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Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Original poster

A miserly May on Mumsnet for the fantastic frugaleers!

865 replies

MissAnnersleyismyhero · 28/04/2014 16:29

Saw April was getting very full so thought I'd start this off early!
Welcome to all who want to save cash, live frugally and pay debts, or just trying to live within our means!
Full of hints and tips on how to save money in the supermarket, meal planning and daily life.

OP posts:
Fluffycloudland77 · 16/05/2014 19:59

£10 petrol

£6 on a bk. It was my treat for getting up at 5.30 to drive with a dh who does not enjoy car journeys & makes sure I don't either.

£9 two bottles of wine (see above) but one is for next week.

£13 aldi
£1.50 tesco which means with my ocado delivery the food cost £31.50 this week.

Italian it's best to be with a team who know what they are doing rather than run into trouble during labour.

picnmix I hope you had a good time.

CremeEggThief · 16/05/2014 20:03

Our Chinese meal came to exactly £20!

Italian, I agree with all the others. Try your best to relax as much as you can until Wednesday.

Picnmix, well done. Hope you enjoyed it!

Fluffy, enjoy the book and the Wine.

NK5BM3 · 16/05/2014 20:22

Italian you are with the best team you can have so do try and relax. It's out of your control now ... It's in their hands and they are the experts!

Paid £4 for postage overseas and then £2.98 for 2 ice creams. £2 for play gym. Tomorrow will do grocery shopping. Hoping to spend £40 to get 5 off at morrisons. I don't usually shop there at all - I go there to do my dry cleaning! So we shall see. Looking at the advertised prices they seem to have cut quite a lot - many look like Aldi type prices.

Anything else that's too expensive I'll get at Aldi.

Have a good sunny weekend!

FantaSea · 16/05/2014 21:48

Italian I also agree with the others and hope you feel a bit better now you have a plan in place. It sounds as though you are being very well looked after with very experienced doctors. It is a really worrying time but soon you will have your lovely baby and it will all be worth it.

£30 on petrol here.

AdoraBell · 16/05/2014 22:47

Spotty near the beginning of this threat, about page 6-ish, Boffin linked to her blog, she has some good meal plans on there.

Far too much spent on food for the weekend, freind's over again. £80.
If DH ruins the stake again I shall BBQ him. T'is cheap here but not cheap enough to end up as dog foodAngry

Hope you enjoy your book and vino Fluffy

Good weekend everyone Smile

McPhee · 16/05/2014 23:09

I was out for a meal tonight and spent £26. Justified by the fact that normally, with a toddler running about, I rarely get an opportunity to chew.

Am at work for the next three days though so they will be NSD

Iamnotanugget · 17/05/2014 06:26

No idea what I'm spending as I've not been keeping track. Experience tells me it's probably more than I think as it's been few pounds for charity, £4 on birth certificate etc. I know I've only bought essential stuff but I've had to buy more baby stuff so we're going to be over target this month Sad Hoping for at least a low spend this weekend.

Italian the weeks running up to labour are stressful for every woman so I feel for you with your added complications. It sounds like you've spent plenty of time discussing your options and you should feel reassured that you have a team of people looking after you. Natural birth or section in a few weeks it won't matter as you'll have your baby to care for. I have had both and although I wouldn't choose a section it really isn't anywhere near as bad as you imagine.

Helenagrace · 17/05/2014 08:56

Been silly busy at work so haven't checked in for a few days.

Good luck with everything Italian. Sounds like you have a good plan.

We're moving on Friday next week so we're spending money on that but otherwise not spending mucho. Running cupboards down pre-move is good for shopping bills!

SpottyTeacakes · 17/05/2014 10:51

£49 lidl just a few bits I couldn't get (risotto rice, fresh salsa and guacamole but got an avacado instead)
£40 petrol

ilovepicnmix · 17/05/2014 14:28

5 on a haircut for DS and 4.48 on a picnic rug and biscuits.

If I want to stay within budget then I have about 10 to last me till Thursday. I could do if I'm really good. Off to a BBQ now but I have booze in already that I can take. Same goes for staying over at a friend's house tonight. I'm planning on watching dragon boat racing tomorrow morning so have made up a picnic for me and DS but it will have to get there via BBQ and friends house so don't know how good it'll be tomorrow

springbright · 17/05/2014 17:09

Envy at your organisation picnmix! We had a spontaneous picnic moment earlier on so cost £12 in ready made stuff and then because we had a picnic rather than doing grocery shopping I just popped into sainsburys to get a pizza for tea Blush. I have an idea that I could have picnic stuff frozen and ready to go - any ideas out there? Pasta salad etc.

I'm babysitting for a friend later so a no-spend evening but have bought myself a trashy mag which is a very rare treat.

SpottyTeacakes · 17/05/2014 17:16

You could freeze quiche and sausage rolls. Have some cocktail sausages that can be cooked from frozen. Mini pizzas. Couscous and frozen berries can defrost on the way...

Fluffycloudland77 · 17/05/2014 17:25

You can freeze sandwiches as long as no salad is used eg cheese and pickle freeze well as does ham. Eggs not so well. Jars of sundried tomatoes or artichoke in oil from home bargains count as picnic food too or sponge cakes or tea loaf style breads frozen in slices.

Nsd & I made soup out of left over veg with green lentils plus I posted the paperwork for the new M&S current account I'm opening.

Charlieboo30 · 17/05/2014 18:54

Fairly new to mumsnet but hoping this thread is going to inspire me to save!

Spent quite a bit today but most of it was budgeted for - £31 on hair, £24 in lidl, £55 in tesco and £40 cash on a new (well new to us) Dyson. Went halves with DP. Only other things I should need this week is fuel (roughly £35) and bits of shopping that we've run out of (bread etc.)

On half term next week and it's difficult not to spend! Going to prezzo's with DP

Charlieboo30 · 17/05/2014 18:56

Oops... Posted before I was done!

Going to prezzo's with DP on bank hol Monday but using tesco vouchers (doubled £10 worth to £40) and then the car is in for work on the Tuesday - £200.

Really hoping to get to pay day and have money left, even of it's only a few pounds!

Charlieboo30 · 17/05/2014 19:11

Has anybody switched bank accounts recently? Thinking about switching from Barclays (who I'm less than impressed with) and going to First Direct (who DP is with).

Only thing is I'm worried it will all go horribly wrong! And what are you supposed to do for money while it switches (can take 7 days) x

SpottyTeacakes · 17/05/2014 19:16

I switched to first direct a few weeks ago. Was super easy I'm so glad I did it and they're really friendly on the phone, answer straight away etc. Look up their number on saynoto0845 on google Smile

Charlieboo30 · 17/05/2014 19:19

Thanks spotty. It's stressing me - I have visions of the money not transferring correctly!

SpottyTeacakes · 17/05/2014 19:24

I was worried too but it just happened so easily. I also new that there was the free overdraft with first direct if a dd came out before the money had transferred so I didn't have to worry about that. Also I had a payment from southern electric going into my old account with Halifax and I was worried as they sent it the day before the final switch over date but it went into my first direct acct with no problems

Original poster
MissAnnersleyismyhero · 17/05/2014 19:48

Quite spendy today, c.£70 on groceries, including a bottle of wine for tonight/tomorrow.

£29 on DVD box set Game of Thrones season 3 Blush but will watch and sell on asap.

£10 on flowers and card for work colleague who cooked dinner for 9 staff and a visiting speaker yesterday.

Have meal-planned for at least 2 weeks though and stocked up on loads of frozen veg/fruit, salmon and dried goods so might be able to push it to 3 weeks with only a tiny top up shop.

OP posts:
FantaSea · 17/05/2014 20:13

Charlie welcome Smile

NSD here today. I am trying to run my freezer down so that I can defrost it - some of the stuff in there has been there rather too long and I can't tell what some of it is Blush

NK5BM3 · 17/05/2014 20:16

£64 at morrisons. And still have to get more stuff in from Aldi as I only had 30 min to do it.

McPhee · 17/05/2014 20:35

50p on a toll bridge.

Fluffycloudland77 · 17/05/2014 20:36

Defrosting freezers is meant to make them cheaper to run so its worth doing.

charlie I've switched all of our 4 accounts since September and they've all gone smoothly. I'm changing again to M&S so I can get a £100 gift card. I want dh to switch too but I think he's fed up of my shenanigans Sad. Welcome to the thread.

FantaSea · 17/05/2014 21:20

Fluffy I have heard that about freezers working more efficiently when they are defrosted too, so I had better get on to it! I am embarrassed at the state of it really Blush

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