July Frugal thread, Just chatting and saving.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everyone welcome.

Soon gonna be spendy as both DCs will need school shoes. Normally buy Clarks or Startrite but with new frugal head am wondering if I can buy cheaper but quality shoes elsewhere?

You could always get them fitted in john lewis and then find the style you want on the internet.

Some of the discount shopping parks like mac arthur glen have clarks outlets. I think start rite are really sturdy though.

Sometimes they are in the john lewis sale.

NSD Monday.

Hello all. After having my colours done, I have loads of barely used, new and used make-up that I can post if anyone is interested.

I am a spring so all the items are either too dark or 'blue' / 'cool' toned. Inc.

Chanel Parfait lipstick (new)
MAC Creme Cup lipstick (used)
Jody Kidd Black khol (new)
MAC black pen liner (new)
Loreal Mega Volume Miss Manga violet mascara (new)
Borjois Megga Clubbing black liquid liner (new)
Benefit Eye Bright (used)
Laura Mercier Wheat eye primer (used)
Bourjois Rose Frisson blush (new)
Benefit Dandelion (new)
Benefit Dandelion (used)
Revlon lip crayon Vivaceous Exubrante (new)
Bourjois Smokey Eyes rose vintage (used)
Body Shop Peony lipstick (new)
New Kid iShimmer (new)
Chanel Noir Lame cake liner (used)

PM me if anyone is interested.

I have been toying with getting my colours done would you recommend it? I have no idea about colours.

Spendy day yesterday.

£68 on getting Peppa dog back from kennels. So pleased to see me she pissed all over my feet !

Sent DH to pick her up and get £70 from ATM - he then also comes home with 'essential' wine, cake and other bits. So that's another £20

Hope everyone is doing well!!!!! Just checking in...one last day of mayhem at work and hopefully should settle down...hoping to be able to work from home and catch up on admin tommorrow.
Very spendy week...
1079 - final total with lec and gas balance (getting info together to form 2 complaints in hope to get that down. I'm switching and before I can switch have to pay it grhh but hopefully will beabke to get some back. Let me be a lesson to you all...keep close eye on your lec &gas although I'm sure you already are)

240.00 on a tent from eBay...finally taking boys on holiday camping . Haveother things to get...sleeping bags, camping stove etc.. but once we've got it ....it'll mean I can take them away for weekend /week here and there...maybe even abroad very exciting...poor kids have never been abroad..the money has never been there but now I'm full time and being frugal...things are on the up I'm pleased I checked the lec&gas when I did...doesn't bare thinking how much it ciuldve gone up too.

Have a fab day everyone

Oops missed your reply - thanks Fluffy

Wheely, we were in similar position with Coop Energy.

Ran up bill of £1500 because they hadn't been taking the DD (I hadn't bothered checking) and they refused to take any responsibility. We were beyond furious and said we were switching but they wouldn't let us go until the debt had been cleared ????.

After threats to go to ombudsman they agreed to write off halfthe amount and now we're clear again I'm off asap.
Big lesson learnt to always check Direct debits are leaving account properly

Posted too early, great move buying a tent. My kids love camping!

The sainsbury 25% off is not on instore. Will catch up later

Laska that's a very handsome cat you have there! My cat is curled on my lap purring and no doubt covering my black leggings in fur!
So remember I said last week we need a new camping stove? Went to Go Outdoors today and bought quite a swish one for £116. Can't really afford it but hopefully it'll last a long time and it's cheaper than eating out every night when camping! It uses a different gas cylinder to the old, broken one so I now have a load of small butane canisters to get rid of, the ones that look like aerosol cans and clip into a small gas stove. Wheely if you are anywhere near Birmingham and would like them let me know, I just saw you are looking for camping stuff!
Also bought a new waterproof as mind has disappeared. I expect it will turn up now I've gone out and got a new one!
Still need to get cat food and I'm going out for a curry tonight. Spendy day - aaaaggghhhh!!!!!!

I have pet envy

I have just signed up for a Boots Advantage card (ex has our old one which is fair enough). That's my frugality for the day.

Nsd. Don't know what to do for dinner really cba to make anything

It's Aldi doing the uniform for £4, it's on Thursday but if you want some go early and make a list of what you need. If I want something off the special offers section I'm there at opening times, especially for plants.

£3.90 on lawn seed to re-seed the front lawn and £1.60 on almond oil to use as a facial cleanser. I have some of my usual cleanser in case it make's me breakout.

Well done on the tassimo Collie, I love mine.

Pah, so much for my not spending more than £10 in the supermarket. We ended up spending £26 and that was even after using our £5 Morrisons voucher! I had DH with me though, I'm pinning it on him and I did get some wine and some bits for a baby group picnic tomorrow so it's not all bad...

I'm home home early to start that admin work but having a tea and sandwich before starting

peppa that's great!! and will be trying that shortly...Im waiting for my dp to go out before I ring them...he likes to get involved in the conversation asking me 'what did they say' and I tell him...then he adds his two pennies worth in and asks what did they say....drives me to distraction and wanting to throttle him. Not that he wants to ring them funny man

collie how was your first tassimo coffee? my friend has one and loves it!!

ipsos not sure about how to work that out either. Two thoughts:

1. One thought I had is if you buy in bulk i.e toothpaste...roughly know how many tubes you buy a year and then buy in bulk to save yourself money....meaning having a non perishable budget...like a one off thing. Then maybe put money away each month out of the shopping budget to beable to bulk buy next time. Im sure Im way off track!!
2. I tend to have a shopping budget and whatever is left over will go to next months shopping so if one month I don't spend as much because ive enough non perishables i.e washing powder, hand soap, shampoo etc then the surplus cash goes onto next months budget to allow for when I prob need more washing powder, shampoo etc.. Hope that makes sense

Laska ...Im looking for a grill stove which takes the bigger gas bottle to the canister or that would have been great thank you for the thought!!! ...my two love toast and can go through a loaf in a day if not rationed

Oops sorry that last post is for Pointless

I don't have a separate budget for household or personal care stuff, a lot of what I buy is cheap in lidl/aldi or smartprice because they don't test on animals.

I water the really cheap multipurpose cleaner by half and put it in an old spray bottle for most cleaning. Halfords do big microfibre cloths that are excellent for house cleaning too.

I use vinegar for de-scaling everything that needs it and cream cleaner for stubborn marks.

I've not found that much diference in cleaning performance between branded products and own brand/smart price.

Interestingly moneysavingexpert reckons it's the part of our weekly shop that we are least likely to downshift on. Which means what we clean our toilets with is more important than what we feed ourselves on when times are hard. Bit odd.

£4 refund from john lewis & £5.85 from ebay.

Good luck with the electric wheely. Email the ceo if they aren't coming to the refund party. They should check your meter readings at least yearly and generate a bill surely?.