrives home tomorrow)
   
7. Iron
   
8. Make bread (in bread maker already)
   

Am hoping for a NSD. Feel exhausted already ... think I'll have another coffee and start in a minute ...

[shortscotty]

It's payday here so a new start. Have had a quick look at last months supermarket spending, first two weeks after payday are big bills then tails off but averages out to about 100 per week in supermarkets. Ouch. Time to crack on with budget plan, will be interesting to see if I can alter figures at the end of the month.
One little thing I am doing is trying out making flour tortillas and naan breads, six to feed here and we are carb fans (Naughty I know) so plough through lots of bread, can be an extra fiver easy when we do fajita or curry in accompanying bread alone. Had bash at tortilla last night, easy though time consuming but will do me good to just slow down a bit and get cooking again
Tesco coming tonight and spent £1 on newspapers and £1.50 on mayonaisse cos I needed change - and mayo for coleslaw

[Fluffycloudland77]

Could you batch freeze the tortillas?

[shortscotty]

the recipe I have used makes them very dry, they didn't warm up fantastically though I could try again by warming from frozen in foil or splashing with water x

[AdoraBell]

NSD yesterday and Today looks like being the same. We have torrencial rain and I don't fancy navigating the lakes puddles unless I have to, so that's school run time. OH has taken the big car because the city gets badly flooded, all these wonderful montáins surrounding it.

Good luck with Those Job applications Rogue

[roguepixie]

Thanks adora, I am looking for term time jobs so that narrows the field a lot! Still, I'll be successful one day.

Well, I've done the cleaning and the posting. Have to get the cooking done now. Off to do the ironing in a bit.

Completely NSD again today ... not sure how many days that is but a few.

Yukky grey wet day where I am...does nothing to raise the mood ...

[Thatsinteresting]

Have made about £10 on ebay so far. Unfortunately had to make trip to the vet (£21) and need to return on Monday for surgery that won't be covered by insurance so I'm expecting a £200ish bill. Would like to have a spend free weekend but we need to drive to in-laws to celebrate their wedding anniversary so that'll be £20 in petrol and we apparently owe sil £40 for our share of the present

I have spent ages sorting out our home insurance and I've gone through topcashback which has given me nearly a third off, so I have something to be pleased about. Have put it on credit card though.Must not buy anything except essentials for the next couple of weeks.

[SpangleMaker]

NSD today. Not so yesterday: £52 in Aldi and £40 with Ocado - but should see me the bulk of 2-3 weeks with top ups for fresh stuff. Then £40 petrol and £20 on presents for parties DS has been invited to. Oh, and £60 milk as I'd forgotten to pay for aaages. That will mostly have to be accounted for out of next month's grocery budget but am well stocked up so hoping for a lower than average spend in July. I have done a stock take and meal plan for the next 2 weeks. I would like to do monthly meal plans but can never seem to face it.

[AdoraBell]

NSD

No idea what the weekend holds yet.

[KinkyDorito]

£54 yesterday: poundland (£8), sainsbury's (£21) and pets at home (£25).

Tesco order done for tomorrow, £60.

I'm hoping that's it for groceries this week and guinea pig is good for a month.

Fingers crossed that today will be a NSD. I am not doing very well with these. I'll be pleased when second job finishes and I can cancel Tesco delivery, start shopping at Aldi and meal plan with lots of cooking from scratch. Quick meals always end up costly. We don't eat meat though (I'm vege and I cook , DH happy to have what I have, kids get what they are given), so that does keep cost down a little bit.

[takeaway2]

Haven't been around for a few days. Gave £5 towards colleague's present on Thursday. Other than that no spend there. Friday I spent £200 changing money for a trip next week but hopeful that most of it will be charged back to work when I return. Also spent £2 on 2 birthday cards, £5.50 at body shop for a few things and £4.50 at costa. Argh. The perils of going to town with the little one.

Today a big shop at Aldi's especially since I'm not around most of next week. Will be batching cooking like mad.

[Helenagrace]

Doing an Aldi mega shop today so it definitely won't be an NSD today!

Have managed to bag an extra little job - just 4 hours a week but it will help!

DS is starting a new school on Monday so had to spend on new uniform. It'll do for next year too so it's essentially summer spending brought forward. He's been really unhappy in the old school so I'm happy to pay.

The old school finished at 2:30 so my childcare bill will be less as his new school has a later finish. The old school were able to finish so early because they cut lunch down to 30 mins. My poor DS has been eating half his lunch at morning break time because they only gave them 10 minutes to eat at lunchtime before making them go out to play.

I'm so mad about it I'm seriously considering contacting ofsted.

[takeaway2]

Did a mega aldi shop. £90!!! Omg. But I'm not in the country next week and this is to help dh I suppose so he actually has food etc for the kids (yes I know we both work full time. He should be able to deal with it etcetc.). At aldi dd spotted some lolly Lilly shoes lookalikes for £8 (real ones cost £40-50??). Bought some in the size up.

Also paid friend £16 for our meal last week. So v poor!!

[shortscotty]

Bought birthday pressie £25 co-op drop in £ and £2.30 in chemist for bandage cos my foot is hurting when I walk