An Avalanche of Austerity for April - Mumsnet frugaleers continue!

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

Thought I'd start a new thread for April

Well done ohhelp! I know what you mean, I'm sooo tight over my mini savings of £300, I haven't even been tempted to spend it!

£6.10 on fish n chips (there's a new van that comes and dd begged) but for two jumbo frankfurters sausages and a handful of chips I'm not impressed

Payday today! And I actually managed to live within my means for about the third month in a row, which is fab!
Kind of slipped up a bit today, as I bought two tops and a book. But they were from charity and cost a mere £9.05, so I don't feel too bad.

unfortunately DS wants to continue drumming lessons this term (I thought he had decided against it), so that's an unexpected £85 to find. However, I should reap that back +++++ once he is in a world famous rock band!

So that's ohhelp, miss and silk who have done really well this month. Yay.

Here's hoping there are even more positive stories by the end of this month.

DP was paid today, yai, and me spent 35 euros, so typical... But was for 3 maternity bras so need them when the little one is coming to breastfeed her, and there were 30 % of the mama clothes in H&M, so still saved a bit.
Transferred 1000 euros to saving, nice feeling. And sent my invoice for work this month as well, so when I get paid, we can, hopefully, add another 800 to saving...

Congrates ohhelp, miss and silk
We came out with plus 191 euros so went straight to the savings, felt nice. Especially since my parents has been visiting, so spent a bit there and have gotten the last pieces for the baby :)

Also, little minor frugal win - we are having home grown (from seed!!) salad with dinner tonight, the first harvest from our little garden. Also a large handful of parsley which we grew too in the falafels.

Just been catching up on last few days of the thread - I feel hungry after reading all the snacks and slow cooker recipes!

My face snack for DS is sugar free carrot,apple,sultana and date cake by mamacook - will post link when I find it! I freeze half and it is a great snack and sneaks veg in!

Another mammoth month for me workwise saving up to cut down my hours over the summer to be with DS more. Went to view a house yesterday - quite spendy doing viewings as we have a 1.5 hour round trip each time we go, often end up eating out there and it means neither of us worked yesterday morning.

Frugal wins (thank you weather) include using the tumble dryer less and not needing to put the heating on.

Ooh, and I bought my Ghost Whisperer Nightgown and wrap from M&S as planned and it's lovely!

Face snack?! I mean face snack! Here's the link mamacook.blogspot.com/2012/06/sugar-free-carrot-sultana-and-apple.html?m=1

I've just realised I have to go to the nearest big town three times next week. It's forty minutes away and I will need to pay parking. This on top of three days work twenty minutes away and three nursery runs twenty minutes away no way will I stick to my £30 a week petrol budget.

Well done all you successful frugalers!

Ohhelp we are fairly rural and can count the petrol stations within a twenty minute drive on one hand but thanks anyway. The one near work is £££ but the one near nursery is on par with tesco.

£50.02 on online Sainsbury's shop and £45 cheque for DS' s upcoming Scouts trip. Also, £2.39 on a couple of things from Tesco and £4.50 for DS (pocket money and bus fares, and a box of eggs, as one of the other Scouts has chickens at home and they've started selling eggs).

Have a good weekend, everyone :).

£20 to friend for buying tickets for a show tomorrow. £14 on mcdonalds. £20 at sainsburys. Good job though, the kitchen although won't be done till next week is sufficiently ok for me to have work tops, a sink and a cooker. We can cook tomorrow I think... Although I'm not sure how much given I'm flying to Europe on Monday for work meetings and have yet to pack (and need to do washing and it's raining...and the washing machines outside...). Joys. Happy weekend!

Well done you fantastic frugaleers!!

Thanks for posting that link miss I'll try that for sure.

Got my bro over from overseas for a few weeks. He's with me for a few days and then we're visiting my mum. I will have to focus to not overspend too much. Spent 9 something in Tesco today but 5 was on a birthday cake for my dad's girlfriend who was 60 yesterday.

Spent £75 on food for 13, DH has since invited five more. He's good at BBQing so I'll kill him after we've eaten.

Mmm love BBQs

This morning I'm going to lidl. I need to decide if I should do my top up across the road at sainsburys (more expensive but less chance I will be tempted by other stuff) or drive a further ten minutes to the massive tesco (cheaper and get clubcard points, but further and more temptation...)

adora good plan. Get him to load the dw first though.

Wow the thread has moved fast!!

Some very inspiring money saving & debt clearing on here- well done ladies! It's such a wonderful feeling to know that you are debt free - I just need to get back there now so well done for showing it is achievable.

Mixed bag this week really easy to have NSD with the exception of parking for work. However some quite serious pending coming up- DD's swimming lessons although I'm saving around £40/ term (yes!) as I've just moved her swimming lessons from super expensive gym to local school. Today we are off to a kids sport class with her little friend so if she likes that it will be another £35/ half term.

Thanks to whoever mentioned that petrol comparison website I do remember that from some years back & need to look it up again.

So waiting for the 0% card to come through the post. Will shift the max debt I can onto it & then see what to do about the rest. I do think a loan would be most straightforward but then I think you are penalised if you want to make an overpayment one month.

A bit depressing as I've been promoted this month- I was doing the job temporary for 6 month so you receive a proportion of the new salary- but this was only for 6 month period & ran out before we were officially promoted & pay day cut off. Therefore this months salary will be around £200-300 short . Will get it back next month but May is such a spendy month. I'm away on a girls
Holiday organised ages ago when I had no more money but a lot less sense so need to reign the spending in as much as possible. Will be getting all my toiletries etc through TCB & delivered to local store.need to get a good rate on some Euros but it's self catering so still need to buy food when I am there. any tips on money saving while on hols?!

adora good plan

queenie the only one I can think of right now is local alcohol, if you drink.

• is to consume

Yesterday €78 on weekly shop in aldi, have a few more bits to get Sunday in Lidl plus trip to butcher also so maybe another €30. Borrowed from dd's birthday money as I'm in between mat benefit & wages at the moment. It will be returned to her credit union acc so no harm done anyhow.

Spent a bit of time this morning working out what I need to put away for bills going forward this year.

Dh wants to purchase new car with 5 year unlimited milage I've asked if we can put away the money it'll cost us for six months to see if it over stretches us & then we'll be confident if we choose to buy & have about €2000 saved to put against it. This is a major turnaround for me, I would have always bought first & repented at leisure.

Added up all my debt other than mortgage yesterday
Credit union loan, 2 credit cards, money owed to dd's & ds's savings plus money borrowed from dh adds up to roughly €14k
At current rate cu loan will be paid in 2.5 years.
If I put an extra €100 weekly against debt I'll have everything cleared in 80 weeks, this is doable because I earn about €150 weekly from my sideline job, dh working tomo but off today so going to draw up spreadsheet of my debts & enter amount paid off each weekly then, will do the snowball system so after dh is paid back & credit card arrears are paid I'll work on monthly minimum payments on cheaper credit card & more on dearer one & set up small standing orders to each of kiddies savings accounts. Think there is one last option for 0% credit card so will try that too.

Have also done up a calendar of events coming up & how much money I'd like to have for them & how much I need to put away for them so that I'm not robbing Peter to pay Paul when time comes.

Sorry for long post but writing it down here makes me commit

£15 for lunch out with colleagues yesterday.

Today will be spendy. Collecting our new kitten (£60) need to buy food, biscuits, litter tray and litter plus a collar.

Taking DD1 to buy new dance shoes (jazz and ballet) but she is buying those from her birthday money. Also last week DD1 put on her school shoes and said they are too tight! However, we use a local chain of shoe shops and if you buy 10 pairs of full price shoes the next pair (I think up to £65) is free. I was hoping that we would get her a free pair of boots for next winter hen we bought school shoes in September, but maybe I can get her sandals and free school shoes (last ones were £49!)

Also need to take DS's ereader back as the screen has gone, should be free.

Will need to do a food shop as not done one since before our holiday.

Today I am going to cancel my newspaper deliveries and pay off my back bill for them. Then I need to look at my bank account, and pay what I can off the credit card that gets used (as opposed to transferred balances)

Then this weekend I need to prepare all the amounts to pay off using DH's money and when I get paid next week start clearing the interest free card at £500 per month and putting £200 a month by for Christmas and £100 for holidays and £100 for emergencies!