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

[needastrongone]

New thread. Can't link.

Nsd planned as back in the working week.
It's bonkers the amount of empty storage boxes we have. Project declutter has ground to a halt here as there are not enough hours ATM.

I have to get petrol today but that's it.

babs I'm finding that project declutter here works best when I do a little at a time. So tonight I'm tackling bedside cabinet drawers. And maybe my make up stash.

Won't be nsd today. It's payday! Yippee. And we're doing a food shop tomorrow. So have to buy something for lunch today.

Currently have about a fiver in my purse.

All my dd have come out of my account so pretty much everything is gone into savings. Apart from the Dd which has topped up our joint account. Food shop tomorrow, Dhs money will go in on 25th and mortgage will come out on 4th. My spends budget for this month is £250. I've got 4 Saturday's worth of riding lessons to pay for (£100) until next payday. And an appointment to get my nails done on Wednesday (£35).

can I join? We sometimes struggle with money and would like some tips on how to manage our money better. We sit and do a budget and then realise we have X amount but then somehow we always end up with considerably less left over. I have no idea where our money goes. We don't buy clothes or spend our money on needless crap so can't understand it!

Hi pixie

I'm sure you'll find the thread useful. I certainly have. It's made me be more conscious about my spending.

If you can, pull out your bank statements for the last few months and have a look at where the money's going. I'm guessing --like me/- there's a big food shop and a few top ups. Check your direct debits too. When I started I noticed id been paying for 2 gym memberships and a cinema card for a few months which I thought I'd cancelled.

I've found writing down what I'm spending really helps me. And also not taking my credit card out. Unless I'm planning a big purchase or am on holiday.

youll find loads of useful frugal advice here. The others are much better at it than I am.

Hi pixie and welcome. I second em get to know your bank account and for at least a month write down all spends, Dh too if he is in on being frugal too. Easter might be a bit of a blip? So maybe a bit more than a month. Try and cover one full pay cycle?

Hi Pixie, welcome

I agree with Em and babs and in addition the following;

Menu plan and stick to it.
Packed lunches for work.
Online supermarket shop to minimise spends.
Go through all your direct debits and see if you can get rid/reduce by shopping around.
Cashback sites.
Ebay or sell old stuff.

Some credit cards have cashbacks too.

Welcome Pixie

Have you checked your on the cheapest tariffs for utilities? Moneysavingexpert energy club is really good for comparing deals.

Loyalty rarely pays. Your current supplier will tell you how much you use in a year.

Welcome Pixie!

Been expensive few days as DS's are on hols sine Wednesday and St Patrick's has been bit spendy with two teens going to discos & sleepovers. DH & I went to cinema just €10 as we were given the cinema tickets as a gift! 😉 Went to farmers mkt yesterday and a long walk by beach €10 & had to give older lad €20 for sports trip.
The only thing I am middling managing to stay in budget for is the food shop. I have €100 till end of month... I have lots of chicken fillets and a medium chicken in freezer.
Have music lessons to pay 2m at €60😔

Welcome Pixie!

NSD and house hunting

Ooh, whereabouts, Collie?

Welcome to Pixie.

Carrying on with my spring cleaning. I got the fridge and 5 kitchen cupboards (doors, insides and filthy tops) done in an hour. Tomorrow's plan is to finish it. Spends today: £15 gas meter, £5 electricity meter and £2.58 on milk, bananas and creme eggs. Believe it or not, my first of the year!

Ooo house hunting collie. How exciting. Relocation?

Welcome pixie.

£28 something petrol. Managed to spill some my old car used to have three clicks before the tank over flowed but this one only has one

Didn't have any other spends.

Dinner tonight is left over roast chicken and bacon pasta. Have got some Philadelphia and will add some peas hopefully it'll be ok?

If I cooked the chicken yesterday will it still be ok on Wednesday to make into a soup?

Only if you freeze it.

Thanks fluffy I'll stick it in the freezer

Not that I've ever poisoned myself with cooked chicken

50p in asda, 2 in 1 salt and pepper mill and more Microfibre cloths.
80p sains smartprice tea. Was luffly.
40p morrisons smart price tea. Was disgusting. Would save it for people I don't like but their all coffee drinkers.

£5 lidl voucher. pages.cdn.pagesuite.com/f/f/ff7c3f64-a14f-4b14-82ab-9194648283d0/page.pdf Not sure if you can print it off or not but I can try. It was on play pennies.

Cheque arrived that I'd been waiting for, I hate having to nag people for money.

Pixie I will find the op with all the links. It's quite useful.

I wouldn't feel in necessary to freeze the chicken Wrecked, if it had been in the fridge for that time. Think about the packets of sliced chicken you get?

£12.50 Aldi on more food for the never ending teenage male appetite. I ended up starting a thread last week, as I am in despair sometimes at his appetite.

House hunting? Tell us more Collie

Taking DD and her friend snow boarding tonight, already paid for, but I'll have to buy them a Subway as I've worked all day, hadn't expected the friend coming back here tbh, so sorted DH and DS's food tonight, but not theirs.

Just got a letter from kids school to say that their fees are gone up by €400!! For the academic year 😔 Ah well, just have to get it together. We can pay by standing order over eight months but I am not sure, one part of me thinks this might be better cos the months I don't earn it summer hols June July & August I won't have S.O?! It's just it's same as my bloody mortgage...
Will just have to cut back a little.. Thinking of cancelling sky & getting digi boxes. There €160 for two. But paying sky €45 a month.

Need. 2 teenage boys here! It's like snack central here!

Do you need digi boxes? Sky boxes pick up free sat/free view channels with no sky connection.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/a2270347-Frugal-January-everyone-welcome?msgid=51923238#51923238

For Pixie ignore the chat threads, they are dead.

booty look at now tv instead if you can. We chucked sky this time last year and got now tv this year. We get sky living,one, Atlantic and a few other channels for £6.99 a month. And movies for 9.99 a month. If you look on Amazon there are usually deals and vouchers to be had. So yesterday I looked and found a 4 months entertainment pass for £15.99. Usually £27 something. Haven't bought it yet though. Only issue is you can't record. But there's loads of catch up.

We were spending £54 a month on sky. About £700 a year !

Topcashback pay out today. Grand total of......£2.67.

Credit card is at zero!!!!!!!

And I walked home.

Well done em can only dream of (any) of my credit cards being at zero. Hi pixie this thread is great, it keeps me on the straight and narrow spend wise.

Yesterday's event went really well, the weather was fab. Good time had by all the mad cyclists
Spent £2 on milk for after, but 'made' £16 from tip dish. Then malfunctioned at tea, had to go out to buy fish and chips £14, 38 mile round trip . And the power steering on our yank tank has gone, big car now in the garage. So doing silly shuttles in the little car (C1 = 4seats, there's 6 of us) until it's fixed.

Almost a nsd today. A whole 10p on a lolly for ds to stop him screaming all the way home.

Homemade hot dogs and chips for tea (proper sausages in homemade rolls). Snags found in freezer.

I'm in the can't-quite-sit-up day of the flu today and it's rubbish. I got a lego box out of the cupboard that I had stashed away from my tesco tokens to cheer ds along. Dh has the flu now too. Summer will be very welcome when it comes.

On the plus side, we're spending nothing at all because we can't. Score!

ipsos poor you. I hope there's someone who can bring you stuff if you need it!!

I've only had proper flu once. Awful. Had glandular fever a few years ago and that was pretty bad. Just couldn't do anything more than bed to couch for a couple of weeks. Just couldn't.

Veggie stir fry for dinner. Yum. Have booked car in for a service which will probably be spendy it hasn't been for a year or two.

Dh spent £7 on m&s on fruit on his way home.

Joint account £1022. My account £252.

Good going on the credit card clearance, Em.

Hang in there, ipsos. Hopefully you'll be over the worst of it in a couple of days, in time to supervise your new garden.

I was going to take DS out for dinner, prior to a Scouts event in another town, but he was offered a lift there and back. So we had cheesy chips from the chipshop and shared a small bottle of lemon Fanta, which came to £6.80. (The shopping is coming tomorrow.) I was looking at spending the best part of £50, on a meal out and public transport, so I'll count that takeaway as a frugal win!