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 .

Welcome jelly. I'm sure fluffy will be a long soon to post links to some other useful threads. We're a friendly lot and will help where we can. Have you sat down and drawn up your budget yet?

On that, I know you're very busy right now nk but I thought I'd let you know that so far we like the 'good budget' app. We're only using the free version so my envelopes are for variable expenses such as groceries and entertainment. I don't really need to track utilities as they're the same every month. Does mean dh can easily see what I'm spending our money on though It was my idea and think it'll make me more aware of spends.

blue we've been saving money not a lot for dc since they were born but we've just used it to make a lump sum payment on the mortgage. It did feel wrong but after A LOT of discussion we decided that we're not brave enough to invest their money on stocks etc so it's not really growing. It's more useful clearing our debt, on a house that will ultimately be theirs and it moves us closer to being mortgage free by the time the eldest starts uni, or at least that's the plan, so when they really need money for uni, house deposit etc we'll be able to help/save quickly as we will no longer have huge monthly repayments.

NSD yesterday, today I have spent £10.00 on a packet of cigarettes & some dinner.

Have sold something else on EBay, so that's an extra tenner in my PayPal account!

Thanks for the welcome. I haven't drawn up a budget yet someone has recommended msm so I'm going to sit when the kids in bed and start it. I've my bank statements at the ready!

Welcome jelly

Good luck NK

Nsd here.

hello
may I join you? we need to start saving/economising as we've just moved house and it has eaten away all of our savings.
right off to read rest of the thread for inspiration!

Decided fish cakes for dinner. I'll have mine with stir fry veg and chilli sauce and everyone else can have mash.

Welcome to Jelly, Lemonade and Kate .

Today's spends: £4.17 at the post office, £1.29 on paints for DS' s art homework (just when I thought I had finally got rid of anything crafty!) and £ 4.46 in Tesco, on A4 paper and a bunch of oranges for said art homework, and a couple of bars of chocolate too. So, £ 9.92 altogether.

Hi lemonade and jelly. We are a friendly bunch, and very supportive. No snarky comments here

Glad you are feeling better ti

So, I have posted my Ebay parcels off as all paid. Made £118 in total. And DS has come home with a letter about a maths trip for the G&T maths students to Holland, deposit £100, total cost £449.

We have a policy with DS he gets to do all trips, as the cost of the pony far outweighs anything he does anyway. So, that's more wonga to finds then!!

'find'

I see quite a few of you sell things on eBay, is it easy? I've got loads of washable nappies in perfect condition which I want to get rid of, but have never sold anything on eBay before.

Bank: £686.43 (was £797.48)
Purse: £5 (was £28)
Jar: £97.75 (was £14.05)

Grand Total: £789.18
Reduced by: £50.35
Days to payday: 29
Buffer money: £103.98
Proper Savings: £794.29

Spends:
£11.50 – birthday present and gift bag for DH's step-dad
£2.00 – buns at cake sale
£9.15 – Ebay (Converse for DS2)
£10.40 – prescription pre-payment
£12.00 – Takeaway pizza to watch in front of the game last night (RIP famous FA Cup run)
£5.30 – Gone from the bus fare etc jar...

LaChatte - The things I put on Ebay were the first that I ever sold. It was very very easy. The site guides you through the process. I emailed pictures to my laptop and went from there.

£8.50 here today on various bits for tea otherwise just working all day, justa tiny bit on the web banner to do tomorrow then onto the next project. Got offered a maternity contract but it's too far and inaccessible by public transport but you never know whats around the corner.

Will try to have NSDs tomorrow and thursday and use up stuff in fridge/cupboards. Am going to have a quick look and see how much I've got in clubcard vouchers... I think it's quite a lot.

Didn't go to Morrisons in the end so Nsd.

Lachatte I had more luck with selling my washable nappies on the face book selling pages for nappies rather than ebay. No fees either.

Yeah I would do nappies on facebook. Ebay is easy though.

I've washed my hands twice and I've still got chilli on them, any tips?!

Welcome lemonade & jelly. I will post links after this.

Expensive day.

£5 birthday card for Dh
£6.50 birthday cake
£1 glass latte mug from the poundshop
£1.35 Dh speshul milk
£1.50 two cheap side plates for the cats food he's got more crocks than us
£3.65 contact lens fluid
£35 haircut
£5 tip.
Will be £10 later for fish and chips & a shandy. Well £8ish.

Te there's been some horrible viruses in recent years, proper lingering ones, at least it's going now.

Nk there will be a tug of war over you in the car park at this rate!.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/2270347-Frugal-January-everyone-welcome

All the links are in the op on this thread.

Hi newbies

Really nearly a NSD - the first in ages but had to pay for parking at work £1.10 - will claim back though. May need to go and get some bread later, was thinking could manage without if we have cereal for breakfast, dd has a school dinner and I take cheese crackers for lunch to work.

However the only flaw with that plan is that dd will not have anything for her tea tomos, normally she would have something on toast on school dinner days.

We are ridiculously low on food, fridge almost empty as is the freezer. This is the lowest I have let it get for a long time, may have to do the big Morrisons shop after work tomos. Even dd is saying we really need to get some food mummy to itch the sweet tooth itch may make a cake tonight if i can be bothered

I haven't heard anything from the Pet insurance company so need to chase that, have sold 2 more items on fb another £9 in the pot

Also noticed dds school shoes are looking knackered may get some more over the Easter hols, not sure what she does to her shows but they always get trashed

Ooo made my first ever omelette tonight, it was o.kay not as nice as I remember the ones my dad used to make dd took one bite and declared it was gross

girlie my dc (and me!) won't eat egg at all! Can dd have crackers for tea tomorrow? Save the trip for bread?

What oil does everyone cool with? I only use oil when frying onions and bacon and have always used olive oil but I've read on here that it loses all goodness when heated so think I might as well use something cheaper!

Don't eat egg? I love an egg dd likes scrambled eggs so was optimistic that omelette would be o.kay as well.

I use olive oil as well but think the same as you, I do have some sunflower oil as well but since buying it have only used it once plus I do like the look of olive oil bottles, sunflower oil ones not so much

Just remembered i have some of those half cooked bread rolls in the freezer so those will do for tea, seriously can not be arsed to go out again tonight!!

spotty All sorts. Sometimes still cook with olive oil. I like to saute onions in butter and garlic if it's for soup or curries. Tonight I am doing roasted sweet potato and white potato slices, and I have used goose fat. We use lots of sunflower oil for the pony (joints) so sometimes use that if I have some here. We are all slim and fit, so I am not one to skimp on oil if you understand, I am in the 'use fresh and natural ingredients' camp and cook mainly from scratch. Works for us, at least!

Olive oil does have a low flash point, hence it changes at a molecular level & becomes carcinogenic. Obviously you'd have to drink gallons a day for it to be harmful.

But it's pricey & best kept for salad dressings & dipping bread in

Lard is very stable so I use that or ordinary veg oil which is rapeseed, rape has good omega 3 levels & the pound shops sell it.

My mum told me 20 years ago olive oil was no good for frying, she was very ahead of her times.

Welcome To newbies.

My DDs only started eating scrambled egg about a year ago. Other than that they'll only eat eggs in the form of cake r pancakes.

£34 in the supermarket, £6 on paint for art. £2.50 on a coffee in place of lunch.

lachatte what kind are your cloth nappies I've 16 month old ds in cloth