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

[needastrongoneagain]

New thread.

All welcome.

Morning all, we're still in London! I'm on mn while dd and my mum are still snoozing!!

Having a brilliant time, have fitted a lot in, including Camden market, phantom of the opera, Covent Garden and the new Abba show Voyage! The Abba show absolutely blew my mind, its incredible and I'd urge you all to go and see it.

Last day today, the plan is to take dd to the Tower of London before heading home.

I've spent loads, we went into urban outfitters Ystd which was a mistake as I bought myself a lovely skirt for £54! It is so nice though and I know I'll get a lot of use out of it.

I spent £60 on food and drink at Abba last night (£10 for one cocktail!) it was a treat and my mum bought dinner the first night we were here.

Managed to waste money when a guard let us out at a tube station and it then clocked up a lot more money than the journey should have done 🙄 lesson learnt there.

My debit card decided now was the perfect time to break, not sure what I did as it worked when I arrived but then suddenly stopped. Contacted the bank who said there's no issue with the account but the chip must be broken as it can't read it. Luckily I've been able to pay for everything on my phone. It has made me realise I definitely need a back up credit card though!

Dc came back Sat night & I checked with them yesterday so bus driver didn't ring their father.

Ds was hard going yesterday morning at a sports day he was acting more like a 3 year old than a 9 year old. That kind of thing sucks the life out of me.

I'd a poor nights sleep & am doing a first aid course at the moment. Least I don't have to deal with people at work.

€10.30 in Lidl on Catfood & bread Dunnes delivery this evening approx €90
€2.40 parking
€3.50 on water & breakfast
€15 at tip, got that job done while going to town for course. Feel lighter because of it.

Lunch €6
Exchanged football gloves & left my ring in for its 4th Pearl reattachment I do not plan on paying towards this repair

€345 renewing my house insurance saved €16 because my pension is with same provider. €25 more expensive than last year & I didn't do a sinking fund either

Ah, another bank holiday drawing to a close and we have pulled pork and oven chips for dinner and the second half of Clockwork Orange on Apple TV this evening. And I may even stay up to watch Succession finale.

Standen House was lovely, drive extremely easy, definitely worth the £14 fee for gardens, house, woodland walks, shops...DParents enjoyed what they were able to see,(can't manage stairs or slopes these days, so limited to garden terraces and ground floor of the house, but they have membership so they were happy that they got good value) and Ddog behaved well. The cafe is a disgrace though - horribly badly organised, don't seem to understand that on a sunny bank holiday, there will be lots of people, wanting food, running out of stuff early in the day, unable to get hot food out in time. I had fun in the queue with my mum though - we were in front of a couple who talked endlessly, in detail, about what they would select. If they said 'cheese scone' once, they must have said it 40 times. Lots of side-eye and eye-rolling with DMum, suppressing giggles. The cheese scone dialogue rose to a panicked frenzy as they saw we were also taking cheese scones...I was tempted to take all 4 remaining and then, very slowly, put 2 back...but I didn't, not being that much of a cah.

The scone dialogue made me laugh big 😂

Dmum is being very trying, I think I got 8 emails off her yesterday (she gets me off the phone asap if I call her). Only a few days to go until Ddad’s services, I am trying very hard to keep my cool with her.

Taking the DC to the kids club showing at the cinema this morning. It will be nice to turn off my phone for a few hours. I expect we will have a McD’s afterwards. We won’t be doing much this half term so feel a bit guilty about this, DH is at work for the next couple of days too.

Oh God the scone dilemma, I feel their pain 😂

I think the three days in London has cost around £250 just spending money 🙈 that includes travel for dd and I plus all food/drink, I spent a bit on clothes and gifts (not loads) and the day trip to the Tower of London.

Reminds me why we only go to London every five years or so 😬

The month of June will be very tight now so I'm back on the frugal waggon.

Spent £84 in Aldi this morning which came in slightly better than I expected as I've not done a shop for over two weeks. Am going to have a good at making falafel later as dd likes it and I have all the ingredients.

The rest of half term will be fairly quiet, might go one beach day but will take sandwiches etc.

girlie that’s not bad for London though, sounds like you’ve still been frugal though painful!
Thanks for the well wishes re my DDad. He was ok, slept quite a lot but did get up and socialise. DC did a bit of teenage moping but overall all went well. Only I went wild swimming in the end (with DMum to hold my coat or in this case dry robe) as the weather wasn’t great. However we had a nice day out in Matlock going for a walk, getting mr whippy in the park where they used to play when they were little, and a few charity shop bargains. Just home now and they’ve all scattered in different directions. I’m working the rest of half term now ☹️ but they are all capable of entertaining themselves and DC1 and 2 will be working too.

Martha I did get dd in to the Tower of London on a child's ticket by saying she's 15 😉 much to her mortification 😂

I don't suppose I'll get away with that for much longer.

Hello!! I'm hoping to join you if that's okay? My husband and I are on a mission to overpay our mortgage by as much as possible and it's going to require a lot of cost-saving measures.

We have a daily food budget and anything we save from it, we overpay into our mortgage. Tiny amounts, but hopefully it'll all add up.

I'm trying to get rid of lots of stuff on Vinted and Facebook marketplace to earn some extra cash too.

Girlie Whoo hoo to having a brilliant break. Boo to the spending.

Big I have to agree on National Trust cafes. I always visited them and was always disappointed.

Time Thinking of you with the service approaching. I sympathise.

Today’s spending:
£1.50 on bubble envelopes in Poundland
~£44 in the Post Office on (two) water bills and posting a package
~£160 on my credit card. Boo to you double charging hotel and the most expensive bowls of cereal ever. Still not had a reply to my email.
£12.50 on (mostly unnecessary) groceries

Welcome Rats.

It's petty, but I was honestly so cross about the amateur way this café was being run. The 'menu' is basically a rough sketch of what might be available to order if you happen to alight at the till at the exact right moment. No hot food was available at the point we arrived at the till and were able to order (after queueing for 30 minutes) and the 'chef' was unable to say when the pre-cooked, frozen items would be ready, as they were 'in the oven, that's all I can say, maybe 15 minutes'. They're not allowed to take an order and sell an item unless it's ready to serve there and then (they don't take numbers and bring to the customer when ready, as every park cafe and greasy spoon in the land can manage). I did say that I would return in 15 minutes to order the hot food, since that was the best intel on when it would be ready to serve, and I assured them I would be coming to the head of the queue to do so and not standing for a further 30 minutes.

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened in that case, and I was certainly in the mood to stand my ground, but in the event, the cakes, scones and soup that we were able to get filled us up sufficiently and we left without spending more money, ingesting unnecessary calories, or having to steel myself for a confrontation!

Not petty at all I hate badly run tourist cafes. It's like sunny bank holidays are a surprise to them.

Brimham rocks however was very efficient

Payday, finally! It’s been a long month.

£150 to savings. £320 for PT sessions, I got a great deal on buying a block of them. £80 monthly standing order to Christmas account.

big I’m totally with you on the NT cafes (though I don’t usually buy food, only drinks as they’re so expensive!) Round us they always close ridiculously early…cos no one wants a drink on a bank holiday, right?

Morning.

Welcome, @FuckingHateRats. You are in good company here. We all have our different reasons for being frugal, but we are a friendly and supportive corner of MN.

Thinking of you too @Timetoswitch

Glad you had a nice time in London @Girliefriendlikespuppies. Meant to suggest the Natural History Museum but didn't post in time.

Spending has been high here, but all necessary.
£160 big food shop - cupboards are bare, just used the last tin of tuna to make sandwiches and used ketchup instead of mayo 🙃
£20 veg box for two weeks.
£32 Amazon on oat milk and bin liners and boring staples etc
££££££ on getting wills and POA sorted. Very necessary given our circumstances.

I don't think it's petty either, I despair at how badly organised this country can be when it comes to tourists/visitors. The difference when you go anywhere else in the world is staggering tbh.

Need I wanted to do a museum but we ran out of time in the end. I decided though that this is the last time I'll go to London when it's a bank holiday/school holiday!! It was crazy busy, everything involved long queues and we couldn't get into the underground at Camden as it was so packed. Now dd is at college she can miss a week day or two without it being the end of the world but I keep forgetting that!

Similar reasons to which we schedule household catch up weekends for Bank Holiday weekends, can't stand going to places when they are rammed!

£20 Marks and Spencer - goodies for the guys at work after a tough few weeks, tinned tuna and rice cakes (only thing I forgot to add to the supermarket delivery)
£21 a new cook book (my downfall is cookbooks). Korean - a new direction for me.

Hopefully such a big shop will negate anything other than extra bread and milk for a week.

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets riled by badly organised visitor facilities!

Joint account top-up day today, hurrah. Will do a big shop tomorrow -butcher, Aldi, Sainsbury's. DS coming home for a few days this weekend, so will be buying extra food, and making it extra nice. This month has been quite frugal, food-wise: I can track £380 for food, basic toiletries, laundry/cleaning stuff. DH bought some bits (the odd ready-meal, posh ice-cream - have taken the place of the occasional takeaway we used to have) which aren't included in that, but on average we're managing to keep it to around £7 per person per day. Still paying down the winter energy balance, and will chip away further when I do the reading tomorrow.

Ddog needs a haircut and I would like one, but reckon I can push myself another month. Ddog, however, is starting to resemble a little bear, and will soon begin to tangle horribly.

Saw the roofer today, and he promises me a quote for the job next week. So still braced for the worst, and hoping for the best...

Have bought tickets for the Hockney installation at King's Cross on Sunday - £65 for 2 adults, one student. Bit spendy, but it's rare for us to go to a monster art exhibition, and this one looks fun.

Well done on the hyper-admin, need - I mean the POA and wills. We have wills but haven't done LPAs for each other. After all the admin associated with my parents, and my flat, over the last year, I feel like I Just Can't Face It just yet.

Bought a fancy Starbucks coffee today on my way into work: £3.50, but I have a gift card from a student. I do get free syrups and extra shots, and got discount because I took my own cup, so it was £3.50 instead of £4.40...

Took my lunch in which was leftovers from last night. Yellow sticker fruit salad I bought yesterday.

We're having risotto for tea - sausage meat already in the freezer and we have all the veg/rice/stock, so just needed parmesan. We've picked up a TooGoodToGo box whilst there (husband collecting now), so total food spend at supermarket is about £7. We can make another small overpayment to the mortgage tonight :)

Going to go through my son's drawers and see if there any outgrown clothes I can Vinted. Sold a Mini Boden bikini for £3... Every penny counts!

My son had his very first job interview today. He's on exam leave, is 16 on Friday. He's interviewed at McDonald's for twelve hours a week to give himself some of his own money - hopefully that'll save me some cash too, and help teach him some financial independence.

@BigSkies2022 do you find butcher shop is good value? We've been trying to buy yellow sticker meat and then work our meals around that, but I love the idea of shopping in the local butcher.

Got my car insurance quote for renewal today, they want to bloody double it!!

Ffs.

Need to shop around for that now as well 🙄

Spent £24 on garden paint and a paint brush to finish off the garden fence.

Spent £30 ish at the garden centre on plants and tea/cake in the cafe. Used a voucher to buy a new climbing rose which I've had my eye on for ages.

Off to Lyme Regis tomorrow, will take food so hoping only spends will be parking, ice creams and maybe some chips for tea (depending on how late we stay.)

Big news here x3

ddis’ cat hasn’t died yet! Phew

dsis got engaged!!!!

sil and Bil are having a baby. So another nephew for me!!!!

(and I bought a pair of Birkenstocks and some Nike air).

Oh and ducky pancakes for dinner. DH thinks he’s perfected the Chinese ducky duck.

Lots of good news em

Exciting newses em