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 .

I have a current account, a bills and direct debits account, a flex - saver account and an ISA and a savings account for DS.

I still can't get on natwest, so I've cancelled the amazon order of household things (can't cancel toothbrush heads eBay order as it's already dispatched) but hopefully can reorder it fairly soon maybe after payday. What's the betting the price increases before that?

spotty one job looks good so will see what this week brings.

£6.21 veg top up in tescos

Forgot - £29.99 food/household stuff large chunk of that is DD2s dummies (STOP THROWING THEM OUT THE BUGGY!!!)
And £13.99 birthday gift, some cards.

Woohoo have transferred money. Savings back to only what my dad gave us a couple of years ago though so technically haven't saved any ourselves!

Decided on a couple of bits I can sell on Facebook, never done it before so a bit nervous (I don't even like people coming to our house!) but needs must.

Someone on my news feed put up photos of the Art of the Brick exhibition which I was hoping to go to, it does look good but I don't think it's worth the £40 (£60+ including travel) so we'll scratch that idea. I don't think we will have any big outings for a while - definitely want to do British museum for Egypt stuff once we've started on that but won't be for a month at least.

My mum has said we can have her flat when they're away in June, so free holiday basically! It's only my hometown but a change of scene so can do different stuff (still nice and quiet as it's term time) and there's an awesome park nearby.

Oh and I so nearly bought something on FB just now. An ikea Trofast unit thing at £20. Sounded like a right bargain but just realised it's very small so not worth it.

Annie - I agree, as your income creeps up, so do the outgoings. It's natural I guess? If we were all Russian oligarchs (sp?!), we wouldn't all be shopping at Aldi

Fail at Morrisons delivery, forgot milk, and 3 other bits, bought far too many branded items that I could have swapped for own brand. Frugal fail.

Frugal win - the upstairs is getting decorated next week. DS likes stuff very plain, so his bedroom is just being painted, but I have found a sticker on Ebay of an X-box controller that is huge and will go above his bed for £15. Very DS!

I'll read back and post further later

Have ran out of veg so will need to pick some up later, thought I had loads at the beginning of the week but we have been very healthy and its all gone!!

Going to see a friend later so will prob pick up something nice (not veg) for us to munch as well

pegleg I have always done o.kay with the local fb buy and sell page, have made nearly £20 on dds old clothes this week! It is a slight pain having to arrange collections etc but I prefer that them trying to work out postage and sending stuff.

Trying to hold out on a grocery shop until the weekend, that would mean we stretched our last aldi shop to 11 days. I'd say I'll have to give in & get fruit, bread & milk this evening.

Like others on this thread we would be comfortable on our earnings which are reasonably good if we hadn't debt. This in my case is as a result of two mat leaves on state maternity pay & short time at work. No longer on shirt time & no more maternity leaves so a tough frugal year this year will mean an improved situation next year.

We got our annual loan statement for our mortgage yesterday. In 2014 we reduced the balance by €7k+ and have cleared €37k in 6 years.

Rarr. Don't post for a bit and mumsnet clears my threads I'm on and then I lose all my encouragement to not spend

Not doing too badly though. May have to buy drugs at the pharmarcy though, have a uti (sorry for tmi) that won't shift so ruining my no non budget spend.

our bloody lawnmower is broken. I have not seen any garden equipment free on the free sites and it's dead beyond my skills to fix. Any ideas?

Tricky! Do you know any of your neighbors? You could ask to borrow theirs occasionally? Maybe in return for doing their lawn for them (depending on how well you know them!)

Arrrr, the neighbours have the perfect lawn. He comes home in the middle of the day to do shit to it. And leaf blowers it twice a day sometimes. I daren't, he might take over! he geniunely may have some kind of issue, he pressure washered the drivewsy in the rain last week, twice.

I thought my neighbor was bad!

11th March and I've only just made it here! Not been a good few weeks. DC4, now 8 weeks, has decided sleep is not necessary, I am in my knees! DH is fab at getting up with her in the night but he has been working away so going it alone at the mo. The house is a bomb site but at least we have food and clean clothes!

On the plus side, I'm not spending much!

An now going to catch up on this (epic) thread. Hope everyone is have a great month.

Has anyone got any Gap voucher codes (not online ones but for use instore)?

I saw one for 40% in store that you could claim on their Facebook page yesterday. Or you could try signing up for their mailing list?

Spent £10 on Tescos, got veg for that but also 3 boxes of tea bags (herbal ones on offer) 2 large Easter eggs that were half price (£1.50 each = bargain) and also crumpets and doughnuts to take to my friends for lunch!!

Am glad I picked up the Easter eggs as left it too late last year and was trailing round the supermarkets which had mostly sold out and were selling them for top prices by then, not making that mistake again!!

Parents evening tonight - eek!

We don't buy anyone Easter eggs usually but this year we are going to do an Easter egg hunt.

Nsd from me but dh is getting milk and nappies. Couldn't avoid that one really.

Just spent £96 on new gym kit, got 3 vests, 2tshirts and 3 pairs of leggings. Going to chuck out all my sweaty/faded/baggy stuff the purge was way overdue!

lawn mowers petrol ones are worth fixing, electric ones aren't. Ebay will have mowers.

NSD.

Can't wait until the bank holidays, we need to decorate a base coat of white dulux everywhere.

There's a £5 off £50 spend in Homebase if you fill the online survey on the till receipt. Or find a receipt in the car park.

£6.60 posting my mum's present for Mother's day to Ireland and £28.50 for DS's monthly bus pass to school, so £35.10 altogether.

I made a lovely curried parsnip and pear soup for lunch. I fried some frozen onions in butter and a good tablespoon of curry powder, chopped 5 parsnips, a large carrot and 2 pears and added them with about 2 pints of vegetable stock, seasoned with a little salt and lots of black pepper, and simmered for about 30 minutes, before blitzing it with a hand blender. Absolutely delicious and enough for 3 very generous portions, if you're like me and love lots of soup.

We've got to make something for DD to safely view the eclipse through unfortunately I'm going away this year so dh will have to do it

This could well turn out to be a no spend day.

I was contemplating going to a pilates class, which would be £5. So I can either stay home and feel smug about a nsd, or I can go and feel smug about exercising. Decisions decisions

Treacle. You could do a Pilates DVD or you tube vid. And that would make you double smug!!
Now if only I took my own advise lol

I have changed energy supplier all being well should save €210 over the year! (Fingers crossed).

So far this is turning into a no spend day!