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.

£4.46 at Lidl, £4.10 on travel, £1.50 charity donation and £14 on waxing. So, £24.06 altogether.

Have a good weekend, everyone .

£45 on a haircut, first one in a year.

I've never been to Basingstoke helenagrace. It's a long way away from me.

Today I put the standard £2 birthday present contribution in at work. Amazingly I'm having a quiet period at work so I left early and went to see hunger games so that was £7.20. I spent £1.29 in b&m on some munchies for the pics. I recommend the film if you have seem the first one.

Managed to bring my shopping in at a shade under the £30 I had budgeted for at £29.87. I've written an e-mail of complaint to Morrisons though as for the 2nd Friday in a row they've run out of stuff I need before 7pm.

• no value mushrooms (needed for tonight's tea, so had to buy the smaller packet and will have to go back down through the week for more.
• Hardly any onions left (ones that were left were soft and manky looking)
• Hardly any jacket potatoes left (only massive ones and I wanted a smallish one
• No white warburton's thins left so had to settle for the half-and-half
• no small tubs of double cream so had to settle for single, and some on the shelf had split and made a reet mess everywhere
• no banana kids yoghurt drinks. I've always got strawberry except for last week when they had none left, so got banana. DS2 said he loved the banana and asked me to get them again - guess what? No banana.
• the state of the value baked beans. Tins were badly dented, labels torn or coming off and I refuse to pay double the price for another brand.
• the checkout man's jacket was really scruffy and faded - I think they should buy him another one, poor fella.

So that was 7 items and I only had 23 on my list - I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation for 7pm on a Friday night to be able to get the stuff I want. I never suffer this when I go to Tesco. I go to Tesco when I've taken DS1 to footy but tonight DH said he would take him and Morrisons is closer to home. I'll think twice before going next week!

Car is now off the road until Monday morning as MOT runs out tonight and I couldn't get it booked in til Monday.

DH has put some petrol in as he used some for work so we should get a reimbursement next week.

I wonder if they'll give you compensation. Considering they have multiple deliveries you'd think it would better than that.

I'm very miffed about it. I know it's a first world problem n all that but I work full time, I spend enough time shopping as it is without having to run down midweek. I bet I don't even get an acknowledgement or it'll be something like "thank you for bringing this to our attention and we'll bring it to the attention of the store manager" or some rubbish

Claret I once sent tesco a till receipt from Sainsburys when their stock levels were also. I highlighted all the items I hadn't been able to get in Tescos and stapled it to a complaint letter. I got a load of vouchers by return!

Ooh, like the hair Fluffy I can't remember when I last went, musta been about 3 years ago. Whenever it was you can no longer see that it had a style.

DDs and their friends have wiped me out, £30, but that covers dinner for 2 nights and ice cream. Cheeky buggers asked me for any spare cash for going out on their bikes, they've decanted drinks and taken a large packet of crisps from the cupboard.

Helenagrace I'm now humming 'I've been to Basingstoke but I've never been to meeeeeeee' Hope DH gets a local job soon, moving is such a PITA.

Thanks for the earworm bitches

My fridge freezer was delivered today but it doesn't quite fit properly Most annoying as im going to have to go to b&q tomorrow to get a bit of wood for it to sit on. The delivery people are coming to properly install it on Monday but that means waiting in for them. What a hassle.

£16.24 spent in Aldi.

Had my dad to visit today hadn't seen for 2yrs he brought bacon n eggs with him for brekkie n took us all out for lovely lunch.

Gave my toddler a bottle old change prob £40 worth.

Just been to co op for milk n spent £13 but in a good way as they had just reduced veg fruit n meat n we got. 3 pks lean mince. 2pks beef stir fry. 2 pks chicken breast. 2 topside roasting joints. Pk sausages. 2 pks strawberries. 2 pks grapes. 6 bananas. Green cabbage. Broccoli. Spring onions. Cauliflower. New potatoes. Red potatoes . Cherry tomatoes n oh yeah the milk we went for!!!!!

We were v v pleased even if bloody heavy to carry home.

Toddler has eaten one pk strawberries already!! He is a fruit monster.

That's quite a lot of meals though. It'll save you loads in the long run.

£14 on face cloths. I got 14 of them in John Lewis. My skins awful and I think the muslin is making it worse.

I'd try anything right now.

Yeah that's what we thought

hope your skin improves fluffy i suffer with excema n my hands are bad at mo.

Have you tried Doublebase gel? It's excellent but you can't rub it in. It won't work if you do.

Yep that's what i use brilliant stuff.

It gets rid of callus, cracked heals and corns on the feet as well

DD1's art project was thrown away in school had to buy more materials so she can do it all over again for Monday . £8 on card, wood in various bits and sizes and paint. Will probably need to get either silicone or a glue gun tomorrow as what we have here doesn't fit the glue gun DH gave to DD2. DD1's has gone missing.

Pain about the fridge/freezer picnmix

East what is toddler going to do with that windfall? And great bargains.

That's very annoying, she must be gutted.

She was Fluffy but has cheered up a bit because she thinks what she's done now, couldn't get the same colour paint, is better.

claret very impressed with your shopping bill coming almost exactly on budget! No harm in complaining, I'm never usually one to complain but yesterday had terrible service at lunch and spent the journey home day dreaming about the free meal voucher that would materialise from a strongly worded letter!

helena good luck with job hunt. I really understand the need to search for permanent rather than temporary positions. Even if you have to relocate, just think of that financial security. Hope a job comes up closer to home though.

waiting thanks for the reminder to go back through statements. I think we've got a Norton anti virus lurking somewhere which I keep meaning to cancel. Renews in January so should be able to catch in time.

Yesterday for us was a total frugaling disaster. I won't go into details, it's too painful, but it started with having to buy breakfast as we were running late, there was ice skating, lunch out and then the aforementioned birthday meal. Think we're looking at around £100. The plans which resulted in all the spending were made pre- gas bill but that's no excuse really. I spent much of the day saying to DH 'next year, when we meet friends, we're just going for a walk in the country'. Both sets of friends we met yesterday have dogs so this is entirely feasible and as we have a toddler, walking in the woods is probably less stressful than sitting in a restaurant anyway.

So my question for today is - what are your best free / low cost days out?

Adora he will buy a small treat n rest can go in the bank.

Off to feed the ducks today then cake n tea at a cafe followed by bargain roast beef dinner

Hello! Managed quite a cheap weekend with friends in London. Coach was £21, lunch and dinner out came to £30 total, and £25 on breakfast and lunch today, and I'll be back home for dinner. So just over £75 total, which is a lot less than it would have been if I'd been drinking and staying in a hotel, which was the original plan.

turnoff cheap day out for us is local (brilliant) museum, or forest which has great walking routes with stuff for kids. There's also a free to visit donkey sanctuary nearby, and we have membership to a country park place nearby which has a little train and a small animal petting zoo type thing. The nanny uses that a lot. Oh, and national trust membership. We go to events at the local properties, and also use it for days out when on camping holidays.

Waiting we had similar recently with a wine club (idea being you save every month and then choose cases to be delivered as you fancy). We used to do it but thought it had lapsed after one year and paid for a further 4 months before realising. Luckily they were really good and refunded no probs. which actually impressed me so much that when we have money again for wine I will definitely go back to them rather than elsewhere. Good customer service (it was Naked Wines).

Adora your poor dd losing her project, was she upset?

She was Possibly but is feeling a bit better about now.

Shall update later, DD does need more materials.