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

[lilacclery]

Thought I'd start us off!

If it's any help Italian there's a lot of crabbiness around here too. I think that going back to school and work and the falling light levels is making us all a bit irritable. I hope things get better there.

It's horrible isn't it. So much grouchyness. Just met dh for lunch and he's pissed off about something at work.

£4.67 on poop bags and cat food sachets. My Amazon order hasn't arrived. Despite them saying it would be here by Tuesday. And I usually give a day extra.

Pet shop refused to accept my card. Apparently they don't take cards for less than £5 because they get charged. Sigh.

They also wouldn't accept my change. Sigh. Ended up having to go to the bank to have enough cash (not in 20ps) to pay.

Rant away Italian hope all is OK

I'm feeling less grouchy now! I just felt so overwhelmed by it all. I'm so happy it's the weekend.

fluffy we're taking the LED bulbs with us. DH think I'm stingy. I think it's a frugal win! Haha!

Right then. We're watching Kipper the Dog on YouTube from 1998. DS loves the Kipper stories.

Fluffy can you just tell me about the NZ National Trust thing? You pay for it and it's covers UK National Trust stuff too? Ours is up for renewal in December and I cant justify paying full price. Purely from a frugal point of view - I think we've saved roughly £220 by being NT members though. Just don't think we can afford the full price this time

I can ask my bestie friends to get it for me and post me the membership stuff (because they're evil and ALL moved to NZ for various reasons! )

Collie if your friends do it it's even cheaper. They don't even need to post it to you it can go direct to you.

Italian hope dh cheers up soon.

Interesting article AGenie, thanks.
Wreck, hope you sort it out with DH. My DP is grouchy too. Am fed up with him.
Collie, isn't amazing the difference a good night's sleep makes.
Another NSD today because DP bought me lunch.....to make up for being grouchy.

Glad you got a good night Collie. I totally get what you mean about the cost of moving, it got me quite panicky at times, I felt all this money was being spent, which we could potentially lose. Stressful time, moving.

Italian.

Hope you had a nice lunch Trying.

Genie I'm actually hugely impressed with the amount of stuff I have got for the cost from Ocado, but it's early days. It's mainly branded stuff, a lot of organic and the meat is high welfare, which is important personally to me. I spent £90, but £14 was wine and £6 on 2 enormous packets of Weetabix for DS. Loads of fresh fruit and veg. I spent £20 in M&S on groceries, and I haven't been to Aldi. That will cover 4 adults, including lunches for myself and the DC. It's early days, so I will try again next week as it would be hard to objective on one delivery. Overall, I feel I've got a weeks high quality and organic, branded stuff, including the M&S food for a reasonable price.

Bah to grouchy DH's. I'm generally quite rude to DH if he's grouchy, having put up with years of when he was ill with depression.

need I find the quality really good from Ocado too. As you say, I think the trick is to be doing a whole week's shop at once. Top up shops don't work so well from there.

need Arghhhhh it's the worst feeling

wreck ooh that's handy!!

Another £65 spent just for relocating my internet / phone. My new speed is going to be approx 3Mbps. I doubt Mumsnet will ever load on such a crap speed. It was either £65 now or PlusNet lock me into a new contract for 2 years!

I agree Genie. I also meant to mention that you can get really unusual products from there, which I can't from Morrisons. Things like Harissa paste, Umami, etc. These things I use to cook with a lot, but always have to go to Sainsbury's to get, so that's useful!

need that's exactly why I'm going there too. The have unsalted rice cakes and gluten-free black pudding when can't be had from Tesco. They also have wonderful Yeo Valley ice cream which is great for ds as it has no rubbish in it.

The funny thing about shopping there is that in Tesco I can buy the most expensive products with a clear conscience, but in Waitrose the scope for accidentally moving up to more expensive stuff than I can afford is a big problem.

Interesting business. I fear my £12 off on a £55 shop may be too strong an incentive to give up, but what will I buy?? envisages new gold plated fish finger addiction

btw I really enjoyed the MN Jeremy Corbyn interview. I wish Labour would pull their finger out. We need a Labour Government rather urgently.

Sadly, neither Ocado nor Waitrose deliver in my area. Those shops sound good value too.

Spends: £1 parcel tape and £8.35, posting a parcel to my friend in Ireland. She's offered to pay me through PayPal, but she's very generous and often treats me to drinks or pays for a taxi when we go out when I'm over there.

DS had the cheek to ask if I'm paying for a meal for him and 2 friends for his birthday. Er, no, a new phone and tickets to see the writer Owen Jones plus a meal out with me on his birthday plus a sleepover with aforementioned friends is surely plenty for a 14 year old? Oh, the lofty expectations of the youth of today!

Well done Creme. Good to manage expectations well like that.

The waitrose delivery thing is weird. I looked up my parents address and Waitrose deliver there but only on Tuesday mornings and the van has to come over by ferry. :-)

Happy weekend all! It's been a long week. I'm totally exhausted.
Going out for a meal with friends which is nice but I can't really afford it and because I haven't eaten yet my nausea has come back. I might have to have something to keep me going.
Sounds like good progress with Millie, Em. When we first got our cat we bought him a jingly ball that he only played with when we'd gone to bed, we could here it jingling. Even now he doesn't usually play in front of us and looks a bit sheepish if we catch him playing with a toy. I think he thinks he is too old and sensible for that sort of thing!
On the subject of cats, our vet bills have put us over our overdraft this month at a time when we really should be saving. We should be able to claim a lot of it back but it's bad timing.
Hope you are feeling a bit better now, Italian.

New thread for when we need it! (Might not get online tomorrow.)

Collie Obviously your taking the LED bulbs. You can replace with pound shop halogens. I'd take mine.

For New Zealand NT You can pay online with a cc and it will do the conversion for you. I think it was £43 for ours. I can't afford to join uk NT. We didn't go at all last year.

creme I think your being more than generous.

Thanks Fluffy. He still hasn't given up - wants a takeaway instead of Sainsburys pizzas now!

Well life's full of disappointments for all of us.

Takeaway pizzas are too expensive.

WE had Aldi pizza and dh had wanted takeaway. I can't get why £20 for a pizza is acceptable.

Just posting on this thread as haven't read to the end yet, then I'll hop over to the new one.

Sorry about all the FruFlu going round :( I'm rather suspicious myself - normally by this time I'm ill due to new term/new germs etc - even last year without actual school it still happened! But all the activities started up again and I got ill quickly.

Sports went brilliantly but a lot of no shows in the end, I have decided to book about a month at a time so people only have to commit short term and don't have to worry about clashing with trips and stuff, but it's still advance payment so more secure for us. It's different to piano where I have never charged if someone cancels because all that happens then is that I sit at home playing the piano myself instead of teaching someone else :o whereas this club involves dragging the equipment down etc.

NSD

I know we've a new thread but I want to get up to date with what happened here yesterday

Agree with everyone regarding pizza we've actually cut it down even more, we use wraps as base, red pesto as sauce, mozzarella is 99c for 200g, and top with some slices of chorizo & whatevers in the fridge, everyone loves them

Creme I think you've quite enough to pay for your ds's birthday is he watching too much my sweet 16 on tv

Collie this is often my internet speed see pic waiting to hear back from new provider as I want to cancel sky tv, phone, Internet, multi room €104pm & replace with Netflix (2 screens) €9.99pm & Internet €24.50 per month, I will need 2 casting devices so this will wipe first months savings but from there on I'll be up €69.51 dh is also going to speak to his employer regarding waste collection, we pay €27.50 pm to another company but perhaps he could bring our rubbish to his work for free
Need dh is doing quite well now I guess 75% improvement we had a few weeks where he slipped back & I discovered he wasn't going to counselling as he couldn't afford it but I explained we as a family & a couple need him to go & therefore it's a joint expense & should come out of joint account, he was hesitant but is doing that now. We had a good discussion on our night away & I explained that his attending counselling regularly is a condition of our marriage continuing as it makes life more pleasant for everyone sorry to hear your dh had a wobble

Collie that's not stingy about light bulbs they're your property, leaving new people with no bulbs at all would be a bit

Em that was very unreasonable of shop not to take your change
To get cashback we must spend over €10, that's fair as they're charged a fee I guess, I work it in with getting diesel usually
I always had cash before from my second job but now I don't so have to plan to get cashback or get to bank machine(nearest one 13 miles away)

Hope all grouchy dhs are improved today, for once mine is in good form.
Despite his van being at the garage again

Think I've gone emoji overload in this post!
what's the last one mean?!

I've never seen the last one, you missed out

NSD