Frugally Forward To Autumn

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Ill be making roasted tomato sauce for pasta and for the freezer also as we have a glut ..

That list doesn't probably look very Frugal. We do eat well, prioritise food spending. but there is just the two of us, and we both love to cook. I always batch cook for the freezer when I make curries, casseroles, soups etc.. ..Also we never mind eating the same two days running

Morning all

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything today. I need to start meal planning and making and sticking to a food budget but I don't know where to start. We currently spend around £250 a week on food, 2-3 meals a night.

I was thinking of doing a freezer inventory and seeing if DH and I can just have random creations for meals but I still would have to cook 2 meals for DC.

In good news though I'm loving vinted, so much easier than trawling through local selling pages etc. Managed to get some school uniform for DC so I can take back the new stuff I bought so that should save a bit and I need to go to that shop anyway so it's not a separate trip.

Onwards and upwards!

Checked my first payslip in one of my new jobs, think it is wrong and that they look to owe me about £25. Have e-mailed HR, they are usually quite good at this employer so hopefully it will soon be rectified.

Planning to go to the library today - it will feel so weird to be at home alone and be out at the library, shop etc on my own without DS - it's his first day at nursery today. I've hardly had any time at home/out without him since he was born, and even less so without one of the kids with me at least. Library is frugal as I'm going to collect two books for me, one of which I probably would have bought, and I will get a few books for the kids too, but can't carry too many really as it's a decent walk. Otoh it won't be that frugal as I have £9.40 of charges to pay 😅hopefully this will be the last of library charges...

Will need to go the shop to buy groceries, mostly for tonight's dinner, and nappies. I'm looking forward to cooking a nice, healthy dinner for us all too, not done much of that since DS was born...!

Enjoy your extra time to yourself WOTW. Walking, library, time to cook - all sounds good.

Shopping for a few bits of food today, for lunch and dinner, proper shop will happen at Aldi tomorrow. Exhibition this afternoon, plus (I hope) tea and cake in the overpriced gallery café. I am sort of don't care about this.

Oh, have also just paid for a plumber call-out and renewed landlord insurance. So have managed to spend over £500 without leaving my chair. I am definitely having a big bit of cake this afternoon!

didn’t actually think that poster was trying to get a reaction

You are a very nice, generous person but those who were targeted felt it was absolutely and very nastily aimed at them which is why they left.

I have no doubt however that there is another serious issue behind it all .
I dont want to be banned so thats it for me and Ive deleted my other post.
Best wishes and keep on frugalling !

Uh oh, what did I miss? I do hope everyone is ok.

Spent about £15 in Asda on groceries and nappies. Saw they've started selling massive 84 packs of their nappies now so bought one of them for DS.

Tea and cake is always good!

So I've just gone through our September budget. We have to aim to save as much as possible.

So I've taken a lump sum out of the budget and allocated it for savings / emergencies / huge unexpected bill.

£100 water rebate and £30 BT refund will make things a smidge easier

Then wrote a list of things we must buy (saucepans etc!)

From that, I now know that we can only spend on weekend treats. And that has a max budget of £40 per weekend. I doubt we'll spend it all but it would be nice to have fish and chips one week for a treat.

Anyway, September will mainly be NSDs for us. But my own personal wishlist consists of

1. autumnal pumpkin coloured nail polish
2. hair toner
3. some jeans and a pinafore dress from Vinted

Weekly shops will be £60! Which will be doable but hardwork..

If we get through the month with our lump sum savings in tact I'll be amazed!

Also does anyone do Google Surveys on the Google Rewards app? I make about £3 a week doing it.

It pays for little apps and ebooks. Small free frugal joys xx

That’s not a bad weekend treat limp colllie, you got this

&35 primary, $80 riding shop, $49 petrol Aldi later for fresh stuff

From the Christmas thread in case anyone is interested

This isn't a Christmas gift bargain, but a bargain nonetheless... This Saturday is National Cinema Day and so Vue (and I think also Cineworld) are doing tickets for £3.90 - any film and any seat. Will be my first time trying the VIP seats, because I'm never prepared to pay the extra cost for them!

Took the kids for a bike ride this morning. We hired one of these bad boys. Obviously DH and I did the peddling £12 for the hour. Kids loved it. Worth every penny.

took a walk after into town and booked ds a back to school hair cut and then got some lunch. Pasta all round at my fave Italian. It’s small and pokey but the food is ace and they are super accommodating with the kids. £50 lunch (ish). Four bowls of pasta drinks ice cream and garlic bread. Yum.

That looks ace Em. Ds has again refused to get out of bed and get showered and dressed so I've gone out without him again. Honestly not sure why I bothered taking a week off work (apart from the fact that I'm going cuckoo in work) clearly ds has zero intention of doing anything other than slobbing through his last week. Definitely gets this from his father. I refuse to live my life waiting for someone to sort their shit out

Hi all

Lsd today just £2 on some chocolate... Dh has a craving and haven't had any for ages so nipped to the shop on my lunch break at work to get some for this evening.

Regarding food shopping budgets, I have a budget of £350/month which equates to about £80/week. We have a bank account just for food shopping and petrol and I used to transfer the whole £350 for food at the start of the month. But I found I was constantly getting to the last week of the month with nothing left for the final food shop, I think because I couldn't see exactly what I had left each week it was too easy to spend over on top up trips etc. I have always meal planned and done a weekly shop, then the odd top up shop if we ran out of essential bits like milk.

Anyway a couple of months ago I changed my monthly standing order of £350 into the food account to a weekly standing order of £80 - and it has been a game changer for staying within budget! I think because I can just easily see now what I have left in that account for the week, I know what I have left for top up shops after the main weekly shop. Honestly it has made such a difference to staying within our budget. It's so much easier to look at the account and be disciplined and go without something for a couple of days because I can see it will send the account overdrawn.

I imagine lots of people already do this and I know lots use YNAB but it was like a lightbulb moment for me so thought I'd share. I don't use YNAB just have many different savings and current accounts for different things. We previously were spending an extra £100 a month sometimes just because we didn't know where we were with the food budget.

Em that looks so fun!!! Pasta sounds delish.

wolf that sounds really hard :( my ex bf was a bit like that. Had no get up and go. He basically forgot I existed so I buggered off to university. I literally applied in secret, had a secret interview out of county, packed my bags and left him in bed one day. Never looked back. I think he's still the same :(

Just had to renew contents insurance but I think I got 4000 nectar points for it. I can't be sure - I'm not very focused 🤣 then DH announced that car insurance is also up for renewal so am hoping he gets a good deal. Usually with Sainsburys Bank we get loads of extra nectar points and it adds up very quickly!!

That looks mint em

Forgot I did a £60 amazon order for dh's birthday presents (birthday is September) but this comes from our birthdays/Christmas account and already budgeted for.

It is Collie, I was reminded yesterday how much I used to feel weekends were wasted waiting for ex to get ready to go somewhere and how much it limited our options. I never want to feel like my wings are being clipped like that again.

Treated myself to a nice coffee and cake out!

Ahem . £104 in Sainsbury's, but September is not going to be a frugal month as we are away most of it and its been budgeted for ..I bought food for this week , some extra bits for the campervan - nesting containers which I'm pleased to find fit nicely in an hitherto unused awkward space inthe van and also food stuff that I would not usually buy like packet rice, and grains to heat up.. and a few tins, plus a wine box ( but you do need the 'staples' when camping ! )

Also Tu has a load of new stuff on racks being put out and I bought a snuggly top and trackie type bottoms. ( 25 for both) in a warm weight fabric.. Perfect for early morning treks to the toilet block on a Scottish campsite and sitting outside on the evening.. (And hopefully for what wont be too cold a winter at home ...)

Yesterday's nsd turned into a lsd as we needed bread and milk. Today I have bought a TGTG bag from the company shop for £5. I've only ever had Greggs before so no idea what it will be like.

em that looks fun. I imagine when you live in a touristy place you could spend a fortune without even trying. I guess the upside is you live where people spend a fortune to holiday in so don't feel the need to travel so much.

Wolf I feel your pain. I think it's teenagers. We actually took ds2 on holiday in July and he didn't want to go with just me and DH. It was really quite hurtful and in the end he had a great time but sometimes they think they are too cool to hang about with us. Interestingly the older one who's had experience of the working world would have went in a heartbeat as we were paying for it but he had to work.

Socathe that's a good idea with the food budget. DH tends to shop for a meal at a time and spends a fortune. It's annoying but the alternative is to do all the shopping myself and I don't want to need to do that either.

£4.20 in coffee shop, £1 in Haribo because I needed gummy bears 🤦‍♀️

A low spend day today. Just a sports lesson and the bus ride there.

Exhibition was good, tea and cake vair nice! I will be using the same card to get into another exhibition on Friday. So...thanks to the kindness of a friend in lending the card, we will have saved around £60 on entrance fees. Obviously have paid for fares and whatever we buy to eat in the café. And I will be buying a gift of some kind for my friend to thank her.

I think I will switch to the weekly shopping budget transfer from one account to another for September. It sounds a really good way of keeping on top of expenditure. And I will do more planning, which I somehow find easier with 'autumn/winter food'. Soups, stews, curries, risottos with leftovers somehow works better for me in the colder months. But honestly, I'd be happy to live off beans on toast and baked potatoes for a while.

I've walked out of the house for a bit. Ds is currently having one of his rages over nothing and is currently trying to smash up his bedroom furniture. I. Have. Not. Got. The. Energy.

Post as is right for you tired. There's no right and wrong here.

That's lovely re your DD flowery

Laska. I think our food bill could be reduced, but we literally don't go out and we don't buy coffees etc. so iour entire spend is what we eat from home. Great menu plan! I have swapped to Lidl though and that's saved loads but still could trim more off.

collie, fair play on a weekly shop of £60.

That looks fun em!

wolf, I'm so sorry re your DS. I'd struggle not to lose my shit so going out is probably the best option.

Great idea socathe!

Sounds like a super day Skies. Nice idea to gift something to your friend.

Sorry for those that are struggling with anxiety, I haven't suffered until recently with this and panic attacks, I sympathise. X

Today was a LSD - £6 in Tesco for two more Kilner-type jars. More Sloe gin made. I'll need fuel tomorrow though.

It was also a day off for me, the first since DH was poorly and fabulous! I gardened and cleaned the car and sorted the house and it was ace, if boring.