Stampeding through a sensible, scrimping September!

[PeoniesforMissAnnersley]

Thought I'd do the honours

With kids back at school and autumn weather drawing in we all need a very sensible September. I'm putting up my thermal curtains and refusing to put on the heating until October. Who's in?

Hello! Thanks for starting this new thread... I'm in! I have an incredibly busy month for work and also a birthday party for dd to sort out. Oh and car insurance!! Boo.

Thank you MissA

Thanks. Should be nsd today.

I'm in two birthdays in October and a whole class party plus the count down to the C word.
Back on the overtime yesterday although was not happy I had to cross a picket line to do it feel crap now but that's a who other thread.
Oh and we need two new windows and a double glazed for and found a leak in the bathroom that means taking down the kitchen ceiling.
September may be grim so ned to up my usually not too bad money wise game to super frugal.

Phew sorry that needed up being more than I intended which was count me in.

That should be whole other thread and double glazed door and need not ned.
Stupid auto correct.

And yes I know it's only September but DS and DD birthdays are the first week in October so if anyone gets a heads up if smyths toys are doing their 20% off weekend again I would love to know.

I'm in. DDs birthday and our tenth wedding anniversary this month.

Thanks missA
I wrote a longish post on the old thread last night and the iPad swallowed it so annoying.

Dd (9yo) and I had a frugal pamper night last night. I spent £8 on a tube of face mask, intensive hair conditioner and a couple of other bits. We donned our fluffy dressing gowns and pampered! Dd loved it and I found it actually quite relaxing . From a frugal pov there's plenty of stuff left to do the same again, and again.....

Ds' birthday is on Tuesday, my baby's going to be 13, where does the time go? Anyway, he is going to go to a football match with 4 friends, a KFC and then they're sleeping over here. The football is " quid a kid" so the grand total of a fiver. Have been very last minute with his presents so have just ordered a couple of things from amazon on a free trial of Prime to get next day delivery.

Good morning ladies. We are still away, coming home Tuesday, back to school Wednesday morning and the children have a half day as they are back in the theatre doing Joseph We'd/Fri/Saturday. I have done a Tesco order, but it was over £100. I may check it later and amend, I'll be too busy tomorrow packing etc.

Yesterday lunch for 4 adults and 5 kids was €100, not sure if DH paid or the bill was split. His cousin and I left the men in the restaurant and took the kids back to the pool.

Very got last night. Really missing air on in the living room, DH insisting that heon't stay here again next year. I suspect that means our holiday will cost a lot more

I've just done my august expenditure. £26.69 over budget. Not too bad I suppose. Was £112 under last month

Aw thanks for the new thread, MissA :).

MissA thank you for the new thread

northender your pamper night sounds great. DD is 18 and we still do this sometimes and we both really enjoy it. DD has a lot more 'kit' than me and likes doing manicures so not only do we have a nice evening together, but then my nails look good for about a week afterwards. She has a lot of different nail polishes, her favourite being blues but I just select one of the pinks and then we are away. You will have this to look forward to

£4.53 in Tesco on some forgotten bits that I need for tonight.

I've been following this thread for 2 years and have finally decided to be brave and post. I'm currently trying to get finances and things in order before I return to Uni in a couple of weeks. When I'm at Uni and DH is in charge of the day to day running of the finances things can get a little out of control, he never looks at the price of things and thinks that as long as there is money in the account then every thing is ok forgetting about Direct debits etc.

I am currently researching LED bulbs and remembered that someone on here has replaced all their bulbs, can you recommended a retailer to buy from (is Ledhut.co.uk any good?)

sunshine welcome everyone is lovely and really friendly on this thread.

Hi all

Got £ some free meat today complained to butcher manager at a garden centre that an offer was honoured (short version of story) and he said next visit say I said u can have£20 free meat n will let staff know well lady on counter didn't she asked a bloke n he said erm yeah what was it for n when I said he went yeah that's fine n went off was SAME guy I complained about!! Anyway got 2 huge rib eye steaks on offer n 2 chickens on offer was £24 the lady said don't worry about£4!

We got another twin pk chickens small ones reduced to £5 needed using today so one in oven n one in freezer.

Always worth complaining when get crap service

Had little one 4th birthday party yesterday 7 little friends in garden playing on the garden toys n few party games n picnic on lawn great traditional party 4th yr in a row will do them as long as I can bonus of Aug bday. Next baby due end Nov won't be so easy to bung them in garden although if arrives early fireworks party could become a option.

Anyone mind if I jump on-board?

I'm going on mat leave at the end of October and for the next 12 months dh is on an apprentice wage - £2.68 an hour (cries!). My basic plan is not to spend any money but that isn't very realistic so I'm researching the best ways to be frugal so I can make mat leave last as long as possible.

It's me with the led bulbs. I use led hut unless I can get them cheaper on amazon or eBay. If you do use them always get cashback of 20% and the biggest discount code you can find. Double and triple check the list of what you need, I've ordered the wrong fitting before.

G4 & G9 capsules are the priciest and most difficult to source over a 10w equivalent. Warm whites much better than the cool white.

You'll be an expert on bulb fittings by the end of it.

If your dh isn't managing the bills how you think it ought to be done could you have a seperate bills account that you both pay into but don't have cards to? We do that. We both pay half in then food comes out of our own accounts.

At least you'll know all the DD will be safe.

It's usually the Dh's that take longer to come round.

I have a super spendy month ahead and so busy I'm not sure how I'm going to manage.

Have to sew all of dd's name tags on tonight.

Welcome newbies

Sept will be a bugger tbh.
Fils b day
Ds2s b day and whole class party
Trying to save a bit too as October is a 5 week month (don't you just hate those!)
Oct is my nephews b day (and mine!)
Nov is Sils 40th and she is having a big party so that means outfits and gift..sigh.
And of course dec means you know what!

Spent most of today batch cooking for the chest freezer - exhausted now! Also a bit weirded out as the butternut squash risotto we make all the time tastes completely different - only change is that I made it in the slow cooker. But it's far, far sweeter than normal. Odd.

Thanks for the advice Fluffy, I ordered 3 using a 20% off and Free P+P code and went through Topcashback for 20.2% cashback. I will order more when the budget allows.

With regards to the money issue, all the money goes into one main account that I control and I then move money over for DH into a separate account but he then spends on a credit card that he has. He's not particularly frivolous but just doesn't really think. We swapped roles last year so I could go to Uni to retrain, but unfortunately I still seem to have to deal with all the financial issues.

Thanks for the thread.

my month doesn't start until 15th September (my payday) and I'm already hideously overspent

This is what my budget looks like with 14 days left
Grocery: £186.93 remaining
Petrol: £18.95 remaining
Everything else: £127.10 overspent

Possibly my grocery and petrol budgets will have some leftover (going to aim for £7.50 per day average spend) but I won't count my chickens. I swear to God, the next of the menfolk to moan we are having Pasta again, and I won't be responsible for my actions.

It's been horrendous this month with 5 birthdays, buying shoes / bags & stationary and also tickets to a football game. I just seem to be heamorrhaging money left, right and centre.

I'm perilously close to maxing out the overdraft now.

MOT still ended up going on the credit card. I think I chose the worst month possible to try and live within our means.

Next month isn't much better for birthdays; 5 including DS1 who is 18. I've already bought my mum's present thankfully. Also another 18th birthday party to attend.

MEH.

But I start my new job on 8th September which will be £80 a month more.
Hopefully DS1 will pass his driving test making me £84 a month instantly better off as I won't pay for his lessons anymore.
Getting a bit of overtime in my September wage to help towards DS1's birthday.
Paper shop man has asked me to do two extra rounds next week which although it isn't megabucks is an extra £9 towards my Xmas fund which is looking quite healthy with £260 in it so far (which is my boys sorted) - just 20 more people to buy for and 4 more pay-packets to do it in.

NSD today as expected.

I have a whole loaf of bread to use up. Does anyone freeze sandwiches? I was wondering if it might be worth doing.

Hi bantam, wow that sounds like a lot of outgoings but at least you have your Christmas fund! I've not been that organised so no such thing as Christmas fund... It will just come out. So if we spend less these few months, then there'll be more money then. Hahaha.

This month there's Dd's birthday, (bought her an elsa dress from China through etsy and wow, it's arrived so quickly and it's beautiful!!) so that's her present sorted. Still have to do her cake (well that's dh's problem) and party bags and food but shouldn't be too much. There's car insurance - which direct line has quoted as as £329 - dh will do the comparison and this time I'll try and pay for it via topcashback and see if there's a good price.

I've cooked a lasagne yesterday and today I did a sausage beans casserole, and choc chip cookies. I had some left over rice and chicken soup. I figure we will eat the lasagne tomorrow and whatever not eaten will be frozen. The casserole will be domolished by tomorrow too. Then I have meatballs for Tuesday, Wednesday maybe tuna pasta, Thursday pasta bake, and Friday mcdonalds because dh is in London and I can't cope with both kids at the end of the week.

That's a lot of pasta isn't it?!!

Hi Helena,
We have friends who do that, freeze sandwiches. So Sunday they make all the sandwiches for packed lunches for 4 people, for the week. Every morning they take 4 bags out from the freezer. It works.

I've even frozen sandwiches that I'd made for ds' birthday that didn't get eaten. We had a lot of sandwiches for the next few days!!!!

Cheese or ham freeze really well with pickle or mustard.