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.

Thanks everyone for all the support, it is really appreciated.
Yesterday was odd, last day at work for at least 3 months. Still have a bit to do but it will be from home as I'm isolating now until Monday.
Had lovely drinks out with my best friend & her DH last night. Not too spendy, probably £20
DD seems to be having a good time away, minimal messages & no calls so far always a good sign.
I'm in planning & organising mood. Going to do a couple of curries, Bolognese & chilli for the freezer. Our microwave is out of action so I've managed to borrow one from a friend that she has spare.
Ds is working for the next 3 nights so I should be able to get his quilt finished. Tomorrow will bake & freeze the cake layers for his birthday cake.
For his birthday "gathering" we've ordered hotpot from the local bakery & I've got friends & family doing desserts.

All the best North. Honestly you’ll be fine. The op sounds horrendous but it’s nowhere near as bad as it seems. And fingers crossed that all is well with your cyst. 💐

north best of luck with the op! Xxxxxx you know we’re here if you want to chat xx

been for lunch with Bil and sil. Yay! And rockpooling.

ds’ new bed arrived and it’s all put up. He’s so excited!

How long are they over for Em?

Massive luck north again. Enjoy this last weekend.

I found my Nectar card yesterday, I'd searched for ages for it when I mislaid it and then forgot about it. I've absolutely tons of points on it, accrued over about 3 years. So today I went and got DH some long legged lounge wear, rather than the shorts he currently has in the hospital as it's getting a bit cooler. I also got some bits and pieces that enhance recipes (I love cooking and we rarely eat out), certain pastes and seasonings I'd stopped buying. Didn't make a dent on my points total.

A rare day off and house caught up on, lovely smell of Zoflora around the house, DH visited, just having 5 minutes before I sort tea.

Meal plan. Dug out my Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall book Much More Veg and have planned round the recipes in that. Plenty of fresh veg in to use. We are veggie 99% of the time, bar a bit of tuna occasionally.

Summer veg Thai curry
Squash and chickpeas patties
Pepper, courgette and bean chilli,
Sweet potato dhal.
Boston bean and squash stew
Chick pea and pepper soup, Tiger Bread (free Lidl bakery item)
Veg 'Stoup'
Veggie shepherds pie

Carrot hummus, Moroccan carrot blitz, roast veg for lunches.

Tomorrow is gardening again and that's about it.

you will be fine north as you are super organized

nsd today but I need to go to Aldi either tonight or tomorrow

keep an eye out re nectar they usually do an offer in autumn. Last year wasn’t as good as previous but ok

Have fun with in laws em

Just over a week then it’s back to Aussie for them!

lunch was £80. But 4 grown ups two kids two beers one boozy ginger beer three soft drinks four ice creams. So not bad. huge portions.

Use it up dinner. Butternut squash pasta. Literally roasted the remains of butternut with sweet potato some tomatoes from garden onion and garlic then blitzed it. Thrown into pasta. Cheese. Le yum.

mines that's such a great unexpected frugal win with your nectar card. How is your DH?

Made a "use up fridge contents" curry tonight & it was really good. This week was our mistake gousto box so the meals were selected for us. They've been good up to now, but I didn't really fancy the last one, so used the meat, veg & rice. Lots of curry leftover for another day too 🙂
Need DH to go out & get a few things for the batch cooking, but I think that'll be tomorrow morning
DS has just left for cricket coaching so I'm going to sew!

Good luck with everything north, hope all goes well. Lsd, free bus to Swansea qnd then walked to blackpill, bought 2 small teas for a meeting with a friend, lovely catch up and then walked back from blackpill to Swansea and caught q free bus home. Nap this afternoon with my puppy, because next week is really busy.

Frugal fail. Hake for dinner. Ds decided immediately he didn't like it (this is pretty rare) and it ended up in the bin. Gutting

Good luck north
spends today £2.50 on a lotto ticket to get £5 cash back to put into a birthday collection at work
absolutely knackered today but just got back from picking ds from work they were busy tonight realised we were low on milk so spent £1.65 in tesco which is a first I usually end up picking up other bits or offers that I don’t really need

That’s gutting wolf
try and relax north
that meal is a bargain em
just been through my fridge and lots less waste which is good for us but not good enough
baking and Aldi today. event at the stables tomorrow I’m helping on

Ooo it's nearly time for a new thread 😃

Spendy day but essentials yesterday. School shoes shopping but actually only 1 out of 3 needed shoes al it was cheaper than expected. Will reasses the others at half term.

Also bought school coats and bags for those that needed them.

I think we are done with this year's shop woohoo!

em pasta sounds lovely I've seen a recipe for butternut macaroni I want to try.

mines that's a great find with the points and I bet your DH will like having lovely comfy clothes.

north best wishes for your surgery I will be thinking of you. The birthday plans for your ds sound lovely.

Should be a nsd day today, off to a nature reserve. Already got stuff in for dinner etc

@Decafflatteplease it was super easy. And yum. I threw in a Parmesan rind too into the magimix when I whizzed it up.

said to DH we need to use magimix more. Use it or sell it. He’s not happy it’s out on the counter but a) it’s heavy and I can’t lift it down every time - so won’t use it if it’s in the cupboard and b) it’s out of sight in the kitchen. Hidden next to fridge.

have started following local zero waste plastic free site. Need to try out some of the tips!

6 tomatoes from the garden! Wooo

Ooo that site sounds interesting em

$98 Aldi, &26 M&S but some stocking up
$3.35 posting a parcel
frugal win; I went through my Amazon account and everything I bought that I don’t need and haven’t used has been returned, should get me back $45 though one of them was a kettle

Em I've just used my bamix to convert flaked almonds into ground almonds & thought at the time, I should use this more.
We've got a zero waste shop about a mile away from us. It opened in July & is fab but is in a bit of an odd location so not sure how it'll do.
Wolf I'd be pissed off too, hake is lovely

That's a good result on the school shoes decaff
Did a streamed class from our gym this morning
May do one of their YouTube recordings tomorrow
Got lots of sewing done last night. Quilt is now backed, wadded and quilted but just needs binding now.
Batch cooking later
Friend has been round with microwave this morning so we reheated meals are now sorted again

Second load of washing on. Some study reading done (but lost will to live). Cake in the oven (it's an experiment so may not work) but stupid oven keeps switching itself off again so I'm having to watch like a hawk. Dog brushed and walked. Dropping ds off with his dad later and frankly I'm going to be glad to see the back of him for a week

Good frugalling Life

I still need to do the school shoe shopping decaffe

In a fit of pique with the oven I may or may not just have bought myself an airfryer

We have a zero waste shop here. But it’s very expensive. And I feel that the novelty of going and filling bags etc will be too exciting for me so I’ll spend loads!

Frugally Forward To Autumn http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/costoff_living/4615561-frugally-forward-to-autumn

Managed 2 lines of washing dried outside, lsd - 12 poind for linen trousers for daughter, girls had booster, husband paid for mcdonalds, freezer dive for tea, mine ie defrosted veg that wouldn't fit in freezer qnd q tin of big soup I got free simmering away in the slow cooker. Nice easy Saturday watching frugal you tube videos. The puppy is eating my plants in the garden, grrrr.....

£1.09 in local shop. Pack of mushrooms, last week they were £1.00