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 .

Anyway I just had to nip on quickly to share some great news. I met up with the other CM who will be having my DCs once a fortnight. But turns out... she doesn't want payment actually can't believe it! But she is doing a 'pay it forward' type thing as she knows how hard HEing can be on finances. My two are close to her DS in age so she's happy they can just go and play! I just need to pack them a lunch.

Anyway this means we have another £100ish saving per month, which is an incredible difference considering my wages are only about £460.

Thankfully DH hadn't signed up for childcare vouchers yet - I think this saving means we shouldn't claim the maximum amount. We will be paying the other CM £55 a week, so I guess we could claim £220 a month but then the contract is term time only and I'm hoping not to need much paid childcare in the holidays... DSD bless her has them more in the holidays and I'm hoping to use cheaper holiday clubs when she can't. Any ideas of how much we should claim please? Want to save whatever we can but also wary of buying too many IYSWIM.

Ok that gives dh a bit of a break he has valentines followed by my birthday so I was hoping it was a few weeks ago. I don't want anything but he's a slave to hallmark holidays. If he'd just cook dinner & put kids to bed the Thursday before it while I'm at hairdresser I'd be a happy bunny!

pegleg that's a brilliant pay it forward. Will you return playdates?

I think it's March 15th.

Lilac my DH is a great cook. I normally ask him to do a full roast dinner which tbh he does most weeks!! I ask for my favourite chocs every year but he refuses to buy them for fear I ll blame him for putting on weight!! But I like a cheap bunch of flowers and card!
I am going away with a friend overnight in April so can't afford to spend much before then!

If you told him what you want maybe you ll get treated both days?

I'm put out because last time I went to hairdresser I'd kids with me & he was meant to collect them & didn't until I actually rang him to know where the hell was he!!!

Mine makes too much fuss over dinner & makes it the way he thinks I like it but gets it completely wrong

peg Not sure what you mean by 'pay it forward', but it seems like great news anyway

girlie SO sorry I missed that, while skimming to catch up. That must have been very frightening for you. I hope you are ok. Any news on the cat?

lila Sorry, not sure as I am not fully aware of how save and borrow works tbh.

Yes indeed to today was spendy, but we did have great fun, it was long overdue, and it won't happen for a long time either. Shopping in the city!

DD took two friends with her and I entrusted them to find DD a suitable wedding outfit. They managed to kit her out in Primark with a jacket, top and stretchy skirt for £30. I bought her a pair of shoes to go with it for £14. Not bad for a full outfit as she's a size 6/8 so adult sizes.

DS was the main culprit. He is not in the slightest bit interested at all in fashion and alternates between two hoodies and two pairs of jeans. The jeans have holes in and look wrecked so I agreed with DS (under duress) that we would so a 'swoop' and get him quite a few clothes in one go. Mainly Primark again, think 3 hoodies, 2 T-shirts, 3 pairs of jeans, one shirt (for the wedding) for £75.

I then insisted we buy a T Shirt and hoody from Holister, which cost £54 in total. These will be his 'best' clothes, for meals out, if he gets invited to a party etc.

Met up with the girls again who dragged DS into places like Claire's and Pandora and New Look, making him try on bras and such, was really funny and DS took it with good humour!

So that's taken a dent out of my misc budget for sure, but was so needed for DS.

I need to meal plan yet for the week, but we are having chilli for tea.

Spendy day.

Frugal fail: I panicked when Drusillas asked ds' DOB so didn't get him in free. Was honest though. £17
£25 on lunch
£7 top up.

Spag bol from the freezer for dinner. So glad I got that out as there's no way I could be bothered to cook tonight!

I love the way dh has dumped all the coats/hats/snowsuit on the floor by the door instead of hanging them up

Peg it's worth bearing in mind too that holiday clubs might also take child care vouchers as payment. with mine it comes off my salary every month into the child care voucher account. I then log on and pay my childminder.

Spendy day here. Looked at my clothes and got sick of the state of them. 159 on 5 tops and 2 bras. 3 of the tops are for dh as he is as bad as me. 60 of that came off PayPal where I had left it after selling on ebay

We call that the "Floordrobe" spotty.

lila pay the cc down if you can. Do you do the standing order method?.

need have you seen the superdry outlet on eBay? Seriously cheap stuff. Unless superdry is out with your two.

The tesco orchard flower vouchers arrived, I checked by emailing them and orchids are included in the deal. I bought two bunches of daffs & paid using the pass along vouchers. Made my own flower food of a half teaspoon each of sugar and household bleach.

54p on biscuits.

Had a shock bill of £200 from sains energy, they've got my opening reading at 1200 but I was 1200 in December so I had to get it corrected so its now £70 but the heating is still OFF until I've calmed down. Which may never happen.

I found an app called weqforyou, you dial the number and the app tells you when it's being answered. It took 35 minutes to get though and I only have 100m allowance so i was pleased with that. Free app on android, probably apple too.

Thanks fluffy. Neither of mine are all that interested in 'names'. DD lives in jophurs and scratty hoodies as she is doing the pony so often. DS really couldn't care less, the Holister stuff was my attempt at him having something half decent to wear sometimes, but Superdry would be fine, so I will bare in mind.

I got my flower vouchers too, and will also buy orchids, as they are my favourite.

Oh dear about your bill!!

Hi all, thanks for your concern. The police rang back and said they had confirmed it was someone from the council who just got the wrong the house feel a bit silly now. Although it still seems a bit odd that a man from the council would be ringing on someones doorbell at 9pm but I felt better knowing that the police had checked it out!!

So would have been a nsd today but dds free singing club was cancelled last min so I had to use the after school club which cost £5.50, bit annoying but not much I could do about it!!

Oh and also had to pay £10 for a permit for my car but apparently I can claim that back through expenses.

Eating spag bol for the second night tonight

Day off tomos so might do a quick morrisons shop, need bread, milk and few other bits. Not much though will aim for £20 ish.

Oh and oh also booked a holiday today!!! A parkdean one for the easter hols, going mon to fri with a friend and her kids as well. Should work out fairly cheap, for me and dd approx £120. Will take food with us and are right on the beach so not much to spend money on other than ice creams!!

Needa no news on the cat yet, vet said should hear by Wed if not to ring them. She seems okay in herself so I am crossing everything that its not something awful. Thanks for asking

I have found n index card file from my old school supplies which I'm starting as my spending file, if only to prove to dh how much I spend (or don't) and how much he fritters away...
apart from food shopping for tha whole week, spent £16 on crafts stuff for dd to make a 60th/ mother's day present for my mum and £5 on getting my eyebrows done, was very overdue though. I will have to spend another 20 or so on photos to frame as presents as well but apart from that I'm hoping to stop dh from his usual 'forget, panic, spend £40 on getting flowers delivered online the Friday before mother's day...'

Evening all

Bank: £280.33 (was £416.48)
Purse: £10.00 (was £2.33)
Jar: £19.50 (was £13.80)
Grand Total: £309.58
Reduced by £122.78
Days to payday: 11

Spends:

£60.85 – groceries at Morrisons
£4.30 – groceries at Tesco
£30.00 – kids footy subs (last ones I have to pay until September now)
£0.99 – pepsi max today.

£11.00 – lightbulbs
£36.80 – spent at the darts yesterday
£2.30 – bus fares
£0.04 – over to the coin jar
£6.50 – KFC for DS2 on Saturday

Budget looks like this: 309.58
Petrol: £141 budget / £109 spent / £32 remaining
Groceries: £300 budget / £220.66 spent / £79.33 remaining
Credit card: £12.84
Interest: £12.40
Kids activities & bus fare: £31.20
My bus fares: £14.50
Leaves for everything else....£127.31

I didn't update yesterday as I was out all day. Had a brilliant time at the darts – it was so much fun, I had a right laugh – shame everything inside was so expensive though. I said the kids would have to pay for their own stuff (which they did) and that DH would have to make a £20 contribution to our spends too whether he liked it or not (however he only had £18 on him). Total spend was over £80, but my contribution was £36.80.

I'm off to see 1D with two friends in October. I paid for the tickets on my credit card and told them I wasn't in a rush to be paid back, and one of them has paid me £30 into my account this weekend so my available money is looking a bit healthier than it would have been otherwise. At least we only have 1 more weekend to get through. We're all going to football next Saturday morning (paid for) and DS2 and I are off to see The Script (paid for but will probably need to buy a drink). DS2 and DH have a presentation night out next week with alcohol and taxis but I'll do what I did last night and make them put a £20 kitty in and I'll throw £20 in too, that should be adequate.

Right - off to read what you have all been up to

I paid a bill for my DS today of £40.28 (I try not to do this too often,)

For me spent £2.40 on a 'new home' card for a friend in Waterstones
and 2.73 in the co op on eggs and lots of reduced mushrooms which i will slice and put in the freezer

dinner is more yummy veggie curry , dhal and brown rice (from one of those odd packets) .. Frugal and healthy ( 'spect i might get bored by the end of the week though ) .

I really do need a haircut so will book that up.. Also i havent had my eyebrows done or eyelashes dyed since september.. but am wondering if i can really justify it.. (you see i have a packet of home eyelash dye.. but have been too scared to use it.. anyone else done this)

Top tip.. for ripe fruit you are not going to be able to eat in time

Instead of making banana loaf try freezing sliced ripe bananas ..and then later eating straight out of the freezer

Try it... it tastes uncannily like Ice cream (really)..and healthy!

I also freeze grapes and fresh pineapple and eat those frozen.. yum..

nugget yes I am thinking about going to Manchester but with my mum rather than DD. I'll have a look at your recommendations though, thank you.
Making spinach and ricotta pancakes for tea using frozen spinach, frozen tomato sauce and frozen pancakes from pancake day. We didn't have as much spinach as I thought so I threw in some frozen peas too. Hope they are nice.
I'm exhausted as DD has taken to getting up at 5am. Since she started nursery last week she has been very clingy too. She has always gone to bed easily but at the moment she's hysterical upstairs with DH. I know I can't go up because if we get into that habit it'll cause problems when I'm not here but it's heart breaking.
Sorry that has nothing to do with money but I needed to get it off my chest! NSD here anyway.

Ah pointless have a [hug] it is tough when they cry for you all the time x

Wow, day 2 and six pages already! No spend March for me so far but doubt that will last long.

I have just started putting my water on for just one hour in the morning, which is enough for 3 of us to shower and there is still hot water coming out of the tap now. I honestly don't know why we had it on in the evening - we rarely wash anything outside of the dishwasher. I have been turning the controls down on the radiators in the rooms we don't use as much, now that it is getting warmer.

Thanks babs. She is asleep now after DH rocked her for half an hour but it feels like a big step backwards as she has just gone to sleep on her own for 6 months. Hopefully she'll adjust soon but it is strengthening my resolve to afford to work part time.

Lilac just saw your message on the old thread. The eye drops are certainly not helping with the clinginess/crying. Nursery said she was good as gold when they did them today. Typical!

Any ideas for a very cheap world book day costume? Am feeling totally uninspired this year!!

My littlest is always miserable at bedtime when she is teething pointless - calpol at bathtime (so it's kicked in by bed) really really helps.
It sucks when they are really upset about something though, I hope whatever it is passes soon.

Do you have face pain't girlie? I usually go for an anthropomorphic character so it's animal face paint and normalish clothes (eg, trousers, shirt and waistcoat for Fantastic Mr Fox)