Don't Panic, December is frugal this year.

[Fluffycloudland77]

NSD = no spend day
LSD = Low spend day

LSD-ish - £10 on lunch from Pret (was starving) and £2.40 on coffee with a former colleague. Must try to get back into making packed lunches.

2/12
£1.50 bus
£4.90 cafe while waiting for DS

Didn't get round to ordering any Xmas gifts although am about to curl up on the sofa with the laptop so my LSD may change...

LSD yesterday £3.50 for bus ticket to job interview. Hopefully I didn't make too much of an idiot of myself!

Today will be a LSD as stuck in house waiting in for a delivery which could come anytime. So will be putting stuff away in preparation for the chaos on Friday of the boiler being fitted. It's going to bad as we need new piping which will have to go up into ceilings and under floors from boiler in kitchen to gas meter at front of house because our piping is an old size. But I am looking on this as an opportunity to do a thorough clean before Christmas and get to those parts seldom reached!

My spend will just be £1.48 for big can of milk and maybe whatever marked down bread I can find.

Baked on Monday so now we have brownies and broas coming out of our ears, they should last well over a week unless DH gets the munchies !

Spendy week for sure. New York here I come!

Enjoy spotty! Bon voyage :o

Ooh very nice spotty gorgeous time of year to be there too! I recommend the spotted pig pub for food and wanky artisan beer.

Gosh, you were all busy yesterday, I can't keep up on working days.

I am home today. Doing some work for DH on a consulting enterprise he has, which is a nice little earner tbh. Any really massive jobs that his own company can't physically handle he will pass to people that he know will be able to do it, but gives guidance and expertise on a consultancy basis. Then charges appropriately. Last financial year he hardly did a thing, but this year much busier as the economy picks up a touch.

So today after this I will make chunky veg soup for tea. Then vacuum everywhere. Try to get on top of the washing. Clean out the car. Walk dogs. Check Xmas pressies, which are in a pile in my wardrobe and I need to check before buying more (or not).

collie - I bought a cord skirt from Next that I don't actually need at the weekend. It was only £22 and is plain and black and will not set the fashion world alight, but will actually get worn a lot as I have a lot of jumpers from last year and it bridges the gap nicely between work and home wear.

My Tower of London poppies have been dispatched too, which is nice for Christmas.

colliewobble I was recovering from two PPH's last Christmas, don't even remember putting up the tree really, remember my mother was there doing it alright. So maybe I didn't participate!

FrenchToast I haven't made it yet but everything tastes good from slow cooker, and the work would be done day before

spotty have a fantastic time!

I had to give in and do a shopping list last night, but eeked out the shopping this week until Wed night so that's 9 days rather than usual 7 and it's a small list. I would hold off except I'm away at the weekend and dh and animals would effectively starve if I didn't! Will not need butchers though I think so €30 of meat will have done 14 days.

When I got back to work this week, the christmas bonus form was on my desk, I'd forgetten about this! Going to use €125 dunnes stores voucher for new towels that I wanted 12 months ago, and then €125 one4all for makeup and keep the rest for my trip to Dublin in April. The remaining €250 will go through my wages and is taxable so what's left will go into normal household budget.

spotty - enjoy!!

lilacclery - was wondering myself about eeking out the shop for one extra day each week, or as much as I can, whether this will save a shop once or twice every few months. Good news on the bonus.

Need, really need to look at our telephone/broadband contract with BT; they are so unbelievably crap and we are being overcharged. I do everything else really efficiently, but this one scare me tbh, no idea why!!

Ok, that's the VAT return done and accounts up to date for the little consultancy business, now for household stuff.

needastrongone I've never really done it before because I find if you spend less on groceries one week, you get caught out the following week with a bigger shopping bill. However I took on board advice I read here I think, where someone said if they don't have the item they need for a meal in stock they just make do with something else, so last week when I realised I'd no oven chips, I pulled out my actifry and made some from the potatoes I had. Actifry had been sitting in cupboard for up to 2 years! So following that theory I stretched one weeks shop to 10 days and last weeks to 9 days

Wedges are good in an emergency.

Try Aldi or lidl Collie.

£2.30 in tescos on gravy powder
£4 in aldi cat food and biscuits.

Need wait until plusnet or EE or sky are doing a good deal on cashback, several of us on here have very cheap bb thanks to them. It'll cost me £70 this year for bb because I had cancellation charges but its a 12m contract on line rental and broadband so next year I can jump ship penalty free.

Happy birthday to me. ....

Dp gave me £100 and I went shopping, and bought a couple of bits and some xmas presents.

Little bit bemused as my mum said "as it's your big one you get presents", - presents are usually reserved for kids - and she got me a single bar of chocolate? ?

Anyway, fish n chips tonight, with the freebie voucher I got after complaining about service on dds birthday.

Happy Birthday Pass hope you have had lots of

lsd for me, just £4 on Christmas show tickets for dds school show.

Going out to see Sleeping Beauty panto tonight!!

Happy birthday Pass! Enjoy your chippy :-)

NSD here. DCs have kindly passed on the horrible shivery bug & sore throat. On the plus side ds is a)loads better but b)missed his school panto today so we will get a £10 refund.

Should be NSD for the next two as well, I'm working and as long as I remember to take some lunch I won't spend. Am all up to date with office collections!

ps Collie I switched to Asda for this very reason. I prefer shopping online and you get more for your money there. I am running out of Clubcard vouchers though and I will miss them!

Happy birthday pass enjoy your bar of chocolate :o

NSD today!

I am also trying to eek out last week's shop for this week. I think we should be able to make it to Saturday only spending about £20 if I am strict with dh and plan. Though this is really just because we spent too much last week rather then any over all saving so not sure if it really counts.

Yikes, I missed the end of the last thread and the first 6 pages of this one!

Managed to finish the end of Nov. with £12 to spare. Hallelujah! Goodbye overdraft!

My big beefy 4x4's due it's MOT next week, so that's bound to sting. We live out in the sticks to it's necessary ish. Bought it after a succession of terrible winters where we were snowed in - it hasn't snowed since!

Filled the cars of fuel, did a big Lidl's shop...frugal Dec. her we come!

NYC in Dec, Spotty? I'm most jealous!

Happy birthday Pass hope you enjoy your fish and chips.

Spent £5 in Starbucks this morning, DDs are doing end of year exams so were up late revising last night so I decided to treat them. It will not be happening everyday.

Petrol £35

Yesterday I spent money too,

Socks for Xmas stocking £10
Smellies for Xmas stockings £10 for 2 sets
Odd bit of groceries £12
Roads £1.20 and parking 50p

Hope you have a fab time Spotty

£18.90, on travel and lunch out. I had to collect an order that was "out of stock for home delivery".

Pass, happy birthday. You enjoy that chocolate bar.

Have a lovely honeymoon Spotty