Judiciously June frugal thread now including Christmas bargains.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everyone is welcome.

Ha! Ha! Fluffy .

£1.74 today, on milk and chocolate.

£10 something on last minute birthday tea for dd

£315 on tv

My supermarket shop (ordered Wednesday for late delivery tonight) was £101.25. Close to my £100 a week budget, but there was no meat in that. Some fish fingers for the freezer, lots of store cupboard things had run out, but I don't know how some people get their shopping so low. We must all eat too much.

The nicest gift I was ever give by a pupil was a homemade card with some flowers pressed on the front. I had it framed and it's been hanging in the bedroom for 12 years. I was also given a lily years ago which continues to bloom annually

£8.05 on some prescription hayfever tablets. Please let them work!!!

£31 tesco but should get £10.50 back off checkout smart
£27 Aldi! £6.50 of that is cat food but its still much more than I budgeted.

£10 petrol.

Forgot the tomatoes

audit if you've got growing kids to feed & you live in a pricey area or london things do cost more. Unless you eat fillet steak every night. Then you are definitely doing it wrong.

Spend today was about £30 today. £8 for shoe heel repair, £7 for mcdonalds, £2 for play gym, 80p for ice poles, oh £5 at m&s for tights for summer. And something else, I can't remember! Doh.

Have a good weekend. Am having a massage and facial paid for my points accumulated at Clarins - yes, I used to spend a lot on that sort of thing. For first child, I had pre baby massages, and I had no stretch marks. Baby 2 had no time to do that sort of thing... Had a few. And a hangover belly. But I had lots of points.

So, redeemed them coz apparently they expire.

Oh but got £32 back from friends for a present I paid for a few weeks back, so methinks I don't need to go to the ATM this week! Yay.

£5 for dd to be split across 2 teachers (£50 vouchers plus flowers), £7 for ds to be split across 3 teachers. ..same gifts as per dd

I guess it's ok....I just pay up and don't have to think about anything!

£50? And flowers? Where are these schools?

NSD.

Lol..Hertfordshire, not too posh!

Just put up my bargain splurge of a 8ft trampoline, £80 tesco. Kids are just mooning around in the garden as grown out of sand pits/water play (4&6), this should last a good few years. Can't wait to see their happy faces as it's totally unexpected for them
We don't usually get toys other than at xmas/bdays but they come at the wrong time for garden tiys ifykwim. ..

So they don't know they have a trampoline yet?.

I must teach in the wrong school. I get embarassed about receiving gifts at end of term and really hate that people sometimes feel under pressure to compete for biggest gift. A card is lovely.

5.09 on 2 drinks in pub, otherwise no spend day today and yesterday. tomorrow have hair appointment and visit to shopping centre so will no doubt be a bit spendy tomorrow

I'm enjoying this good weather by spending lots of time in the park instead of playgroups. I went to sainsbury's to get milk and picked up heavily reduced strawberries which would have been fine but I then had to get cream,£1.20. There were very nice though.

Audit we spend less than that but my dcs are young, we don't eat meat and rarely have meat substitutes and I cook everything from scratch. This evening we had pizza, chips and garlic bread. Without costing it all I would guess the dough costs around 50p to make but makes 2 good sized pizzas and garlic bread. 2 tins of value tomatoes simmered so they thicken for sauce + handful of value sweetcorn + handful of frozen peppers + some mushrooms + chili flakes for grown ups + cheese. Serve with fried potatoes. Probably £2.50-£3 in total with some left for dcs lunch tomorrow. However it is time consuming.

Nope, they have no idea about the trampoline. ...they have outgrown the tiny elc one with the handle but have been making do and its knackered after 4 yrs of use....this should keep the house nice and tidy as they will be out there all the time!

Our shop came in at £103! The amount is ok as I had a rough estimate in my head of this price for a large shopping trolley full. However I was a bit cross during the process as DH was hurrying me along (I like to spend time comparing every cost per 100g!) and whilst paying wasn't sure we'd really made the best purchases. However now it's all home and unpacked I think we've done well. We have huge bags of pasta and rice, salmon reduced to £1.90, wraps reduced to 33p, lots of cereal and muesli etc etc.

My biggest frugal sacrifice....? Own brand ketchup !!!! I'm usually a value range all the way but detest anything but Heinz ketchup. I'm a ketchup snob! I figure that we all have to make sacrifices and this is mine. I'll just live without it. DH and dd won't notice any difference (philistines!)

Spring I don't know what's near you but I used to use Sainsbo's ketchup. More tomatoe content than Hienz, at that time anyway, and teens told me it was nice.

I'll try to catch up properly later but I am currently holding my breath. It's our anniversary and so far DH has produced a box of chocolates. I think he might have actually seen the bank statement light this time.

Spent too much this week, no more than usual but funds were diverted from the food budget to buy fecking fripperies the school has declared to be obligatory. Which makes me feel anxious. It's a bloody good job I'm a food hoarder.

We use tesco or asda own brand ketchup here. Bought value on hols once and that was fine too. ..

Fluffy we do live in greater London.

We eat steak occasionally (DH usually buys that) but not all the time. Some things I have not yet compromised on (still have Heinz ketchup and salad cream). As a chef, DH does not like anything but the best, he will also eat ridiculous amounts in one sitting, although he rarely eats between meals.

The older 2 children will eat almost as much as me, DD2 will alternate between eating loads or nothing. The girls are lactose intolerant, their milk is £1.34 a litre, compared to 2 litres of normal milk for £1. We probably use about 5-7 litres of lactose free milk a week, plus their cheese too.

I think nugget has it. I work full time, so cooking from scratch usually only happens at weekends.

This week we ate:
Monday-DH &I steak and salad, kids chicken wings (DH bought value wings and cooked himself)
Tuesday-I can't remember!
Wednesday-I ate an omelette, DH at work, DC pasta filled with meat
Thursday-girls had tuna salad, I had breast from cooked chicken and salad
Friday-ready made pizza for me, DS tea at a party, DD's wanted a picnic so sandwich/banana/biscuits in the garden

Tomorrow we have some belly pork DH bought for a BBQ but didn't use, Sunday, probably use the rest of the cooked chicken, maybe chicken and sweet corn fritters.

Adora you might have cracked him.

audit you have the same issue as me, I commute 3 days a week so those days work out expensive eating wise. Typical 3 days-

Sometimes I cook a chicken the night before and have it with micro flavoured rice (expensive) and salad

Batch cooked lasagne or Shepherds pie

Fish fingers, waffles and b beans (expensive as dp eats 6-8), or pizza (expensive as we eat a lot- £4-£5)

Fish fibegra

I got my £100 for switching banks

Yay @ spotty's £100.

Adora - Happy Anniversary.

I'm afraid we are very brand led in this household. Ketchup, beans, cereals, crisps, butter type thing, oven chips, fish fingers, icecream all branded. I've got to say though it's mostly DP who insists on this because I don't eat most of the above anyway. However, it's counteracted by getting everything else own brand or from the ethnic food aisle or from an Asian shop. DP tends to eat the same as DS (high price) but I eat very cheaply. We spend about £70 a week.

Fluffy Have you had the Birds Eye Inspirations yet? Not bad for a freebie but not worth buying it.