Have a fabulous frugal February with the fantastic frugaleers

[northender]

As we filled the old thread, thought I'd start a new one for February.

Turnoffthelights I love your valentine picture idea. I might steal that for the card - DH will expect chocolates as a present and as I will benefit from those too I won't disappoint

I just did a £40 Ocado shop last night, the minimum amount for delivery, as I've decided to change my weekly shop day from Thursday to Monday. I chose Thursday thinking I was buying stuff in for the weekend, but actually it's my working days (Tues Wed Thurs) when I need fresh stuff for sandwiches, easy teas etc. I have more time to think how to use leftovers, baking bread/treats etc at the weekend. I think I always had it in my head I had to shop for the weekend because that's what my parents did.

It will mean another £40 shop on Monday. I was hoping to do 4 x £75 shops (or less) but it's not much over budget and hopefully I can claw that back over the month.

This thread is moving really fast! Not sure when I lasted posted.
I've a 12 week old baby, my second & all I've bought is reusable nappies, reusable wipes, a couple of breastfeeding bras(when my size settled & I knew it was working out) a couple of bottles when it turned out he wouldn't use his sisters & this week a pack of vests. All his clothes have been hand me downs & presents.

Mon - €30 diesel,
tesco :5 bottles cordial for dd(special aspartame free very cheap in tesco) 2 packs of vests for ds, steak mince for dinner as forgot to take meat from freezer €20

Wed -
99c bottle premade formula ds at childminders & nothing expressed
€13 topup shop aldi
Pull-ups for dd, will do a fortnight, milk, bread, custard creams, chocolate

That's it until travelling at weekend, getting tesco delivered on Monday so will have stretched shopping out to 10days

Normally I do the good shop today but I have checked out the freezer and reckon I could stretch it out till Tuesday so no shop today.
Have to post out a few more eBay sales today but pay for those through paypal credit.
Taking DS to his music class today but paid for that in advance so it should be a NSD here.

Yesterday I didn't have time to make a packed and the bread smelt strange so I threw it away. Bought lunch in McDonalds £4.59.

Thought about buying painkillers/more heat pads for sore shoulder, but instead booked a physio appointment for today. I'm not sure what that will cost, but it's getting worse not better so it needs fixing. Have checked my medical insurance cash plan and should be able to claim the cost back. Just need to check they are members of professional body.

Kids Spanish lesson tonight, normally DH pays but he is away so I'll have to pay £25.

Oh, and my £97 Tesco shop only cost £47 as they didn't gave the Cognac I ordered for DH for Valentines, unfortunately now I need to find something else!

£40 tesco shop to be delivered today that should hopefully last until next Thursday.

Buying a car on Sunday so that sets me back £750 but it will be bloody worth it to not be cooped up in the house all day and means I can go to aldi instead of budgens!

Will be a nsd here today as I'm not going anywhere! Hopefully get a few more bits on eBay too.

NSD. Poorly and in bed, so likely to stay that way.

The spends continue... just got a pair of slippers each for DH and I, £10 off then further 20% off so happy with that, still cost £60 but hey ho. Because we shop this way, when I do eventually get around to buying it's a bit more fun/guilty pleasure (I used to shop loads and it just became a thing to do) and I sort of indulge a lot more - used to buy anything on sale or in cheaper stores and have tons of stuff bought because of its price point, but now we buy a lot less and when we do it's because we really like it, it's good quality etc as we will use them for some time.

Still always gets cashback, use codes, find sales however! I work in the trade industry and knowing how much stuff actually costs to produce means I shudder at the thought of paying full price for most things.

Bit of a spendy day for me: 11.74 in Tesco on fruit, bread, milk and stuff for cakes for dd1's party; £20 getting my hair cut, although it should have been £35, I had a loyalty voucher to use; £1.75 on cake cases; 84p on ribbon.

Am going to spend the rest of the day making party bags for dd1's party. Made them last year and she loved them so am doing it again. It was only 3 last year though, not the 13 she has coming on Saturday!

Sold a few bits on Ebay so am now £15.50 better off - hurrah! And have picked up 4 pieces of work today too, which is great. The overdraft is shrinking slightly!

Some more spends, a pair of new boots each. These are all things we haven't bought for 3+ years, now just seems to be the time to do it.

On the more frugal side of things, we seem to have tons of food despite our cheapest grocery shopping yet and DH has quickly adapted to a lack of ready made desserts and deli meats in the fridge, and I've stopped buying chocolate and biscuits and amazingly I don't miss them. Better for the budget and the waistline!

Going past Lidl today and we also need a small top up of milk, eggs and bread so I'm writing a short list and we'll pick up them up on our way home, so should be a small spend.

Nice blog post on The Guardian from Jack Monroe (A Girl Called Jack) on how she saves money food shopping. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/feb/05/jack-monroe-how-to-save-money-food-shopping-budget

NSD so far. Although DP has bought a bus ticket and is about to take DS on a short train ride for fun. But they went to Baby Boogie at the library (free) and I picked up a few more days work and found out I'm getting £100 more from one client than expected.

Must not spend money before I get it...

ooh expectingnumber3 what are you putting in the party bags? I love party bags but have to be careful or I would spend far too much!

Spangle, I've got really cute mini heart shaped picture frames from Ikea, marshmallows in homemade heart boxes and hairbows that I've made too. Also covered in hearts. Can you guess the theme?!

Have got heart helium balloons to tie to each bag along with a name tag. The fabric for the bags is lovely too, from Ikea, pink with red dots. I've made the bags as mini-shoppers and they look so cute! Should fit a couple of books, crayons etc in them so hopefully they will be used again by the girls. Have enjoyed myself on this one so much!

expecting Your party bags sound so nice!

A reminder to all as to why cashback is your friend! Admittedly I do most of my shopping online, but we don't shop that much. I use Quidco and sometimes it's just 2-3% cashback, sometimes there's a great deal for upgrades or switching suppliers, for instance. I just looked at my activity and we're currently getting back in cashback just over 25% of what we spend when you look at total spent versus total gained. Given that we usually shop with voucher codes, sales and offers, that's a fantastic amount extra back. Look after the pennies...

expecting they sound lovely bags, could you post a picture.

feeelance just read that link and it makes a good read. I love her stuff her website is really inspiring. I am gonna try and make her granola recipe tonight.

Well a nsd day today which I am very pleased about. I am at work tomorrow and have made my lunch so hoping for another nsd tomorrow.

Dosey, delasi, thank you! I will post pics once I figure out how!

Right. I have a plan. I am going to move shopping delivery to Saturday morning and include a couple of luxury items. The idea is that, by doing this, we will avoid the fatally expensive weekend top-up shops that are probably my biggest drain on money.

Will we stay away from Tesco... only time will tell...

Technically NSD although I spent some money on supplies for work. As I will claim this back I won't count as a spend

Shopping day...I now try to do mine on a Monday. I used to shop on a Friday or the weekend but always overspent on treats for the end of the week or lots of ingredients for a slap up meal or wine. Also it's easier to shop close to work without a toddler in tow!

Sold another item for £10!

My money for food shopping seems to go on snacks for the dc. Dd is three and going through a fairly picky stage. Ds is 14 months and I'm not sure I can afford to keep him

£1 on a group for DD and 6.22 on a basic Spanish book from amazon. However, I have a friend who has her own fashion label and she very generously and unexpectedly GAVE me a beautiful dress today as a thank you for lending her a book (she did have it for about a year!!)! So lovely and perfect for a wedding I have coming up which I'd been worrying about. It costs about 60quid new, so I've really saved a fair whack today :)

2.19 in Aldi and 45 on petrol.

I've just done a freezer audit and am determined to spend as little as possible on food from now until pay day in March.