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

I'm back. Been pretty spendy. Need to do my end of month tomorrow. Back to being frugal now. Won't tell you all how much I spent on a purse today

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend.

Saturday and Sunday were quite spendy but I'm right back on the frugal wagon now especially as both dh's and my teams have ended up in the play offs. we're having to try to pay for tickets and travel from our regular budget.
So in that spirit I've meal planned for the rest of the week, gardened with dd using only seeds etc that we already have and made some soup for tomorrow's lunches. Also we had dd's old hessian backed carpet left so have put that down at the bottom of our garden as weed suppressant. Doesn't look pretty but will do the job until we develop that part of the garden next year.

Damn! No nsd after all! £8.97 on round of drinks.

Still on balance got £40 paid.

Definitely nsd tomorrow.

Needed diapers for dd so 20£ today bohooo

Oops, today was more spendy than planned! Went to garden centre and paid £10 for discount card which gives 10% off everything plus 2 free drinks a month in the restaurant and 3 meals in a year.
Have already recovered the tenner in discount and drinks but they didn't have the right size fence panels which is what I went in for. Spent £58 on composts, a trough, some garden toys for DD and 2 birthday presents.
When we checked the receipt he hadn't scanned a £6 bag of compost so we spent that on cakes in the cafe instead
Best bit was that DD was at her absolute cutest eating a tea cake and waving at people and a lovely elderly lady came and said how gorgeous she is a how proud of her we must be! Made my day!!

Wow that's a great discount card pointless. Your dd sounds cute, I don't think people thought the same about ds last night when he was shouting 'VVVRRRRRMMMMMMM VVVRRRRRMMMMM AE'OPANE!!!' on our delayed late night flight

Aw bless, I would have thought he was cute doing that!
The garden centre is a big one with pets and an aquarium centre. DD loves going to see them all and I take her there now and then anyway so at least I can have a free coffee. I've just got to be careful not to buy a cake every time!

Thanks laska I cook a ham most weeks for sandwiches & salads so happy enough with that. Have stuffing scooped out on a tray to freeze & will bag up when frozen. Turkey will be carved & frozen too.

miele that's really interesting to hear about the coin sweeping. I stopped at that because I figured it was wrong to be doing it while I have debt but I'm thinking now I must just do it

Yesterday was an nsd drove for 5 hours straight to collect my brother yesterday & had a big family meal. Today almost was but we ran out of milk & ds is only 18 months so need milk. €7.29 on 6 litres of milk & 1 children's toothpaste

So candles on in the window in remembrance... Like candles ??
Dp keeps asking me what I want for Mother's Day but I have no ideas ??

£31.27 in Tesco, after using my £4 off over £30 voucher.
£4.30 chippy tea. Back to healthy, okay healthier, eating tomorrow!

Lilac could you coin sweep and pay off a bit of debt every time you hit a certain amount e.g. £100. You'll be really surprised how quickly it builds up.

Today and yesterday were NSD, but been busy and lots of money spent on petrol and food before that! £120.67 food, £60.04 petrol. Went to the zoo (fabulous) £47 plus £14.97 in the shop afterwards. DH got needed trainers for £52.

Pleased that although we were out a lot we didn't buy any food out at all - picnics all the way!
I've finally signed up for quidco and am getting started with that and quicksnap.
Also DH got paid his overtime and expenses which covers all the extra petrol we have been buying!

Bad things, I regret spending so much in the zoo shop. £5 per child was not necessary.
Overbudget on food - we need to go to aldi next week for a big stock up, so that when we're too busy to go that far we aren't having to get so much from Tesco.

The coin sweeping is a really good idea. I'm definitely going to do that once I've cleared our overdrafts.

Great idea pointless

£40 asda delivery (minimum delivery, too lazy to go to an actual shop! )

Went to a park, took a picnic, £10 row boat hire, £10 ice cream and water, £15 pizza express (used clubcard vouchers), £22 bag for work as I needed a summer colour one.

Made my pack lunch and assembled all sorts of snacks for work to scrape the cost of the bag back

Right, today will be a nsd. Back to work. It'll be really busy as its after a bank holiday and I think we've only got 3 doctors and a registrar in, really not looking forward to it!

After yesterdays spending I'd hoped the rest of the week would be NSDs but DH just asked me to get cat food on the way home and that's bloody expensive! Since the cat woke us all up at 4.45 this morning I'm not feeling very benevolent towards him!
Have a good day back at work everyone.

NSD yesterday (Mon) finally!! Won't be today as having hair done, the greys are out of control.

Tidied the front "garden" which is really just a broad strip of land in front of the house on Sunday and my legs are still stiff!

Busiest day of the week at work today, but it should calm down by 2ish, on the go constantly from 0830-2.00 though.

Still using the nutribullet - kale, banana, raspberry, sunflower seed, flax seed, soya milk today. Looks like poo, tastes nice.

Are you hungry on the juices peonies ?

Au pair just gave notice, so €39 on membership of au pair website to search for her replacement. Gutted she's like a third parent & the kids love her.

Did my second coin sweep for 2015 of €4.

Have a wedding present & 30th birthday present to buy this week too

Have kept dd off school today as still looking peaky, says she feels sick and has a headache. Hoping she is o.kay tomos as I have to work!

She is booked to have her hair cut later but will see how she goes, doesn't seem too bad at the moment (engrossed in lego )

Hello

Spent the weekend at Oswestry doing a competition with DD. Obviously costly in terms of diesel and food but didn't actually spend anything else.

DH spent about £25 in total at home.

Today, £20 for cleaner and I need to take some cash out.

Sorry about the au pair lilac, friends of ours feel the same when theirs give notice and they are really good.

Meal planning is still tough as DH's mother is still in hospital and we are taking turns visiting.

I really need a paperwork day to catch up but working all week and then competing at the weekend again.

Bad luck Lilac. Have you told the children yet?.

She's been in a while now need, I bet she's fed up of being there.

£13 work supplies
£9.99 vacuum bags, John Lewis will refund 15p because I found them cheaper elsewhere.
£6.56 in morrisons but £5.60 will be refunded by quidco/Checkoutsmart.
£7.95 in Sains but 85p back off snap'n'save which I'll boost to £3.40 in clubcard points
£1.50 Iceland but 20p back of snap n save. So 80p in the end.

Switched something from own brand to smart price to see if Dh notices & bought an ice tray because Dh wanted a bag of ice and a tray works out cheaper. Plus I have hardly any freezer space.

I've been doing Dh's car insurance for 3 hours, I've got it to £270 for a "premium" car. It is not fun.

I was going to send my licence off to have points removed it's £20 so I won't bother yet.

lilac no, the nutribullet literally blends all the fibre up into the juice so you get the whole veg/fruit, if I add fat (e.g. nuts or avocado) and/or protein of some sort it keeps me full until lunch.

The only spends of the last 2 days have been for football tickets. One frugal consolation is that if my team make it through to the final, we're at a wedding that day, so I can't go. The wedding is local, the reception informal and they have requested no presents so minimal expense.

As I said yesterday, we're trying to do as much as we can with our garden this year at minimal cost so I contacted my aunty yesterday and so dd and I are going there on Saturday to get some flowering plants from her to brighten things up.

We've just finalised our financial plan now which includes a loan to pay for ds' chest brace, the driveway and a couple of other things. The repayments are over 3 years at which point all our debts will be paid off (bar the mortgage). We have to stick to the budget we've set and then there will be money for emergencies and treats now and again. We both feel really positive about it, all our borrowing is at 0% or a very low rate and so costs us very little but is enabled us to do a few things now rather than waiting (We have plenty of other stuff which needs to be done but it isn't important and so can wait)

Meal plan for the week:
Tues: Lasagne
Wed: Roast
Thurs: Ham salad
Fri: Burgers (I and another mum cook them at the cricket club to raise funds, we get ours, dh's and our dc's free)
Sat: Chicken kebabs and couscous
Sun: HM pizza.