Savvy savers sashaying through September

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New thread. All welcome.

hound hope you can use some of the suggestions, that sounds really stressful
spreadsheet sounds great madden*
Welcome Crystal, having 3 DC is fab but yes expensive! I have 3 teenagers. Good for you planning ahead at this stage
I need to sit down and work out how to pay myself back for recent overspends (uniform, DC clothes etc). It will wipe out next month’s savings I think - that’s a lesson to me to draw down the money first next time before I go shopping so I get a reality check on what I’m spending.
From 18th (when my financial month starts again) I’m going to post spends to keep myself accountable as the margins will be much tighter with everyone back to work and school.
humbug was this week particularly bad or is this it til half term?
gen hope you are ok, 🤞🏻🤞🏻 for you

Hey guys!

Spending hasn't been too bad recently, I splashed out on highlights and a colour at the hairdressers today £90 - I've never paid that before, but it looks and feels so nice.

Yesterday I did a shop at Asda, usually I'm an Aldi shopper, some of the things in Asda were so expensive when compared to Aldi prices that I refused to buy them and spent just £53, toilet roll I pay £5.50 for 24 rolls in Aldi and in Asda it was £7.50.

Back in the office full time now, like lots of people, I kind of like that things are starting to get back to a bit of normality if I'm honest.

I've taken chicken out of the freezer to make fajitas for dinner, and now dd1 and ds2 have both gone out! So typical, I might make something in the Instant Pot and stick it in the freezer.

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend.

I'm hoping we'll get in the swing of it Martha! It's a combination of new timetable, classes etc to get my head round, dts starting school and being totally exhausted and dc activities all restarting this week too. There suddenly seems to he a lot to fit in.
Have bought an M&S Indian "takeaway" for tea. I never buy ready meals because of the cost and all the packaging but we are all so tired we fancied an easy night for once and it is still cheaper than a proper takeaway.

I hear you humbug pretty similar here. It feels like normal life has started back with a bang doesn’t it?
£110 on meal for us five and DD’s girlfriend, spendy but worth it as we haven’t seen DP’s family for ages and it was lovely to see them. dCs were very sociable and chatty too which they are not always these days!!
Hair sounds lovely camden

Thank you for the replies everyone. I’ve managed to get a little money together so I’m going to go through the cupboards tomorrow and see what I can do with the cupboard contents and the money I have. I’ve looked into our local food bank and I can get a referral off the gp or the sure start place I think so I will contact them Monday once I’ve had chance to go through the cupboards and assess where I am. Ive never heard of a surplus charity so I’m going to look that up now.

Not sure where you are hound but this is the one near me www.breadandbutterthing.org/members

Thank you mrs❤️
life I’ve been on the bargain thread a few times but I’ve had to hide it now because I always get tempted and buy things I don’t need😳. We only have essential outgoings other than a couple of homeschooling groups that we pay termly. Meal plannings a good idea I’ve never jumped on the bandwagon with that one but I’ll give it a go.
marthas oh lord I’m not looking forward to the teenage years😆
We had a lovely day with family went to the local woods ended up walking 3 miles all in all.
£5.50 each for a picnic pack from the Cafe and £6.95 each for a toastie for DH and I. We’ve not been to the cafe before we usually bring our own lunches I think we’ll do that from now on too it was a bit expensive for what it was.

Definitely pic nic crystal. Even in winter soup and a sandwich or scone

Sounds like a plan Hound. Some on this thread are really good at thinking of meals with random ingredients so shout if you want any ideas with what you have!

hound they are also called community pantries. They take short dated food from supermarkets / local shops. For a small charge you can shop there. Ours is quite often free for vegetables because they take produce from the allotments.

I have a copy of Jack Munroe's cooking from a tin book. Let me know what you have and I will copy any pages that have potential.

Have any of our vegan peeps tried to make saitain (sp) from flour by washing the starch from the gluten?

Hound I also recommend this as a very good source for health and tested cheap recipes. It's a site I used and contributed to when we were unbelievably skint weezl.wordpress.com

Scroll down to the index right at the bottom of the page

hound you could also google the company shop. It’s like the community pantry idea- it’s not free but much cheaper for certain things. It’s partly for certain occupations eg nHS but also for anyone on benefits.

marthas I’m ok thanks I had dinner at a friends and had the worst cramps at the table half way through the meal, so painful, not sure if it was period type cramps or a reaction to the food! it seems to have settled now.
Making an apple and honey cake tomorrow to take to a friend’s house, that will keep me busy! I’ll find out on Friday if it’s worked or not, still feels very far away.

Hi all, dropped off the end of the last thread

Spends: £4.60 bus and £15.90 drinks. Met a few colleagues for dinner and drinks, I probably paid the least out of everyone which I feel a bit embarrassed about but I did heavily say we would on split the food but one colleague insisted on paying and I didn't have any cash to give him. In fairness they are all wealthier than me tbh which they will be aware of. I guess I do struggle to accept people's generosity when I know it's because I'm less well-off, I find it a bit embarrassing really.

I have Jack Monroe's tin cook book too, it's great! Tinned foods can make great super cheap meals.

I need to investigate the Jack Monroe book I think. I borrowed one of her others from the library and loved it.
Ds was up at half 5. It's going to be a long day...

That looks
Like an good website wolf.
Yes company shop is good for short dates stuff but if you have a feeezer meat is loads cheap from there.

I wasn’t so keen on jack monroe but TBF did only skim ot

I find Jack’s recipes a bit variable - some are fine but some are not my thing at all.
Had a strange meal at a friend’s last night that gave both DH and I very bad stomach ache, I really did feel rotten. Feeling better today though, thankfully!
We did a Lidl shop £28 then Tesco £29 for the stuff they didn’t have in Lidl, including two packets of lamb for a batch cooked Irish stew which I then made yesterday - there’s at least 6 portions, so it will be a few term time dinners as well as dinner one night this week.

We are supposed to eat at another friend’s house tonight and I feel a bit nervous now, can’t deal with dodgy food twice in a row 😂

Need to head to the shops soon to get ingredients for apple and honey cake for friend as I offered to bring pudding.

Welcome hound and crystal, all welcome here.
Busy here getting ready to go away tomorrow. Have a mountain of study & work to do today and then will be able to properly relax. Not going to worry about spends while we're away as its budgeted for and is a treat for our significant birthdays & anniversary this year. I've run the food stocks down as we're leaving the Dec a budget for the food shop & it'll do them good to manage it. They had a dry run when we went to the folk festival & apparently they went to aldi together & dd had the calculator out to keep tabs on the budget...well trained!

Away at my parents for the weekend
Spends so far
Petrol station stop €52.34 including wine, orchid, cheesecake for dm's birthday.
€35 present for a family communion
€15 shellac
Had an afternoon with two friends yesterday & it really filled my cup as they say, plus they gave me gorgeous gifts for my house move. Diffuser, salt lamp, Prosecco & a frame with myself & dcs names in it done in scrabble letters, it's gorgeous.

Hi all. Hope you're all keeping well and that you're all feeling better soon Sing.

Ds starting school has been interesting...he says it's great and is enjoying the interaction with other kids his own age rather than the little ones at his old childminder's house. But it seems that we will be making a pack lunch for him, plus providing all his before, during and after school club snacks, since the school can't handle a vegan option even after I highlighted all the stuff he could eat for the cook, who said she would get back to us but hasn't. I do get it, but I thought things were improving with vegan options generally. We now even have a vegan cafe in our (tiny) town. Ah well.

Unescorted We don't eat much seitan so I'm not much help there. Sounds interesting though!

Just need to try and stock up on food for ds school today and get more flour and pasta if possible. We've been going through it very fast and I've heard rumours of shortages impending due to a bad wheat harvest...

Camden if you want the 2 shaped cake tin (it would give a curve although you'd have to take it apart a bit before icing it), please let me know by PM.

Take care everyone.

I’m
So not keeping up here.

£40 rising yesterday and £4 ice creams for me and ds.

Morning everyone. Work has been really stressful and so, so busy 😫 I have that constant feeling as though I'm coming down with something which isn't helping. It's so hard to motivate myself to do anything meal plan and cook when I feel so tired.

Welcome to new posters. I lurk on Christmas bargain thread but agree it's a fine line between getting a bargain that is useful and one that you don't really know what to do with.

Hound if you have an Aldi near you they do amazing reductions from about 1800 where they reduce fresh products that are use by/best before that day to 70% off. If you have freezer space you could save a fortune. I hope manage to get some help soon.

north enjoy your holiday. Hope the sun shines for you.

life hope next week is better.

wolf that sounds like my freezer 🙈

gen fingers crossed for you 🤞

moi thanks for heads up. I'll need to stock up now or I'll be kicking myself.

£89 Morrisons and £39 Aldi on Thursday.
£40 fuel Friday
Nsd yesterday
Five week month for me so payday seems like forever away.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I’ve placed a small shop this morning which should get us through at least the next 5 days. Hopefully longer. I will contact the gp about the food bank tomorrow. I just feel so guilty and stupid because it’s my own fault for messing up my budget.