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..

I was tempted the mighty deals £10 Debenhams gift voucher for £5 on Monday and they have a sale on, and I can click and collect and there's a chance of a little cashback so I hoping to buy ds 2 badly needed tops for £5. Other than that nsd. Another 8 days until pay day. Account is looking okay.

Took out £30 to pay someone back but they refused it (lovely!) so have that as emergency cash now.

If anyone gets tax credits and was expecting a change in the next tax year April 5th is changeover day.

Oh bugger TeWi I forgot about that.

I always forget, wrote it on my calendar this year!

£14 in sainsburys on bits for mil in hospital. That's me today

That was a lovely gesture TeWi

Exercised discipline today and sat in a cafe while DD and boyfriend went round town. So, £5 parking and £5 coffee's. But better than browsing in the shops.

Also 2 x BB cream at Bodyshop for myself and DD. 3 for 2 though. I only wear this and mascara, bit of lip gloss occasionally so no great expense.

Oops finger slipped and bought ds a bike....I'd missed out on a half price toyrsus one a while back and got a stock alert today. In the meantime I had been hunting for a 2nd hand one but it wasn't meant to be. £70. Also eases the wobble that I'd been having on his bday, as that's close so I'll just save it for then.

Will sell his old barely used one, that'll fetch £20 ish hopefully.

Thanks for the new thread Laska

A good start to the month:

DM offered to pay for DS's pre-school "uniform" as his Easter present (ker-ching).

I've finally switched to a £5 per month SIM-only with BT. I've been holding off until they sorted themselves out after buying EE as we're with BT and the rumour was that BT customers would get a discount - which they do. It's much less data but unlimited texts, and 200 minutes. So that's nearly 20 quid a month saved (ker-ching).

So now everything is budgeted for and set aside in the joint account and we've got 3 pots of cash for the month: £250 for groceries, £100 for petrol, £50 for family treats (outings/takeaway/lunches out) and then £50 each for DP and me for "riotous living" (beer probably for him, and charity shop clothes and craft stuff for me). I've got a hen day/evening to watch out for this month, but it's also my birthday this month so hoping I might get some birthday spending money I can use for that.

£8 window cleaner and my friend treated me to a coffee. Found out that our local garden centre does a discount card. You pay £10 for the year and get 2 free drinks in the cafe every month plus the occasional free meal and 10% off the garden centre and shop which always has lovely Xmas gifts. DD enjoys looking at all the pets too so I'm going to get one.

Well all of my HOF stuff is going back.. there is a reason why stuff goes in the sale isnt there? Three tops I ordered arrived , one was simply not worth the money, one far too short and East top enormous and not very nice fabric (disappointed withthat one)! So thats £87.50 refund .. Im still waiting for my £54 Boden refund also ..

Motto to remember .. Dont bother with Sales!

Spends today were £49.39 in Morrissons (all of this was basic food and other stuff for DS as he moved into new bedsit today with no money left and nothing to eat or drink..

He's changed his address with them, but JSA and HB etc takes about 3 weeks to catch up it seems and so they wont pay him anything at all until all the paperwork goes through (sigh). Hopefully he will get one of the jobs he has applied for and we can stop all this benefits stuff...

Oh and £30 more went his way in cash also .. (I suppose im mad really, but there is stuff he really needs)

So i went to change my phone to sim only today andinstead 'fell' for a new contract and phone.. its the same as my old one (£12.50 a month and more texts calls and time than i ever use) , and it does mean that i can give old phone to DS now as his is completely knackered .. but actually i only have to pay £12.50 until phone is paid for then it goes down to the sim only price it seems..

But ill have to go and get a new phone cover now.

I found 4 fish fingers in the freezer and had them for tea..

Oh and MN emailed me to say im getting the free Hedrin on test,, so thats good.. and I have £3.68 Quidco being paid later on this week . (Whats that slogan from the well know supermarket? )

Hoping I can join please - just trying to reduce outgoings as much as possible. We are both paid weekly and it still seems as though there are weeks where we dont know what's been spent where :-(

managed a whole year living frugally before to pull together a house deposit - then slipped out of it so watching for tips and tricks to get ourselves back into the mindset :-)

Brilliant phone savings there miss and laska.

If anyone needs home insurance halifax is doing £50 cashback & quidco is also offering £50 cb, I did this last year. They quote high but the £100 makes it very cheap.

Checking in guys!

Spent €34 in chemist, €18 in primark on bits DS needed. €2 treat for DS & €20 on food. So spendy day. But this month is going to be really spendy as need to pay for oil, tv licence, night away with BF, car tax, passport and holiday fund. Looking at up to €1200! On top of normal spends... Have saving I can use so won't be getting into debt.

Off for ten days holidays. So going to try keep things reasonable but I have a teen DS & twelve yr old! Teen already 'needs' €30 for trip to cinema, 2 sleep overs and meeting friends in town!

I've got £50 coming from tcb woop! That can pay for my sainsburys spree yesterday

We have £120 saved for our trip to Bath this weekend hopefully that'll be plenty.

Today I need to buy some rice crispies completely forgot in sainsburys yesterday and promised dd we could make sis and bil easter cakes.

Morning.
Welcome to all newbies, you've found a great thread for support and encouragement .
Arrived in Devon okay last night. Ate before we left home and took a few snacks and drinks with us (including dh's flask of coffee). Dh pointed out that a flask must be an item that pays for itself more quickly than any other when you consider the cost of shop bought coffees (what fascinating conversations we have )
Have got all the paperwork I need to get dd and I into the aquarium for free. Ds isn't bothered and dh has other stuff to do so that will be today's outing I think.
Will try to post daily as it definitely helps me keep focussed.

Couple of LSDs here.

1/1
£6.07 on lunch at work as I was too lazy to get up earlier to make myself something

2/2
£20 petrol
£1.50 on takeaway as had last one refunded on hungry horse as it took about a week 2 hours to arrive, so used the credit and paid the extra.

Have a bit of a drive today to go and visit friend but am going in DP car so not too bad. Bank holiday weekend will be spendy, it's DPs birthday on Sunday so we are going away with his parents. I've already saved £100 to give him as that's what he wanted but I need to go and get a present from DD and DSD. Fingers crossed I can find a bargain.

That was supposed to be 31/3 and 1/4. Fail.

Just posting yesterday's spends!

1/4
£7.84 lunch (was more but mum gave me a fiver)
£4 A3 paper and paintbrushes for DCs
£1.14 DH soup
£7.88 ordered a tablet case for my mum (getting that back at some point)
£5.88 game on sale (to get free delivery) but this comes out of my pocket money
£9.10 DH got some stuff for a family member but will get that back.

Not too bad really as I'd promised the DCs the painting stuff (got the paint already). Should've been more organised and made sandwiches for lunch though (had hospital in the morning then dashed to work). I really could've murdered a takeaway or ready meal last night - so exhausted and stressed - but I resisted. The consultant was good though - he referred me for an MRI and an echo heart scan thingy, and a treadmill test. If all come back ok then he's got some medication for me which should help the hypotension and dizziness.

DGM sent us £100 for the family for Easter. She is so generous! I'm not buying anything with it as I would've in the past, but have told the DCs that Grandma is getting them the home ed rock climbing lessons they've been desperate for (but we would've struggled to pay for) so they are very excited! :)

Next couple of days will be spendy - DSDs' birthdays! :)

so,

as today is the last day at work for a 4 day weekend, and we are away for both the May bank holidays, and the sun is out - I am so so so so tempted to finish work today and go and buy a BBQ and just invite everyone to us instead of going to the pub all weekend.

I don't know if i can justify it - arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

It's not sunny here and it's not going to be until Sunday.

£11 in tesco some of that was stuff that couldn't wait until the shopping comes monday like loo roll.

I need to go and get my prescription for painkillers (I'm in agony with my hip) but it's a 15/20minute drive away.

Morning all

Bank: £201.25 (was £227.10)
Purse: £20.36 (was £0.36)
Jar: £63.35 (was £62.75)

Grand Total: £284.96
Reduced by: £5.25
Days to payday: 13
Buffer money: £103.98
Proper Savings: £574.29

Spend's:

£5.25 – headlice lotion from Amazon for DS2 (ARRGGHHHH AGAIN - I thought that once he got to upper school he would have stopped bringing them home)

I seem to have miscounted my current account by £14.36 less than I thought I had, so I am going to amalgamate my buffer money into my current account now as I still have lunch today, a haircut, some tickets to buy for a comedy night next month and a night out on Saturday. You never know, there might even be some leftover. So it now looks like this...

Bank: £290.86

Purse: £20.36
Jar: £63.35
Grand Total: £374.57
Savings: £574.29

Budget looks like this: £374.57
Petrol: £156.50 // £112.50 spent // £41 remaining
Groceries: £300 // 185.25 spent // 114.75 remaining
Interest: £8.80
Bus fares & Kids activities: £16.80
My bus fare: £14.50
HSBC credit card: £12.70
Leaves for everything else....£166.02

Totally agree about flasks, I always take one on days out/long journeys. I also bought a nice sports bottle for water which must have paid for itself many times over as I never buy bottled water when out and about either.
I need to think of something to do with DD this afternoon. She's just had her jabs and is very grumpy but there seems to be a lot of the day left to fill! I was hoping to go to the park but the weather isn't very good. Everything else I can think of involves spending money!
DH finishes work today for 10 days so we are getting a takeaway to celebrate. I'm cooking my own rice though as they always give us far too much and it gets wasted.

£10 ish in the postoffice, tracked postage for passports and some stamps.

Sent all my Gap order back in a fit of rage. I ordered 29w and 30w shorts to try on and they sent me 29w and 34w. I rang up, ordered the 30w AGAIN, and they sent 34w AGAIN. I rang up....and they were snotty with me and asked if they were too big. Errrrr by about 4 inches . They told me they would talk to the warehouse and told me to "have a nice day". Ah well.

Cheapie pasta meal for dinner, running down fridge as off to mums to eat her food over easter (for free! )

Hmmm today has been a high spend day and I haven't been anywhere

I had to pay my mum £200 for childcare and the dc and I had our hair cut which cost £31.

However, in the spirit of frugality the heating has not been on today and we walked to my mum and sisters instead of driving.

Tomorrow I am going to meal plan for the first time in ages in an attempt to keep the cost of the food shopping down.