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

Freebie: dp got some posh Italian tiles we can do our bathroom with left over from a job

Spotty

Our bathroom needs redoing, but that's another thread

We've only just put a shower in after being here 3.5 years. Dp got a £280 shower off a friend for £25 (brand new) so now he needs to tile and get a shower screen. Oh and replace the bath panel he hack sawed in half

Clippityclop I need to persuade dd 12 too. She's currently on 2 packed lunches a week, but school dinner is too expensive!

Ds3 (7) would like packed lunch every day but our school meals are really good and it means I can give him a snack at night if he has an activity, we are going to eat too late or if we are having something too spicy to suit him. Ds1 and ds2 are 18 and 16 and we all love spicy food. I might think about it though. I could keep left overs for him. He likes mince, stew, steak pie etc.

Spent too much today. £75 in the new ALDI (inc. £5 off) and I am expecting a Tesco online shop tomorrow. £100 arrr. But that is dog food, laundry liquid (ds2 has eczema and can only use surcare, M&S or boots sensitive) etc. we should only need milk and fruit until the end of the month and perhaps beyond. I must work on my NSD's.

Did the shop this afternoon (rare) as I had an app at the doctors so it was on the way to nursery pick up. It was £16!! Milk, veg, other things that needed picking up. If not for a relative coming for the weekend (much wanted visit) we'd be done! But I reckon we'd probably stop off somewhere to get some food in, and then have one meal out. But that's ok.... It's nice family.

Argh I keep forgetting the £5 off voucher for Aldi. Which paper is it in again? Thanks

3.55 in b&m. Pay day tomorrow so just working out my monthly budgets.

It's the mirror/daily record at the end of the month. One of usually posts about it nearer the time.

Thanks

NSD! Frugalness included making mash with Philly rather than going to buy butter!

The roof quote arrived today. 500. Includes internal plastering but potentially will need another quote once they get up there and start fixing. At least we have a figure to work on - will have to seriously look at budgets over the next 6 months if we decide to go ahead now. I may have to raid the 150 saved in the Christmas 2014 pot :(

4 pound for bus 1 for potatoes and 1for body wash. Dryers been broke for over a week cant afford to get new 1 till end of month. Fed up of bieng bloidy skint pft ! :(

Yesterday I had a disaster when I left my soup at hone, but remembered I had a long life pouch of Aldi soup in my drawer. I spent £5 on DD1's karate lesson.

Having said all the kids activities have to stop, DH has now said I can't make kids suffer for my mistakes. Whilst I agree in principal that is now £90 a month I'm not going to be saving! Even worse, he said DS can stop karate but must take up something else and that DD1 can do that too. How is this me saving money?

Today was a spendy day. £62.01 for diesel, a one day travel card (need to log into my Oyster account to check how much that was) plus £7 for a taxi home from the station, but that was after attending a work event so I can reclaim all that (and the diesel). I also spent £3.58 on a burger and lemonade on the way to the party so I didn't drink on an empty stomach.

Tomorrow should be a NSD but need to do a weekend shop and there seem to be lots of non food items on the list. Will do Tesco online so I can check the prices.

Audit I'd be telling DH that if he insists on DCs doing activities right now then he pays for it. I know that may be a little awkward but if you can't afford it then you don't do it.

Didn't cook tonight. DDs and I had corn on the cob followed by a Cheapo packet soup To which I added lentils for lunch. None of us needed dinner. DH wasn't hungry either so cheese and crackers sufficed.

Tomorrow I'm doing a cauliflower and egg curry. DD1 is going To a friend's for the afternoon so I'll be driving Tomorrow but shouldn't need To buy anything.

Made Two lot's of flapjacks Today, DD2 doesn't like the banana ones so she did Apple.

We may have To do a minor modificación To sell the house. Almost every house here has a small bedroom off the kitchen or utulity, it's the maid's room. We don't and I could tell with the last people who viewed that this was the reason they didn't buy it. It won't cost a fortuna if we do it and there is space To extend out from the kitchen. It really doesn't need To be much bigger than a box room, which is appaling but that's the market we're selling in.

Audit I agree with Adora. Yes, it's not ideal, but the kids aren't 'suffering for your mistakes'. Rather you, as a family, can't actually afford extra curricular activities right now (unless he can, in which case you can have a conversation about him paying for them vs him helping you with your debt). Don't be guilt tripped into something that is going to make your financial pit deeper - family financial security is far more important than martial arts!

Only spend today should be £1 on toddler group. DH taking the DCs swimming later but that's paid for and we have plenty of snacks for him to take as well.

audit could you be creative and suggest some free or cheap alternatives for your children's activities? Cubs and brownies always used to be quite reasonable, or how about learning a new skill like a language, craft or chess but supervised at home. If you all have bikes and the time and inclination you could spend one afternoon a week cycling somewhere new, or perhaps you can find somewhere they could volunteer like mucking out at a local stable in return for some riding time. Sorry if all of these suggestions are totally unsuitable - I'm not in the realm of dc activities just yet myself! Good luck!

You could remind him that it was paying out for things you can't afford that got you into debt in the first place.

No one spends their way out of debt.

Morning everyone well a high spend day and it's only 9am had to pay car tax of £110 and DH still hasn't been paid. Has been told it will go in at some point today but we'll see.

Have listed some more things on eBay but am running out of stuff to sell! Found a load of unopened memory sticks shoved at the back of a cupboard so am selling those for a few quid each which is topping up paypal a bit but don't think I have anything else big to sell.
Also found out that all the overtime I am doing this month I won't get paid till the end of April whereas before I had been told I would get it the end of this month so that's a bit of a kick as well.

Oh well it can only get better right ?!

LSD yesterday - £3 on a second-hand red t shirt to wear to a school activity this weekend.

Should be NSD today.

DH has pre-interview meeting with the head of another department today to discuss the job interview he's going for later this month. Fingers crossed!

Morning

audit agree with the others - perhaps he can take up the cost of the children's activities? Or you find something different for them to do. I hope that your DH is not using your debt as a stick to beat you with. Me being nosey, I would like to know why you have separate finances and you seem to be paying for all the kids stuff and direct debits. But that's just me, tell me to mind my own business.

Ellis What an almighty disappointment about your overtime not being paid this month. Hope that it doesn't cause any hardship. Is it for tax reasons (with the new financial year)?

Somehow, DS persuaded me that he could do with a new Lego set. So, £25 on said Lego . He has been asking for ages. He caught me at a very vulnerable, not with it moment and I agreed to it before I realised what I had said. I have been putting him off but today I finally bought it. Luckily, I had planned for it in my budget so it did not feel too much of a wrench.

I bought it at Argos, which very conveniently is next door to Aldi. So I popped in there. I bought some stuff and me being the saddo, I came home and worked out how much it would have cost using Ocado and Morrisons. I spent £10 but saved over £5 by just going to Aldi. I wasn't too impressed with the fruit and veg (apart from the super 6 prices) - they did not look as nice and were similarly priced to Morrisons.

Oops, sorry for the epic post.

4pound bus fair 49 p for a birthday card 75p for orange juice. Wont be spending anything else as dd been sent home from school.

Cadbury I got talked into a similar lego purchase in January. Funny what you can agree to when not paying attention!

Ellis what a pain about the overtime.

Need to make some more packed lunch snacks this afternoon - DH is planning a big day out with the DCs tomorrow and needs plenty of supplies to avoid emergency coffee shop stops. Bit bored of flapjacks, any ideas?

Cadbury - doesn't affect me too much financially but would have been nice to have it sooner rather than later

Some good news is that DH pay finally went in so at least that's something.

Possibly - snack ideas... Muffins? Banana bread slices? Fruit kebabs?

Weekend shouldn't be too spendy here as am spending tomorrow night at my mums and have just planned park and free stuff to do with DS

Banana bread slices, mixed breakfast cereal (mine likes cheerio/corn(bran)flakes/shreddies type combo) in individual tupperware or bags, fruit, cheese and grapes on a cocktail stick, pancakes with fruit in them (gives it a bit of moisture).

Spent the last hour and a half doing my expenses. Have lost the will to live but its all been approved and I should see it in my pay packet next week. Yay.