Super Scrimpers sashay, save & --squander-- their way through September

[lilacclery]

Thought I'd start us off!

Honey do you buy gluten free products? DH and I both intolerant, not actually celiac, but I don't like GF food so I refuse spend the ££ s on it.

I have sinned. I've splurged and bought shit loads. Spent £70 in sainsburys and clothes and bedding. Then spent £16 in charity shop and £14 in fat face (have a friend who works there so got 40% off dungarees for dd). Charity shop was boden coat, Crewe shirt, monsoon tunic for dd and next shirt and toy motorbike for ds I do find banardos much more expensive than other charity shops though.

wreck your charity shop haul sounds brilliant!!

I just got stuck in the biscuit tin twice! TWICE!! Delved in for a cookie with my right hand. Put the lid on with my left hand and my left sleeve got caught. Put cookie in my mouth to free myself with my right hand and got the other sleeve caught I am an adult I swear haha! (My jumper is too big)

I'm feeling the house selling stress. I want to cry & shout but I must contain myself. The fees are SO horrible.

Welcome, Honey. A tip about credit cards I've learned from a very knowledgeable poster called TalkinPeace on Money Matters on here is to change your credit card direct debits to standing orders, as this way you pay off more than the interest and always try to pay a bit more than your minimum payment. It can save years, apparently. Look for Talk's threads on Money Matters, if you want to know how it works in more detail.

Spends today: £9.70 travel and £4.20 on coffee and cake, while waiting between buses.

All of the Autumn soups and new clothes sound fab!

Bit naughty today Found a lovely top in H&M for £15. £24 in Waterstones for a lovely Paddington book collection for the christening present and 2 books on a buy one/get one half price for my nieces for Christmas. Then £3 bus fares.

collie your biscuit tin story made me lol

honey hi! You'll get loads of tips and advice and cat pics here. The crew has helped me out no end.

genie yes. Well that's what we were told. She was found in June living rough with kittens. No microchip. The kittens couldn't be saved then she was popped in a small ish enclosure in a cat sanctuary (where the lady didn't have a lot of time to handle all the cats and get them used to people).

We've had another go at patting today. Just while she was eating. She didn't freak out just a bit hissy but was preoccupied with food. ive left her alone for a bit with her new scratchy post. She's getting braver. But was shaking while I was patting her. She will get there. I'm hoping by Christmas she'll be out and about. That's a reasonable time I think....

Today's spends:

£40.40 at coop for weekly shop -joint ac

£5.15 lunch (smoked chicken rocket tomato and chili Mayo ciabatta, Diet Coke and salt n vinegar crisps healthy) from money in my purse.

honey can you reduce your phone bill?

DH got paid today so we are back to YNAB to make the month last. Any savings I had hoped for from no childcare hasn't happened as trying to sell DH flat that is in negative equity pf thousands. Sigh.
Am gong to stick to cash in envelopes to use for spending budget as found that meant less.

£5 in sainsbury
Milk
Pepper
5 onions
Tin of toms
Loaf of bread
8 cans of Diet Coke

I paid using the change in my purse and £2.50 of nectar points. I count that as free. Dh and I had nacho topped wedges for dinner, a sw recipe. Used a whole thing of mince for two of us which was very indulgent. It was tasty. The boys had sausages and mash.

The cupboards are looking a bit bear. I didn't realise how stuffed they had been before.

Sold my old phone today for 50£ which is nice. Less stuff to store and a bit of cash in hand.
I'm having a pregnancy massage tomorrow that dh has booked me as a surprise, he's so thoughtful. Just hope she's not a chitter chatter because I really just wanna lay and sump in while getting massages and I'm so rubbish at small talk.
Nsd today.

When I grew up we had soup day every week, it's quite common in Italy. So during autumn and winter we have soup day, loving the warm feeling it gives inside.

Welcome honey. Can't give any advice on he or credit cards unfortunately due it not being used here. But I am the opposite when it comes to card vs cash. I spend cash I have without thinking but spend less with the card because I then can't be bothered to swipe my card for silly amounts...

We have to switch bank, so have booked an appointment at another bank for next week. Have to bring our budgets ect so at least it gives me a chance of going trough all that. Hope it goes smoothly do, I'm not really a bank switcher.

Can't remember who mentioned no trips January. But we're doing our annual lalandia trip in January because we can save 40% on the price (think they are selling so cheap because ppl in general are out of pocket) but it's brilliant because it's cheaper and there are fewer ppl there, win/win...

Creme: lol at the cash back

creme I hate that about tcb I get all excited then a stupid amount. But still. Better than nothing I suppose.

Just paid £100 off credit card.

Every little helps, Em and Italian.

I'm getting the hang of NSD's now, third one in a row this week, only tomorrow and friday to go, then it's payday :)
I got some bleaching cream for facial hair, but I used boots points, so no spend.
Went to the library, returned some books and renewed the ones I'm yet to read, so I'll avoid the fee :)
I've got DD's residential trip to pay, but that's budgeted for, I've done crazy amounts of overtime in August.
So yes, we're on track.
I'm making fried rice tomorrow.pizza friday.
Saturday we're out, so we'll grab something like a sandwich.
Sunday is soup with crusty bread.

I've got a John Lewis card and today the voucher was for soup and bread or the cake and hot drink. So next week i might take gabe for a free lunch :-)

Caught up to here

Got a phone call from bank suggesting an overdraft facility as I've had standing orders that haven't had funds to meet them I'm using ynab now since April no payment comes out unexpectedly so I quizzed her to know when this has occurred & she couldn't tell me, I was like, thanks but no thanks to the overdraft
Pre this thread I would probably have said yes

Spent €22 on a two course early bird with two friends, really enjoyed the food & the company.

Came home to find my next batch of contact lenses have arrived, I now have enough for 5.5 months of wearing them every day & I don't so I'm going to pause my subscription for a few months, this will save me €38 a month.

I got paid into my PayPal €15 for mystery shop work.
at fluffy's tcb payout!

I've €15 built up in my Irish opinions site, payable in €10 vouchers, will hold out until €20 & then decide if I can wait until €30 or not

Honey there's some great advice here, could you make rather than buy coeliac friendly food or eat food that's naturally gluten free?

Lila: do you have to pay for the overdraft facility? We have an allowed overdraft attached to our account but we don't pay to have only pay if used (the interest)

Hi all quickly popping on before bed!

Collie damn those baggy jumpers, that sort of thing happens to me all the time I think I need a bigger biscuit tin

Went to see Bridget Jones Diary tonight with friends, really enjoyed it and properly laughed out loud quite a few times my friend got us tickets through her work so only cost £6 which is good for a new release.

I had a complete brain melt earlier today and got dds swimming lesson time wrong so turned up just as they were getting out have decided dd definitely does too many clubs!! I think swimming is the one that will have to go, its just too much to manage at the moment.

Spent £1.64 on sweets for dd (who was in a complete grump due to not getting her swim) and for me to take to the cinema.

Hi all quickly popping on before bed!

Collie damn those baggy jumpers, that sort of thing happens to me all the time I think I need a bigger biscuit tin

Went to see Bridget Jones Diary tonight with friends, really enjoyed it and properly laughed out loud quite a few times my friend got us tickets through her work so only cost £6 which is good for a new release.

I had a complete brain melt earlier today and got dds swimming lesson time wrong so turned up just as they were getting out have decided dd definitely does too many clubs!! I think swimming is the one that will have to go, its just too much to manage at the moment.

Spent £1.64 on sweets for dd (who was in a complete grump due to not getting her swim) and for me to take to the cinema.

It was me with the no trips January Italian :) totally agree on the advantages of off peak stuff though. It's mainly that we have a ridiculous amount coming up this term - Tower of London, historical caves, chocolate making workshop :o, 2 classical concerts, 2 reptile/bug handling workshops, a museum workshop possibly a watercolour class. That's on top of all their regular clubs. All very cheap (especially the tower) but with travel it adds up of course. And we have a mini break next month as DH is doing the Hastings 17 miler so we will be doing the history stuff, and we are seeing a play for my birthday. Got 4 sets of film tickets too, they were free for a film festival thing but then travel...

Problem is I get so excited about what's on offer - and the ridiculously cheap prices due to off peak/HE discount - that I end up wanting to do everything! So I thought after Christmas (and most of December TBF as it's only the play and the museum thing then) we are just going to curl up at home.

I was good today, collected DD from Brownies and just got a snack for the Caglets rather than buying all manner of crap food/soda etc like I normally would. Using cash (my earnings from this morning) definitely helped with that as I didn't want to spend it.

DSS went on holiday recently and he gave us all souvenirs - mine was a gorgeous box which is now where all our cash goes at the end of each day. :)

Had another long chat with DSD today courtesy of facebook video chat. Seems to be settling in well :)

Em That's a real shame for your cat. I'm so sorry to hear that she's been through that.

It's going to sound weird, but I wonder if it would make sense for you to read the posts online from women who suffer from the anxiety equivalent of post-natal depression? My cat was really really anxious and bad tempered after we had her spayed and as a Mum myself now I realise she probably effectively had post-natal depression that never really resolved. If you can understand the human form of this a bit then it may really help you to understand your poor cat.

If she's in the place where I think she is, it might be good to get a huge blanket or some fuzzy material or something and ball it up into a huge cosy sort of tunnel nest. Possibly if she could get right inside and feel really really safe and secure than her fear hormones might start to calm themselves down a bit. Once she is down to a calm state at least some of the time, she may be able to eat better and start to recover.

Wiking do you know I didn't even ask, I'm trying to get away from spending on credit as much as possible so not interested at all.

Not sure if I mentioned this but I'm increasing my amount into joint account by €50 weekly so that dh can put in €50 less & start to put a bit by for his expected bills & towards debt. Going to try show him how ynab works again see if he'll be receptacle

Girlie that's disappointing for your dd but you're a single working mom sometimes you can't juggle everything. How many activities does she do? We did two last year & have increased to three this year. She's only 6 though

This is how I've budgeted my wages this week
648.11
450 joint acc
70 credit union loan
5 savings dd (dh does same for ds)
38 contact lenses
0.01 car tax(keeping standing order active )
1.40 newspaper
20.00 fun money + 2 due to overspending here last week
10 Unislim class fee
10 diesel
40 0% interest cc
1.30 tesco cc

Obviously it would be better to put the money for newspaper & fun money towards tesco cc too but I need something for me, haven't bought my sat paper though in a few weeks & this weekend is busy so I might still end up doing this.

I haven't budgeted out the joint account money yet

Welcome honey. It used to be that You can over pay cc. I would suggest for now keep the min dd as you don't want to risk late fees while you get your head around things but register on line do you can make additional payments. You can do it over the phone too but that costs in phone calls and it depends on whose name the card is in. If you pay more than the dd amount, as long as the dd hasn't started to be processed (about 3 working days before) it won't take. Check with your provider but that's how it used to work. Meanwhile look for a balance transfer. Most charge a fee to transfer so see how much interest you would be charged to move against the transfer fee.
Also keep a spend diary, write everything down.

Spendy days. Sigh

genie great minds! I'd been reading about that and also separation anxiety in cats.

she has a corner under a huge chair with a beach towel to sit on and a huge fleecey blanket over the chair. Foods nearby but not so close (she needs to learn it's ok to come out of hiding) same with litter box.

In almost 2 weeks she's progressed so much - she'll eat during the day now, while we're awake/nearby. (She was waiting for us to sleep/go out previously). She moves around at nighttime (I left some dreamies near her basket at the other end of the hallway last night - she found them and she likes looking out of the hallway window).

It's just getting her to realise we're not a threat that's tough. We've been feeding her on a schedule in the hopes that she'll soon start to learn we bring food and she's safe.

It's sad to see her so scared.

Hoping for nsd today.

It does sound like she's making good progress, Em, you are so patient!
Enjoy your massage, Italian

Hospital appointment today so will have to pay for parking then I need to send a card by airmail and a letter recorded delivery. That should be it though. Was going to get a takeaway pizza on the way home from work as I have to work late tonight but I was good and bought a supermarket one yesterday instead. That's saved the best part of a tenner!

That's wonderful Em. Well done! She's a lucky lass.

DH and I are trying to cope with our 3rd day of no sleep. No idea what's going on with DS but he's crying / whimpering all night long. No thrashing, no screaming so it doesn't look like nightmares. no high temp, no symptoms, calpol doesn't have an effect.

Needless to say we're too knackered to spend any money today. Although Aldi starts their baby event today. So we may get nappies if we can cope.

He's been sleeping through the night for over a year :( I am beyond confused.

He just sobs all night long