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.

Just on our way back from York. Remember how last time the coach nearly left without me 10 minutes before departure time? Well, this time, we got there 35 minutes early, but the coachievements was 45 minutes late, so we were waiting an hour and 20 minutes. So whether early, on time or late, you can't win!

Anyway, had a good time. Spends: £10.40 elevenses for us both and £38.39 on a lovely lunch in Bills (mains and cold drinks, shared dessert, tea, coffee and tips. ) I didn't have enough cash, but instead of putting it all on my card, I gave the £20 I had in cash and put the remainder on my card. Oh and I got a great pair of biker boots from Fatface for £30, reduced from £95!, so that's on my credit card.

Dh just got charged a further £19 to be fingerprinted for his citizenship application. Pricey business this. :-)

We went to our town's science museum today. Ds really enjoyed building various things. We have bought a season ticket and it was only £28.

We also went to a free council event on the council's narrow boat that is just for children's craft events. Ds really enjoyed that too.

Our future holiday plans pictured below. Also a pic of our cats adventures!
Earned €15 doing a walk through of a website this morning, had to give up the car dealership visit due to funeral arrangements
Today was a nsd so far but getting dc haircuts now, dh bought some sliced pans for me to make sandwiches for funeral. I had the rest of the ingredients.

Allthebest how are you in negative for the haircuts category? Did you spend money you didn't have or do you mean that you're getting it done next month & should have more in the category by now?

Em it must be in the air, dh was in a mood with me for over an hour because I dropped off the sandwiches to his cousins house instead of him. It was to enable him to be there on time tonight & save him changing his clothes unnecessarily he's grieving I know but grow up

Congratulations to your DS Need. Those results are stellar. The A* -C are well down this year, so e tea well done.
NSD here. My 9th for August. There is no way I am going to get 15 NSDs in for August, but the DGCs were here a lot of the time and I did take DGD to the space centre and York. Both well worth it.
Will be more frugal in September.
Going to make oodles of tomato soup and courgette soup to freeze tomorrow but need to buy garlic. And I am hoping to pick blackberries and make jam. And go to the gym ( can go again now all DGCs have gone home).
Got my £5.30 I reclaimed on the Oyster card paid into my account. Transferred it straight to savings.
And, for the first time ever I did a survey and got points on TCB. I am learning from being on here.

should say"especially"

Someone posted asking ffor advice re boot sales and another MNer said to park, lock your car and go to a tea/food van. Vulchers will move on rather than wait for you to drink your tea.

£11 - ish in Boots, I have a cold sore
£11 - ish in Costa, we were out sorting school shoes
£40 shoes for 1, others are on order.

fantastic result there need he should be proud of himself.

Thank you all. We are pleased and proud in equal measure. There's room for improvement, as he will admit himself, he didn't try as hard as he might in some subjects. He said he wished he had done more than an hours revision for RE!!!! I've told him this is a dry run for A Levels.

To be fair, a good number of his mates bettered his results, they are a brainy cohort. My friend who has cancer, her daughter got 11 A*'s, which is quite astonishing. They all push each other on though, and benefit from this cumulative brain power.

I've never done a car boot, so have no tips to give.

I can imagine it's a pretty good science museum, given where you live Genie....

Well done on the boots Creme, I always fine Fat Face a really good quality brand.

We are going for a meal later, to celebrate.

Lil - regarding ynab, I've just started using it so have put in the budget for haircuts £20 a month because over a year this will cover haircuts, but I get hair cut about every 3 months so in my head the money would build up...but as I've just started the £20 for this month doesn't cover it. So I don't know what to do. It says to budget to zero, but I'm working things out over a year and diving by 12. Im.doing it this way as previously I just spent money and never thought about long term costs e.g. Saving for Christmas, or saving for school uniform. But perhaps ynab doesn't work like that?

Also, cute tent

Thanks for the kind words about GCSE results, I've been feeling rubbish about it all afternoon but I don't think I could have done any more for them.
Thanks also for the car boot advice, it's the vultures that have always put me off but going straight for a brew is a good tip. We have a lot of CDs, suspect they probably won't sell well these days.
I've entered a competition today to win a people-carrier, wish me luck!!

£14.78 in Lidl
£10 on bits in town.
£160 on contents insurance, but got £40 something back through topscashback, so £120

Must.stop.spending!!!!

Congrats Need, very good results!

Wow Need, well done your Ds!

My LSD turned in to £70 for a roofer to sort the wonky tiles on my... well, roof, obvs. Gutted it was so much for a ten minute job but all the other roofing companies wouldn't even bother to do it. "No job too small" my arse. He also fixed my guttering whilst he was up there, so that feels better.

£99 in the current account until payday. And then strict budgeting starts.

Need Those are fantastic results. I hope he's very proud of himself.

Snug I'm sorry you didn't get the results you hoped for with your class. Don't beat yourself up over it.

Em Did you forget to light sparklers in his dessert and book a small plane to do a fly past his work with a banner saying "mr em is wonderful, the rest of you are cockwombles by comparison". Perhaps he could go all out on your birthday so you know the drill for next year.

£10 petrol
£5 cat food and chicken.

I've taken 1 co codamol 30/500. Dh assures me in 10 minutes I won't know my own name. I figured if it's good enough for post op polyp removal it's good enough for period pain.

Hi all! I'd love to rejoin you all!

I was on here for a couple of years until this year - dropped off when I had finally got out of debt and saved for my house deposit. We moved in this Feb.

We got mired in debt straightaway as we had to take a loan out for some emergency work (perils of buying a rundown house). About to pay that off this weekend but I know we need to start saving and get our frugal ways back!

Welcome everdene!

DH and I were just discussing what would happen if one of us lost our job. We would be just about ok on his salary, especially without child care going out. Not so sure how we'd manage on my wage but I could probably go back to full time. I think people are expecting me to give up work when we have 3 DCs but I don't think I'd cope well as a SAHM, I've found some days of the school holidays pretty tough. It would be easier with lots of money for days out, it's the days at home I struggle with. I will be working for pretty much nothing for a few years though once we've paid childcare.

Welcome back Ever. Well done on buying a house though. It's never cheap.

We rented for years and had basically nothing when we moved in here, just basic furniture.

Snug Our long term plan is for Dh to work pt and look after the house & I'll work ft being a nail tech. I'm bored being at home part time & he hates his current job so it would work well for us. I don't find house stuff terribly interesting.

The haircuts, you need to allocate money to that budget, you are saying you want to budget £20 but unless you allocate it it won't go in. Next month you will allocate £20'again and you'll have £40 in there. So you allocate the pounds to each budget area.

£41 in aldi and £8.50 in sainsbury on groceries. That is the end of my grocery budget till September. Should be ok. I got a multi pack of wipes and spent £3 on Parmesan.

Spent £12 on two t shirts in next for the boys, one is "I am 1" the other is "I am 4". Gabriel is 1 in a few weeks but Wilf isn't 4 till April. So bit early but thought I may as well get them now.

Thanks Fluffy and Snuggly!

Yes, getting the house has been amazing - but we are quite skint now! Thrilled to be paying off the loan.

Hoping to have a (cheap) few days away at the end of Sept, we haven't been away since 2011.

Going to get YNAB again this weekend and it's my payday tomorrow so a good time for an overhaul.

Fluffy I quite enjoy housework if I can be left alone to get on with it properly but that never happens with DD around, I just seem to clean the floor about 6 times a day!
I enjoy playing with her and going out to places but also need adult company.

Sorry, posted to soon. Meant to say your plan sounds great.

Haha fluffy yes! Must have forgotten to do that. admittedly at last years beach BBQ there were Dolphins

Fluffy, I take co codamol 30 500 all the time for pain and it's fine. Mine is on prescription for pain.

Spends today £2 meeting friends for coffee, £8 in Co-op. I was a complete idiot and didn't close the fridge door properly when I went out, so it massively overheated The bottom 2-3 drawers were still cold, but have had to bin everything from the top 2 shelves So annoyed with myself.

Snuggly, I don't think I could be a SAHM either. I enjoy it more now DC1 is a bit older, but I think I would still go crazy doing it day after day for years!

Hi all signing in quickly before I go to bed!

Well done Needs ds that is a brilliant result

I take codeine for severe headaches when needed, I like the slightly woozy feeling it gives you

I managed a very LSD 39p on a bottle of water.

Best if you intend to get your hair done this month then you need to allocate more than £20 from your to be budgeted money maybe could put less into uniforms as they're probably sorted now. What I find helps me is how many more pay cheques until I need to pay for this. You should follow category balances instead of bank balance, doing this has enabled me to carry larger sums of money in the purse without spending it like previously.