Austerity in October - *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.....

Pinch punch, first of the month.

NSD yesterday. Drove to a company off site. Must remember to claim petrol and passenger cost! Every little helps. Yesterday DS brought home invoices for afterschool club next term (£184??) £9/day x 3/week x 5 weeks? Hmm that doesn't add up but it is something like £9. Mad.

Hopeful NSD today too. I'm at work. Dh might spend some money at gym for kids but other than that nothing.

12K car allowance? You could have a Merc on the drive for that much.

Woohoo my loan payment was in the bank today so I have quickly paid off the three credit cards. There was £96 leftover so I have added that to my family money and that can go towards next month's MOT. If I've done my sums right the family money stands at £289 now as I now don't need to pay my minimum credit card payment which was due on Wednesday as I've paid the lot off, so that £51 went into the family pot.

DH's petrol reimbursements have been paid in so my petrol account is now £34 in credit. Neither of us should need any petrol before Thursday however I do have to do a lot of running about next week as DS2 is going to a playscheme in town so I'm not transferring it to the family pot just in case.

Now just need to see if I can get 6 days shopping in for under £61.78. I forsee lots of casseroles and stews next week.

Today's spends will be my grocery shopping and £1 for DS2 who needs some money for an after school bun-sale. DS1 is also dropping some hints that he needs £24 to pay for two athletics competitions.

Next week I am definitely going to buy myself some flat, comfortable shoes to start walking to work in (like Skechers types) and have my hair cut as it's too long and straggly for me now. However everytime I say to myself that I'm going to walk to work / school, the heavens open! It's bucketing it down today.

Watch those credit card accounts, when I paid mine off they all said the balance was zero but the next month they all had pro-rata payments on them, mostly under £20 but it could catch some people out if they just shove bills back in envelopes, like dh used to.

Shoeaholics.com do all-stars and trainers etc for much less than full retail.

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-ten-pounds-10-morrisons-voucher-with-1-sun-trial-today-only-1690383

This looks good, I can't get the site to work though it's only valid today too.

£4 to post a parcel for eBay.

£55 cashback came through & £32 net profit from eBay.

Had a 15% off food for marks Spencer so brought dine in deal 12 choc Halloween lollipops n a garlic bread n because 15% comes off before other discounts it costs £9.52! I only buy dine in when whole chicken n route through for biggest one got a 1.7kg one today.

Dinner tonight is bolgnese pasta bake prev made out left over bolgnese n frozen so easy dinner Will have with garlic bread.

£4.99 on Halloween costume for DS and £3.90 on chippy tea so far. Will also need another £3 for bus fares, so £11.89 total.

Enjoy your weekend, all .

Thermal curtains are up! Bit by bit I'm determined to stay warm this winter. The dc are fine. They get wrapped up toasty for bed and once they're snuggled up the temperature starts to drop and I get chilly.

Going to make some chutney this weekend as I need to think about some more Christmas gifts. I was planning on taking dd to the cinema for a cheap showing but I don't fancy anything that's on.

Fingers crossed for your dh Helena. I know what you mean, I think even if our income doubled our lifestyle wouldn't change much. We'd be boring sensible and chip away at the mortgage. I'll never just spend again.

That's a great car allowance Helena . I know exactly what you mean about looking back at the money you've wasted over the years. We'll never do it again either.
We go away tomorrow for our annual week with friends. 17 of us in a house in Scotland. All paid for already except food/drink. We do a big tesco order, eat in and take packed lunches out with us so it should be OK.
Did an aldi shop with mirror voucher yesterday so we don't have to go when we get back.
Have a good week everyone

Should've said still no heating on here but gave in on the tumble drier!

Free listing on ebay this weekend.

I've nothing left to sell!

Good luck Helena's dh for his interview.

NSD yesterday as was at work. But will have to do a shop today. We go away to Leeds for a wedding on Thursday-Saturday. Back on Sunday.

I need to start thinking about my cv and how I'm going to impress my current employers to give me my job! I'm currently doing the job and they are advertising it (I was informed about it way in advance) for it to be at a higher level (so higher pay). I want it. But I'm panicking about the external competition.

My problem is that I will find it difficult to talk big about what I've done. Apparently it's a female thing (lots of research say that).

Good luck wishes to your DH Helena.

Good luck wishes to you too, NK5BM3

NK5BM3 - Surely you will definitely get an interview as you are doing the job already? Get a copy of your job description now, and the new job description (at the higher level) and concentrate on evidencing how you can / will be able to do the differences, even if it means focusing on something similar you did for a different employer. If a job is advertised externally the questions are usually easier as they have to take into account that the interviewees are not from that field so the questions tend to be more generalised.

Yesterday my shopping routine was scuppered by a bit of rain which DS1's football club treated as if it were the four horsemen of the apocalypse and cancelled footy training. So instead of being near the Tesco and Home Bargains, I just went to Morrisons. God, they barely had anything in at 7pm. I think everyone has been panic buying for the impending storm. Anyway I took all my 1p and 2p coins to the coinstar machine and got a £2.82 voucher, 6 evening meals, milk and pop and it only came to £23.60 before the voucher was taken off.

DH'2 sister has been living abroad for the past ten years and she's over for a visit to wants to go out for something to eat with us on Sunday. I'm not fond of chucking my new found budget away on an unncessary meal but DH says our house is too much of a mess for him to feel comfortable with her coming here, so it's non negotiable. Anyway we do have some grocery budget (£40.92) and some petrol budget (£34.53) leftover so I've given them the hard word (one course only) and the pub is one of these chain-cheap-foody places so I will use those leftovers towards it.

Paid for my roadtax online nearly a week early (woo) and with a debit card, not a credit card (double woo) and have £167 left in my family money account which will get carried forward towards next month's MOT.

Even DH still has £20 left and we get paid Thursday (this is definitely woo-worthy) because it's been a long month.

Hurrah for Claret! You've definitely earned that meal out!

Thanks for the eBay tip, Fluffy. I don't know if I can get DS' s outgrown Lego sorted in time, but I have a few pairs of shoes to go on and I might need to relist the keyboard tomorrow, as there's not much interest .

£35.41, on weekly shop at Tesco (had quite a bit in already! ), including a £1 tip for the lady who was bagpacking for charity.

I actually like cheap chain-pub meals, esp carverys . There was a voucher on mse for beefeater BOGOF steak meals but not Saturday nights but I'm hoping to use it one night, I can't actually remember going out for a meal since last year.

£6 on pizza & a beer for dh, he has done loads of DIY this last two months with no complaining so he deserves a lot more really.

Well done Claret, you've done brilliantly to be in credit at the end of the month, it is a very long month.

NSD for me, DH bought trilléis and lunch out. Brought home the chips DDs didn't eat to use in omlettes.

Hope you enjoy your night out Claret and you Get to use that voucher Fluffy

• Started saving £2 coins here
• Going to empty the freezer over the next few weeks so I can get some batch cooking done to save on food waste
• Going to the butchers for our meat; it is currently coming in at about 50p pw cheaper than Morrisons/Tesco meat 'deals' and obviously tastes alot better as well
• Packed lunches for DH, DD1 and myself (DD2 gets free school meals)
• We bumped the cats down a level for their wet food; they were getting Whiskas but they are not very much enjoying Morrisons own brand wet food (approx 40p down to 29p per serving); we did try the value but it wasn't getting eaten.
• Subscribe & Save for their dry food, get 5% off, delivered each month for £10.21 last month, does approx 6wks and is £15 in Pets at Home
• Poundland/Shops own brand shampoo/conditioner/bodywash etc
• Withdrawing my busfare from the bank on a Monday and leaving purse at home the rest of the week is my next aim
• We shop at Aldi with a large Morrisons shop on payday to get the pieces we can't get at Aldi (ours is a small one) - we were using Tesco up until about 8mths ago, save £20pw by moving down
• 6% dd discount with British Gas is going to be negated though with their Gas and Electric rising November 23rd thermostat has gone down 2 degrees (and no one has noticed yet); closing doors, leaving the oven door open after cooking heats the rooms a little bit, faster showers, trying to do dishes as and when with tepid water rather than filling the sink right up and making the boiler come on, stopped using fabric softner, using tumble dryer less (averaging twice a week now rather than 5x pw)

OurMrsReynolds Have you tried Aldi tinned food? The salmon, tuna & chicken flavours are all cereal free & my cat likes them. The rabbit & turkey has cereal in it so I don't buy that one. It's 9.5% protein which is reasonably high. Can't you switch providers for your electric & gas? Are you tied in to a contract?.

Blackberry I hope those tea cakes had flecks of gold in them. We went into a small cafe in Devon who were charging £6 for beans on toast using Heinz beans, I saw the owners in lidl at night bulk buying supplies. This was 2008 though, I bet it's £7 now.

£35.90 in Aldi, I went round with a calculator & stopped when I got to the magic £40 so I could use my vouchers. There were people there without vouchers

£3.60 in Tescos for 3 bags of bread flour plus 3 tins of yeast, the yeast will last me most of a year easily & it's all on 3 for 2. Those little sachets are a rip off I can't believe I didn't realise earlier .

£5 on thermal leggings in M&S because I used my voucher I'm soo sexy in the winter NOT

65p on soya milk because aldi only had sweetened this week & sweetened soya milk is the work of the devil.

£10 on petrol but this tax deductable.

I watched loads of nectar points videos yesterday, I've worked out if I do that every week it's enough for a naice Christmas turkey because frankly last years aldi turkey crown was rubbish. There, I've said it, it was flavourless protein.

The superdrug cleanser is very good, it's thicker than I remember Liz Earle being & removes make up really well. When my cashback comes through on Tuesday I'm going to order 12 through topcashback. I predict it will go back up to full price Monday night

Took DS into town today for one of his hobbies, and to pick up our train tickets, as we're off to London on Thursday for a few days. So, £5.10 on travel, £3.05 on vitamins and deodorant at Boots, with a coupon, £4.55 in a cafe, and then another £2 on half a mulled cider in a pub, as DS wasn't ready to go when I went to pick him. Have to say it was delicious! So, £14.60 total.

Morning all!

Weekend Spends
£7.33 in Morrisons (joint of pork, tin of spam, butter) as SIL couldn't meet us yesterday so I therefore had to go out and buy stuff for a Sunday dinner. I think we're going out tonight instead. Grocery budget has £27.20 remaining in it

£18.00 DS1 on an athletics competition. He was going to go to 2 meetings and do 2 events costing £6 at each, but he changed his mind and now decided to do 3 events at 1 meeting instead.
£7.15 McDonalds on saturday for me and the two lads while we were trying to kill a bit of time. This came out of the family budget
£0.88 on 2 x birthday cards for FIL who hasn't spoken to DH in 3 years after a fall out yet DH still insists on sending him cards and buying him presents because he still comes and shoves a card with £20 through our letterbox for our kids birthdays. I bought the cheapest cards in the shop.

£8.42 on sweets and pop from home bargains before football which is a bad habit I want to get out of. Ridiculously we turn up early to get free parking nearby, then we go to the retail park to kill time. But I'd be better off getting there late and paying for bloody parking which would be a lot less than £8.
£4.90 on a playscheme which DS2 is going to this week; £3.50 for the day but he also "needs" some money for the tuck shop so I sent him with £1.40 as it is all I have in change.

This has been such a long month. Although DH's official payday was Monday 30th September he did get paid on Friday 27th so that was when I withdrew the money, so not only have we done five full weekends, we will also have had to last all the way to Thursday for payday

I've also got the dentist today so I'll have to pay £18 for a check-up and I am bound to need some work doing.

So remaining budget with three days to get through
Petrol £40.92
Food £27.90
Everything else £127.82

Feels nice to have nearly £200 left so close to payday!! Usually I've well overspent by this time

But obviously as it's the school holidays I am not cooped up in work all week so I'll probably be going out and doing some boredom spending.