The frugaleers jovially jostle their way into June July and joyfulness

[Ememem84]

ta da!

unescorted will take a look. It's probably coins. Dh has a habit of leaving them in pockets and I have a habit of not checking pockets. He lost his iPod this way.

Am taking a bundle of towels to my parents. Dad is home alone as mum is away. So I'll put a wash on (he already said I could do this) and will stop for a cuppa with him. Not using the washing machine has saved me money this week. And it's been quiet. And has made me think more about what I have.

This afternoon will be doing a wardrobe sweep and getting rid of some things I haven't worn.

I am desperate for a tan/brown leather handbag. Slouchy shoulder bag type bag. I thought I had one. But can't find it. So a clear out might help find it. If not, I'll add it to the birthday list.

Yes unescorted! One of my parenting fears is that my girls will be ultra clean living / gym yoga worshippers / tee- total that all my prep as a wayward teenager will be obsolete and I won't understand them at all !

Italian congrats on your pregnancy - when are you due? Lovely, lovely girls name!

Ok spends 01/07/2016: £45.45 petrol, £8.50 DD school trip, £2.90 breakfast.

10 frugal things I'd like to achieve in July: 1) set up eBay and PayPal account 2) sell £10 worth on eBay 3) cancel NT direct debit £9pm 4) cancel annual Norton £80 5) phone virgin - aim to reduce by £20pm 6) negate new rent purchase by selling old tent etc 7) increase childcare vouchers to max 8) research days out through CSC card 9) make a 5-year holiday plan and budget 10) check if any club card vouchers are due to expire.

Happy weekend everyone! Sun is shining here

Italian sorry I missed you being pregnant. Congratulations.

Em they finally did for our washing machine. Bike tools and mud may also have been a factor.

Ursula I don't understand DD. She gives me the evils if I think about having a glass of wine. Sucks the joy out of it. She does have a very expensive crisp habit though.

Unescorted New zealend heritage cards will get you into nt and English heritage sites for £40ish quid. Maybe a bit more for family cards but way less than NT.

Em Excellent news for your Dh. If he can save the increase rather than spend it all the better. Someone on mse did that and had her mortgage paid off in no time.

Yesterday
Hair blow dry £11. Had it done at the local college but won't be going back.

£3 lunch.
20p water.

£12.50 pizza express using Tesco vouchers. That was 3 courses plus two prosecco.
£1.40 parking.

Today will be NSD.

£78 in sainsburys, £9 butchers, £2 card. Either IKEA ort garden centre this afternoon. Both will be spendy

I desperately need to get my finances in order!

I've got myself in the biggest mess, I'm actually ashamed of myself!

I have around £3k on a credit card, plus £700ish on next

It's three days from payday & im absolutely skint!

I've got into a bad cycle of feeling disappointed in things & treating myself to make me feel better!

My biggest expense is smoking, I need to stop!

Oh god, I don't know where to start!

Thanks Ursula, I'm due in November
Groceries was 25£ and gift for my cousins new baby girl was 26£ but we are 3 couples paying so will be reimbursed for that. Spent 4£ at the flea market on cakes and drinks for dd and me

kate, get yourself an electronic cigarette:)
Then do a statement of affairs, see where you can cut back.
You're on the right path, you had a lightbulb moment :)

italian, I love Carolina, it's a very pretty name!
We're still in bed

fluffy that's the plan. He'll get an extra £333 per month. So that's being saved.

I know, things need to change! Fencing

I'm off to the doctors to try & get some off that medication to help stop, however i already take medication so I'm not sure they'll give it me!

Also failed my theory test today, so that's another £20.00 odd out when I get paid!

kate I had a revelation last year/earlier this year. I pulled out my old bank statements and worked out exactly how much I'd spent in the last year. Absolutely shocked.

Also love the names Italian

Congrats to MrEm

My DDs are also anti smoking and drinking, the smoking thing I can appreciate but the anti drinking? I don't where I've gone wrong

not sure how much I'll spend on veg, will update later.

Kate stopping smoking is not as hard as people make out - Not easy but doable. Just don't stop stopping. If you have a lapse it is not the end of the world and certainly not an excuse to stop stopping. I say this as an ex smoker.

Sorry, just marking my place to keep this on the threads I'm on list. I'm still frugaleering here (although there are always things that I don't quite get round to).

Kate..I can relate!
I have £600 on next (hoping to pay this off by year end)
And £10k on 0% cc (much needed house repairs)

I wouldn't mind quite so much if it had been frivolous spending tbh...but you need heat, hot water and a non leaking roof!
Our plan - such as it is - is to get a savings buffer of £1k and then start throwing money at the debt
It's the first few steps of the Dave Ramsey system if you are interested - he has helped lots of people out of debt and his methods make sense to me
Once the decorating is done we are cancelling all spends that we had planned (new dining table, going away for the weekend later in the year etc )
Sadly both boys need a lot of new uniform - I have a £25 next voucher to put towards it but that won't go far...
Gah

Badders can you befriend the parents of kids with slightly larger kids who are popular enough that the bullies don't throw them around the playground but not so popular that they are playing rough games with their mates..... I found the parent of the school bookworm was a good target.

Em...I do that at the end of each month..
It always horrifies me how much a I spend on coffee/stuff I don't need
My Amazon habit is baaaad

Do you know...you've reminded me !
I think my sister may have given me sons of my nephews old stuff.....

I think coffee machines save money in the long term. Once you've drunk lavazza gold Costa et al taste horrible.

NSD.

Tiler has been and we liked him, he will quote us tomorrow. Feeling a bit scared TBH.

badders me toooo!! I bought a new pair of black johdpurs the other day from Amazon. Mine are getting a bit faded. faded not ripped. I may send them back once I collect from post office I don't really need them.

Wardrobe has been tidied. And things sorted. I've whittled out a few more bits for eBay so will list those tonight.

Went through my spares box too and established I've got enough toiletries to last a while (probably until birthday time when I'm hoping dm will top me up).

have told Dh that we're going back to making proper lists and I'm avoiding all shopping unless we actually need it. We should in theory be able to only do a food shop once every 3 weeks/a month. So that's what I'm aiming for. Credit card balance has bounced up because of our trip to Ascot and my stressing hasn't helped. I'm an emotional spender.

italian in not sure if I said earlier, but I love your baby girl name. Beautiful. Good choice!

Nice morning. Went to my riding lesson and hacked out with the ponies. Then as some of them are off to a show this afternoon, I helped do some plaiting. It wasn't great but not bad for a first attempt.

fluffy agree. Proper coffee all the way here. None of that Costa stuff. Our Costa here are so rude too. Went in last winter on a sat morning before an appointment. Ordered a gingerbread lattee. The guy made hazelnut. I asked him to change it and he got atroppy with me. So I left the coffee hadn't paid at this point

I used to buy coffee from the local Portuguese coffee shop every day before work. At £2 a go for a coffee it wasn't cheap but The coffee is goooooood and I liked strolling in with my to go cup. ponce I did this up until a couple of years ago. When I worked out that I was spending £500 ish a year on coffee.

Last year I took a cafetière into work. And my boss and I take it in turns to stock up our coffee tin. (Although recently we haven't had to as a client of mine in Italy sent us a sack load of ground coffee for Christmas).

Takeaway coffees are now only for treats. And only if we order "gay" lattes (double shot hazelnut syrup bit of foamy milk).

Hello all, seems to have become a habit trying to catch up at weekends. Will try harder this month.

Yesterday I managed to take lunch to work. Took DD1 to watch DS in a music festival, we went for an early dinner first £25, then she had an ice cream in the interval £3. Annoyingly, I couldn't use the reduced theatre parking deal as I still had the roof box on the car, so parking was £6 instead of £2

Today £49 in Waitrose, there was nothing much in the fridge, do did quick shop and also ordered Tesco £60 to collect tomorrow. Annoyingly, when I opened the Caesar salad I bight for lunch, it was rotten, in places literally. I am taking it back when I take DD2 to swimming.

This week Sainsburys energy sent me a letter telling me my payments were going to increase from £252.50 per month to £378. I almost had a heart attack. I know we owe £118, but even so.... I called them up, they agreed that the change was ridiculous, and said keeping it the same was right. I said I thought I'd be better off changing to a different tariff with them despite the exit charges, and the lovely lady said no exit charges if I stay with them. So now my payments have gone down to £200 per month.

I also cancelled the renewal of my RAC cover as I got it with my new car.

I got £88 off ds1s new bedroom carpet today!
Guy quoted me with 30% off - turns out he shouldn't have but shop are honouring it - £48 off
Then I got them to use cheapest poss underlay - so £40 off quote there too
Been into loft...found ds2 a "new" winter coat, some trainers, pe shorts and 6 school polo shirts !!
So he just needs trousers and sweaters now..
Ds1 needs loads sadly

Hi all!

Been away a few days, due to internet messing up AGAIN. Turned out when they fixed the actual fault a few weeks back (which mercifully is outside our property so not our problem financially) they hadn't put a cover on the wires, so when ever the wire moved, it shorted [facepalm]. Anyway all sorted now, and it turned out the engineer lives in our street so he did little things like replacing the socket for free. :)

We've had to get a new (unofficial but ok IYSWIM) laptop charger as ours broke - but we are also trying to get a free replacement from Lenovo, which is taking a while due to proof of purchase requirements etc... fail .

Haven't caught up on the thread at all, but on scrolling down I did notice the quote from my DD on the article, I hadn't noticed that! Good spot Ipso thank you, DD will be rather pleased. I can't share it on FB though sadly as I don't want people knowing my MN name. But how funny! :o :o

Got a heap of stuff to be sorting out now I'm back online though. Including my first tax return! EEEEK!

We're trying to be good as I in particular have been AWFUL with spending money over the last couple of months. We've gone back to recording daily spends for this month.

Yesterday:
bus £5.50
coop £14.67
tower of london £11.70
geography club (august) £5
(the ToL thing is a home ed trip for October, bloody bargain for 1 adult 2 kids, includes crown jewels!)