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..

Thanks spotty! Great idea... Now have to find nice skirt!!

Morning! Monday - £47 petrol. Tuesday - NSD! Planned spends today - lots of stamps for wedding invites (yikes), 3 x presents for dd's friends birthdays (my NCT group), an onion.

Frugal things:

roughly meal-planned for the rest of the month including a 'soup', 'egg' and 'freezer' meal each week. I had planned to serve broccoli with dinner last night but served carrots instead when I realised I could make a broccoli and cream cheese soup from what I have in (except the onion!) and freeze it for next week.
Decided to wash the sofa cushions and found £2.20 :)
I'm still reading my way through the March thread - a big thank you to whoever mentioned using clubcard vouchers for the Hungry Horse - I'm going there tomorrow with friends so il be trading in some tokens today to cover food costs.

pointless we love camping with dd and first took her aged 4 months. The first time we took her I massively underestimated how cold it would be during the night and ended up dressing her in every piece of clothing I'd packed, including her sun-hat! I try not to take too much food with us to begin with as we're usually out and about each day so can pick up supplies as and when. We always take a one-pot for the first night (e.g. Chilli) and long-life milk is a saviour. Dressing-gowns for walking back from the showers - I always find dressing in the cubicle, especially with a wriggly toddler in tow, too awkward and soggy!

NK - that's great, glad he's doing better!

£79.63 on clothes this morning. Tesco have 20% off lots of character kids stuff so got a few things kids will really like to put away for Christmas (I only get away with this because they are so little and keep their obsessions for so long!) also filled holes in summer wardrobes

Last thing is summer shoes for DH and DD1 and pants socks etc for me which might have to wait until May.

€28 for lunch for the DCs & me, unplanned, couldn't be bothered to cook

Thanks for that recipe Laska looks delicious

So a quiet morning at home, have sorted out dds craft drawers and got 3 bags of stuff she no longer uses or plays with, was thinking of donating it to her school? Its stuff like paper, craft kits, knitting dolls..... she isn't really very crafty but gets given tons of stuff for Christmas and bdays!!

Going to the cinema later to see Home, my dad gave dd £20 to use over the easter hols so going to use £10 of that towards the tickets, dd not overly impressed but really wants to see the film and I can't justify £16 plus taking her!!

Have fixed her metal detector (hopefully) so thought for a frugal day out tomos would go to a local beach and do some metal detecting!! Will take a picnic and flask obv

Have also decided I need to ring BT as my phone bill seems to of been creeping up and am going to ring Southern water again as well as am sick of the extortionate water bill!!

I would love to take dd camping but don't think I could get the tent up by myself

Girlie

Could you borrow a small one to see. Could always pitch it in back garden to see if you can put it up!

We have a large six man tent with 'living' area it's six feet tall. I am not! So dh and I struggled to put it up! But nice man helped dh! Now that ds1 is taller than me I might get them to go away with me! But I need to check if it's deteriorating as not up in six years!!

Yum, boiled egg for lunch, laid one hour ago

Laska - the dogs wee in the garden, therefore the fox stays away. The coop is also able to shut in two ways, via the run, and also the house itself. Therefore pretty safe.

nk glad your DS is doing better.

I have spend £10 on wormer for the pony today. But I think that will be it online spending-wise.

I also let DD and boyfriend have a coffee and bacon buttie in the village coffee shop. £20 on kids hair cuts and £20 on the cleaner. I thought I was going to have a LSD day!!

six Oooh, wedding invites eh?

northender Glad you had a nice holiday. Sometimes, spending the money makes it special. Would be awful to not do something just in the name of being frugal for the sake of it, rather than HAVING to be frugal iyswim?

Thanks for the camping tips. Getting the tent up whilst entertaining a toddler is worrying us, hopefully she'll sit and watch from the safety of the car seat. People at campsites are usually pretty friendly girlie so I'm sure someone would help you.
Whilst in town earlier I remembered it's my niece's birthday next week - £14 on a gift which was slightly more than I intended.
Just switched our water payments to monthly so we don't get caught out with a massive bill again. They told me our consumption has doubled since DD was born! Must be all the extra baths and running the washing machine almost constantly. Hoping it will come down a bit now I'm back at work and using their toilet and kettle but we need to find ways to reduce it.

Nsd and I am knackered! We left at 10am and have just got back after spending the day at DD's play date I didn't really know the mum before so it was really nice but I have an awful headache

Back from the cinema, film was good - I cried Tickets were £16 but £10 of that was dds money, I should have taken a portable tea with me but forgot so £1.75 on cup of tea, smuggled a drink and snack in for dd.

Am loving this sunny weather set to be another nice day tomos so think will def go to the beach, running low on bread so may need to get some so can take sandwiches etc with us.

Have put a couple more bits on the fb buy and sell page and on Sunday will put dds old bike on, hoping might get £35 - £40 for that....

I have got a lovely big tent but it hasn't made it out of the cupboard for 8 years I bought it when I took dd to Glastonbury when she was 14 months that was fun

Nk, glad he's better. It's not a condition a lot of adults have heard of.

When's the wedding six?.

NSD. Topcashbacks offering money back on aldi marmalade, it takes it to 4p a jar. Similar offers on pizza & pasta that you mix with boiling water.

NSD.

NSD.

Took dd to a play date picnic in a park, £2.60 on the first ice creams of the year

£18.50 on an extra swimming lesson, desperately trying to get kids swimming decently before August. ..

Thanks "un", sounds like a good idea, but ds has turned a corner with the cycling at last and can do about 12 pedals without veering off course (phew, no more screaming)

Bank: £82.47 (was £125.44)
Purse: £0.00 (was £9.06)
Jar: £11.85 (was £13.40)

Grand Total: £94.32
Reduced by: £53.58
Days to payday: 7
Proper Savings: £574.29

Spends:
£40.00 petrol
£0.09 – xbox credits
£1.89 – scarf from ebay
£0.99 – kindle book

£3.50 – taxi to work
£1.70 – butty for lunch
£0.99 – Pepsi Max

£0.03 – change to the copper tin
£4.39 – Takeaway for the kids for their dinner.

NSD woohoo.

I love the sunshine. 2 nsd in a row as dc are happy just playing outside. There was a request for ice cream but I found some lollies from last year that seem to be okay.

spotty if it makes you feel any better we're all vegetarians in this house and still don't always manage our 5 a day

girlie I got a bit emotional towards the end of that film but pulled it together before dc noticed

Yes that makes me feel much better

I meet an friend for lunch £6.50 ,I ordered the ' special chicken salad' thinking it was a nice light option..when it came it was enormous, lots of chunky chicken ,about 4 rashers of grilled bacon and several slices of brie, piled on top of a tortilla with homemade coleslaw tomatoes and lettuce! Could have dont both of us! Needless to say no dinner needed this evening , but i have just made a slice of toast(and had a glass of )

£1.50 to DS for milk

I got my Honorarium today... £120.. so thats paid for my summer stuff.

I've kept the Monsoon and the Hush harems and a pair of Accessorize cheapy flip flops , also will probably keep another top if i can get it in a smaller size.. Monsoon sent me an email they cancelling the order for the posh top I linked to yesterday as it seems it was now out of stock, so thats good (it was the one i was planning on sending back anyway. )

Have you all got your heating off?
Its been very warm all day here , but seems chilly now so ive just stuck mine back on for an hour..

We keep turning our heating on and off. Ours is quite inflexible, think we're okay with it off but it's a bit chilly downstairs in the morning!

Mines on low as we've still had frosts the last few days and it's too chilly otherwise.

I turned mine off on Easter Sunday. Hopefully til November...

Have turned mine down low, have storage heaters which are a PITA at the best to times!!

Iam spoiler alert I cried when she found her mum, I think I maybe over related to it as it was just the girl and her mum like me and dd!! If there is ever an alien invasion I would be going mad to find dd as well dd was very worried at the end but managed to hold it together!!