Austere April Advances (even though it's mid March.....). Frugaleers Unite

[needastrongone]

New thread. Can't link.

Adora frugal fail here two 2 packs of salmon fillets going to cats tomo, out of date 12th

NSD here too, for a few days now. The 72h NSD I can do quite easily. I'm thinking maybe I can do a week?
Payday next week.
It's good to be frugal. Pair that with trying to get a mortgage, I've become borderline obsessive. I've done a free experian check on my credit rate. If it wasn't £15 a month I can see myself cheching it daily, ffs.
Once this whole thing is over, I am going on a beach in Grand canaria and not move for a week.

8 I've done a few NSD weeks. It's hard but totally worth it!

Em she sounds grim!

Today, I'll be spending £2 on the bus. And I'll be buying nail polish in Boots with my points. And a few ££ in W H Smith on a notepad as we didnt go to Sainsburys yesterday. When I get home I will be doing the weekly shop for around £40-50.

Morning all!
I have a feeling I shall be paid early next week as my normal pay day is a bank holiday. That will be nice for our holiday but will mess up April!

We're getting paid on the 24th instead of the 27th.

£33 in bank account (forgot I'd ordered a travel bag from Amazon, and have moved a bit of cash to savings). £41 in joint account (had to top it up from savings as it went overdrawn yesterday).

Cannot wait for payday!! £15 + change in purse. Am really hoping payrises and bonuses if I'm lucky are announced soon. Would be good to see what I'll have to play with and to budget properly. laughs at colleagues booking holidays to be paid for with bonus money....

That's very presumptuous of them em, what will they do if their bonuses aren't what they expect?
Just heard the government want to make the school day longer, I hope that means they will pay us more. I don't expect so! That will seriously impact on my workload as I already do an hour before school and an hour and a half after school to minimize the amount I bring home. Goodness knows how tired and stressed the kids will be, they have enough on their plate with lessons, after school clubs and revision classes etc. Sorry, ranting!

pointless I asked this. The answer "well I'll kick off obviously...!!" Which I completely disagree with. No problem complaining nicely about a payrise if I felt it wasn't up to scratch. Did this in my last job. My payrise after tax equated to an additional £6 a month. For the work I was doing it was embarrassing. Talk about de motivating.

I see a bonus as just that. A bonus. Not guaranteed. Should be earned. And should be accepted gratefully/gracefully and you say thank you. And don't moan about it.

Em this happens at DHs work place. They are so irregular. One year everyone (apart from DH as he was new) was expecting a hefty bonus and they didn't get it. It was in December and people had relied on the bonus to pay for Christmas.

Then they all got bonuses every year for 5 years. Then last Christmas, with no warning - they all got a Cadburys Selection Box instead.

And the company is doing better than ever financially.

It's so weird! I enjoyed the Selection Box though. Haha!

I work for the NHS - whats a bonus? we just do it for the love of it don't ya know

Well I am home, dd spiked a temp of 39.6 last night still slightly up this morning even with calpol and complaining of a sore throat. Hate taking time off work but no choice really, my mum is working all day and no one else to ask. Tbh not feeling that great myself, have a banging headache, ugh.

It's always nice to get paid early pointless
I got paid a day early this week as tomorrow is a bank holiday here. It was my pay for the week I was off sick so very little overtime, down €85 + the €45 I paid the doctor but it was needed. Plus this was the first week I have agreed to change the balance of what we pay into joint account too, I'm upping my contribution by €50 so what I'll have left this week will be minute. It's going against the credit card anyhow so it makes no difference.

Frugal bonus found €15 change wrapped up in a receipt from two weekends ago in my purse, had done a reconciliation in ynab and had written it off as spent as couldn't place it
collie that is a dramatic difference in bonuses, my friend works for a company who pay bonuses at christmas and lets bills and Santa shopping build up to be paid by it

Oh dear, Girlie and GirlieDD, take it steady today then.

I agree with Em, a bonus is earned and not guaranteed. Our guys expect it these days, which pisses me off slightly. In fairness, all but one deserve theirs thoroughly and DH will be generous. One is a slippery fish and always has a reason why he hasn't done something that isn't his fault. His appraisal questions will have to be worded very carefully indeed, as he can weedle out of anything.

Should be NSD today.

Budget day everyone.

I'm hoping for a pay rise as come April first I'll be earning minimum wage which I think is beyond shit considering all the stuff I have to do: having a decide whether someone on the phone has a chest infection or possible heart attack is hardly a minimum wage job ffs.

Anyway £20 petrol. Need to go to post office and then wax. Might get a costa whilst I wait.

Take the day and be nice to you both girlie duvets on the couch and watch films all day

lilac oh my goodness!

So glad we don't rely on bonuses (as a family). But its worrying that so many people do. I may have sniggered at Christmas when I found out about the Selection Box thingy.

Hope GirlieDD feels better soon.

I'm so so so excited about DH starting his new job. His notice period is going so quickly!

wreck that's pretty shitty about your wage

The main reason that I am on this thread to to try to stay within the monthly disposable income paid into our account. Which is minimal in comparison to the dividend which DH awards to himself, based on the performance of the business.

In theory, the dividend may or may not be paid annually. In reality, the company is thriving and established, so he will pay one each year. But I can't guarantee this, so it's good practise to try to stick to a budget.

DH thinks this is absolutely insane.......

I think it's very sensible need.

Girlie hope your dd feels better soon. This winter has been awful for bugs.

Very sensible approach need. I'm doing the same and DDs can't understand it. Kids, eh?

girlie hope DD is better very soon.

wreck that's shocking pay for the job you do.

lila good job we have pets to help with frugal fails.

Today I'm seeing a man about a kitchen, then I'l buy more chicken and sausages

Hello everyone, can I please join?

I returned to work in November after nine months of paid m/l. The last three were at statutory pay and despite me constantly reminding my dh how much my share of the outgoings are and how much my pay would drop to (and his constant resassurance that we'd be fine ) we still got into a bit of a mess and I had to extend my overdraft and borrow money from my lovely df. It wasn’t helped by Christmas and my dds first birthday in January and then my dhs birthday in Feb – we don’t spend madly for anything - especially not for a one year old who doesn’t even know what a birthday is - but I was very conscious that I shouldn’t be spending at all! From the end of this month I am part time so my pay will drop and its not amazing now. My dh earns very good money but just doesn’t seem to understand how money works! We currently rent but our house is really tiny and we need to move somewhere else really, all of which will be more money going out and we are also starting to think about having a second child which will mean we definitely have to move.

We used to have no money at all and I meal planned, budgeted, everything. But I got out the habit when we didn’t need to be so concerned about money and now I can’t seem to get back into it! I’m hoping for motivation really to cut down my spending (I seem to go to the local supermarket numerous times a week and this really adds up) and some tips too.

need I like it! Very sensible.

Welcome jobrum. Lots of good friendly advice here.

Welcome job you'll get back into the swing of things. I think meal planning is the first step. Do you have a spreadsheet of all of your constant monthly outgoings that you can show your dh?

£25.50 wax
£2.50 Costa

That's it for today!

NC-ed. a few NSDs.

Welcome Job if you haven't already go through all your DDs and see if any can be stopped/ swapped or reduced. Then look at what you left with and have a budget in mind for food/clothes/petrol and everything else.

Online shopping makes it easier to buy what you need and not get side tracked by what you see on the shelves iyswim? Plus I imagine will be easier generally if you have a baby and are going back to work!

Dd seems a bit better now, wants to play and not needed any more calpol so am hoping she will be fine for tomos

My mn format has gone all weird, have I done something or has everybody's?!

One of our neighbours randomly came over and asked to borrow £3, bit weird he has form for doing this before always just a few pounds and has some excuse about needing to buy nappies for his Grandchildren should have just said no but didn't! Can't wait to move, all our neighbours here have been a bit odd!!

Welcome jobrun
Last month it felt like we were constantly going to the shops and we overspent on groceries and this month I've decided once a week and that's it.

If you didn't have the money/access to the shops you'd have to make do so I just enforce that upon myself. Milk and bread freeze and they're the main things we pop to the shops for spending much more while we're there, keeping a stock of it avoids this.

Meal planning is great, reviewing what you've spent in the past couple of months will help if you can, otherwise work out what you can afford to spend and work with that figure, be realistic though.

Write out all known and ad hoc expenses, and occasions like birthdays/christmas/one off bills like insurances, and the unforeseen things like car breakdowns etc

Get your dh on board if you can too
Get your financial house in order before next maternity leave, I didn't do that and my dd will be 6.5 and ds almost 3 before I'm fully sorted again.