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 .

We had To buy a new dishwasher Today. Old one has lasted eight years and Two moves. So that was £440.

Then £137 on the last of the school books. We ate out as DH arrived too late To cook, eat and Get there before the book shop closed.

Should be a nsd today. Bil and his gf are coming round this morning bleurgh.

Ha £100 A week is our average food bill.
Lsd todAy. Face paints for comic relief. Maybe shopping but that is budget. Going to try morrisons as have a voucher

Ohhelp I spent £58 in Lidl but £30 in tesco! I only buy mince and whole chickens in lidl though meat wise.

Omg fluffy!!! Are you ok? Was he crazy to do that??

Yesterday was £46 at Sainsburys which included things like vitamins which was why it was a high bill. £40 at Aldi. Bought lots of food as having friends round for lunch later. So cooking quite a bit. Will freeze or eat as leftovers through the week.

Should be NSD today.

fluffy glad you are hear to tell the tale. I hate being a passenger for that evry reasson. To be fair I hate driving too....

Breadandwine thanks - it is an amazing website. Loads of useful info. Beyond pizzas I hadn't thought what to cook so I will be visiting often to pick up tips. Pass on my thanks to your friend too.

We went out last night - drove to save on taxi fares, so wasn't drinking. I had forgoten how random people become when they have had a few sherbets too many. Very entertaining, although spent most of the night avoiding the party bore - man who thinks that he is more entertaining than he is even when the wine has taken the edge off.

My gardening epic for my brother has yielded beetroot and celeriac - a bonus as I thought nothing was growing there at the moment. I am thinking roast beetroot and celeriac mash to go with the tonights slow roast pork....

Pass I'm quite happy to use Waitrose, but our local one is very small so has a limited range. I have a new one that has opened at work, but I've only been in twice. DH prefers Waitrose and thinks I should shop there all the time.

Yesterday £54 on diesel (can reclaim) and £4 at the petrol station buying myself a large sport cap bottle of water, water for mum and fruit shoot and jelly tots for DD2, drove my mum to Wiltshire to stay with her brother. £2.50 church collection.

Need to try to buy hair net for DD2 under a dancing costume, to stop the hood from mucking up her curls.

DH actually suggested I try doing some shopping in Lidl. This is a huge break through for him.

We are lucky enough to have both Aldi and Lidl in the next town, I do go occasionally, but not as often as I should. Will try to go next week.

audit, try equestrian shops for hair nets, even on-line 'equestrian hair net' on Amazon. DD has to wear for pony club. Packs of 3 are very inexpensive, think £1.50 ish. Variety of colours.

fluffy - You must know, after what happened to DH, that my blood ran cold reading your post. I am so glad you are ok

unescorted the beetroot and celeriac mash sounds yum! I have both in at the minute, courtesy of my huge vegetable delivery.

We were at a wedding yesterday, but not too spendy as I drove and we didn't stay late at the evening do as DD had a sleepover, I think we spent about £20 (will need to see what DH has in his pocket re change) Also wrote them a cheque for £50 as they wanted money, I NEVER know what's appropriate re amounts to give.

Today is a welcome 'in the house' day but I really need to tidy up and get sorted as it's been a busy week.

I also need to pop to the local Home Bargains as we are so short of toiletries and cleaning items, DH is also moaning that we have only 'frugal' things in and can he please have some nice cheese from M&S?

Actually, I agree with him. There's nothing 'luxury' at all. We are not so near the breadline that we have to do this, so I will relent

Next week I have to get the pony shod, and a couple of bits for the horse box. I am working a lot next week, so that will keep the cost of the week down, but I have a 60th to buy for (dsil) and my shellac done.

bantam Expensive replay at Reading then?!! Go on the Villa

The sausages I froze have all come out of their skins! I assume it's because they were already cut I've used them anyway obviously. Hairy bikers sausage casserole in the slow cooker should do two meals.

Morning all

Bank: £158.09 (was £206.09)
Purse: £15.00 (was £5) this is for tomorrow's bus fare
Jar: £22.20 (was £14.15)
Grand Total: £195.29
Reduced by £29.95
Days to payday: 5

Spends:

£20.00 – given to DH and DS1 to spend at his athletics presentation evening. He got Performance of the year.
£3.00 – Bought a coke at Manchester Arena which DS2 then promptly spilled all over the floor and the lady in front >.<
£8.00 – I transferred some money to my brother's account as we're off to see a local band in April and he's getting me the tickets.

(and this means an extra £1.05 has materialised from somewhere coz I've spent more than my balance has gone down by, but that is good).

So I am going to reduce my budget slightly as I did a shop yesterday which was £28.25 so my grocery budget will be underspent so I'll move that to everything else and just leave myself a tenner for unexpected groceries. I'm not sure about petrol though as we have just over a quarter of a tank and probably will need some before payday on Friday. I'll leave that for the time being though.

My team are still in the FA Cup albeit only due to a replay. I'm not sure whether we'll be going to that, as there will be high demand for tickets but it will be on TV so we might be able to get them, although it'll be just DS1 and I but as the replay is on Monday 16th, it means the funds will have to come out of the month's money– GRRRRRR (and if we win it'll be a trip to Wembley to pay for).

Budget looks like this: 195.29
Petrol: £141 budget / £109 spent / £32 remaining
Groceries: £270 budget / £230.16 spent / £39.84 remaining
Interest: £12.40
Kids activities & bus fare: £15.60
My bus fares: £14.50
Leaves for everything else....£80.95

So, aim to spend as little as possible this week. Better pay for the will out of the savings account, I think.

Guys
I am a bit confused!
I want to track what I spend on food per month. So I have been writing all my spends on everything done.
On Friday 27 February went to tesco spent €120 on food. Between 1st and yesterday spent €85. Do add both together for the first week in February?

Need to get some bits to do this week!

Depends how you want to do it really!

I start our week on the 1st of the month, so in march I'm count everything spent between Sunday 1st and Saturday 7th as 1 weeks worth. At the end of the month I have also budgeted half the usual weekly budget for the extra couple of days you get. (ie we have a £100pw food budget but in the budget I mark that down as £450 monthly)

So in your case I'd've counted the February shop as the last week in February, and the rest you've spent since the 1st as the first week in march.

Obviously you end up eating food you bought the week before but I fugue it evens out overall.

*figure

Just posting the last few days - very spendy!

5/3
£1.30 books for DCs
20p book (from my pocket money)
£4.48 cookies [pushover emoticon]
50p sweets
£3 24hr hotel wifi
£1.85 ATM charge (fail - should've got cash at our station as it's free)
£19.56 dinner at Hungry Horse (saved £10 with clubcard voucher - I left the printout in our hotel room but thankfully they scanned the barcode off my iPod and it worked)
£7.70 taxi back from dinner. Ouch
£9.94 DH got bird house kits on sale

6/3
£13.50 Breakfast (we went to an ice cream parlour! :o)
£16.97 Waterstones (little thing each for DCs and present for friend's new baby)
£1.10 Water
50p sweets
£16.50 Sea City Museum (they put DS through as under 5 even though I said he was 5, so saved £7!) it was fantastic BTW and we virtually had the place to ourselves!
£1 kids' museum trail (actually worth it due to aforementioned emptiness of museum!)
£13.35 Hotel Chocolat... Can't resist (did include a lolly each for the DCs and some chocolate Brazils we took home for daddy)
£23.13 Pizza Hut buffet
£2.65 Bus home from station
£4 DH coop

7/3
£7.30 bus fares
£5 to DSD for lunch (she was babysitting)
£3 meal deal for my lunch. Didn't enjoy it either, think my taste buds have changed since starting to take my own more often!
£10 Morrisons
£1.94 painkillers
£2 DD Pocket money

Thanks tewisavestheday

I do it monthly through my bank statement. Never pay cash so it's easier to do this way for me

Banta, I'd pass on the replay for your team and go all out for the final. A trip to Wembley costs an arm and a leg, but so worth it. Fingers crossed for your boys, then you'll be in the queue for big tickets. Buy no food for the duration!!

£8 on Clinique city block. I had a £10 voucher to use with JL so I'll pick it up when I collect my paint.

Btw, if yesterday's sunshine made you think of joining the national trust look at new Zealand's national trust.

If you join that one you can use it in the uk and you get access to English heritage sites too. It's £40 delivered.

You don't get free parkng but parking stickers for 2015 will be on eBay & you can just keep it in the glovebox until you've gone through the first gates if there's a checkpoint.

Zimbabwes is even cheaper but it's putting money into mugabes regime.

NSD, and tried on all the stuff that came in my next delivery and I'm keeping one £20 top out of £350 worth....so good going

Dinner was the hairy bikers sausage casserole with some yorkshires. I bought a strawberry cheesecake ages ago which we had for pudding yum.

We've done loads of washing/cleaning today. Some nob had a bonfire so my washing stinks and isn't even dry anyway

How frustrating spotty!

Have been frugal this afternoon - bought lamb mince and chicken breast, but divided both in half. Now have minty lamb burgers and some marinated chicken in the freezer.

I'm finally trying the creamy minty pasta for lunch tomorrow!

Fluffy, how do you get to find all of this stuff out?

pass I do similar re Next, and Joules. Free delivery and choice of items, most of which don't suit, but the odd one...

booty I do my food budget payday to payday, last month was harder as a 5 week month, but keeps me on track.

£50 spent today. £25 in Home Bargains on loads of cleaning, toiletries and the like. Haven't been since January. Then £25 in M&S, on juice, bread, quite a few reduced items (although, I am very picky now as M&S reduced is still often more expensive than other supermarkets) and lots of cheese for DH.

spotty Had that happen too last year, idiots.

bantam Well done to your DS.