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.

Spends today Wilkinson 23
Lidl 25
Bon Marche 22
Primark 35
Petrol in Sainsbury's and Morrisons 183.9 /lt
Asda supposed to have cut the price or petrol and Diesel according to the DM 🙄
Snoodles in Primark light grey men's 16 , Harry Potter 18
In case anyone wants them for Christmas 🌲⛄🙄

Hope he gets a second chance soon CurlsandCurves
**

£200 very on a new bed for ds. His is falling apart and I promised him one before he starts school.

feeling a bit off today. Wondering if I’m tired or run down or something else.

been for a run this evening though.

had a lapse and ordered an electric blanket and heated throw for winter but hoping it will save on heating Bill's 65 pounds for the two oh dear

Not going to be a cheap week here, car mot and urgent work will be approx £1100 😬 I’d anticipated £400.

we also had to buy home/contents insurance. DH forgot to renew it last year. I guess that saved money, but horrifying if anything had gone wrong. It was due for renewal next month anyway, but we’re now lost our no claims bonus.

We need some frugal days now until we go away. And then try to be careful whilst away. Fortunately we only need to pay for drinks and ice cream, and days out as food is included.

we spotted petrol for £179.9 here today (my new hobby in the car 😂). It was at Sainsbury’s which was unexpected.

£12 in Sainsbury's, mostly minced beef, minced pork and chorizo. Made a big chilli for dinner and some will go in the freezer. DS has been shifting 85 litre barrows of soil for the last five days, and comes home filthy, ravenous and very tired. I transferred £100 to his account today so he can buy the lunches and snacks he needs to get through these labour-intensive days. Should be a bit easier from this point on.

DH happy as Larry because the new coffee machine has arrived. He is making afogato for pudding, and I am about to have some in front of an episode of Better Call Saul.

Managing to keep spends down so far this week. However, ds has just been successful in the ballot for final day tickets for next years open golf on the Wirral. He went for 2 adult & 2 youth tickets so it's going to be a family day out, not cheap though!
Can anybody advise how to get an iPad frugally? I've decided it's time to get one so that I can use it in hospital. Have been thinking about it for a while but am a bit clueless. I have no need to have the latest model & would be happy potentially with a refurb, but I want to buy from somewhere that I feel very secure buying from, don't need extra stress at the minute. Will be using it mainly for browsing, but maybe for study too. DD seems to do amazing study things on hers. Any ideas welcome.

@northender have you a CEX near you? They sell refurbed goods. Or I might be imagining it but I think Amazon sell preloved which I would imagine will come with a guarantee.

it’s finally happened, our energy direct debit has been increased. I was planning on doing it anyway to get us a bit ahead for winter but they beat me to it. It’s about 20 more than I was going to do per month but I’ll go with it.

North just spotted this on Amazon Warehouse

Link "North* go to other sellers
2021 Apple iPad (10.2-inch iPad, Wi-Fi, 64GB) - Space Grey (9th Generation) amzn.eu/d/aPdrWO3

Spends today £40 petrol wasn’t quite empty and isn’t isn’t quite full but I only have a 0.9 engine £32 on a Pandora charm for dd birthday they currently have 20% off
joint acc dh spends £50 diesel doubt he’s filled up numerous Amazon purchases relating to doing the porch as he’s off from tomorrow and I am off next week fingers crossed I might get the new front door I ordered and paid for 4 months ago soon lol nothing is ever simple for me

Dentist today,
nsd planned

re iPads apple themselves do refurbished i pads and there is sometimes extra discount via loyalty schemes for blc or cs.
otherwise most big retailers do refurbished iPads. I find cex wasn’t that good but we only got phones.
you need a WiFi only one. And just for browsing it doesn’t need to be all singing. Have a think about what size you want too.
accessories wise if you have other apple products you will be fine otherwise earbuds and a simple case.

We have used all of these retailers but our inoutlet parcel hasn’t arrived yet www.expertreviews.co.uk/tablets/1407196/buy-refurbished-ipad-uk?amp

Already spent £66 filling up the car 😱
That's before we start 🙄
Have a lovely day everyone 😊

Afternoon

Lots of expenses recently. Out of face cream and cleanser -£25. Hair conditioning milk £18. Cat toys £6. Translation of marriage certificate £20. It's one of these months. Grocery shopping planned for today. I won't make too many savings in August, but hopefully September will be better ✊

Oh and bits and bobs in superdrug £20. We had car service which costed us £1400, but it was planned and we saved money for it.

Hi everyone, can I join? Long time mumsnet lurker but first time poster. Also long time obsessive budgeter but also overspender... so know exactly where our money is going but spending too much! House renovations for the last two years are the biggest culprit. But the house is finished now apart from a couple of smaller projects so thought we'd finally try and reign in the renovation spends and do those gradually.

Just looking for some motivation to stick to my budget amongst the ever increasing costs of living.

Also just had a £££ month in July as mine and my now 3 year olds birthdays are a couple of days apart so we always have the week off and have some days out. Need to lay low now in August as saving spending money for our holiday in September (Airbnb already fully paid thankfully).

20 pounds in hungry horse across the road once a week treat feel that may have to stop soon
Also realised I missed several things off today's asda home delivery shop and it was already 120 pounds
Need a 25 voucher for family wedding tomorrow and some bits for a picnic at the weekend and a couple of storage boxes I can see that all coming to 50 or 60 quid
All in all not a good week spending wise need to try harder next week

Nsd
Our local grocery store has 30 % off all shoes and clothes in the weekend so will go in and get the sneakers and rubber boots for the dds

Welcome socathe, you are in good company here.

Pretty frugal week in terms of no random spends other than ordering some items from Hush, when I really wanted to try on one dress, but would be charged postage for the single item. I'm working more in the office, desperately short of work items. Picking up plenty on selling sites though. I plan on returning the vast majority unless something is absolutely perfect.

Unexpected spend was a new washing machine.... arrgggh. The old one has been giving up the ghost for a while and finally gave up yesterday. Local store delivered, fitted the new one and took the old one away by 1pm today. £329. This will be out of savings. It's got a 14 minute quick wash though which I'm excited about 🤣.

We use a great company at work for refurbished phones and IPads. I'll check tomorrow who they are and post the name.

Frugal holiday here continues...went to an attraction yesterday but as a carer I was free which was much appreciated as some places only take like £1 off for carers so fab that I was free. So that.was £45 for 6 of us. Took a packed lunch and DC had money from GPs for gift shop!

Today was a mooch around the charity shops for me while DH and DC had a quiet day. Spent £20 but got some lovely warm blankets for winter and a few other bits so really pleased

I don’t think i spent anything else yesterday.
bread and wraps but that’s it.
going to a water park today the one thing the dc asked for . Already paid but will supliment pic nic with cafe and probably eat out as it’s 2 hours away

Really must force myself to Aldi today. This muggy, hot weather is demotivating! Just topped up on fruit and bagels from Sainsbury's yesterday and did a chorizo, chickpea and cannellini dish for dinner, using up stuff. But we have run out of dairy and other essentials now, so needs must. Managed to spend £27 in Superdrug and the post office, doing errands for DS.

Dinner out this evening, meeting friends at a local Italian.