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

spotty how lovely of them. I have never been into Lidl.

kinky how many do you have to buy for? BTW, I only spend £20 on DP but go a bit mad with DS' presents.

Quite a few over the year, Cool. Two sets of parents, three siblings, one BIL, two nephews, three other family children (10 on them), great aunt. Also have 2 DC and DH. Plus, mother's day, father's day and then Christmas. However, at Christmas I only buy for kids and DH's parents.

As for clothes, I've never budgeted but then find myself frustrated on the uniform/school shoes months. I'm hoping to get away with summer clothes this year as I bought a load last year and shorts don't get half-mast , but DS is like a little beanpole and gets very tall very quickly - he will need more clothes in autumn. DD seems to be more settled at her size at 15, but will still need the odd thing, like new shoes in September for school and new trousers. I hate buying them for me, but wear and tear means I will probably need the odd pair of trousers or work top. I don't spend vast sums; I love Sainsburys for uniform and matalan for kids clothes. I get the odd bit from Next for work.

I save £15 a month for school shoes. (2 x £45 for each DC). I've only just started this, so I don't know if that's realistic, but I think they generally need to two pairs a year. Even if I need to tweak it, at least it's a start.

I don't have a clothes budget for DS as family tend to get him clothes for birthday and Christmas and he has slightly older cousins so we get a lot of hand me downs. He has more clothes than me and DH put together! I need to get work clothes occasionally but try to wait and ask for vouchers for birthdays so can use those. Have a £70 in vouchers to use for me when I need anything.

Had to spend £15 in sainsburys last night getting bits to do us till the weekend and I can do a proper shop. Should finally get my overtime this month so want to pay the rest of the terms nursery fees and put some aside for next months as well my current goal is to get ahead if myself so have next months bill money ready rather than just having enough for the present. Will probably take a while to get there though.

Aldi voucher today in the mirror/daily record

£30 a month for Christmas and birthdays is my budget and I've just spent about £155 in the last week on holiday/summer clothes and a few basics for me. DS needs school shoes after the Easter holidays and some summer pajamas and hiking boots for when he goes on Scout Camp, but that should be it until August, when it's uniform for Year 7. Eek!

DD2's school shoes are now too small. These are new shoes bought just a few weeks ago for the new school year. She now tells me she thought they were okay but she "didn't try them properly" because she felt DH was rushing her. Grr, she had them on her feet and meandered round the shop while we sat chatting and she told me they were comfortable, and she had enough space in them for a bit of growth when I checked them.

I. Am. Not. Amused.

We also bought the next size up, for 6 month's time, so I don't have To spend money right now but I feel like screaming

We don't budget for clothes here, I don't buy much as not working and DH just spends spends spends when his stuff wears out. DDs clothes are the cheaper end of the scale, much To DD1's annoyance, probably spend about £500Per. year on both. I swear I'm going To stop feeding them if they don't stop growing out of their clothes

We also don't buy gifts for a lot of people, DCs, each other and I have a couple of really close friends I buy for. I keep friend's gifts below £15, DH around £50/60 and he blows a bloody fortuna on myself and DDs. I don't ask him How much my gifts are but a couple of years ago I suggested a CD and he bought me an iPad. You Get the gist.

I will need To buy bread either Today or Tomorrow.

It's a good job you didn't ask for an ipad. You'd have had a Porsche on the drive with a big red bow on it.

55p on the mirror.

Don't give him ideas Fluffy.

£10.19 on macdonalds

I really want a macdonalds now!

Spent £11 in sainsburys on potatoes and vests for DS.

NSD so far. :)

NSD for me although I've asked DH to get mirror so 55p.

Yesterday was very spendy, but it was pay day so all bills for the month are paid for, food shopping done and everything accounted for in YNAB

Yesterday also included £9.58 spend at macdonalds, but me and DS have a really bad cold, and you should always feed a cold right?

£2 for (boring) baguette, but I will get that back on expenses. Also 3.25 on 3 punnets of strawberries as well as a Twirl for a colleague who shared her Twix with me last week.

£7 in the pound shop (£2 for 6 cream eggs nom nom) and various bits of easter craft tatt as kids will have too much chocolate so I'm not adding to it.

Lidl voucher in the sun tomorrow.

£5 in Starbucks. Only one NSD this week. i'm not very good at this!

Luckily DS does not like chocolate.

Let me qualify that:so no expense at Easter.

NSD today. My uncle got me a mirror when he got his paper.

fluffy do you know how long the lidl voucher lasts for? It it the same as Aldi as in 5 off 40? Are there other money off vouchers with it? Thanks.

£70 on trains (claim from work). £5 on food. £7 for dh and ds' fish and chips.

£60 on diesel, to claim back from work. £4.39 on Kentucky between dashing back from work and taking DS to church.

Found a pack of Kitkats in a bag in my car which was a nice surprise!

ilove I saw the lidl voucher on hotukdeals & it didn't say how long it would last for.

Will be a spendy day

Need £20 petrol (outside of budget so from personal spends)
Parking at the hospital £10?
Definitely something to eat when ds is under £10?
Probably take away for dinner depending what time we get back...

spotty I hope the surgery goes well for your DS and your day is smooth and stress free as possible.