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 .

Audit - I thought the goat was for transport . Much more chic than a donkey

at audit's goat!!!

Just written my cheques for the next round of pony costs. Two camps and some rallies, total £450. Way over the budget for the month. Will have to use savings.

Need to get moving as we have a wedding today, have the pony to sort and some other bits to get done too. Looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow.

Yum to fresh vegetables each week!

£35.08 tesco delivery minus £1.15 he's refunding because my coleslaw leaked

Nsd yesterday. Met a friend for wine after work (she paid).

Thursday was nsd too.

so far this week have "saved" £28 ish not driving to work but walking instead and £40 ish by taking lunch instead of buying.

Still haven't bought any new clothes for myself.

audit, why do you prefer waitrose? I find the food in tescos/sainsburys/asda/waitrose exactly the same except for the price. But maybe it's down to the type of food I buy.

Just remembered £38 on mother's day flowers for 2...cheapest I could find were Asda delivery. Shame we don't live closer as would've saved picking them up in the actual shop!

£8 sains top up, have meal planned and that'll do until Sat . Need to run things down as no space in the freezer

Swimming lesson cancelled so saving of £18, will take kids using a free pass instead.

Where do we stand on butchers meat?. I've done the food shop and paid £6ish for 600g sausages & 500g of mince.

Normally I'd pay £4 for both but it is slaughtered on the premises. So, it'll be better quality won't it?. I'd imagine it'll be stunned prior to slaughter too, it's the most non-diverse area ever. I can't see much demand for kosher/halal there.

The ham hocks were huge, £3 but the size of a chicken.

Dh paid so no skin off my nose.

I prefer butchers meat And here the price is the same as sainsbury but better quality.

Nsd today. Hurrah first for ages

Unescorted Here's a great website/forum for anyone thinking of building their own wood-fired oven - plans, materials and good solid advice. I know the guy who runs it, and he's a real enthusiast!

Hello all, may I join you?

I've been going over our finances after ending up €700 overdrawn last month . I totted up our monthly outgoings and realised, for a start, we have almost €2300 of DD .

I've been looking into what we can reduce/remove and have already cancelled/modified a few non essential things (3G contract for my tablet, almost never used, 4G phone contract, Internet never used). I need to review our insurance policies as we seem to paying ridiculous amounts there for house, car, life and school cover (€150/month).

This month's landline bill was 111€ instead of the usual €42 due to them charging for a technician coming out to sot out our line which wasn't working (their fault), DH is sorting that out, so hopefully will get a refund there.

We filled up our cars with petrol, and have paid the canteen fees in advance so all that is left over is for food (you may have seen my thread in AIBU about £20 for a week - 10 meals).

I found a couple of old medical slips (I'm in France, different system here) which I've sent off, and may just get €23 + €19 back. Work owed me for some equipment I'd bought, so I went in and got that back (€55). I've also sent an ASOS order back for a refund (€60) but haven't heard anything back from them yet... Next stop, the loose change jar to see what I can find in there.

Off to do some foods shopping this afternoon, have meal planned making the most of what we already have in the house, will report back with the total spend, wish me luck!

Good luck lachatte!

We have had terrible months like that before, determined to change our ways and always have savings in the future.

Good luck! Food is by far our biggest expense.

Well, on the plus side I managed to get in almost on budget of €20 - €23.22 (I had to get some deodorant which was €3.50), however I can never show my face in that supermarket again as the extra €3.22 I had to pay for in coins. Little coins. One and two centime coins. I felt so sorry for the cashier, and was trying to explain but she wasn't intersted, the lady behind me in the queue jumped in to help us count them

Ah don't be embarrassed

Dinner tonight is moussaka from the freezer with couscous and salad. Pasta for dd as she doesn't like couscous weirdo she's currently asleep on me she's a bit poorly again she only finished antibiotics at the end of half term.

Here's a quick, cheap meal for two:

Put a small frying pan on the stove with a quarter of an inch of veg oil - over a low heat.

Place half a mug of s/raising flour in a bowl and add a mug of water - stir to get rid of the lumps.

Take 3 Linda McCartney sausages and cut them - first lengthways and then in half. Take a field mushroom, cut it in half, then cut each half across into thick strips.

Turn the heat up to medium for a minute or two, then drop a smidgeon of batter into the oil to see how hot it is, and coat the sausage or mushroom pieces in the batter.

Once the oil is hot enough, fry the pieces - about 5 at a time - for a couple of minutes each side.

Here's the full tempura recipe with pics.

Serve with curried potato wedges.

Thanks for pea and ham recipe need,.. i was wondering about doing an old fashioned one with dried peas ... I used to like that years ago and that was pretty frugal

so after my dash yeasterday DH now home ,but really not well still, and in bed today ..

I spent £3.45 yesterday on sandwich so DH could take his tablets on the journey back ( just the one pack , we shared ) and he bought the petrol , .

This morning

£12.24 in chemist on medic stuff for DH
£23.28 in our local sainsburys on food,
£5.something on the papers DH usually gets these , I didnt realise that two Saturday papers would be so much...

Have made my famous Dr chicken and herb soup (and got a bowful down Mr Poorly)

have also baked a loaf of sunflower seed, honey and rosemary bread today , i'm really pleased with it ..

I got the stuff for a fish pie also , but think that will be for tomorrow .. DH doesnt seem to want to eat much right now..

Im trying not to internet spend .. however am seriously tempted by a kimono in Zara I saw in the paper this morning .. Also have a secondhand handbag im watching on ebay (but i really do need a new one as mine pretty old and tatty now , I'm not a 'bags' person .. only ever have one at a time )

Blimey loads to catch up on now. Had a fantastic time with the DCs in Southampton, haven't added it all up yet though eeeek

DH has made a batch of chili, bulked out with lentils which will do three meals, I've made soup with the left-over cauliflower greens for tomorrow and am about to make a frittata with some of the veg we have in the freezer for tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to make a batch of lentil soup for two meals.

DS2 has conjunctivitis so that was €67. Ðr & prescription. €62 on petrol. €10 to ds1 for sleepover. €10 for credit for both their phones. €30 on groceries.

Bloody hell booty can you not get stuff over the counter where you are? Obviously dc health takes priority but ouch!

Had to get antibiotic drops at €17 and Dr €50. Thank goodness they don't get sick too often!

You can buy that OTC here. My dc are never had conjunctivitis, touch wood, I understand it can be really sore.

I've eaten dinner but I'm still craving a take away ??

£18 on food/wine etc here. Free flowers from Orchard programme. £6.50 for ice cream, cake and 2 drinks at cafe . Other than that not too bad. Will be NSD for sure tomorrow. Got some work this week and need to chase up another job. Wil try to be as good as possible this week though.

I've had the week from hell at work, but it is slowly drawing to a close now. I have an event on tonight at work and tomorrow afternoon 3-6 and two days of extra invigilation on Mon and Wed and then it should calm down.

Have ad 3 NSDs this week but also spendy days getting hair done and investing in a coat (which I may return, it hasn't arrived yet!).

Trying to eat up the supplies as it's only 3 weeks til we go on hols from school for Easter, if we can eke out pretty much til then, then I plan to batch cook a lot of meals and freeze again.

Dh has made me he's just gone out to buy chocolate ffs. This has pissed me off because a) we sent to tesco this morning for calpol and b) the nearest shop is a 15/20 minute drive away and its a fucking waste of fuel when he could have got it this morning!!

Spotty my dh said in front of DS2 ah why not bring him to Costa for hot chocolates when you drop ds1 to sleep over!
DS2 said (rightly) there a waste of money dad! I bought mini marshmallows for hot homemade hot chocolates and some treats for him though!

Dh will be cooking us prawn curry! He suggested a take away but I said not another €30!