Frugal January, part two.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everybody is welcome.

NSD technically, but the shopping I did on my card will come out later. £41.14 for the week.

Nsd

Thanks guys for tuna ideas! will be trying the tuna shepards pie sounds yum. Cant think why I didn't think of pasta bake...d'oh.

so far today spends are:

£13 in charity shop - gigantic cylinder vase and couple of small blue glass bottles, and a couple of old willow pattern plates.

£10 in garden centre - church candle, small pale bronze shimmery pebbles

Have also been to the beach, brought a sandcastle bucket of sand back with me, as well as another bucket of scallop shell halves, and green and blue sea glass.

Have made a new lantern for spare room.

Yep the nandos wasn't a typo... 5 adults. DSS brought his GF (which wasn't expected, DH had in mind it just being his 3 DCs, although it's fine obviously - she's awesome :o) but turned out she doesn't eat meat off the bone at all... so separate meal etc. She did offer to contribute but DH refused :). Have definitely learned to always check people are happy with the menu wherever we go! :o It was all eaten anyway (well, DSS is taking the leftovers to work :o) so worth it overall.

The ridiculous thing is though that DH will be getting an NHS discount card in a few weeks because of his training course, and the most exciting thing is that he gets nandos discount FFS :o

I love my nandos discount. Also get one in dorothy Perkins.

And boots but you need a special card and get a new one each year.

Omg that Tuna shepherds pie sounds amazzzzing. that is so getting made as soon as we've used up the fresh stuff we have planned for.

Well its all gone rather t*ts up for me over the last few days, as I seem to have spent over £100 on food etc , 50 on petrol and ferry fares and £35 on a meal out ..

Have had DS and DGS over for the weekend, then took DGS back to his mum today, and bought XDIL , DGS and myself lunch in Wagamamas.
(nice but way expensive -£35 of which £9 was for juice!! think ill suggest sarnies in a caff next time). We were at Gunwharf Quays though and I didnt spend anything else (preens), though was very tempted in the Osprey Outlet shop, but resisted

Then the house and travel insurance went out today £288..

Sigh..

Ah well.. I have plenty left overs , and have made soup with the rest of the chicken carcass from yesterday.. so thats ok for me for lunches this week..

I love gunwharf and always end up spending a small fortune in baby gap!

Afternoon all

Bank: £599.22 (was £657.48)
Purse: £1.53 (was £2.91)
Jar: £48.50 (was £52.00)
Grand Total: £649.25
Reduced by: £63.14
Days to payday: 18

Spends:

£51.27 – Morrisons
£6.99 – new house phone
£0.64 - 1st class stamp
£0.69 – pint of milk
£3.25 – kids bus fares

Budget looks like this...
Normal monthly stuff still to debit: £27.66
Shortfall to send to bills account: £31.04
Bus fares & sports £64.20
Petrol: £78.28
Groceries: £170.10 (2 x more Friday internet shops and next week's is done already and is less than £50 so I should come in at well under budget this month)
Leaving me everything else money of.....£277.97 + £135 still to bank

Good job we didnt go into baby Gap then spotty.. DGS is only two ,so no doubt id have invested ..

Fossil was also tempting, im telling myself that i really dont need to replace my old fossil handbag ( im one of those people who only have one bag ) but its getting faded and so is looking a bit tatty now, but is still good really , not worn . . Actually im wondering about re-dying it ?... its red. Anyone tried this?
I have used red shoe cream on it a couple of times but it doesnt last .

Was terribly dissapointed that Yo Sushi at Gunwharf has closed .. I love sushi .. but again its expensive , ( for supermarket ones, the Waitrose ones are best i think )
I actually do have a book , maybe i should try making my own.. Has anyone here tried?

pointless have you got The Works near you? They do loads of good but cheap kids books.

Presents for one year olds - anything you can push or pull along, tea sets, teddies, clothes... this website does some lovely stuff and tends to be good value mulberry bush

NSD.

Ohhhhh northender - you have got the 5th round glamour tie :-)

encyclo I'm torn between using the vouchers I have or just forgetting about them. I know I'm careful to watch prices but then I get oh well dh would love that or that would come in handy etc which I have eliminated by stopping Tesco delivery saver & exclusively shopping in aldi.

€20 on diesel today
tomorrow €?? At dentist think I need a wisdom tooth extracted...

NSD fail here: partly reasonable and partly really stupid. The reasonable part was that I bought a sympathy card for a colleague who had had a family member die last week: the really stupid part was that I left my Oyster card in my other coat pocket, so when I set off home this evening (having biked into work) I didn't have it. Grrr. £4.80 on a single fare.

Think I forgot to say earlier (this is what comes of not reading the new posts before posting myself!) happy birthday need!

26/1
£8 breakfast club for both DCs - DH had a conference and was able to drop them off so I could rest. TOTALLY worth the cost! :o
£11 Taxi to conference (where DH won an award :o) but he can claim this back
£11.49 Dinner/after school snack and butter which I'd forgotten to order. Still exhausted and not up to cooking/washing up etc.
£4.20 taxi home for me and DCs

I really need to plan around my illness. It's very hard to find the balance - I don't want to eat junk all the time but sometimes I'm not well enough for much else. I'm not able to batch cook ATM which is a shame as I've used the last lot up.

Also good to know about the boots discount. DH used to work for them, staff discount was brilliant when we had our babies :o

Can I join?....

Lilac, if you have a look on Marks website they have the dine in options for the week. I assume it changes weekly.

Thank you for welcome spotty teacakes.

Everyone's welcome Coffee.

Happy birthday need

pass I LOVE those scampi fries. I've never had the cheese melts. Did they satisfy your craving?

Whoever wanted baby gifts, sorry I can't scroll back, pjs an be bought cheaply and are useful. If that's not enough, split a twin pack of pyjamas, add a bottle of on offer bath foam, a rubber duck and one of the books spotty suggested. You can't go wrong with Julia Donaldson. Nice, useful gift about £6-7 per child.

£1.52 on paracetamol. I had a headache and Boots didn't have any cheap own brand in stock. I thought we were doing really well but dh booked the car in for a service without consulting me so that's £165 gone that I wasn't expecting to spend I wouldn't mind but he only ever spends his own pocket money and puts petrol in the car. He never spends from the joint account so his first try will be his last