Jacket Potato July: our frugal year is flying by!

[CremeEggThief]

Hi All,
I couldn't see a new thread yet, so thought I'd start one for July. The jacket potato is a marker for starting summer off on a frugal note. :).

NSD so far.

NK I asked dp to pick up pizza and salad and he got pizza and chips. I really fancied some salad!

I'm going to pick up my dress tomorrow it's going to rain though!

jimmy, you can freeze sandwiches/baguettes with fillings like meat/cheese/pickle or mustard etc.

It's not thrilling but it's cheap & filling. Especially if you do batches using lidls half price cheese.

Thanks Fluffy.

We ended up with bacon bits and spaghetti/pasta. It was fine. I'm now baking brownies. The in laws descend tomorrow for 2 days. I've got a gammon in already so that will do one dinner. Not sure about the other. Maybe will make more pizza dough?! Or roast chicken.

I'd do pizza NK as it's hot, less time with the oven on.

NSD for me today, DH is need of a date night so we're eating out tonight even though we can't afford it and DD1 has been shopping with a friend and spent about £10.

Agh! Just lost a long post and too tired to re-write it now, so I'll catch up properly tomorrow.

I

£3.75 on salad stuff and a Christmas present that was in the sale. I shouldn't have bought it as I'm not supposed to be doing any non essential spending but it'll make a great stocking filler for ds.

Dh got an expenses cheque for £200ish. It feels like a bonus as the money was spent so long ago. I want to keep at least half for car insurance that's due in a few months but I may use some just to ease the pressure this month.

Hubby got paid today and I split his pay into savings, fuel for the cars, food budget and spending money. I draw the spending money out every Friday in cash. He is paid every 4 weeks. I am paid last Wednesday of the month and I pay the bills...mortgage etc.
Today should have been a NSD as I was at work and I normally take a morning snack and packed lunch. Been up since 5am and made my packed lunch but left it in the fridge!!! So...
£2.64 n works canteen on a scone, flora marg and orange juice
£5.52 at Starbucks. Sandwich and orange drink.

Kids off for summer now so going to be fun with those purse strings...

£6 on new pumps for dd in matalan, £5 for more school uniform, plus a new bathroom bin and water bottle

£22 on takeaway as I was sooooo hot after taking ds streetdance. Car registered 34.5c so I'll befrugal when it cools down

Will try harder tomorrow!

£4 in Tesco buying Croissants and some special offer mini rolls. Tried to get DD some other jeans for the show, but they didn't have any. DD1 produced a party invitation for tomorrow! Fortunately I managed to get a present together. A Hello Kitty rucksack and a set of Hello Kitty jewelry I bought after seeing it on the Christmas thread.

Unfortunately I can't find the swimming costume I bought to go with an Aldi hooded towel fir my niece. Will see if I can get one in the sale.

Well I've still been following although rarely posting so here goes with an update......

.......hard core frugality has been sadly absent for the last few weeks as it's been a case of "whatever it takes to get by and stay sane". However, things should improve from now and I've kept checking where we're up to with money so I know things haven't gone as far astray as they could have. We've ended up with a few takeaways as the freezer hasn't been stocked so on Thursday I did a huge bolognese and another pasta sauce all of which have been frozen. I did a big aldi shop which was £100 but means we have plenty of stuff for the next couple of weeks, including the extra food needed in the school hols.

Despite all that, we're still on track this year with debt reduction and in a much better position than this time last year

Well done North sometimes it feels like everything is going pear shaped, but frugality is still in your subconscious, so not as bad as it could be!

I am still worrying about whether the jeans I bought for DD, will be judged as acceptable for her show. Currently trying to convince myself that if they aren't, she can borrow from DS.

Need to do my supermarket shop, probably to be delivered on Monday for DH to put away, but will need some picnic food for tomorrow for a toddler birthday party in the park and milk.

After two days in the garage my car is still broken and I scraped a pillar in the car park. Ffs.

Well a manic almost last week at school has meant I have been offline for most of week but not been too frugal either. Lots of expense for school to make lie easier. (I know I shouldn't) Was planning on going to shopping centre today for a few essentials but DD is refusing to t dressed and its pouring down so will postpone until tomorrow. Really worried about holiday spending. DH starts new job next week but doesn't get paid until end of September. Will need to find lots of no spend activities.

making I am doing a dvd & toy swap with a few friends over summer. There's bound to be a couple of wet afternoons so some new viewing material will come in handy and they're free.

Well done north. We all have days/weeks like that at least progress is still being made.

I took some stuff back to the shop that we don't need and exchanged for small grocery top up so total spend today is 11p.

NSD.

NSD for me. DH has had hus hair cut -cheap here- and is out buying poles for the garden fence.

£6.17 in Tesco (although it won't come out for a few days, as I paid on my card) and 80p for DS' s bus fare.

The last few days have been quite spendy, with last minute things associated with DS' s last week at primary school and his Scouts Camp trip. Next worry will be uniform and secondary school paraphernalia, although at least I've made a start on the uniform.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend :).

£18.50 for private swimming lesson (for 2) and that's it.

Signed up for the library reading challenge. ..free so long as I don't get stung on overdue charges!

Not a NSD but not too bad a spend I don't think.

£59 at aldis which included a case of beer and a bottle of wine - in laws in town. Made gammon egg chips for dinner which meant that we saved quite a lot on feeding them if we ate out.

Hair donut was bought with a swap so no spend there.

Spent £6 at dd's dance show but that included a bottle of water, raffle tickets and tombola. We actually managed to win 4/6 times on tombola! Got a big box of choc, a bottle of wine, a men's grooming set (I can recycle that for the next school fete), and two free sessions at a local trampoline centre for ds. So that I think would have cost £20 at the very least so that's great.

Tomorrow we will have 2 birthday parties to attend and somehow I'll have to cook a roast chicken too. Hmm.

A busy and expensive day here.

I bought DD1 a second pair of jeans for her show, straight leg this time £6.40, £21 in H&M buying a bikini for each of the girls, a leotard for DD2 for Christmas, a black swimming costume for DD1 to wear as a leotard plus a bikini for my niece to go with the Aldi towel I bought a who kd ago. Some extra loom band stuff for DD1, she had a fantastic school report, and the set DH bought for DS was much bigger, so got her a storage box, skin colour bands and some cheap earrings. I can't remember the exact cost and I am too hot to go and check. £22 in Body shop.

Also £85 in Tesco, which included £20 on beers, plus some re-writable CDs. Also party food for nieces birthday picnic.

Making does your local authority do any free or cheap things during the hols? Is there a park you could take DCs to with a picnic? Board games, swap games/toys/DVDs as nugget suggested? How about home cinema? Close the curtains and make popcorn.

There's a £5 off £40 spend for Lidl in the Sunday post.

I haven't seen any English equivalents though.