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.

Free EBay listing this weekend

Morning william sorry that you've been awake worrying! Welcome and im sure you'll find this thread to be very supportive. NCDs sound like a good plan.

I'm joining you lovely people

First trip to aldi later. It's an hours drive but surely I can save money?! Usually get a tesco delivery and spend about £80 a week including top ups....will let you know later!

Personal account is £100 od but should be ok once child benefit comes in.

Dp and I are going to consolidate our credit cards and try to pay them off.

We're going on holiday in the summer and getting married/honey moon in winter.

Two council tax free months!!

Just listed my first thing on eBay. Didn't have a clue what I was doing!

Ok, what I did last month worked a treat, I underspent!
I have set a fix amount for groceries and petrol and general spending. £500. But: the trick is: you are not allowed to use the card. So I got £100 in cash out every week, and when that was gone, it was gone!
I have now got £95 sitting on the top counter from the January budget, and another £30 on the card. Which is just as well, because I run out of bleach, antibacterial for kitchen surfaces, bathroom cleaning products etc. So the grocery bill this month will be a bit bigger. I plan to get everything from Lidl. Already using their detergent and washing up liquid, hoping to stay under a tenner.

Menu planning now for next week. :)

I've got a couple of things I will ebay tomorrow but I owe my mum £20 so hoping I can cover that.

Petrol is a killer for us. We spend at least £70 a week not sure there's any way we can reduce it?

I like the idea of taking cash out but it's something we never do. Might discuss with dp.

Place marking so I don't lose you. Have survived a month without buying a single item of clothes thanks to the thread in credit crunch. My bank balance is looking healthier, this week was a bit of a spendy week as I was covering someone else's job at work and my own so although I can't physically fit another thing in my two freezers, we ate several straight to oven things bought from Iceland on the way home (along with cakes and chocolate!!!)

Love this thread, not seen any of the others.
Im so crap with money, would love to do a budget and stick but things are so uneven and changing atm, i love love love the idea of NSD's i tried it last year and lasted 3 days
Im on mat leave and get so bored so i take dd into town or to the supermarket just to DO something so inevitabely spend.
Im going to aldi first time ever today

Teacakes, if you can't reduce use then how about a cashback credit card? You could set the DD to pay off the whole balance every month & only use it for fuel.

You might even get cashback from tcb or quidco.

As it's a free listing weekend more stuff is going up on eBay today. Have got £140 in my paypal since starting my eBay sales in Jan. put a tenner in DS saving account this morning. Was reading the 'how much does your teenager cost you thread' and managed to scare myself!

Oh and cos we moved to a different area last year no council tax free months for us

Fluffy I don't think dp would agree to another cc but great idea for when we've settled all our debt

So...i just discovered aldi. It is soooo cheap and if i take a list i will save sooo much on shopping The only thing im not keen on is the race to get scanned and packed, too fast fo me but i could easy get used to it to save that much money!

Ooh think this will be the weekend we finally list on eBay. Any tips for things that actually sell? We have some baby and toddler clothes but not sure if they're worth it.

Spent 2.60ish at the corner shop buying a bag of carrots, a bunch of bananas and a carrot. Spotted peppers being sold for 50p each - bargain. Made a carrot, apple and sultana cake (sugar and dairy free) for DS and feeling v chilled after working loads last month.

I've just got back from aldi. Spent £50. I think it'll be worth it, maybe. I wish it was so bloody far away. We have a lidl about ten/fifteen minutes closer but I've never been there.

Branded children's clothes sell OK on eBay. I tend not to bother with anything else.

spotty I take money out each week, with the idea that once it's gone, it's gone!
It sort of works, but you need to make sure that you take out a realistic amount. I tend to be TOO austere and then fail each week I now have £20 left now until Friday and have to get fuel. Should've budgeted an extra tenner or so

Spotty, re petrol, on moneysavingexpert there's a conservative driving guide somewhere which teaches tips on how to drive economically, might be worth looking into?

Hello! February moving quickly already! Love that we reached 1000 posts in January. delasi I feel like you should win a prize for being no 1000!

Have had a weird few days - money related and attitude towards it. DH bought me a surprise ticket to a show that I've wanted to see for ages, I was furious because of the cost . It was bought out of his personal spends, which he can do with what he likes, but instead of being incredibly grateful I was a moody cow! I had an amazing time and it was well worth the money. Do you ever feel like frugaling becomes a bit of an obsession?!

Now today I've spent a fortune in tescos. £65 from grocery budget and £20 from personal spends. Although lots of it was cleaning products I'd also spent a lot on things for tonight as we were due to have friends over. They are helping us to put in some kitchen lights, saving on the cost of an electrician, but on the way home I'd already started to obsess about the money spent. As I walked through the front door I had a call from my friend asking if they can postpone as they're both full of cold. This is probably better for me anyway as I feel lousy with cold and conjunctivitus still hanging around but again all I can think about is the bloody money!! I've managed to freeze some of the food and the wine is easily saved.

Perhaps I should see the obsession in a more positive light. The more obsessed I am, the more likely we are to end the year in credit and (hopefully) with some savings.

Thanks MrsDean I will have a look not sure there's much more we can do though, we just live so fat from everything!

Right £20 left for the week for food top ups. Should be plenty!

Checking in! Couldn't keep up with last thread as we've got a lot going on buy I've had the frugaleering in my mind!

Had to change from just all local shopping as I just couldn't go out regularly enough, DH and I both have chronic illnesses and it's been a bit tricky lately, last time we did it we couldn't leave the house once we were back and went to bed really early!

So instead we have a middle ground. We get an Ocado order once a fortnight with mainly meat and cupboard stuff, some milk, bread, yoghurts and deli. I freeze some stuff and it costs about £40/week. We buy fish from the local fishmonger when we want it as it's much cheaper and fresher. We also get a fruit & veg 'box' (it's actually in a huge bag and we go to collect it, it's a local initiative) which is £12 a week but there's no commitment, unlike other schemes where you sign up to a weekly delivery. We get a lot of fruit and veg in it so we don't always need both fruit and veg (you buy the two separately at £6 each) so we can vary as needed.

The main area for me to work on was food and transport. We didn't get to walk nearly as much as I'd hoped in Jan but we still managed to save about £15. Our takeaway bill was the same, due to the illnesses, but at least it wasn't worse - hoping to cut it down this month. Our groceries were the cheapest ever, about £45 cheaper over the month than the cheapest month prior so a massive difference and very pleased with that

Otherwise it was quite a spendy month due to buying a big gift and a new stroller for short trips and some other little bits, but nothing extravagant or overpriced. Got cashback on everything including £105 for new phone contract (which is also cheaper)

Freelancemama - the things I have sold on eBay this year are

Branded clothes - mine and DS
Kids buggy accessories
Perfumes / aftershaves - new only
Broken consoles - got £30 for a wii that no longer works
Sets of things - like beauty sets I got for Xmas, sealed set of hunger games books

HTH

Apologies, should have said hello to all of the new people too. spotty, amber and hickory I love Aldi too! Meal planning around the Super Six has been really good for me. I shopped in tesco for the first time in ages today and as well as spending too much it was so overwhelming - too much choice!

william worrying is awful, especially when it keeps you awake, but in reference to my post above, maybe worrying/obsessing is a good thing as it makes us watch every penny. Just don't let it stress you out too much. This thread does help to take each day as it comes.

dark I'm selling on FB too. Not mega-money but it's helping to declutter and I'm putting all money earnt into a Christmas savings pot. I'm also aiming for lots of NSDs this month. Hoping for 14 (think I managed about 3 this month so maybe a bit ambitious!)

I have decided today to take out all the money I have left for the month and divide it up into realistic budgets. I have already massively overspent on food this month so that needs some attention. I will take out £15 in an envelope for the next 3 weeks Slimming World money and £15 that will cover 3 more Fridays pub lunches with work. I will need about £5 lottery money for work too. I am hoping that doing this will make me think twice before I spend anything. If I can physically see the money being handed over I know that it has gone and I know how much I have left.

I've made £25 off Facebook since yesterday which has been helpful! Will hopefully be more next week when I can get in the DCs rooms whilst they're at school/nursery!