Frugaleers chatting and saving even further into August...

[AGenie]

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.

Sainsburys online delivery came a bit early and woke me up from a deep, deep sleep. Just had to put away everything in a stupified state, so going back to bed with a cuppa to wake up properly! On the plus side,everything was there, so £51.60 worth of food in the house.

Snuggly, I honestly think that would be too much to take on for you. Unless it's livable for a year or so, before you can start the work?

Snuggly it can't hurt to go and look so you can get an idea of exactly what would need doing, but I probably wouldn't plan to do too much yourselves with babies on the way.

Online shop arriving today £46, no other spends planned. Off to take DC1 to swimming lesson and will probably spend the afternoon in the garden enjoying the sun

Morning all! Just back from holiday - pretty spendy I had gone with a budget in mind, cash in an envelope, about £140 for a week for food and outings - was this completely unrealistic? We probably spent another £100 on top of this. I justified it because we probably won't be able to eat out for the next 6 months (or years !!)

Snuggly we've done a bit of both since the beginning of the year - we've had some work done on our house to create a bigger living space and improve the garden plus done lots of decorating ourselves (32 weeks, painting the ceiling!!). We wanted to feel like our house is ready to sell should we see anything we like. We've also been viewing other properties, including some which would mean re-locating. One thing which is really tricky for us is that DD starts at our local, very popular school in a couple of weeks which complicates things. Had we been looking this time last year before applying for schools the decision would have been a lot easier.

Just RTFT and would love to join you all for some frugal inspiration.

After scoffing at the EWFL families on their food expenditure, I thought I should do a check on what we spend. I was horrified. Including supermarket shopping, eating out, takeaways and coffees out, we spent £3K in 3 months.

We're a family of 2 adults, 1 baby and 2 stepchildren for one third of the week.

Our new budget per month is:

£370 in supermarkets
£120 eating out/takeaways/coffee/incidentals

I know that's still fairly generous but it's half of what we were spending!

The plan is to do one big shop, meal plan and take lunches to the office.

(We went to Tesco/Sainsbury's 82 in 3 months, not including trips to other supermarkets).

Welcome Zampa.

We have £15 to last us until Friday. We have fairly full cupboards but spent £15 on fresh food yesterday - but still need bananas and milk. So - £3
DP needs to go see mates (he'll go nuts being 24/7 with me) - £4 for bus ticket
It's going to be tight!!!

Thanks Creme.

NSD for me today as I'm ill in bed - hurrah!

DH has taken roast beef sandwiches for lunch today in discounted sub rolls. I'm having restorative home made veg soup.

Got a maths class this afternoon. Last one with two pupils whose mum said they can't justify the cost :( ouch. I mean they (pupils and mum) did really like it but they can't afford it long term so, fair enough. They had said they were just giving it a try, but I stupidly hoped it would last longer. I've been a bit low lately anyway so this has just dented my ego a bit more than it should. Would really like to just ignore the day.

Caglio I tutor sometimes too. Don't take it personally, it's not your fault. I know that's easier said than done.

Hi Zampa, welcome.

Cag it is hard, but I'm sure a nice family will turn up.

Zamper - your new budget is lower than mine, so well done

Talking about houses, we moved from a gorgeous large Victorian house with a 9 meter long kitchen, large garden with pond etc...in wrong part of town...to a tiny new build with north facing tiny garden, but it's in a great location with a great school.

Mad cup cakes today, so bought eggs and butter. Asked Dc what they wanted to do and that was the request (on hottest day of year).

Dh spent £20 in wickes on screws.

I'm trying to make things that I buy, I'm rubbish at cooking so it's a loose frame work!
Sushi, wanted to see if it worked first, then cereal bars - I eat lots of these as always hungry. (And 'mad' cakes )

Has anyone been able to get their very unfrugal DP to tow the line with budgeting? Unfortunately we get paid fortnightly/4 weekly/every Monday and then Friday so it's impossible to do the envelope method but he's spending £10 every 2 weeks on a Lego toy for DSS, which I've said its crazy, and I'd really like to have some money for new essential clothes - pants, bras, boxers, t-shirts for him.

Welcome zampa!

cag try not to get to disheartened. Is there a chance that people will be looking for tutors more once school gets going?

Slowly roasting in the garden while DC1 runs around in the sprinkler

Green It seems to take longer with men for some reason.

92p asda huge tin of golden syrup for winter steamed treacle pudding.
£1.10 squash and a lettuce.

Cag Working for yourself is always like that. People want services but don't want to pay for it. The ones who value you will realise you have bills to pay too. Maths is a conundrum to a lot of people.

My dn is a flipping genius at it but finds it easy in the way that I find human biology easy. Everyone's different.

NSD and no petrol today, walked to another different park and spent an hour or so there. I've done five loads of washing and about to get the last one on the line. I love the summer when you can dry outside in an hour.

fluffy does Nectar still do the surveys? I haven't had one for months! Just looked at my Nectar balance and I need to try and boost my points before Christmas.

girlie you are so right! And DH agrees. I think I may spend £2 on the bus tomorrow and go somewhere new.

cag hope business picks up once people are back at school.

I have had a hellish day. So glad it's almost over! and it's sweltering here.

collie have you tried going direct to the Nectar canvass site? There's usually a few you can do by visiting the home page.

TUESDAY 23RD AUGUST
Money in Jar: £0.00
Money in Purse: £3.00
Money in Bank: £683.44
Grand Total: £686.44
Reduction since yesterday: £34.91
Days to Pay Day: 23

Spends:
£14.94 – BF's son's birthday present
£1.82 – personal spends (lipstick from Ebay)
£13.75 – 2 x t-shirts for DS2 who has had another growth spurt
£4.40 – groceries (of which £1.93 was personal spends, a shop bought lunch)

Still to spend:
Gyms: £43.99
DS2 Football (cash): £6.00
DS2 Football (standing order) £15.00
DS2 bus fare: £7.20
Interest: 0.55
Petrol Budget: £68.98 remaining
Grocery Budget: £194.35 remaining
Leaves for everything else: £350.37
Birthdays / nights out budget; £180
…........................................................................................................................

Hello :-) I forgot to log in for three days and have missed about a zillion posts. I hope it's going okay for everyone.

We had a nice bit of a day out today. It's hot here, and I'm quite enjoying it. I thought we were into autumn, but the sun has come back.

Yes Collie. Valued opinions is good too.

BBQ dinner on the beach! waits for inevitable envy faces

Been to the gym paid £2 for my new card and stopped in sports direct and picked up a voucher for Dh for his birthday tomorrow. £50 as he needs new gym stuffs.

Balls. Posted too soon. Left work half hour early today too. It's just too hot. And I wanted to hit the gym.

Lovely day. £8 in salon, £5.00 on light lunch for dd and I at farm (free). Invited baby group ladies back to my house which was lovely. We're in that transition phase of seeing each other once a week at group, to getting together outside of group too. They are really nice so I hope it continues.

Think it'll be a day in tomorrow, so hopefully a NSD. Shopping arriving tonight so that'll be good too, relax a bit and overcome urge to run to shops to get junk.

might send dh out for ice cream though

Green - I've had to go on and on to dh about the budget, I wrote it all down and showed dh the highlights e.g total spends on food etc I badgered him and said, if you want a holiday next year then you need to be on board.

Good luck

Welcome, Zampa.
Thanks for advice re the house. I think it probably is too much for us to take on and our priority really has to be getting a bigger car but getting our house ready to sell for when we see something suitable is a good idea. Think we'll probably focus on that.
Had an unexpected NSD today, my mum treated us to a day out. We took a picnic and she bought us ice creams. It was lovely, very hot!
Supermarket tomorrow, I need to make a meal plan and shopping list but still struggling to think about food.