An Avalanche of Austerity for April - Mumsnet frugaleers continue!

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

Thought I'd start a new thread for April

Spotty, we have a Meter ( 2 grown ups plus mid teen) and our dd is £50 a month. I'd stay with the yearly/dd bill. I have to think when I want the dishwasher/washer on,and can't even think about a nice deep bath.

I think we paid £400 a year un-metered. You have to be prepared to change behaviour.

We have family who are metered who pay loads more than us but they have old ineffiecent loos, they wash up by hand & they are in the shower for ages every day.

My last quarterly bill was £80 and I was not happy about it but I hadn't fitted any water saving devices & I was having a deep bath every day. I've knocked that on the head now and I have a very short shower instead.

If you ring the water board they can tell you if they allow customers to revert if its more expensive.

My water bill in the last metered house was £13 a month.

Well we don't have a dishwasher or shower and have an old style toilet and flushing system so it probably wouldn't be any good for us.

60p at the shop, couldn't walk there and not buy anything!

Stay as you are then. That sounds an expensive system to run.

spotty the rule of thumb is if you have more bedrooms than people living in the house then a water meter would definitely be worth considering. Our water rates are something like £750 but using a meter, it goes down to £432 which is still a lot but DS and DP like baths and we don't have a dishwasher and do a load of washing everyday. Still it's a major saving for us to be on a meter. Must look into those water saving devices, thanks fluffy. Love that comment re: the cashback btw.

Spendy day today. £40 petrol. £1.80 for a ice lolly for DS, which meant I did not have enough cash to pay at Aldi so had to use debit card. We went to the big park this morning and Aldi is right next door. Anyway, food for Wed-Tues came to just under £80.

spotty what's an old style toilet and flushing system?

Cadbury presumably one without a dual flush.

We are spending virtually nothing at the moment apart from food shopping, as DH, the DCs and I are all just pottering round the house and wandering into town every now and again - an unexpected upside of a new baby! I would love some new clothes but am resisting (a) because we're broke and (b) because I hate buying clothes in huge sizes and I have about 2 stone to lose .

Fanta just snacks, thanks for those tips. We don't do a lot of fizzy drinks and crisps here anyway, much to DD's dismay, but the fruit juice I buy is expensive. The long life ones here have much more sugar than Uk, but I'll stock up on that just for when they have visitors. It's what all the others drink anyway. So far just girls.

Glad you enjoyed the restaurants in Paris and Brussels NK, all the better if work is paying

Cadbury was that ice lolly dipped in gold?

Yes no dual flush.

Dd and I have just fallen asleep on the sofa her illegal nap won't help with bedtime tonight....

Possibly it's really tempting to buy clothes straight after having a baby!

Well I've just checked my water meter & we've used 23m in 4 months compared to 24m in 3 months so being frugal is working its just not as cheap as our old house was .

I hate that bastard dishwasher 16L per cycle. The water saving ones only use 6.5L per cycle.

Ice Lols are indeed sprinkled in gold dust in this country. I tried putting them into flasks last year but the stick went all wonky.

£2 in Morrisons (two trout for 85p each!)
£6 on lawn stuff in home bargains, I ignored the man behind me who kept saying "ho ho ho" because I was buying a HOE, he did it 3 times just in case I didn't hear him the first time.

£2.50 in aldi on bread rolls, bleach & Yorkshire puds.
£10 on petrol.

So, £20 gone in one day & my work got cancelled for today so no money earned. Fab.

Ah ok spotty. I was imagining a cistern high up on the wall with a chain to flush it.

Water savers ordered. Free stuff. Thanks again fluffy

Ouch at illegal nap spotty I know if mine had a illegal nap, he would be awake till gone past 10 pm. This was when he was little too.

Feeling very lucky when I read about illegal naps my almost 4 year old is currently napping in car but will still go to bed at bedtime.

I want to get out to go to weigh in but don't want her to be cranky in there either .

Nsd literally cos I have no money to spend!

What times bedtime lila? Dd is almost four. Ds has two naps a day and can't stay up past 6:30!

£5 aldi voucher in the sun tomorrow

According to hotukdeals anyway.

Aw @ naps. I wish I could nap. My family are a family of nappers but not me. That gene bypassed me.

lilac sorry to hear that. When will you be able to get money?

FantaSea yes its the one with slide doors... Had a test drive this afternoon and it was really nice to drive in, so smooth and easy to park/drive :) Its 460 Euros in leasing per month, so need to calculate and budget now....
Been translating to German all day, so all tired in the head now :)

Anybody knows what YNAB costs after the trial period?
Spent 14 euros on MAC today after the test drive, baby and mommy to be was hungry lol

italian I think it's £29.99 on steam but I am sure there will be a sale soon. Are you a convert then?

£40 on 3 days of half term football. Ahh... Half term costs more than school days!

We're on a meter and it costs about 320 a year but it's just two adults, a toddler, no bath no dishwasher and no hosepipe so we're definitely better off.

I have noticed the difference that quicker showers make to electricity usage so if you're on a meter it's double the savings. You can get egg timers for showers to remind you to hurry up!

3.10 into museum and 2.60 on tea and snack for DS. 3.71 in asda but included lots of yellow stickered bargains.

I've got family visiting soon and don't have enough room to put them all up. 102 to holiday inn. Waaaaaaaah! So annoying but unavoidable.

We're on a meter and it costs about 320 a year but it's just two adults, a toddler, no bath no dishwasher and no hosepipe so we're definitely better off.

I have noticed the difference that quicker showers make to electricity usage so if you're on a meter it's double the savings. You can get egg timers for showers to remind you to hurry up!

I've just made a whole new email address to get £15 off first online shop at tesco

Aldi voucher is correct according to mse also.

CoolCadbury not a complete convert, still love my own homemade budgets, but.... My DP loves the look of it and could I get him on board, then it would be great. He is very financial in his attitude in general, but because I have a bank degree he tends to "leave" it to me more, and I think it would do him good to get better understanding and using budgets too. Hope it made sense :)
By the way, whats Steam?