Austerity in October - *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.....

Pinch punch, first of the month.

Tescos have a clothing sale on, you can probably get cashback from tcb or quidco too.

Thought you lot would like to hear about my bargain hunting. I went to Tesco last night, with DH, spent £11.78 and got: 1 punnet strawberries, 1 bag pears, 1 pack tangerines, 2 red cabbages, 1 pack cabbage/broccoli, 4 packs herbs, 3 loaves Kingsmill bread, 2 packs finger rolls, 1 pack doughnuts, 1 pack raspberry turnovers, 1 pack cheese scones, 2 packs choc chip muffins, 1 pack wraps, 2 packs 2 x breaded fish fillets, 1 pack cooked salmon trimmings, 2 pizzas, 2 packs mini burgers, 1 small wedge stilton & 2 endy bits of liver sausage for the cat. Oh, and 1 pack Muller corners & 1 salsa dip (there could be more that I have forgotten) I was quite pleased

Morning everyone!

Just out on two loads of laundry this morning and have put it outside for a bit of a blow but I'm sure it will need to go into dryer still as the end of the day.

Also making pastry so I can make four large Sosmix pasties (only vegetarians will know what that is) to serve with steamed veg for tonight's evening meal.

Great bargains confused! What time did you go?

I have to catch up on the redo of the thread but minimalist I don't like parsnips either and it worked with sweet potato if that's any good?

confused that is an amazing result! Do you all find out when reductions happen or is it luck? I tend never to be at supermarkets just before closing as getting the children to sleep but wonder when best times are!

I meant rest of thread just now not redo . Sorry.

Minimalist I love that Somerset stew idea- thank you I shall try it next week as I want to find dried butterbeans and our big Tescos only had tins.

I spent £76 on petrol but have been walking everywhere. We need it though as driving an hour next weekend.

I've got £172 left to last me til 27th! My hardest challenge is not wanting to scrimp on friends eg a birthday present coming up &present for coming to stay (may just make lots shortbread/ cake)

ARRGGHHH haven't been able to get on mumsnet on my phone all afternoon, but I checked the FB page and it seems that I'm not the only one

NSD today (woo) I'm getting good at this spending no money through the week mullarkey.

We're having a split tea tonight. DS1 and DH are having Tesco value fish in butter sauce with chips, and DS2 and I are having tuna pasta bake. I did buy 2 tins of tuna but I'm sending one to school with DS2 for the harvest festival as I read that food banks are running low on tinned protein. Next door neighbour send her kid with a tin of custard I feel like St ClaretOfVincentDePaul now. (I'm also sending them a jar of unopened marmalade given to us in a hamper, but it's got greek writing on it, and I am suspicious of anything I can't read).

DH has announced he's spent £160 in two weeks which he thinks is very frugal of him. I don't think he has twigged he's only got £90 left to last three weeks!!!

NSD! Although I did pay the cc bill of over £1000! We managed to get down to £600 which includes everything from food to clothes to supplies of toilet roll, eating out etc. but this month included £400 for car insurance.

I still have another cc bill to pay. That is £600 but includes work bills of about £150 which I'll be claiming back.

Dh tells me now that both our cars are due for their service. Argh.

Almost an NSD today! Just £1 on mushrooms.

Also, DH has just bought us annual passes for Disneyland Paris He found a website whereby buying the top annual passes, which get you in for 365 days a year & various discounts to boot, worked out cheaper than buying tickets for us (not DS2 as he won't need one this year). We are already going camping nearby during half term & will definitely take a few day trips/weekend trips throughout the year, now that we have these.

Tesco bargains - I ask the staff when they will be reducing produce. At our Tesco it tends to be 7-7.30pm or 3-3.30pm on Sundays. I have also been told there is more to be had & better reductions on evenings where the weather is terrible or there are big sporting events on TV, as nobody ventures out then. Bakery/fruit & veg tend to get reduced by 90%, meat, fish & deli items by 70-80%

Claret do not give DH an inch, and have your money where he can't access it before his runs out. I remember my father giving up smoking, naturally he thought it had no effect on him but the rest of us wanted to move out by the end of the first week. And buy lot's of cheap stuff if he's scoffing, can you Get naice treats for DCs out, en route to/from school maybe? You shouldn't have to of course.

I had to top up Today, finally remembered the kitchen towel, but not the de-mold thing. Spent £14-ish. Bank card arrived Today, but they hadn't Sent a PIN, apparently that's now on it's way.

Looseleaf YY, Defo bake gifts if you have time.

Some great bargains here

Do you think this is the friendliest thread on Mumsnet?

Two NSDs this week and I might get another today.

Planning to meal plan from the freezer contents this weekend. We have a lot of odd bits of cooked meat - beef, ham and chicken. I can think of lots of ideas for the ham and chicken but cooked beef ...hmmm.

This is the friendliest thread on mumsnet! However I'm certainly glad it hasn't gone viral and the whole world knows I buy smart price crisps LOL. If that thread is true, I'd be mortified in case someone could identify me from other posts that I had written. I think I would be quite easy to identify, ElleMort knew who I was straightaway. I Think I need to name change to ILoveLeedsUnited or something, that'd throw my stalkers off the scent.

Helen I used up some cooked beef by mixing it into a Chinese curry sauce with mushrooms, baby corn and mange tout served with fried rice it was lovely and cheap.

Won't be a NSD here as am off shopping, will report back later.

Helena whenever I have a small amount of cooked meat to use up, I tend to do a risotto. Pretty much the same key ingredients for every meat - onions, mushrooms, carrots - then add anything else you fancy/have. I just use long grain rice, too & it's fine.

Won't spend much today but have our 20-week scan, so will spend on hospital parking & scan photos

Over payed my mortgage yesterday in Nationwide by another £20 so October's total so far is £40 for overpayments.

Spent £1.70 yesterday on limescale remover and a couple of food bits already budgeted for in food purse left over from weekend.

claretandamber another football related name here and if I talk too much about football and dh's loyalties I would really out myself.
confused you are definitely the bargain queen of the frugal threads! That Tesco shop was amazing.
Dh and I are contemplating doing one of the 4 year energy fixes that are around at the moment. It would mean paying 10% more now but in 4 years prices are likely to have gone up more than 10% aren't they? Or, am I best just doing the regular switches and shorter fixes that I do now? Not sure really.
We've applied for Royal Mail shares using our overdraft and planning to sell quickly. Apparently because the big institutions are not getting as many shares as they wanted, they will want to buy quickly at the start.
Our budget for October is going to be very tight. I'm currently meal planning for the last 16 days of this budget period and am only going to buy what we absolutely need.
Did home made foccaccia this morning which is delicious. Going to have it with HM tomato soup for lunch and then might do meatballs tonight.

Helena dependíng on your weather, you could slice the cooked beef and add to a salad. Although if it's cold there at the moment I'd do the rissoto that Confused suggested, sounds lovely.

Forgot to say Well done on Those bargains Confused, fantástico.

I need to Get a few moré bits, turns out DDs have remembered How much they like rice cakes and OH is worried he'll have Nothing to snack on. Will try to remember the de-mold spray, it is on my shopping list but I keep over looking it must be summat to do with my long held díslike of harsh cleaning chemicals, my subconscious is obvs guiding my feet away from the 'stinky' aislé.

And yes, Defo a very friendly thread.

A very impressive shop there Confused. I do think I should try shopping later but it's really difficult with our other commitments so for now I think I'll have to stick with very controlled meal planning. Inspired by Minimalist we had tomato and butterbean soup last night with cheese scones, all homemade. DH and DD ate it but DS wouldn't touch it. I think he may be getting another tooth as he's not eating much right now.

I've downloaded a budget app. I think we're doing fairly well already but hopefully this help me keep a closer eye on our spending. I've committed another £20 to our mortgage overpayments. It won't make a huge difference but whenever our income has gone up we've always put some towards the mortgage (DH has had a tiny payrise). It pays it off quicker and will give us some breathing space when interest rates rise. I dream of the day I make my last payment. Both my parents and DH's had their mortgages paid off in their mid 30's, we seem to have barely started paying.

hello thought would introduce myself been on mumsnet some time now and never been on this board no idea why as love a bit of money saving :)

I am a mum to a just 3yr old and married and we have just moved house bigger mortgage bigger outgoings etc etc and making well attempting to make some cutbacks.

I work part time and my little one goes to nursery and a childminder we use some of our funded hrs at nursery childminder doesnt do funded sessions and it should be more cost effective to use all funded hrs and do more nursery than childminder but for us it doesnt as once school hols kick in no funding so we are sticking with what we do at the moment. (we claim full childcare vouchers too)

we earn a little too much for any benefits or help which is the boat alot of people are in.

I also do some ad-hoc maternity night nanny and babysitting work which helps pay for any little luxuries like day trip (with vouchers) or a meal out (with vouchers)- although last night nanny stint went towards solictors fees for house move.

anyway just wanted to say Hi

£45 and only got a kilo of chicken breast and some sausages meat wise, still freezer is packed with rtc meat bargains. DH has just gone out to buy a new hoover, paid the bills and brought a lovely duvet set from the charity shop for £4 and have just enough left to put a few pound on the gas.

HM KFC for dinner.

Peach Chicken thighs are cheaper than breast, and buying a whole Chicken should work out even cheaper on a price/weight basis. It's really easy to cut the Chicken into portions at home, or you could roast and divide it up once cooked.

I've just advized my DH (he's improved so much without eating wheat that he's back up from OH status) that his new diet is Nowhere near as cheap as his old diet, we'll have to see How the grocery budget goes.

I bought a chicken last friday for just over four quid. So that was Friday's tea sorted. Then slow cooked the carcass with onions and garlic the night after. On Saturday added a tray of chicken breast (half price, £2 at morrisons) and veg. It was lovely. So two meals for £6.

Good job really since I managed to have only fifty quid to feed three/four of us for the week. Am really feeling my income drop. I've got loads of invites over this month to play out and I'm having to refuse pretty much all of them.

(Oh, I name changed again. I have been on this thread before :D )

North I've just seen a headline saying SSE are putting prices up 8.6%, so you are probably right to long term fix. Even if price does come down I suspect it wouldn't be much or for very long.

Confused I hope scan has gone well. I can now announce we're also expecting third dc. I have 12 week scan next week. I do occasionally think we must be crazy but I'm really excited as I felt we weren't quite 'done' with 2. This one will complete our family.

Congratulations thatsinteresting. As a mum of 2 and no more, yes of course you're mad . Good luck with the scan.

thatsinteresting congrats! I think every pregnancy brings with it the 'oh my, what have we done?' worry. I've got four and don't ever wonder if I should have had number three or number four, but sometimes think four is four too many!