We aint no April Frugalling Fools.. There may be Showers ahead, but we'll sail through together ...

[Laska42]

Heres a new thread for the April Frugaleers!

Spring has arrived and summer is a-coming..

Good luck everyone trying to save money, There's lots of good support here..

[AdoraBell]

Glad to see your mum is perking up Audit

Hope you have a great time Spotty

Glad the first day at work went well, fx for the interview.

Had to shop today as our BH is tomorrow and the local shops will be shut. £17 in supermarket including salmon, minced beef, a roasted chicken and some chorizo, then £5-ish in the greengrocers.

I really like the idea of those thingies for making the veg noodles but am not buying anything until we've moved.

Off to sign up for May

[AuditAngel]

Hi everyone. Busy here due to DH knee op and mum, who has perked up today, went to see her GP for her first outing.

Yesterday £10.20 on parking and a travel card on my Oystercard, u sure of costs, but can reclaim from work.

Spent £84 on a new professional subscription for work, can claim back.

£110 for new term at dancing. Mum gave me £100 for this week and next. About £1 in snacks for kids at dancing. Not too bad between 3 of them.

Dinner £16 take away. Got home from dancing about 8.45, left DS for another mum to bring home. Popped out for takeaway, eating when DS hot home.

[CremeEggThief]

NSD to end the month. See you all on the May thread .

[Laska42]

And now im just off to do my April wash up .. (over budget but hey ho much at least not as much as I used to be ) Back later x

[Laska42]

I've started a MAY THREAD!!....

[Fluffycloudland77]

I'm glad it went well. Fingers crossed for the interview though.

I'm wrong on Checkoutsmart, they seem to accept every known UK food retailer now.

[Passthecake30]

First day ok, but the job was a drop in grade and obvious from the work. But it'll pay the bills (plus I have an interview tomorrow and will keep looking! ). People nice enough and area ok.

£19 travel and parking, got a free Subway sarnie with my loyalty card

Won't need anymore clothes for work as no one appeared too smart/trendy so I fit right in. Phew.

[NK5BM3]

Good luck pass! Hope it was a good first day! And enjoy spotty! Please tell me your exact itinerary. I'm thinking of taking the kids!!

LSD. Had to buy bread. Went to sainsburys and ended up getting other things which were on the list, but with redemption of the nectar points, it cost a grand total of £1.30!!

[Fluffycloudland77]

It depends,

Shopitize is generally only the big 5 but sometimes Aldi. Moving into the body shop/boots too.

Quidco Clicksnap is the same but no bodyshop etc

Checkoutsmart is owned by quidco so you can double up on offers but not submit the reciept twice.

Topcashback includes Iceland and lidl more often and is almost exclusively aldi at the moment.

Mysupermarket also does cashback sometimes but it's becoming rarer.

Of course if you have a Dh etc you can run one account on each for them too. Don't sign the dog up though cos that's fraud.

Usually you can find the items you need on offer half price then use cb too.

Sometimes it works out free, shopitize are doing free picnic bars this week, last week it was Covent Garden soup.

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

Fluffy - the cashback food sites you use, are they generally certain supermarkets? which ones? We only have access to tesco/waitrose/aldi

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

So April roundup:

Overbudget by approximately 120 pounds. We'll get some back, but not all of it. May needs to be better!

May changes, go back to shopping at aldi, saves us a lot when we do that regularly.
Have upped the clothes/gifts/parties category because we have considerably overspent on it every month. I think I just underestimated to be honest.
Some of the other stuff is just irregular costs in columns that roll over (eg 70.10 at the dentist - but we won't go again for another six months) If you tot up these types of irregular spends and the petrol we can claim back this accounts for our overspend. But really, that means we need to pull back the other spends so there is wiggle room for that.

[babsmam]

I'm not witty enough either.

[northender]

Haven't posted for a week as it's been crazy here. I'm not ignoring anyone but just haven't kept up. Hope everyone's well and ready for a miserly May .
Had a lovely hen weekend away. Didn't spend anything on top of the £135 cost as everything was included.
It was my dads 70th on Sunday which was fun and low cost.
Had a Skype consultation last night about ds' chest bracing. He has decided to go for it so it is planned for the end of August to have the least impact on his cricket. It's going to cost £3k but will be well worth it and we're hoping dh's parents might offer to pay or help at least.
May not post again for a few days as the weekend is looking busy. Food all planned and all activities shouldn't cost too much. Have a good bank hol everyone. See you on the May thread

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

Spent a few quid on milk and bits yesterday but NSD today. We're overbudget :(

[Fluffycloudland77]

£30 road tax. Will redeem tax when I sell it in the next six weeks though.
£5 petrol.
£2 cheese, £1.50 after shopitize.
54p cat food.
£8 later on fish and chips.

Smile bank are offering £100 to switch to them if you pay £800 in, switch your old account and close it down via the switch service.

1st cheque on its way for my mobile cashback, free mobile contract here I come.

No idea about new thread, I like it when someone witty starts them.

Have fun Spotty.

[babsmam]

Nsd today. Third in a row. Yes. Role on may. Do we have a new Fred yet. On phone so searching is difficult

[prettymess]

£2.60 market fruit & veg
£7.50 sainsburys

[SpottyTeacakes]

£40 petrol
£12 tesco

[girliefriend]

So spendy day as predicted.

Hair cut came to £40 but I got £10 off with a loyalty card so actually £30.
£2 tip (would have been more but that was all I had in my purse )
£1 parking.
£76 in Morrisons however got a total of £9 off in vouchers and about £20 of that was on non food items including a gift for my friends baby. Still over budget on food though. Total spend £67.

Hoping won't need to do any top up shops until next week though.

Enjoy Disneyland Spotty my dd will be very jealous

I have a stinking headache which is not good as far too much to do to feel ill at the moment!!

[PeoniesforMissAnnersley]

£99 on nutribullet and £19 on a vegetable spiralizer to make courgette/carrot/beetroot noodles, my clothes continue to tighten so need to get healthy. Am planning a green smoothie for breakfast and replacing pasta with veg noodles also more salads for dinner.

Also gym, To which I have been once

[Passthecake30]

tewi my kids have cheapy battery digital clocks from Amazon (china?), when dd couldn't tell the time well I just reiterated it was the first number that had to be a 7 (or an 8 at weekends), she sometimes gave up waiting thou as it "took too long"

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

Good luck pass!

So our plan to stick our digital display alarm clock in the hallway to stop kids early rising works well with 6yo, but as I realised at 5:45 this am, my 3yo has poor number recognition skills!

Oh well.

Think I need to dig out the spare black out curtain we have somewhere and see if I can sew it to the back of his curtains.

[SpottyTeacakes]

Today I need to get petrol and baby wipes. Off to Disneyland tomorrow.

[babsmam]

Good luck pass

[lilacclery]

Yesterday was an nsd today will be too that is all!