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.

Expensive day today
90 £ for 9 pair of shoes for the dds.
7 £ for colouring pencils for dd2s pencil case
25 £ for 2 gifts for birthday parties in the weekend
15 £ cafe trip with the dd

I enquired about driving lessons for DD. The instructor I spoke to said she has a waiting list of 4-6 weeks. It's €45 per lesson. How does that compare with the UK?

I also booked my car in for a pre-NCT service. It's great having a day off to get all these admin. jobs done.

The primark (penny’s) oodies are great, both my dc have the plain ones and love them, they survived camping and multiple wakes washes

dunno about driving lessons though sorry

£66 aldi and £3 M&S quite a cheap week

Tayto I pay £68 for a 2 hour driving lesson for ds or £320 for a block of 10 hours it’s so expensive but we paid for dds so need to do the same for him plus he only works part time around college on £5 per hour I think is awful nmw is so low for youngsters when they do the same Job as an older person. really hoping he doesn’t take for ever to pass

I can't argue with the cost of driving lessons or the minimum wage for young people. Both shocking, at either end of the spectrum.

Spends have been £1.60 for a tea for DH and £100 Lidl. Which is WAY more than I usually spend but I'm having friends over Saturday and Sunday so had to buy wine/beer/nibbles and meal items I wouldn't usually. I'm still confident it's cheaper then two meals out and that the spare food will be used. Did make me wince, I'm usually super careful and think about everything that goes in the trolley.

Meal plan (all from BBC good food)
Veggie casserole and jacket potatoes
Veggie bean pot with breadcrumbs
Mixed bean chilli with wedges
Spicy mushroom and broccoli noodles
Herby rice, with roast veg, chick peas and halloumi
Chana masala
Lentil and sweet potato cottage pie
Pasta and broccoli bake, salad

tayto - it's the cumulative effect of lots of small increases isn't it? It's pretty stressful, I agree.

Thanks @ decaffe will have a look in Asda! @ Taytocrisp, my twins have left school but if your daughter is off to college and you ring the child benefit, you should get it until they are 18. Hopefully that helps, its a lot to suddenly drop, especially with all the price increases... 3 quid on a large plant pot, 8 pound on tile stickers for my TV unit cover up puppy scratches on the paint, 2 quid washing up bowl. Toffee Sundays 25p x 4 reduced, Mr kiplings cakes 25p x4 reduced. I have 13 days kept off work, I will be walking the dog, reading and deep cleaning / gardening now. The twins are 16 and my son has a birthday all in the same week, so I am off to your neck of the woods mrsmadevans, as he lives in Cardiff.swansea has free buses every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday this month!!! 😀

That meal plan will use basically what's already in and tins/pulses, but I've some beetroot from my SIL's allotment staring accusingly me from the fridge too, that I need to use! Probably will make hummus (roasted beetroot hummus is lovely).

Yes its definitely all the same rises of prices that makes it all a bit more depressed..
Luckily petrol has gone down a bit in price. Filled it up today for 1.4 £ per litre.
Regarding Christmas we always use ths child tax benefit that we receive in October for gifts and stuff. It tend to be able to cover the majority. Perhaps that's a possibility?

My shoe shopping haul except 2 pairs that the dd is already wearing.

9 pairs of shoes for £90 is quite good going?

Car repair ended up being £900, instead of over £1000 so a bit better than anticipated.

We’ve been spendy the last few day:
£110 for new garden furniture
£49 DD2 school shoes (£40 was vouchers from ONS)
Three pairs of trainers £53
£11 two tops for DDs
£20 raincoat for DD1
£7 on two cards (urgh!)
DH bought some clothes too, a miracle 🤣

still need to get DD1 school shoes as they didn’t have any she liked in her size. But looking through the uniform bought over the last few months, I think that is all that is left to buy.

I think a couple of people here do the ONS survey? Did you get your results after doing your first postal test? We’ve had our vouchers but no result. A bit late now if we have covid!

good day today just my fayre to work though did pick up electric blanket and heated throw I had ordered. What is the cheaper version foodie in Primatk fo they have them in now?
Hoping for minimal spend day tomorrow beach day and taking a picnic so fingers crossed not sure what we are doing about tea though possibly dish and chips which once was cheap but doesnt seem to be these days !!!

I’m going to get a cheap oodie for the winter too. Lots of places have them I think, Costco had some nice ones last year.
decaff I had three in school shoes until recently and like you, I think Clark’s last best. I’d recommend getting the measurw, also avoids the stress to taking 3 to the shoe shop!
DP found out today that he’s entitled to a blue light card for discounts - I thought it was just NHS. £4.95 for a card for two years apparently which is great.
tayto absolutely, it’s all the increases together which are hard to absorb isn’t it!

Sorry martha i meant we are waiting for a blue badge as in a disabled blue badge not a blue light badge but that's great your DH got one what sort of things do you get discount on?

I caught up on the last few pages.

em that's amazing that you've paid your last ever nursery fees! You must be feeling like a millionaire with the money you'll save. Also, where has the time gone?

Big skies sounds like you had a nice holiday. Glad your DH is getting so much enjoyment out of his coffee machine ☕

Curls sorry to hear about DS failing the theory test. Fingers crossed for next time.

Welcome socathe and well done on the renovations.

A warm welcome to still also and anyone else I've missed.

Decaf that was a good saving at the attraction.

martha have a lovely weekend away. Your Mum and sister are so nice to treat you both.

Gen and north hope all goes well as you prepare for surgery.

life thanks for the Penneys oodie recommendation.

I took advantage of the summer sales to buy a lovely new duvet set and some fat new pillows - the old ones were like pancakes. I washed the duvet set to get all the wrinkles out of it and dried it on the line outside. Can't wait to climb into bed. There is NOTHING as nice as bed linen that's been line dried.

I'm going to hit Tesco early in the morning. 'Night everyone.

Thank you for the welcomes everyone.

Low spend day yesterday, was hoping for a nsd but ended up having to buy eye drops £7 for DH who woke up with a gunky eye, think he got it from our one year old niece who was ill last week.

Made a huge lasagne yesterday which will do us for Sunday too. Today we're off to Norfolk to see my family for the weekend . Spends should just be petrol as my parents will provide the food etc.

6.30am on a Saturday and my 3 year old is still asleep for once but I'm awake! Have a lovely weekend all.

Not sure if they are in primark as haven’t been in for ages but the winter stock will e coming in soon. £18 for adults and £10 for kids last year

re shoe shopping it’s still hell but I highly recommend making an appointment at the shop. Walking in past the queue is immense,

need fuel for the car and chicken today

Morning all

To add to what life said about appointments at Clarks. They also do out of hours appointments for children additional needs etc so it's quieter we always use those and at ours you can take siblings along too
In our store it's before opening so around 8.30 or after closing around 6.30. if that helps anyone 😊

Tayto buy the cheaper versions of oodies, I got ours from LucyLocketLoves and we roast in them. Need to wait for winter stock to come in though

Gen fingers crossed for a cancellation date for you

North well done to ds on the golf tickets

Unescorted great news on the freezer

Also interested in an air fryer

Spendy week coming as ds is off on holiday without me, need to nip out and buy him some swimmers shortly but as I've just discovered everything he wants to pack is dirty the washing machine is on. Bloody teenagers

Tayto glad you had a lovely hol and agree it's the cumulative increase that's causing the pain. Food is ridiculous. I've just seen our pay offer for this year and it's pretty depressing too

Great shoe haul Luxembourg. I need school shoes for ds

Morning all!

I work in a shoe shop and we do an appointment system at this time of year too. Would definitely recommend, as kids don’t usually like standing in queues waiting lol. It works really well for us too.

I got my fake Oodie from eBay a couple of years ago £20 and it’s so cosy. Only trouble is If I wear it in the evening I fall asleep on the sofa!

Gorgeous day here, one wash load on the line, another one on the go. Dh is at work and the boys have yet to surface. Just getting things done at home today I think.

I’ve got a real Ooodie, it’s roasting so not used it much so far. But I expect it’ll be perfect for this winter.

My DC have fake ones from Next. DD2 has had hers a while, it’s not so bulky that she can’t do stuff whilst wearing it.

What's the difference between shoes and school shoes ?

Children have to wear smart black shoes to school here. Not trainers.

Just home from Tesco. I spent €147.38 but I've about four weeks of non-perishable stuff i.e. loo rolls, canned veg., pasta etc. etc. It was funny buying dishwasher tablets again. The cat litter is significantly cheaper than the pet shop so I'm making a big saving there. The town itself (about 20 minutes drive from here) was a disaster - roadworks everywhere. Some streets are one way anyway and then other streets were closed off to facilitate the roadworks. Glad I got in and out early or I'd have been sitting in traffic all day.

I also spent €6 at the fishmonger. And a little over €1 for parking fees.

Going to have a cuppa and then I'll drop some stuff down to the charity shop. Then I can finally get stuck into painting my shed. I've had the paint ages but either I've had a busy weekend and didn't have time or else it was rainy so I couldn't do it.

Things I do not miss about childrearing: 1: shoe shopping. Why are the shops always so hot?

£56 in Aldi, £5 in the butcher, £4 in the baker. £22 on deep-cleaning products for dish washer and washing machine, the former especially is not performing very well. Also the cheap DW tablets from Aldi don't seem to be dissolving in our machine, so I have bitten the bullet and am trying the ludicrously expensive Fairy ones. And a nice washing up brush - might as well enjoy the process as much as possible. £18 on refills for laundry liquid, washing up liquid and hand wash from the zero-waste shop. Have just put on a big whites wash - soak and 95degrees, full throttle!

Slightly more fun: £7 on nice pastries from the posh deli. I"ve done yoga, weights, walked this week, and stayed alcohol free - a cinnamon bun is no more than I deserve!

DH booked some more time off work in early September, so trying to keep expenditure down in the hope of nicking a couple of nights away on a coast somewhere.