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..

Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger! We have somehow knocked the dial on our overstuffed fridge up to the highest setting and everything in it has frozen. Realised half way through making a frittata with leftover veg from last night. I thought the veg seemed a bit crispy but then I cracked the eggs and they had ice crystals in. Let them melt then used them anyway. Tasted ok so hopefully we won't all get food poisoning.
NSD, back at work after Easter hols, just tidying up the last Easter egg, still have a Lindt bunny and some small chocolate eggs to get through!
Welcome throne, this is a lovely thread with lots of good money saving tips.

NSD today, 4th in a row. I'll definitely need milk tomorrow and maybe a few other bits but I shouldn't spend more than 5 euro.

Dammit, miscalculated remaining food budget; we only have €65 left for the two weeks, which is going to be pretty much impossible seeing as we're on holiday, so every meal has to be included. I'm going to see how far we get with what we've already got, but it looks like we're going to be dipping into the summer pot already

Spotty
I am a size five but live in Ireland! Maybe keep them for 'hacking' shoes and your new ones will last longer!

€170 for two days away with BF but did us good. If not for the budget.

Welcome throne!

Wow i havent been here since thursday and have just read back 5 pages !. so far to much to answer..

But on the organic / not organic debate , I do buy 'ordinary' veg either from supermarket or veg shop/ farmers market ( and we grow a lot in the summer) , but I always buy the very best chickens and eggs i can .. not always organic , but definately free range and from our farmers market if possible. I've done this since the kids were small after seeing one too many chicken farm exposes on the TV! ,

Im lucky enough to be able to buy eggs from a friend, or the farmers market so I know they are good ,and I do try to do the MN Magic chicken thing as much as poss, always use up evey scrap and make stock ..

However, we dont have chicken more than once or twice a month now as it is expensive doing it that way .. We eat lots more veggie things now , but I will buy other meat. Lamb is a big favourite here , but yes again expensive, ( if i see reduced leg of lamb Ialways buy it and cut it up for steaks) but the good thing about lamb is it cannot be factory farmed.

My dad often gets us pork from his local 'happy pigs' farm shop and we will also eat game (pigeon, phesant, rabbit, venison ) which for us because we are fairly rural , its often pretty cheap at the butchers, especially the off-cuts/ mince which is all I buy. (Except when its pheasant season , i buy a couple of brace to freeze (usually about £6 for the two) and that is our christmas meal ..so thats much cheaper than turkey)

Of course I know we are lucky to be able to source this .. its more difficult if all you have is a choice of the major supermarkets..
But now with anything meat ( unless its a plain roast) i always add lentils , beans or chickpeas , and with mince l bulk it up with lots of grated carrot which cooks down to unnoticable if its done for long enough .. no one ever notices!.

My carnivore adult DS swears that no one makes chicken soup like I do ! (its true!) but what he doesnt know is that it often was just mainly lentil, onions and carrots and the 'chicken' was often just the stock with just a few shreads of chicken added on the top!!) .

We had DGS (2) all weekend which was fun, .. I havent worked out what I spent but it wasnt much. DH took the car out on Saturday and filled it up and although I had to drive 150 round trip to take DGS back the car ferry fare was already paid for out of our yearly book of tickets .

However, i did make a detour into Waitrose on the way back today (as it was there, you know) That was £62.29.. mostly good stuff , and basics (no !! , but did treat myself to some sushi..

I went to Zumba this evening (need to get back into lots of my summer clothes ) . I had a prepaid card from when i last went (over 2 years ago!!) with 9 sessons still on it , and they have said they will honour it!

So a Result and no excuses not to go then .

£7.20 travel for me and DS and £1.90 on a cappuccino.

I will read through now.

Have had a couple of spendy days as we are up north seeing family so motorway stops of meals (£20), petrol (£47), meals out (£100), shop for food (£20). Museum and shop £37).

I still want to stop at big mall on way home... We shall see.

reasonable day....£6 in the craft shop as they have a kids drop in session, £7 on trainer socks for the dcs (nothing fits from last year for them AT ALL?!) and £3 in Tescos including some bumper sanitary towels for me.

Periods are also being frugal and this is the 2nd time in 4 months that I have skipped a period completely (so 48 days not 24). However it does mean they are somewhat vile.

Off to the in-laws with the kids tomorrow so will be eating their food for a while

Melted down easter eggs for cornflake and rise crispie cakes. Had a revelation as Nestle melted down fine and Cadburys was awful - thick stodge with crunchy sugar crystals. 3 eggs used up. 6 to go and some other bits and pieces.

Back to an application form....

I thought I'd make these veggie 'shepherds pies' from the Sainsburys mag this week ..

Welcome Throne

Fluffy I would keep the ruined towels for his exclusive use and give him The Look if he used one of your tea towels

Spotty re your DH and his snack food issues, you are diabétic and that trumps any prefferences so tell him To STFU and buy his cráppy treats during his work day.

Today I spent another £18-ish.

Thanks Adora

Should be Nsd here as I'm working. I've been awake with my throat again!

Did anyone see the thread on aibu about it being impossible to spend £100 a week on food toiletries cleaner etc? I certainly manage it. I think if I bought whatever I wanted and didn't think about it it would be about £100. That's with tesco.

passthecake I made rice crispie buns with two cadburys eggs on sun but I whipped in a little oil to make it glossy and runny - worked out perfectly then. Discovered another 3 eggs this morning though - that's about 14/15 left. My two are almost 5 years and 17 months and love cheese and fruit no real interest in chocolate at all.

Last few days have been spendy, I'm away at the weekend and as I've been wearing my clothes to death waiting to have this last 2 stone gone before I replenish my wardrobe I'm left with very little respectable clothes!

Have 2 dresses coming from littlewoods and 3 pairs of shoeboots - one dress will go back and 2 pairs of boots maybe these are on account but I've the standing order set up to pay back for jeans and top purchased last week so will edit this to repay all items over 4 weeks when I know what I'm keeping.
Bought another dress yesterday and it arrived this morning so have jeans & top for fri night with boots I currently have, dress that arrived today to go with boots ordered today and dress coming tomorrow to go with boots ordered today I think.

I've voucher that I will spend on jeans in River Island, voucher for my wash & blow dry on Fri and voucher which will either go on shoes or on groceries next week if I see something somewhere else!

All these spends were planned so I've money alloted for them.

Hotel is €210 & my Savings are €360 + spare money from last weeks wages €70 + whatever's left from this week's wages(haven't got payslip yet but did overtime on two occasions) + self employed earnings this week too. I've train paid for & breakfast is included on both days plus lunch on one day. So I'll need to purchase lunch & dinner on two days, one is early bird option. I paid for train ticket and conference ticket months ago, hoping that I can travel in to train with dh on fri am but that will depend on his starting time so I could end up paying for parking for three days fingers crossed!

fluffy are we married to same man? Dh does this all the time!

Made a fab pot of hummus with my new blender - which has been used every day since we got it. Red pepper from jar in brine, clove garlic, lemon juice and chickpeas (all storecupboard items in this house!)

Hi can I join in ? Awaiting a response re IVa tomorrow ... V nervous :0 due to ill Heath DH s part time .. Loss of 1200 £ cc bills over 800 so impossible !! Cut up all cards, changed bank so now no OD to fall back on ,,, feels very scared !! Thank god for online banking so I can keep checking !! Not doing to bad ( have put an estimated amount to one side to represent IVA payment , did a big 200£ online shop beginning of month from asda , so much better as kept reviewing basket and asking if was really needed ! Would normally spend 160£ per week :0 (ashamed of my previous attitude to spending ) my problem is top up shops (how the hell did I spend 30£ yesterday when I only needed milk and bread :(
Have dropped to own brands ... Massive sulks fron DD as no hienz Tom sauce !!! DH terrified il take his Nescafé away !! Got 200£left in bank and DDgives me 70£ per week (it kills her but technically 40£ is foe her car loan from my bank and 15£ is for her insurance !! So think I might make it to the end of the month ( the 70 is used for bits and bobs , DH petrol etc
Sold a few bits on eBay for 30£ so got 7 yo DS a few bits in asda George
May need a online shop week before pay day but trying not too !!
Thanks for reading !! Going for a NSD today, off work so having a rare day to myself operation renovation for summer

Hmm, went slightly over budget with this week's food shop (I had €68 left for the next two weeks) and spent €130 , in my defence, we are having friends over for a meal on Friday, 5yo DD was with me (never a good idea, she now has a lovely new Hello Kitty hat), and we will be eating some really nice meals over the next seven days. There will also be meat in the freezer, so next week shoud be pretty cheap famous last words . Now I need to readjust the rest of the month's budget, grrr.

On another note, HSBC keeps charging me penalty fees on my English account, which I keep getting cancelled. I spent 30 mins on the phone to them this morning trying to explain that the only reason I was overdrawn was because of the sodding penalty fees (which were a mistake on their part originally). This time they've said it should be OK, and hopefully won't happen again, and that if it does, they won't be able to cancel them this time as they're not allowed to do it more than a certain number of times over a six month period despite it not being my fault in the first place . I've phoned a relative asking for them to put some money into my account just in case it does happen again. I really should close my account seeing as I don't really use it.

Nsd. Welcome all new people

Spotty - seriously, get those Converse on e-bay, believe me they will sell. I know this because I have bought two pairs lately myself!

I need to wash them first

I got dd some Birkenstocks they're so cute (she needs supportive shoes and they're really good for her).

HOORAY - PAY DAY TOMORROW!!!! Gee, this one has been such a long time coming.

Bank: £31.79dr (was £11.81dr)
Purse: £9.11 (was £0.61)
Jar: £0.45 (was £3.60)

Grand Total: minus £22.23
Reduced by: £14.63
Days to payday: 1
Proper Savings: £574.29

Spends:
£1.98 – kindle book
£8.00 – top (from someone selling on a facebook site)
£1.50 – library fines
£3.15 – bus fares

I suppose, finishing just over £20 in the red isn't too bad. Most of it was wasted by me though on clothes I don't need and Kindle books I haven't read. I'm going to set a challenge and try not to buy any clothes until next pay-day. I daredn't set myself the same challenge for the Kindle because I'd probably fail on day one!!!

Monthly round-up...

No extra income this month.

Over budget for Petrol by £57.50 but this is because we filled up on Sunday and I didn't get paid until Wednesday. I didn't see the point in pratting about putting a tenner in on Sunday to then have to fill up again two days later.

Surprisingly under budget for groceries by £22.25 (woo).

Incidental spends:- highest category was my personal spends followed by the kids, followed by gifts & charity

My personal total spends were £158.65 which is quite bad and as usual was clothes, food for work, a haircut, kindle books, magazines, stamps, a pair of headphones, a pair of earphones, slimming world subs, a meal out with my friend, a library fine and a Groupon voucher.

Spent £77.67 on the kids (they are quite low maintenance luckily so this is higher than normal) which was a pair of 2nd hand converse, a memory card, earphones, stamps, athletics competition entry, some stationary for DS1 school, and the odd few trips to the shop for sweeties.

Gifts & Charity was at £60.83 which was gifts and cards for mother's day, ingredients to make donations for a cake sale and step FIL's birthday. I've also put the tip I paid my hairdresser in this category hah.

Other incidental spending was...£51.80 spent on health – OUCH! This was nit lotion, anti-histamines, creams, cough medicines, the wonder cream for my eczema, lip balm and painkillers. (wonder cream is wonderful so I'm going to be buying more of this)

£50.97 on the house which was a security light fitting, someone putting a shelf up for me, some pegs, and some storage boxes.

Eating out came in at £49.49 – again quite high as I don't remember any of it! (just looked, DH & I had a cheeky cooked breakfast at Morrisons, and the rest seems to be takeaway for the kids)

£37.85 on entertainment... DS1 & DH went swimming and had a night out with my work colleagues. (actually the night out should have went into my personal spends as it only benefited me but I can't be bothered altering everything now)

DH had an extra £19.95 which was a hair cut, a t-shirt, and a donation to the work's birthday fund! (for some reason, he says I should pay this).

Finally £4.95 on the car, and £3.50 on other transport which was a taxi to work.

NSD.

I dont think i going to have a NSD this month!
£25 to DS for food ( I really hope he gets his benefit next week.. .. its because hes changed address.. and of course Job seekers 'withold it' until they sort out their paper work (which takes 3 weeks apparently .....) Also his rent will be due in 2 weeks (please HB..come through in time .. please )

£3.50 in charity shop for a (bigger..) pair of shorts.. the diet has started though! i cant afford not to fit into my summer stuff.. I need to get a stone off quick!
£19.98 in tk maxx ,, for a sports bra ( yes the old one is too small, but was only £6.99 and a good one.. and a pair of exercise leggings because i cant find any of my old ones its been so long since ive done any exercise

Tonights dinner was vegetable stir fry!

Laska I don't think I have managed more than 1 nsd either!

Went to Sainsburys after work today, spent £55 however £22 of that was on summer school uniform and PE kit for dd. She is ridiculously fussy about clothes and didn't like any of the summer dresses so will be wearing skirts/shorts and polo shirts this summer. For £22 I got 2 skirts, a pair of shorts and 2 PE shorts so not too bad?

The rest was on food with a few toilerteries thrown in, I need face wash and cream but refused to pay their prices and will look in Wilkos later this week!!

Welcome Itsall sorry am probably being really thick but whats IVA?

I was wondering also....

Welcome Itsall.

NSD and I got my groupon refund.

Individual voluntary arrangement iva. It's a debt management thing where you make agreement with your creditors to try and pay them back. I think.

I'm going to rename NSD into bsd or vsd. Bloody or very Spendy day!

£10 on a fish supper as had to make an after school dash to mil for a family pow wow