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.

Yesterday I topped up my weekly shop by getting the last few bits in aldi - lots of fruit and other essentials €40.
Bought 3 new cloth nappies for ds. Not essential but with couple of weddings coming up they're all in ones which will make life easier for those minding him. €30 will sell off some other nappies to balance this.

€26 in Penneys 6 on wallet essential as zip broke in my other one, 8 on 2 bras & knickers sets essential cos only have 1 bra in my size now. 2 on a headpiece that was reduced, dont need it now but I'd be kicking myself at another time if I didnt buy it and €10 on a Handbag that I just fell in love with and I'm not a bag person but took me 12 months to find my last handbag which a bottle of milk leaked in June 13 & I hadn't replaced yet.

Today should be a NSD

Yesterday £56 tesco delivery

Today should be nsd. Going out to lunch and mil is paying. Oh will need petrol £30.

spottyteacakes just when you think you'll have a nsd something else crops up!

True story!!

Friday wasn't too bad- £20 petrol to get to my sisters Hen do and £8 on a take away tea for the boys before I dropped them off at my parents, I drove to the hen party so didn't spend any money on drinks- stuck to water.

Saturday was more than I would have liked- £12 on lunch with the family and then £20 on rides/snacks at a carnival

Today was going to be a NSD but it turns out we are down to our last loo roll! So I best pop to the shops :)

So far, have spent about £11 at sainsburys on lemons, roast potatoes (I can't be bothered to peel and roast them for 7 people, and they really won't be able to tell the difference), yorkies, and some toy for my much beloved (not) sister in law's child. In laws are down here for weekend, and will get them to bring this back up for her. It doesn't matter what we get her, there will always be a problem with it. So.

£9.40 on paint sample pots.

I know that feeling with families nk, I always tell dh my next dh will be an orphan only child.

So so so spendy this weekend...feeling a bit faint as well as hungover! Hen night for a good friend I'm being bridesmaid to in a few months...spent around £200 all from my account but I have gone overdrawn which I never usually do. My plan is to hide my card at the back of a drawer for the rest of the summer; all spends from our joint account which I'm much less frivolous with! Oh how I wish I'd have stuck to water too english!

NSD- my first for ages!

SixforGold- I think the money spent on drink would have been worth it if it meant I hadn't woken up clearly being able to remember the moment my sister's future MIL showed us all the tattoo on her bum!

I am yet to buy a dress to wear to her wedding or clothes for the DC's, plus with all the getting ready in the run up I am sure meals are going to be either eat out/ready meals which is never good for budgeting- ah well she is my only sister so I guess it's all worth it.

oh help I am that mum too! I ordered some extra stuff in our last delivery and I've been stocking up on tasty reduced items and doing some baking so we're ready for the holidays. Today we decided to go out and I had a picnic ready in under 5 minutes. Both the older dc have character bottles that they love so much they don't complain that they only have water in them. I bought 2 ice creams while out as we were nowhere near a shop selling multipacks, cost £3.60 but that was my only spend.

So today was meant to be a nsd, went to buy a suit with dh, he forgot his wallet at work so I put €30 deposit down to hold it for him, he's old school he thought they'd just take his word that he'd ring tomo to pay! Then lunch out followed by ice cream. €37.50, yummy on both counts.
Then came home & dh transferred bills money plus €60 for lunch & deposit so really €7.50 so lsd
Boo

oh help the vegan brownies that fluffy posted ages ago are easy to make and freeze well, same for jam tarts, flapjacks and fairy cakes. Also easy to make with dc killing 2 birds with one stone. Entertained dc and full freezer! I freeze fairy cakes un iced and then make up a teeny bit of icing in the morning, dribble it on and add some 'sprinkles', they defrost by lunch.

Semi frugal: I've bought Starbucks £10 voucher for £5 from Groupon (with cashback!) so we can have a treat over summer. Aiming for just playgroup and postage spends today.

Yesterday was a LSD. Swimming lessons in the morning, followed by a birthday party in the park. Bus fares to/from the park, about £3 off my Oyster card. The picnic food came from the food shopping on Saturday. Other than that, £3 for two lollies and 59p for a drink for DD1 when our soft drinks had run out.

LSD today all I need is a stamp then. I'm going to work at lunch time rubbish

Hi all slowly getting bits together for baby had a few 50% off aldi nappies or wipes can only use on one pk n not the massive baby event boxes! But means have got pk of sz1 n sz2 v cheap n will get another sz 2 I think.

Don't seem to have got so much vouchers whilst pregnant as I did in 2010 with first.

Starting to stock up on breast pads want to buy some but not too many incase not as leaky or successful as last time but I like the expensive ones lansinoh tommee tippee n boots ultra thin got 4 boxes so far.

About to sit down and meal plan for the rest of the week, have cancelled our vex box for 2 weeks from today as I'm away from Sunday and DH will not cook when I'm not here, so that will save a bit of money.

Hoping for a low spend week, although I have some planned for expenses coming up before I go away.

Hi Everyone,

I came to this thread looking for ideas as it's the first day of the school holidays and we are £110.26 overdrawn just had a text message fron the bank saying that I need to add funds before 6pm or I'll be charged, luckily I have cash to put into the bank but it means that our current account balance will be £0, so no spending for us until we get paid on Friday. I do have £12.22 in my purse and £8 of that needs to pay for ds2 haircut today and i need to buy some dishcloths!

So what cheap or free activities will you be doing? I just need to keep the children entertained so they don't kill each other.

Thegirloverthere- how old are your children?

Some cheap/free activities we do are:

Den building- inside and in the garden depending on the weather.

Alphabet hunts- your children have to find something beginning with each letter of the alphabet around the house/park/garden.

Ice breaking- my boys love this- I get some plastic toys- animals/dinosaurs etc and put them in bowls of water and freeze them, then I give them a normal kitchen knife/small hammer and they spend ages digging out the toys.

Baking- not too pricey and you can eat what you make! Simple biscuits are the best- we have a really quick and easy recipe.

I spy hunts- make a sheet of things they have to spot on a walk and get them to tick them off as they go.

Bug hunting/nature trails

I tend to buy a multi pack of flakes/ice cream cones and cheap vanilla ice cream- then when they complete a challenge- I spy hunt etc they can have an ice cream as a reward- but doing it yourself is much cheaper than buying them from a shop/van. I got a pack of 4 flakes for a pound (each one can be cut into 3) plus cones for a pound and ice cream for a pound- so that's 12 99' ice creams for 3 pound.

Hope some of these suggestions are useful- can probably suggest more things if I know how old your children are.

If you have any rspb wildlife sites/national trust/English heritage sites nearby they have lots of parkland you can usually go in on foot free for NT, rspb are usually free. Plenty of trees to climb and streams to paddle in usually.

Geocaching was very popular last year.

Library's rent films cheaply or there's free trials of a month on netflix/amazon film/lovefilm if you haven't used them before, or if your partners not had a free trial yet, they are usually chock full of kids films.

If you have national trust places nearby you can join the scottish national trust on a monthly DD and get free entry, but no free parking. Although the only one near me that does charge parking charges members too.

Groupon/amazon local/wowcher might have some vouchers for paint balling or soft play discounts.

I think wacky warehouse is doing 6 weeks membership for £20 for two kids (or something like that)

Really impressed with everyone's cheap holiday activity ideas. I've got 2 weeks off in august when we're going to France. Apart from that it's just my usual 2 days off a week to plan for. Those are likely to be trips to the park, river, coast etc with the obligatory picnic. Ds (12) is going to a great park tomorrow with my mum, aunts and my cousin's toddler. Think the toddler will give him an excuse to be sillier and have more fun than his almost teen status allows.

£1.29 on chopped onions, tinned tomatoes & cheapy freezer bags for Dh's sandwiches.

I tried to buy a gro blind for dcat because he wakes up at 4.30, no where had them so I've got a broken down card board box blocking out my back door window now.

I will be ordering a pleated blind because dh will have something to say when he sees my makeshift blind.

Re children's entertainment, depending how old they are obviously, they could have a big toy sort out and sell it on facebook/eBay/car boot sale to raise money towards a trip to their favourite place/theme park etc. It would make way for Christmas toys too.

Maybe we should have a summer holiday thread that starts in March so people can start planning national trust membership or season tickets to attractions etc. It would like Reasties Christmas thread.

Oh I like that idea Fluffy Cloud- I think the cost of the summer holidays can creep up without you realising- most people I know have a Christmas budget but not many budget for the holidays.

£11 on a small shop today, cleaning products and a few cupboard bits