Austerity in October - *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.....

Pinch punch, first of the month.

Think I'll join in this thread. I've had a substancial income drop in the last couple of weeks and am suddenly skint. Not that I was well off before, but I had enough. sigh

I must try Morrisons for your 19p jars as one just opened near us, really hope they'll stock them there! Great idea.

We also use Sainsburies value yoghurt (45p a big pot) which if you haven't tried is really yummy as one of the 'value' staples that I think fantastic.

I only bought eggs today and my amazing mum brought over a huge meat stew

Main money vice is smoking. Which ends today. And the diet started today, so portion size is not a problem. I don't like Lidl, I've tried it. What I buy isn't much cheaper than at morrisons anyway. We don't have a near Aldi.
I suspect that (aside from the smoking), I live a pretty frugal life anyway. Prawns? Christmas item. Bread & Butter pudding, sorry, but that's one of the rankest things I ever ate. I rarely eat pudding but I'm a bugger for carbs.
You never know, I may be able to give you lot some tips

My Nielsen mobile app just gave me £10 in amazon vouchers, which I've bought my MSM supplement with so my back will stop hurting. Luckily MSM was £10.

Mmmm B&B pudding, wif custard.

I have never had bread and butter pudding before. Am I missing out?

On soggy bread? Depends if you're into that sort of thing

Btw Claret, I still have that book you lent me about five years ago!

I think Fluffy linked a vegan brownie recipe, don't know if it's gluten free though.

Didn't get to the food shop today, I need to see how much gluten free things cost and then look at the budget. OH is much better after only 4 or 5 days off wheat but is struggling without his beloved toast in the morning. Even after things like porridge, eggs, sausages for breakfast he's still hungry.

Decided to join thread when I read 'bread and butter pudding' - yum and something I can make just as my DM did, with bread that was going stale, but could be shoved in freezer for the pud.

There's a fab brownie recipe in one of the usbourne children's cookbook which I've made with soy flour. I swap the nuts for glacé cherries. Sooooooooo gooey! Yum!!

Bit of a breakthrough last night - DH ate vege food! He is mr carnivore but he actually conceded that my butternut squash curry was quite nice . If I can get him to eat vege twice a week we'll save a bit more!

There's an allergy section on here, if you ask them they will have gluten free recipes.

Well done Helena.

Adora, how about adding some hash browns to his breakfast if you can get them over there. Porridge never fills me up either. Bubble & Squeak would go well with bacon etc too.

Elle - I thought it was you! I think you can give that book away to charity now - he's no Stephen King ;-)

This is true, he is no Stephen King. Btw, have you read any Joe Hill books? I keep meaning to get a hold of some. It's terrible working in a charity shop, I keep coming home with books! (Still, only 50p each))

Claret, I love bread and butter pudding . You can make it really tasty:- butter the bread and cut in triangles, start to layer it and add raisins/currants, lemon and/or orange zest, sprinkle sugar. Build layers. Mix eggs and milk and pour over and leave it so that the bread soaks up all the egg/milk mixture. Bake. Mmmmmmmmmmm. As fluffy says..."wif custard". .

Adora, it may be just the way he is, I'm afraid. My DH can go most of the day eating very little and doesn't suffer for it. Once you get to 6/6:30pm though...if it's not hidden nailed down, it's gone. He will eat most of the evening, all the while complaining that he's hungry!! So your DH may be a morning muncher - it's just when he's hungry!

Anyway, done the on-line shop as I cannot be arsed to do battle in the supermarket this week.

One tip, pertinent to the time of year...make soup! I went through the fridge and freezer and got all the veggies that were looking a tiny bit sad and some chicken/turkey that had been frozen for too long and made a really lovely soup. Cheap, cheerful and tasty.

And I second all those who say meal plan - one of the most useful things to help keep food costs down.

I am beginning to think about C***mas and am going to spend the next two days going through my yarn stash to work out who gets what knitted gift this year. It doesn't make it free (as the yarn cost in the first place) but it at least doesn't add to the bill - all it takes is my time.

I love bread & butter pudding! Am thinking you could incorporate Baileys there somehow, especially if you use stale chocolate cake/muffins like I once did

rogue that is actually a good thought about some hm Christmas pressies. I never know what to get my grandparents & have some cross-stitch kits they might appreciate. I wonder whether I could find time between working, having a baby, decorating a house, moving & looking after 2 smallish DSes...

Adora how about kedgeree for breakfast, if you can easily get hold of fish? Or latching on to Fluffy's hash brown idea, maybe potato waffles or even wedges which you could make yourself?

Yesterday was spendy, but in a good way £21 at Sainsbury's for nappies, wipes, fizzy drinks, smoothie pouches (ideal for lunchboxes), juice & milk. They are doing 1/3 off baby products atm so got a good deal on nappies, wipes & smoothie pouches. Also resisted using Nectar points, as I want to save up towards Merlin annual passes (although I have a loooong way to go, a whole one is 16,000 points, although you can use increments of 500 points, with a minimum spend).

Today should be just £10 on a bus. I am going out on a work curry night (one of the clients didn't pay his bill in full, so my dad (boss) is seeking compensation & the guy owns an Indian restaurant ). Will be fun enough, but there are only 10 of us in total & that includes me, my mother, father & one of my sisters

Looseleaf have you tried sainsburies free from bread? It's £1.99 a loaf and so far is the only one we've found that doesn't fall apart.

Ds is also gluten free so I can sympathise with the costs! I've stopped buying gluten free snacks now as they are too expensive and try to make treats at home. Ds's current fave is g/f rice crispy cakes. Cadburies Freddo bars are g/f and only 20p each so I melt a couple of those and use g/f rice crispies.

Hi

Can I join in too, please?

I really don't know what I do so wrong sometimes. We have a household income which when I say it sounds bloody marvellous (£58k). However we seem to be in a situation where I subtly go more and more overdrawn every month. Only by £50 or so, but thats snowballing, and I'm now £1400 overdrawn.

We desperately want to move house next year. We need to really. We are crammed into our house and have huge problems with our neighbours and neighbourhood. Our mortgage is only £500 a month, and I really feel on £58k a year we should be able to increase that, and if we don't do it now it's going to get trickier (DH's age means that there is only a finite length of mortgage period which is sensible - he's 48 now). Next September we will be almost £700 a month better off because DS's private nursery fees will stop and I am intending to increase my work hours once he's in school. Thats the point at which we want to move and increase our mortgage by another £200 a month so therefore still technically be better off by £500 than we are now.

However before then we really need to ditch my overdraft, and just save as much as we can, but it feels like it's so hard and I don't know why. I don't think I'm lavish, I don't do a lot of clothes shopping or shopping for me at all (hardly any). But this last Saturday for example I managed to spend £100 before lunchtime - paying swimming lesson fees for DD for this term, winter shoes for DS and a top-up shop in Aldi for the weekend. Ouch.

We all have packed lunches. We've done the reviewing bills thing. We have one £15 takewaway a month. The killer for me is food shops. I've genuinely tried (which proves I am crap at it) and I meal plan, so the bulk shop is at aldi or lidl and then only top up in tesco with things I can't get in the others. And I still can't seem to get our spend below about £700 a month. Seriously that can't be right? Whats the average for a family of four?

I feel like a financial failure.... and really fed up of worrying about it!

Welcome alabaster and all newbies.

Regarding bread and butter pudding ... it is really nice made with pannettone .

confused, of course you can find time...you don't need to sleep, do you?

Ok post a meal plan or shopping list and let's tackle that first. Foods easy in my experience to cut back on. Which bits can't you buy in aldi/lidl?

Have you kept a spending diary? Dh says he doesn't know where money goes but then I remind him how much alcohol he bought that week and it all makes sense.

Can I tag along?

Dp just got a new job which is much better pay. I'm leaving my first job (childcare issues with dp new job commitments) but have got a work from home position that should equal my current wage.

Problem is we have a lot of debt since dd was born due to maternity pay and then dropping grades at work as old post wasn't suited to having a child. At the same time as dp business began failing!

So now although in a fortunate position we are needing to rebuild the disaster that has become our finances (not to mention our credit rating)

The next few months will be getting caught up with missed bills. Then moving onto clearing debts coinciding with finishing the house off (which will save in the long run)

Alabaster, we were in a similar situation and I kept a complete spending diary for September and then did a breakdown of exactly where we were spending our money. It was a MASSIVE I opener! (We were even trying to be more frugal that month and still our expenses were huge!)

I have a thread in credit crunch where I posted the breakdown to get people's views on where I can save more. It's been really helpful. I honestly think it's hard to save money unless you can see exactly where you are spending it.

Thanks. I'm in work at the mo so I'll have to do that later... but I think today would be a good day to start writing every spend down and also to have as many NSD's as possible. Tomorrow and Friday will be NSD's. I might even squeeze in one on Saturday as I don't think we have plans other than DD's swimming which is paid for.

Stuff I get in a main supermarket (other than aldi/lidl) would be:

-DH's razors and shaving foam & sanex shower gel (fusspot! - I get mine at home bargains!)
-top-ups of fresh fruit and veg during the week (we seem to eat a lot of this stuff!)

• fabric softener (use aldi powder, but I just prefer tesco, but only get when it's on offer)
• this week I needed DD knickers and socks (so I think they were £6 total)
• 3 bottles of beer for DH for the weekend (thats as much as he has but only likes the tesco choice)
• squash for kids (tesco ones seem to last longer in our house - two bottles of the 2 for £2.50 last much, much longer than 3 of the 89p aldi ones)

and more, just can't think of them right now..... but happy to post last weeks receipts & meal plan later to see if anyone can inspire me further! Don't think it helps I'm veggie, rest of the family aren't, and DS is incredibly fussy. I end up cooking a spectrum of stuff some days.

Also, I just seem to have a really crap mindset that being frugal is 'going without' somehow. I wish I could switch how I felt to being that saving is achieving something. I desperately want to ditch the overdraft, and thats achieving something massive, but on a day to day basis it just feels like I'm 'missing out' and then I start feeling really cross that I feel like that! I really want to change how I feel too!

Hi again, just got € 700 bill for car repair so a bit : ( € 95 weekly shop. Will post in full when get over shock of car bill, thank you for all welcomes!

Rather than thinking about it as going without look at it at as prioritising what's really important. Making savings in some areas will give you more money to get what you really want out of life.

Seeing it all written down helped me see where I was happy to shave spending and where I felt I wanted to keep things the same (I got a bit of a hard time over my haircuts and ds's vitamins!)