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.

£5.20 on some essentials from Lidl.

€10 on seafood mix for dinner.
€7 in aldi on supplies for class last night, only visuals so can all be used in house

£5 nappies and just under a fiver on fresh stuff in aldi.

It's worse my finances are getting €186 overdrawn will get mat benefit of €262 sat leaving €76 to do shopping cover €168 direct debits and have €15 in wallet! Might say to dh that I'll cancel mortgage dd to his account for €100 & give it to him during the week would lessen the blow to my bank account! I'd be back in the black then by first week of march

Yes fluffy both big toenails.
I'll see what response I get from 1st email and then try CEO.

Car bill probably £800 . Haven't had the final bill yet as garage man trying to get it down a bit if he can. Trying hard to be philosophical about it but it's hard.

3 on hot chocolate powder. Tea and coffee tastes funny post tonsilitis.

Ooh

Interesting. I was looking up Music Magpie as I have some DVDs to sell and came across this blogpost m.money.aol.co.uk/2013/01/16/musicmagpie-vs-the-competition-where-to-sell-your-dvds/?p=10&icid=art_next

Just bought school uniform. Both needed almost everything and we bought extra shoes the next size up as none will be available after March is over. _£700 ish for 2 DDs. Still need trainers but I sneaked socks and tights into groceries budget while DH was away.

Still out so will catch up, again, later.

Forgot To mention last of the school books, £60.

Tomorrow we need a tyre as we have a hole in the side wall. Bod said "well, it's okay, but it wouldn't pass the revisión técnica (MOT)" so DH has ordered a new one.

We're having a good week. The dc have been happy and entertained. I still have £8.32 of our fun budget left. We're visiting friends today so should be free, tomorrow we're using annual pass and packed lunch and we're rounding off the week with a trip to the cinema using Tesco points so if I'm careful and tune out the dcs 'needing ice cream' etc I should make it.

I've sent 5 emails complaining about various things, overcharged, non delivery, poor product quality etc, so all genuine complaints so I'm hoping for some refunds shortly. Won't be a lot and won't be making money just getting back what I've wasted.

Going for top up shop today. I want to get a few naice things as we've got friends coming round so I'm aiming for £30.

Woo hoo dh got full time job after 3 years or so on short time! Will mean seeing a bit less of him but he'll be in better form as he wasn't happy in his current work.
& I'm €168 overdraw rather than €186 which is a small improvement.

Going a nappucino today but selling two cloth nappies for €10 so that'll cover lunch.

yay lilac loving all this good news atm, really cheering me up! Am going to library today to return a book and reserve some more, also suggested a book for them to buy rather than buying it myself (feeling very frugal!)

Should be NSD today, aiming for LSD/NSD everyday until payday (25th) when all the bills will go out for March.

Trying to get motivated to list last batch of stuff on eBay but had a really nasty buyer who persecuted me with 100s of emails and tried to claim I had lied to him etc, turned out he was trying to get a partial refund and keep the item despite the fact that the "flaw" he had found was clearly visible in all pictures I had posted.

That's great news lilac!

missannersly, I've had similar on eBay, so annoying. How did it end up?

I listed about 5 things on eBay last night and have about about 7 more to do today. Also have a load of cloth nappies to list so they should hopefully make a fair amount.

Was going to go swimming today but thinks its more of an outside activity day so we'll go tomorrow instead, making today a NSD. going to friends for dinner too, so won't be eating our own food :D making a cake to bring round though but all ingredients I have in.

He left me really nasty feedback because eBay refused to let him have a partial refund & keep item, I offered a full refund if he returned the item but he refused.
eBay won't remove the negative feedback even though they can see I have offered him a refund repeatedly!

That's really rubbish. Did you leave him bad feedback, too? Some people are so cheeky! I had a woman complain about a sleepsuit she bought, she claimed there was a hole in it. She refused to show me a picture of it and eventually I told her to return it for a refund which she did. There was no hole! She just decided she didn't want it, I guess, but she lost her p&p so I don't know why she bothered.

I am setting myself the challenge of having a no spend week next week, to end the month! I will do lots of free things with DD and just not take my purse out so as not to be tempted by cafe lunches and the like.

Thanks Freelance, will look into that.

lilac, fab news! Congrats!

Amber, I have just sold my cloth nappies and found the best place to do it was dedicated facebook pages. Got much better prices than on ebay and no fees. Found it really quick too - mine sold in less than an hour so listed, sold, posted and got paid in a day! Really recommend it.

Off to Aldi in a mo for a top-up shot. Still have lots of stuff in the freezer, just need fruit, bread and snacks for weekend and lunch boxes next week. Under £20 hopefully.

Should be an NSD weekend too. Taking dc's to my dn's party and bought her present in the sales ages ago. Have found that being frugal is making me more organised and forcing me to think ahead, which is amazing. Have never been so organised!

Amber-I'm going to try another no spend week next week. It seems draconian measures are the only way to stop my bad habits. Another day spending on craft materials yesterday. I must learn to make use of what we have. I feel a bit embarrassed to be here at the moment, although we have stopped buying food between shops.

Stuck at home with toddler with chicken pox frustratingly he is well just can't go to childminder this is day 1.

What is aldi super six at the mo please does anyone know ?

How do you sell things on Facebook please and are there any risks? I'm getting a few bits together (toddler clothes and sleeping bags) to either sell online or at a car boot.

Just received dd's ballet invoice it can wait though.

Nsd.

Aldi have their super six on their website

www.aldi.co.uk/en/product-range/fresh-bakery/this-weeks-latest-super-6-offers/

I think some areas have facebook selling pages that you can search for on there but I don't have fb so I haven't tried it, but it's no fees so that's the best bit. I've got an old fridge freezer for the tatters, not seen them for weeks though so I'm going to put it on eBay for 99p as scrap metal.

lilacclery woo hoo, new job! Celebration takeaway tonight?

£35 aldi but £5 of that was washing powder & loo rolls. Aldi £5 voucher in the record/daily mirror next Thursday.

£7 cat litter & bits i cant get at aldi in tesco

£3.50 on morrisons sausages

80p bag of spuds

£23 in boots for 6 months supply of la roche posay cleanser, it's on 3 for 2.

£10 petrol.

I should get cashback off quidco click snap for the curry sauce in tescos but the receipt just says balti sauce & not pataks so I don't know if they will try and wriggle out of it. I should get 50p cb for spending over £10 in aldi & 25p for the sauce.