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.

[Iamnotanugget]

I made £7.50 on fb so after an essentials only shop we now have £74.49 to last until 14th February. I'm still not sure it's possible but will do my best.

Thanks for the new thread. It's a short month and no council tax to pay so this one will be full of success stories!

[Fluffycloudland77]

We've still got a council tax payment to go & then I'm paying it over 12 months so it will drop £50 a month compared to what we've been paying out.

Need cat litter but I have my padded envelope of change to pay for it.

I'm thinking of phoning the electric people because I've worked out they are taking more in dd than I'm actually using because the dd was worked out using last years reading for an old draughty poorly insulated house with an ancient boiler. This house is properly insulated and its so much cheaper to run.

[AmberSpyglass]

I'd like to join please. January has been harsh and I'm freaking out a bit. Been hit with a big bill and I already had some big bills so now I'm struggling to say the least.

I am determined to:
Stop buying things! No more clothes, no more impulse buying. I will only take out the amount of money i need and leave the cards at home.
Only buy food when the cupboards, fridge and freezer are bare (other than fresh fruit and veg). This will force me to cook creatively and not spend zillions at tesco because I "just fancied" something for dinner and end up filling the trolley.
Try to have as many NSDs as possible.
Try to leave the car at home as many days as possible to save on petrol.

[TheNightIsDark]

Made another £15 off fb selling and have been given some school uniform for DS1 so saved money there too.

Am also trying to drink more water instead of buying nice drinks. I'm watching a Playmobil volcano on eBay for DS's birthday in March and have got his smaller presents from sales and eBay

[TheOnlyMrsW]

So my budget for the month is below, Jan/Feb is an absolute nightmare for birthdays as we have DH, his 3 brothers, my DSis, my best friend and one of our DNieces before 22nd Feb! If I can stick to the below there should be 150 left out of this month's money to put towards half-term and my shiny new 0% Barclaycard to help pay off early!

Petrol - 135
Food - 180
Birthdays/Spends - 120

[silkknickers]

well I'm proud of myself for Jan! I came in on budget for a blessed change
still need to tighten my belt for the next 3/4 months, though.
Rediscovered Lidl today!

[AmberSpyglass]

I absolutely LOVE aldi! I don't seem to be capable of spending over £40 there, and that'd a big shop! Tesco, I seem to spend £60 without even trying!

[silkknickers]

yes, Amber! I had fallen out of the habit of going, and as I have a Sainsburys on my doorstep I thought that it wasn't worth the petrol money driving to Aldi. But I need to rethink that...

[Fluffycloudland77]

Spendy day.

60p two huge cooking apples for pie.
£1.80 for 14lbs of potatoes. I need to get dh going to that farm shop, he passes it everyday..Aldi is £1.89 for 5lbs potatoes.

£2.40 dry eye drops

75p sandwich bags

£5 cat litter, dh will pay me back for it though because its his turn to pay for it.

mrsw, is it your pil wedding anniversary 9 months before Feb?

[AdoraBell]

Wrote a post yesterday and t'internet ate it.

Anyway, Claret Well done on the SW achievements and try To look upon DH's tyres as an investment in his / family's safety. If you'd seen some of the things I have here you'd be kicking him for leaving them To wear down.

I need To do a couple of errands Today but don't need To part with money.

[CremeEggThief]

£9.29 on a mini-shop in Tesco and DS needs 80p for his bus fare to Scouts later, so £10.09 in total.

I'll read through properly later.

[Thebluedog]

NSD for me thank god

[Passthecake30]

£60 asda delivery and otherwise a nsd, spent the afternoon icing hm biscuits with dd.

A happy dp who recieved a tax rebate rather than a bill :-)

Oh and another £1k spent on extension materials but that doesn't count!

Dd suggested we go frankie and bennys tonight so doing wedges, ribs, burgers, coleslaw and onion rings for dinner to fight off the temptation of giving in. ..

[claretandamberforever]

If anyone has got a Kindle and likes crime thriller police procedural type books, this is free. I've read it and it was brilliant.

uk.ereaderiq.com/dp/B006LWJ75K/hope-road-john-ray-1-john-ray-ls9-crime-thrillers/

[lilacclery]

Today was grocery shopping day
€18.50 in Lidl
€120.40 in Aldi
€22.00 in butchers
Used vouchers from paper in aldi getting three lots of laundry detergents half price, fabric conditioner for 60c, couple packs of baby wipes, bottle baby shampoo & a pack of nappies half price NONE of which I actually needed but would cost a lot more full price in march/April when I will need them. Figure we can use the baby shampoo ourselves ds's hair won't need shampoo for months!

Today's shop should do up to 10 days so hoping it will see dh & ss through next weekend while myself dd & ds visit my parents

Was a bit shocked at what I spent cos planned on about €120 but I did buy lots of store cupboard type stuff.

[AbbyLou]

Hello everyone, thanks for the new thread. Got paid last Friday so one week in now. So far I have seriously overspent on food but have got quite a good amount of store cupboard stuff and freezer stuff that we can eke out at the end of the month. I did an online shop at tesco this week because then I though if I saw the amount creeping up I could take out non-essentials - which I did! However we have since arranged for Dsis and her family to come for the day on Sunday which means me cooking. I have had to alter the shopping to accomodate the meal and now it's a lot. It is coming between 10pm and 11pm tonight because then the delivery is only £1!
I have £120 left in the 'me' budget but it never actually gets spent on me that is the problem!
We bit the bullet and booked a holiday on Saturday so have had to budget for the deposit for that (£150) and the deposit for the ferry (£35). It's meant things will be a bit tight this month but we work bloody hard and decided we deserve it!!

[TheOnlyMrsW]

NSD for me, frugal things that I have done are not order takeaway for chinese new year and writing a freezer list and meal plan for this week! fluffy bizarrely pil's wedding anniversary is in June........

[TheNightIsDark]

I've emailed the bailif to see if I can pay half my debt this month and half next. Hoping they agree or I'm fucked this month.

It has however given me a right kick up the arse about my financial situation. I shall be looking for tips on this thread!

First NSD that I can remember today!

[Fluffycloudland77]

Well that's odd mrsw. I was banking on a may anniversary.

I hope they agree dark

[TheNightIsDark]

Thanks. It's my own fault for missing a payment on the plan over christmas

I am however embracing this frugal thing. I need to put £10 on the electric meter tomorrow and pay the rent Monday but that's all the spending I plan until Thursday.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Christmas is hard financially though, I've been looking at presents for fil already because Its such a stretch.

[TheNightIsDark]

I've sorted baby DS for his birthday and Xmas (huge box of DS1s old duplo, few happy land bits I got off Facebook) and during the sales I got nieces and nephew and friends DCs birthdays and Xmas for 2014.

That's one thing off the list of yearly expenses at least!

[AdoraBell]

So I let DDs talk me into allowing them To do cup cakes, decided To Get a few things and call it part of next week's shop as I was out of a couple of things anyway. £70 later I'm thinking WTF? But it will all be used and a few things come under "next week's pocket money". This evening's activity still works out cheaper than driving into town for the cinema/bowling like they wanted To do.

Good luck Dark

[williaminajetfighter]

Hoping I can join in... It's 4am and I'm awake worrying about money.

Currently on maternity leave so trying desperately to be frugal. Today I. Got a big biz of cupboard stuff from Approved Foods huge lot for 20 pounds. Alao got veg box from local farm shop super cheap.

Aiming for as many NSDs as possible and going to try for as many NCDs as I can - No Car Days. I usually drive the 2 miles to my DDs school but am going to try to walk/push pram. Now if only the weather would behave!

[NK5BM3]

Hi! Last couple of days I've spent quite a bit or rather out of the ordinary.

Wednesday I had lunch out with a friend who works at the same place as I do. I usually bring something from home, so this was a treat as it were. However, I brought my own water, so that saved at least £1.50? I spent £5. Tuesday evening, when my boss took me out for dinner, I paid for parking £2.

Thursday, was in London. Everything was expenses so will claim back but did buy £5 of sushi for the journey home.

Yesterday, I went to McDonald's for lunch with a friend and our toddlers. It was actually very pleasant. £6.50 or so. And then had a Chinese takeaway as part of Chinese New Year which was really yummy. But I felt so ashamed as I'm of Chinese descent and I can cook it myself (but it's been a hectic few days!!!!!). £29 (with 20% discount on takeaways!)

Today am at work for several hours.... Will need to get some cling film and fruit for the next week but that's it I think!!