September savers/frugaleers continue into October

[574ejones]

All welcome!

Pink Primark do some great fleecy kids and adults pjs, got some for dd last year and she was really cosy in them. Also onesies seem to be warmer than two piece pjs.

Need to pop to Morrisons later, going to quite strict though as freezer and cupboards quite full still so its really just bread, milk and fridge bits.

About an hour away from home, and I've got a message from NDN. We lost two fishies this morning. One we were expecting, but the other was our beloved albino rainbow shark. He's been with us for nearly 3 years. Absolutely gutted.

Need to budget for a new one now. Fingers crossed he's just asleep upside down, at the top of the tank.

DP is dropping me and DD at Aldi for post holiday shopping and going to unlock car/deal with the fishies deaths. Need loads from Aldi, might also buy wine to help with the loss. Bloody fish. I hate fish. But I loved him.

NSD today . Lovely sunshine to be enjoyed for free.

I introduced myself on the old thread but never got round to posting again I've spent the week at my mums dog sitting and she kindly got a food shop in before she went on holiday. Been pottering around finishing off baby's nursery.

Tom a few baby presents back to sainsburys as we had been given too many vests and baby suits in small sizes so I have almost £19 on a giftcard.

Hubbie is returning from a 6 month deployment in roughly two weeks so hoping to use a waitrose voucher next week to stock up on some yummy bits for him being home

Thanks all for the welcomes. I do often go through direct debits and try to reduce the. Recently changed energy tariff which has helped a bit. I definitely need to ditch the sky. The only real advantage of it is being able to record so I am thinking of buying a cheap digital recorder instead.....
Only other thing I considered I may get rid of is dog insurance, but ddog recently had a funny turn, which may have been a seizure and if it turns out to be anything longer term I will need the insurance so that is staying for now.
Food is a HUGE expense for us! I do meal plan, and cook from scratch with basic ingredients and shop around for value but still we get through a lot of food! Ds1 who is 17 especially is always hungry!

bobbly I can only imagine how much food you go through, my ds is only two and I joke that I can't afford to feed him!

Spends today £81 on sainsbury order, this includes ingredients for mincemeat and gin to make sloe gin. Both will be part of Christmas gifts I think.

Body shop £28 - they had 40% off and free delivery. That's my sister in laws presents done for Christmas.

So frugal fail with chipper lunch out with the kids plus two cousins now have the makings of their tea this evening or lunch tomo with so many leftovers. Which I proudly brought home with me but now I need to know the secret to reheating chip shop chips!!

pink exactly €140 spent on boots for my two. even though I was expecting it I'm still
Will catch up with everyone later x

I've done some great pruning in the garden today and still on a NSD. The weather here is beautiful.

£25 on my riding lesson this morning. Half hour hack and hours lesson. Only 2 of us in the class so got my money's worth today and am going to ache tomorrow!!

£71 in coop for food. More than we meant to spend bit have stocked up freezer.

Am now having a go at making jam. Free blackberries from our forage a couple of weeks ago.

Have sorted more bits to sell on eBay so will list these tomorrow to end next Sunday.

Making Dutch (apparently) split pea soup for dinner. Yum

£15 horse riding lesson for dd
£60 in Morrisons not sure how that happened except for the fact that I bought a huge box of washing powder £6 and two tubs of Heros for £7 - am going to attempt not to eat them before Christmas fat chance

Have lots of food in but need to menu plan for the week

£110ish on a very exciting trip to... Asda included lunch and some clothing that DH and DCs needed, and bus/taxi. Not much actual food really, I had a vague list but no real plan. FAIL. My brain is just not in the right place for all this. But it was good to get out of the house (though I'm knackered and sore now - but still, staying in all day every day would make me more ill in the long run).

It also included the £12ish of pocket money I hadn't actually got round to giving the DCs over the last few weeks. They are now both back to zero, and I used the opportunity to tell them they won't be getting as much now. It was £2.50pw for DD, £1.50pw for DS (increases by 50p each birthday) but I've recently realised how ridiculously fast that adds up - they aren't really having to save much at all to get the things they like (little lego sets etc). And we really can't afford that much each week, and it increasing by £1 a year for the two. So I've broken the news to them that they'll now both be getting £1 a week. They don't seem fussed (probably because we've been so rubbish at actually giving them the coins each week, they have little to no concept of what a drop that is!) and at least it means we aren't tied into increasing it - I think we will keep it at that for a couple of years (they are 8 and 6). £1 a week each is fine, right?!

Fuzz £1 a week is more than fine, I had a conversation with dd today that went something like this;

Me - 'So I am thinking about giving you £5 a month pocket money but in order to get that you are going to really have to help a bit more around the house, O.kay?'

Dd - 'Just give me £2 then'

I'VE MADE JAM!!!!

and burnt my mouth because I tried it when it was still molten lava hot

But it's good. I love jam.

fuzz £1 week is fine. My grandparents gave us that from the day we were born to the day we turned 18.

They also saved the same amount in secret accounts for us to have until we were 21. So lovely.

If your two don't need to save for anything how will they learn?

£1 a week is what my two get (5&7)
Welcome back Claire and new people.

Nsd. Overtime this morning and took beavers on a trip which was great. Fake takeaway for tea. Iceland chicken fried rice and Curry from the freezer.

Unfortunately my oven is on its way out so starting to look for them. Sigh

need I hope your DD is OK. Riding is so dangerous, I kind of hope my DD doesn't follow in my footsteps and take it up even though it would be fun to ride together!
Emem I've done that and it really hurts! Drink lots of cold water, hope you feel better soon.
NSD yesterday - hooray! BUT nipped in Sainsburys today for a couple of bits and ended up buying a top (it was only £6 with 25% off) and 4 bottles of wine on offer.
Just got a flyer through for a Boden clearance event in Birmingham next week. I don't think I'll go because I'll do that thing of buying something because it's so cheap but not really wanting it. Thought I'd mention it though in case any of you are interested. It's at Warwickshire cricket club a week on Weds and Thurs.

Fab, thank you - £1 a week it is then. I'll repeat it to them a few times so they don't complain (DD doesn't always take in information and will say 'but muuuuum you never told me...'

TBF DD has saved reasonably well for a couple of bigger things, but still it's been quite easy as when she started (at 7) she was on £2 a week so it wasn't that hard. And when I look at it over a year, this current year would be over £200 on random toys etc. They are supposed to use it for sweets as well now, must get better at actually enforcing that - need to find DS a wallet so they can both bring their money when we go anywhere.

Girlfriend 'just give me £2 then' brilliant :o

emem well done! Ouch at the burny mouth though. I love hot jam - when we have jam doughnuts I microwave mine. Always risky, but soooo tasty.

Oh God just spent £38 on jeans in the Next sale online, thats for 3 pairs of jeans though and I won't keep all of them!!

Must. Stop. Spending.

Think earning extra this month has gone to my head!!

I've just managed to snap up some Doc Mcstuffins soft toys for DD from Gumtree! £5 for Doc, Stuffy, Hallie and the snowman who's name escapes me. They are £10 each and I've got them for £5 for the 4. Really chuffed! Picking them up next weekend though so praying she doesn't give them to anyone else in meantime. Love gumtree sometimes.

£5 to dh
£8 on plywood.

Chilly Binglet

Thanks spotty. He annoys me when he keeps thinking he's a real snowman. I do however love the big book of boo boos.

Bought DD the Doc Mcstuffins wagon on Argos 3 for 2 and I'm planning on loading them all up in it unwrapped for her for Xmas.

Got another birthday present on the 3 for 2 too and DSis told me DN wants a little live pet mouse which is currently £20 at the entertainer. Hoping for a voucher code before end Oct.

Spent £30 the past few days but lots to put away for Xmas. All through topcashback too.

Spent £70 in Aldi which included some peach schnapps for hen weekend and will pick up some prosecco later in week too. This was a big shop for us, had run kitchen cupboards down for holiday. Doing a bit of extra swim teaching tomorrow for some spending money for DP to treat DD when I'm at Hen party.

Adsa coming Monday, £57 carefully planned for. Included some Christmas food bits which are to last until December at least!

Well if you've told them you can't collect for a while, they shouldn't give them to anyone else. I see on our FB group 'can't collect til blahblah day, is that ok' type thing.
(I just spent a while wondering what on earth a chilly binglet was)

I've got DH to come home via asda - found the perfect onesie for DS (the DCs always get PJs on Xmas eve, it's a tradition I nicked from MN years ago!) and obviously couldn't buy it with them there. Big hero 6, only £9. For the socks etc I'm going to make use - for the first time ever I think - of the free delivery from F&F clothing I get with my Tesco delivery saver. Now the DCs are home ed I won't have much chance to wander round looking for presents (and when I do have time to myself I'd rather spend it in a cafe with cake and a book thank you very much)

It can be my Christmas nickname