Amazing April Austerity.

[CremeEggThief]

Hi All,
Taking the liberty of starting a new thread, as I went to post spends on the old one and it's full.

We had a lovely day out at the seaside and visited an old lighthouse as part of it. As we rely on public transport, that's always a big part of our days out spend.
£9.60 bus fares.
£9.60 train fares (with the family railcard).
£6 lunch from Sainsburys ( £3 meal deal each).
£4.50 entrance to the lighthouse.
£7.10 coffee, hot chocolate and cookies in a café afterwards.

Oh and DS needed a haircut, which I think was £6.50.

What do you buy for that money Lilac that lasts so long?

Thank you for the welcome backs, I'm feeling really positive from rejoining! However the thread moves so fast I will attempt to keep up but may not be able to

£9 in Morrisons, but £3 odd of that will be paid back on checkout smart.
£12.40 in health food shop (for everything except what I actually went in for)
£3 in superdrug on toothpaste and floss
£2.40 bus fare (we walked one way so saved £2 there)

Having a homework catch up day tomorrow so shouldn't spend anything. Need bread, I'm in half a mind to make a batch of flatbreads though so might not even go out for that.

Thanks everyone. I'm feeling a lot more positive today although I've got to get the job first! I really hope I'm employed soon because it's so demoralising going to the job centre to sign on but it's a necessary evil right now.

Lucsy That sounds horrendous, I'm glad things are a bit better now. This time last week I was googling good banks and was only saved from asking to be referred to one when my dad gave me £40 for food. I spent half and saved half so I can buy more bits over the next week or so.

Thanks for asking after me Need, think I was writing my post when you posted earlier. I must have 'heard' you.

Just realised that my contents insurance is due in May and car tax in June. The contents insurance is about £60 I think, but the car tax is £225 for the year. Not sure how I'll afford that so I might have to tax it for six months.

Money

Use a cashback site for the contents insurance, be aggressive with it. Do a comparison, then look at the cheapest ones cashback amounts on topcashback.

I think car tax can be on monthly DD now.

Crikey this moves fast.

Ipsos well done for coming to a decision about the Upwork (and for using your wages so sensibly!).

I love old Donald Duck cartoons :) my favourite is the one in the lighthouse with the bird that keeps blowing out the candle. Also, have you and DS ever seen Donald In Mathmagic Land? One of my absolute favourite videos as a child. I have wonderful memories of talking with my dad about the Fibonacci spiral, and he went off and made a spreadsheet to show me how it relates to the golden mean. When my eldest was born, my friend from college found it on DVD (it's here - always feel a bit naughty posting Amazon links on a thread where we're supposed to be being frugal...) and he gave it to us with a note about passing the love of maths to the next generation. I'll never forget that. Perfect gift. And I still have the note nearly 9 years on. :)

Spends:
£2 chocolate
£11.99 and £8 little extra presents for DSDs, couldn't resist!
£10.20 bus fares
£6.20 taxi
£3 HMV card thingy (seems like it might be worth it as we do shop in there an awful lot... damn this DVD habit... and it puts the £3 worth of points straight on it anyway)
£124.75 dinner. DSDs' milestone birthday celebration, so 6 of us. And that was with discount, and me pointing out a mistake with the drinks prices (incidentally I'm quite proud of myself for doing that)! We don't normally drink at all, but there were cocktails as it was a celebration. Never spent anywhere near that much on a meal before, but thankfully it's a loooong time before our 2 reach that age and at least then it's only one at a time. Best start saving now! :o Had a lovely time anyway, really fun and full of chat and they felt very grown up. :)

They loved their presents. They were a bit downcast when they said what their mum is getting them though. She's set on taking them to a particular place to get a particular piece of jewellery. Neither likes jewellery (and she knows this) and would never wear this particular thing, but they are going along with it to keep their mum happy and they are such kind people, they would never act ungrateful. I do get that it's a tradition for her, significant present etc but I can totally understand how DSDs are a bit hurt, because presents should be about what the receiver loves, not what the giver wants to give! Surely? Especially when money is tight and it is therefore the only gift (they got similar from their GM as well). Meaningful gifts don't have to be expensive (see DVD example above!) - it's not like they're upset at not getting an iPhone or something! Memories of being given something you really love are what really lasts, whether it's made of gold or paper or costs £100 or £5. I dunno. Needless to say DH and I would never interfere anyway but it made me sad to see them sad. IYSWIM. Sorry for the vent.

Thanks Cag. You Dad sounds amazing. I have shamelessly bought that DVD. I think ds will love it.

ipsos when I'm home from work I'll put up my receipt but I had a good bit of veg and cupboard staples already in. I think if you weren't fussy about what you ate it would be possible to survive in my house for about a month.
I bought things I wouldn't usually like a pre made salad for my lunch today, two quiches and breaded mini chicken fillets as I've my sis and her bf staying for two nights & possibly have 5 extra for a light lunch tomorrow also.
I will make a big pot of soup also which keeps costs down.

Frugal win I rang my bin company to get a new brown bin & there's no charge!

ipsos I'm pleased you have made a decision, and that was great use of the money.
Was hoping for NSD today but realised we need cat food. Might use my John Lewis cake voucher to cheer myself up as it's the last day of the Easter hols.
I really need to do better with cash back, I'm on Quidco but always forget to look, I should sign up for the others. Also I don't really understand the click snap (or is it quick snap?) deals. How do they work?

Pointless You buy the products on www.quidco.com/clicksnap/ & upload a photo on your phone or pad. They credit hour account an pay out a few days later.

www.topcashback.co.uk/SnapAndSave/Offers Takes a bit longer but will pay out in Tesco points if you select the option.

There's Shopitize, checkout smart and shopmium apps too.

Shopmium and shopitize are independents, the others are the same company.

Dh and I have accounts with each so I can double up on each offer.

NSD

cag ipsos I was talking to dsis about that film the other day. We had it too!

I remember growing crystals at school ipsos, but out of salt water so not edible.

Just had toasted muffins with bacon and scrambled eggs for brekkie. I'd thought about getting up early and treating Dh to brekkie out. But as we're saving it made more sense to get up early and have a nice proper brekkie together. Yum.

Too full for work now...!

Collie

NSD, we are going off at lunchtime to a competition. Three hour drive in the horse box. Happy days!

Thanks Fluffy, for the links again, and other information. Useful. I'll probably download onto my phone over the weekend.

There's some brilliant offers for Swartz spices on clicksnap and checkoutsmart. I bought 12 for £3.

I aim to have every useful spice and herb.

I've had a bit of a slow morning. Had a lot of things go wrong again last night so it seems I'm just in for a rubbish week.

It was a lot of little things but I just broke down in tears. I needed to rant and get it off my chest.

I feel so drained to be honest and I really do not want to go to work today. My foot is throbbing and my wound site from op is still open, broken down further and causing me pain. It's only for three hours though.

Have a dressing change this morning.

Decided in may half term we are going to visit a relative who lives down south in London. I'm actually excited about this. She is letting us stay with her and in return I've told her I'll do a food shop. Seems good to me.

Hey collie !

Spent yesterday £25 split with a friend (£50 in total), takeaway dinner to celebrate new job. That was to feed 8 of us so that was pretty good going (half of them children).

Will be spendy today, paying a friend for some mister maker tickets taking dd.

Parking...

Happy Friday everyone.

£12 for £3 is bargainous. I'll look out for that, thanks. My spices are low, they do some nice mexican type seasoning I use for mid week stuff.

Thanks Pointless. I think it will be best. Dh says I've to enjoy my self-funded voluntary job and not feel bad about the cost and lack of income, so that's nice. btw, you mentioned the other day your dd kicking during nappy changes. With us, that was the beginning of an accelerating trend that ended with ds having to learn to change his own clothes because we could no longer fight him into them. It's frustrating I know, but I suppose it's progress in an odd sort of way. I used to have to crawl around the floor after ds with nappy in hand. It was hilarious and tiring and I do feel for you.

Lilac thanks for the food shop ideas.

I'm talking too much and ignoring ds too much so I'll duck out of the thread until late tonight or tomorrow now. Thanks for the chat, it's been so helpful.

There's a list of which spices are eligible. Sainsburys mycoupons had an offer on for 300 points for a £15 spend.

So the spices came to £15.04 or something. I got £12 back. Points not awarded yet so I'm going to complain.

I always get the booze ones for free cider and beer for when people come round.

What are the booze ones Fluffy, I'm not sure I get that?

I'll definitely download the apps this weekend. You get a bit of free time between heats and we've never had a phone charger before, but DH has got me this battery pack thing, so I can use the phone a little more liberally that I could previously.

Well, at the moment there's two offers.

Clicksnap is offering strongbow cloudy cider, as is checkoutsmart, at selected supermarkets. Asda and morrisons. So if you and dh both had an account with clicksnap and checkout smart you'd buy 4 bottles on individual receipts. Then claim them all back.

Clicksnap and topcashbacks snap and save are offering free Amstel beer, Tesco only. Same principle. Buy 4 seperately and claim them all back.

It does require some planning but I don't mind for free alcohol.

I do the same with biscuits, I low carb and dh has diabetes so I keep them in for when family visit.

I'll find that coupon for the Paul Hollywood bread mixes in a minute.

Thanks, I've got some time over the weekend to do this. Cheers.

secure.tesco.com/clubcard/boost/CMSAssets/UK/rewards/default/pdf/coupons/money-off/50p-off-baking-mix.pdf

Use one coupon per two bread mixes. Takes them from £2 for two to £1.50. Redeem till reciept on clicksnap/checkoutsmart for £1. Two mixes for 50p.

You can do this 3 times per app.

north go out for dinner, how often does it happen that dd is on a sleepover?

ipsos great use of your money, once I've cleared my credit card debt I'm going to start a regular contribution to my pension.

em that sounds like a lovely breakfast, it's lovely that you and your dh breakfast together and travel to work together daily. I think that time of morning when nothing has troubled your mind is a great time of the day.

I had oaty pancakes with cacao to make them chocolatey and a tsp of flaxseed for my digestive health with some strawberry yogurt. It was very decadent.

I've lost 5lbs in last 4 weeks by sticking to my slimming plan more rigidly, drinking more water, and including a tsp of flaxseed each day and some dark chocolate each week

lucsy not ignoring your struggle either, I admired you last year when I didn't even know how bad things were for you.
money glad that you didn't go over your overdraft limit, and hope that you can start to claw back a little now from it