Advancing into April - Frugal Friends still being, er, Frugal.

[needastrongoneagain]

New thread.

All welcome.

Hello, please can I join in? I was musing today that I need to write down everything I spend and this thread popped up! This month has been out of control for me. I need to stop spending so much.

Spent £50 filling up the car with fuel.
£9 food essentials.

Can see pay pending for tomorrows payday and I'm disappointed tbh, I worked a load of overtime last month but when I checked my payslip they've just increased my pension contribution. They have deducted in total (tax, NI and pension) pretty much a third of my earnings 😪 it's so shit.

I bloody hate this Government so much, my pension is now almost 10% of my earnings and the increase has cost me £90 extra this month.

I honestly felt sick this morning when I realised how much the increase was going to cost me.

Welcome dorrit all welcome here. Good luck with the budget control, it's definitely better to jot it on here.

Boo to disappointing payslips girlie 10% pension is a lot.

£8.50 Coop as they had the freezer deal on so I got diet coke and five freezer items.

Credit of £10.99 from Amazon as I messaged them about some chargers that had been recalled due to serious risk of fire. They refunded without a return 👍

Hello @DorritLittle, all welcome here in this lovely part of MN.

Confused @Girliefriendlikespuppies how the NHS pension scheme works. Does the percentage you pay increase the more you earn? Are you sure it's not the fact that this is the first pay period in the new tax year and whatever you earned this last month HMRC will assume you earn every month and tax accordingly? Our general manager has just had a very big bonus (think 10k plus), so HMRC will assume this is his monthly income for the next twelve months. It isn't, and it does even out, but no comfort for you I know.

£7 on fruit, milk, bread etc.

Sausage pasta using up odds and ends tonight, I've been to the running club too and done 6 miles.

Big skies I must try the speaking practice method you’re using. It does sound logical.

Weight glad the GP was great this morning but sorry you’re facing some poking.

No spending for me today. Was at the office and busy so didn’t get a chance to venture to any shops. Had a convoluted commute back so it cost a bit more than usual.

Had mother on the phone. I really should learn not to answer. I’m sure my blood pressure doubles.

Not feeling too good. Hoping it’s just tiredness but think I’ll have an early night.

Need my NHS pension contributions have increased by around 2% (from 7.7% to 9.8%) I have earned more this month because of the OT but even without that it's still a lot more money.

I'm not sure if there's any other public service workers on the thread? I believe we're paying a similar amount to the police now and they get to retire a lot earlier than we do!!!

Need there are different contribution rates in the NHS scheme, you can see them here. It’s not possible to partially contribute as it is defined benefit, so you either pay at the prescribed rate or pull out altogether.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/cost-being-scheme

ive really noticed the jump in rates over the time I’ve been in the NHS, it’s actually very high for
me now and the pension is not final salary any more, and no lump sum payable either. Still better than most private sector schemes, I guess, but nowhere near as good as it was for the boomers, gah.

I’ve not spent any money today but I’m thinking about buying bathroom tiles (even though I don’t have a builder confirmed) as it’ll save me a hundred quid if I buy while the sale is still on. But I’m not usually one to tempt fate!

I also shelled out £35 for a replacement charging case for my AirPods (used from eBay). The case must have fallen out of my pocket last week when I was coming home from work (and wearing the pods, so I still have them). I was surprised how much I missed them - they were a surprise present from DM a couple of Christmases ago and I wasn’t sure I was all that bothered about having some but they’ve made me enjoy my commute again!

DS hasn’t stopped sobbing and screeching this evening. He’s really upset at school being closed tomorrow (again). I gather he sobbed and shouted all day at school, DM said the teacher and his LSA looked pretty shellshocked when she went to pick him up. It’s been a very draining few hours. Poor DH is juggling them tomorrow as I’m in the office all day. I feel very guilty but can’t wfh tomorrow.

I must try to take lunch. I have some cold leftover salmon and bagged salad that need eating, it would be criminal to buy something else. But at 6.45am i always feel a bit differently about it!

That sounds tough half for you and him. I hope he is able to get some comfort (and sleep).

Stunning picks born, the highlands are so beautiful.
life I do some crochet. I’m not great at it but I find it to be a nice distraction when my heads full.
mrs I’m happy to hear you came out from 2 under 2 alive and it worked out well for you. It definitely has a lot more pros than cons for our family.
half the holiday cottage sounds wonderful. I need to book our holiday. We usually travel back to the UK late summer for a few weeks to avoid the peak of hurricane season. I’m not sure if we have other plans this year though with DS being so little I’m not sure I could manage a long flight. We’re considering a road trip instead. I hope your DS is able to get some comfort tonight💐
big the French practice sounds great. Glad to see there’s another succession watcher here. I cried at the last episode because I didn’t want to wait another week to see what happened!.
weight I hope the tests can get to the bottom of what’s wrong. I had some similar issues for year and nobody could figure out what was wrong with me, it’s so draining.
Welcome dorrit
NSD here for us. We had quite a spendy weekend so I’ve been trying to rein it in. Thankfully the storms have held off and we’ve had a couple of trips to the park. Im coming off some medication which is making me feel really out of sorts so I haven’t been up to much lately. I’m off for a candlelit bath when the DC go to bed and then hopefully some stargazing.

Thanks for that, @HalfWomanHalfChocolate, that's quite the contribution. I can understand your sentiments @Girliefriendlikespuppies.

That sounds very tough @HalfWomanHalfChocolate re your DS. Incredibly draining. Hope your DH is okay today.

I really need to get my shop done today but not sure when I will do!

Hope you got some rest half and ds managed to calm, sounds very tough

i have one in and one out today, typical on dh retirement even we have plans

i think he paid something like 14 % pension (emergency services) might have been more I forget

spends day but hotel’s paid for, meal out of a birthday voucher, kennel £25

away the weekend so no shopping until Monday

Will catch up later but todays news:

the interest on my (laughable) high interest saver came in. A grand total of ……
£17.

but I get my £1200 back tomorrow so that will get popped into my pension.

€9 primark jeans
€9.55 lunch

€4 bargain bin trackies for dd too

£130 Sainsbury's but included 4 bottles of wine as we have guests this weekend (2 x white/red to cover). Would have been more like £100 otherwise. Added some spices etc too.

£25 veg and fruit box delivery which lasts two weeks (or the veg does)

Within budget.

Nsd day today - hopefully 🤞🏼 Yesterday's spends were £50 M&S. I got the pizza deal for £12 which depending on your sides is good value. Then £60 Asda but I bought more plants and got some things for dm so probably only £45 was food.

Half hope ds calmed down a bit that must be so distressing.

Welcome dorrit

Girlie I'm NHS. I'll need to check my pension contributions. Some of our staff manage to retire at 55 and then come back part time. That seems to be the dream

Physio this morning so that was £55. I don’t need to go back for five weeks but I should buy some resistance bands. Will take a look at the weekend.

A further £1.50 on chocolate milk and £1 on three travel sized tubes of toothpaste. Contemplating travel sized sun block for my handbag. Then came back to thinking about buying a new bag. Looked in TK Maxx but didn’t see anything I liked.

£2.69 in Aldi, charged twice so might contact their customer service. The guy said my card hadn't worked but it did flash up 'approved remove card' but he got me to put it through again.
£2.64.Lidl.
Above was for lunch and some sweet buns for DC.

Empty fridge and I'm working out of the house tomorrow, so likely need to get some sandwich fillings tonight.

half that does sound tough, I hope DS is feeling better and back to school tomorrow.

Today I have spent the least amount for a long time, mainly as I didn’t leave the house except for the school run. £25 on a kids’ club monthly payment and £10 for a colleague’s leaving gift. I am thinking the latter was not very frugal of me for my first day and should have made it £5!

Brother's birthday today and my niece was singing at a local festival, so we met there. Bought some jerk chicken and a burger for me and DS, £15, and then a round of drinks (5, 3 of them soft drinks) in the theatre bar to toast the birthday boy: £21. Weather atrocious, which rather killed the street carnival vibe, but we were able to take our food inside the venue, so all was well.

@RumBananaSundae resistance bands are a really cheap, affordable, portable and versatile piece of exercise equipment, you'll not look back!

Took DH to the garden centre to get him out of the house yesterday afternoon and I know it's very accessible. So an unexpected £12 on some popadom chutney for DS and a plant for DD😁

Should be a NSD today.

It's pay day. Yay. Paid myself first. Need to pay holiday cottage balance this month so things aren't as healthy as they look right now but I'll enjoy it for today

Yeah born I know lots of colleagues that have done that. It doesn't really inspire people to work ft or progress though as it just ends up costing you more!

Pay day was Ystd so spendy day,

£100 to my mum for London trip, need to double check how much more I owe her for this, think probably another £50.

£52 for the dogs agility class (that's for two months.)

£150 to savings to pay myself back.

£20 co op, they have a good freezer deal on atm and needed a few bits for dinner.

Am still left with an okay amount for the rest of the month (in theory!) No other major spends planned although will get my haircut and possibly coloured, the dogs also getting his annual haircut which is around £35.

Got a letter about moving onto universal credit which I need to check as I get a tiny amount in tax credits now and actually had thought they'd stopped...

Going into town today and have written a list to try and keep me on track.

Payday today for me too. £200 going straight over to my emergency £500. Which now stands at £900, yay me!

But it won’t be like that for long, as I have holiday clothes, sandals, trainers to buy for ds2 soon, plus other things like football boots, spending money for his upcoming school trip to Belgium, etc. And I’d like to actually buy myself some new clothes this summer.

Ive got lots of additional hours at work coming up this month so I’m hoping to keep busy, spend as little as possible and keep on saving. Especially as I suspect the energy account may need a cash injection once I’ve submitted readings and the quarterly bill comes in next week.

Payday here too, it’ll all soon be gone 🤣

Likely to be spendy next month as hopefully have a holiday balance to pay (if DH can finally get the answer about if he can have the time off). It’s taking a bit of getting used to him having to do this, rather than having the fixed school holiday dates.

Yay for being Friday, and a bank holiday weekend! Hope everyone gets a little extra time off or extra pay if they are working.