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 .

MissA sorry to hear about the crash, . That passport thing is so weird.. though .. Im just reading a John La Carre.. so have conspiracy theories spy things going on in my head ...

...and its goodnight from me!!..

Thanks for the link laska, great blog!

Ugh I have just had some weird bloke ring my doorbell claiming to be from the council really freaked me out. Have reported it to 101 and they are sending the police to have a look around. Was having a lovely relaxing Sunday night until then

Why thank you, Laska :o it's a Big Bang Theory reference, for anyone who doesn't recognise it :) (bit obsessed I am)

Ooh girlie that's horrible, good thing you're on the ball and didn't believe them! That kind of stuff terrifies me.

My spends today (lots!):

1/3
£57.66 Tesco (eggs refunded as one was cracked yay!)
£22.47 pizza. Didn't have a takeaway at all last month. Blah. I was very restrained and just ordered pizzas though, no sides except dips
£18.40 DH took DSS to the pub for his birthday/to watch the final (Chelsea fans so very happy!)
£34 train/bus tickets

Oh that sucks girlie. I had someone try and do a distraction burglary at the end of Jan and even though they were spooked and didn't get anything it really shook me up for a week or too. Something about the blatantness I think.

YNAB sounds good - I just use an excel spreadsheet! But I have set it up so it automatically tots up what I've spent in each pot and how much I have left. It's monthly, but I also have a breakdown at the side with a weekly breakdown which helps me keep track. I came up with all our different 'pot' budgets by looking at old bank statements.

I don't know if anyone is interested is self-building their own home (including group and coshare projects which are up to 40% cheaper, apparently!) there is a huge self build project happening near bicester - called Graven Hill. Bicester is an expensive area so I don't know how affordable it will actually be but there are running free information sessions on 21st March if anyone is interested in self-build generally or that project particularly.

Oh and I've been tracking my spends for Xmas 2015: just over £50 so far on wrap/tags, stocking fillers and 2 presents thanks to amazon lightning deals. One of those is something I have been wanting to get DD for a year so I was very happy (complete illustrated Narnia, it's utterly gorgeous). Xmas and birthdays are going to be even smaller now. Eg a couple of books rather than a big pile, one lego set rather than several (that's the plan anyway... I just love choosing their gifts though!)

Less than £30 so far on home ed supplies, mainly things like packs of exercise books and blank cards to make games and stuff so 'raw materials' I guess which should last a while. There's one more thing for around a tenner that I definitely want to get, but after that will be leaving it for a bit while we get used to homeschooling. For regular books and activities I'll be making even more use of my (staff) library card and the PDF library on my iPod :o I even resisted a £9 spelling book as (thanks to MN) I have some downloaded lists to use instead. I know activities and trips will cost a lot so I don't want to spend much on actual stuff if I can avoid it.

Today we are off to Drusillas! Dd has an inset day so dh has taken the day off. We've used clubcard points for tickets

Hi everyone, I'm new to these threads. This month will be my first of mat leave so really trying to save! I won't be using much petrol which will save me a lot, so I'm starting with that!

Morning all...I'm still lurking but Feb was hideously expensive, even though food spending was down. It was DD's birthday last week (2) and her party on Saturday. I have spent an absolute bloody fortune on party food, cake making stuff, party bags, hall hire etc. Luckily we had Christmas pressies left over for her so only spent a small amount onon a Pingu soft toy, which she adores. I made her a Peppa Pig cake, which I must say was pretty fab, however I have no idea what to do with all the left over fondant icing!
Yesterday was shopping day.
£13 in Home Bargains on lots of essentials we ran out of
£18 on personal spends (mainly storage boxes!)
£59 in Lidl, I have meals for nearly 2 weeks sorted with that, barring fruit, veg, milk and bread. Aiming for £5 top up this week and a low spend (sub £20) next week.
DP starts his new job today so hopefully March will be a better month money-wise.
Happy Monday all.

£12 on a new clothes horse. Ours has melted on the heater it was half price so I feel I've got a bargain

I need to join please!

Need a remember not to buy bits and bobs as even without the council tax this month we were just breaking even as I got a bit carried away

Ds birthday at the weekend but most things are paid for, just bit of fresh food and then a few drinks at his friend-party.

We are having a night away this month too but the hotel is paid & train tickets are free so just meal out & drinks to pay there and we aren't extravagant.

I put my dsa receipts in to post today so that should help too.

Blimey!! You have a busy weekend and come back to 120 posts.

I won't attempt to remember everything, I'll pick back up from here.

Hideously busy weekend with the pony and utterly shattered but lovely too. Training on Saturday, then the ponies, kids and adults had a sleepover (!!) at a friends house, as she lives so close to the following days training. They own a restaurant, so we had an absolutely stunning meal, copious amounts to drink all for free which was incredibly generous of them, then up very early to go training again Sunday.

So, very busy, but not too expensive, half a tank of petrol used I think, and DH spent £15 on a take out for himself and DS.

Welcome newbies. This is such a lovely, supportive, thread. There's no bitchiness or odd comments. We are kind of all here for the same, but different reasons iyswim? Some to pay off debt, some to save for specifics, some to live within their means, but it's all the same goal uniting us

Oh - just checked internet banking and the DC have downloaded a few books for their kindles, totalling £20. I was a bit , but can't honestly complain as I had a bit of a moan about them using gadgets last week instead of reading and said they could download a book or two if they wanted!

Today will be very spendy as kids need wedding outfits (training day) and DS needs clothes in general.

Also will need to buy feed for pony.

girlie that's awful, did the police come?.

I was reading another thread on electric gates & the op wanted them because she was rural and had people in vans on her drive mooching around.

Do you have a door chain? They used to be really common but I don't think anyone in our family has one now.

I read on here about upvc window stops or "sash jammers", op said you could get through them eventually but it would make enough noise to wake the neighbours. There cheap on amazon.

Oh girlie I missed that. I would freak out! When I was a teenager I was staying at my boyfriends on their equestrian farm and I awoke to burglars in the room next door. Freaked me right out and I'm still scared to be alone at night.

First day for me, going to write down what I spend and look at all the bills to see where I can save. Had a chat with Dh about money, he likes to fritter and also likes gadgets... I've talked him out of the following baby gear...this is all stuff he thinks we need as we got a second lighter buggy, mainly for my mum as she will be doing school runs with this baby and my daughter come October, but also because I hate the gigantic easy walker he decided on last time...
a soft carrycot that goes into the normal buggy, on the basis that we never used the carry cot for more than a few weeks with dd And have one for the monster buggy which I will use..
car seat adaptor, barely used again and they aren't even meant to be in them that long..
nuva leaf swing chair, it's 160 quid! I have said we will see how we go, if I'm getting nothing done in the mornings and am desperatefor somewhere to put him, then we have 20 quid in John Lewis vouchers towards it and another 35 from selling some old baby gear, they can be sold on for about 60-80 quid if kept nice so I'm considering giving in to this one!

Apart from that I'v. Done the shopping and only spent £45 in aldi, will need to get some bits later in the week from lidl plus they didn't have everything I wanted, hoping that I can keep it under 70 a week, with booze, nappies and toiletries included.

£7.14 on top up shop. (DH tends to under buy fruit and veg at the weekend, maybe I need to make the list more specific!)

Anyway, I'm glad I went in to waitrose because I picked up lots of packet sauces and spices for Thai/Indian/Chinese food reduced to 10p each.

pointless was it you coming to Manchester? The MOSI is in the town centre, but a fair walk from Piccadilly, although you could get on the tram/train to Castlefield/Deansgate. It's a good place to go with small children and FREE. There's plenty to do in Manchester but if you want a day out the dc will love, visit Halifax and go to Eureka! it's amazing. About £10 per person but that ticket lasts a year and you will want to go back.

£1 on jam as everyone is eating toast which is unusual and can't wait for Friday's delivery apparently

Thank you for the link fluffy I've ordered some water saving bits as although we're on rates, £43 a month I try to use less hot water as we still pay to heat it.

girlie that's awful, how scary for you. I hate things like that, I'd be freaked out too. Were police good when they came?

Doing well today. Missed toddlers as it was snowing when we were about to go out so that's £1 saved (though not on purpose!) and I've just got my train to pay for later.

Applied for my save & borrow loan & I apparently don't have means to repay it. I'm torn between continuing to build up the fund & applying again or lashing it all against one credit card to bring down the balance overall on it? I'm thinking too if they don't think I can repay this they're unlikely to approve my transfer to 0% interest credit card next month.

Spent €22.50 in aldi??? But I got boxes of milk tray for our mothers for motherday as all we can afford! Besides its a hallmark friggin day!

How long have we got until mothers day?

It's the 15th lilac :)