We are the Marvelous Frugaleers - Mindfully Managing our Money in May.. Come join us!

[Laska42]

So here is a new thread for all the Magical May Frugaleers!

All are welcome to come and join our friendly supportive group if you'd like to take control of your finances in May and beyond..

We are working together to support each other, live within our means, pay off those debts and save for the life we want!

Good luck everyone for another month

Girlie: how annoying stupid ppl....
Spent 25£ on baby bath for dd from the health store
Had fish frikadeller for dinner and need to make some meat versions too for tomorrow dinner

Hello, I bought dinner (and wine) and can reclaim that and the taxi's (€19 there and €17.50 back!)

The lady I was working with sent me off with 2 bottles of water today from our meeting, so that saved some money.

Home tomorrow. Will eat at the airport if I have time as the plane food on the way here wouldn't have satisfied my 4 yo!

Also, at airport, must buy gifts gif kids, plus something for friend who has helped Out a lot with DS.

£4 today for football and that's it.
Have a few bits to go back to sainsbury. About £40 but doubt that will be today

Should be nsd today

Morning.

Generous of your mum, pointless. Enjoy

Toe feels better this morning. I can move it a bit at least. Wasn't even my bloody pony!!

Had a small delivery from Morrisons and my cupboards are absolutely bursting at the seams, so hopefully the next two weeks shopping trips will not amount to much.

Spends today will be minimal. £5 on training.

Did big online shop for a week today, €116, hopefully won't need anything else until payday famous last words . Have just found out that there won't be much overtime next year, so my income will go down about €350/month, which is a pain seeing as our mortgage repayments go up then . We might have to reconsider the cleaner (probably not a bad thing, as she is flippin awful at her job but I haven't got it in me to get rid of her just for that).

€422, 7 days to payday.

Yesterday was a nsd & today should be too.

I'm not happy with my progress so far this year. I thought my debt balances would be much smaller by now. I know it's because I'm not being as strict as I could be with actually putting into practice my plan for debt reduction.
Dd will finish playschool next month which will free up €80 a week of joint money so this will make a big difference. I've also taken on extra work too which will help.
My credit union loan is less than half what it was 5 years ago despite a top up & 2 maternity leaves in the meantime so that's not bad but I'll probably need to increase that again to pay for gates & boundary wall to keep ds safe, at least this top up will be a joint venture with dh.

I have a few expenses this week confirmation present for dh grandson, three small boy birthday presents, a baby present which I will put on long finger I think as won't be visiting them soon.

Should be nsd

Im so cold my hands and nose are freezing! Hopefully soup for lunch will help as I don't want to put the heating on....

Can you wash it again then hang it out on a sunny day? I find the sun bleaches things. I'm going to put the tumble drier on at 2 when we get cheap electricity hopefully that'll keep me warm!

Dinner tonight is going to be couscous stuffed peppers with goats cheese yum

It's sunny here but cold too, I've got a jumper on, it's almost unheard of at the end of May here. This time last year the DCs were in the pool

Had to rethink our meal plan with a broken oven so spent £1.85 bakers, £19.50 butchers, £84.65 Tesco - hopefully this will last us with minimal topups until end of month as not much left in food budget! (cupboards well stocked though)

Also 2.99 steristrips for first aid cupboard and 3 on something for a costume DD1 needs. Quite pleased with that - we managed to find everything else for the costume at home.

Cold here too. Hoping for NSD, can't see why it wouldn't be but these things sneak up on you sometimes.

Work is finally calming down as kids have exams now (no exam leave though as it's boarding).

I've had a sore stomach for the past few days starting to feel a bit worried that my illness is coming back, but comforting myself that it's nowhere near as bad as before so hopefully it will pass.

We have sunshine and 20 degrees

MissA Try some ranitidine, 12 for 79p in Homebargains, it stops your stomach producing too much stomach acid. I take it because I had a stomach ulcer and my stomach doesn't like coffee or cheap wine. It could just be stress and your digestive system is still recovering and cant take it as well.

Collie Try soaking both sides of the stain with ordinary washing up liquid and leaving overnight then rewash. I got curry out using washing up liquid. If it will take biological washing powder you can soak it in a couple of dessert spoons of powder in warm water overnight too.

We are going to London this weekend but dh isn't feeling great so we've cancelled the first night and will go straight to Hampton Court Palace instead. Which I'm sure wont be horrendously stressful at all. But, with food that's about £200 saved.

This is lucky because dh has a tooth that has needed to come out for the last 7 months so I'm hoping he will let me book him in for an extraction when we get back.

£4.53 Lidl
£1.77 aldi
£3.34 Homebargains
£6.50 Sainsburys
£127 Deposit for new car. My cars up on it's lease so there will be a few car related expenses in the next 10 days.

Ffs, I stuck the dog's bedding in the machine without checking it first, came back 2 hours later to find what appeared to be an exploded sheep in the drum; turns out dog had chewed a hole in his cushioned basket and it sort of exploded in the machine. I'll be damned if I'm buying him a new one, he can just have blankets from now on.

The afternoon has been quite good though as I've put up a curtain rail and curtains in our bedroom, all from stuff we've had lying around for years.

fluffy thanks for the tip, I will try it. I know it prob is just stress or wind or something non-serious I am just a bit paranoid now after all my surgery etc last year.

Just trying to psyche myself up to do day 9 of 30 Day Shred DVD. Frugal as bought DVD in a garage sale for £1 and have used it 8 times so far, aim is to use it for the full month so it's 3p per view

I've got my job interview tomorrow but even if I get it I don't have childcare. It's so frustrating I just don't know what I can do I have zero options. Ds would be easy but with dd there's no after school care available. It's a good job I'm not a single mum as I don't know how the government would expect me to work.

LSD £2 to dd for the school disco!

Will catch up with thread properly later.

Childcares the elephant in the room, it needs to be full time from 6 weeks.

Not everyone can have a years maternity leave, it must be holding the country back, It doesn't do the economy any good to restrict people's disposable income.

It will be excellent experience for you though, even if you don't get it their will be feedback. I still hope you get it though. It's still a confidence boost.

Spotty sorry not sure of your exact circumstances but can you not use a childminders for dd? I am a single mum and have only been able to work due to childminders, my mum helping out occasionally and tax credits helping with the childcare costs. Its much easier now she is at school though.

I have finished work now until after half term - yippee!! So ready for a break, really hoping the train strike isn't going to affect us getting to London next week, am getting excited about it now

Have done well this month and not really spent anything much other than on food and petrol which i am feeling pleased about, means more spending money in London