Summer savings support - be frugal

[ememem84]

Running out of space on the old thread so here’s the new one. Everyone welcome.

for background this is a slice to share your No spend days, your big spend days your savings your situation. We all help each other out with advice and tips etc. but it’s mostly for friendly accountability.

Following! I do lots of these already but definitely need to get food spending down. My 3 teens eat so much!

@lifelongfrugaleer thanks so much! I've copied them into a word doc and am going to go through one by one to see if its something I could apply 🙂

Just on the tips I said I was going to experiment with one big lidl shop for basic storecupboard things and particularly the things ds eats like a plague of locusts. I'd say that was successful and we still have crisps and biscuits left for the last week of the month, which is unheard of. Most of the packets are in the wardrobe and I've dished a weeks' worth out at a time into boxes in the kitchen

there's a lady i follow i Instagram and youtube (Jordan page - she's from the US and is intense but seems nice) and she does this thing called "shelftember" - so for the whole of september, she uses up food she already has.

its worth a look

if you use amazon you can probably get godo deals with subscribe nd save. only if you get the full lot though. max out the savings.

I have 3 store cupboard/freezer meals that I cook each week but bulk buy the ingredients to keep the food shopping costs down

if anyone wants my three recipes let me know

£65 in Aldi. Extra packets of minced pork and beef, extra milk, butter, cheese, eggs, yoghurt to cater for DS. They also had olive oil, and nice bottled veg that they haven't had for a few weeks. Really trying to avoid the processed stuff, so bypassed the hot cross buns, brioche and ice-cream...

Hello all,

New here just having a browse through, I need some accountability too I'm now on maternity allowance and whilst I have some savings earmarked for during this time my personal goal is to have enough at the end of the year to afford a little holiday with my new little girl. This will be done by things such as continuing my Costa coffee boycott after the last price increase I find my major downfalls financially is lack of organisation and also being a lazy arse.

hello namechange What a great financial goal. Do you have any ideas of where you'd like to go yet?

Currently cooking a batch of chilli. Some tonight, some for the freezer. DS has returned from a day grubbing up shrubs and shovelling stones from one place to another, landscaping a garden. He's knackered, and currently having a very long shower while playing bangin' tunes and singing loudly. He needs some workmen's shorts to go with his steel-capped boots, I have said I'll pay.

We're thinking about a gite holiday in France in October. It would be the first time abroad iwth the dog. We'll have to add in £60 for his rabies shot and £150 for the animal health certificate. Bloody hell!

I need to read all these posts & then I'll offer some of my own.

Never throw food away - this week I'd two leftovers lunches - one was chicken in white wine sauce that dd didn't eat, I mixed it with cheese and stuffed it into a pitta.
Today was chicken that I'd poached weeks because it was heading for best before date, mixed with scallions, cherry tomatoes, some chorizo and cheese on an open focaccia. Pic below

Life it's the glued on laminate

Yah it will be a chuff on to lift as you will need to get rid of the glue underneath, unless it’s so bad it all lifts together.

Hi everyone, and hi to all the new people here.

@ivykaty44 id love to know your recipes, always looking for inspiration.

Going to take some time at the weekend to re read those tips, thanks for reposting @lifelongfrugaleer . Always good to see if there’s anything I can revisit or try.

Work later. But first I’ve got to do a small top up shop. And I will finally go and collect Ds’s gcse certificates. School rang and messaged me again yesterday. I’m sure they want them out if the way ready for this years to arrive. It’s almost a year they’ve had them, oops!

Always good to be reminded of the tips. I've been back reading the frugal, money and investment bits of the site (although the latter mostly because there is a bit of a cat fight going on and it was mildly entertaining) as it helps me to reset my thinking.
Need to work for a while today on my day off. Bleurgh.
Now fed up of shouting at insurance contractors who are totally useless. Need to get on with my essay which I'm behind my own plan on but have no motivation to get on with and the house is a shit heap. It's much cooler this morning though which is lovely
Welcome new people. Ivy I'd like to see the recipes too.

Day 1 yesterday - I listed 5 items on Vinted, two of which have sold (£5 altogether). I find it much better than eBay for buying and selling.

I listed some old textbooks on WeBuyBooks: £8 for £150 rrp of books 😂but I won't use them again and they go out of date so quickly.

I picked up a baby changing mat off a local facebook group, the same one is £12 new so a good saving there.

And a £15 top-up shop in Aldi - kitchen foil, cling film, fabric softener, cereal, two packs of ice lollies, belgian buns for breakfast and enough to pad out my cupboard ingredients into meals for the next three nights. All cheaper than one takeaway.

£2.49 for kitchen foil though - when did that happen! 😯

£8 in Sainsbury's on salmon, apples and broccoli - cashed in the points accumulated to date, so bill was reduced by a mighty £2.50 - guess it all helps.

At the risk of wishing my life away, I am very keen for June to end and my reduced financial commitments to begin! I have some expenses to claim, which if they come through next week, will enable me to just about end the month on zero, no overdraft. I have managed to save £300, but haven't yet bought DS a 21st birthday present (he promises to give the matter some headspace, but has been working non-stop since his return). Still waiting for insurance cheque which will enable us to clear the overdraft on the JA, and pay off an extra chunk on the energy bill.

Oh - kind neighbour gave us a bottle of wine in return for watering their plants while away. Very nice of them. (And saves us a tenner, should we wish to drink some wine - I'm mostly not, but not managing the complete abstinence I maintained for a couple of years. It's the best diet I ever went on.)

I've gone up an increment in NHS pay scales this month so I knew I'd be on a bit more, but it's more than I expected upon checking my payslip🙂I'm going to put it straight into savings and pretend it never existed.

Vinted parcels posted out - I went into Tesco to post them on my lunchtime and managed not to buy anything snacky or nice for lunch - pretty much unheard of for me!

Boo, I’d been hoping (somewhat optimistically) my appointments for my injury claim would finish today. Another four appointments now being requested. I’ve asked the solicitors to see if my expenses could be reimbursed now though, as they are currently at about £200.

That's why I was planning on replacing but now it's coming off on some doors in complete sheets, and surprisingly not near heat or water!

The benefit of doing it this way is I could match the doors on my dresser to kitchen, if I buy I can't

Thank you for the new thread EM
Afternoon everyone Have been shocked at how much new & used cars have risen in price , we bought ours 4 years ago now and we have been mumbling about looking for another one in the not too distant future. l don't think we will be bothering just yet though
Thank you Decaff yes l find the S&S on Amazon very good when you get vouchers as well have to remember to cancel them immediately though
I really think the benefit you will get from the extra nursery hours really out weigh the money side of things , l hope you are able to manage and keep them for your benefit lovely
Tayto have a smashing holiday l am sure the cats will be fine
Happier what a kind neighbour! Happy home anniversary too
Spends today petrol £80 , l rang around the garages to find out the cheapest , they didn't seem to mind and it saved us 6p a litre , l know it's only about £3 but the cheapest one was across the poad to us also , l have noticed garages & the petrol price apps saying they have cheap petrol prices and when you go to fill up, they have caps all over the unleaded nozzles and you have to buy the super unleaded. I have noticed this about 3 times in the last 2 weeks , cheating swines because l am sure it is a deliberate ploy to get us in there to buy the dearest unleaded and use their shop , so l ring around now .

CurlsandCurves

chickpea curry
using the double pots of curry paste, add tin tomatoes, 2 tins of chickpeas, onion, £4 for two meals. Ingredients will keep for next 3 weeks if you purchase on week one of the month

Here don’t worry about capers or olives, but get Parmesan, it lasts ages. But a block and put in food processor to grate and store

Frozen prawns and peas with soya, garlic and 5 spice stir fried and use noodles or rice. Any left over vegetables, sweet corn

if I want to tighten my belt I purchase 4x for these three recipes

then add breaded fish frozen and oven chips - these can be cooked without effort instead of a takeaway and is healthier and cheaper - it’s a great standby

i then know that each week I only have to find 4 meals for dinner, and the three dinners up above are not expensive.

£151 Waitrose.

I learned something today. Waitrose do vouchers for stuff. However if the particular thing isn’t there they will honour the voucher for a similar item. Eg today is £3 off Waitrose olive oil. None left. So I got Philippo Berrio oil 1l (voucher was for 1l). For lower than the Waitrose one (only had 750ml left in the own brand).

Hello
I am new here but it would be good to know more about this

Thanks em

DH got paid, phew. I won’t get paid til next Thurs but have seen my payslip and finally got the £150 expenses I’m owed from a trip in early May.
We have had a really busy week and it continues with me at a course tomorrow til 4 then a 50th birthday party in the eve and on Sunday we have a cream tea with friends followed by cinema using some free tickets we got given to the local screen.
we are off on our honeymoon a few days into July, really soon now! Was originally booked for August 2020 😂🥴

Bit of a spendy day...£20 on lunch with a friend and it wasn't even that great which is really annoying.

£30 in m and s, got that £10 pizza deal again like last week also got quite a few yellow sticker items for the freezer so that's good. Have struck lucky recently with yellow stickers!

Really trying to cut down spending extra this month as we are starting the month off with alot less than usual like 25percent less due to an unexpected bill which is annoying but necessary. lets not mention I'm going out for dinner tomorrow

hopefully get quite a few Lidl / Aldi shops in this month.

Feel like we are swimming against the tide ATM don't know how we will ever get out of the overdraft. Would love to end the month in the black.

Ho hum