Let's make merrily with August austerity!

[CremeEggThief]

Hello All,
I've taken the liberty (again!) of starting our new thread for August. The merrily sort of ties in with Christmas and keeping an eye on any bargains out there, if you're super organised and like planning ahead.

Today's spends were £5.10 on travel, £1.20 on 2 bottles of water, £4.20 on 2 hot chocolates and £17.25 on a meal out (long story!).

£92 on paint
£10 petrol
£4 tesco
£12 cleanser.

£24 led lightbulbs but paid for using cashback & will cost me approx £3 after they've earned me some more cashback.

Spent the last of my gift card in ikea for a New curtain pole for my free door curtain! Hoping it cuts down on my heating bills come winter.
Spent £50 in aldi. So I've got £50 for co op top ups.
Will be selling more stuff on e bay later...made £130 last week!
The frugality must ramp up a bit come sept!...

Parents are here. Yai.spent 100£ on stuff for taking with us to Denmark that dp can't buy in Denmark. Now a little bit food and then off to bed so we're ready for tomorrow

Yay at fluffy for £3 light bulbs.

Ooh, italian are you leaving tomorrow for Denmark? If you are, hope it's a safe journey.

Badvoc well done your ebaying.

So, I did manage to have a NSD today. Yay.

Yes cool tomorrow morning we drive to Denmark... Thanks for the wishes.
Changed my ynab to Danish crones, so they do support that currency too ??

Spent £6.08 on a denture repair kit at the chemist
£2.40 on some wraps, yoghurt' s, and biscuits at work
So I spent a total of £8.48

DH spent £6.98 at work

So spent a grand total of £15.46

Good luck for the move italian

supermum - slow cookers are ace, I have 3!! Caveat - one is absolutely ancient and belonged to my DM 1000 years ago, the other is a rice cooker/slow cooker/porridge maker.

Lots of slow cooker recipe books around, but there's a good Facebook site called slow cooker wonders that you can join which has lots of tips and recipes. You can basically cook anything, I use mine loads. I can't do a link on this laptop but search Facebook or even this site, there's a current thread about slow cookers, it seems to come up regularly on Mumsnet.

Been using the holiday downtime to Xmas shop, using the thread on here for bargains on Amazon mainly. It's also DS's birthday next month, got some plain blue Vans for £25 on there too.

Have allocated £200 from this months wage for DS b'day and early xmas pressies, I want to be organised and get the presents out the way, before the other expenses.

Some drinks in the bar last night and going to a tattoo tonight, may have fish and chips as a treat or eat before we go.

Italian hope you have a safe journey

Badvoc wow, that is a lot to make on ebay

Hoping for a NSD today.

Good luck for the move italian.

£15 last night on McDonald's.

£37 today on food. Tesco free ice cream stashed for Christmas.

I'm doing sc chilli later, I'll put two packs of mince, two tins each of tomatoes (drained) and kidney beans in with the spices and leave it for about 5 hours. I don't brown because I am lazy. Then I'll freeze it for next weeks packed lunches for me.

I'm making chilli later too fluffy! Thought it would feed the masses arriving tomorrow and I have two packs of wraps in the freezer. A friend gave us a marrow from their allotment - I'm considering adding to the chilli, what do you think?

I'm so annoyed I've lost my tesco club card I was letting dd play with my purse. I've ordered a new one and customer services said 10 working days but others have said up to 6 weeks I can't use any of my vouchers until it arrives including the ones for bread that I'm supposed to be reviewing for tesco orchard. Grr!

I think if come dine with me taught me anything it's never try new things when you have guests .

I ordered dh a clubcard and it didn't take very long to arrive.

Six I ordered DD a clubcard on my account and it only took a few days to arrive.

I do admire those of you that stash food for Xmas!
If I try it just gets eaten :)
Made another £100 on e bay today! It's Dhs old trains and they do seem to sell well.
Also got a few bits to sell on FB - when my sister gets back from her hols.
I need a new handbag so have asked mum to get me one for my b day in oct.
Dc have all their winter clothes/pjs/coats already etc.
Mum bought me new winter shoes, bless her.
My sister gave me 2 sets of hats/scarves/gloves for ds2.
5 week months are awful aren't they!? :(

Spendy day.

£13 primark (two pairs of trousers for ds necklace and fours pairs of knickers for me)
£6 in river island on a t shirt and three pairs of socks (would have been £26 but I had a gift card)
£2.50 paperchase for a card
£3 ish in super drug on new eyeliner.
£9.99 t k maxx for a new winter dress for dd. She hasn't got any winter clothes so I'm slowly getting bits.
£7 on a burrito and drink for lunch.

NSD yesterday.

£10 on 4 packs of knickers for dd
£10 for 4 packs of socks (nice frilly ones for school)
£7 on pizza and treats for dd and I, dont feel well so cant be botgerd properly cooking

Getting a bit annoyed with this cold/windy weather dds got loads of summer clothes but needs alot of winter things. You wouldnt think in august you would need winter clothes would you ?

Same here misstired. In winter dd likes to wear winter dresses and in summer, summer dresses! We're struggling with this I between weather!

NSD so far today. I added a portion of marrow to the chilli to bulk it out (and lentils, and grated carrot!)

However we're going out tonight to celebrate!! Plus guests coming tomorrow...seeing this weekend as the final blowout before Sensible September begins

Bad, it's only safe because dh doesn't know about it & I'm allergic to the main ingredient.

Just got the fleecy throws down from upstairs.
Also the boys winter pjs.
Winter is coming :)

Dc had their dressing gowns on Friday morning. My dad said there was a frost when he went to work. Meant to be freezing tonight too. I'm loathe to turn the heating on but we have damp issues...

Very spendy day. School shoe shopping day explains why! £90 on black school shoes and trainers . The shoes were £42 from Clarks and the trainers were £45. Shoe polish was £3.

£15.59 on stationery.

£16.10 on Marks and Spencer food for the Bank Holiday weekend. With what we have in, we have enough for dinners and breakfasts until Tuesday night, so much cheaper than a takeaway I was planning.

£5.10 on travel and £7.20 on hot chocolates and doughnuts.

Yesterday I spent £52 in the supermarket. Nothing today except ice creams for the kids.

DH had to go and buy some shorts as I left his at the flat in Malaga (going back to the beach on Tuesday) also some new pillows as the ones in the house were a bit grotty.

Lunch at the club today was €40 for 10 kids and 8 adults. You couldn't eat for that in England!

£10.25 for cinema for DS and myself, with free popcorn and parking. But then £16 at Nando's. I could have kicked myself because I bought DS a separate meal but he hardly ate anything (because of the free popcorn ).

needastrongone, I had a look at the slow cooker fb page last night. Lots of ideas for me to play with .

NK, are you working full time? My 2 go to a childminders in the holidays or DH if one of his shifts is opposite mine. I work 3 days a week (odd Sat/Sun too).

Well, today has been quite a spendy day. I decided to cut the 'entertainment' budget to £80 a week and draw that out on a Friday. After taking my mum out for lunch (her birthday), letting the kids have £5 each, calling at Asda and Home Bargains for new socks for the kids (and a few other things like Bic pens that were on offer), and giving DH £20 as he goes out on Sat night I now have £30 left! How that is going to last me until next Friday?

Oh, I did buy 3 Xmas presents today though. Only little stocking fillers for the kids but it's a start .
DS10 (he will be almost 11 by Xmas) wants a PC. I have thought about getting a reconditioned 2nd hand one but not sure as I don't want anyone else's 'history' being on there. Unless they can clear it.