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

[needastrongone]

New thread. Can't link.

lilac

Spendy day here -£60 having hair cut and dyed (v rarely happens), £25 tescos on drinks and bits for a night out at a friends tonight, £190 on heating oil as we ran out. £49 tesco delivery yesterday too. Suddenly our relatively healthy bank balance for this point in the month has plummeted and now we are back chasing our tail!

for you lilac, hope things settle down for you all.

Big frugal win today was dh's car insurance renewal. The renewal quote was £312. I had done lots of searching without finding anything much better even going through tcb fluffy. For some reason I decided to try direct line. We've ended up paying £279 with £42 cash back on top. Even better, that cash back for dh's tcb account will mean we get the referral bonuses, so almost £100 better than renewing.

Today will be a nsd for me but dh will have to pay for lunch. We're going out for bil's gf's birthday but I really don't like where we're going. The children's menu is crap and the normal menu is even worse. Hate paying for somewhere that's shit. They have a nice garden for the dc though.

Wreck they can't really mess up salad can they? Nothing worse than paying for bad food.

I'm having lunch out today too but only myself to pay for

North . That cash backs worth loads in Tesco clubcard boost. I think you get to a stage where your insurance plateaus.

Lila Sounds like you have a hill to climb with him there

NSD yesterday & im having a clear out today for eBay. I need £350 to buy the console table I want. £60 made so far from selling the lounge cabinets.

There's not salad on the menu!! Ffs last time we went I had sausage and mash and it didn't even come with any veg?!

Feb was £51.76 under budget!

Lanb is in the oven. Has been there lambing away since 8am. Yum.

Sweet potatoes are ready for baking. Pittas are ready. Dh is making a slaw.

I found pomegranate seeds too. So will do a Jamie Oliver and scatter them liberally over the lamb.

We have a veritable casual Sunday lunch feast in the making. #happy

Nsd.

wreck £51 under budget is fab!

NSD today as we've spent most of the weekend on the beach. It is SO warm! Now we are home and making the garden a usable space so lots of mowing etc. All of our neighbours are outside in their gardens too. It's wonderful!

I caught the sun yesterday!

I am tempted to pop to Homebase and look at their garden benches etc. Would love to paint one.

I'm sitting in my beautiful, freshly painted bedroom!
We need to buy some bits though, there are currently no curtains and the light is a bare bulb so we're going out for new ones later, will probably get new bedding too. Spendy but exciting!

collie sunshine here too. We went for a beach walk this morning. Put feet in the sea still freezing

pointless love new decorating! Enjoy! What colour have you opted for?

It's lovely here. Couple of hours at the park then home to start gardening maybe

Yes sunshine here too, washing is out, all the windows are open so the house smells lovely and fresh and DH has started tidying the garden.
It's a very pale purplish colour Em, bit hard to describe!

Just caught up on the thread!

Lilac 💐
Fuzz great news on dh job!
Babs congrats on promotion!

Really need to cut back now as things are getting tight again😔 Food bills are getting out of control. Plus mid term is nearly upon us. Well kids finish Wednesday till 4th April😳 So it's going to be hard to keep things under control while entertaining 2 teens.
Fibro is flaring a bit and I know I need to start exercising again just have no motivation right now.

£4.40 in cafe on 2 slushes and a tea. It's packed here

NSD and listed some stuff on eBay.

Dh refusing to get my bike out so I can sell it, it's not been used for years and is probably the highest value thing I'm willing to part with.

I will work on him. Fell off it the first time I used it and nearly went head first into a canal. One ankle is still slightly thicker to this day.

Thanks spacekablooie I wennt back to the co op and explained and they refunded my £3.99!

Em but the sea at your island Is freezing inthe summer also!! Ok not your island, but I remember one really hot august day in Alderney where i jumped in off a rock into quite deep water and I swear It took me less than 5 secs to get out! .

Oh, that's good Laska .

NSD here. Hope everyone is having a nice Sunday.

Fantastic weather here, (i must go put the washing on) . .

spent £26 online on veg seeds and padron pepper plants.
I am fed up of trying to germinate peppers and chillis so just buy the plants now (they will arrive in a few weeks time) .,.we have been out in the garden weeding and clearing stuff up.

Im going to plant my first lot of tomato seeds this week, and so have been filling pots up to put into the conservatory to warm up the soil. . .

Just off to MN the rest of the chicken carcass . DH has had some for sarnies and taken with him on the train back today, and theres enough left for some chicken salad for me and possibly either curry or soup (both mainly veg) .. Ill make stock withthe bones anyway ..

Oh, I did get another frugal win: I forgot to say I bought a replacement seat cover last week off ebay for our Britax car seat as ours was tatty. Paid £10 , and the postage was £5.70. When it came the seller had only paid £2.80 to send so I emailed her , and she says she will be refunding the difference . Pleased because sometimes sellers do overcharge on postage to make more dont they? (but I dont reckon she would have refunded unless I had asked)

northender thanks Im going to try and do the same now, switch to M&S and keep the old bank account . (£200 is too good an offer to refuse)

oh and I dyed my eyebrows and did my lashes over again today ( as thought they could be darker) and I can tell you its easy! takes about 5 mins and is and much, much cheaper than the salon. (orto keep using mascara)..

I used Swiss-O-Par Eyebrow and Eyelash Colour in Brown which I got from Boots for about £7, and theres enough for several uses . . You need a steady hand a though and to protect the skin around with vaseline , ( no m ned to use the eyes sheields that come with it ,and they make it too fiddly anyway if you are doing it yourself

So the meal wasn't too bad. It helped that I had two glasses of wine before I had eaten I feel like going to sleep now. Anyway dh said t was £41 not including drinks....

My friend has just asked me to be her bridesmaid!!

That's great news about dh's job Fuzz. Well done him. :-)

Sorry, I'm just not managing to keep up on the thread any more.

Ds is doing really well now though and the senco says she doesn't need to contact me again. As far as they're concerned we're a solved problem, which is great.

We are having lots of fun at home, which is why I have no time at all left for reading. I hope you are all well. If I disappear a bit then it's just for good RL reasons, and I hope you all get on well with your plans there.

I'm still frugaleering out here in RL.

laksa maybe... I'm usually in the sea proper from about late April/early May (maybe with a wetsuit - I surf but only in the "summer" I'm not crazy) and then bikini only/bikini and boardies from July-September usually.

It's lovely. Bracing. And ok once you get used to it. You need to stay in for longer than 5 seconds though. When I was a kid my dad taught me not to be a wussy and just run straight in and dunk under. Once you're wel cold and numb you've git no worries.....! Haha!

Lovely Sunday lunch. Just left the table. Dad is asleep on the floor in front of the rugby. Mum had fallen asleep on the chair and me and dh are curled up on the couch. Lamb was delicious.

I'm feeling happily comatosed.

Ah good news wreck
Just keep popping in ipsos, don't worry about not keeping up