Judicious January Jangling & Juggling *blows budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

Sorry, couldn't resist going overboard on the J's

Happy new year y'all. Welcome to expert budgeteerers, newbies, lurkers and de-lurkers. We're a very friendly, non-judgmental bunch so please use this thread as you choose whether it's as a spending diary, to confess your money sins, ask for help or have a general whinge at the cost of living.....

Evening all. I am struggling to keep up with the thread!

£3.25 on milk, yogs and pop in Iceland. £6.89 on stuff in b&m for my mum.

Tomorrow morning I have an appointment with Halifax in order to switch my account. Im having to go in branch as I couldn't get my address verified online. As someone mentioned upthread I'll get £100 for the switch and im going for the account where you get £5 a month for not going in your overdraft. Thanks to [fluffy] for making me aware of the switch deal.

Gah. Should read fluffy

I transfer my four-weekly budget to my savings account and then back to my current account, a week at a time and withdraw this in cash. So in this way, all money for groceries and miscellaneous is set aside for the month, but I only have access to a week's cash at a time.

I have downloaded the YNAB budget and am slowly getting my head round it. Think it will be a big help.

£6 on poncey cat litter for the cat who won't use smart price litter

I'm so pleased that the cashback idea is catching on.

checklist for newbies & lurkers so far you have.....

Waitrose loyalty card for free tea/coffee. If you don't live near one get one anyway for days out.

John Lewis loyalty card, free hot drink and cake once a month.

Joined topcashback & quidco, tcb will price match quidco but not vice versa. Contest any untracked cashback, I had to do this and it worked. Tcb have a forum where you can see if anyone is having problems as well.

Signed up for the moneysaving expert & Hotukdeals emails.

Remembered you can get free condoms off the gp/family planning clinics. Fp tend to be quite broad minded so if you specifically want strawberry flavoured-glow in the dark-ribbed ones ask them. There's a wide selection available to them on the nhs catalogue, or there was.

Previous threads that I keep on my watch list, these are long but very useful threads.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

Hello.. It's been a spendy day.

I had a rare few hours free. First did my hair (cut and colour) - as it needed doing primarily because i was starting to look like a raccoon and because I have an interview for y own job end of the month (long story...). It's a promotion and I had to apply for it, with external candidates. I've been shortlisted. so wish me luck!

With that, I saw a dress at Hobbs before Christmas which was lovely (for the interview). And after Christmas it went down in price again! I was still thinking about it over Christmas. So I bit the bullet and got it. Lets hope it makes me stand out (or at least makes me feel like I am standing out).

Got dh some jeans as his old ones have sprung a few holes in the bottom area! And a bra to go with the dress (it was slightly gape-y at the top - I got a bra for £30 at la sensa which suddenly gave me boobs!!).

Dh did the shop for £50 at aldi. But bought lots of things and I'm confident we will not need a big shop till the end of the month (we have a lot of food). I will also take £30 cash to do the milk, veg, fruit top up run each week.

Am pretty glad going back to work next week. Although it means paying for afterschool club and swim lessons! at least I won't be going to town and shopping. I think I've done enough shopping for the year.

Another NSD day banked for me today...but not for DH, so I'm not sure it really counts!

Tomorrow the week's online food shop is being delivered, there'll be the term's school dinners for DS2 to pay for online before the weekend is over and a swim class for DS1 but if we are really boring there shouldn't be any need to get the wallets out again until next Friday. It's going to be very hard not to do any more spending this weekend though, it has become a bit of a default setting to go shopping to beat the back to work blues.

Cancelled a direct debit today for membership to something I don't need any longer, so that's £17.00 a month saved. :)

Phew! This thread is moving fast!
Well I spent £2 yesterday on bread rolls and bananas so I can take packed lunch to work, and £7.50 today on packed lunch for DS1's school lunches from next week.

Been doing more calculations, and I reckon that from next month I'll be able to transfer all of our child benefit into savings every month, so that'll be £135 every 4 weeks squirreled away. We can use that for a family holiday :)

Just a heads up for everyone, the Sun £9.50 holidays start again from Tomorrow (Sat) collect 10 tokens, 1 each day. My folks took DS's away last year and they had a great time, so we're going to do that this year.

Thanks to fluffy I've joined topcashback, johnlewis and waitrose loyalty cards.......are there any other loyalty schemes with freebies attached?

delasi I'm the same...cash in my purse gets spent so quickly! I'm much more mindful of card as I know il have to read the spend on my statement.

Had to go to town today to pay in a cheque and had a wander round M&S as we got vouchers for Christmas. I bought a couple of gifts things in the sale, one of which I gave to a friend today, the others I will save (but will probably keep one of the lovely photo frames!). The only thing clothes-wise we need for dd for the next 6 months or so is a pair of trainers (we received lots of of hand-me-downs and a few new bits for Christmas) so will order a pair with her voucher from M&S online.

Spends whilst in town: £2.50 parking, £1.90 on a sandwich for dd, £1.77 on bits from Aldi for dinner.

Thanks for heads up about Sun vouchers leilandri!

Though I moaned earlier about supermarkets and it's been mentioned before, it's worth repeating that Christmas foods are going for silly prices at the moment.

Can't keep up with this at the moment!
Doing okay so far. Need to go food shopping tomorrow but I've meal planned so will have a definite list and will stick to it. Put £30 of petrol in the car today, dh will need diesel tomorrow. No other major spends this coming week. The dc both need dinner money but it's budgeted for.

Well the pantomime was fantastic and just what we needed to end our Christmas holiday. The Hoff was amazing as Captain Hook!
We went slightly over our budget but only by £1! The car park was 50p less than we thought at £6.50 but it was hot in the theatre and the kids were really thirsty so we spent £1.50 on a bottle of water. Next time I must remember to take our own drink as well as snacks! The kids loved having a little bag made up of Christmas sweets/chocolates and they had more than they would have done if we'd all shared a bag of the rip-off ones they sell there!
Tomorrow will hopefully be a NSD. Dd is going with my friend to the stables to look around and meet the horse she has a lesson soon. My friend bought her a lesson for Christmas as she is horse-mad. Ds wants to do his Pro-Deck Workshop with dh tomorrow so I am going to take the opportunity to do some baking as we are nearly out of cakes. Dh has invited the in-laws tomorrow for tea/coffee and cake so I need to make something quick!

Sounds like a fun night abbylou and one that didn't cost the earth.

Free PDF of Allen Carrs stop smoking book for anyone wanting to give up smoking

A colleague of mine did a sun holiday with her dh and spent all day at the beach, they loved it.

Glad you enjoyed it, Abby. We definitely need to build some treats and fun into our frugal way of life. I feel we savour and appreciate them much more.

Glad the panto was so enjoyable Abby

NSD for me but had To drop a DD off and DH then drove into town To Get away from the heat. He's become a real fan of air condicioned shopping malls. He bought ice-creams and then coffees, DD bought herself some clothes in the sale.

Road tolls have gone up hugely, They've been smart enough To leave the school road alone tho after losing a lot of trafico last year. Think it was about £3 going and nearer £4 coming home at peak time.

Good luck with that interview NK5BM3

Morning All!

Not a NSDfir me yesterday - £3.30 on tea and a scone with old work colleague. Not too bad for me though as she bought a full meal with pudding and I resisted doing the same.

Off to Aldi later. I need it to come in at less than £60 this week. We have nappies and wipes already which should help.

Morning all!
CremeEgg one way we build treats in cheaply is with what we call Family Friday. Every Friday after school we do something as a family. We have done movie nights, board game marathons, baking, walking to the chippy then walking home eating chips (kids love this one), going to the park in the dark with torches, walks by the canal, scavenger hunts, craft etc. These are all free or very cheap. About every 6 weeks or so we do something extra special. We often use Tesco vouchers or Groupon for these. Things we have done include going out for meals, cinema, bowling etc. It means dh and I make the effort to do something nice with the kids to start the weekend and it makes us think of cheap/free things to do!

NSD yesterday but cheated a bit as I should have gone to get paint on the way home! So I've been this morning instead, £21.98 in b&q and £3.49 in mcd's for breakfast for DH as he's going to spend all day painting. Have to get milk, broccoli and pastry in a little while and then I intend to spend the rest of the day in the kitchen getting ready for next week. Love the family Friday idea!

Well the first lot of baking is done. Thisis a miracle for me as I am not a baker! I have made some flapjacks and had all the ingredients in already so cost me big fat £0!! Just waiting for them to cook before I attempt cup cakes - that's where it will all go wrong! Feeling a bit domestic-godessy today as i have my pork in the slow cooker for pulled pork tonight too!

Abby How do you make your flapjacks? Going to start once I've run out of granola bars (I have them for breakfast on work days as I can't eat breakfast before leaving the house), winced at the cost of the bars even when on offer or own brand and never considered making my own!

Your post made I'm the same when I get all domestic, I've already soaked pulses and what have you (overnight, that means I actually remembered to do it!) to stew with some beef from the freezer. Made daal last night with some chicken scraps and frozen veg added, DH was suitably impressed (he usually makes the daal), and still have leftovers today.

It's a little silly but it's surprising to realise how much food you have in the house when you stop shopping and start using things up. I always had a feeling that we had loads, but now I can see it. Yesterday's groceries were just milk, bread, eggs, cereal for DS, oil, spread and some biscuits (treat for us!). And yet there are days' worth of meat and veg still in the house

NSD for me so far but might be buying DS's birthday present if I can on eBay. Although - damn, I sent some photos by text this morning which will have cost me money but won't have to pay yet!

One way to do treats is to get annual memberships to places - preferably as presents. So we have RHS, National Trust, and to a couple of local farms/wildlife centres. Always means somewhere to go free!

I didnt have a NSD yesterday but it was a bit thrifty:

Used annual pass for Sealife Center
I paid for secure parking £3.40 as it was going to be dark when we came out
I used my costa points to buy a soothie thing for the kids - I got them to share it between two cups and then topped it up with a bit water. I bought DH and I a coffee each £4

So all in all Im pleased I got out the house somewhere decent with the kids and spent far less than on previous types of outings.

Okay, Happy New Year to all. I am a returner and need to really get back into good habits this year. Need to build up savings and pay off the small debts we have.

Only spend so far this year (haha!!) is £75.00 on food shopping. Need to buy some carrots tomorrow but the food delivery should see us through for at least a week as DH is off on business trip for the next week.

ARRGGGHHHHHHH Slimming World is proving expensive to my budget!

£19.38 in Farmfoods
£42.11 in Aldi
£32.45 in Asda (£9 on some boxer shorts for DS1 and a plastic food box)
£2.00 on having my fringe cut.
£46 on a new tyre yesterday
£20 to DS2 school trip fund account.

Budget looks like this...
Petrol: £194.35 remaining
Kids: £166.15 remaining
Food: £254.97 remaining
Everything else: £389.45 remaining

Did get loads of fresh fruit and veg from Aldi, also cereal is so much cheaper. As I get more into the diet I hope to find more slimming world friendly family meals so that I'm not making two separate meals.

Needed to buy a new tyre yesterday as mine had a nail in it (GRR) so that was £46 which isn't too bad for a tyre really.

Just a reminder to those of you who shop at Asda - you do all check your receipts online dont you? Every penny helps and all that. I had been forgetting and did one for the first time in ages yesterday and got a 46p voucher which I've knocked off my grocery budget and shifted it to my Christmas savings fund (£9.33 and counting - don't laugh though as it will get bigger and bigger)