An Avalanche of Austerity for April - Mumsnet frugaleers continue!

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

Thought I'd start a new thread for April

Hello everyone.

Got back from holiday yesterday, we all had a wonderful time. The bill for excursions and service charges (we'd paid extra for all inclusive drinks package) plus MIL having to see the doctor was about what we were expecting. I have most of it put by (although I'd prefer to be paying it off my debts but we booked the holiday before I came clean about my finances)

Have been away since 8th April so not spent much. Bought kebabs for tea last night £25, DH popped to Waitrose to get stuff for lunch today. Now just need to pay for school lunches.

Then this week I need to switch the electricity and gas supplier, and get the money from DH to settle my debts and start the really frugal new me.

A shop at Aldi for £15 as realised didn't have milk and bread (forgive me, my kitchen is a mess at the moment under construction!). Bought a £1.75 bunch of tulips for friend who very kindly hosted us for lunch. Dinner was frozen chicken Kievs and pasta. Yes strange, but what I could about muster with no worktops and all condiments and pans etc packed away upstairs.

It will be school dinners for ds this week for sure! Doh.

Spendy day getting food in for next 2 weeks, £40 in Sainsbos & I still have about £10 worth of stuff to get tomorrow that they didn't have in, plus need to pay for my shoes being resoled and heeled (£18) and get my eyebrows etc done (£7.50) for going back to work.

Have meal planned for 2 weeks though and will be able to freeze leftovers to stretch a bit further than that.

On the plus side, going back to work will mean spending way less, so will aim to have a really good surplus from April pay.

Thanks for the nail stuff tips I couldn't find much on amazon. Pound shop a good idea but that's £6 in petrol and £2 in parking plus the temptation of h&m

Some good news to report. We've been putting money away each month for anticipated expenditure e.g. MoT, holiday, Christmas, annual bills, etc. It was a real pain to calculate and set up and have to keep revising it as things go up and down, but yesterday I checked, and after 5 months, we have over £2000 in the joint account! It's there for a reason I.e. it's set aside for specific spends but it's a relief to know the system works and we don't have to be scared of getting the car serviced anymore!

An idea from a budget beauty blog, if you have mire than one person to gift nail stuff to, is to buy sets and then split them, add a bright nail file and some nail art (also from a split set) to make two or three smaller gift sets.

Ok back to work, back to motivation for me today! Think all I need to buy is a tin of toms, toothpaste and milk.

Ohhelp I used to find the zoo so expensive too! Have a lovely day out

Spendy day here, but got the last, I hope, bits for the hospital bag. If only they could decide on c section or normal birth, oh well.
Think I spent around 25 euros in "Boots" and 10 euros in supermarket.
I have now used YNAB for roughly a month, but we have more money in the account than the budget tells me we have... lol...
Oh well, as long as it is that way and not the opposite.
Rest of the day should be NSD, mainly due to me having to work loads...
Oh btw, looking at maternity bras, anybody know if the H&M is any good? Want to try breastfeeding, but dont wanna spend to much on clothes ect., before I know if I success or not.

italianwiking have you found ynab good?
I'm back to work & wages next week & don't know if I should wait for a sale or just buy it? Free trial expired long ago if I used a new email address could I get another trial or is it linked to your IP address?

I'm almost 6 months breastfeeding and only things I bought were two decent bf bras, a friend donated a couple in early days & I've just used a string top inside an ordinary top otherwise. Did buy a nuk manual pump but it's me not the pump that's the issue!

lilacclery YNAB is good yes, would I buy it without discount? NO. I am on the free trial now and hoping to find a good offer when it runs out, if not, then I am not going to buy it.
I dont know how they check with mail addresses and IP, perhaps somebody else knows?

I am also only going to buy some bras and then having the pads as well. I have decided that a pump ect is not me at all. If it does not work in the beginning naturally, I am going to use formula instead. I want to, if it works, breastfeed for around 4-6 months.

springbright a colleague at work has been doing sw and has lost stones. She's found it easy to stick to and eats a lot of fruit, yoghurts etc.

italian I had two breastfeeding bras from m&s. I had a few specific breastfeeding tops but much preferred the method of a vest to pull down under a looser top to pull up.

75p on plant pot trays to put my herbs on
15p on shreddies
£2 in aldi on rice, marked down bread, flour and oil.
66p on popadoms, probably didn't need them really.

£2.34 posting letter but accountant will claim that back.

Sent off a "love me or I'm free" form to la roche posay, should get £10 back.

NSD yesterday, I got into the shop but DD1's preteen 'tude got in the way so we came out emptied handed.

I'll try again today, should have time before I collect DDs.

Will catch up later.

I bet dd1 was when you did that Adora

She was Fluffy, but she's learning. She thought about complaining about lentils in a veg curry instead of the chicken I was going to buy, I could almost see the lightbulb come on inside her head.

NK don't worry about what you manage to cook, it's food and I know how difficult that can be to achieve sans kitchen.

£7.90 in Lidl.

Persevere italianwiking if you can the first 11 weeks were intense for us (everyone says 6 weeks but I had a pph so it took longer) but it's so convenient not having to wash & sterilise bottles, remembering to buy formula & only be able to stay out a certain length of time cos you don't have spare bottles left.

I'll try a different email address & see what happens

Sun nsd until I went out that night - round of drinks €30
Mon €2 charity donation at teddy bears picnic €15 at tesco on bread milk & lime scale tablets for washing machine
Tues €10 at Unislim class

I thought I'd be happy bf for four months and did it to ten as it was so easy. It wasn't always easy but I was stubborn to start with. You def don't need a pump I did as I exclusive expressed for ten days when ds was on SCBU being tube fed. I don't know about h&m nursing bras I used a sleep bra to start then invested in panache ones. Oh I miss my big boobs

£3.74 on crap in the garage

Hi all

Right 0% CC application has been approved- yay! But it's got a £2k limit so what do I do just transfer some of my balance over? Should I look for another card for the rest or would that create sirens on my credit record?

Much cheaper being at work than being at home.
£6 on parking (standard)
£2 on coffee from canteen
50p on bottle of water for dd at pick up time
Took a packed lunch today for first time in ages.

Lizard is you £11(?)k all on one cc?

Your*

Thanks picnmix, I think I'm gonna give it a go (shamefully I only stuck with 5:2 for three weeks - how did you get on in the end?) a girl at work is going to bring in her books so I may test drive first before committing financially.

spotty payatpump was invented for us frugaleers! The sweets are so tempting!

Ended up spending £8.45 in tescos but I'm hoping no more shopping until Monday.

Frugal things: have opened up a new e-savings pot and found the button to name them so now I have 'Christmas', 'emergency' and 'squirrel' (see MFin3); am really raiding the cupboards, sausage, lentil and random veg stew on the go and strawberry jelly made for puddings; have sold another 3 items on FB.

Spring I wasn't even buying petrol