Austere April continues with the Friendly Frugaleers! Join us as we discuss our direct debits, prattle about penny pinching and possibly babble about Brexit...

[Cagliostro]

All welcome!

Ah you beat me by £25 em!

So it was lucky I didn’t make lunch in the end. DH’s best friend was visiting London so they spent the day together & kindly took me out to lunch. Totally ruined my frugalness by getting Nando’s after work when DH met me so that’s £13 spent today. Not had a NSD yet since pay day 😡 not very good.

Midwife appointment was good. Bump measured and bloods taken. All good.

Electrician in tomorrow morning to move rads around and to install a heated towel rail. Woop.

Catface has started to stake a claim to her territory. There’s a black cat who walks the garden walls. It came into the garden today. She was outside. She faced it and growled. And hissed and it backed off. Then she ran indoors. She was actual shaking. And al puffed up. But she is so brave. Sort of.

All day conference and there was no water on offer £2 on a Diet Coke on the train home as I was thirsty and tired. Started the Marie Kondo book but was too tired to read much.

Got back late and DP had ordered Dominos. Not so frugal but hopefully came out of his PayPal which has the money from eBay selling of old stuff

Good day. But London is a long day. I had been looking at London HR jobs with flexible working, but maybe not! At least not for a few more years.

Sorry for not commenting on stuff but I need to go to bed

Ahhh! I have just sorted a postal vote but forgot to do it. I know I could take it to the polling station now but too tired.

I do normally though as I think it is important to vote even if the options are rubbish

I do a postal vote as well much easier! Our choices were also lib dem, Tory and various independents 🙄

Got petrol and milk tonight £34

Thanks em will look into that.

I have voted. Unfortunately my preferred choice of party will never get into the council here. We only get fascists or Lib Dems. Parliamentary elections are a different matter.

Pilates this evening, feel better for it. I’m using my brexit stash to pack for out jolly, I figured one dinner out and two lunches out and the rest of food/drink from my brexit stash. Friday will be fish and chip night and the sandwich/cake/fig gin lunch Saturday and maybe a pub lunch Sunday.

Massage in the morning and then need to finish my Sneaky packing and clean the house before I pick ds up from school

Misunderstanding with stbexh today, he thought I was suggesting a family outing together. Erm no fella not a chance!

Em great news from the check up, baby Em is doing great

Love commuting is exhausting, I hope you have a quieter day tomorrow.

Girlie how’s the job going are you settling in?

Shout out to all out missing in action frugal friends, Jam, Unescorted, Sneaky, Fluffy and Quite.

And Lonely

Ow ow ow ow, think I’ve just broken my bloody toe again and I have no one to moan to. Ow ow ow

Ouch wolf.
Money will be spent today on food

wreck have your seen the ultrasun sign up test thingy. Also it's on QVC special buy on Monday

Ouch wolf - toe stubs are 🤬!

Love that's shocking the conference had no water available. Surely refreshments are one of the highlights (and judging criteria) of any conference/training venue?!!

Lovely to know that baby is cooking along nicely em - are you feeling any less tired today?

Ruby did you survive the day with the three kids home?! Hope your ds is feeling better too.

Nothing much to report spending-wise. I had a couple of work expenses (under £10) which I will eventually claim back. We had a hugely expensive shop delivered (£100+) but included food/drink for a stag weekend dh is on this weekend so not reflective of our (hopefully) low spend food budget for the rest of the month.

I'm on my own with the girls all weekend and no car so have to be creative with both frugal and local activities. A friend is coming to keep me company on Saturday and is staying over - dinner and wine already in so should now be a low-cost weekend.
What's everyone else up to?

New on this thread but after looking at my finances properly, need some help to stay on track!

I've made/plan to make the below changes already but food budgeting is my main sticking point so advice is greatly welcome!

Cancelled my phone insurance (£13pm) as realised my home insurance covers it
Will soon cancel Sky (£66pm) and just use FreeView. Need to finish GoT first though!
Cancelling our ADT (£29pm) and getting a Ring doorbell instead.

Food and fuel today. I haven't got a meal plan done which is annoying but I'm feeling uninspired again so will see how I go! Am also off meat but no one else is...

Spa night tonight, have already paid. £75 for two course dinner, massage, hotel, bottle of wine between two and breakfast.

Welcome Good if you are losing adt you need to check the impact on your house insurance if you get a discount for your alarm

Massage in a bit, think I have £20 balance to pay. Will need a couple of bits from the shop when we get to the holiday cottage as I don’t want to take the cool box, then dinner out tonight.

Mad cleaning frenzy has ensure. Toe bloody hurts and is a delightful rainbow of purples and reds

£66 Aldi
£12 Sainsbury's
£25 fuel.

£17 left of food and fuel budget for the week.

Meal plan:

Chilli
Hot dogs (nice sausages though not frankfurters!)

Pizza
Spag bol
Chickpea curry (which no one will like apart from me )
Kiev’s
Lamb kebabs

Hi, following on from goodscomment, does anyone know of any good food budget, meal planning tyoe spread sheets or blogs

Im going to google obviously...im not that lazy! But im hoping that someone has seen something on the threads

Hi Rufus the recipes Jack Munroe has on her blog are amazingly budget friendly - she has a few books too:

cookingonabootstrap.com/category/recipes-food/

The Organised Mum has some meal plans that might appeal to you if you're an omnivore:

www.theorganisedmum.blog/category/menu-plans/

Rufus try Weezls weblog
Thrifty Lesley is also good

Lovely, thank you both very much

Need to cut down on the amount we spend...not out of necessity per say just that the amount we spend is beginning to take the piss!!

Just landed at our holiday flat which is very nice and spotless which is pretty much my number one criteria

Enjoy wolf hope your toe isn't too sore.

I've had a nice day but am glad it's Friday and looking forward to a 3 day weekend! We've not got loads planned but we're going over to my dads tomorrow as there is loads going on in his village, dd is going to stay over and I'll come back for a child free evening/day on Sunday. Monday will meet up with some friends I think and do some gardening, want to start my hanging baskets.

Spent £5 on lunch today.

I am here! Just got caught up in life on this side of the screen.

We had a v. exciting / scary day at work today - the whole of Pic Gardens was in lockdown due to a bomb. Fortunately a non viable bomb. Thank goodness for bomb makers who can't follow instructions. Everyone was remarkably calm - just getting on with life.

Wolf glad you have a good cottage.

Rufus - the Aldi website has a recipe section with cheap meals that can be made entirely from things you can buy from Aldi.

Waves to the collective.

I need to make dinner - we are having steak because it is my Birthday Weekend. It is Monday but with falling on the Bank holiday I get to celebrate for 3 days & milk it for all it is worth.

Thank you unescorted

Jesus Unescorted glad it was a dud and you are okay. Girlie enjoy your weekend

£60 posh fish and chips and delicious puddings (and a large glass of wine)

Oh my god im rude

I went straight to my name and missed the bomb!!

It must have been very scary!