Marvellous Money Saving March.

[CremeEggThief]

Hi All,
Thought I'd start a new thread for all regulars and anyone else who is interested in saving money in March .

Did you sniff them? I've served off sausage that's honked a bit

Poor dh.

Lunch out with a friend came to £7.95 and then she very kindly treated me to a latte and a shared brownie. Also £2.80 on bus fares back from rowing club for me and DS. £10.75 total.

Just received £35 cash back from when I switched to plusnet for my phone and broadband, which I wasn't expecting at all, so delighted with that.

1 day should be okay for sausages.

£2.77 for 2 kinder egg and sweets. Children caught me off guard fail...

Sausage last, like forever don't they?

NSD today, but been at my aunts funeral. We were not at all close, I went with DM, but she had a sad life really, which seems like a waste. Married a waster who drank all their money, whereas her siblings all married people who wanted to achieve, therefore we, as children, were set on a different path too. Vicious cycle.

Just got home as it was a long drive so glad I made soup for tea, pea and ham and carrot and coriander, with crusty bread.

I didn't sniff them as the packet wasn't open and I'm having an awful afternoon/evening with ds! He hasn't napped for two days due to the window fitters being here...

£11.81 inthe co op . nearly all reduced stuff.
They had Twinings Darjeeling tea bags 50s for 75p a box ! (so bought 4!..) They are well in date so I do hope this doesnt mean they will stop stocking as Darjeeling is my everyday tea, - weak no milk..)

Also as i had a later lunch today due to meeting, I got there just as they were further reducing the chilled reduced stuff and veg etc .. accidently , but that means i saved even more . Must remember that ..

Looks like my petrol for this month ( not to say my yearly book of car ferry tickets) are not going to last as long as hoped as have to do a mercy dash tomorrow. to pick up poor DH from where he works all week. He has come down with Bronchitus.. Poor love, he really does sound bad..

He only suggested he come down on the train tomorrow as usual....
NO way .. (he can be so dim sometimes.... if its 'man flu' he makes a big fuss. Now when hes really ill, its 'dont worry, I can manage' ..SIGH.. .. .. anyway hes just rang and admitted he is wrongand needs help.. so ill have to take a day off tomorrow for a 200 mile round trip ..(

Should get a 'good wife' point or two though!!!..(our little joke.. they are quite hard to get , but not as hard to earn as 'good Husband' points !)

Now guess what I have for dinner?

They would be in my house spotty you'll smell it if they're off.

Both dishes sound fab, we'd slow cooked Bolognese with spaghetti & parmesan.

Bread made with s/raising flour is technically a soda bread.

Irish soda bread needs buttermilk and bicarb of soda to interact to create CO2, which raises the bread.

Self-raising flour contains the chemicals, which, when mixed with water, do the same thing. (Only much cheaper!)

Soda bread is also known as a quick bread - in that it goes straight in the oven, since the chemical reaction only happens once. Unlike yeast-risen bread which needs time to prove (rise) - but then will recover and rise again after being knocked back.

Laska, it's not curry is it?.

If dh worked away I'd make a huge vat of chilli and eat it all week.

Evening all

Bank: £230.87 (was £257.92)
Purse: £8.00 (was £0.00)
Jar: £14.35 (was £19.70)
Grand Total: £253.22
Reduced by £24.40
Days to payday: 8

Spends:

£1.98 – 2 x Amazon kindle books (This. Must. Stop)
£2.00 – Shop bought sandwich today. (This. Must. Also. Stop)
£5.35 – Bus fares, athletics
£2.00 – groceries from pound shop
£5.00 – my work snack stash
£1.00 – Pepsi Max for me
£0.99 – Lucozade for DH (he's stopped drinking again so I didn't have the heart to tell him he had to pay for it)
£2.05 – ingredients for DS2's food tech ingredients
£4.03 – top up grocery shop

Budget looks like this: 253.22
Petrol: £141 budget / £109 spent / £32 remaining
Groceries: £300 budget / £230.16 spent / £69.84 remaining
Interest: £12.40
Kids activities & bus fare: £18
My bus fares: £14.50
Leaves for everything else....£106.48

My draft will came today so I have to return that with a cheque for £90. I might delay it for a few days then post it next week so it comes out of my next pay, OR alternatively, as it's important, I might even pay for it out of the savings. I'll see if I have any money to carry over into next month which hopefully I should as it's only a week to payday.

Thats really interesting re the soda bread might give that a go!

Laska you will def get lots of points for that!! Pasta for dinner?

Our dinner was really nice in the end, used up some red pepper and mushrooms by frying up, pesto pasta, some bacon and a bit of salad!! Complete medley but very nice

Nope Girlie .. fluffy gets the prize ( its a poppadum!).. Curry again ! (have finished it up now..)

I love chilli also .. so maybe next week... have lots of beans in the 'Nuclear Winter store' ,

But thi k ill be making my 'Doctor' chicken soup this weekend for Mr Poorly.. ...though I like the idea of Pea and Ham.. Got a recipe needa ?

B&W did you see I Pm'd you? Do Check this baked onion bhaji recipe out, its really great and easy!

BTW those Twinings Darjeeling boxes are usually £2.99 so an utter bargain..

20 on meat at the butchers. Lovely pressie if someone at work for passing on old kids clothes.

Parent fail though so may hit the saved mini eggs and buy more. Dd and another girl were left out of a class photo as it's going on the Internet. One very upset 7. Year old. Massive guilt mam. It's hard for her to understand why not at school when dad puts them on Facebook and tbf it is double standards.

£5.69 today on paracetamol, ibuprofen and throat lozenges to get me through to the end of the week at work and Febreeze to get the smell of sick out of the carpet after yesterday's debacle. I'm sure there is a trick with bicarbonate of soda to get smells out of fabric but I can't remember what it is and felt too rough to be bothered. I'd be interested if anyone does know though.

Pointless sprinkle on bicarbonate, leave overnight, hoover.

Another NSD. Will have to remember to take ££ out tomorrow. Massage at home tomorrow! Can't wait.

Am thinking that if I take the job in London (ie commute), will I be able to be frugal or would it be all spend spend on yummy sushi and the like?!!

I can't really take chilli or leftover sausage mash in my lunch bag can I??! Doh. Frugal fail.

At the moment if I take this job I'll be paying more tax, may lose child benefit and yet have less take home pay due to train fare. Does this make sense?!!

Not when you look at it like that. Unless it would look so spectacular on your cv that you could use it as a springboard into a better job.

With good quality picnic ware you could still take lunch, by that I mean proper locking boxes not twee wicker baskets.

They need to make you a better offer, don't they?.

I often take leftovers like that to work, NK.
Thanks for the bicarb tip, annoyed I spent money on Febreeze if it's that simple!

Thanks lilac I ll keep an eye on argos. My sister got me some filters. She gets some staff discount.

Was awful spending today don't want to think about it lol

Going out for dinner tonight for colleagues birthday. Can't really be bothered meal is £12 and I'll have a water.

Thanks fluffy. They've given me a proposed rise of about £10k and I think I may be able to negotiate a bit more. Thing is, £7k will go on trains (season ticket), but of course this comes out of post tax income. So the extra £10k would be 'only' £5k after tax. And then of that I will have to pay £7k for trains.

That still puts me slightly above the threshold for getting child benefit, so we were thinking I could pay in more in pension (which I was thinking of doing anyway, because I started work late, so would need to catch up to get enough years in pot) and also of course, the contribution is topped up by the gov anyway. So it might be worth it at this junction (I don't think people who earn £100k would do that but I think people who earn around the cusp, would think about it carefully just because the extra increase in pay really doesn't translate into real increase in the pay packet)...

I'm not a money expert or even numbers expert at all,ll anyone know more?!

Post on money matters, £7k on trains is more than it costs to run an extra car.

There's online tax calculators, you just type in £x salary after tax into google and it comes up. Then you've got an idea of how much better off you'd be, or worse off.

Perhaps they'd like to pay your season ticket for you? It's like a pay rise but they wouldn't pay national insurance on it would they?.

It's a lot to think about isn't it?.

I know what DH (pure businessman through and through would say). Strip out the emotion, tell them what you want financially, then hold firm. You can still claim your CB, just would need to declare it, which might be efficient in itself. Also no expert, but assume CB is based on gross income anyway, although yes, pensions are tax efficient. I would be much more nuanced in my thinking than him

Again, no expert, but we do as a business, pay NI on P11d benefits. It is made as an annual payment, not within the monthly PAYE payment.

laska Pea and ham soup recipe as below. I had no pork stock, so used chicken. And, slightly fewer peas. Still was lovely actually.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2806665/pea-and-ham-soup

LSD today, so the end of the week better than the start for spends. £5 cae wash and that's it I think. At a wedding tomorrow and no time to wash the car myself.

Oh dear, I thought that be a way of squeezing a bit more out of them.

I wonder if men are more forthright at asking for money than women?.