A miserly May on Mumsnet for the fantastic frugaleers!

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

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.

Fluffy Just got it!

£200 on plumber today but on the bright side, had money in the budget to pay him. Good old YNAB.

thanks to everyone for their concern, Paypal have put the funds back into my account while investigation is taking place, hopefully it won't take too long. Even though I'm certain it wasn't me that made the transactions, I'm still slow to transfer the funds to my bank a/c

lilac pleased you have your funds back and hope the investigation proceeds quickly, what a lot of hassle for you.

£10 on a white cardigan for DD to wear to her leavers' final assembly on Thursday - they have to go in smart non-uniform and she has a suitable dress but needed a cardigan to go over it. I got it in Asda and DD is really pleased with it .

Lilac Lets hope they find what happened. I think I'd be tempted to keep the funds back just in case too.

NSD & I had £26 cashback become payable and I've nicked all the small change out of Dh's bedside drawer as a fee for tidying it up. The cashback means I can Nearly afford 6 more LED lightbulbs.

I've had a receipt for checkoutsmart refused because I used it on clicksnap for a different offer but I'm contesting it out of principle. I'll be the one putting things checkout smart through on a separate transaction if future.

I'm going to try and sell a few used DVD online.

What's clicksnap?

NSD for me yesterday (although I do owe DP £20 for rugby tickets) and £30 today on fuel but that was budgeted for.

Nsd

NSD.

Pleased to hear PayPal are sorting it, Lilac.

Clicksnap is Quidco's cashback for food shopping. Sometimes the cashback on an item matches the promotional price in one of the big supermarkets and you get the item for free.

It's linked to the Quidco account for payment, I set up a new Quidco in Dh's name to get the payouts with no fees because I don't use Quidco as often as tcb so I object to giving them £5.

The other cashback apps are Shopitize and mysuperlist but that one's linked to mysupermarket so I've never used it.

Even if you only get 50p a week cashback it's £50 over a year for things you would buy anyway and you get offers come through for things like the free birds eye products so what's not to like?

Ouch spendy day....
£46 petrol
£13 getting spare keys cut (for the new cleaner -eek!)
£3.95 afternoon tea in cafe for me and dd
£72 to roofing company for works done to date (still haven't decided whether to go with them for the big job)

Yes, fluffy it seems really straight forward and easy to do so will give it a try.

I've just downloaded it so will have a look.

Today has been a very spendy day. My car was serviced today which cost 166.59. That meant I had to spend 3 hours in a shopping centre while waiting. We had boots meal deals for lunch using points but I bought a pair of trousers at 17.99. I then picked up two pairs of new glasses for 61. 2.63 in asda and 4.29 in Aldi.

NSD! And small victory in that I bought some pjs for ds from sainsburys yesterday. Was going to swap it today as he wanted short sleeves and result! They launched a 25% discount from today till Monday! So I swapped the pjs and got £2.75 back.

Oh, does anyone want a 20% discount off m&s? I somehow got sent a pack of discount vouchers for m&s valid till Monday. So let me know and I'll share the code.

Yesterday £4 on meal deal lunch plus a bag of salad. £2.90 on bus fares to go out to dinner (and back), DH paid for dinner.

Today, £5.50 for lunch. I didn't take lunch to work today as I was supposed to have a lunch meeting and they provide lunch, but the meeting was cancelled.

Working in London tomorrow, will be able to claim back travel costs. Meeting my new boss for lunch before a meeting.

NK result!

Audit hope your meeting goes well.

Forgot to say I got a new hairdryer - £15 in asda. I now wonder what was wrong with the old one as this one is so quiet!

Haha fanta I can barely remember not owning my current hairdryer. Friends look slightly horrified if they use it.

£45 on an Alexander Technique consultation and lesson for my back. I think it was worth it - am going to go for more lessons over the next month or so.

DH posted nephew's parcel, so that was a win

Yes please Nk I would love m and s discount.

I've gone and done something totally out of character for me. I've booked a night in a Central London hotel for myself and DS (and train tickets) over half term. I am unbelievably excited and so is DS because he will get to see Big Ben and go on a open top bus (weather permitting).

No halogen oven for me this month.

Just transferring my dual fuel from EDF to Ovo. They have said my DD will be £273 a month compared to £306 at the moment. I must stay on top of regular meter readings to ensure no nasty surprises.

The thing is, Ovo ask you to keep your account in credit so they can buy electricity when the wholesale price is low. To repay you for keeping your account in credit they pay 3% interest! Not many savings accounts pay that.

Glad we are moving in the summer though, if you move in the winter they ask for DD's to be 25% higher in the winter of year 1 so other customers aren't funding your debit balance.

A refreshing change.

£5 on drinks because it was colder out than I realized and I was desperate for the bathroom.

audit I found Ovo had good customer care too. I only left them because M&S were offering £100 cashback and £40 in vouchers. I'll probably switch back when 12 months is up.

Cadbury that sounds lovely. I'm looking forward to my dc being a little older and doing things like that. Fingers crossed you get good weather.

I've managed to stick to my milk, fruit and playgroup spends, just need to resist temptation for a few more days.

Cadbury how exciting! How old is ds?

Will be spendy today as I've got a hospital appt so need parking and need to get bits I couldn't get in lidl. The sainsburys is closest to hospital. I must be strong and resist impulse buys!

Actually my appts not until 11:45 so I will have time to go to tesco before. I don't like their children's clothes so won't be tempted!

Ffs dp was meant to be paid yesterday and hasn't been. He never gets paid on time and we only have £5 in the acct so will have to go into the (free) overdraft. Dp is annoyed with me for being annoyed

Sorry for triple post