Austerity in October - *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.....

Pinch punch, first of the month.

That looks delish Fluffy, can't Get that type of spud here but I'll see How it goes with what's available.

We went out to Get Frontline, they didn't have it. I was trying to buy it in the one supermarket that does it so having driven 40kms, DH was buying home/garden stuff too, I decided to Get next week's shopping to save another tríp. OH will pay over the odds at the vet's Tomorrow, but needs must.

Spent £120, including packed lunch ítems, raw foods for dogs and múltiple ham, smoked salmón, cleaning productos & washing up liquido on special offers, sillicon for school and devil horns & trident for DD1's Halloween outfit, and sweets to hand out. DD2 also wants to be a devil but on a different theme so I'll Get her's elsewhere.

Well done rogue! Yesterday was an nsd for me... Well I spent £12 on car park but that was for work so I'll be claiming that back.

Today will be spending for the weekly shop. We intend to do it at wait rose because it's raining like mad today and I have a £6 off £40 shop and £25 vouchers! So it shouldn't be too bad.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Well done, Rogue. I once won £100 worth of vouchers from JL, and spent on posh bedlinen and cushions!

I spent about £19 yesterday, on shopping; a bus fare for DS; and some cheesy chips for tea. Just the thing for a wintry evening! I also spent £8.79 on vacuum bags from Amazon and £3 on a Halloween craft activity for DS, that you had to book online in advance. I might need to get milk today, but if I don't, it will be an NSD.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone :).

£2 on soap for the downstairs loo, £3 on ear plugs so I can sleep at night.

Just averted dh putting loads of stuff in the loft, it'll ruin the insulating qualities so I've secreted it in my wardrobe. He hasn't even noticed

I never qualify for mn surveys because I don't have children. I may have to invent a pg and get on an ante natal thread.

I cannot believe I did not redeem the £6 off £40 spend but did use the £25 vouchers at waitrose. I ended up spending £74 which included batteries and lots of meat so that's ok. But I can't believe I didn't redeem it! Damn. Will go back next week and spend £40 to get the £6. Am I mad? They seem to say that they price match a load of stuff with tesco and sainsburys...

Cooked up a storm this afternoon which will be good for next few days.

Raining like mad ...

Ooh I'd be furious with myself for that. I missed a half price egg coupon at Aldi once and that depressed me all day.

Do another one next week, if you bought lots of meat you might only need grocery stuff next week.

Got to buy car insurance tomorrow and I haven't told the old insurer I'm not staying. Bugger.

How frustrating NK5!

Had a lovely day today. Didn't do much but was just nice. Spent 6.20 in Tesco on washing tablets and other bits. I've worked out meals for the week so will need milk only later in the week.

Anyone else testing the Cif? I've got mine but not tried it yet.

Ps sorry fluffy! Just remembered your comments and realised I might sound like im rubbing your nose in it.

Don't worry, I don't use branded cleaners because of animal testing.

It's the John Lewis vouchers I'd like!

Thank you also, minimalist for the somerset stew! Yummy! That'll do me for leftovers lunch tomorrow. Happy days.

Evening all

Fluffy - I was beside myself that I had forgotten to take my 71p Tesco voucher when I went there on Friday night. (you know the ones you get when they say 'you didn't save money by shopping with us' and refund you the difference).

Not too spendy this weekend, and thankfully only two more weekends to get through before payday

£5.00 - I owed DH this as he took DS1 for his hair cutting on payday but I didn't have any change.
£6.00 - DS2's friend's mum came to ask if DS2 wanted to come to KFC yesterday with them and although I wanted to screech "no I've been cultivating beef stew and dumplings in the slow cooker all sodding day" I didn't want him to miss out on a treat.
£3.49 in cheapy discount store on DS1: bottle of pop, packet of sweets, beanie hat and gloves
£3.77 - in same cheapy discount store on myself: bottle of pop, chocolate bar, bag of sweets and some gloves with those special texting pads on.

£12.44 on the long awaited takeaway. I will take this off the food budget which now leaves £124 remaining for a full week, and half a week. We got a chicken bucket and fries and I found it disgusting, all greasy and too spicy boak

Northender - it's the end of the month that our teams meet, I shan't be going as away games and travel are too pricy for me now.

It's surprising how quickly tastes change, I can't eat takeaways now. Fish and chips is my limit.

There's a book on amazon called the takeaway secret which tells you how to reproduce takeaways at home, it's about £4ish. It's talked about on moneysavingexpert. At least then you can control how much oil goes ino everything.

Yesterday:
£22.00 haircut for DS.
£15.00 in WH Smith.

Thanks for the info fluffy, think I'll have a look at that book on Amazon.

The Takeaway secret is amazing honestly everything I cook from it is a hit even people who hate kebabs love the doner kebabs from the book and its so much healthier worth every penny.

Dh has kebabs, never fancied one because it looks so processed.

Hello, can I join please?
I'm having to ecomise big time, it's only DH, 4 cats, one dog and I, so we should be able to live on a lot less than we do.
Today will be a no spend day, I'm going to beds ironing all day I think. Leftover chicken made into a curry tonight for dinner.

Hello, welcome to Karbea

I am back from a fabulous weekend in Brussels It was so nice to revisit a city we know so well, and even better to take DSes with us. Everybody had a great time. We have saved all the plane/tube/metro/bus/tram tickets & hotel gumph for DSes, so they can play airports/hotels/holidays later (which they will do for hours on end, I'm sure). The trip itself cost about £450, then we spent no more than £200 whilst there - we didn't do any musuems/galleries etc as we know the place so well & most of our spends were in bars/cafes/restaurants, as well as metro/train etc.

We got back at 11pm yesterday, so having a quiet one today. Won't take DS1 to football, I don't think he'd stay awake, plus it looks like rain

If anybody is ever thinking of a city break but doesn't know where, I can thoroughly recommend Brussels (& can give recommendations on where to visit). I am now a woman on a mission to save as many Nectar points as I can so we can go back via Eurostar very soon

This week has started off in a spendy vein, unfortunately DH has had to have emergency root canal treatment, so that was £18 for the first part. Plus the roofers have started on our roof & need electric, so I have put £20 on the meter for them (that's being switched next week, though). Roofers also said there could be an extra cost of £500ish depending on what they find, which is a pain, but has to be done. Will also have to do a stocktake in a bit to see what shopping we need, I notice some things are running low.

Hope everybody had a great weekend, Happy Monday

NSD yesterday & today, also have had a very busy weekend decluttering so feeling like I've actually achieved something for once! I've now got 5 bin bags full of clothes to try to sell and a couple of boxes of books, also DP has promised to go through his DVD collection to see if there's anything else that can be recycled........has anyone ever used the likes of music magpie for this sort of thing?

JbJ - I have never used Music Magpie but I know people on MSE have (I don't think they pay lots for very popular items that there are lots of, but it's better than nowt.). There's also a similar site called Zapper who also take books.

I'm not much of a cook, so I don't think I would buy a book on how to make takeaways but thanks for thinking of me

NSD for me today but DH went and got petrol.

I'm going into work early all week which means I don't have to take any kids to school so I walked into work and back home. That should save me a bit of petrol.

Might have known the Natwest Loan wouldn't be so easy - despite having his salary paid into the sodding account the direct debit will be coming out of, the bank still want to see actual paper wage slips. Mine gets paid into another account so fair enough they want to see my wage slips too (last three months) and although I have sodding wage slips from every month that I have worked there, I can't find Augusts. Nationwide - who I don't even bank with - just gave us a loan easy enough nine months ago, can't understand why Natwest are being so arsey. We went with Nationwide last time because Natwest wanted to see ID as they reckoned our signatures didn't match and at that time DH's passport had expired and his driving licence was long lost, and they wouldn't accept the passport as ID. IF we can't provide wageslips they said we could send in original bank statements - but who the hell gets paper bank statements anymore? I don't. GRRRR.

Had my letter about the interview on Thursday for the job. Found out that it's an interview panel of three (EEK) - practice manager, and two of the partners. One of them I don't think is a huge fan of mine, but the other seems okay and I haven't made an arse in front of him yet.

Still no erroneous payment back from my credit card yet - they are chuffing quick enough to take it, but not so fast paying it back!

Paid a friend £15 for a present we shared. Other than that NSD.

Confused - might take you up on that offer of Brussels! I'm going there for a week for work but could do with recommendations for food and entertainment!! It'll be before Easter so some time yet!

Spent £3.20 on entry to soft play and a coffee. Then I spent £3.80 on envelopes, postage and some bananas! Will need to get milk tomorrow but that's it.

I get paid tomorrow and worked my weekly budget out tonight. I've got friends visiting this weekend and we're having a night out. I've budgeted £100 for a meal out, drink and taxis but really hoping it won't be that much. I should really go easy on the booze but we are school friends and haven't all met for 10+ years so I can imagine how the night will go....

£204 on car insurance

£2 on lidl stollen.

£7 on sending my marriage certificate and birth certificate to dvla special delivery. Not worried about that going wrong at all. Nope, can't see a problem

Well done help!

NSD on Sunday and another one today (as long as I make bread). Going well.

Seem to have lost my "my Waitrose" card - no more free coffee and papers until I get a new one

Trying to find a cheap but fun treat for the children to do in December but no joy yet. May have to spend money

Morning all,

Does waitrose give away free Sunday papers? Do you have to buy anything or can you just go in and get the paper?

I did all of my ironing yesterday so that savedsomemoney (I normally get my ironing done for me).
Today during the day I'm spending nothing, I want to try and track down an isa I set up about ten years ago, but have lost all the info about.
Tonight I'm going to pizza express with my girlfriends, there's a 25% off voucher so we will use that and I'm having tap water!