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.

blueteapots we live in Western Australia so no CAB and as a foreigner I have no access to any benefits.

I have to go get milk, washing up liquid and baking powder today plus pay $6 for DD1s school trip next week. I'm going to list two prams on gumtree. Today I have to get on and chase people about money owed but first of all is DDs first ever sports day.

And thanks all for the advice and welcome. It's much appreciated and a huge relief to be able to talk about it.

Enjoy sports day digger

Should be an nsd today. Have to go to post office to send off eBay sakes but as the buyers already paid technically it's their money not mine right....?

collie I have the spider paranoia too, we had loads last year.
Today is my first official day off with my new part time hours. My plans for the day are:
Asda weekly shop then park.
Whilst DD is napping clean bathroom and find out who to complain to at Eon about our electric bill which I am convinced they are making up as they go along!
Return that dress to the big Tesco and take DD to see the pets in the garden centre.
Has anyone complained to Eon before? According to their usage graph we used no electricity at all for the whole of June and July then our usage soared to 61% above average in August while we were on holiday. I don't believe them or trust their billing!

I'd bypass customer services, go straight to the ceo instead.

It's ridiculous that they have no use recorded for a whole month. Their a big company, billing should be shit hot.

That's what I was thinking - will the email address be on the website? No doubt carefully hidden so nobody can find it!
Just spent £51 in Asda on weekly shop plus a fab warm winter coat for DD which has unzippable sleeves to make it into a gilet and matching mittens. I'm pretty pleased with that!

www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=75982

I googled.

Thanks fluffy! I'll let you know what happens.

Welcome Jemima and athana
Can't wait to hear all about baby what

I made inroads on my September goal and downloaded some YNAB podcasts, I've never used podcasts before but one of my self employed colleagues swears by them so I've downloaded a few things to get me started, going to listen to them in the car or out running when i get back doing that, that's my other goal!

girlie do you have to go to doctors again with dd to get blood taken so?

I did the best type of shopping put stuff into littlewoods basket online and that's it, never did anything else with it! Have my eye on a bench hoody that's €59 will definitely get a code for it bringing it to €47.20 but I'm holding off. Puma have a similar one for €30 which I'd get for €24 but it's not as nice. Will ebay and aliexpress it and see how I get on. Won't be buying anything for a couple of weeks anyhow, next week will have car in garage & my hair to do(only doing t-bar to save a bit) & following week is nct reset.

collie that toddler group sounds brilliant, did you make some new friends?

pointless enjoy day off

collie delighted to hear the toddler group went well!

what thinking of you today!

pointless that's absolutely ridiculous that they have no usage recorded!! Really hope you get that sorted, fast.

Just spent the morning baking up a few bits for the ds. Trying to cut down on sugary stuff, so made sugar free courgette brownies. Will let you know the verdict. I'm not confident, but they are chocolate colour, so will say nothing! Ds 2 is little so easy to trick, but ds 1 is 8.
Nsd too, not going anywhere! School term is much better for my budget!

Morning. On a late shift today so thought I'd sign on before going to work. Should be an NSD today lunches done for everyone and jacket spuds in the oven for tea (easy for dh to sort out when he gets in
Tomorrow I've got dd's drama/singing to pay for (ouch!). I decided to work out our spending amount for Sept & Oct and rather than do my usual weekly budget, just keep a running total as September tends to be so spendy. Not sure whether that makes sense, but it does to me!

Just did my big Sainsbury's shop. I haven't used them for a while for a main shop but I got over 300 Nectar points by signing up to mycoupons.sainsburys.co.uk . quite chuffed about that and the whole shop was about £12 cheaper than my usual Tesco shop. I triple checked and even went through my last Tesco shop to see what I had forgotten but I hadn't forgotten anything. and delivery was free! No idea why.

So many mini frugal wins.

theonlypink I haven't done the courgette ones but the chickpea brownies aren't good! And those 37kcal ones are revolting!!

collie that's great - do you do one big monthly shop? I'm itching towards doing this but the amount of bread dh eats is crazy so I wouldn't be able to store it. I'd love to do one monthly shop and just get fruit & dairy outside of that.

lilac I do a big shop every fortnight and a top up shop (around £10) every week for milk, fruit, veg and bread.

I would do a monthly shop if I had the space. It's definitely helped us manage our food budget which is £240 a month. I take advantage of the multibuy deals and also look at the price per KG. So have been able to buy huge packs of stuff to last the month.

We've only been doing it for a few months and its been a successful transition for us.

I've just had a breakthrough, DD has never liked soup, wouldn't even taste it for ages. Last night I made sweet potato and cumin soup. I just gave her a tiny bit and showed her how to dip her toast in it and she ate the lot then asked for seconds and thirds! I'm so pleased as I find hard to think of things for lunch and I love making soup.
Meal plan:
Tonight either pesto & cous cous stuffed peppers or frittata with salad.
W: Slow cooker squash, chickpea and coconut curry
T: Lasagne and wedges
F: Either take away with friends or quiche from freezer
S: Squash and sage gnocchi
S: Shepherds pie w veg
M: Shepherds pie w veg
I don't think I'd do well with a monthly shop, I struggle to think what I'd like to eat 6 days ahead!

Collie I love the mycoupons site, great that its on stuff we already buy lol. Reduced stir fry for tea last night, OH is working tonight so kids and I will just use up odds and ends I think. Im all viral and sore throat today boo. DD was up repeatedly through the night so i am like the walking dead today! Need to revise for this exam so id better pull it together this afternoon :/ If I could only get them to coordinate naps Id be landed lol.

Should be a NSD as I have minimal intention of leaving the house lol.

Welcome new folk :)

Yesterday ended up with £7.98 on lunch

Spendy today despite not leaving the house (got 3/4 of the way through my shift yesterday and then hit the wall... epic pain :() - paid online for DD's gymnastics, and will be getting a takeaway tonight (DH is out, his DS is taking him to the England game) and need to do a tesco order for tomorrow

Need to put in an amazon order for various things, need to get new Bobble (filter) bottles - getting one each for DCs, anyone seen them on offer anywhere?

Waiting for my work laptop to install 109 updates. Whoops. Didn't know the laptop had to keep in touch with the main system. I kept getting these 'need to authenticate' on my MS word.

£36 for cleaner.

Waited for dd's class teacher to visit. She came with the TA. all fine. Let's hope she has a good year at school! She's v keen!!

I can't wait for next week as the routine will kick in. The bad thing is everything else kicks in...!

And yay, my cheque for my tax rebate did indeed materialise and it's real! Not sure how they can give me a tax rebate on paye though... Any thoughts?? Surely they deduct every month? Yes I did do extra work etc but most of it was paye too. So an extra £200 from another place would result in less than that going into my bank acc coz they would have declared that with my NI.

That's great news about the toddler group collie. That means you are one of the original members and can go around welcoming everyone else.

Welcome Jemima. I'll be listening carefully as you are a few years head of my ds, but I will be there soon.

Welcome annatha

Well done on the catering pass. Cheeky of them to assume you'd pay.

Digger I had no idea you were so far away. I love hearing what it's like living elsewhere. I will listen up for your stories of life there. Enjoy the sports day. My ds had his first this year, and it was weirdly exhilarating.

I went and bought a fancier slow cooker today, having returned the first one, but when I got it home it didn't work, and wouldn't even turn on, so back to the shop tomorrow. A frugal win of sorts

Thanks for the welcome everyone we tried to plan a budget for Christmas today and got scared by how expensive its looking already. I suppose it's better to know now though and have time to buy things gradually instead of the usual panic buying in December.

I'm confused about why Christmas is so expensive, but maybe that is because I am super-boring at Christmas. We never travel anywhere and we just have an ordinary lunch at Christmas lunchtime. I buy ds's christmas presents with Tesco vouchers. We go to church in the morning, and there are no other costs for us. What am I missing? I did have crackers last year but I bought them in the tesco January sale and is was a box of 12 so lasted us three years. Should I be wearing a scrooge t-shirt?

ipsos its presents mainly, we're only buying for close family and budgeting a tenner each tops but that still adds up to £100. The there's dd who won't know its Christmas and will no doubt be spoilt by family but I'd still like her to have something to open. Foodwise we're having a basic Sunday lunch jobby so that shouldn't be too much but then there's 15+ people to feed on boxing day and a good tank of petrol to be used visiting everyone. Instead of getting each other presents we were hoping to have a day trip to Edinburgh Christmas market but the fuel, parking, food while out etc is just looking too expensive. Its all the little bits that add up to a big sum iyswim.

IKWYM about it all adding up! I'm keeping a spreadsheet this year of literally EVERY Xmas related spend. I started recording it in the Jan sales where I bought wrapping paper! It's definitely helping me to be more mindful. We've not really bought huge expensive gifts that often (other than a big playmobil castle) as they aren't at the age where they want gadgets and stuff, but it's all the last minute "oooh they would LOVE that" which contributes to a huge pile under the tree and a large dent in the bank balance.

Christmas is expensive for us as we have a big family. I have five siblings and dh has three. I also have my parents and step parents plus two sets of grand parents (all very close).

Ds got stung by a bee today he's not a happy bunny.

Spent £7 in tesco on lunch peppers and coffee.