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!

Hope everyone is having a lovely day off and hope those working are having an ok day

I am having a v. idle day. My brother came round with my birthday present, kids and dh finally remembered at about 2 ish. And my M&D have transferred a v. generous cash gift to my bank account.

Wolf - that must have been scary. Although I am glad peace has now broken out.

Wreck An excursion to London including a hotel and theatre trip is more than enough. You could have a belated picnic in the park with her friends when the weather warms up. Maybe use geocashing points to have a treasure hunt (give a prize for which ever team finds the points first) if you want an activity.

em The webers are great from what I hear. If we had a storage room I would get one.

I think some good frugal habits are starting to take seed... today, a Bank Holiday, has been a NSD!

This is unheard of as we usually end up in a nice cafe or pub garden somewhere.

Today, however, I made hot chocolates and we went out into the (chilly!) garden to drink them.

Tomorrow evening we've got a long drive and I've already started to assemble snacks and drinks to avoid spending on the motorway.

I've thought of a million things already this month that I feel we 'need' to buy (new tent, carpet for girls' room, tickets to a play, trainers for me) but because I've divvied our money into pots I know there isn't any spare money.

Slowly but surely...

Well done madden. Baby steps.
Weber are great. We have a charcoal kettle one.

Went to open air museum today. £3.50 in sweet shop. We have annual passes. £25 fuel. Not a full tank as car going in for repair soon.
-£8.50 Sainsbury's followed by £32 spent, £48 blind for DS room, money to savings,

Today has been a NSD, I'm hoping to make it to Friday, dd2 always gets a small treat on Friday, as all the other days I take fruit as a snack for her to eat on the way home.
If I manage this I will be surprised, but really hoping to do it.

Evening all, hope everyones had a good day!

Spendy day.
Work shoes £69.00 from clarks. They seem to last me about 3 years despite heavy wear so all good.

Free samples of face cream in debenhams. Bonus lol

Top up food shop £31ish.

The meal plan went out the window.

DP was being a pain with what to eat. Had pizza with a salad and pesto linguine.

Aiming for a NSD tomorrow. Have been looking at plants to buy for the garden but they seem expensive! Might wait until end of season to buy shrubs

Back home from Centreparcs after another horrible car journey - the m25 exit closed just as I got there 😡 going out for an expensed team lunch tomorrow (a lovely monthly treat) so I won’t buy it out (lucky since I have absolutely no energy to make a packed lunch). Will get back on the packed lunches on Wednesday I hope. I’ve spent so much during this weekend I really need a good run this week to get back on track. It’s only the 6th May and already the app is telling me I’m going to run out of money 😢

Burgers were amazing.

Dh made the rolls then layered them up as follows:

Bread roll
Apple and pear slices
Cheddar cheese
Pork and sage burger
Smudge of sweet chilli sauce
Cheese
Bread roll top

Served with salad.

He made a teeny one for ds. Who loves eating “sames” he thought it was great he had a small dinner like ours. And demolished the lot. I was actually amazed.

Back to work tomorrow.

Just watched game of thrones too. Woooo.

Me too Em, that was more of an emotional shocker than last weeks in some ways

We've had a nice day but spendy 😳

So
£10 tescos on lunch/picnic food (should have made sandwiches!)

£40 New Look on clothes for dd, got school trousers, a play suit, a hoody and tights for that.

£20 Superdrug toiletries and a few bits for the 'bday box'

£20 Boots on make up.

£2 parking

£2 drinks

£7 meds for girl cat

£15 plants for hanging baskets

£11 macdonalds

Spent rest of the afternoon doing the hanging baskets, everything is done now just need some warm sun to get everything growing!!

Gosh. GoT. Blimey.

,£25 for gym card today. Although we are in may is still worth me getting as I go 4x per week.
Childcare £78 vouchers and the rest £48 I think in cash

It was wasn’t it?!

I’m excited and nervous to see how it ends. I just posted on another thread that if it turns out to be a flashback/forward to a group of kids playing dungeons and dragons board game I’ll be mightily disappointed.

Argh I’m so far behind on GOT - I’m mid way through season 4

Don't worry MrsG - we've only just watched the first episode 😂 (I should say 're-watched' - we did watch it years ago but lost track around S4 so have decided to go back to the beginning)

I'm sitting having a lovely breakfast and cuppa - £6.20 - not so frugal but a planned spend from my own 'pocket money'. Travel arrangements meant I arrived in work town an hour before work starting so decided to treat myself.

2.50 today on poppadoms and cherry tomatoes.

Although think it might turn into a pricier day, bigwheelydog is not quite right...booked in at the vets later for a check over. Refused a walk this morning....very unlike her🐾🐾

Thinking of doing a spending log to see where my weak spending spots are.

Daft question...

When your totaling up debt do you include how much you owe on your car?

My friend doesnt but i do. Curious what others do?

Nsd.

I would include a loan for a car but if it's lease (like mine) I would just count it in my monthly expenditure.

I need to get a birthday present for my sister. No idea what to get her...

Blimey this thread is quiet atm, where is everyone??

I've had a NSD 😇

Bit of a boring day at work really, been sat in meetings all afternoon.

We’ve only just started season 4 Got. I keep reading spoilers but as I can’t remember half the character’s names it never spoils it for me 🤣

My assignment just needs a conclusion. And then one long assignment left to go!

Weird day here. Had contact from two ex colleagues today in different capacities, very odd!

NSD

Not a nsd here £11 parking and £2.80 food on train which I can claim back and then £10 work canteen for lunch for self and colleague which I can’t claim back. My turn to buy lunch though.

Girlie work was also boring for me today lots of meetings and lots of petty behaviour in the team which I am really fed up with.

Owe df £240 for summer holiday cottage which I will try to remember to draw out on the way home from the station

I had to drive 40 miles today just to collect my new work phone have done lots of mileage today and it's tired me out. Plus had a really busy morning 😴

NSD.
Training at work this am. Then a long afternoon at work.
Really tired, early night tonight for me.

£300 electrician invoice for switching roads around and towel heater.

Gym tonight.

Pizza for dinner. Mmm.

Frugal win today. Managed to score a double buggy for £50 from Facebook and a friend is gifting grosnugs. Yay.

Work was crazy. It was the most mondayest Tuesday ever.

But one more day and another bank holiday. Yay. Then it’s Friday.

2 weeks until payday.

£25 gym, £3 cubs, £7.40 food for grieve who lost her purse but got it straight back when she found it

Hi everyone, signing in after a busy weekend.

Spends yesterday:
£6 M&S on bras and a book for DC, the rest was covered by a cashback voucher so quite proud of my frugality there. The book is a super cute Goldilocks and the Three Bears one with sounds, both DC loved it.
£48 Zara on three tops (two and a basic one to layer under as bare Tummy is not my look); need to try them on again to fully decide on them.