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 .

Evening all

Bank: £97.95 (was £117.95)
Purse: £8.91 (was £0.00)
Jar: £13.25 (was £17.45)
Grand Total: £120.11
Reduced by £15.29
Days to payday: 2

OVER A HUNDRED QUID LEFT TWO DAYS BEFORE PAYDAY!!! I'M SO CHUFFED WITH MYSELF.

If anyone's DH or DS gets through Smellies like there's no tomorrow, Superdrug have their own brand deodorant on at 48p per can and it smells okay too.

My tax code for next tax year has come and after years of underpaying it seems to have caught up and it's now 1066L like normal! A quick add up on salarycalculator.co.uk shows that along with my 2.2% payrise (woo) and adjusted tax code, will be worth £48 a month extra to me!!! thud and DH's will be an extra £11 more.

DS1 also got unexpected good news as we've done his student finance application and he's also entitled (possibly) to £700 grant - I didn't expect him to get any free money but as it went on 2013-2014 tax year, I earned less than I do now so it obviously pushed us just under the threshold.

Spends:

£2.15 – butty for lunch
£3.00 – football for DS2 after my brother's dog popped his and he never shut up whinging about it.
£2.98 – Superdrug (Berocca and painkillers)
£1.96 – groceries (Porridge and deodorant)
£1.00 – Pepsi

£4.20 – athletics & bus fare

Budget looks like this: 120.11
Petrol: £141 budget / £109 spent / £32 remaining
Groceries: £270 budget / £261.62 spent / £8.38 remaining
Interest: £12.60
Kids activities & bus fare: £4.40
Leaves for everything else....£62.73

Will need Petrol tonight and I'm also off to the card shop to buy quite a few cards for birthdays and mother's days. It'd be nice to come in with over a hundred pounds left but I doubt that'll happen.

bantam well done!! feels great to be more in contro,l doesnt it?
I had a NSD so good,

Tonights dinner was/is (eating it as typing) is sweetcorn friters made with a bit of left over mash and other veg, atin of sweetcorn, onion gram flour and egg.. is very yummy ( with some chilli sauce) may be some left for tomorrow if I can stop myself from scoffing the lot

Am having another cheeky glass of as some left inthe bottle from last night..

I have a gum abcess (this is not good) am trying to calm it down as really dont want to visit the dentist , because he'll sure as hell take out the tooth and the bridge attached to it (he has been threatening to do this for sometime as its been a bit wobbly but ive refused) ..If he did, that would leave me with no choice except either having a massive gap at back of mouth or getting dental implants !! ££££ .

I'm trying oil pulling and salt water washes so far ..any ideas?

Well done on the money bantam.

expecting So, so tough is being sleep deprived. I hope DC4 realises night time is for sleeping very soon

girlie Hope parents evening goes well.

creme Your soup recipe sounds lovely, I have parsnips to use.

Funny old day today money wise. Feel I cocked up my Morrisons delivery by ordering far too many brands, then forgot stuff so ended up spending £15 in Aldi (although, a lot of sanitary towels for DD).

However, received £20 worth of vouchers for M&S related to the bank account, a £33 cheque from Scottish Power for overpaid boiler cover (I never knew!), am going to list some stuff on Ebay.

And one of the guys at work was about to bin (yes, bin), a pair of RM Williams boots that were too small. They retail at £160, they have been used about 4 times. We've agreed I will list and and we will split the profit

Laska my dad had a dental implant and says he wishes he had never bothered. No advice though I'm afraid.

We had jacket potatoes and beans for dinner the dc had toast and beans.

I really want to go to bed I'm so tired despite an hours nap at lunch time not sure how I'm going to manage a night out this weekend.

Well done bantam!

Expecting I think you're doing well to keep food costs low. DC3 might as well have been sponsored by lucozade, the amount I was drinking to stay awake/hydrated!

On which note I have had masses of mouth ulcers recently. I have one on my tongue at the moment and it's agony.

£2.90 - milk and sweets.

Bantam that's fantastic. Well done.

Well done bantam.
NSD today but I had to get some bits for my poorly baby yesterday, she's not eating much except bananas and cereal! The doctor gave her a prescription for more Nurofen so that's saved a few quid.
Going out for two meals in the next few days and treating my mum to fish n chips on Saturday. Also getting my hair cut and need to get DD a birthday present so the next week will be spendy but DH gets paid on Friday.
It's awkward actually, I get paid at the end of the month and he gets paid half way through but all our bills go out on the first. We find it difficult to plan with getting paid at different times.

Well done bantam!

laska can you try getting antibiotics prescribed for the abscess as it's an infection?

Got the day wrong for parents evening its not for another two weeks Not sure how I got that so wrong

So just realised our little holiday (caravan in devon) is only 2 and a half weeks away this term seems to have flown by!! Going to have to start stocking up on a few bits to take with me, normally take majority of food with us, maybe eat out or fish n chips once or twice. Still not sure what to do about dds bike, anyone have any experience of bike racks??

Well done bantam seeing the buffer mount up feels good. I always feel a small sense of victory with each saving I make.

NSD yesterday and LSD today as only around £5 spent. Tomorrow will be LSD as well as will be working hard. Today was a better day than yesterday as I got my website working, did that job application, got another job in, got a job in that was agreed months ago and another is looking to hit. Tomorrow will also bleach and dye hair so I look tidy for interviews etc.

Realising that we wasted so much money in past years, feeling very about that!

Well done bantam!

It was an NSD for me today. Although we ran out of eggs so will have to get some tomorrow somehow.

I'm still mulling over the job. I see the team on Tuesday and the new boss wants an answer on Wednesday. I feel that I'm making the decision to jump because I'm not entirely happy with the current place. Not that this is a dream job iyswim.

Argh I hate making decisions.

Will be spendy today. Going to JL for my free coffee and cake with a friend. Will buy ds a gingerbread lady. Need to buy Mother's Day cards. Might be able to keep it a lsd actually.

My NSD yesterday turned into a 55p spend. Not bad I suppose! DD's friend had an accident and she wanted to take her a bar of chocolate to cheer her up. I would have felt mean to say no.

Tomorrow at school they are being asked to wear something red for red nose day, and DD doesn't have a single red thing in her wardrobe at the moment, typical. Will have to try to find a red t shirt or something, but hopefully about £5 will do it. Grrr. I was going to suggest that the red nose itself should count as something red but I don't think she will go for that at all.

Dds school are doing red or spotty which is good as she doesn't own anything red either! Plenty of spotty though

€1.50 on a get well card for friends little girl who had her appendix removed.

€12.69 on fruit bread & milk top up 4l milk 1kg spaghetti loaf bread 8 mandarins 8 Apples 8 pears 6 bananas quite good value for everything I got.

I'm €40 under budget for food this week, have eeked out last big shop since tues week - going to try keep it going until Saturday.

Putting my car in garage today as radio hasn't worked in two years & I'm starting to miss it!! Hopefully it won't be too spendy, will find out dhs Bill too

Laska try getting some Corsodyl mouthwash. The original ones (not the 'daily' one) are antibacterial or something like that, I was prescribed it when I had an infection. I now use it quite often (also seems to help sore throats if I gargle it) - I do dilute it though as it's very strong and can sting.

I'm not sure if it's ok with an abcess rather than just an infection so maybe ask dentist or pharmacist first. But it's a very good product.

had a better idea, have rung dh at work and asked him to go out in his lunch hour and look for a red something for her to wear. When I don't actually part with the money myself, it doesn't count

Will have to spend £1 later on an after school activity and another £1 on milk, so all in all, hopefully not a bad day.

I don't want to leave the house today, it is dark and pouring with rain.

Have not kept up with or contributed very well this month. Things here are hectic and I've been struggling to cope. I suffer with depression and have not been in a good place especially this week. Despite that, trying to refocus and regain some positivity.

Things were made worse at the weekend when I discovered ds (13) has developed quite a marked chest deformity (during a growth spurt). He is really worried/self conscious about it but hadn't said anything . I'm a physio so know a little about it, but basically there is next to no chance of doing anything about it on the NHS. The cost of private treatment is likely to be around £3k which will be worth every penny if it works but is just another set back to the finances. However I'm thankful we are in a position to be able to pay for it. We see the GP next week and then a first consultation re the bracing after that.

Dmum is making me lunch today but first I'm going charity shopping for dd. Mum and I are taking her to a Singalonga Sound of Music next week as a treat (it's her favourite film). She wants to dress up as Liesl so I'm trying to put something together on the cheap.

Tonight's tea is chicken fajitas. Tomorrow soup I think and then slow cooked beef/pork at the weekend. Sil and her hubby are staying over on Saturday night on their way to the Lakes. Shouldn't need extras for that, will spin out what we have and do a pud.

On a positive frugal note we are managing our credit cards well and to our benefit, we pay off in full every month but accumulate a steady stream of M&S vouchers which is always a nice bonus. Dh has taken one out which gives a £30 M&S food voucher when you spend your first money on it. Again it'll be paid straight off. I know it doesn't work for everyone, but if you can pay off in full each month it's effectively money for nothing.

Sorry for the long post

NSD yesterday after all, pharmacy couldn't help me out so just got mum's (free) drugs. It'll be another NSD today, then just fare into work tomorrow. Must order the week's shopping tomorrow as well. Hovering aroung £65 - 90 for 3 adults and 2 kids, depending on what needs replacing (detergent costs a fucking fortune!!) I'm sure I can get this down more.

Dd also doing a wear red day tomorrow but luckily she has lots of red clothes!! Meeting friends for lunch today and poss my mum for coffee later so could end up being spendy....

northender once our credit cards are cleared I'm tempted to do that with food and petrol.

Right £5.50 on Mother's Day cards and £2.25 on ginger bread man.

I'm about to buy my train ticket for the weekend will be £21.50 (bargain, thanks to whoever recommended the network rail card have saved £11.10 on this trip alone!)

Oh dinner tonight is sausage casserole from the freezer (what's the best way to reheat?) with yorkshires and veg.

Northender sorry to hear you have been struggling, I am just coming out the other side of a few months of anxiety - it's horrible. Have you heard of Mindfulness? I bought a cd from Amazon and have been doing it a few times a week, think it has helped a bit plus the counselling has been really useful.

Talking of which just back from this mornings session was quite a tough one but feeling better for it.

Going to meet some friends for lunch in a min, will cycle in though to save money on parking.

Pegleg have you heard of insect lore? Bit random - sorry!! But thinking maybe a nice home ed project to do, I bought the butterfly kit last year and we successfully raised 5 Admiral butterflies from caterpillars, was lovely releasing them in the garden fun and educational!

Just did a top up shop at Tesco, very spendy as I couldn't get to Lidl. I did notice Easter eggs on special offer for £1.50 including the ones with mugs. I will gl back and buy a few for my sils. I remember my local Tesco self out of Easter eggs the week before last year. Although my local sweet shop saved the day.