Austere August come join us!!

[takeaway2]

New thread.

£1.89.
£10 petrol.

I've been meaning to hitch myself to this thread for a while - I had agreed (in my head!) to a 4 week nothing but essentials spend over Aug/sept but DH finally quitting/getting made redundant (position basically made untenable) is catalist.

Off to an unfortunate start as nanny's birthday - chocs and cash felt bad I hadn't chosen a gift and of course I gave her more than I'd have spent on a present but there it is - I've been away and frankly I think she prefers cash.

Welcome platinum

Quick check-in for me as have to bath DCs. Only £15 today at Tesco on a top-up shop, should be OK now for the rest of the week. Quite pleased as had 2 playdates & didn't spend anything for either of them

Work tomorrow & have to finish my book club books so should be NSD

Scotty I thought all shopping trolleys were tartan, no?

I spent the last of last week's budget on frozen veg and fruit juice, £5

Still need to collect DDs so roads will be a few quid, works out to £3.33.333333-ish

Our prospective buyers are still undecided adult DS wants the money so we're still in limbo.

Thanks confused

Tomorrow should be a NSD or near as - I may have to grab something to eat at work as not much in and also trying to low carb which is as cheap to buy "out" as bring from home. Excuses excuses!

Another NSD. Think it's the 5th one. Or so? Drive 40 miles or so to some work meeting but will claim that back tomorrow. Dh got bread.

Tomorrow I doubt it'll be NSD as DS has hospital app so we will have to eat out or so... But hopefully LSD.

Still not packed bags for Friday's holiday. Help.

£100 roughly at Aldi snd Tesco but that's fresh stuff for this week and hopefully all the non perishable stuff for the month. I have meal planned everything, right down to snacks. It means food isn't very exciting but it is cheap.

I'm trying to keep control but as I'm in the middle of school holidays it's getting harder to stick to free activities. I've finished buying uniform but still need shoes. I've ordered name labels with 10% cashback do am pleased with that small win.

Adora what will you do with the dogs when you move? Hope you get the offer you need. I've said I'll never move again, it's too stressful but everyone on this thread seems to be doing it.

confused playdates are definitely the way to go, especially now the weather has turned again. Maybe we'll get a few good days before the dcs go back.

I'm only moving once. It's needlessly stressful.

Small spend of £25.00 on Sunday - worst of it is that it was all un-necessary .

NSD yesterday and NSD today, so slightly redeemed.

Fluffy I am so with you in the 'moving is needlessly stressful' camp. Sleepless night here last night because the court informed the vendor of the house we're buying that, actually, private bailiffs cannot deal with evictions and, no, the 23rd August slot we'd been promised for a court bailiff was no longer available, it'd now be 4th September- 5 days after our mortgage offer runs out There is a glimmer of hope as the tenant has agreed to vacate the house early if we & vendor pay for temporary accommodation for her (council have said this won't affect her position on housing list), but I refuse to believe it until it happens!

Forgot to add a spend from yesterday - £4.50 on a Baby Learn to Talk DVD from Amazon, hope it might help DS2, will try anything! Cost £9.50 but had £5 gift voucher from doing surveys.

Think we all need good housey vibes on this thread so sending some out, please send back

You have all my vibes confused. We are first time buyers and even getting into this place was needlessly stressful thanks to bastard fucking Churchill Insurance (and a bit of first time stupidity from us ). Every time I feel a bit fed up at the tinyness and half-finished decorative state of our house, I remind myself that 'at least we're not moving any time soon!'

Off to get new tyre when DD wakes up. Prices start from £82, anyone want to guess what I will end up paying? Still hoping it will be cheaper than Kwik Fit.

I've been lurking for a while and going to take back control of the budget from my DH. I got fed up of always being the one to say no so made him do it to understand reality. But he is impulsive and buys snacks far too much so now DD2 is 2months old I'm in charge again and hoping to make drastic cuts.
Although spent 30 on groceries inc nappies today

Does anyone use Costco and find it better value?

Good vibes to Confused and Fluffy

I'll be back later,

Dogs, no clue ATM. Vet is certain he can't sell them, OH is yo-young between leaving them dumped on the vet and taking them with.

I feel a moral obligation but apparently he doesn't

I'd feel a moral obligation too Adora. You take on an animal and you have to be a grown up about it.

I'm a Costco member, it's meh tbh with food unless its those huge cakes they do for £10. The more I've shopped at aldi the less I've bothered with Costco. What they are good at is household stuff live vacuum cleaners etc because if it breaks down you just take it down and get your money back.

I have noticed costco prices on brand names such as pg tips to be virtually static whereas the supermarket prices have gone up quite a lot.

petals, I shop at Costco, now and again - perhaps 5-6 shops a year.

I use it to buy in bulk: toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, cleaning products/detergent, batteries, flour etc. I also buy cases of beans and tomato soup about once a year, if that. To be honest I'm not sure I would call it better value - it is bulk buying so it is convenient. They do offers every month which can be cost effective if they are something you use.

£8 at sainsburys for tin foil (of course I need this 3 days before I fly?!!) and half priced shoes.

My point exactly Fluffy

Spent £8 in morrisons yesterday buying some food to take to a friend who is absolutely skint and living on toast :( It was all savers things but every bit helps. Also spent some of DS2's Bday money in B&M bargains on Peppa Pig crap stuff, and bought him a single quilt as his toddler quilt will be too cold for winter.
Spent £5 in lidl today on 2 lightning mcqueen lunchboxes dor DS1 (as he will no doubt lose 1) for school, and £28 in Argos on more Xmas bits. Used £17 of DS2's Bday money to get a Dinosaur toy, but as he didn't even realise that it was his Bday, I've decided to keep the Peppa toy and Dino toy for him for Xmas
Built our new chicken coop tonight, our old coop is infested with red spider mite (despite my best efforst) so tomorrow I will have to buy some anti-mite dust to treat the girls before moving them into their new home.

Hope you get rid of the mites Leilandri, I had those (I think ) coming through my bathroom window in London, council flats with pidgeons roosting on a balcony we couldn't access to clean.

Good idea to keep the gifts for Xmas if he hasn't grasped the concept of birthdays yet. Sneaky but good.

I've been extravagant and had an after school snack with DDs, about £9

Posted too soon, well done for helping your friend

for you.

Hi. Hope there's room for more here. I've let some spending get out of hand (just on nothing really which is even worse) as my marriage fell apart and the first couple months on my own, but now I need to get things under control and get back to being more careful with money. I think (just guessing) that it might have been my way of coping with all the stress. But I don't really have that excuse anymore, so reining it in.

there's always room in here welcome.

Sorry to hear about the split and yes, spending quite probably was a coping stratagy, mine is chocolate.

Finished my day with £3.33.3 recurring on road tolls for school run. Can't decide what to do for dinner, took pork chops out to defrost but they are really thick cut so won't be ready. I'll have a rummage.

A bit out of the loop here sorry ladies, but catching up now as couldn't sleep. Decided gettiing back up to speed was better than lying awake worrying abt work! V spendy week last week, some budgeted for like wedding stuff some not - £160 to get brakes fixed on car. Next week have to pay £125 for summer club as work back to almost normal for summer hols but is actually budgreed for - hoping for NSDs for the rest of this week as playdates etc organised!
confused tons of good vibes for the house, really hope it works out
Leilandri well done to you for helping your friend out, bet she really appreciated it........too early for wine so share my instead!

Sorry ladies been away!

Interview was a total waste of time. Internal candidate walks out of the interview before mine with one of the interview panel who was chatting away to him and then says "well I'll be phoning you about this tonight anyway so we'll chat then!"

Steaming mad tbh. I wasted an entire day on the application then another day on interview prep and then half of yesterday on an interview that was a box ticking exercise.

What's really annoying is charity boss has another job vacant that I could apply for. When I let her know she'd be getting a reference request she wished me luck but said she was disappointed as she hoped I'd apply for her job. Hope I haven't burnt my bridges.

Anyhow. Spendy here still. I have the last bits of school uniforms to buy. Roll on September - I'm planning a zero tolerance spending crackdown!!