An Avalanche of Austerity for April - Mumsnet frugaleers continue!

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

Thought I'd start a new thread for April

Welcome babsmam and woolypigs

Adora glad you are ok. How did Valparaiso fare?

insideleg £5 short changed - that's a lot! No reason for you to feel awkward.

£3 for food at work, but will get that back on expenses.

Feeling back in control after yesterday's stressful start (in my head). YNABed yesterday so all up to date. Also all up to date with expenses claimed. I had not realised until last week that I could claim for a certain cost so spent most of yesterday filling out claim forms for the whole of this tax year for this certain cost. Took ages but completely worth it as it was worth a couple hundred pounds. Phew! Just made it in the nick of time because expenses cant be backdated for the previous tax year.

Welcome babsmam and woolypigs!

Nice frugal win Cadbury!

picnmix I am planning a trip to b&m in my holiday next week. Am also strangely excited!

1 card contribution at work. 80p buying a sausage roll to get change for the bus. Frugal win: bus meter not working so not charged!

Small celebration short-lived as I arrived home to a 30 fine for driving in a bus lane. Worked out it was dh driving but doesn't make the financial blow any easier

Argh spring you must be so I was when dp got a parking ticket. The idiot parked on double yellows (or possibly it was a loading bay) on a Saturday morning

what's b&m?

It's something they don't have where I live coolcadbury, along with home bargains and farm foods(?) and other nice cheap shops. Humph.

I haven't a clue what I might buy in b&m but the promise of bargains is calling me! I am treating myself to some new make-up next week (conjunctivitis twice in recent months makes it a necessity) so I might find something along those lines?

nsd Monday and today (apart from bus fare, which is budgeted for!).
not too bad at the moment, money-wise. but have a £100 speeding ticket looming, which hopefully i'll take out of next month's budget.

springbright it will be the highlight of your holiday I'm not too sure about make up as I mostly look at the food. I'm working elsewhere tomorrow but will pop in on Friday and have a look. I love the random food bargains - today I got rice cakes for 29p a packet (DS loves them as a snack) and a few weeks ago I got gnocchi for 29p also. Got 5 packets and bunged them in the freezer. In fact I've just had said gnocchi in a creamy leeky sauce with chorizo.

£36.70 on a Chinese take away as we had visitors. I so grudged it. I used the money I got for Mother's Day which, at least, meant it didn't come out of the food budget. Otherwise it was a NSD. I will need to shop tomorrow.

jinty I thought your DH was going to pay for it.

Cadbury I haven't seen any referente To Valparaíso on the News website. We are nearly 2,000 KM from Iqueique and Valparaíso is even further south. DH is watching the Uní's website and monitoring every aftershock, says there have been some as far south as Concepción but We've still not felt them. It must be the way the plates are moving because there's been a 40cm wave on Japan's coast from the quake yet we didn't feel anything.

Glad you got Those expenses in.

Couldn't sleep two nights ago so did up a rough idea of my weekly monthly & yearly expenses for when I go back to work at 4.30am. Slept sound after it think it was weighing on my mind that I'd be no better off than I am on mat benefit. Turns out I will be & will be able to put quite a but towards my credit cards & rid myself of those too. Freezing them as I've heard people doing is not the solution for me as it's online shopping is my main problem so deleting them from paypal & putting them into the safe.

Tues bought dd new runners she had her last ones since September so 2 pairs a year is fairly good I think.

Nsd yesterday as came down with vomiting bug, did end up sending dd to childminder for half the day cos I wasn't able for her but normally the two kids go for two hours on wed so that'll cost the same ... still classed as a nsd then?

Probably nsd today too as dd now has vomiting bug

Very close call cadbury nice one
Glad to hear you're safe AdoraBell

I still haven't done end of March budget. Hopefully get a chance when ds naps today.

Going to be a spendy one for me today

Anyone doing a lidl shop for next week? I'm struggling to come up with a meal plan incorporating those offers!

Linky?

lidl offers it's German week.

You could do warm salads using the smoked sausage or spicy pasta & smoked sausages or the obvious hot dogs with fried onions & bratwurst.

Schnitzel looks like something you serve with chips and salad.

Thanks fluffy. Might do some googling. If I plan properly I'm sure I can get a cheap shop. Feeling that I frittered £60 of my personal spends last week on calpol, ds' shoes, macdonalds, food for hospital appt etc

It was a one off though, it's not like its a weekly occurrence.

It's a tough meal plan to sort out.

NSD yesterday as ended up in hospital with what turned out to just be Braxton Hicks, thank god... Way to soon for the little girl to see the world.
Should be low spend day today as well, we only need milk, and I am going to get DP to get that....

I wish we had a Lidl! Spendy day. Got sucked into the m and s sale and spent 61 pounds but got loads of kids stuff and only ordered what they actually need rather than what i like! Also 23 in Aldi but got loads of nappies and wipes, enough to last ages. Then 5 in nero! Dear oh dear...maybe a Lidl wouldn't be such a good idea after all!

£6.60 hand cream
£1.50 conditioner.

I didn't get around to my online Tesco shop yesterday, so went to Asda this morning and spent £46. That should be enough to get me round to Monday as I have plenty in the freezer and the cupboards.

Italian good news that everything is ok - when is your baby due?

£7 in a craft shop but that can come out of my dad's pocket as for wedding stuff

Didn't have to pay for vaccines today as the surgery don't take cards will pay after second ones.

FantaSea Thanks :) baby is due the 23.05, so prefer her to stay inside for a while :)