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..

Bonjour tout le monde!
Spotty I'm so glad a letter was sent out, oh how I would have loved to see her face as she read it .
North I'm very of your DD's new green DMs, I still have a pair or purple one from when I was a teen, but am not allowed to wear them according to my 12 yo DS .
Pointless is there anyway you could try getting a veg box once or twice just to give it a go. If you get too much produce you can batch cook and freeze it. If not, as others have already said, farmer's markets or anything local (farm shops etc.).
I love the idea of a summer pot, anything left over at the end of the month, is going to be put aside for this, I will mention this to my family if next time they DH want to buy things we don't really need.
We broke up yesterday, and have two weeks off. The €130 Easter holiday budget is still intact, not sure what we are going to do yet, although DCs have asked to go swimming, so that will probably be the first spend. The weather is glorious here too, but I still had to scrape ice off the windscreen on Friday morning (bearing in mind we went for a paddle in the river after school as it was 25+°c). The central heating dosn't know if it's coming or going!
The main difficulty for me over the holidays is resisting going shopping to places like Ikea or H&M. We really don't need anything, but it's soooooo tempting . I'm just going to have to repeat "summer pot" to myself over and over again and hope that noone hears/misinterprets it .

Pointless I haven't tried bicarb so it may work. Neat bleach does the trick (not very eco I know). If it is really ingrained you may need to pull it off and re do the silicone.

Lachatte I am jealous of you 25deg. I would just be lying out in the garden

TiWe I wish I could get some of our rain to come your way. Being on the W side of the Pennines certainly reduces incidents of skin cancer and the need to water the garden.

Spends so far £1.50 on cup of tea and £2 on 2 ice lollies.

Had a nice morning, dd did a fun run and then we went to the park. Making the most of the last day of the Easter hols!!

Need to go to Asda later, hopefully won't spend too much......

£10 next sunglasses
£41.99 converse
£28.50 boots on suncream and deodorant get 10% discount
£6 poundland crisps, pasta razors for dh, snack for dc

Dh bought some clothes for the dc and dd school cardigans

Guess what I am doing Unescorted ?

A paste made from bleach and bicarb is like a miracle cure for black mould on silicone sealant. I picked up the tip from MN and dh thought I'd resealed the shower when I tried it .
Very of the 25 degrees and lovely weather as 'tis horrible here. Ds played football in the rain this morning and is supposed to be doing cricket scoring this afternoon but I doubt whether there will be much play.

Spotty i really want some converse

Have just been on the Boden sale spent £44 all for dd of course, it was all 40% off plus free p&p. Got 4 items for that a hoodie, long shorts and 2 tops so not too bad plus can resell on once dd outgrown it......

My bank account is actually looking much better than I thought it would be, I have £270 in their now, obv minus £44 so £226 but other than food and petrol no other spends needed until payday (the 28th) so should be enough.

Think have done well over Easter as seem to have done lots but not actually spent that much

I have two pairs but want more.... Actually I saw some on the schuh website for £22 they were the lite ones I think. Anyway bargain price.

Dh and I are arguing. Im trying to be healthy, as you all know, and he's just moaning about it. I didn't buy any crap in the shopping as all the fruit and veg cost £££ and I asked if he could just stop eating loads of chocolate and biscuits for a while to try and support me and he's not happy about it. Obv he can eat what he likes at work and buy what he likes whenever but he's moaning about what I'm making saying I'm trying to make him vegetarian etc etc and I just find he's really unsupportive and always has been. I'm trying to get my hba1c lower and being diabetic all the chocolate really doesn't help but he just doesn't care at all. He's like a twelve year old. The whole healthy eating thing is for the dc and him too. No one appreciates it though...

Ooh will try the bleach and bicarb, thank you. My book says bleach isn't actually too bad!
I am tempted to try a veg box. I was worried about which size to get, it hadn't occurred to me to cook any excess and freeze it and if there's not enough I can still go to the shop!

Spendy days. ...fell off the wagon as had a very rare night out and drank copious cocktails at £6 a pop, admission to a club £5 where I was 20yrs older than the average and cab home. Good times thou

£40 at a farm for animal food and full English breakfasts (medicinal purposes)

Bought a couple of pairs of converse from amazon the other day, cost £60 for the two. I am "heavy footed" apparently as I don't find they last longer than a full year?

Frugal things- turned off heating for the last couple of eves until dp clocked on and I've been drying washing outside....and melting down easter eggs to make cornflake cakes.

£18 in the little Tescos, not too bad but forgot bananas and cheese!!

NSD

I am stuck in a rut with meals - so I have had a rootle around in my recipe collection and come up with this months meals.

Calamari with spaghetti
Bacon & mushroom quiche
BBQ ribs
Lamb Kababs
Creamy fish & tarragon
Buritos
Chicken pie
slow roast pork (apple or prune stuffing)
Bengal chicken curry
40 clove garlic chicken
Pizza
Salad niscois (sp??? - I can barely spell in English!)
Catalan rice with chickpeas and smoked haddock
Persian lamb caserole with chickpeas and herbs
Seaside stuffed mackrel
Beef stew with horseradish dumplings
Chicken nuggets with garlic butter & chips
Chicken & cashewnut stirfry
London particular
Chicken suprise (throw odds & ends into roasting pan with chicken legs hence the suprise)
Miso Chicken
Roast Lamb
shepherds pie
Toad in the hole
Laska's chicken wings
spag bolagnase
mussels in wine with bread
sausage caserole with baked potatoes
sweet & sour pork

Served with rice, salads, random vege ect. Hopefully the kids won't rebel with the change from pizza, lasagne and chips

28.08 at boden - I have terrible habit buying clothes for the kids. Argh.

Stick to your guns, Spotty. They will get the message eventually.

£9 today in Tesco, on milk, washing powder and flowers and chocolates for some friends.

I had to cave in and put the heating back on tonight for a couple of hours, as it dropped down to 4 degrees here today. Brr! I hope the papers are right about this pending heatwave!

We've had frosts here every morning for ages. On Friday I had to scrape my windscreen before I left for work! We tried having the heating off but it's much too cold in the mornings.

Me to TeWi I can resist for myself but am not so good when it comes to dd but at least Boden looks good, is good quality and easy to sell on (thats what I keep telling myself ) Also I never pay full price for anything on Boden and always wait till they offer free p&p as well!!

Ok, dilemma, what would everyone else do? DCs want to go swimming tomorrow.

a) do an 80km round trip to go to a fun swimming pool with a slide, have lunch in favourite Indian restaurant and go to see DM for tea and pick up DS's bag he forgot at the same time, all in all would cost €€€, taking a fair chunk out of two week holiday budget.

b) go to local boring pool and come home for lunch, would cost €, barely making a dent in holiday budget.

Pool with slide.... so they have a fun thing to remember the holidays, but it is bread and water for the rest of the holidays.

What worries me is it's only the beginning of the hols!

Just worked it out for option a): 135km round trip = €15 petrol, pool €10, lunch €50, so €75 out of the €130 budget. Maybe we could have lunch before we left or take a picnic.

Pass mine don't even last a year unless I'm really careful. Much as I love my Converse, they really are a rip off.

Personally I would do one or the other so either boring pool but nice lunch out or fancy pool but boring pack lunch!!

laChatte that is what I am debating at the moment, not sure I can bring myself to spend £40 on converse even though I love them when I can get a similar looking pair in Primark for about £7!! That will probably last a similar amount of time

Not been catching up with thread as ill ATM, uggggh

In other news though, DH has a group interview next week. It's a little less pay (although that says 'starting salary' so maybe he could negotiate if they really liked him?) but far better hours and career progression so could be worth it.