The super savvy savers continue steering their way through September

[northender]

Thought I'd start a shiny new thread as we've filled the other one so quickly.

Ive been thinking about dds bday and its not until next February just looked at a Woodland crafts type party and its £185 that doesn't even include food think we will cross that off the list....

Thats rubbish re the strips Spotty would OOHs be able to provide some if urgent?

Ouch girlie that's expensive! Yes they would but the nearest pharmacy open tomorrow is twenty miles away and I don't have enough petrol to go there

lovetoknit your story about being late for the audition made me smile. good luck to your DD for tomorrow.

I spent £15 Inc parking tonight! very happy to be feeling in control of my spending and estimating things accurately. I feel like I'm really getting there with our budget.

I used to be so naive and underestimate most nights out / treats and used to be in absolute denial about how much I was spending.

Free I have just twigged that DD2 has her birthday next month too

We need to decide what to do today. Part of me would like a day out and another part thinks we should stay at home and do some jobs.
Did you all know NT and English Heritage places are all free entry this weekend? We are NT members but thought we could go to local castle which is English Heritage.

pointless that's amazing. I didn't know that! I'm a bit bored of our local NT (we are members) and English heritage would make a nice change!

I hope I'm right, I'm going on what a friend told me yesterday. Please check before you go I don't want to be responsible for an unexpectedly expensive day out!!

Anatha my iron was low during pregnancy and felt absolutely rubbish until I got it under control (with iron supplements, diet change wasn't enough). Hope you're not suffering.

I've just menu planned the week and feeling good that I've got the cost down to $200 for the week. I still need to get bread from the bakery as it's cheaper and better and all meat is from the freezer. It works out to $3.00 per portion, per meal. I'm stoked as my usual grocery bill was $350.

Meal plan is:
B is oats all week with pancakes/cooked breakfast on the weekend.
L: ham/tuna/left over chicken sandwiches
Dinners:
M: rib eye roast, cauli cheese, roast pumpkin, beans with tomatoes.
T: leek and blue cheese tart with salad
W: lamb stew with boiled pots
Th: sausages with braised fennel and pots
Fr: roast chook, chips and salad
Sat: lasagne from freezer
Sun: dumplings

NSD for me again (though have done the online shop it won't come out til tomorrow).

I have also put cash in my purse and that's my only cash for the week.

Girlie, Did your hand come right? That sounded like an interesting bump. Do you think it bit you?

Sorry to hear about the tests spotty. That sounds complicated.

We're having a quiet day after having a rushing around day yesterday. Watching Mary Poppins again for good measure.

I have discovered that ds can eat ready brek, but after initial enthusiasm, he doesn't seem keen to actually finish eating it.

Today I will be:

-cleaning the oven
-defrosting freezer

• going blackberrying

Sold another 2 bits on eBay yesterday and have sorted out a refund/return.

still have a cough so will have to head back to the gp next week. Sigh.

Sainsburys coming this morning.

Gammon in brown sugar in the slow cooker for lunch.
Was going to go nt today but think I will avoid as it will be busy if free.
Need to remember tomorrow to ring the doctors as my shoulder is still sore when I lie on it. Been over 2 weeks now.
Sorry you feel so rotten spotty,levels are awful if they are not right.
Good result with the shopping digger.
Anyone else I have missed -yeah!
£- just testing £

Bil coming over for a roast today. We need more calpol. I've found a pharmacy open today only five miles away so will call 111 for test strips.

We've just been watching a heron in our garden

pink you can get matalan deliveries in Ireland using parcel motel. I bought from them last Christmas.

Loving the menu plans. This is mine
Hake in creamy tomato & onion sauce with spaghetti
Roast chicken, veg & sweet potato
Tuna steaks
Quiche
Carbonara with smoked salmon
Roast beef in slow cooker

Going to make porridge in slow cooker this week too

That's Awesome spotty

I've been looking at places to visit today, as a day out with DS. It's lovely in the SW but I have to travel to get anywhere!

I've not managed to get on to check this thread since last weekend, and I've missed so much! Being back to work is keeping me far too busy after 6 weeks off to peruse the net at my leisure :(

I also find that I spend more when I'm not active on here - so I do need to make time once a day at least.

Bank account isn't looking too bad, we opened an addition 'spend's' account at the begining of the summer, and that has about £100 in it to last until 25th of the month, we have lots of freezer food so wil try and use that up over the next few weeks, ready to start again for October. Just tried to check but mobile banking won't let me log in, I'll try again later.

it's a bit chilly here today, autumn is setting in and the farmer has been out all week which usually signals a change in seasons, I like it though, it's like moving onto the build up to Christmas.

I'm cooking roast pork for dinner today, off to church in a few hours, ds has a sports fixture so dh will take him there, housework, ironing school uniforms, Songs of Praise and Countryfile later on, I love Sundays!

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

Hi all,

I was here for a week or so a couple of weeks back but life has got in the way (new job etc.)

ANyway, popping in to say WE'VE PAID OFF OUR CREDIT CARD in full - so we now have no credit card debt :) Just my overdraft to go now!!

I think the main thing that helped was setting up a DD to pay the same amount every month (about 4 times the min payment) and it went out the day after I was paid, so I paid that before other things. ALso DH has been squirreling away money from the solar panel income (twice a year we get a cheque). Also since DH took over the cooking and shopping he saves about £50-70 per week on the shop and he has been saving that.

Having said that, I have had a shocking couple of days spending wise - spent over £100 yesterday on kids' birthday cakes and a couple of presents (it's on next Saturday) followed by £20 on a soft play treat .

Back to frugality today - my OD is the equivalent of one month's salary so I have a way to go.......

I went to football yesterday & ds came too as his cricket match finished early. That's paid for though, we have season tickets. Saw friends before the match and met dh & friends after, spent £25 on drinks, crisps etc. no other spends.

Not sure what's going to happen today, dh is confined to bed at the moment as he's got an infected bite (from working in the garden on Friday). It looked not too bad last night but awful this morning. He's started the standby antibiotics he's got & they do usually work quickly so hopefully he'll be up for taxi duties later. Ds has a cricket match 10 miles away (which he was going to cover), I was going to take dd blackberrying and then she has youth group at church. If it's just me then we'll have to change plans slightly. Minimal cost whatever happens

Jemima your family sports schedule sounds crazy, I feel your pain. Fortunately for us, ds decided to give up playing football at the end of last season so we've got our winter weekends back.

We also have a resident barn own and buzzards. We're very lucky.

Owl

Spotty....my ds2 was only back for 4 days and had to have a day off - head cold and high temp. He is still very congested and has kindly given it to me.
I have to be at work for 9.30 - luckily only a 4 hour shift

green well done, that's great news re the credit card!
candy I know exactly what you mean about posting here every day, it really helps to focus things.

green well done!!! I wish I was as close to being cc debt free.

I have approx £800 left to pay off. £300 will come off next payday. So the remainder is manageable.

I'm going to have a sort through cupboards again later for eBay things. Anything we don't use will be sold So scrape extra cash for cc debt reduction.

I'm annoyed with myself as I've been so good for so long.

in November I need to make a payment to my pension. This year it's just what's left in my savings account. Next year at least 10% of my salary will be paid in.

Well done green!
I love herons, spotty one flies over the car park at work just as I arrive every morning, he looks prehistoric.
We also have buzzards and an owl which I think is amazing living on the edge of Birmingham.

National Trust Heritage open days are only on selected properties - the website has a list - not one near enough to me

Fri NSD
Sat £2.70 on coffee out with a friend.

I have a cold as well, I'm sure it's that transition in weather. Today's goal is to do something with the masses of tomatoes I have and maybe pick some blackberries. So jealous on the wildlife, we're lucky to get a sparrow in our garden!

very spendy weekend.
£25 new trainers for DS
£46 picture frames (much cheaper at IKEA but unfortunately we're no where near one
£30 Chinese takeaway for us and DB/sil.

None of it budgeted for
Actually feel uneasy about spending so much in one day so I guess that's a good thing