The Fantastic Frugalleers Meander into May.....

[Girliefriendlikesflowers]

Thought it was about time I started a new thread

Gutted, am down £35 today as had to postpone all my lessons. Mega flare up. Spent much of the day napping while the DCs played lego. DH was so sweet about it, said the money's not important... but £35! That's like half our weekly shop. Bad timing as won't have many pupils in the next couple of weeks due to half term etc. Crap :(

£130 paying off my next and very accounts. Glad to be down to £0 everywhere but the mortgage again. Hate carrying bits and bobs.

cag your dh is right your wealth is of utmost importance
what that's brilliant. My littlewoods was cleared last week & I closed it off on my ynab as I'm done with it. If I buy anything on it again it'll be school uniforms etc and a joint account expense.

Work life balance so hard to get right don't think it gets any easier either...DD starting school in September which makes childcare harder and then lots of people tell me it's when they hit senior school that they need you around the most!

£7.25 in Aldi today on scones and cream for afternoon tea tomorrow to celebrate end of term! (also treated myself to a pack of croissants - delish!)

Sorry to hear you are feeling rubbish Cag your dh is right of course.

Popped over to see a friend whose bday is today, had a card in the card box (I buy a selection from Card WareHouse 10 cards for £1) I could give her and a gift I had picked up in the January sales! Done quite well there.

blue jersey is very close to France. On a good day from the east coast we can see the wind farms. And the beaches.
Our road signs are in French. And a lot of the old Laws are french.

£17.99 back on my card as took a pie of shoes back.

Thank you

your wealth is of utmost importance that's an unfortunate typo :o cheered me up.

Definitely did the right thing cancelling anyway. Annoying but I know I'd be in a much worse state if I had pushed myself too much!

Well done on wearing a work outfit Em. That probably helped. They would be able to see that you felt it was a lesson learned too, which must definitely have helped. A lot of people would just carry on doing the same, and that's really what they want to avoid.

I got lucky today and found a student to cut my hair for £15. I think it went okay and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't used to get my hair cut more than about twice a year, but I'm trying to do it more often to look nice for ds at school. I was pleased not to have to spend a ton of money on it though.

at the typo too, but on a serious note, your health comes first, Cag. You were very stressed a few days ago, so I'm not surprised it's caught up with you.

NSD, apart from the bus fare to work (a day of supply). I was out of the house from 6.50 to 5.35, although only actually at the school 7.5 hours. I cooked dinner (just pasta, pesto and avocado) as soon as I came in, as I knew if I sat down, that would be it. Just need to wash up and waiting for Sainsburys delivery to come, and I shall be on the sofa for the night, as I'm shattered!

Sorry you're having a bad day, cag. Hope you feel better tomorrow.
NSD here, payday tomorrow and half term - hooray!
Spendy weekend planned though as MIL offered to babysit so we're having a drunken night out in town and also going to Go Outdoors as they have an extra 15% off this week. We need a few camping bits but we always get carried away in there!

Girlie this is the recipe for sticky ginger cake... its absolutely amazing. Becomes sticky when left in a cake tin for an hour or two after cooling. Works every time: fyf20quid.co.uk/recipe/sticky-ginger-cake/

Cag just rest up - I'm beginning to realise more and more that work is just a means to an end, taking care of yourself and your real life is more important!

In need of groceries but I have midweek delivery saver so slots tomorrow morning range from £5-7 for the various supermarkets - not paying that for someone to do my shopping so will go tomorrow.

Dinner out this evening using vouchers DH got for his birthday - only had to supplement with £10 so that was nice.

£5 on coffees and £10 on lunch for me and a friend at a work thing earlier - balanced out by claiming back my petrol hopefully.

Ah guys serious typo there ye knew what I meant
Creme that amount of time away from the house is my time every day but I'm at work 7.15 to 5.30 so travel isn't as tiring

It's been a good day here.

Went to get my tattoo looked at at lunchtime. Have to pop in to get it touched up next week. So it'll be proper black black. It's healed really nicely. Super pleased

Returned a pair of shoes.

Tomorrow will be returning a skirt. I think. I didn't really need it. And it makes me look a bit out of proportion. So it's going.

Meeting a friend for drinks tomorrow evening. Hoping for nice weather so we can sit outside by the sea!!!

Also getting my nails done tomorrow lunchtime.

Annoyingly the data has run out on my phone so now I'll be charged. But. I've only got tomorrow and Tuesday at work without wifi really need to find out the work wifi code so must not use internets at lunchtime.

Lila, when my kids were young and we had no money I did a second job for a while. I worked in a bar but as fast as earned it my DH ( now very exDH) would spend it so I gave up. We were massively in debt but I paid most of it back then got divorced, and we divided up the remaining debt.
Cag, take it easy....you can recover the £35 but it is harder to recover from exhaustion. And you need all your energy for your time away.

Waitrose £15 and McDonald's breakfast £4.19

Sweets for DD2 at dancing 20p

Bit the bullet and did a tesco shop to stock the cupboards back up, needed washing powder, dishwasher stuff, tea, coffee etc - all the cupboardy type stuff really, fresh F&V, nappies, fridge stuff etc. Only thing I didnt get much of was meat at we have enough in the freezer so I just got some more of the cooking bacon / frozen fish pie mix and chicken thighs. £65 including the delivery which was £5. On balance I figured that was cheaper than letting DH / kids come shopping with me tomorrow and fill the trolley up with extras. I'm hoping this lot will last (barring fruit / bread / milk etc) until our holiday in 2 weeks time. Have loosely meal planned so fingers crossed.

I'm so glad now to have had an easy day. DH is on a half day tomorrow as well so that takes the pressure off. I also saved money today by not taking the DCs to trampolining/climbing (DS can't do it anyway with his splint, and DD did something to her ankle at gym last week, so they weren't fussed really) - activity paid for in advance but with bus fares, obligatory post-bounce cheesy chips etc I guess really I've only 'lost' more like £20-25.

Had a lovely long email about the post-translation editing as well, I'd sent the CV-type info she'd asked for and long story short she wants me on board :) won't be a lot of work but still the odd thing here and there all adds up.

Nice one on the online grocery shop blue - I really think it's worth it for us. We do pay for the delivery saver as we get one delivery a week, but even if you PAYG I agree it works out better overall as you don't have as much impulse buying. I mean I still do but it's a lot easier to keep it under control. On the odd occasion I do go into an actual supermarket, I end up with all manner of crap in the trolley, spend at least double what I plan to, and that's even without the DCs being with me

Delivery saver is brilliant. A friend has it as says it saves her & hubby fighting about who will do the shopping.

We're away a week today on hols. I budgeted about €125 for groceries this week - spent €102.25 in aldi last night & remainder will buy dog food & favourite toilet roll on offer in Lidl at weekend possibly won't spend it all & transfer balancing to dining out category for a lunch for dh & I next Tuesday after he gets the snip

CHB paid in today! Forgot about that. Nice surprise to wake up to and will cover any half term costs!

Anyone been to Bluestone in Wales? I booked a trip there ages ago (still need to pay balance) and it's not til the winter but thought I'd start frugal researching now!

I always seem to spend more when online shopping. Almost like I have to make it worth their while!

£47 in aldi yeasterday, mostly on camping stuff. £17 in sainsburys on pizza for tea and some other stuff. Picked up my massive tu order but a lot is going back. Feeling a bit sorry for myself as I've lost a lot of muscle tone while being unable to do as much fitness and feel like a wobbly blimp. Swimwear trying on was a disaster yesterday. I just going to have to bite the bullet and start swimming regularly although I hate it.

Pay day!! Loads of overtime too so feeling flush. I'm going to put some straight into savings.

Did my shopping last night, £25 in aldi including extra half term snacks. Then £10 in morrisons on top up and a birthday present and £5 on cards in card factory (3 Father's Day, wedding and a birthday). I really don't mind going to the shops. It gets me out of doing bed time once a week and I do it alone. If sainsbury or tesco send me some vouchers to tempt me back I'll use them but otherwise aldi suits me fine. It's quiet at 6.30 and the only things I can't get are fat free Greek yoghurt and soya yoghurts and lactofree cheese.

Spent £105 on two tyres to be fitted next week, got triple tesco club card points so that's good.

what they're starting to include more types of greek yogurt in aldi so I'm hoping the fage type one isn't too far away. I bought regular greek yogurt there yesterday

Fathers Day is fast approaching isn't it? Just checked there whew it's the week after we return from hols, I don't have to worry about it immediately.

Morning all, pay day here as well band account looking nice healthy for a change mind you not for long as need to get some Euros. Anyone know best place for a good exchange rate? I am thinking about taking £300 worth, I reckon that will be about right for a week? Won't be spending loads out there other than on food and drink hopefully.

Have put the remainder of the money over for my house, its done now. My savings account is looking very sad but there is just about enough left to pay the removal men and a slight cushion for any other emergencies. Will def be looking to boost this up again if possible though.

My IBS has flared up this morning most likely due to house stress, I had to run back from the school run so am now having some quiet time on the sofa. Am having to do another day of blood sugars on my cat as he had a hypo ystd I rang the vet who advised squeezing honey into his mouth - he was less than impressed with that! Slightly worried about how he will cope in the cattery next week but not much I can do about it now.

Do need to pop out later, will make a list of what I need I think and stick to it!

Where are you going, Girlie? I usually budget £350-400 for a week for me and DS, based on self-catering or bed and breakfast.