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.

I'm going to try on a load and write down the names of the ones I like. Wedding isn't until November do you think I'd be better waiting until after the wedding season to see if my favourite comes up on eBay?

Spotty did you look at the m&s link or the monsoon ones? M&s had one at £99 which I really liked and looks like plenty of v good reviews. And it's not strapless!!

Possibly, wedding season is pretty much now to August.

Once you've had the wedding and realised how trashed your dress is and how much wardrobe space they take up you lose interest in them a bit.

Veils are the biggest waste of money, £99 for a bit of net! I could have had the long lace mantilla I wanted off eBay for less than that.

Have you heard of fatfingers? It's a site/app that looks for mis-spellings on eBay because the eBay search excludes them.

It's a bit sneaky but some people don't check their listings very well & names like maggie sottero and pronovias could be mis-spelt easily.

I've probably spelt them wrong myself.

Oh NK I missed those I like some of the monsoon ones the expensive ones will see if there's some I can try on tomorrow thanks

Spendy few days... Sigh.

Friday, took day off as am the guilty full time working mother during half term. Spent £25 on lunch out with kids. £21 at pottery place for kids to paint some stuff for the father for Father's Day, £6 on socks for dd. £6 for some England football shirt and shorts for ds.

Today, Aldi £35. Which was great!! Lunch at mcd - £19? £5 at matalan on a cake tin. £21 at sports direct on ds new tennis racket, balls, a tshirt for me.

Oh and £26 at home bargains, I have never been in there, wow!!!!! Some really cheap stuff in there! And dd got a new fairy outfit. She is 3.5 and is really into dress up. She wears her princess dress every day if she could. At the moment, she probably wears it 5 days a week!!! To nursery! So, there was a fairy outfit going for £4.99. She loves it. Bargain. It includes wings and a wand!

Not really sure what home bargains is... Is it like a woolworths from old?!

Spotty you have a little while yet if you're not getting married until November. I hope you find what you're looking for.

NK I think home bargains is a bit like woolworths - lovely and cheap! What a bargain to get a fairy outfit for £4.99 - my DD used to love dressing up too.

£76 in Tesco.

Catch up time.

Friday was a pub lunch as we had a work experience person in for the week. Ordered the steak and ale pie, got steak and kidney so sent it back. They microwaved the replacement. £15 (I didn't leave a tip as they didn't deserve one!)

Saturday was a busy day. £26 in Next buying DS sandals and new swimming trunks, but I used a voucher I was given for my birthday. £38 in TKMAXX, buying 2 kitchen jugs, 4 bottles of spicy sauce for DH for Father's Day, £2 for a stationery set for my niece to go with the cheap bargainous Hello Kitty bag I bought last week, plus £3 for a set of kids lip glosses I'll split up to add to presents. Can't think what else was in there at the moment, will bring the bag in after DH has gone to work.

Then £7 on lunch for DS and I, £2.30 for parking. Some stuff for DH for work that he gave me the money for. Some notebooks on special plus a pen DS wanted £13.

£55 in Sainsbury's, plus £100 on an internet shop.

My parents are still with us (into week 5 now!) so mum gave me £100 towards the shopping.

Finally, £85 buying tickets for DS's show. I did quite well though. I was trying to order tickets online, but was getting offered restricted view, so I called the box office. The group of theatres gave a card that you can get discount on tickets and no booking fees. Thought this might be worth doing, but borderline. The DC will probably be in 2 more (or more) shows for that group of theatres this year, so more chances to use it. When I spoke to the agent, I managed to get half price tickets (saving £33.50) by paying for the annual ticket at £35. I also bought a drink package, mainly so we have lounge access and a separate toilet!

Hoping for LSD today, just church collection.

Hooray the first of the month! (Starting to enjoy resetting budgets more than payday!)

Summary for May:

The bad: horrible unexpected payment for two new tyres really put us out. Still no decision on repairing the roof as we have no financial plan for it. Way too much petrol - people need to start visiting us instead!

The good: at least we had the emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses. Ended the month with £100 in our account which will be used to pay high nursery bill in June. Have bought lots of things ready for Christmas and have picked up some real bargains.

See you on the June thread frugaleers!

£86 saved over the year on home insurance. I found it quite tricky to get insurance because I made 2 claims in the last three years on our former home (which I still own). I also forgot to put money aside to pay the whole lot at once - I did it for car insurance but not home insurance so I must remember to do that for next time.

I have to tell you, you ladies rock. When I was out yesterday, I checked my balance when taking out cash and it looked as though I had £800 left in my account (but with credit card to pay). Today I logged on to make a payment, and discovered I hadn't paid it in April, so £307 out. But the balance already allowed for some June DD's. I finished last month with £1450 less the £307 which is now paid.

I now have no nursery fees (DD2 down to 1 day a week term time only), but it is also getting into the mindset of not spending thoughtlessly.

Thank you all.

Homebargains are brilliant. I've been using them 10 years or so.

Are you all on Reasties Christmas thread? I'm keeping an eye on them too.

Frugal experiments of the day are running the washing machine on a cold cycle & trying a crumble recipe that uses oil not butter/palm oil. I bought 4 massive bramley apples in aldi so that should be enough for 2 crumbles.

A rough costing of the crumble mix is 20p & there's no rubbing in, just mix & use.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/2094693-Judiciously-June-frugal-thread-now-including-Christmas-bargains

June thread.

See you all on the new thread :).

NSD Sat.

Moving on to new thread now.