Join the Fantastic Frugaleers for a February full of frugality

[northender]

Shiny new thread ready for Sunday. Newbies very welcome. This is a wonderful thread full of encouragement and support

This is yesterdays, coz in my FA Cup related excitement I forgot to update)

Bank: £1106.38 (was £1136.38)
Purse: £8.36 (was £16.40)
Jar: £11.20 (was £11.20)
Grand Total: £1125.94
Reduced by £8.04
Days to payday: 26

Spends:

£3.40 – mystery shop expenses (will get £7.50 in total inc pay)
£1.80 – groceries (salad)
£2.85 – Chicken wrap from takeaway

Probably won't be spending for the rest of the month now that I'll have another cup game to shell out for. I can only hope and pray it is a home game and at least then we won't have to shell out for travel expenses – that is what makes it expensive.

NeedAStrongOne – I'm all split personality on who I want in the next round. Part of me says that it's written in the stars on the 30th anniversary of the fire that we're actually going to win the FA Cup so I want someone beatable like Reading or Aston Villa . But the sensible part of me says Quarter Finals will be our cup final so we want a massive payday so either Arsenal or Man U away. (Man U would probz be cheaper)

Resurfacing after horrendous weekend, I was ill, Dh is ill, only DS is unaffected and he is now coughing so I guess it can't be long. Managed to take DS to party yesterday, got to leisure centre where it was meant to be and we were told that they'd given out wrong info to DS friends parents and it was closed for a swimming gala. Cue frantic phone calls to all parents and we ended up at different soft play across town and having picnic with dcs in car park as they wouldn't let us take food in even when we explained about let down. Council are crap! Can't go to meeting today as have lost voice so will reschedule for later in week, downside I will have to pay child care (fortunately do have child care vouchers saved). On bright side it will be an NSD as neither of us are fit enough to leave house! I need something good to happen!

£4.20 in tesco. They didn't have any falafel wraps so I got a chorizo one and some cookies instead. Plus bread. I used a fiver I had in my purse.

Yesterday:
15/2
£50.57 tesco (much less than last two weeks so hoping we can still manage the monthly budget!)
£2 pocket money for DD
£5.79 co-op
£23.65 DVDs (DH's pocket money)

Does anyone have any recommendations for cheap paper? Both lined and plain, or crafty paper, anything really.

I was thinking of The Works in town, or my friends have Costco membership so I could possibly ask them, but wondering if I missed anything?

Pass I am of your lego bargain!

How about lining wallpaper for crafty stuff? I think I saw rolls of the thinner stuff for about £3 and it's about 10 metres long I think. Or is that expensive?

Maybe ask in primary ed who schools use as suppliers? you might need to be a business customer to buy in bulk, but if you know anyone self-employed doing something crafty you could ask them if they would mind a day trip with you?

Other thought is those big junk/recycling warehouses. I can't remember what they are called (hopefully you know what I mean?)

Scrapstores! There's one in Nottingham www.playworks.org.uk/scrapstore but if you have a Google you might find one closer to you.

auditangel I hadn't thought of click and collect, thank you. It will make things a lot easier.

Had a bit of a spendy weekend, £40 for a tv wall bracket and £50 on a new drill and drill bit set dh managed to break both the drill and the bit when putting up the wall bracket.
A big plus is that we put it on the wall of the spare room, moved most of the kids toys in there,fitted a stairgate to the door and now we have a toyroom. I haven't heard a peep all morning
Although we had to move everything that was in there, so now the hallway, one staircase and our bedroom are a mess! It's already in need of a declutter, so instead of spending money I shall be decluttering. I'm not buying anything new, except groceries, until everything is tidy. Hopefully this will stop me from boredom shopping, everyone is guilty of that though aren't they?

Have been into town this morning and am feeling pleased as got the presents needed for various friends childrens bdays all on budget!!

Spends

£2 parking

£9.98 in The Works, for this I got 4 children books for £5 and 2 lots of notelet packs £1.98 for both, a set of pens £2 and a small butterfly notebook 99p.

£5.96 the Card Factory on 2 lots of wrapping paper and 2 soft toys.

£2.48 on some safari animals in Hawkins Bazaar

I also bought some socks in new look - 3 pairs for £4 and I paid on a gift card.

Cup of tea and hot chocolate for dd plus was £5.40

So my budget for each child (had a 2yo, 3yo and 10yo to buy for) was £5 and have feel like have got them all some nice gifts right on budget

Also bought a soft toy for dd but she is going to pay me back with her birthday money.

Does anyone know how you pronounce the boulangere in boulangere potatoes?

Blue, you sound so organised! I can't seem to keep up with my crew at the moment. When I was pregnant I thought having 4 dc's would be no more work than 3. How wrong I was. If only they slept!!!

Not doing very well at checking in with the thread, trying not to spend too much time on line so I'm not tempted to shop. Boden and Amazon must have noticed a swift drop in their profits! Have been good though and Fri, Sat, Sun and today have been NSD's. Think the rest if the week will be spendy as it is half term and we have 3 parties to go to and I need to buy presents.

I think it is pronounced boo-lon-jair!

Ooh fab ideas for paper thanks all! Frugaleers never fail :o

Spendy day. Dp had £100 theatre tokens so booked Wicked and premier inn for his bday (also on leiu of xmas gifts). £160ish on top of vouchers, will also get dinner and travel- so another £100? Owch but worth it, we didn't do anything for his 40th so this is making up for it.

£12 craft shop, drop in activities and hama beads bases.
£6 greggs lunch as was out too long
£10 ds barbers (more expensive than others on here? )
£20 in tescos, they have salmon sides half price so I got a big un (and other bits) and portioned up for freezer.

oops £31 on clothes for dd in Next online, got a fleece coat, 3 school t.shirts and a pair of culottes for spring for that though also collecting instore so no p&p. To make it totally frugal though should have gone through cashback which as usual I forgot about until I paid - grr!!

Pass. Wicked is really good!

Need I am hoping to bring it down eventually to €120 per week 2ds so it's like feeding 4adults plus my mam comes once or twice per week!

Going to keep tracking. Not spending any more than €600 total this month!

Does anyone know why my jacket potatoes always seem to have hard bits in them? I bake them for an hour on gas mark 7 and they seemed done but had lots of nasty hard bits in them a very disappointing dinner!!

We haven't got a microwave but am sometimes tempted to get one just for spuds!!

£97.84 at the supermarket! Knew I had a bit more this week so stocked up on a few good deals, plus we have guests coming this week so hopefully having a few things in the cupboard will prevent any top-ups!

next week I want to go to aldi and top up on tins, having tins of fruit in the cupboard is providing quite useful to eek out the nutrition of end-of-the-week nothing in the fridge lunches.

You can put metal skewers through jacket spuds. Cooks from inside out.

£4.90 in sainsbos, pet stuff & milk.

NSD. And got a call from the headhunter... I'll be interviewing next week hopefully if they can schedule me in (tbh it's me that's being a pita as I've already got meetings scheduled on the designated interview date)!! Argh!

Panic panic.

£15 on a new teething necklace for ds. I'm really annoyed I can't find his anywhere!

Sorry for absence - had a lovely weekend with friends over, which was also a no spend weekend! And NSD today too!

Second always putting skewers through your jackets and maybe try them for an hour and a quarter or half on gas mark 6 instead of an hour on 7? I love my microwave, but I am loyal to my oven for jackets.

Best of luck, NK.

NSD, but the rest of the week will be spendy, apart from perhaps Thursday. DS had a sleepover last night, so has been chilling all day, and I had a lovely nap this afternoon too. I think we got about five hours sleep, so not too bad.
I've budgeted £100 for three days out, to include travel, lunches and sundries, so happens with that.