Had a Spendy Summer? Join the Friendly Frugaleers as we Segue Smoothly into a Sensible September

[LivingInLaputa]

All welcome. Couldn’t see another thread!

£17 Lidl including treats to take to friends. £6 mcds

I think I’m going to have to take the cash out each week to manage it. If it’s in my hands it more real and more of a challenge.

Good idea little. How much fuel do you need a week? We get through £80 between us but I know that's a lot for most

Usually £60 a week but new job means more travel (changes weekly). I’ll get it back but not sure when.
I have one bill for £100 which I could delay without charge as it’s to a family member but would rather try not to as I’m not sure it will help much plus relationship isn’t great at the moment and would rather it was paid off sooner rather than later.

£661 paid to window company. We’re replacing our front door and porch windows. Urgently single glazed so going for more secure double glazing. Also better insulation wise. 6-8 weeks though before it’s fitted and we have to pay the remainder. Total cost £2500 or thereabouts.

£42 riding. Usually £32 but I cancelled the other week without giving 24 hours notice so an extra £10 added.

Have cancelled my SO from joint ac to my emergency savings pot. Not bringing money in at present so don’t feel comfortable taking that out. Have reset for Feb payday...

LittleChocola - how many people do you need to feed? Do you need to buy nappies? Just trying to think of ways you could stick to budget for the next few weeks, not that I'm great at it mind x

€30 to electrician - dd turned on tv & it tripped something, thought I needed new tv until I discovered nothing was working, called electrician. Cobwebs in the fuse box he thinks was the cause

Lovely idea about daffodils girlie

@CamdenTownie three and a half (dd is 19 and not always home). No nappies but I’m gluten intolerant so adds to cost.

We will be ok I think, I’ll go through the freezer and cupboards to see what I can create! We’ve got plenty of pasta (normal and gluten free) so we will probably have a pasta dish a few times each week.

Cat and dog food is big bags so should last.

We will just have to be creative!

That will be tough but I'm sure you can do it

I'm just listing some things on eBay to try and raise a bit of money

Little is there option to use public transport or carpool? Might be stating the obvious but try get as many errands as possible done on one journey.
I also read that reversing on a cold engine burns more fuel so I always reverse at end of journey when parking at home, it makes exit quicker in the morning too. I'm sure it's not much but can't hurt either

Some dinner options stretch out further too than others eg if you make a curry less chicken breasts do more people than if you do roast meat. Fill up plate with extra veggies & if not watching weight a pudding after will fill everyone. Saw one for peach cobbler type thing - pack of cake mix & tinned peaches with value ice cream

Little also think about using up things in the cupboard that might not instantly shout 'dinner' e.g. flour for batter could make pancakes or toad in the hole. On lean weeks we often end up eating all different things as we use up odds and ends from cupboards and freezer.

I've just done my most excessive shop of the month so far... we have friends coming for lunch tomorrow so roast ingredients, pudding and alcohol. All adds up. Dh doesn't eat gluten so that whacks a fair old amount on to an indulgent shop. I'm making cheesecake so had to spend £2.20 on gf digestives rather than 50p on Tesco value!!

It is rubbish that gf stuff costs so much more. Almost a punishment for being gf...

Luckily it’s something we don’t have to think about.

It's amazing how easy it is to stick to your list when you realise that your money off vouchers are in your car & you brought au pairs car to town for nct

€70.68 Dunnes, would've spent €80 for €100 worth had I had vouchers
€55 nct & will be €28 for retest but only small things need doing, I'll get service done as well while it's at garage. There goes Oct children's allowance
€6 pjs for ds

DH is coeliac, GF stuff is indeed so expensive! The rest of us eat regular stuff as it would be unaffordable otherwise, but we are careful with separate toasters etc. Getting DD1 screened again with her blood tests - they said when we had her tested at 2 that it would be worth testing again when older too, so we figured as she’s having bloods taken anyway we may as well.

I’m full of sneeze!

Food budget wise I’d really like to get it to £80-90 a week. Three adults two kids and a toddler. We get two Tesco deliveries a week now as it helps us waste less and avoid top up shops, and the minimum on those is £40, so I want to get it as close to that each time as possible. Need to be so much more organised though.

Lap coeliacs blood tests no longer take ten days either they're back the next day with the rest. Apparently they're done in haematology now 🤷🏽‍♀️ ds' was negative and his tummy had been fine until yesterday when he had awful diarrhoea seven times resulting in two changes of clothes.

Oh poor DS :(

Glad it’s quicker, her friend was kept waiting ages!

Daffs sound lovely Girlie.

£80 on fuel - ouch! We probably use less than that a month unless we go on hols. Fortune on tube passes instead though.

Pancakes for dinner is a great idea - frugal and yum.

Sir da today: £15 only for hair - I forgot it was just my hairline refresh. Such a good discovery, it really ekes out the time between the proper colour jobs! And I still get to read magazines for an hour while someone makes me a brew

Then £1.50 on tangerines and £15 on a second pot of chalky furniture paint. I’ve done the second coat on the book case and with all of the furniture moving yesterday, up and down ladders plus crawling about painting the book case at odd angles, I am seriously aching now. I seem to have found muscles in my bum, is that even a thing? .

Then £40 to the handyman who put up DD’s curtain rail after 3 months of suction travel blackout blind instead . It was quite a mission but seems fairly secure now. I have to buy some filler tomorrow and fill, then touch up, the walls around it where the bracket was previously. But I’m finally winning and her room will be lovely when it’s finished.

£20 in for selling DD’s naice sling book case - in and then straight out to the handyman!

Still need to buy DD a duvet as the one a friend handed on to me is too small for her bed and bedding - okay for a few days though till I get round to it. She also needs a second set of duvet covers for washing as I only bought one (didn’t keep any bedding from DS’s baby days as he was prone to nose bleeds).

I have a washing mountain to fold and put away - seriously, how do people keep on top of it? I’m also getting all DD’s new winter clothes out and putting the summer ones away (most I’m passing on but some might fit her next summer) so there are clothes everywhere!

Tomorrow: finish book case and do lots of baking and tidying.

I’m away next weekend with DD and a friend and her DD - we are taking our girls to Peppa Pig world. Forecast is rainy .

Spendy day as predicted got 3 more Christmas presents. Need to order from Cox and Cox as someone used my referral.
£85 Chelsea kit for DS birthday, £9 superdrug, £2 the works, ££ more I forget.

Need to collect ds birthday sweets tomorrow.

Post a list of your random cupboard stuff. Bet we could create meals and help get the budget down.

I need to make a gf cake for DD friend. Any good recipe? Very expensive isn't it.

Ah laundry mountain. I was winning at this one by folding things as soon as they came off the line and putting away. But. I’m back with a massive pile again. The weathers been dreadful so it’s been hang laundry in garage or tumble it territory. Three baskets to put away today. I did manage to get some hung outside for a bit though. So that’s a plus.

Dh bought a jacket for our hot water cylinder today. Yay. So this should save us a few quid.

He’s also moaned because I haven’t posted Mils birthday gift yet. Her birthday is tomorrow. She lives in nz. I did tell him he needed to wrap said gift get cards written and give me her address and I’ll post it. Birthday gift is sitting on our dining table. Waiting. I know I could wrap it get ds to write the card etc. But she’s not my mum. And dh said he’d do it. And has kept saying hell do it. So I haven’t.

@Happierwithouthim sadly not as we live in the sticks!

@maddenlightfoot we are going to have buffet dinners!

@LivingInLaputa it’s ridiculous! Luckily can make gluten free bread which isn’t too costly!

Also doing well on emptying cupboards of alcohol tonight!

Em we got three loads dry yesterday but today is a washout! Will do bedding and towels and shove them in the drier.

Also going to make a big batch of bolognese veg and normal. Ds has a football match and I need to go to my parents as it's my step mums birthday.

Dh is getting some money from his boss. Phew.

I just do all my washing at the weekend with a combo of lines, dryer and airer. It's fine in bulk then and not haunting me through the week.

Hideous outside today. Need to fill the car up, top up from Sainsbury's and collect DS sweet cones for next week. Owe DC cash to as have to mil. Will get the £££ fil owes us on Monday

I only do one wash mid week. There's usually swimming stuff and a gazillion pairs of pants that need doing

I wash on pretty much all the days when I’m at home/working from home so probably five out of seven. I struggle to dry in this weather though as no tumble drier so my washing slows down a bit. I have sports kit to wash at least three days a week though

I've just had a rummage in fridge/freezers and decided that we're going to have a buffet-week too little so il be joining you for moral support!

We had some leftover curry and rice from last night so I've made that into a biryani and popped it in the freezer for later in the week. I think the meal plan will look something like this:

M: soup (different for everyone depending on what's in freezer/tins in cupboard) - also going to attempt to make gf bread (going to borrow a bread maker)

T: sausages (from freezer) will make some kind of tomato sauce, possibly with beans, and serve with pasta.

W: kids have sandwiches as it's swimming night, DH and I will have home-made falafels from freezer with salad (if the sad looking iceberg in the bottom of the fridge lasts that long)

T: another pasta night. There's a portion of bolognaise in the freezer, won't do all of us but if there's any sausage and beans left it will stretch.

F: fishfingers and chips (possibly hash-browns if not enough chips) and sweet corn).

S: biryani for us, beans on toast for girls.

Sunday we'll get some shopping, possibly a roast chicken although lastnight one of our ovens broke. Annoyingly the bottom one so now only have one oven shelf in the top oven. I think it's a fuse as it tripped the electrics so need to look into getting someone to fix it. The oven was our moving in present from my parents when we bought our house over 12 years ago so it's done it's time but still don't want to have to buy a new one.