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!).

NSD and a £36 refund.

We used the play schemes quite a bit for holiday cover fuzzpig, although my two were probably requiring childcare before the spending cuts. It was heavily subsidised by the council. So, a weeks athletics club 10-3pm would be £25 etc. They were a godsend, but my work is flexible, so I can change my hours too.

to a refund fluffy

to the extra bills badvoc. I have just taxed DH's car for 6 months as, at this time of year we already have a service due and two sets of insurance as motor costs.

fuzzpig my childminder minds the odd Sat that I might need her to. No help to you as she's in Ireland! If you don't ask you won't know, other alternative is babysitter, like a friend of dsd or local girl?

Your parents might do it as they know it's only short term to get you out of a bind, depending on their relationship with you & the children

Sorry - meant to add that, with the play schemes you had to be organised, as, at the prices they charged, demand for places was high

I know it is late in the month but can I join please?

I just looked at money properly and realised paying the minimum payments isn't getting debts paid off (duh!) I have worked out all of the bills and other outgoings and need to be saving every other penny. If I stick to the plan then I could have the biggest debt paid off in time for Christmas, which would be amazing. It is going to be a big change but it is needed so I'm going to start now

Everyone is welcome CompanionCube and near the end of this month is better than near the end of next month, well done on making a start.

Thanks, I'm hoping posting on here will help. Luckily I ordered the expensive flea treatments earlier this week so I don't have any more big purchases coming up.

Hello everyone, back from our weekend in DH's home town. I spent about €55 on petrol today to fill up MIL's car which we had borrowed for the weekend.

Not spent much else. Going to order a takeaway for dinner and have a quiet evening in at MIL's flat. Got to take SIL and the kids to catch a train to the airport in about an hour, as they are coming home.

Wow a weeks athletics club for £25?!!! Where do you live?! I've just put ds in 2 days club because I'm working this week, and I've paid £40 for 2 days. 9-4. If it was a week there would have been a discount but still it would have been an average of £15/20 per day.

Companion welcome

£23 in Primark on quite a few bits for DD, and £12 in Tesco.

Ours are about £20 or less per child per day although the nursery-run one is almost double. Still cheaper than childminder though. And hopefully we would only need to use it once a week! I will need to get in there fast, I have no idea when they start taking bookings!

Spent a fair bit online today, £27.20 on some books I have to read for a training course I've got soon - they are award-nominated child/teen books so the younger ones will be kept by DCs (in fact a couple I'm giving to DS as an extra birthday gift if they arrive on time :o) and the teen ones will be passed on to book-mad DSD. Some I got on kindle really cheap. There's 4 more I need to read (12 total) but can't find them cheap so I'll try and borrow them - but because loads of staff are doing this event there will be loads of us all trying to read them all in around a month!

I used a cheap eBay seller and also a book people offer so quite pleased with the price. I also got a few books for DS' birthday and for DD for Xmas - mostly ones I'd had on my amazon list for ages, for less money than on amazon.

Also got the other box set for DSD (the thank you gift) and need to order DD's present for DS (she's chosen already but haven't got a chance to get into town without him... been disorganised so will have to pay for quicker delivery :( will do the £1.99 amazon locker delivery instead though as it's cheaper)

Well nursery is about £48/day. That's 8-6. The summer camp that ds went to earlier on was £130/week. 10-4. Mad.

Eugh. I've just worked almost twelve hours with a twenty minute break and done day six of the 30 day shred. I spent £3 something on lunch.

Will go catch up now

Oh no badvoc !Nasty surprise bills there.

Fuzzpig do you have an FE College near you? It might be worth asking if there's a childcare student who wants a Saturday job.

More of a low spend day today. We used our free return ticket for an attraction we paid for last week with a test club card deal. Not bad value - two days out for £15 in vouchers. As I walked past the burger bar on site I remembered that we don't just do picnics for frugal reasons - the burgers looked vile and burger and chips and a drink for 4 of us would have been £30!!! Our picnic was probably a fiver!

We spent £6.50 on rides that weren't included and £1.50 on a bar of nougat (a rare treat as it didn't have peanuts in and I only like that sort but rarely find it. So £8 in total.

I'm also trying to work out what to do on DS' 5th birthday on Saturday. DH was unable to get the day off :(

Thinking of trying to book another movies for juniors film but they still only release film times once a week on a Thursday - what is this, the 1990s?

Thanks Helena that's a great idea!

NSD.

Wow, that feels good.

I'd do Pizza Hut I think.

Toysrus with your phone taking pictures of everything they want for xmas is a cheap way of filling time for us

At my mums with the kids so eating out of her cupboards not ours! But she is by a retail park and I have a few essentials that I need for kids and I for winter so will be a bit spendy. Plus she's by the coast so if there's a warm day it'll be fish n chips and ice cream etc

Today I'm going to spend my £10 tesco gift card (which I bought for £5) on ingredients for soup, I'm going to make up three different types and freeze them so will have lunches all ready.

Childcare heavily subsidised by local high school, who in turn apply for grants during the year. Then offer the care to their 'family' of local primary schools. So, baking for an afternoon would cost £1 etc.

Might be worth looking into, most high schools do it in our area. The DC moved to a different EA when they went to high school, which runs it's own clubs for it's own family of schools, so I assume it's a standard thing?

Soup sounds nice spotty

Beach day today with a pack up so not too spendy. Ice creams probably will be the extend of spending, and a loaf of bread

Last day of hols for my dc today.
They had haircuts and dental appts yesterday so all sorted.
Taking them to McDonald's for lunch as their last holiday treat. I have some money in my purse for this.

cleaner cancelled on us at last minute (for about the 6th time) so we told her we no longer need her services. We've told her she can choose whether to just stop coming or to work the notice period and we'll keep paying her. I need to call the agency now.

won't be NSD as I have an eye test (super expensive, let's hope I don't need new bloody lenses on top!) and am leaving a jacket in to be altered BUT I have listed 10 things on eBay, 4 are selling already. Also spent 3 or 4 hours yesterday sorting all car boot stuff in garage, working out when we need to leave etc. Will keep sweeping the house for stuff to add until Sunday.