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 need to do a stock check for Easter now, think I have got quite a lot!!

Do any of you buy your kids a small gift as well? Was wondering about getting dd some lego or similar

I think I will buy my dcs a small gift each this year, then do an egg hunt of aldi small eggs/bunnies, no big eggs. They will get some big eggs from other family members.

Nope no gifts. Don't even usually buy them eggs will only get the small ones for the hunt. Most of my family give them £5 each too which goes into their account. Any other chocolate I eat

Easter used to be Choc eggs & three weeks of watching "why don't you?" In the mornings.

£15 on three tins of Cuprinol fence stuff.

So no NSD for me & no trip to ikea on Saturday

I've told the kids l'll let them choose an activity mag instead of an egg as I'm mean and get them about once a year. They'll have plenty of eggs from others.

Hi fellow frugaleers

Bank: £610.84 (was £650.84)
Purse: £13 (was £3)
Jar: £90.95 (was £94.20)

Grand Total: £714.79
Reduced by: £33.25
Days to payday: 26
Buffer money: £103.98
Proper Savings: £794.29

Spends:
£2.00 – Lunch
£4.95 – Slimming World
£6.30 – bus fares & athletics
£20.00 – Tesco CC

Next year's bills have started coming in. Council Tax has gone up by £2 a month and water has gone down by 60p a month. This month's bank account interest fee also went down by over £3 (woo).

Window didn't get fixed today as the bloke let me down but he rang to say he'd come tomorrow afternoon instead. I've taken the money from the savings which is shoring up the bills account (£575 left now) but maybe I will have some money left to replenish it.... lives in hope

Next door neighbour who is a sparky came round and fixed us a new outside light (yes, I do everything backwards – get outside light fitted now the light nights are coming in!!!) so I think he said that'd be about £15-£20.

And some of the bills from the bills account were a bit less this month than last month so it's reduced my shortfall a bit meaning more money left for meeeeee.

Budget looks like this: £714.79
Petrol: £156.50 // £60.00 spent // £93.50 remaining
Groceries: £300 // 73.33 spent // 226.67 remaining
Interest: £8.80
Bus fares & Kids activities: £30.80
My bus fare: £29
Shortfall to bills: £28.26

HSBC credit card: £12.70
Leaves for everything else....£285.06

NSD!

NSD.

Being boring....if you buy the 150g LIGHTLY SALTED kettle chips for the checkoutsmart/clicksnap free offer then Topcashback are offering 20p cashback...big deal but it becomes payable in Tesco clubcard points so is worth 80p in a clubcard boost for each bag if you both have a topcashback account.

I do this with the hovis bread offer on tcb, the bread is 75p & the 20p cb is worth 80p in clubcard boost.

Decided to go food shopping today as have a busy weekend. Got my first morrisons £5 voucher so that ended up being £3.32, 27 in aldi, 4 in Iceland and 12 in lidl. Will get some more on Monday.

LSD, €5.50 for 8 baguettes.

DM is now coming over this weekend, so am having to replan the food shopping. She wants to go out for a meal too and has very generously offered to pay for us all I could feed the six of us, all weekend for the amount she'll be spending, but hey ho , so that will make a nice change from lentils and potatoes!

8 days to payday. €44 in the account.

We will just be getting a few mini eggs for a hunt (probably with mathematical clues :o) - my mum usually buys them a proper egg. Although I reeeeally want one for myself from hotel chocolat

My mum told me my grandma has given us some money for Easter, she never tells us what to do with it though so we will put that towards one of their new home ed clubs.

Grrr I forgot I'd have to get a cab home from work today as DH needed the car so that was £7. Tomorrow should be NSD but the weekend won't.

Spendy....

I got my eye lashes dyed and eyebrows waxed and dyed (but havent had this done since last summer).. £24 plus £3 tip.. (though im not sure i'm really happy with eyebrows .. I look a bit surprised! Will be better when the colour fades a little)

£8.64 in Co op.. meat on offer and reduced fresh fruit salad for lunch and a Kit kat

£1.83 in the veg shop on herbs -2 huge bunches of dill and parsley

£36.30 in Morrissons.. but should have all weekend shopping now inc except some salad and veg

£1.09 in Boots on hydrogen peroxide to make into mouthwash.. (did youknow that if you a bu colgate Hyrogen peroxide mouthwash its over £4? ,, its easy to do yourself well diluted with water).. My gum is still a bit sore . but im persisting in home remedies...

Have just made stuffed aubergines for tomorrow nights dins..

I think im off to bed early though..feeling really knackered for some reason

Oh and got water bill, and lo and b eholdmy DD has gone down to £33.80 a month ! .. This is great becausee if you remember they put it up loads (to £50.20) and I was sure it was because of a leak.. though they wernt having it when i complained and said id have to wait until the next water meter reading ..

Now its back to more like was before .. (still £5 up though!)

£2.50 cat food. Yesterday £4.45 food (can't remember what I've posted now)

We seem to be spending everyday atm, only small amounts - spreadsheet seems okay still it's a bit twitchy.

I bought too much in sales so dc are getting some of that for Easter, I'm contributing to an easter egg hunt so I'm sure we'll come away with loads from that!

€90 in hairdressers yesterday including €5 tip. That's half what full head of highlights would cost most places. Have beauticans today think that'll be €20 & hairstyle Sat will be €25 a lot of money to look good for a wedding! I'm going to start a line in my temporary savings account for hair now too €15 will more than cover it weekly.
I did overtime last week so wages were up €60 so that took sting out of it.

This weekend will be spendy but have been saving for it.

Must buy haircomb or some accessories in penneys today too (primark In UK) I've worn my dress before & got it on fb for €15 so that balances the cost some bit.

Lunch today will be use up leftovers, dinner will either be takeout or cook at my parents, tomorrow brekkie at parents lunch from a Deli counter & dinner at wedding,Sun brekkie in hotel, lunch at parents & dinner will be takeout/brinner.

Will be Nsd today. Pretty sure one of the nurses at work is making a mint aero cheesecake. She makes my Fridays

www.free-stuff.co.uk free lidl Belgian chocs. Nom nom.

Going to Asda in a minute, need to get dds best friend a bday present plus some school trousers for dd may see what they have in the way of Easter eggs hunts as well.

Going out tonight not been out is agggggggggggggges!! Only for a quiet drink and I am driving so that will be lemonade for me

So £41 in Asda, got a lot for that though broken down it looks like this;

£14 on presents for dds friends bday (a lot more than I would normally spend but its dd best friend and they were really generous for dds bday!! Got 2 books and nice trousers for that.)
£10 on 2 new t.shirts for me
£5 on school trousers for dd.
£2 on a pill cutter, my girlie cat has to have a half dose of her steroid and cutting them with a knife was not working!!
£8 approx on Easter stuff for dd, got lots of bits for an easter egg hunt and a soft toy that I thought she would like.
£2 on another drinks bottle for dd as she has managed to lose another one.

Am now done for Easter and should have no other big spends before the end of the month in theory

Thanks, fluffy. I will have a look through the site.

Just had a quick look through internet banking for any payments that we have overlooked. Only £12 so good overall. Got my tax code for the year, it's positive for the first time in a very long time

Spends today will be some cash in a card for DS's mates birthday. Then I need to pop to Tesco or Aldi for a few small items, but this includes wine.

Food spends have been high this month, so I will revisit this and see where we can cut back.

Guys that use Boots for vitamins etc. I always walk into Boots and find myself astonished at the cost of their stuff. Would it be worth looking elsewhere?

Wilkos or Superdrug may be cheaper for vitamins.

I have just had a scroll through my account and done a very quick tally on where the money has gone this month!

The positives are clothes £32, petrol £60 and cash £50 which I think is reasonable.

The not so good is food which comes in at a whopping £225 this really surprised me as feel like we haven't had a lot of food this month!! That said a large chunk of that would be other household stuff not necessarily just food iyswim.

Was also surprised at all the extras, things like mothers day gifts, cosmetics, school trip, easter stuff etc which has come in at £76

Only a week till pay day though and should break even, haven't paid for our holiday yet. Am waiting for my friend to tell me how much she wants me to contribute, I think it will be about £150 (just less than half as we will only use one bedroom, they will use two.) Suppose will have to take some holiday money maybe £80ish.

Sorry for hijacking the thread!!

Spendy day. U budgeted 25 in tkmaxx on a lively linen dress for me. I loved a maxi dress to but at 30 I coulndt get enough wear out of it to justify it. Got my eyebrows waxed for free off my fitness membership. And 1.50 on onion set for the allotment. 7.50 in sains bro on pencils, note books and Dhs Easter egg.

Out tonight with the girls but not decided whether I will drink or take the car. I don't need a hangover I need a good nights sleepy.

Ditto wilko or super drug. As
ALos morrisons are decent for vitamins.