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.

Nsd. Didn't get the stamp.

NSD! Had lunch paid for by work. Ds' school dinner paid by dh.

Group bundle of 70 baby clothes today for£10 about 50% of it is up to my standard dark stuff washed n on line whites can wait. Unwanted stuff have added on Facebook selling group for £7 hoping someone offers £5.

Make sure you remind us of your idea next March, Fluffy :).

Quite a spendy day, as I had lots of errands to run in town, after an appointment. £3.60 on travel; £7.95 on getting my watch fixed; £8.90 on tea and a muffin and then lunch; £19.99 on a storage basket and garden bunting; £2.08 in Savers; and £5.18 in Tesco.

I also upgraded my phone, but switched to a cheaper contract (£11.99 per month, which will save me at least a tenner every month from now on) and returned an item that cost £12. So some frugality among the spends! :)

Fell off the radar for a bit but am back. Not doing too badly as far as spends go, although today met up with a friend for the afternoon, which cost me £5.95 for lunch and then £3.80 for cake and coffee and £3.50 for car park. Had a lovely, lovely afternoon.

Thanks for the ideas, my youngest children are 12,9 and 7 today hasn't been too bad, we filled up the pool in the garden and although it wasn't hot today they enjoyed using it for the first time since last summer. Took ds2 for his haircut which actually cost £9 :l so I had just over £3 left, I had to pop into Sainsburys and I spent £2.79, including small 10p packs of Haribo to keep the children happy. We had swimming lessons this afternoon so that got them out of the house.

Most schools here haven't finished for the summer, so everywhere is still pretty quiet.

I'm trying to work out what we can eat to keep costs down, I had a big Tesco delivery on Saturday, so we should be fine for the next few days, they we can make do with Pasta and whats left in the freezer. If anyone has quick and cheap recipes I'd be grateful, usually we have Baked Potatoes or Pasta when we've run out of food, there is plenty of fruit and veg in so that shouldn't be a problem :)

Thatgirl where are you? It was sweltering where we are yesterday. Too hot for work my dc got to spend the afternoon in my parents pool

Have you looked at local garden centres? Ours often have things on. Places like pets at home do animal feeding sessions which would be nice for your younger ones

Spotty we are in the southeast, had terrible floods on Sunday afternoon, it's quite windy today but the sun is shining and the children are back in the pool, and I found a pack of chalk so they can graffiti the walls .

We are going to do some baking this afternoon and maybe take the bikes to the park.

Tomorrow I've decided to sign them all up for the reading challenge at our local library, I'm trying to think of things to do that will keep my 12 year old away from the Playstation.

£10 petrol
£7 aldi but £3.60 of that was 3 big terracotta plant pots. I walked in as he was marking them down from £5 each.
£2 two tubes of nair.

Picked up a stray receipt in aldi so I should get £1 back from clicksnap and checkout smart.

There's an offer in the sun on Thursday, £5 off a £10 spend on meat. I imagine I won't be the only one buying two or three copies.

Whoops, it's next Thursday the 31st not the 23rd.

If you can use it with the 3 for £10 offer its brilliant value.

£2.24 on nappy liners.

Yesterday £8 on fruit and veg, £2 playgroup and £4.30 on postage.

3 more days until summer holidays. 17 more days until payday.

Oh you're further east than me it's bloody boiling today.

£5 truck for ds
£1 bubbles for dd
£6 on yummy stuff for tea
£1.60 parking
53p on a stamp rip off

NSD.
When I first came to live in the U.K. in 1996, 2nd class stamps were 18 p! How times have changed...

What is clicksnap, fluffy?

It's part of quidco, you upload pictures of your receipt and they give you 50p for a £5 spend in supermarkets, not petrol, or specific offers like 50p off oranges.

Sometimes it's free. It's the sister app of checkout smart, so you can have two accounts but not upload the same receipt on both.

I've just spent £24 on 3 prescriptions. I've just come down with the most horrendous cold/cough which has affected my asthma and I can hardly breathe without it hurting.

Usually my asthma inhalers work really well but this time, I'm having to take steroids and antibiotics. It's the big guns coming in. Sigh.

Tomorrow's the last day of school but not last day of work. I have so much to clear off it's unreal. This is not the right time to be ill....

NK5BM3 that sounds awful. Hope you get better very very soon.

Spent £58.57 on phonics books, dvd, welly boots and telling the time clock for DS. All desperately needed, apart from the dvd.

NK, hope you are feeling better soon. My mum has asthma and my DH so I know how it can get when you have another infection (especially when the weather is like this).

I actually had a NSD yesterday . Well, apart from childcare but that is covered with childcare vouchers that I have stocked up over the years. I was working all day (hence the NSD) and I remembered to take my packed lunch! DH went to work at lunchtime so he took the kids to the park in the morning. Childminder had them in the afternoon.
I filled the paddling pool for them when I got in as it was so hot!

Off today so I am taking the kids swimming and then library/park in another town.
I have a budget for school hols. I always draw out spending money every Friday anyway but I draw an extra £50 a week from savings while they are off and I am at work the 3 days. If I am off, as I am for 2 weeks in August, I draw out an extra £100 a week. I do like my days out but also try to keep costs down as much as poss! We are going to Edinburgh for a few days mid August so will need a bit for that.
The weeks I am still at work I usually take them out to a theme park or something one day a week and then do cheap/free stuff the other days.

Our school finished last Friday. Seems loads don't finish until this week. Bet teachers are very happy at the moment .

Thanks girls. Am feeling better (as in I can breathe!) but am definitely not well. I'm blaming it on the hay fever and general rundown-ness.

at my workplace we can take sabbaticals and interestingly enough most of us get v ill at the start of the leave.... I think it's the body's way to say well, it's my turn to be ill now. Except of course, I'm not on sabbatical and I have truckload to get through for next week!

£20 in Tesco buying tipped (to white out the pink lace holes for the white pumps the kids needed for their show), two packs of frubes for the freezer (healthy "ice cream" treats), pack of croissants, four packs of flavoured water in sport bottles for the kids to take to shows (so they don't stain their costumes if they spill) and 2 non-essential t-shirts for me.

Managed to park in Windsor town centre twice last night without having to pay, which was a real frugal win. I had researched the car park charging times (some of them charge 24 hours a day, some until 9pm). It was so late once I had collected the kids and delivered the others home, that dinner was a very late pizza, so no take away.

Also, because the theatre changed the time the kids were finishing, they paid for the kids tea when they took them out, rather than us paying (at least, they didn't ask for any money......)

Thanks fluffy - off 2 investigate

Hope you feel back to normal soon NK.

Should be nsd for me as my cars in the garage and we're in the middle of nowhere so can't spend any money!

Going to be another hot day!