Frugal February continued....

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread

£8 salt mill.
£4 stamps.

DD is 5, I don't have any of those shops local to me, I have to make a special 25 min each way trip, so tend to grab things whenever I see them and hope they suit. The Range is good for craft bits too (still 25mins away) but tbh I'd prefer just getting it from Amazon and then I don't have the pester power which inflates the cost! I already get the cards from Card Factory

girlie omg....I feel bad enough putting the kids squash bottles out on the tables

Just bought a toilet...I know how to live!

Girls I'm going out tonight - voucher for 2 starters & steaks for €30 must be used by end of Feb & it's my birthday tomorrow. Dh kind of embarrassed that we've to use a voucher I think it's win win to be honest!

Afternoon all, I haven't read anyone elses posts for a bit so sorry if I am appearing a bit ignorant - I'll have a catch up after I get back from Slimming World

Bank: £438.73 (was £605.10)
Purse: £55 (was £5.99)
Jar: £19.55 (was £5.80)
Grand Total: £513.28
Reduced by £103.61
Days to payday: 15

Spends:

£90.01 to cover the bills shortfall (DH got paid today a day early so a bill that is due out tomorrow has rolled over to next month, and my available money has gone up a bit but will reduce by a bit next month - meh)
£1.99 – hair clip
£1.98 – 2 x 600ml bottles of pepsi max in the morning
£1.00 – 1 x 1.5L bottle of pepsi max at lunchtime (wont need to buy any tomorrow)
£1.00 – packet of sweets
£6.36 – groceries
£1.25 – bus fares
£0.02 – to the coppers jar

Oven fixer didn't get here til 8pm yesterday. Thankfully oven is fixable but he couldnt do it last night so is supposedly coming back today to mend it which is about £55.

Budget looks like this
Petrol: £141 budget / £109 spent / £32 remaining
Groceries: £300 budget / £155.51 spent / £144.49 remaining
Credit card: £12.84
Interest: £12.40 (woo, this was £4 down on last month)
Kids activities & bus fare: £71
My bus fares: £29
Leaves for everything else....£212.15

Bantam that's not too bad for the oven

Lila enjoy it we always use vouchers I always get a bit nervous when it's one from a complaint

Pass our nearest shopping town is forty minutes away and still doesn't have any of those shops I think there's some portsmouth way but that's about an hour away is it worth it do you think?

Blimey I thought I was out in the sticks (sleepy town South West) but some of you must be in the last outposts!! Don't know what I would do without all my budget shops and I consider myself reprimanded for sneaking my Greggs sandwich into Coffee 1

So have picked my girl cat up from the vets, she is looking mighty sorry for herself is not allowed outside and only allowed mush to eat for next 48 hours - she is NOT impressed! It came to £369 in all and the vets will put the insurance claim in for me.

They are still not sure what it is but reiterated today that they can't rule out a tumour will be about a week to get the biopsy results back. Broke it to dd that this might be serious tonight, she broke her heart

girlie I hope your cat and DD are both ok.
NSD today and pay day tomorrow. Made frittata for tea to use up odd bits of veg. Seem to have a lot of potatoes, wondering what to do with them. I might just par boil and freeze to make roasties.

I do that for roasties. It makes mid-week cba nights bearable. Just.

Your poor cat girlie.

Hello! Lila, enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself even more with the vouchers!!

I find it v difficult to shop without a voucher, discount or some knowledge that I'm getting a good deal (eg Aldi), so last week when I got the handbag, it was horrid. I'm going to return the other one now, coz I've realised and measured it and it's the same size as my current bag. So no need! I'm keeping the one I used for interview coz well, I did use it for interview, plus it's quite nice.

Ok, the interview - I think it went quite well actually, with the presentation going smoothly and no questions that I didn't think of. So I can confidently say that I have no regrets (you know the usual, bummer it could have said xxx instead sort of feeling).

But having heard more about the job, I'm not entirely sure I want it. They seem to want the moon on a stick, and bloody hell, I don't think they will be paying that money!!! It would almost mean a doubling of my current pay and I don't think they will get anywhere near - possibly 20-25% pay rise.

It's not about being greedy though, it's just their expectations. Where I am now, there are 2 senior mgt people doing the job they want me to do! Mad.

Oh well, headhunter will ring me tomorrow or next week. In the meantime I'm not going to worry about it, if anything I'd be quite grateful if they don't offer me the job coz I'm not sure I know how to say no graciously?!!!

Spends will mostly be claimed back. Had coffee at Costa and lunch with a friend. Think that was roughly £11 in total.

Pleased it went well NK.
I just had a bit of luck, my online shop arrived and I realised I'd ordered yet more potatoes but they had substituted loose ones for prepackaged so as it was a sub I handed them back for a refund! Also got cheapo cotton wool subbed for the posh sort for 35p and 3 packs of nappies for 12 quid

I am back, I've fallen off the thread and a little bit off the frugal wagon after DS1 had a nasty accident last week. I was completely thrown by it and the DCs had such a dreadful week I decided to break my self-imposed Amazon ban and buy them a present, so one got an art set and the other got a selfie stick. Not terribly expensive stuff but I was trying to keep away from Amazon.

Coming into March I'm hoping to get back into being careful, I am buying a car from a friend in the next couple of weeks so that's going to drain my savings so I'm going to have to start again there.

I'm very worried because XH is talking about losing his job very soon. I rely on his maintenance big time, it's £400 a month and is nearly half my monthly income. I'm not in the UK and not really entitled to benefits so I'm absolutely bricking it. The worst thing is, he resents paying maintenance for the DCs so much that if he gets another job I doubt he'll tell me or even be truthful with what he's earning and pay me less.

My putting 2 euros a day in a jar has been really good though, and I've sold some extra things where I didn't spend any of the money and put that in the jar, we'll count up on the 28th just how much we managed to save in a month. I'm hoping it will inspire the DCs to continue saving and maybe trying to sell some of the stuff they have lying around.

Off now to read the thread and see what I've missed.

I will have to catch up on the thread properly later, but glad to hear the interviews went well, even if the jobs aren't for you. Also, fingers and toes crossed for your cat, Girlie.

Today's spends were £ 11.60 in total, on travel and hot chocolate and doughnuts in a cafe, after I collected DS from his rowing course.

Help!! Its starting to feel that my March budget is running away with me already !! .. I dont get paid until tomorrow ,but have already paid out £253 from next month's money .. Tyre replacemennt yesterday then tyre 'gloop' to replace the one used up in puncture, Sainsburys yesterday and now this evening £58.32 in co-op ( as DS and DGS are now coming down for weekend.. ) ..

.. and I still have to get the cat food and Frontline..

Lucky i have the 'Nuclear Winter store' and lots of half used packets of rice lentils etc .. Looks like my weekday food for March (when everyone else is away and I dont feel I have to serve up 'nice stuff') will be eating that ...

Anyone else do this ( i.e save the 'best' for when others are around and 'make d'o when they are not? Or does that make me a bit sad sappy? (or worse, Burning Martyr?)

girlie ((( foryour DD and Pusscat))) - iext pectthe Puss doesnt want ahug .. and for you .
NK and Pass well at least you can see.., sound like they want a lot from you NK..
and Pass well you have another tomorrow dont you ? good luch withthat ..
lila happy brithday for tomorrow..

...Ill probably not be back here until Sunday now..

oh sorry.. I hit 'post' before looking at my appalling typos. I dead edukated an' all.. went to uni and did post grads and lotsa ovver stuff yer kno too..

£1.60 for 2 pairs of socks for dancing costumes. Going to need to buy another rail as the costumes won't all fit on one.

Evening.

nk sounds interesting regarding the job at least. Glad you felt it went so well.

girlie So sorry about your cat. I have two dogs, I love 'em to bits, you must be worried.

lila Happy Birthday for tomorrow, don't worry about the voucher gawds sake!!

Oh dear laska, maybe you can make up for it the rest of the month?

brittany I read about what happened to your ds1, I am so sorry

Had my shopping delivered today, £60 at Morrisons, also £30 of fruit and veg, which will last us 3 week.

Other than that, £40 in the horse box for diesel but from last months fuel budget.

Been training with the pony and DD all evening, but a great session, with the pony being so incredibly responsive so worth an hours drive there and back, which we are doing Saturday and Sunday too, aaarrgghh.

and lots of half used packets of rice lentils etc .. Looks like my weekday food for March (when everyone else is away and I don't feel I have to serve up 'nice stuff') will be eating that …

Anyone else do this (i.e. save the 'best' for when others are around and 'make do' when they are not)?

Laska, one of my favourite meals is lentils and rice - no way is this a second class dish!

Laska I sort of do that. If I'm home alone I'll just have a jacket potato or some leftovers from the freezer. DH always has to have some sort of treat if I go out "so that it's fair" usually pie and chips with mushy peas!

Girlie - have my fingers crossed for your cat, poor thing.

Glad interviews gave gone well - hopefully the right job will emerge at somepoint!

I just woke up from a dream where DH, I and the little two went shopping at a huge discount store and spent loads of money - I was getting really stressed about it because it was nice stuff we just didn't need it.

I've booked the hall and ordered craft stuff for DD1s party - craft order was £50.80 but quite a bit of that was buying in the sale for events later in the year. I'm trying to do the party for less than £100 so will tot up what is being used for what when it arrives.

My new boots card arrived. It also came with a voucher, so if anyone's lost a points card recommend getting in touch in case you also get a nice surprise.

I forgot, got back £3.50 yesterday from a top I got for another dancing mum.

Tesco today £103, there is still some stuff to get, drinks and milk, but it was almost 2 weeks since the last shop.

Nsd.

Nsd other than breakfast/ after school club £8.50.

Pay Day - whoo hooo!!

Think March will be tight as was only basic pay as didn't get my millage in, must do that this wend for April now.

So food budget for a week will have to be £40 or less, freezer and cupboards fairly well stocked though so should be o.kay.

Trousers I bought for dd ystd don't fit properly so will go back, will try Asda I think will probably be cheaper. Finding her hard to buy for dd at the moment as she is long legged, with small waist but has a Beyonce bottom (she will really thank me for telling you all that ) Trousers are either not long enough or too big on the waist or to too tight around the bottom!!

Afternoon all

weeps with happiness to see the end of the working week

Bank: £416.48 (was £438.73)
Purse: £7.33 (was £55.00)
Jar: £13.80 (was £19.55)
Grand Total: £437.61
Reduced by £75.67 (is £83.42 really but I got my mystery shopping payment of £7.75 today)
Days to payday: 14

Spends:

£57.40 – cost of oven repair (and he told me he thinks the fan part of the oven may be on its way out as it's very rattly)
£4.95 – Slimming World subs (one pound on – GRRR)
£10.00 – Long jumper from Primark
£0.64 – stamp
£0.50 – sweets
£6.58 – 2 x tops from charity shop (1 casual, 1 for work)
£3.35 – Kids bus fares, athletics, whatever

Budget looks like this: 437.61
Petrol: £141 budget / £109 spent / £32 remaining
Groceries: £300 budget / £155.51 spent / £144.49 remaining
Credit card: £12.84
Interest: £12.40
Kids activities & bus fare: £64.40
My bus fares: £29
Leaves for everything else....£142.48

I've got a £60 shop coming tonight which will see me til the end of the month except for a small top up - especially how the oven has been broken all week so we've lived off jacket potatoes cooked in the microwave or pasta band therefore haven't eaten out of the freezer. My next door neighbour who is good to us sent me round a slow cooker full of stew & dumplings yesterday when I told her our oven was knackered!! How nice is she? And it was lovely too, I wish my dumplings were as nice as the ones she made. Anyway it did 4 portions for tea yesterday and another two in the fridge so I'll have that tonight for my tea.

Oven guy replaced the heating element but he noticed my fan was really rattly sounding and asked me if I really wanted him to replace the element as he thought the fan might be on its way out so it might be more economically sensible to replace the whole oven. It's rattled like that for ages so I said to run the risk of just replacing the element but knowing my luck it'll break down in two weeks and I'll have to buy a new oven.

Another bloody spotlight has gone in the kitchen (there are 6), 3 have new low energy lights in them, 1 was out, 2 had old ones in, and it's one of the old ones that has gone, so I'll need to buy two new ones. I'm sick of buying light bulbs. I am trying to replace each light bulb with energy saving ones but they're all giving up the ghost at once. I can't possibly have any more light fittings to replace!!!

Love charity shops, got a couple of nice tops today, although I did spend £10 in Primark yesterday after I promised myself I wouldn't be buying myself any clothes this month.