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!).

Back from Lidl having spent £41.19. Put the shop into mysupermarket.co.uk and I would've spent £59.22 if I'd gone to tesco like I used to!

Dinner is a sort of jambalaya/paella thingy using up the remains of Weds' chicken and some prawns I found at the back of the freezer

£36 in Tesco at Lunchtime, but that included 2 multipacks of batteries totalling £23 alone.

I've gone old-time with my holiday activities today - baking, knitting and am also attempting a puzzle that's what a bargain week in devon will do! super I was thinking about the entertaining thing...dd is still young enough to be happy with activities which cost little or nothing (see above!) Eg today we've been for a coastal walk, quick stop in the playground, quick pint and packet of crisps at the pub! However I did find myself googling local attractions earlier on as I think this holidays so far she's spent lots of time doing grown-up stuff. I think we'll put it off for a time in the future when she's not so easily entertained but I'm dreading the constant cycle of expensive activities

I have a Nectar card, we use it to buy things we might need at the time. We last spent it on a new toaster when ours broke.

Ours is linked to Ebay too. Nice to know you can use it for Argos too. Thanks for that.

Had an OK spendwise day today, TV licence came out, had to put another tenner on my phone (looking for another job and need to have some credit to return any phone calls I may miss while at work) and the weekly shop which incorporates Petrol.

I should be able to have the next 2 days NSD and just have Sky coming out of my bank on Monday. So my bank card shouldn't be hit again really until next weeks shopping. Plus I have some money left over so am going to put most of it into savings now.

£13.50 on bourbon

We have a nectar card but I usually forget to swipe it. I only buy own brand squash & tea in sainsburys anyway.

Lunch £30. Astonish Cleaners at pound shop £2 (2 bottles). Parking £1.40.

We have a nectar card and I'm seriously considering doing a swap for some chessington vouchers. Anyone been to chessington? Any good? I thought that plus the Kellogg's tickets would mean a frugal trip? We could even stretch to a night stay?

I've found an actual cheap medication, treatment for threadworms for all 4 of us - £5.80, for everyone. I'm amazed, given the price most medicines are here. So that's what I've spent today.

and about a squillion quid on chocolate since realizing that we need ^^ that medication

I think worms come with the territory with pets Adora. I've had them too.

I have a nectar card but always forget to use it. It's pretty crap compared to the clubcard I think. I should use it though as I get my petrol from bp.

We've had worms here...and no pets. Bleurgh.

Spendy day with about £100 on asda and tescos on who knows what! About £12 was on bits to take to a bbq, £5 on play date lunch, £5 tresemme (on offer) and the rest on nothing special! Argh.

That's it until our holiday apart from a bottle of milk. If it's not here. ..we go without. Ds (6) is currently on his summer pig out so I'm blaming his quantity of food.

3.50 in the shop that includes 1.50 for 60 tip tops ! Bargain dd wanted a lolly ice but made more sense to get them. And 2 pound on the lottery.

Yep Fluffy just never caught them myself until now. Had ring worm but not actual real worms. I won't say anything but I think that fact that one DD is extremely slapdash when it comes to personal hygiene and DH always knows best, ie he doesn't have to use a nail brush because his nails aren't long, hasn't helped. Not that I'm blaming DD. I know exactly why she is the way she is and TBH it's better than how she was a couple of years ago.

Anyway, NHS website says 50% of DCs will probably get them so I'm more surprised that we haven't had them before now.

We ate out, I came over all "OMG I can't cope" and so we went to a local cheapy place. Not McD's though, don't much fancy eating with hands ATM. It was abouth £20

Next week I will need washing powder.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

I've just paid one of the cc bills. We always pay them off so we are lucky in that sense, but OMG we will be seriously struggling after this. There's another cc bill to pay when we come back from hols, and it may be that we don't pay it all off. OMG I've never been in that position before!!!! Or we will raid the children's accounts.

The only thing I can say is I'm thankful we didn't decide to fly home for the summer hols. First off the flights would have crippled us at near £5k. A couple of years ago, it would have been easy peasy. None of this worrying about TV breaking down, car not passing mot (doesn't pass? Buy another!)... Nursery fees have crippled us - it would be £100k by the time dd goes to recreation.

Reasonably spendy day yesterday: £16 on brunch with a friend, £19 on a jacket from new look for me(had no lightweight jacket that fit!) and. £4.10 on parking. Today should be a nsd as at ds pre-paid swimming lesson then at a relatives. Yesterday was tricky though as my friend was in a real shopping mood. It was difficult not to get swept up in her enthusiasm, particularly in buying clothes for dc.

£3.60 on lunch yesterday
Went out last night and didn't spend anything

Going to friends BBQ today will buy some flowers and have to pay parking.

Day out yesterday which wasn't as bad as it could have been spending wise. Train to nearby seaside place 10 for family ticket, lunch 20.30, 8 on other snacks, 5 in gift shop, 2 on book, 13.50 on rides, 22 on clothes I saw in passing while there (desperately needed extra summer bits). Actually, that is more than I thought - the value of listing it but still could have been worse for one of our bigger holiday days out.

No clue about today but will involve park and playground to keep costs down.

NK5BM3 we switched Nectar vouchers for Chessington last year when DD was 7. We had a two day ticket thing for 2 adults and 1 child but stayed in a Premier Inn down the road as we had done their stay for so many nights, get a night free. DD loved it, went on quite a few of their rides, queue times varied but as we were going for two days we split the long queue rides over the two days too. (You can download an app to see how long ride queues are) We ate after 3pm as most places had kids eat free after that time (Although usual offerings of burgers and hotdogs mainly) first day we had a picnic. DD loved the zoo area too and that was a good breakout area when the crowds got a bit much. I would recommend if you like rides and don't mind queuing. Would love to go back as would DD but not this year.

Had a love spend day yesterday as spent most of day at hospital queuing for an xray on my back and trying to get DHs slow puncture fixed (Company car so no cost) Ended up with a burger king for lunch but DH paid and then had friends around. Would normally go out but all trying to save money so we had buy one get one free pizzas. Bargain.

Today I'm doing housework and then off to Morrisons to claim my Sun voucher fruit and veg. Did the same last week for meat but left it too late on Saturday and most of shelves were bare.

I do both Tesco Club card and Nectar card. Do Tesco for big shopping delivery as signed up to their delivery saver and also get their petrol but Sainsburys is across the road so tend to get top up shops etc from there. Never spend voucher in shop and at the moment we have over £100 in Nectar points which we spend on days out etc and bought DDs new cabin bed last year from Tesco.

Just been catching up with the thread. First day of our holiday today. Last night as we were loading up the car, we discovered one of the lights on the bike rack wasn't working. I was ready to throw in the towel and hire bikes but dh persevered and changed the bulb (frugal win ). We're off to France tomorrow so hoping that Hurricane Bertha isn't as bad as expected, ds has a tendency to turn green and vomit quite easily .

Will keep tabs on the thread while we're away to keep our frugal focus!

Had a spendy day today. £28 to get the car cleaned/hoovered/polished bug I can reclaim that.

£136 on shoes and plimsolls for DS and DD1 plus shoes for DD2. DD1's shoes were checked and the shop said they would do a bit longer, but then when getting socks out for DD2 in the second shop (as the first had no school shoes for DS and I didn't like the shoes in DD2's size) I saw how worn out they were and I figured I may as well just get her some too. The heel was so worn down she looked like she was rocking back on her heels!

£12 lunch in McDonalds. £2.50 for parking.

£20.70 in the green grocer buying 4 jars of chilli pickle (DH wants to take one for his friend in Spain) a loaf of bread, some strawberries and grapes.

DS needed new jazz shoes. They were £35. I said he had to pay £20 from his birthday money, but DH said he'd pay for them. They are very cool, but I suspect he won't be allowed to wear them for his next show, but if he can't make do with the old ones, he can borrow DD1's pair.

I forgot, £29.99 on Footner socks (buy one get one half price) to try to sort out my mangy feet before our holiday. I have 8 days plus the day we travel. They say 7-10 days. I hope they are done quickly!

£5 paint tester pot
£33 contact lenses.

NSD had a pj on the sofa with poorly dd

Meal planning for the week now cant think what to have though ....

Misstired here's our meal plans for the past couple of weeks if it's any help:

Spag bol
Pizza and waffles (when I work late it's all dp can make )
Burritos
Sausage and mash
Bacon risotto
Sausages in rolls with salad
Wraps with roast chicken, salsa kidney beans
Chicken and chorizo casserole
Chicken rice and peas
Chicken Caesar salad
Crispy shredded beef
Fish cakes
Feta and mint risotto
Veggie sausages

£40 petrol