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..

£39 in Tesco yesterday. That included £8 on new glasses, £8 on Brita filters which were half price, 2 packs of mince, lunch, and I can't remember what else.

DH us having knee surgery today, so we are at the hospital. Mum is still not well enough to deal with the DC, do DH's lovely cousin has come to stay to help out. The DC have to go to school by taxi as cousin isn't legally able to drive in UK (sight problems), £13 for the taxi. Tomorrow will be same again as I am on a course in London with a 9am start.

Hi everyone! Updates few and far between here but getting on ok :) payday today so need to sit down with the budget. We too have been redoing the garden - fluffy where did you get the cheap online turf? Still an awful lot to do here as the garden is quite large and we need new fencing etc too :/ Anyone got any cheap ideas on that one?

Down to half pay this month so will see how we go. Have set aside 4k since xmas with help from being extra careful (needed for end of the maternity year lol!) so feeling proud. Starting to worry about becoming self employed in a year or so so trying to save a cushion.

Xx

peonies

sorry it was flowers for MissA... peonies can have some too sure xx

Funeral was a really lovely service, so many people came, she had a lot of friends and all the people from her work came and she was clearly so well thought of there which was lovely to see. Reading went ok despite my poor granny breaking down just before I got up to read which nearly broke my composure completely. I couldn't get flights back until later tonight so spendig this morning with my mum and sister then hoping to meet SIL and beloved baby nephew later for a while. Then back to mainland for work tomorrow!

Thanks to you all for your messages of support it really does help

sorry it was flowers for MissA... peonies can have some too sure xx

MissA & Peonies are one and the same , I hope you have a safe trip back and that going back to work isn't too tough.

Payday at last, got paid quite a bit more than usual no idea why . Off to sort the month's budget out.

Blue, it was www.onlineturf.co.uk. It was 20 rolls of stadium for £72 with free delivery and fertiliser. It's looking fab. We looked in wickes and it was £7 a roll!.

We watched YouTube videos to see how you lay it.

So, May's budget is as follows:

Groceries 600€
Petrol 100€
Activities €120
Animals €60 (need to replenish the anti-flea stock)
Spending money 10€/DC, 50€ each for DH & I
Savings €800

Leaving us with a margin of 254€ in case of emergencies (Drs appointments, vet's wine, shoes, chocolate ).

I was looking over all our accounts last night, and realised that our savings account only has a 1% interest rate so we need to look at changing it. I also added up all our loans, mortgage etc. We owe about €161 000, which is a little more than I thought, and somewhat depressing. We have enough savings to repay a couple of the smaller loans, but they are the interest free ones, so not much point really. I would however like to pay the car loan off as it's 6.8% , but we don't have enough put aside yet, if we carry on putting aside 800€/month it should be doable by the end of the year (loan ends in 2018, so worth it I think). Not sure what to do really.

Woo hoo :) payday on Thursday :) still got £60 left in bank !!
Made 300 on eBay , 60 on ziffit and got 250 refund from BT ( switched to talk talk , free fibre optic broadband for 6 month and 80 cash back to come from quid co !amaged some new clothes for 7 yo DS and transformed his bed room :) put the rest in savings for contingency !
Not a bad first month in IVA !
( mind you I have nothing left to sell ! Just put all bedding and accessories on gum tree so hopefully that will sell for next months savings !
Need to get the top up shops under control next month ..,,

LaChatte thank you that makes much more sense! Brilliant fluffy we will have a nosy -even if we managed to do the front Id be happy (back lawn is quite large and not in awful shape).

Payday came, and naturally DHs car has broken down :/ doing an experiment this month - setting aside my occupational half mat pay and seeing how well we get on on OHs plus my MA - will need to as July-Oct will be like this (Then nothing Oct /Nov but taking the year was my choice so have to grin and bear it).

Car going to mechanic tomorrow so will see how much of a dent that puts in the savings

X

My parents have a nutribullet and now I want one it can grind seeds and oats as well as blending, they make smoothies with flax seeds etc in and it's very creamy and not bitty at all. fluffy come and tell me I can't have one please!

LaChatte

Do any of the banks there do bank accounts that link to higher rate savings accounts?.

Blue let's hope is something cheap to fix. Mowing twice a week really helps lawns, mil does this and never needs weed stuff.

MissA Don't let me stop you. Keep going on about how fab they are and I'll end up buying one too.

Although if you wait for the excitement to fade you can probably get you're parents to give it to you. HotUk deals have had offers on nutribullets for retailers like currys, Amazon, qvc....I bet eBay is full of nutri bullets in near brand new condition.

So.

£10 fuel

£40 hair cut and tip.

£1.99 in aldi for Mayo, crisps and bread.

£5 on frozen cocktails but checkout smart will refund me all of that.

£3.80 birds eye Thai curry but it's £4 back on quidco and on a "try me free". I got one for each account. So £4 in credit.

50p toothpaste.

£3 on 2 ready mix Malibu and cola, completely fucked up because it's on clicksnap for a £1 back and I forgot to click on it so I've emailed them. If they say no I'll return them.

Nsd.

I have no idea Fluffy , I'm going to have to go and talk to the bank in person as I can't make sense of what's online. I want to keep it with the same bank as I do a lot of it online (transfering money between our different accounts etc.). The DCs have an interest rate of 2.5% which is pretty good for here, I'll see if I can get the same (although I think the maximum limit is pretty low; something like €1500).

I a Nutribullet the same thing as a juicer? If so, then don't bother, really, they take up space and the novelty wears off very quickly and raw beetroot juice literally makes you vomit .

Joining you in May! In fact, the sooner the better! I've been lurking and posting since these threads started. Still working to the YNAB principle. I'm saving for our holiday in August and things are going to be tough the next few months.

So there's four of us, two cats. We have about £300 for food for the next month, which is a lot less than we've been used to lately but we've managed on a lot less over the years. All bills are covered. We have one night out planned which shouldn't really cost us anything as tickets bought for by friend who's coming with us.

missa I bought a Kenwood blender with jug smoothie attachment & another little one for seeds recently in Argos for €36 I'll put some seeds in it tonight & check consistency for you

Ended up being bit spendy today as had to get petrol £46 (filled tank for that though) £14.50 to the after school club and have taken £100 out in cash for horse riding lessons. Oh and £1.75 to dd for school swimming lesson.

this evening I must buy diesel using 10c off per litre voucher from Mr T & then I'm going to buy ds & dh something nice to wear for a communion we're going to on Sat, myself & dd are already dressed for it. Must return pumps that don't fit dd also. I have voucher so this treating the men won't cost me a thing

URGENT

login to your orchard account, there's coupons for steak and its first come first served.

£9.60 post office, posting off eBay items.

Thanks lilac

Payday today and another NSD.
Had my meeting today about going part time. It doesn't look very likely in my current job so I might have some big decisions to make soon. I am enjoying work but missing spending time with the little one and permanently knackered. I was hoping to get 3 days.
The mercenary part of me thinks that as we want to have a second baby maybe we should just get on with it! We need to save up some money first though.
Pleased the funeral went well MissA.

NSD

£40ish petrol yesterday

Spendy day today, went to hand in some HR forms for my job (starting Thurs), so travel and parking (£19ish), Mcdonalds , primark (2 x sandals for hols and cheap top) £24 and £50 jeans. Oops.

In my defense when I start work I won't have time to be spendy.....

Primark is very near to my work, never been in close proximity to one so am going to have to set a budget!