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?

I switch bank accounts, it's really easy & some of them give you money.

M&S give you a £100 gift card. I spent mine on thermal tops and leggings so I don't need to have my heating on as much. The family think I'm weird but I think spending £100s a month on heating and wearing t shirts in winter is odd.

30p two packs of San towels
22p pant liners
46p two packs paracetamol
66p crisps.

Should be nsd as I'm off to work in a bit.

It's quite chilly today but looks like the rest of the week is going to be nice. We won't turn our heating on until October at the earliest. Getting new windows in the next month so hoping that will make a difference.

Hello all.
I need to join this.

Have meal planned for this week.
I need to stop the mentality of needing full to bursting cupboards. Although having spares is useful, having to store stuff in places other than the kitchen is silly.
It's been an expensive school holidays.
Bills are going up, wages are not.

So the money diet starts today.

Paid some CC bill and next bill.

Cheaper to order school trousers in line than go to the shopping centre. So have done that.

Have small shopping list. Have managed to do most of the menu plan from what I've got in store. Just fresh stuff needed really.

My goal for holding out on putting the heating on is October half term. Once it's on it doesn't come off until the Spring, in my experience, so the later we start, the better.

Making chutney (slow cooker) with a ridiculous amount of tomatoes my mum gave me. Was going to go out and buy some jars, but thought I would clear out the fridge instead and have found enough to supplement what I already have.

Because I'm not in the UK my spending may not make much sense to you all but I'll post it anyway as a good record for myself. I love the tips you guys share for saving money so I'm going to look for similar bargains where I am. I also don't shop online too much but I do use M&S for school uniforms so I'll keep my eye out for any of you posting about discounts on their online store.

I spent $8.00 today on a special event for DS1 at school in a couple of weeks. I was due to spend $20 on DS2 psych appointment but their payment machine wasn't working do that will be $40 next week. Did pay cleaner for her 2 weeks as well at $164. Other than that no outgoings.

I'm really trying to ignore the fact I need to give up my cleaner to save money at the moment. I'm sure in the not to distant future I'll be yelling you all I have. I know it is the sensible thing to do but it does help my sanity. I'm a single mum with 100 percent custody and I work full time. No different to a lot out there but it is a luxury I love.

£1.59 for a bag of sugar ! Daylight robbery :) thats what I get fot going the local shop.
£1.00 juice dd spilt a whole bottle (had one of those mornings )

Cant wait to go food shopping child free just meal planning now need a cheap week anybody got any inspiration for me

Hi everyone can I join? I am on SMP so really need to start budgeting. I am quite strict on myself but every now and then I spend £15 here £20 there and it all adds up. Myself and DH have been eating out or getting take always on a very frequent basis since our DD came along and that has to stop.
As of today my account balance is -£70 however we have paid the mortgage for this month, the car payment (on finance), months worth of petrol and the (large) Tesco delivery came this morning.

I am going to try my best to meal plan and use up all the odds and ends in the freezer!

I have around £1000 on a 0% credit card and I am tempted to only make the minimum payment this month. Any thoughts?

I have estimated my "money in" this month (until my September wage) to be around £400 (child benefit etc) and my "money out" to be around £230 (bills only). Is £20 p/w reasonable for food top-ups?

If I try very hard and don't spend fingers crossed I will not be back in my overdraft at the end of the month (usual occurrence).

Wishing everyone good luck!

misstired - have you tried the blog A girl called Jack? It has loads of money saving recipes on it, inspired by when she was a single mum on benefits with £10 a week to spend on food, and a desperation to feed her some healthy meals.

I would be using a lot of pasta, beans and rice based meals. The mumsnet book is good too.

I am also someone who needs full store cupboards, which is mad

Actually had a NSD, first in two weeks as we have been away.

mojito - I know what you mean about a cleaner. I have one and don't even work full time, but do have a busy life. She makes my life a million times easier though. She comes every other week, which may be an option for you? And I don't use an agency etc, just a local lady who likes cleaning So I pay very little if you work it out per week.

I have also foraged on my dog walk and come back with a poo bag full of blackberries. There was no poo in the poo bag I used, just to be clear

And made stock from a chicken carcass so I am feeling that I've had a good start to September, in time for it to all go downhill!!!

chocolate - sorry, not sure about the card question. Sorry

Can I join? DH and I need serious help in reducing monthly expenditure on unnecessary things!

Anyone have any advice on sticking to a food budget? Currently we're spending about £60-£80 per week on 2 adults.

Just joined Topcashback, so there's a start :)

Ohhelp who do you think put it on the Christmas thread? . I love mine. It will save you money.

Chocolate I don't see the harm in making a min payment for one month.

Drania, switch to aldi. You'd be hard pressed to go over £40 for both of you. Topcashback is brilliant, check everything you want to buy on there first and always chase up declined cashback.

Thank you needa ive already got full cupboards and freezer I just need fresh groceries this week will probably buy more im a bit of a food hoarder :) ill have a google of jack though sounds interesting.

Spent £13.68 in Asda today.

£2.50 was a pack of 2 polo tops for school.

£2 was on chocolate, a 4 pack of dairy milk and a bag for dd to take to the cinema tomorrow.

Once ds2 starts his new school in thurs, I will be driving past an Aldi every day so won't need to make a special journey. My local shop is an asda.

I just need to stop panicking when my cupboards are not about to fall off the wall under the weight of food in them. Hangover from no food as a child.

Chocolate as it's 0% then making the minimum payment this month will be ok.

I've got the a girl called jack book. I need to actually cook some recipes from it.

I must not buy any magazines either. I'm dreadful for them. And they're all the same, repeating the same old shite.

Today has been an epic fail. Utterly dreadful.

I took DD out to get the bus pass - £89. Then she asked if we could go round some charity shops and I foolishly agreed. I shouldn't have.

Jumper and dress for dd £5.50
huge bag of duplo vehicles for ds £10
toy pony for dd £1.40
17 back copies of Jacquelines Wilson magazines for dd £3
4 JW books £2

and 45p on a pot of natural yogurt which was only thing missing from this weeks meal plan

£111.35 on what I'd happily planned to be a NSD when I woke up this morning.

I do not think this is a good start to the month or the week :( Oh dear

On the bright side 2 year old DS has just spent 40 minutes solidly playing with duplo and I've not heard a word from DD as she is wading her way through the magazines. Peace blessed peace

Spent £24 at sainsburys. I had a coupon I wanted to use and of course sainsburys own and although I stuck to my list of things I needed (so would have got it anyway) I still feel sick because I know that at Aldis it would have been cheaper. Only consolation is that I'm hopeful the next shop on the weekend at Aldi will be reduced as won't need washing powder etc (and I did get the sainsburys brand one 5kg) and tinned tomatoes that was even cheaper than sainsburys brand (they have an Asian aisle there now and I happened to walk past it and it was at 40p compared to the sainsburys 50p!!).

Interestingly was chatting to my receptionist this morning and she was saying how ridiculous it was on the weekend that her husband took out £200. And after putting petrol in the car, and buying 'odds and ends' like paint and having a 'treat' at the pub (£18) they had £20 in his pocket. It just goes to show how money disappears so quickly! They didn't even set out to spend on specific things like shoes or clothes. They are an older couple so no childcare issues or kids with growing feet but I totally got her, and that's why this thread works!

ARGH - forgot I had placed an Avon order but it was "only" £12. It's some nail colours, so I might even put them in a nail hamper I was planning on making up for next door's 12-year-old for Xmas (mum is a good friend, I don't randomly buy for neighbours). I was going to scour the pound shops and buy a plastic container, and buy a polish / nail accessories item weekly so there was a good selection by Xmas. I've had Maybelline, Rimmel and Revlon brands in lovely colours.

Also, do we all know Superdrug have a BOGOF offer on hair dye? I decided it was too good an offer to miss as I have to colour my hair every three weeks at £5-£6.50 per time (depending on the offer), so I went today and bought 4 (Feria and Nutrisse) for £11.98.

DH treated us to our tea out this evening as he did some computer work and got £115. I cried the poor tale so he offered to pay (woo) or else I don't think he would have done. It was cheap as chips, only £25 for four of us including a drink each.

Found a receipt fluttering past in Asda car park, only 19p from the price guarantee comparison, but I get RIDICULOUSLY excited whenever I get a voucher from a receipt, especially when it's not even my receipt (woo).

We had some leftover chicken from Sunday's lunch so I've added some potatoes, carrots, onion and cauli and poured a Mayflower curry sauce over it to have tomorrow for tea. DS1 made me laugh as he saw me throwing it all in and he exclaimed "CURRIED SUNDAY LUNCH???" - I never thought of it like that hah.

13 days til payday

Thank you for the new thread MissA. For me September won't begin until 12th, payday, but I need to put some tight controls in place as August has been a long month. I'm really looking forward to this year being over. We've over committed ourselves to one-off expensive things this year so next year should be easier.

Big, well timed, frugal win today. I've been having problems with my fixed term coming to an end on my mortgage but was getting nowhere with them. I knew fluffy would tell me to email the ceo, so I did. Problem solved. New mortgage is £45 per month less, they are giving me a refund on any costs I've incurred and £100 by way of an apology.

lists switching accounts really is no hassle. The banks do it all for you and now have to do it when you tell them to. We're with Halifax. £5 a month isn't a lot but it's much more than we'd get with most other banks.

Hello to all newbies and rejoins

Chocolate - if your card is a 0% card then it will be ok just once to pay the min. But it might be a good idea to take what you owe, and divide by no of months left till the 0% is up and see what you need to pay. So if 5 months then that means you really should pay off £200/month, and that includes not spending any more on it.

Sorry if that sounded obvious.

We did that for paying for our wedding many years ago and it worked really well. In those days with no kids and 2 good salaries... Sigh.

Thanks missa for the new thread.

cremeegg have you started your new job yet? Hope it's going well and you are enjoying it.

My back pain has eased somewhat but that's because I'm drugged up to my eyeballs. I'm a bit worried because of the bad back and being doped up (I am so drowsy all the time) means I won't be able to work for a few weeks yet, which in turn means, no income. . I had put money away for the summer but not for September. Gulp.

lists it's great to find money you had forgotten about.

fuzzpig. I hear you about parties. Hate organising DS's. We always do it at home or at parents because I resent spending so much on them. I did the happy meal type box thing. Very handy to do.

£60 on weekly food shop inc PJs for DS, which I hope barring bread and milk will last us the week.

Also 1.50 on a paint tester, 30 at the dentist.

Finally £25 on a secondhand writing desk ( the type with a fold down lid and pigeonholes). The desk was 10 from the YMCA but cost 15 to get it home in a taxi. I totally planned to buy one of these and have been stalking them on eBay where they are much more expensive even without the cost of collecting them. It needs a bit of TLC but is a lovely old solid piece and I will love working from home on it. Keep giving it a little pat when I walk by...

£45 on my next course of Pilates lessons, £1.45 on some packaging for two eBay items (£7.39 for both) and £7.80 on travel to my new job. Thanks for asking, Cool and hope you feel more 'with it' soon.

Lovely to see so many new faces on here now .

If anyone remembers the travelodge issue when we went away last month, well, I got the email with the evoucher today and it is for £46 :) got six months to use it so will have to work out where we want to visit!