Austerity in October - *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.....

Pinch punch, first of the month.

I had a whole week off before we married, I didn't wash my hair all week, I still wonder what on earth went on that week.

I must have been busy.

If we do soup as main meal then I do a pud too.

Made 2 cottage pies from one pound of mince today (bulked out with red lentils and veg). Also made some tomato soup for lunches this week. Am in the midst of oven drying my tomato glut. Not sure how long they'll last for though.

Today I Spent £56 in the súpermarket, having read the ingredients in rice cakes I bought the salted ones as the un salted have wheat, grr. Did a Chicken curry tonight, had to rush it because of dog training so thinkened it with potatoe flour, I wasn't too keen but both DD2 and OH said it was good. DD1 ate at a friend's Due to home work and me being busy with dogs.

Not sure if I'll need anything Tomorrow. Still need to Get Frontline for the dogs.

Helena that was a lovely thing to do for your friend, I hope she's doing Well now.

Just remembered I didn't buy kitchen towel or anti-mold spray, so will need Those Tomorrow.

What a nice thing to do Helena!

I had an unexpected NSD yesterday. Was going to have lunch with colleague and she treated me! It was £7.50 or so so that was great.

Today should be another NSD. Going to bring lunch to work. Have a good day everyone.

Helena what a thoughtful thing for your friend, so pleased it made a difference for her.

So far £132 for tyres and £38 for petrol this morning, could really do with not spending anything else all week

NSD here! Yay!
Tomato Lentil soup tonight with cheese scones, all homemade. I'm contemplating making an apple crumble too using some apples from my sisters tree to scoff eat later in the evening...

Helena you are kind

Had a fairly spendy day so far today - £4.80 in Debenhams Cafe for me & DS2, then £7 (down from £24) on a vase for MIL's birthday, £14.50 (down from £29) on a handbag for SIL's birthday, £1 for 10 birthday cards from the Card Factory & £2 in Poundland for two bags of fruit flakes.

I also saw a Kenwood Chef in Debenhams, original price £300, reduced to £150 . All because it was missing the whisk & the hood. The hood I can do without (if it is the material cover that goes over the top) & I'm fairly sure I could obtain a whisk from Kenwood, so I have asked DH for it for a birthday present, plus I usually get around £50 from PILs & my dgrandparents, but I'm not too hopeful Probably don't really need it, anwyay, but they are such a thing of beauty!

I've had a NSD (first time I've used that expression!) and even better made all of £3.99 or something selling 2 of DS' old tops on ebay! It's hardly worth it as the postage cost £3 but clears the decks a bit too!

I'm trying to work our whether to sell our Bugaboo but though it's not been used much it's quite old (7 years). So might be more use just to keep it as a spare at my parents...

We're having some delicious potato stew thing I spotted on the favourite frugal meals thread. It really is fabulous and I would never normally think of doing this!

loose do you have a link to the potato stew?

Oops it's not called potato stew but here's the link!
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1364/spicy-root-and-lentil-casserole
DH loved it, DD aged 6 ate a good bit and DS who's 2 almost none! I halved the curry powder for the children

(DS by the way had lunch way too late so wasn't v hungry but I think might eat it normally)

Brill thank you loose
As a thank you here is my favourite stew EVER it is amazing with the mash and both my kids eat it which is a bonus.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/recipes?query=Somerset+stew

loose about your casserole, I don't like parsnips! what do you think I could replace it with?

I was looking on mse mortgage free wannabe forum today, they are serious savers.

Say they do an online shop for £50 and use a voucher for £10 off they put £10 onto the mortgage because they would have spent it anyway without the voucher

Not sure I understand it but it works for them.

90p in sainsburys on biscuits and a salt cellar.

Evening all!

Another NSD day.

Got a shock as my 2nd credit card minimum payment went out today and it was £11 more than last month's payment as I had been spending on it before I decided we needed to get more organised with money. Oh well..

Road tax reminder came and it's gone up £3 odd from last time, the robbing sods. I wish I had the guts to get rid of my car and go down to just the one car, but we're too used to having two cars....without taking into consideration repairs and MOT, it'd save us £129 straightaway by not having to pay for petrol and insurance, but then the petrol budget would go up on DH's car, and we'd have extra bus fares and taxis to pay out....(this argument goes round and round in my head every time I think about it). I wish car would make my decision for me and conk out. (safely of course).

If anyone shops at Morrisons I bought a pack of savers yoghurts 6 for £1 'french set wholemilk yoghurts' and had one today, and they're ever so nice. I don't buy yoghurts as they're quite expensive so it was a pleasant surprise to find a cheap one.

Tonight's tea is home made toad in the hole with potatoes and vegetables.

ConfusedOfEngland - I bow to the altar of your bargain hunting - well done! Hope you can find the spare part for it.

FluffyCloudLand - that MSE thing is ace. I used to go through phases of doing that (PADding) because it doesn't half build up quickly but then I'd always just fall off the wagon. I wish I could be as disciplined as the MSE-ers who are like that all year round and not just Christmas panickers like me

fluffy we do that, if it is money we would have spent anyway we overpay the mortgage

We have a £25 M&S voucher, we plan of getting some food bits with it at weekend and will put the £25 cash we didn't use on food because of voucher and use that as overpayment on the mortgage

Still didn't Get kitchen towel or mold remover. Spent, erm, about £26 on petróleo as that's all OH had.

Tomorrow I really must Get my aforementioned cleaning supplies and replace some cheap nasty over sweet chocs of the DD's that I seem to have scoffed last night, even though I don't like them.

OH picked up dog food tonight, still no Frontline though. And still no bank cards so I can't Go an Get it myself.

No luck getting rid of the gas guzzler, finance company have come up with a condición re usage that means we can't legally sell it, unless back to the dealership, who will of course only give a decent price if we buy something else expensive. Bastards. It's almost worth buying a 3rd car just to not need to use it, which of course is madness.

Found this great little app it let's me sort my budget into various envelopes then every time I spend something I record the transaction and it removes the amount from whichever envelope the money was spent on. I have ten envelopes set up covering everything.

Was planning a NSD but think I'll need another loaf tonight as DD just had toast this morning instead of her porridge.

I know people in the motor trade, a common refrain is the only good customer is the one whose pants you've had down.

Sometimes literally.

DH never ceases to amaze me. He now doesn't think he should have to buy his own clothes out of his own budget (you know, the budget that is the same as mine but I have to make do for myself, two kids, and any household / car stuff!). I counted his money yesterday (which is in a tin) and he'd had £190 + £60 for fixing a computer, yet he's only got £100 left, so he's spent £150 in 8 days! There's no way he'll make £100 last three weeks.

(although saying that, I have only got £112 left and that will have to last for three weeks)

He had a tantrum this morning because there is no bread. He then took a 4 pack of bread rolls from the freezer and went off to work with them to have with his tin of soup. FOUR ROLLS! I didn't dare say owt as he was in such a bad mood.

I buy 10 snack pepperamis and my 2 boys take 1 to school each per day and yesterday DH was helping himself to two, and a handful of mini bags of snack cheese. He stopped smoking on 1st September and even though he is using an e-cig, he's replaced smoking with eating and is just eating us out of house and home.

DS1 is moaning because I bought loads of value crisps so there are no "decent" ones left. There's only DS2 who isn't moaning about the food, and if I put bricks on his plate he'd probably eat them

PS - you remember when I went for that job interview 2 weeks ago. Well, they never bothered to get in touch to let me know that they hadn't decided to offer me it. Anyway the woman who picked me up from reception was the office administrator.....today I have seen a job advert for the same office for an ...... office administrator...so I'm guessing she is the successful candidate. Good for her - I genuinely believe in internal promotion but not at the expense of having outsiders wasting their time being interviewed if it's more than likely the job is going to go internal.

Stay firm, you know you're in the right.

He will get used to it.

I buy smart price crisps too, tell ds1 you are preparing him for adulthood.