Sashaying into September savings, the frugality continues....

[Fluffycloudland77]

NSD.

Helena I have had Christmas lunch out but £200 seems a large bit steep. I'd go with Rogue's idea if I were in your position.

I just caved and had coffee and croissant after Pilates, £2.60, need to get some fruit. Today's packed lunches were, erm, interesting all I'm saying on the matter is it's a good job DDs are not intolerant of wheat.

OH is now talking to someone about selling the car privately and will speak to the finance company's HO as he thinks the rep is telling porkies. Either that or porkies were told when signed to agreement. We'll see what happens. He's negotiated a parking space cheaper than public car parks.

Claret it's a shock when you find things like that isn't it?

Well done on the home baking TheOnlyPink

I need to replace my weighing scales, I have a gift card so will do that this week.

On the plus side it's getting warm here so utility bills will be low and I have a freezer full of protein in various forms so only need veg and fruit this week.

£3.39 for cat biscuits, they were £3 last time so I look forward to finding the solid gold biscuit.

£1.86 work stuff (claimable)
£15 petrol (claimable).

Aldi voucher in the mirror tomorrow. £5 off £40 spend.

Thanks for that fluffy I like my aldi vouchers!
Good news about the bonus Helena. I sympathise re Christmas. I feel we ought to invite the in laws this year but they'd stay for a few days which would be difficult to say the least. Maybe they'll say no .
Our month end situation is not as good as I'd hoped but could be worse! Have the budget sorted til Christmas now which should be realistic I think. Will try to stay under budget to give extra cash for birthdays and Christmas.

Homemade scones sound yummy theonlypink!

Today was £2 in for a birthday collection at work, £2 for milk and marg and about 60p for cough sweets. All unavoidable really.

Fruit turned into fruit, fruit juice and a bar of chocolate, £10. Then £1 on bread as DD1 has a classmate over studying.

Tonight I'm doing pork from the freezer with apples and maple syrup. I no longer buy mayple syrup because of the price hike so I'm enjoying what I have left.

Helena good news about the bonus.

Fluffy pet stuff is getting moré expensive over here too, my 4 need frontline now, can't remember How much it is úntil I Get to the supermarket in the big City. Training is going well but OH is worried the bloke will say they need moré time.

Yesterday's spends
£2.59 - 59p on a card, and £2 towards a bunch of flowers for a girl who was leaving to start maternity leave and management hadn't started a collection for her.

Today's spends
£1.74 on a bag of sugar

God, can't wait for pay day. Sick of being really frugal for nothing (other than to stop us overspending even more than we are). Want to start saving up some proper money and thinking about Christmas.

Haven't heard about the job interview I went for on Tuesday so I assume I haven't got it, but it makes my blood boil that they haven't had the decency to ring and let me know. How rude!

Have GOT to get car insurance today as it runs out at midnight!

Well, £3 today on cakes after taking dd to the hospital . She was so brave when they took the last dressing out of her ear. Actually she howled but she was still brave. Anyway, the good news is, the op appears to have been successful, we have to keep the ear dry for another 8 weeks until the next check up and then it should be okay
I've been paid today so quickly switched some money to our other account which went overdrawn yesterday. Shouldn't be spending anything else today.

Glad the op seems to have worked North and well done DD for being so brave.

I shan't be getting new weighing scales as bank cards are messed up and so petróleo has to last as long as posible, so no tríps into town úntil Monday when DD2 sees the endocrinologist. I can't postpone as it took 3 months to Get the appointment, then a 4 month wait. She's not actually sick but doesn't grow without lot's of suplements. As diabetes runs in OH's family and DD would prefer to drink water rather than eat both Doc and I like to keep an eye on her.

Claret hope you got your insurance sorted.

I need to Get veg and a couple of odd bits Today.

Sounds promising, north. Hope everything works out.

£38.64 in Tesco, which should keep us going for a few days.

Saved £45 on my car insurance renewal today!
Other than that sept has been a nightmare tbh :(

Adora, good luck with the endocrinologist, sounds like a very worthwhile appointment, just to put your mind at rest even if nothing comes of it.

Claret, hope you managed to get a good deal!

Northender, sounds like a very worthwhile use of £3! Well done to your dd!

Spent €4.80 today, a packet of chewing gum for 80c, toddler group for €4. Met my dad for coffee but he paid

NSD today.

I'd like to thank my fellow frugaleers as this thread, and your tales, definitely make it less lonely and hard to penny pinch. It feels more like a challenge than a chore at the moment although that may wear off!

Car Insurance - GRRRRR - Anyway, have got it, gone with a new insurer. Wierdly fully comp was cheaper this year than TPF&T was the year before. Not sure how much the annual fee was but it is £36 a month. I'm a bit miffed cos TPF&T last year was £30 a month but it's shot right up this year so it's cheaper to go fully comp, but still more expensive than last year big sigh

DH has been paid today woohoo he works for a small company and payday is meant to be last day of month but it depends on when the PA does the wages and she's done them today as she's having a long weekend. Brilliant news that not only is his payrise in there, but he's also getting an extra £500 a year, so that's given us a wee bit more.

So, as of now, that extra money is getting put to one side to be the car / house emergency fund.

I've found out I have another job interview for a job I don't remember applying for, but I don't think I want to go for it. I am suited where I am at the moment but need some extra money. I have an appraisal due soon so I'm going to ask for a pay rise. They've given me and my immediate colleague an awful lot of extra work and responsibility which wasn't ours to do so I think we're worth a little bit extra. Also, if I was doing my job in the public sector, I would be on increments and top of the scale would be £3200 more than I am on.

So. I'm looking forward to October - Going to really try and cut down on my grocery spends and start budgeteering again!

toots the moneysaving bugle

PicNmix - I find this thread very helpful too. I feel like we're all in the same boat and that makes it easier - thank you all :-D

Evening everyone, haven't posted much this month as dp and I have paid for all of the wedding stuff, so NSDs have been things that happen to other people for a while! All budgeted for but still.......

But it's all done now and we're on countdown so weirdly am looking forward to going back to normal frugaleering. Did a big shop today which was £80 but lots of cupboard stuff for the month as still have lots of meat in the freezer from our market shop. Tomorrow will be £4 dd dance class and a couple of pounds for the macmillan coffee morning at work so back to normal

Spent £30 at sainsburys on clothes for kids including £10 for my brothers dd. so it's fine especially since there was 25% and my dd does need clothes (she's been in hand me downs literally since she was a few months old -all v nice ones and they've been so helpful for saving money!!).

Spent £5.95 yesterday on coffee out with my cousin's fiancee (very lovely, but I fear DS2 may have put her off having DC straight away as planned )

Today was £1.90 for DS1's school dinner, £1.50 on chocolate & £6.38 in Tesco on ingredients for 2 evening meals for 4 adults, plus some pork pies & croissants. Also £11 on getting DH's tux dry-cleaned

Tomorrow will be £1.90 on school dinners, 50p for non-uniform day for DS1, maybe £2 on tea at the cafe in the park (playdate after school).

Thanks Pink, I've been concerned since she was very young but PILs always said there where no Health issues in their family, úntil OH was diagnosed Pre - diabétic. Then it was "oh yes, that one on my side died of diabetes at age 12 and this one on his side" and on it went. Both PIL's had rellies on both sides with diabeties, but They've all died so it doesn't count

Spent £30 Today as I hadn't defrosted any meat, also bought fruit, bread, veg, cereal and sundries for next week. Saves making too many tríps.

Naturally DD now needs materials for a physics project but other than raiding OH's "work shop" in the garage there's not much I can do about it. As it stands I have another £30 to spend on groceries next week, unless the new cards arrive before then, which is not very likely.

Oh, and OH has suddenly decided he shouldn't be eating as much wheat as he does, he who insists on bread with everything, apparently it's not good for him

Welcome back to frugaleering jonbonjovismissus

Glad you got the car insurance sorted Claret

When dh was diagnosed as niddm at 41/42 pil told us both his gp had dm. .

Happy Friday Everyone.

northender, you DD sounds very brave. Glad the op looks to have been successful.

Adora, I hope all goes well for your DD.

Weel done to everyone for all your amazing frugaleering. I am not doing so well - everything seems to have broken, ripped, run out or otherwise gone AWOL at the same time so I have had HUUUUUUUUUGE grocery shops (and therefore bills) and have had to replace clothes etc.

Fluffy we speficially asked them about diabeties in the family because of my concerns, and they still said 'no, there's no one with diabeties in the family' so that was what I was telling Drs FFS.

Today's spends: £3.00 - a local business were selling takeaway sized boxes of home made indian snacks for the McMillan coffee morning so I bought one of those.

As DH got paid I did my monthly banking. Paid my catalogue and credit card monthly payments. Paid the monthly amount I am putting aside for DS1's uni fund into his account which now stands at £78.40. (this is going to be his living expenses until he gets a job down there, as he'll have to get a loan for accommodation and tuition - thankfully he wont be going for another two years so plenty of time to save up.

Had to pay a deposit for car insurance, as well as a monthly installment on 11th October so a bit of DH's wage rise this month went towards that but I have £141 in my car / emergency fund.

I'm going to withdraw DH's 'spending money' and the kids activity money tomorrow so only I will be touching the spends account and I have roughly £611 leftover for shopping / petrol and the rest for me and the sons Let the frugal shopping commence!!!

Good day today spending-wise. Just £1.90 for DS1 school dinner, 50p for DS1 non-uniform day, £1.20 for cup of tea in the park (although cafe owner told us off for bringing kids' drinks bottles in with us, which we have always done before )

Also finally spoke to HV & will fetch form for 2-year nursery funding for DS2 in the week

Evening all. I spent £2 on veg grown by some of the service users at work and 60p on a can of coke. I am so used to not spending money that I feel guilty about the can haha! Overall it's been a good week money wise so I'm hoping to continue that over the weekend.