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

[needastrongone]

New thread. Can't link.

Excellent frugal win Creme, and well done Em on the card pay off.

I'm sat at snowboarding, Diet Coke (£2), but have rounded up some school payments, so I'm not wasting my time totally just sat here.

Y11 leaver hoody for DS £14.
Y11 off site PE for next year for DD £27.

DD is really rather good at snowboarding, usually can't get near to watch her. Am thinking the balance and core strength needed for riding might be coming in handy. Nothing about this ski trip has been frugal though.

Fluffy
I am investigating at the minute but I think to get the Irish channels I need either digi box or Saorview. Might ask my bil as he is good (super frugal!) at these things. I think it's the comfort of sky that has made us stay so long🤔 I d like to n
Be able to record? The least I will do is cancel multi room!
Em
Not sure if now is available in Ireland?
Ipos you poor thing💐 Hope you all get better in time for Easter Sunday!

Welcome pixie you'll get lots of support here
collie house hunting sounds exciting

Dd managed to lose her portable DVD player on one of the 3 trains she & dh got down to Devon. She's not sure when she knows she last had it so I've registered lost property enquiries with both train companies involved but am not holding out much hope. We have travel insurance as part of our packaged current Acc with Nationwide. I'm considering claiming on it if it doesn't turn up. Dh's parents bought it for her & with the carry case, Chargers, headphones etc it's worth about £110 so would be worth it even with a small excess. Never claim anything normally but with this, the premium is a standard monthly charge........undecided, we'll see.

Spends today:
£3.90 bus fares. Forgot to do DD's quarterly, oops.
£18.20 Poundworld. Conditioner, a few home ed supplies, and lots of snacks - mostly for DH. We gave him his 'well done Daddy' present today, a Thunderbirds bag for him to take to work filled with his favourite foods. And the DCs had chosen those little cuddly TsumTsum things the other week, so he had a little Goofy and Stitch sitting on top that he can keep in his bag or locker. He was quite overcome :) he deserves it though.

Spanish club trial was brilliant. Price will add up fast - will be £10 a week but it doesn't start properly for a month or so, and I think it's worth it (and I will be making another £30 a week when new pupils start) - all 3 of us are learning and it's 90mins. I had a half hour moment of dread when DS completely refused to join in and curled up on me instead, so was trying to work out how we'd get round it. It happens sometimes, he can be very shy and nervous in new situations (and he's only 6). Then we swapped rooms with the other little group and suddenly DS became this outgoing enthusiastic little dude. And it turned out that he had actually learned everything that the others had been doing. Just sitting there quietly taking it in I think. It's lovely to see them flourish in these little groups. :)

Stalled a bit on the decluttering, hopefully I can get more done tomorrow. Felt a bit weird this morning and then this evening got insanely dizzy - think it's labyrinthitis, as it's exactly the same as when I had it a few months back, rather than being the usual type of dizziness I get with my ongoing condition. Don't need to see a GP though as all they did before was prescribe antihistamines, and I have most of them left over since it didn't last very long. Annoying timing though, I really hope it's a bit better on Wednesday for Harry Potter :( I'm swaying like I'm drunk. But without the expense or calories I suppose :o :o

I probably would north, if she used it a lot.

Today is my only change to get Easter eggs without the dc so I'll pop into tesco after work. They'll only get one each and something small to find with each clue.

Am going to have to buy Easter eggs today. Completely forgot Easter was this weekend. I knew it was soon but it's just crept up. Hooray for 4 day weeks and weekends!!

Doing Food shop today after work. Aiming for a £50 spend. Have made a list. There's not much we need. Mostly veggies.

Joint ac £1022 my ac £249. Cc £0

I'm dying to spend money on something. No idea what. Just itching to spend. Which I know is my problem - impulse & emotional spending. Have found that having a list helps. And leaving cc at home helps. Incidentally this is the first time in a long time the balance has been zero. So I really want to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Just spent £91 on tu online. The 25% off is on. Some will go back though.
No other spend planned today
I would give lost property another day and then claim north.

Em don't do it. What is it that makes you want to spend? Something new or the thrill of shopping or an emotion? Can something free replicate that feeling like a walk on the beach and maybe an ice cream. Better for the cc bill. Or a new book from the library

Morning all! I'm finding it hard to keep up with the thread, so busy. Not spending much though which is good. £11 something on a take away at the weekend and £1.80 on a cup of tea yesterday. Need a few things from the supermarket to tide us over till the weekend when we are going away. Aiming to use up freezer stuff this week, I'm always paranoid the power will go off while we're away and it will all rot!
Thanks for the Tu and H&M tips, I was planning to go to both of those this week for some much-needed new clothes!
Can anyone tell me about smart meters? Ovo have offered to install one. I'm keen, DH isn't!
How are you feeling ipsos? Hope you are on the mend. Also welcome pixie.

babs lots of things - boredom, stress and feeling emotional. And the thrill of having something new. When I started saving I had to delete payment details from all online shopping accounts. I've deactivated PayPal from a lot of accounts except eBay. If I want to shop online I have to make an effort to get my purse. And type the numbers in. Not difficullt but if I'm sat down and comfy the last thing I want to do it get up!

At lunchtime today I'm buying Easter eggs (4 eggs and a box of creme eggs for work). And that's it.

Library is a good shout actually. I haven't read a proper book for a while. Have been reading on my kindle. But I love books. That might do it.

Sounds a lot like me em. Unfortunately I have memorisied my credit card detail so can tap them in before I know it. Magazines are my weakness so I allow myself subscription as long as it's a promotion. I stress eat. Not much I can say to you other than I concur. Sounds like you are on it. Maybe allocated some of your budget for urge spends?

II don't eat when I'm stressed, completely the opposite!

Em, can you go to Boots and buy a small thing, like a lipstick or nail varnish? Maybe even us Advantage Points? That way, you feel like you've treated yourself enough to not then splurge at a later date, but not spent too much or nothing at all?

IKWYM about the urge to spend! Our pocket money system is really helping for that. If I feel the need I just check how much I've got in the book, and head to Amazon knowing that it's accounted for IYSWIM.

booty I'm in Ireland too and we switched to e-fibre TV. We have a package with Eir (used to be Eircom) which incorporates TV, broadband and our home phone. DH arranged it all so I'll ask him later but I know it works out cheaper than what we were paying for SKY which was approx. €60 a month. We can still record and pause etc. The big plus for us is that we don't lose our signal if it's windy out. We must live in a very windy place because if it was even remotely windy before, we'd lose our SKY signal. We don't have any SKY channels since we dumped SKY but I can't say I've missed them all that much. In fact, we had e-fibre TV about two months when I went to put on SKY news and realized I couldn't access it. The other thing you need to get used to is that the channel names are across the top of the TV and the times are down the side of the screen. It was the opposite way with SKY.

Spent £40 in the supermarket, a bit more than I'd hoped and I still need to buy Easter eggs.
I haven't updated my budget app for over a week but I have kept all my receipts so I'll sit down and do that later.

Had a wander around town at lunchtime. And have bought Easter eggs and fancy chocolates for family (snagged myself a few free samples!) and treated myself to a yum sandwich from shop next to work (piripiri chicken cheese salad and Mayo is anyone's interested)

Have been to the library. And now have some "new" books - Three Stephen King (cujo, mr Mercedes and misery). So that's cheered me up.

I have a budget and I'm trying hard to stick to it. I could spend today. But then what if I get the urge to spend next week/tomorrow...??? Aaaah!!

need I can't "just go into boots" shiny magic promising cosmetics are my weakness...!!! I'll go in for a nail polish and come out about £120 lighter with magic serums, pretty eyeshadow pallets, wonder mascara's...... Do have to venture into feel unique later though. Sister wants urban decay stuff for her birthday. Must not spend on myself. But asking for samples is fine right...?

The girls had a lot of fun with the treasure hunt. DD has done one before but it was a new experience for her little pals (two sisters). There were about 20 clues and at the end, they each got a bag of 'treasure' - an Easter egg and some Easter crafty things. Would you believe it, they didn't express any interest in the chocolate but wanted to paint their little bird houses straight away (€1 each in the Art and Hobby shop). Then they painted a picture. The sisters said that painting is a big treat for them as their Mam doesn't let them paint much. In fairness, she has four kids and one is a toddler. Now they're having fun playing dress up. I'm amazed the chocolate eggs are still intact. I thought I'd have to restrict them to a small amount and then hide the rest.

Em I'm the same as you. New stuff makes me happy the more expensive the better

£5 something in tesco on reduced celery, reduced salad bowl, six kinder eggs and a bag of malteaster bunnies. Still need to get big eggs.

Terrible day.

Drove to work and realised the cat had relieved himself on my work trousers, I don't have a great sense of smell so I didn't notice right away. I was passing a sainsbo so nipped in for some cheap uniform trousers.

Changed in the loo and the zip on my tunic split and came undone. Drove home.

£5.25 on trousers, took the tags off before realising they were too tight so I'll try returning them but will take a gift card if need be.

£3 beer but free on quidco so will claim it back.
£1 on post bags and sandwich bags.

Oh no fluffy

Not good, Fluffy. Not a good day for me either. The school won't need me after the Easter holidays any more, so my lovely little job of a day and a half a week is no more. Also found out my sister and my niece probably won't be coming to London, as their passports won't be ready in time. So that's £200 I spent on the tickets and Travel lodge that could have been put to far better use. We'll still go and see my brother and his girlfriend and have a good time, but I would have preferred the extra money. AND DS is being horrible. He punched a hole in his bedroom wall in a temper this morning and when I spoke to him about it after school, he wasn't even sorry. So I confiscated his phone. Cue slamming the door so much it almost fell off. Grr!

£43.20 on my Sainsbury delivery, which will come out tomorrow. It includes 3 Easter eggs (£3 each), some bathroom items and store cupboard stuff. I only needed 'proper' food for 3 days, as we're off on Friday lunchtime. So, very brief meal plan is-
Today: Quiche, wedges and salad.
Tomorrow: Quiche, half a jacket potato and salad.
Thursday: Gnocchi, pesto, peas and maybe veggie sausage rolls.
Monday: Veggie burgers and wedges.

Oh creme That's awful for you. Teenagers can be truly vile.

You do so much for that boy too.

Ohh Fluffy and Creme sorry you've had such crap days.

Oh no fluffy and crème ((hugs))