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 .

£3.60 travel, £5.40 coffee and cake, and £2 on a plant. So, £ 11 altogether.

I am going to read through now.

laska what do u do for local government? All I've heard is that we have a 1/3 of budget to be cut again by 2018...and I don't think a change of office would dramatically change that?

pass I work in Housing .. (you'd think we'd be safe as we have loads of desperate people coming through the door) However , 'cuts' are everywhere.. (we have over £18m deficit this next year due to cuts .. oh and 'no one cares about housing' according to our CEO!!)

Looks like all we wil have left is adult and childrens social care..

As ive talked about where i live here before , I have now outed myself i think.. ah well..

Well housing is better than some other areas. But yes, social services and education will be all that's left soon... I think the voluntary sectors are going to be hit hard now as Councils are running out of options.

Third NSD in a row, go me Well seeing as I have the grand total of £12 to last me until Saturday, desperate times and all that. I do have an emergency credit card but, as I say, it's for emergencies. Not lunches out Going to try for one more tomorrow and then use £10 on Friday night for a pre-planned coffee date.

As for general spends, have done OK this month so far. Have been using Aldi where possible instead of Sainsbury's. Taken in lunches nearly every day to work. My problem is small spends on my debit card, literally £1 her, £2.56 there etc. Need to cut down on that.

Laska - I work in housing too.... the one that used to have the lime green grey & pink logo - central rather than LA. I love it - but it is changing fast. Did they announce anything except the 1st time home buyer ISA today? I haven't had time to look at the budget - a bit of bedtime reading.

.... Grim isnt it .. I am sad actually.. People just dont realise what they are going to lose unitl the need it and find out it wont be there any more ..

Also a lot of dedicated and committed caring people are losing their jobs at our place because what they do is not valued any more..

(ok ill get off the Socialist soap box now ..This is not the place for it ) ..

My bit of housing maybe not , im in development.. although we need new affordable homes like crazy.. (now thats Really outed me !)

no dont think so unescorted Im sure there must be something about wondering about housing benefit changes for younger people and more changes on caps .. but havent seen anything..

um.. im a bit unsure aboutthe 'logo' another clue? Not my favourite, (not) B@rratts?

Thanks everyone for your encouragement. I did get things in writing. Everything. I'm happier now, although I had a meeting with him this afternoon and he was slightly grumpy. I can only assume that he's not learnt that much at charm school. The senior management here is overwhelmingly male. I don't think that's necessarily good.

Laska - was it you who asked what work this was? I'm an academic at a university. It's difficult times at universities too, although the general public tend to have some misconceptions about things we do.

I work on the other side of IMS to you - also in development.

NK , before working ain LAS I worked in unis , mainly social policy research stuff..and then uni admin. I miss it in a way but was hard even then to get proper contracts for academic jobs so well done you......(guess you must be a prof , or bring in research money!)

Laska - lol no, not a prof. Yet. Don't think I'll make it with all these ridiculous demands they make on us. World class research, 5* rated teaching, great at interactions, student satisfaction high, grant money, great administration. Oh yes sure, we can do all that!!

Oh, forgot... NSD!

I've just heard a good university has just made most of their staff reapply for their jobs. Aim is to cut 20%. These are academic jobs.

Spent another £7 Today, forgot To take water for DDs coming out of school, DD1 has To take a shared snack in Tomorrow and I Splurged on a blueberry and blackcurrant juice. I won't need To buy another.

Didn't buy salmón this week as I remembered I had fish in the freezer, so we are having that tonight. Am also cooking up some beetroot that got over looked for a soup.

Tomorrow should be an NSD and on Friday both DDs are out with friends and need taxi service plus pocket money.

Well done on Those tea bags Fluffy

Will be a bit spendy today as I'm going to town. I'm going to go to poundland and get some bits for our Easter egg hunt, boots for vitamins for the dc (it's 3 for 2 I think and I get 10% discount) and I'm going to h&m to get the dc some much needed clothes. and to Costa for a sausage toastie they're delicious

Have been reading but not posting.
Boiler ended up being €110 on parts & dh serviced it himself. My €420 savings wasn't long being spent on this, €50 New towels €29 New poncho & trousers €60 train ticket & wedding this weekend

Purchased a stroller also for ds as au pair can't manage our big buggy, selling old things from ds will cover this

I have been using up the freezer stock, meal planning is really helping my budget. From April I intend to drop my £100 a week budget to £75 so that we can have a meal out once a month or other treat. My budget is for 2 adults, 3dc , a dog , includes nappies and cleaning products etc . I'm getting loads of inspiration on this thread .

£45 in tescos as I had lots if vouchers in my purse. ..should've been £8 higher.

Dps bday today so making a cake and a brinner

Frazzled we're 2 adults, 3 young dc (2 in nappies) and a few small pets. Our budget is £80 per week for everything. We have organic dairy and eggs so we could bring it down a bit but we don't have any meat/fish so I feel we can afford it. It's doable- just! Lots of meal planning and a take away/ meal out each month. Good luck.

Nsd yesterday and today. Will be tomorrow too except for Tesco delivery. I was only spending £50 but MSE has a code for 500 point when you spend £60. I love points for days out and Christmas presents so it was worth spending the extra tenner. I've ordered sensible things like tinned tomatoes as they get ordered all the time.

Spendy day,

£10 in DunElm on a pack lunch box for dd (she has needed a new one for ages)

£7 in the vets on more steroids for girliecat, used my one free consultation that I get with her pet plan so saved some money there (although in theory insurance would have covered it anyway!) Good news is that her mouth is looking much better and she can halve the dose of steroids

£94 in Morrisons To be fair I had run the cupboards, fridge and freezer right down so knew it was going to be expensive. I have got chicken, salmon, huge tub of washing powder and 24 loo rolls included in that plus tons of tins and stuff for the freezer. Have also started stocking up for stuff to take on holiday which is the week after next.

I also got a £5 off voucher and a £9 off a £60 spend to use next time, the £9 off a £60 spend is a bit annoying as don't really need to spend £60 next week but for £9 off it is worth doing iyswim?! I guess I can stock up on stuff like washing powder, dishwasher tablets and meat for freezer etc.

£36 in h&m the dress for DD's disco was only £5 got ds two tops and trousers and dd also some jeans and a new water bottle for school.

£6 in poundland on Easter egg hunt stuff batteries and massive shower gel.

£10.20 in boots on vitamins for dc and us plus some crisps for ds

£5.25 in card factory. Yes we finally have one!! Forty minutes away but hey better than nothing.

£4 accessorize hairband for dd

£5.75 lunch in m&s cheaper and healthier than Costa

Pretty spendy but I resisted soooo much I really wanted!

£5.25 in the Card Factory must have got you a lot of cards

NSD.

Actually I got four or five cards and two little Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt!

I forgot, kettle chips are free on checkout smart & Quidco clicksnap.

If you and you're oh both have one account with each that's 4 bags free.

Put them on seperate reciepts to claim the money.

Spendy day after all...just booked a holiday in Aug to majorca

First hols with kids and we'll be back to UK hols after that. Using some of my redundancy money. ..and the £ is strong against the € after all.