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..

Dont give up girlie, Dh has taught me to battle on till I get what I want. If you get right to buy you'll have an asset. Dgm bought her house, they never thought they'd own a house. Let's hope the car is cheap to fix.

need it would happen the day you have cash on you. I hope it goes well tomorrow and the snacks will be lovely.

Forgot £2.43 in homebargains on ranitidine, dw salt (99p for 2kg!) and soda crystals.

I'm doing Dh's car insurance quotes tonight.

Audit hope your mum feels better very soon.

girlie definetly keep bidding.

Fluffy the plan is to bring 2 dogs, the older ones, because DH will have to stay here for the foreseeable future. At least until the house sells and he can re arrange the business. Then he will bring the other dogs when he finally returns.

NSD today.

Thank you so much Unescorted for taking th time to type up some brilliant ideas and sharing your experience , much appreciated :)

Managed a 4th nsd today, took dc swimming (membership) and took a packed lunch for afterwards. I made a chicken , chickpea and spinach curry from some scraps of cooked chicken that I froze a few weeks ago, for tonight's dinner. Tomorrow i am going to take dcs somewhere to celebrate my frugal week, maybe cinema and pizza. I have decided to leave food shopping for a few more days, it's surprising what meals you can conjure up .

Audit - hope your mum feels better soon and you're being looked after well.

Our frugal fail is continuing today £6 ice creams at park £17.55 maccds (were out later than intended so had to pick up dinner) groceries £110 ish and £38 ish gifts and clothes

Still need to get catfood from waitrose (don't worry fluffy I don't let them starve even when they're being super fussy - they've got some weird unusual presentation of hyperthyroidism so we've had to try lots of different things over the last six months to keep weight up with varied results, was quite difficult for DH I think because they've always been overweight previously)

DD1 owes us £4 for a toy she choose and we also forgot to take something back that didn't fit for a refund, which if we sort tomorrow should help.

Hardly any money until Monday but still need a few bits tomorrow. Total fail of a paycheck month. :( because I don't account paycheck to paycheck there's slightly more in the April budget than it feels like but not much!

Thanks for the good wishes, migraine and pneumonia, they are keeping her in.

£8.10 for parking, £11.50 for take away dinner for DH and I (it was midnight)

Sending positive vibes for your DM Audit

Ended up spending more money yesterday. £10 on fruit for dance rehearsal, same on a takeaway as late back from Mil house. She gave me the £11 owed for some books.
Need to meal plan and shop today also pay £41 allotment fees and something else I forget

Here's my meal plan for the week:

Fish cakes with stir fry veg
Lasagne from freezer with salad
Chicken skewers with couscous
Veg casserole with quinoa or couscous
Tuna jackets
Fresh pasta with sauce (from freezer)
Sausages with mash and veg or maybe roast potatoes

Audit hope your mum is feeling better this morning. I get migraine (triggered by new paint which given I am often at building sites as they come to completion isn't good) So I feel your Mum's pain.

Our budget has gone this month - the new pay rise came through and I think we all thought OK this is it we can spend more..... everybody has spent more than they should. I am the worst I have "forgotten" to take my lunch 2 times last week. Back on the budget for the rest of the month.

DD & I went charity shopping yeaterday (I have been promising her since the autumn) - I got a Givenchy Tote for 2.95 and a pair of shoes for 4.99 . DD got the best bargin a string of pearls for 1.99. When we were waiting for the bus we realised that they are real pearls. She has been on the internet to find out how much they should have been - 2-700 !!!!!! [knock me over with a feather]. She is obsessed with pearls and already has loads of strings of plastic ones so I had been a bit rolly eyed, but it was in her spend budget so had thought OK then if you must.

Hope your mum is ok audit.
Girlie how old is your DD? I have ridden since I was tiny (until I had a baby and DH stopped me incase I hurt myself!). Anyway, if she gets really into it a lot of stables let kids work for rides ie muck out/clean tack in exchange for the odd riding lesson. I used to do it all through the school holidays and it's a brilliant way to learn all about horse care too.
Massive frugal fail last night - went out with 3 friends. We had dinner then went to some bars. We drank 4 bottles of wine and I missed the last bus by 2 hours (!) so got a cab home. I have no idea how much we spent but there was dancing and my knees hurt! Haven't had a night like that in 2 years, worth every penny!!

Your poor mum Audit sounds horrible, I get migraines from time to time and they are hideous

Need to get milk and bread today but being car less will be walking or cycling everywhere today! Dd has swimming lesson later, its about a 6 mile round trip - it better not rain!! Swim lessons for the term will be £56, am considering asking the lady if she can hold of cashing the cheque until the end of the month

May have sold dds bike for £30 which would be great, got a lady coming to look at it later.

Hi Pointless dd is 9yo, she is a complete beginner but would love it if she became one of the helpers at the stables. There was a group of kids there ystd, I reckon about 12yo is that seemed to help with lessons for free access to the horses.

I have borrowed a body protector from my friend but will have to invest in one if dd decides to keep going with lessons (I think she will.) The lessons are going to be £60 a month, the lady who ran it said you can pay £55 upfront for 4 lessons but that is non refundable if dd is ill or something. Think I will pay weekly and take £60 out just for the lessons at the beginning of the month.

Will look on eBay for body protectors.

That's a good idea about the body protector, I never had one but they are more popular now and a really sensible idea. If you get a second hand one check carefully that it hasn't been damaged in an accident.
All this talk of horses is making me want to go riding again, I wonder if I'm too old to be a helper at the stables!!!

Doing we'll so far today, sold dds old bike for £30 and her roller skates for £5, (well actually am feeling bit guilty about that one as they were actually only meant to be £3 but the lady gave me £5 and had vanished before I twigged will message her later as feeling bit guilty.)

So am £35 up, spent £3 ish in the shop on milk, bread and sweets.

Cycling to swimming in a min, currently conserving energy

Oh and washed the car this morning rather than use the car wash so saved a few bob there.

Audit hope your mum feels better soon

£21 swimming lesson and £65ish on-line shop yesterday

Ds bday today so Dominos pizza (takeaway is a very rare occurance!) and tomorrow will be spendy - 4 kids and 2 adults to cinema and Frankie and Bennys. Cheaper than a party though! Will Google codes for F&B.

Unexpected bill of £720 came through for the surveyors for our extension....plans were so long ago that it hadn't even registered on our radar! Have funds but will try and be frugal for the rest of the month to offset the cost a bit.

Ds got a new bike for his bday.....how long is it realistic to wait until I sell his old one

Spendy day. Dh is ill (seems like ibs as he gets it something but of course won't see a Dr). I took the school out bought some bits we needed and had lunch and bought dh some bits from boots. Home now and he's still in bed being a miserable arse.

at real pearls for £1.99. I thought your Givenchy tote was bargain of the year until I read the next line.

Spotty hope he feels better soon. If it is IBS it's horrible, but that doesn't mean it has to be horrible you too.

Not sure if today will be another NSD. DD2 wants to make an M&M cake, apparently it needs loads of M&Ms to fill it I think it may have to wait until I have some spare cash for a bloody mountain of M&Ms

Just seen all my typos! I took the dc out not the school. Bloody autocorrect.

He's just so rude and miserable. When I'm ill I'm still nice. I bought him loads of stuff from boots and he just went 'thanks' and threw it all on the floor. I've done all the washing including his work stuff sorted the dc etc and he can't even be nice! So he can piss off. There's a mountain of washing up to do too. Yuck.

I got ds a Ralph Lauren shirt for £16 in Tk maxx! I never find bargains

Hope your mam feels better soon audit.
Spotty that sucks. didn't notice your typos though.
Spent 54 in sainsbury as the kids got good reports. Another 80 worth of food coming in the morning.

Fighting the urge to wallow in self pity so I may be not posting as much in the week. Working 6 days next week when usually do 4! Eeek

took back shoes that didn't fit DS: 6.58, but whilst I was in tesco they had scarf and glove sets for children reduced to 50p each so grabbed 2 of those for the christmas box as well.
also 3.55 on wall plugs.

the pearls definitely win bargain of the day!

Not feeling well so dh has taken kids out but feel like I should be cleaning or something really.

School shoes £40, she wanted Lelli Kellies but they didn't have her size in sick. I'm quite glad as I suspect she'll need one ones again in Sepptember and at least then she would get the wear out of them. £9.60 in Waitrose, kids were hungry so French bread for lunch, pain au chocolat for tomorrow's breakfast plus a Danish for DS, mum and I plus gingerbread man and giant biscuits for DD's.

£2.80 parking at shops, probably the same at the hospital.

Was a bit concerned about how short of money I'll be to clear the credit card bill this month, but had forgotten about the £275 expenses due back from work and the cousin repaying £225 for flights. So £500 to come in, fine, that will nearly pay for half term holiday.

Out of curiosity went onto the tesco website to see if the clothing sale prices are as cheap there as in store and the answer is no! Might be worth going in store if anyone wants a bargain. The really cheap hats were by the click and collect desk at ours.

I'm tearing my hair out with 12yo DS who has to read Ovid's metamorphosis as homework over the holiday. He is well and truly fed up with it and doing pretty much everything imaginable to avoid getting it done. I accidentally bought a study guide for myself on Kindle (thought it was free, it wasn't).

£50 on two garden planters.

unescorted you obviously have a frugal fashionista on your hands there.

Love the Xmas bargains te. You cannot start too early.