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 .

Sorry about the typos.

Aldi, homebargains, lidl, all good for vitamins. We take a lidl berrocca type effervescent tablet at night & my hair dresser always comments how much my hair grows compared to his other clients.

Holland & Barrett are good for more specialist vitamins, I get DH's magnesium from there because it's a citrate not an oxide like the supermarket version is so its easier to absorb. The penny sales are very good & you get cashback on them.

Food shop £33. Will get £5.30 back off shopitize for the last few weeks & got enough cheese & butter to last two weeks. No idea why I did that, I must have had a moment in lidl.

Himalayan pink salt £2 in B&M. It matches the copper salt grinder

Cat £5.

22p profit on two bags of kettle chips plus 40p from topcashback that I'll convert into Tesco points.

20p cashback on bread that will also be claimed as Tesco points.

Going to make laundry gloop now.

Tesco shop but no other spends today. I love my new budgeting app. I did keep track before but I'm finding the visual picture is helping me focus.

I'm about to open a dispute with eBay. I bought an item of clothing for my dd 'in very good condition' but when it's arrived it's covered in stains. Why do people do that? Do they think buyers won't notice? A small ink mark or similar I could understand how that gets missed but this is filthy. It wasn't very expensive, including postage it was just over a fiver but I wouldn't have bid if the description was accurate.

Think I should make some more gloop. I used to use it, not sure why I stopped.

Nsd.

Dinner is couscous, halloumi and part baked baguettes yum!

We have no food left at all, not even bread. Glad the food shopping is coming tomorrow!

Bank: £610.84 (was £610.84)
Purse: £7.36 (was £13)
Jar: £89.75 (was £90.95)

Grand Total: £707.95
Reduced by: £6.84
Days to payday: 25
Buffer money: £103.98
Proper Savings: £794.29

Spends:
£1.28 – stamps
£1.34 – loaf of bread
£2.00 – 2 x multipacks of pom bears
£1.00 – plastic cereal box
£2.56 – bus fares

Thanks for the free chocolate link Fluffy - I've got a Lidl nearby so I'm going to make the effort to get down there this weekend for my free chocs (plus I love their mint yoghurts)

Damn! I was at Lidl for a few bits, so wish I'd known about the free chocs earlier! £3.74 while I was there.

Intrigued by the pink himalayan salt, Fluffy. Sounds very posh.

Happy frugal weekend, everyone.

NSD! Happy weekend frugalers!

Great ideas for vitamins

Frugal win. Home made pizza for tea rather than Friday night take away. Also, DH popped into Asda and bought loads of stuff for £20.

Frugal fail. I popped to my friends shopping evening and came away with 2 scarves for £20. Both are retailing in Moda in Pelle for £24 each but I didn't NEED either. Friday is my weakest day.

Drinking wine, the dog is farting next to me. It smells.

NSD. DD's first birthday today, she's had a lot of fun. Her favourite thing has been playing with the balloons that I bought on a whim and they cost next to nothing - simple things!
Going to Lidl again tomorrow as we were so impressed last week. Need to make a meal plan first.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Birthday mini pointless!

£2.10 DD disco
£7.94 bread, milk, catfood

Happy Birthday Baby Pointless. Can she sleep with all the excitement?.

Was hoping for my 3rd NSD in a row but I went and got a hole in a tyre so 25 on a new wheel

Happy birthday Minipointless

Fluffy how can I tell which type of vitamina To buy, is that info you mentioned on the lable or do you have to know the brands?

Just spent £40 on a dress it was half price and I never find dresses that fit my shape, so I reckon I'm allowed.

£2.30 on Fruit for the weekend, peaches, grapes and an avocado.

£20 in pocket money, both DDs asked me To hold last week's back so they have enough for the cinema with friends. As I'm on chofer duty not far from DH's office we are having a bite to eat before I ferry kids back home.

£15ish sainsburys, off out and in laws babysitting so I had to get food in.
Will be spendy tomorrow as off to see Wicked. Fares will be about £20 each each way, dinner £40ish I guess?
Need to revisit life insurance next week.

Need you can save on medicines by looking at the active ingredients on the lable of your usual brand and then by the base medicines eg flu remedies paracetamol 19p and a squirt of lemon juice from a bottle in a cup with some sugar. Nurofen = ibroprofen. I always work on the principle that if they are advertising it or it comes in a bright look at me packet then I am paying too much for the advertising budget.

I have to go food shopping today - I had hoped for a quiet weekend, go for a run, do some sewing, pop out and get the food in all spread over 2 days. My dh wants to visit his mum..... hour and a bit there, same back and a couple of hours wishing I was at home. The shit is hitting the fan with work as well so I will be working for an hour, run, dash to shop, clean house, work and collapse in a heap. Best laid plans.....

Thanks for the birthday messages, I had tried telling her that now she's one she can sleep past 5.30 am. She took no notice!

Oh no pointless! 6:08 here which is a remarkable improvement on a few weeks ago.

Food shopping coming today. Will be about £70 and I keep thinking of things I've forgotten! Although tbf they're things we can do without.

Meal plan for the week:

Nachos with bolognese (from freezer)
Sausage roast with all the trimmings
Leek risotto with quorn
Fish cakes with stir fry veg
Bacon and avocado salad with garlic bread
Bacon risotto
Freezer meal (got some tesco value veggie grill things)

Adora, it's not so important in vitamins as they tend to be the same base product eg Vit c is absorbic acid & nothing else but minerals can be in oxide form or citrate, the Human body finds the latter easier to digest and absorb so I do a bit of research before buying anything.

Zincs the same, commonly sold as oxide but available as a citrate which is of course pricier.

Lovely night out with my girl friends. Didn't spend much. Took 90'out and spent about 30.
Dh is away cycling and spent about 50 of our money. He had some he was given with him. Hopefully NSD today but 200 tomoorrow on car brakes. Ouch.

Dh has just had a pheasant shatter his windscreen. Luckily his boss pays for his van!

Pheasant curry for dinner?

Was he OK? Lucky he didn't have a crash.

Yes he's fine we don't have much luck between us with deer, pheasants and falling trees!

Food, food, natty wall ornament/coat rack and fuel.

I just lost a long post!

Wednesday £17 in Waitrose including my free coffee. Included lunch for 2 days (ended up being 3 days as worked through lunch on Thursday and couldn't type/eat soup at the same time!) some treats, hot cross buns and butter to keep in fridge at work which will last ages.

Thursday £1 for little bows for a costume for DD2, now need another set in a different colour. £5 towards a gift for dancing teacher after show, £1.50 for doughnuts for the DC after dancing. I don't usually let them have much from the tuck shop, but DD2 was finished and I needed her to wait nicely while I finished with the older 2.

Friday NSD.