November Numbercrunchers *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

In here please.

Feel free to post a daily spending diary, to ask for advice or just for a general money moan.

I have no room for another fridge adora but thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to buy one Mon/tues and hopefully I can get it delivered on Saturday when DS will be at his dad's.

Today I've spent £13.17 in Aldi including nappies and washing tablets. Amazing!

Off to visit friends in a bit and then I'm deliberating taking DS to lights switch on nearby. Im just so used to dinner, bath, in the night garden, bed routine that it seems a hassle. Not sure that at 16 months he'd enjoy it anyway!

Have you looked on AO.com? I find them quite cheap and you get a little bit of cashback on them too.

£40 aldi
£5 tesco.

NSD.

November is a killer.
3 cousin birthdays a 6, 4 and 2 yr olds.
Deposit needed for work xmas do £10.
2 birthday collections at work, Another £10.

have bought a fair few xmas presents, nothing big for the DC as yet, don't know what to plump for to get maximum enjoyment, playmobil vs a magic set for the 7yo, the 5yo is happy with superheroes.

sorry to hear about your DH Blackberry Good luck to him to find something better.

Yes Orange and everytime DH phones they tell him "the engineernis on his way"

Hope you have a lovely time sight seeing. I grew up in London but my DDs haven't seen it. I shall remedo that if we ever move back.

NSD for me again, DH bought dog food and DDs looked at swimwear and sándals.

DH had an opportunity To speak To the owner of the car dealership and complain about the telling of porkie pies when he bought the gas guzzler, so it is now on the forecourt for sale.

Oh well done on the car.

The motor trade is full of liars. One of dh old bosses used to say the only good customer was one you'd had fleeced

Yep Fluffy, he's been conned in the UK too.

Sorry to hear your news blackberry and well done on the car adora!

We budgeted for a day out in London yesterday but came back with half of our budget.

Need to do a big shop this week but got away without one last week so about £50 saved there.

Just about to go into the garage in search if leftover Christmas cards - def not buying any if we have some leftover ones!!

I'm still here. I'm still numbercrunching. Amazon had a load of good books on sale so I bought 9 of them for £8.25. That'll keep me busy for a good month or so.

Went out Friday night for a meal and spent £21 (£20 for the meal and a quid to a cute kid with a bucket dressed in a pudsey bear onesie)

Found out on Thursday that I have got an interview for my old, old place of work where I left three years ago and have regretted it ever since (public sector) - it's a bit more money (but petrol / parking / bus fare would cancel out any rise) but my heart has always been there. Watch my current employers offer me a massive payrise now!

Ooh, good luck, Claret!

BlackBerry, I hope you and your DH have managed some relaxation this weekend and are ready to put your claim for JSA and other benefits in ASAP.

£5 on naice pastries from the French place at the airport, £3 on parking.

Eating from the freezer again this week so that should keep costs down.

Oh dear blackberry hope things look brighter at the start of a new week.

Spent the weekend visiting my mum to celebrate her birthday so £25 on a meal out. £8.67 on a few bits from amazon.

3 Frugal Things: Came home with a bag full of freezer and store cupboard items (my mum is a bit of a food hoarder and is always looking to offload) so shopping bill this week should be fairly low. Also came home with 10 bottles of red wine from my brother! He is moving house and these are fairly old bottles (says 2006 on one of them) so he thinks they'll only be good enough for cooking - any ideas? Will the wine taste awful? Have resisted the urge to have a long soak in the bath; showered and washed hair this morning so it would be a luxury rather than a necessity!

Good luck claret!

£9.50 on entry to softplay and lunch there. I need a few LSDs or NSDs now, apart from my fridge freezer purchase.

No idea about the wine turnoff. Crack one open and have a sniff!

£10.80 on travel.

Well that's not old for good wines. Try it.

£3 st Moritz fake tan
£5 superdrug Vit e hot cloth cleanser
£1.99 boots botanical lip gloss.

Had our free hot drink and cake at John Lewis

Thing is turnoff if it tastes terrible then so will the food if you use it To cook. Open one and see if tastes okay. A lot of wines keep really Well, I'm not going To pretend To be an expert though.

I don't have To resist the urge for a bath as the pump has gone on our hot water tank. I'm waiting for the head honcho To send a pump, he's waiting for a pump.

NSD yesterday yay! Aiming for another one as I have no need for anything today.

Morning all! Not a particularly spendy weekend - just the grocery shopping yesterday morning and DS2 and I went to Subway before the football for lunch.

Grocery remaining: £102.54
Petrol remaining: £113.20
Everything else remaining: £241.61

11 days to get through til next pay day
5 days til car needs MOT-ing.

1 more grocery shop needed to see us through til pay day.

Need to start Xmas shopping but DH has been told his bonus won't be paid now at the end of November as he'd hoped, and probably not even the end of December so unfortunately this year's Xmas will have to go on the credit card. I have 23 people to buy for including my own two kids so I aim to bring this in at £500 (hopefully well under!). As well as Christmas there are bloody FIVE birthdays too that I have to buy for. I know December happens EVERY year so why do I never prepare? Hopefully next year will be a lot different.

Morning! I need to go through and see what the damage was from the weekend. If it's

Turnoff I love your frugal things. Since I gave up work I've updated my dsis almost daily with the frugal things I have done. It gives her ideas and sometimes she sends me suggestions, like when I told her our renewal for breakdown cover with AA was nearly £100 and she told me about autoaid, £39.

Mainly free trips to the park this weekend. I have £45 left for milk and fruit so it's bananas and apples only unless Aldi put something exciting in their Super 6, grapes etc are out.

Possibly if you're less overdrawn than you were last month then progress is being made. Don't feel to disheartened I'm sure all your efforts are worth it, they're just not always visable immediately.

Good point thatsinteresting we are waaay less overdrawn than this time last month, so I have made progress. In fact we're about a grand better off, despite not having childcare vouchers last month due to a system error at DH's work, so have two lots to use this month, hurrah!

Today has been bad.

£6 something on nappies but I had a gift card so not a real spent as such. 70p on a doormat as the property management company here removed my last one as it's a health and safety issue. The winds me up no end as I own my flat and therefore am a director of the company. I pay to have my doormat removed. Aaaargh. £40 on a table and chairs for DS to eat and play at. Not essential but I hope it means I can ditch the highchair as it's so hard to clean. Then £329.49 on fridge freezer and delivery. I didn't think this was too bad really, particularly as it's integrated. I took the insurance at £3.50 as it meant I got £19.99 off the delivery and I can cancel it after one payment. Oh I also got 20% off the table and chairs which should have been £50. Ended the spendy day by putting £35 in my car. That's £20 from next week's budget. Sooooo I have £1.40 in my purse till Friday. Will need to spend £1 on milk tomorrow.

Thanks for the words of encouragement! Needed it today as felt like achieving 3 frugal things each day can be tricky but your words inspired me to get on the phone to EDF! So 3frugalthings: changed EDF dd to 1st month, only Virgin to change now. Shopped in Aldi, actually spent more than planned (£28.48) but compared with Tesco, basket was £6 cheaper. Bought extra milk and nappies as these are the items that lead me back to the shops!

One of my long term frugal aims is to keep a running tally like claret as I'm very good at knowing where my money has been but not necessarily where it's going!

It's a while since I've been on as we're having problems with our PC. Am desperately hoping our friend can sort it out. If he can it'll cost me a couple of cakes rather than £hundreds on a new PC just before Christmas.
Overall it's not been too bad a couple of weeks for spending. Have paid dinner money for the dc up to Christmas and have got stuff for dd's birthday sorted.
My aim of buying something each week for Christmas hasn't quite worked but I've got a couple of shopping days planned over the next 3 weeks so that should be okay. I've got most presents planned so just need to stick to the list now!
NSD today. Ds has cricket trials tomorrow which cost £3 so will be LSD

£20.28 at Tesco and £23.05 at Lidl on the weekly shop. Will just need milk and bread until Sunday now. £43.33 total.