Marching into a miserly march with the mumsnet frugaleers

[Fluffycloudland77]

Newbies, helpful tips & lurkers always welcome.

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

Lists I agree with others, seeing it written down will help, it just feels impossible when you first start. Well done for decideing against the lamb for friend's dinner, that is a very good start. You can make a lovely meal with almost anything, no need To splash out on the most expensive every time.

DH has made a mistake that will actually save us money. He thought we were invited To a house warming at the weekend but it's Tomorrow evening, when we have other friends over for drinks and nibbles. While it would be lovely to Go To the house warming now we don't have To buy a gift we can't. They are not close friends so it's not a major disapointment, and they'll have plenty of other guests.

I Spent £2 replacing the sweets I've scoffed Today. Next couple of weeks we need To renew the accidente insurance for DDs school activities. Car insurance hasn't gone through so needs To be paíd in cash, like now, DH is away on business soon, the vet/kennel Bill is still out standing and I'm going To bury my head in the sand using up the contents of my kitchen/bathroom/ emergency store cupboards while I have the house To myself.

Thanks everyone. Having a monthly budget for eating out is a good idea. I am not going to set it immediately though because until I've recorded things for a while I don't know what would be realistic if that makes sense.

Quite looking forward to Saturday night now. My friend phoned and said she'd bring pudding to save me making it so that will save us a bit.

I've never used a cashback site before but maybe its time I did. Ordering the shoes on line is a great idea I didn't even know that you could.

On the bright side I've restarted a couple of the survey sites I used to do. I found I had £11.50 stashed on Valued Opions so I can get a amazon vocuher at £15 and also £16 on One Poll which pays out in cash at £40.

At least today has ended as a NSD so that's 2 so far this month even if I've spent loads on the rest of them!

£59.68 in Aldi using all my vouchers (except the Moroccan lamb). That included a turkey crown, pair of slippers for dh and a bottle of wine. £2 for ds2 I didn't ask what he needed it for. I have an Aldi voucher for next week as our new store opens on Thursday - so exciting sad

Actually my two freezers are full, I don't need anything and I must stop buying until we have eaten everything we have. I will meal plan for the rest of the month tomorrow.

Going to a concert on Saturday. Tickets are bought but ds3 and I will probably have lunch at the theatre. I will see if dh will pay.

There's an article in the news today saying M&S are launching a fee free account in the summer with a £100 gift card. I'll be applying for that so will dh if I have my way.

Managed this week without visiting the butcher until today will need to spend €5 on chicken fillets, would normally spend €20-€30 there. This week we ate from freezer & bought one pack of chicken drumsticks in aldi for €2.89.
And tomo & sun are spent out at christenings with hot buffets both days.

Yesterday was a very frugal dinner - completely made from leftovers. In the fridge there was cooked cabbage and leftover mash as well as bacon & a mix dh had made of ham cubes peppers onion and tinned tomatoes so I added the chopped bacon to this and some creme fraiche and cooked pasta to make a pasta bake and sprinkled over some cheese. And made colcannon from the mash and cabbage!

Marking my place! Need to clear overdraft on housekeeping account and save regularly for holidays.That means getting back to proper meal planning and selling stuff on EBay.Good luck everyone.

NSD yesterday, 4 in a row. Today already not as Ebay seller's fees came out, thankfully I had left £38.08 in the paypal account to take the edge of it so it was only £13.35 out of my own money. Next time will leave more.

Attempting to keep spends down this weekend - will need to do top-up food shop in Aldi for fresh veg/fruit and sainsburys for soya yogs and other things Aldi doesn't have, but nothing too major, hoping for a spend of £20 or less in total.

Frugal win - took a school trip yesterday and the school we visited made a mistake and gave us 30 pack lunches instead of 11, so the teacher in charge gave me all the spare bananas (2 massive bunches). They were going in the bin anyway - one bunch is very green so should have time to use them all.

Non frugal win - she'd already thrown away c. 15 perfectly good apples and c. 15 packets of unopened crisps before I realised what was going on! grrrrrr.

What a waste MissAnnersleyismyhero (she's mine too i love Chalet School books). Couldn't they ahve found another use for them especially the crisps which wouldn't have gone off for ages

Need bread and milk but hoping thats it for the day. I think I'll go when dd is at brownies this evening as the shops have usually reduced the bread by then

Oh and just remembered I used to do inbox pounds but got impatient as I was never going to get to £20 to cash out. Just checked and I was actually up to £18 anyway so I've decided to start doing it again in the hope of cashing out.

What? throwing away perfectly edible food WHY? wonder if some elf & safety clap trap was involved, can't think of any lógical explanación

Need To Get cheese Today.

£54.80 in Aldi. Gone up a bit this week but I did gat a few bits for my aunt too as she can't get out and about at the moment. Took ds to Waitrose for a treat and splashed out 80p on a biscuit in the cafe, my coffee was free and the lovely lady on the till gave me ds's milk for free, yay!

It's going to be a spendy weekend as I'm taking dd1 to London with some friends for (another) birthday treat. Friend has booked the train tickets on her family rail card and we are going for afternoon tea at a posh hotel, but another friend got us a deal in that too. Think we'll do the National Gallery and look at the Palace as well. Don't think I'll get change out if £80 though!

Lists, have you tried Sainsburys for ballet tights? I got ones for my dd's there and it was 3 pairs for £5.

adora it was just laziness - we were getting off the coach, the other school had given us two massive boxes of food which was only half eaten and the kids were all racing homewards off the bus as we'd been delayed. She couldn't be arsed to find a use for the food or carry it into the staff room so was binning it at the bus stop!

She was actually a bit that I took the bananas rather than binning them, she clearly now thinks I am well odd.

Frugal win today: someone at work was giving away bulbs they'd dug from their garden so I got a huge clump of gorgeous snowdrops to put out the front.

On the downside I spent £3 on second hand books in a charity sale at work ...it's funny how one spend seems to lead to another, once the eBay money had gone out today it wasn't an NSD so I felt more enabled to spend

Total spend today so far: £16.35 (eBay and books).

That really should be it, I am in work til 6.30 then going to an art show done by the kids at 6.30-7ish then home to cook dinner. Surely I can't find a way to spend more money??!?

Payday so very spendy. Online shop approx £90 includes chocolate eggs for Easter though, then town. Quality save £15 (5 was FIL), Farmfoods £17 (14 was FIL) Mullaco £18 but got large veg oil (6!) potatoes in a sack, 30 eggs, 5 packs chapati, 3 fajita kit crisps and 4 tins lilt for me
The card shop was £8, including 3 lots of mothers day/grandma cards and £20 in local butcher for big piece of pork, doing pulled pork in the slow cooker to take to sister's party.
My intention is now that I am stocked up I don't go to any shops til next Friday then do a top up at Aldi. There, the words have been spoken in a public domain so I have to stick to it.

Payday for me next Friday and I've got just enough money in all my envelopes to last us (famous last words) so I'm really happy and pleased we've managed to stick to it.

Even had 50 quid from the emergency fund that we had to spend on the car after it broke down - but I guess that's why it's worth having an emergency fund.

I bought some hair dye to save having it done at the salon in a few weeks time, so I feel as though I've saved a few quid there too.

£45.77 in Tesco and DS needs 80p for his bus fare to Scouts later, so that should be it for today.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend :).

£15 on petrol but no personal spends.

I have family who throw things out if they get near the use by date. Whole unopened chickens go in the bin.

Have been MASSIVELY tempted to spend today, but restricted myself to one DVD for £1.50 from the charity shop. (and bread and milk.)

I noticed that my fuel bill was down by £15-20 last month, which is encouraging as I was trying very hard to turn lights / ipod etc off when not in use. part of this is also to do with DSs losing Xbox & TV so many times for poor behaviour

Does anyone else have a discrepancy in their accounts between pay day and benefit payments? My child benefit and working family tax credits go in about three weeks after pay day, so I'm currently trying to build up a cushion in the account to cover this shortfall.

Ended up having to spend £12 on an emergency taxi to get DS from nursery then take him to the doctor :( Poor baby.

Otherwise not spent anything. Was going to buy bread but have baked soda bread instead for breakfast tomorrow. I've also used up the last couple of overripe bananas to make banana pancakes for the children's pudding tonight. This way I can avoid entering a shop and being tempted

£3 on lunch feeling very disappointed with myself

listsandbudgets I hope your ds is ok.

SpottyTeacakes I hope lunch was good

£37.50 in Matalan sale. I should have stayed away but love their Falmer leggings (with cashmere) and they were half price. I got 2 pairs! Also 2 sweatshirts for dh and 3 pairs boxers, 5 pairs (angry bird) socks and a jacket for ds1 (18). So not bad for the money keeps telling herself

£17 back from Quidco

I was outbid on an ebay item thank goodness.

Have done a meal plan from the fridge, freezer and cupboards for the next two weeks so should only need a few fresh bits at the new Aldi on Thursday

Tomorrow will be a bit spendy as ds2 is playing in a concert and ds3 and I will go to watch. I will not, will not spend on Sunday.

Hope DS is okay Lists and Well done using up the bananas. I used To make banana loaf for DH úntil he realised he has a problem with wheat/gluten. He now gets banana flapjacks instead

I'm going To have To buy note books, DD's locker isn't sorted yet and almost all her books are inside it. And Wednesday's lunch remnants but I'm trying not To think about that. At least if she has something To write in she can share a text book.

Adorabell, can you post the recipe for banana flapjacks? Sounds lovely! Do you use special gluten free oats?

Parking and coffees in exchange for working from cafe this morning. A few bits for a friend who's just had a baby and chocolate biscuits for me (PMT) but only a quid for dark choc McVities...
Need to order DS more nappies tomorrow - mega expensive Eco disposable ones to ease my conscience. But, they deliver so no temptation to buy other stuff in a shop.

I love dark chocolate digestives