Frugal July

[AnotherCountryMummy]

Hello! After months of trying to ignore CoL crisis and our mortgage increasing by hundreds from tomorrow, I thought it's finally time to take accountability.

A new budget for the household (2 adults, 2 children, 1 toddler) has been set and we are going to bloody well stick to it.

Our main pinchpoints are groceries and entertainment/days out. Our other costs are huge, but unfortunately set. Think mortgage, nursery, maintenance etc.

Who wants to share their July frugality journey with me?

I will join you. I had a hard March and April but some budgeting got me out of debt.

Then mum died and I got back overdrawn paying for the wake and flowers.

I'm so sorry to hear about your mother 💐

Thanks for joining me. I'm hoping I can make frugality become a habit.

Thank you, its been a horrible few months.

I bought next week's food for 6 for £46 in tesco today so I'm planning on using up what I have with that. If I aim to do that every week in July I should clear this overdraft. my freezer is full already. Normally I buy some some of the Indian meal bags in Tesco or sainsbury's on Friday as a lazy treat but I'm cooking Thai green currey instead!

What are your main saving goals for the month?

That's an amazing shop for £46! What sort of meals will you be doing?

I need to stick within £500 for all groceries for the entire month. That includes nappies/wipes, toiletries and cleaning/house products too. One of my main problems is keeping DH under control as he tends to do little top-up shops that we don't really need, or get food treats for the kids.

We've got lots of tins and cupboard food, so I'm going to be going as long as possible without a food shop. One of my biggest challenges is getting my SDs to eat the same meals as us. We are veggie and do well on curries, stews etc, but they turn their noses up. I find it hard to feed them cheaply!

I should also add that anything we save this month needs to go towards filling up our heating oil ready for winter as I see the prices are already creeping up!

I'm doing Thai green currey tonight. I bought two jars and 2kg of frozen chicken so will use 1kg and some peppers and onions to bulk it out.

I got a bag of frozen lamb mince for £3.80 as I did a mean lamb biryani from bbc good food last week with frozen lamb mince and two mugs full of rice. I will add some peppers and sliced tomatoes this week.

I might do cheesy chicken and bacon pasta too. Some kind of ratatouille as I got two courgettes and a aubergine and tinned tomatoes. I might get a chicken biryani out of the chicken too. Thats five evening meals at a push and I have sausages and fish in the freezer.

I might write a meal plan out now. I could have spent less on pack lunch snacks for dd but she hardly eats hersandwiches. I have ham unopened from last week.

I'm in too. I too have been ignoring (but being very aware of the col). Family of 5 with a food budget of £350 which has always been more than enough (pre col). Last few months have been between £550-650!

I got behind on the finances and lost track. I find logging in daily keeps me accountable and on track.

I hear you! Our mortgage is going up by £500 a month from next spring so we are trying to save now to make sure we can afford it when it happens.

We are also trying to put money aside ready for heating oil at the end of summer!

We’ve just swapped to an electric car and so the money saved on diesel is being paid into our boiler juice account.

I’m cutting back on treats out for the kids. Not buying them new clothes until the winter and trying to make a food shop last 10 days rather than a week.

I follow frugal fit mom on you tube and fun cheap or free and they have great ways of saving money on food shopping. I do succumbe to treats though.

Loving that there's a few of us on board! I've just followed Frugal Fit Mom and will check out some of her videos after toddler goes down tonight.

I've just made toddler some tuna and sweet potato fishcakes with sweetcorn, so cupboard essentials and half a sweet potato. He didn't eat much, but I won't be deterred. The rest will be frozen for another day.

I'm also using the 'round up' function on our banking app to add a little bit into our Xmas 23 pot every time we do spend.

Such a good idea. I'd love to swap our diesel thirsty car for an electric one. Definitely something we'll look at in the future.

I'm doing exactly the same with stretching out the food shop and avoiding buyint clothes. The kiddos are all completely kitted out (mostly from Vinted) until the weather turns.

I ought to sell some more of my baby things on Vinted, but I'm quite attached to a lot of it.

For cheap family days out I have a rhs family membership and we go there a lot!

There is paddling pool in our big town that's free.

I also drive to the coast which has a free council paddling pool by the beach. Take packed lunch to all of them and might buy some chips, ice cream or cake there so it feels like we ate out.

Thank god for my car.

Can I join.

Family of 2 adults. 1 teen. 2 primary aged children.

Husband works FT. Me PT due to disability (pip claim ongoing) and Teen has a job.

Teen and DH working all summer and I will be having the primary aged 2 for most days. Going to be a long 7 weeks, hope to make sure it's not an expensive summer.

Yes! Lovely to have you on board!

Thank you 😊

How is day 1 going for everybody?

DH filled up the car = £70
And we had a food shop = £65

I'm going to try and stretch that out for a week and then we'll need a big shop next weekend as MIL is coming to stay (for several weeks FML).

I've meal planned until mid next week and then me and DH will wing it after Wednesday when my SDs aren't here.

We've got tickets to a gig tonight, but they were paid for a while ago, so no expense there. DH will drive. I might finish the third of a bottle of rose in the fridge before I go, so I don't have to buy a drink 😃

Are there two of these threads? I swore I had posted already.

41euro in tesco.

Day One went well for me.

Used amazon vouchers to buy outdoor toys which should keep us busy a few days this summer.
Husband went to Home Bargains 😫but he pays all the bills so I shan't complain - he's already put money into savings this month.

Days two - kids want to bake. So instead of choosing a recipe and buying stuff we've looked in cupboards and are using what's already there.

Hi all. I'm going for a frugal July as after all deductions at the end of the month I still have a negative CC bill. I pay it off in full on payday but I like it to be zero by month end.

I highly recommend the Moneyhub app. It was a really eye opener for me and changed a lot of bad spending habits. It's free for 6 months too.

My aim in July is to run down the pantry and freezer food.

I will however pick up any uniform that's on offer

Also need to get some stuff on Vinted.

Good morning everybody. Sounds like we are all doing well so far... me not so much.

We went to the concert last night. I failed and bought me and DH a drink (£12) but I did that from my own account.

On the joint account, we spent £22 on some churros and pizza for the girls. This really irritated me as we ate dinner before we went out. DH has a tendency to do this, but I let it go as I didn't want to be annoyed on a fun evening. I think I will deduct it from our grocery budget to balance out.

And £50 on a babysitter for the toddler 😭 So the rest of July has to be free fun!!

£70 on train tickets for a family visit next month. We'll have a nice few days there and it'll be our 'holiday' this summer. I use an app that finds me the cheapest tickets so that saved a few pennies.

Can I join you all please? I've started July badly - even though only 2 days in! eeek. Spent £72 on waterproof summer jackets for me and other half - even though in sale and saved around £100...

Then yesterday bought holiday clothes for daughter, who is going away with friends next week...

Need to limit extra spends now. Top up shopping for food/wine do feature heavily in this house also - so will try to rein that in too

Can I join please.

@AnotherCountryMummy your food spends sound similar to ours, we are a family of four with two under 5s and we are struggling to spend less than £550 a month. Trying to get it down to £450.

Desperately trying to save up some sinking funds towards Christmas but every time I try they get wiped out by something!

Hello @Handholdplease85 and @littleblackcat27

I'm new too!

Hoping for nsd. DH is at work today and keeps asking if I want anything from town. 😫

Kids are at a free activity club today so that's great for keeping the budget on track.

A good rain coat is worth the money @littleblackcat27 , especially if you get a few years out of it.

Hi all some good news. I bought a dress for an upcoming wedding from Etsy and whe it arrived it was actually a different colour to the one I purchased. I put it on and although it's beautiful, I was disappointed. It would have also needed adjusting. So I thought I'd keep it and look for something else, or get it adjusted and wear it half heartedly.

Then yesterday I was like er no. it can go back.

So I started the returns process, uploaded the pictures etc. packed it up ready for a returns label.

And I got a message back saying that the seller has refunded the money and keep the dress. I was like 😮

So now I'm going to wear it. I feel bad. But I won't lie the money will help this month as car insurance is due.