Frugaleers chatting and saving into August...

[ipsogenix]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

Useful links copied from last year:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Morning.
Yesterday at the activity place was pretty good. Bought credit passes for the kids for £37, half the price of a family entry to our local theme park, DP and I only watch anyway. Kids had an ice cream and a tray of chips each so only spent another £10 in the park. And for once they didn't want tat from the shop.

Today DS is off to his dad's for 2 weeks so a haircut before he goes will be a tenner and then DP and me are taking the dogs on an epic walk with homemade sarnies and maybe a pub dinner for 2 later.

After all the years of taking the kids and my mum out for tea it seems an incredible bargain when it's just us two.
I'll bung DD a tenner as she has plans with friends.

Morning all!

Right. Today is day 1 of holidays. I have until Thursday to sort things before we fly. Feeling quite smug as the only thing I've bought for my holiday is a new pair of flip flops. £32 from Amazon. Reef ones. With a suedey foot base and leather toe post and thong. My old ones lasted 6 years. So have replaced like for like.

I'm planning on not buying anything else for the holiday (aside maybe from sunscreen but I need to see what we have first).

Today I am going riding and then have to go to the shop to get picnic food for later. We're going to see Oddsocks do Macbeth.

Tomorrow will be nsd. I'm planning on staying in cleaning and catching up on tv.

Monday may be the same but I might catch up on reading.

Tuesday will be Spendy. I'm getting nails pedicure and waxing done pre holiday. Then Dh and I are off to the spa. For massages (his anniversary treat to me).

I'm a bit annoyed. We're getting our bathroom done. Still. And he's booked the tiler to come on Wednesday. It's a 3 day job apparently. We fly on Thursday. I've said from the beginning I don't want anyone in the house while we're away. And need the key back. Now this. I've explained that I'm feeling anxious about it and won't be able to relax. But nope. It's happening. I need to speak to him again today. I am desperate for the bathroom to be finished but can't deal with the anxiety. What if something goes wrong? What if they need to get hold of us? Etc. I'm sure it'll all be fine. But. It's the what ifs that are freaking me out. Sigh.

He is fine and mithering for pancakes for breakfast. Your tales of imbibing and surviving are reassuring thanks. It was essential oils and olbas oil.

Maybe spendy maybe not today. Dh wants to go to a family music festival

Glad he's OK life

em I wouldn't like that either. Love those flip flops! I have those too

LSD planned for today & tomorrow.

I'm also still not clear whether mil will be joining us on our holiday or not .

I initially told Dh that if she turned up I'd be on the first flight home. I've rethought this now and don't see why my holiday should be ruined. So have found about a million things to do on my own if she turns up. Nice cafes to visit. Museum in Florence. Book on the day cooking school. Art class. Etc.

Em agree with you about not wanting people in your house while you're away. It would stress me out far too much. And would your MIL really just pitch up to join you on holiday?? Who thinks like that?

Morning, hope you are all enjoying a sunny day, I asked for advice on how much to budget for food and household items, something to aim for, but got no response. Should I do a separate post, sorry if its not for this thread.
Trying to get into the budgeting frame of mind.

sierra yes. Sadly she would. She's got form for it. She crashed bils holiday a few years ago.

Bil and sil have travelled over from NZ. And we're meeting them in Italy next week. Exciting! Sadly mil thinks this would be great to spend time with both her boys. Not so exciting. We didn't think it would actually happen but Dh tried to Skype NZ (she lives here too) last week and we can't get hold of her. Her mobiles not picking up. So no way of finding out her plans.

Dh knows I'm not happy with the thought of her potentially crashing the holiday. But there's really not much he can do. She hasn't actually said she'll join us. Just said how lovely itd be to spend time with her ds' in Italy. Am hoping more of a hypothetical.

Still. We'll make the best of it if it happens. I'll sightsee and do culture etc. Mil hates "all that culture shit" so I can just be at one with florence and let Dh deal with it.

Sorry I did see that but totally forgot.

My method of budgeting is loosely this

1. Establish what you have coming in, wages / benefits / anything else

1. Add up what has to go out, I do that by adding up the direct debits from last month and then look for all the annual bills and add 1/12 of those.

1. See what is left. From that I know I need to work out savings, food, fuel, fun, unexpected, house stuff. I put in pots an amount for car maintenance, house maintenance, medical expenses (dentist and prescriptions), clothes, haircuts, gifts and holidays. I know I want x amount in the pot by 1st December for gifts so I work out how much I need to put in.

1. What's left I work out for non-fixed expenses. I budget £250 for food for a family of four (one is a baby), £150 for fuel, £30 for a takeaway £75 for dh pocket money £250 for dh travel

Longwinded way of saying it depends on how much you have, what you must pay for and what your priorities are. I shop in aldi and spend a max of £40 a week so that I can save for holidays and things. Your priority might be shopping in waitrose or buying organic so your shopping would be higher and holidays would be lower.

MSE (money saving expert) has a statement of affairs thing it's good for seeing all the categories you should be allocating money to. It's important to consider each category, I save money into medical and dental but I don't spend it most months. It's there in case someone suddenly has a dental emergency or we have loads of prescriptions suddenly.

Sorry All. How many are you catering for?. Where do you shop now?

For household I'd budget as little as possible. The best kitchen cleaner I've found is sugar soap from Wilkinsons. It's 99p and I dilute it in a spray bottle. Otherwise I use smart price stuff for bleach, cream cleaner, loo cleaner etc. All my dw stuff is aldi or morrisons.

Washing powder is lidl and aldi, then sainsbos basic fab soft.

None of its tested on animals which gives me the warm fuzzies.

Hope you have a good holiday em regardless of mil. I would be uncomfortable with a workman in the house unless someone else was there or i knew them really well.

All, sorry, it's fine to shout again. How many of you are there and what ages?

There's also b&m, homebargains, Iceland & farm foods to consider for branded food.

Approved foods sell out of date groceries, it's very cheap and good for snacky stuff for kids. It's been very popular on here in the past.

Sorry Al didn't see that post either I am def not as good as keeping up with the thread as I used to be but am much busier these days!

How many people/kids are you budgeting for?

The way I do it is to go through all the monthly direct debits and tot them up, look at any I think could be reduced by switching companies or using less water/electric etc.

Then take that off my total monthly income and work out whats left.

I roughly budget £40 a week for food and £20 a week for petrol, household items probably come in at another £5-10 a week depending on what we need. I shop in Lidls a few times a month and always look for offers and am not loyal to any brand other than Heinz beans

I then spend on clothes, toiletries, going out and anything else depending on what is left. I am naturally now quite a cautious spender I think and won't buy something if I think its too expensive!

Thats for me and 10yo dd (and 2 cats!)

Em your mil sounds like such a nightmare, I think your plan to enjoy the holiday regardless is fab though.

Life do not beat yourself up at all, dd has often made 'potions' and its pure luck she hasn't tried any! Georges Marvellous Medicine has a lot to answer for

Right I need to get off the laptop and start sorting myself out, car needs emptying of work crap and repacking with stuff to take with us. Will be off the thread again until the end of the week, we get back Thursday.

Hi, may I join this thread? We seriously need to get our spending under control. Currently have about £1700 on credit card (but should be paid off by Christmas) and 5000 on a home improvement loan.
Both DH and I work full time so should be saving, but we are spending up to the line every month. Today I am going to look at our spending (outgoing a monthly are around £1600) and establish a budget. We should be so much better off than we are - I know this is going to be a shocker

Hi MM. I've been there, it was a bit of a shock to see where the money was going but now we have savings and things are under control. Setting a budget and sticking to it was a work in progress for a few months as I found what was realistic and not just hopeful. Be kind to yourself, what's done is done and can be learned from to see how you can go forward.

£7 on Slimming World this morning (included some of their snack bars)
£13 on stuff for meals for the weekend
£111 at vet for SierraCat's annual check up, vaccinations and 3 months of flea/worming stuff. Ouch but necessary.

mm hi!!

Been there! Currently working hard to make sure I'm never in that situation again. At my worst I had about 5k credit card debt and student loan (not as much as uk students but still a good chunky £5k or so). Plus no savings and a massive overdraft. It took ages. But student loan is now gone credit card has been paid off and is only used for big purchases (flights/hotels/etc). Overdraft cleared and reduced. I reduced it from £1000 to £250 so I still have that buffer but rarely dip into it now. It was hard. But now have savings!! Yay! And budget! Yay!

I found that I had to completely change my mindset. I was an emotional shopper. Last year I pulled all my bank statements and categorised everything. And really liked at my spendings. Apparently I spent almost £800 in boots. On toiletries. £800!! I've found those toiletries now and am trying hard to use up what I have.

Same with clothes. No non-essential spending except for flipflops I cleared my wardrobe and found some lovely things I'd forgotten about still with tags.

All

Try the smart price stuff too. We use sainsburys basic tea, I get complimented on my tea. Biscuits, Jaffa cakes, cleaning stuff, tin foil, food bags, bin bags (bin changed daily here) squash, cheese, soap. All good.

Try things and if you don't like them then take them back for a refund.

There's shopping apps like shopitize, shopmium, checkout smart and click snap to stretch the budget more.

Hi, thanks for your ideas. Budgeting for 4 (4yrs and 6yrs) shop at lidl and Tesco express which is literally over the rd from us, we've been trying to do £150 a week but its usually £200. But that includes dh's wine.

A week?

Stop going to the tesco express, try and stick to one shop a week. Aldi wine is very good, how much is he drinking? Maybe it's worth looking at how many units and how many he should be drinking for health reasons. We buy the odd bottle or some beers but try and make it that drinking only happens on a Friday or a Saturday evening. We simply can't afford any more and it's empty calories and I'm conscious of my weight.

Do you meal plan?

Do you eat everything you buy?

My budget is £40-50 a week for 2 (DS is 13) , mainly shopping online at Sainsburys , but we are vegetarian.

Ok, I've done it. It is more shocking than I thought. I was going to post numbers but I'm too embarrassed. This all stems from a horrid few years when DH had cancer and we adopted a live for the moment mentality. We earn decent amounts yet have nothing left at the end of the month.

I've a few questions if that's ok...
We have a Tesco credit card which earns points. I know lots of you don't use them now but if we're careful and pay off in full every month, would the points be worth keeping?

Is £60 a week on food for a family of four realistic? DS's have school dinners (practically the only solution as we both work full time - me on shifts) so only breakfasts and suppers during the week and family meals at weekends.

I've allowed £60 a week for fuel too - does that sound reasonable? 2 cars but local runs.

We are going to have a very tight month or two - on holiday for a week at the end of the month (Isle of Wight) so it's going to be a challenge...

Sorry All thanks for giving up a poke.

I have a family of 3; DH, DS (3) and myself. And a very fussy cat! We have a spreadsheet which I've used daily for 10 years! our grocery budget is approx £280 a month but that includes toiletries, cat food and household stuff.

We had to increase it from £240 a month because our Aldi was too small and we don't have a Lidl nearby. The cat will only eat Sheba and DSs nappies are £6 a week.

Our fuel budget is £50 a week for DH commuting. This will end once we move. Yay!

We both have a personal "pocket money" fund which is very modest. But DH only buys books and I only buy clothes from eBay. It works out well but lately we have been going over - by quite a bit

We budget £40 a month on our Water meter and £57 a month for gas/elec.

We pay for Council Tax over 12 months instead of 10 - this helps us massively but I know it isn't suitable for everyone.

And we build up our Nectar Points for Christmas

All, we are similar to you (dc 8&6) I shop mostly in sainsburys, 1 top up at Morrison's and a monthly aldi. I reccon we average £100-120 a week maybe less. It is doable.
Knock tesco on the head as it's extortion you are paying for the convenience. Lidl wine is meant to be good but i agree that much can't be healthy for body or purse.
Look critically at the food you eat, waste, brands, cupboard and plan, plan, plan.

Hi mm, don't be embarrassed we have all shared and at one point been in the same situation. I don't think the tesco cc is as good on points as it used to be. I'm thinking of swapping to nectar as sainsburys is my nearer supermarket.

All Do a big weekly shop, plan 7 evening meals, 7 lunches and breakfast choices. Downshift everything. You could watch eat well for less on the iplayer for inspiration. It's amazing what people like when the packaging is stripped away.

Last season they did a blind taste test on mayonaise. Lidls own came top, hellmans was second from bottom.

Do a stocktake, organised home.com does pre printed pantry and freezer lists to download, and use up what's there. Don't buy things you throw away a lot. Learn how to store things like salad so they keep longer on lovefoodhatewaste.co.uk.

If there's a paticular brand of wine he buys could he get it cheaper online? In a sainsburys 25% off a case promo? Amazon?, Majestic? Costco?

My supermarket is good for telling you the cheapest place to buy branded stuff you can't give up. Dh won't give up robinsons squash but thinks aldi beans beat Heinz.

The only reason I got a coffee grinder was to use aldi espresso beans in it. Nicer than lavazza & £1.69 a month V £3 for lavazza.