Jumping into July: Frugal Friends Financial Fun

[needastrongoneagain]

New 'Fred.

Very low spend couple of days.

£12 AdBlue but that's expenses.

Will be back to post fully later.

€32 for camping pitch tomorrow night, when Storm Betty has left us!

Power of positive thinking and all that!

Got to drop dog to kennels at 8am so will pack up car then when I get home and get going, can arrive from 12pm so my plan is set up tent and then meet dm for lunch and do shoe shopping for ds.

Ok my forecast for todays spending and what I spent are different.
34euro was the balance on my lashes.
25euro on the diesel i forgot to get yesterday
Found myself spending 90euro in aldi on back to school snacks and other bits as realised the time we arrive home and then straight back to school the following morning and had no lunch types things in. I literally have nothing else to buy between now and when we come home from hols. Not a thing.

Sorry I fell off the thread again! Enjoyed reading the summer break updates

Enjoy Amsterdam life visited last year and then got a train to Berlin and we did find Amsterdam expensive. But voted as the place we'd return to, DS is going back with DH for his 18th in January. Berlin too big for us although the local supermarket and restaurants (with dc in mind) were amazing and cheap.

rum Another vote for NYMR here. We've stayed in The Lion Inn at Kirby Moorside on many occasion before we had DC. Love York too 😍 sorry to hear the building stresses, at least the double VAT was there but its still annoying.

Boo to the work situation never you don't work with me do you, we are all fed up at the moment! Just kidding 🙂

Ah life that's a bummer re the mortgage. I can't for the life of me find the end date of my fix, have contacted the bank. Its either next summer or next autumn.

Well done to your DD martha that's quite a milestone.

Hope Storm Betty passes quickly happier and anyone else affected. The winds whipping up here and we are off to the coast for fish and chips with friends at lunchtime.

Feeling quite stressed re spending here. Summer is costing £££ as always. Holiday next week, a mini break to Blackpool which will do us good, but of course I'm thinking of looming bills like school uniform (got most of it but shoes and school bag), DC passports, DS driving lessons and test, car repair in Sep, car MOT, house repairs and Christmas overwhelming me. We do have the means but it's the juggling it all. Need to keep recording here. And take a step back from eating out / trips from September.

Welcome back @kessiebird

Good there's nothing else to spend @Neverinamonthofsundays

Pizza last night was circa £50. We pay for our friends if we host, and vice versa if they do.

NSD today and tomorrow though.

Glad things worked out Happier. I hope I can reach that point. It’s the uncertainty, him being an arse and that he seems to be making it as difficult and expensive as he can. Enjoy your camping. I’m not sure where you are but here it’s warm and sunny with a nice breeze so lovely weather to be outside.

City breaks rock Life. And mountains too.

Thank you Need. I think I’ll take a chance. I’m a shortie so I think I need teeny ones according to the Leki size guide. Might try eBay.

Nice to see you Kessie. I know exactly what you mean about summer spending.

The mortgage talk has pushed me to looking at porting. My paperwork says nothing. I’ll have to talk to the bank. The police were here again for my neighbour. Second time since Thursday. Now considering selling.

Todays spending has been £11 in Tesco on a bag of crisps and one of their Anya Hindmarch bags for my friend. Then £1.79 on crisps in Lidl. I haven’t had crisps for months. Flipping stress eating I’m sure.

I am off tomorrow on our all inclusive so I will have a great few weeks! Catch up in Sept ladies x

Today we've been to lots of playgrounds and I'm currently alone in tent relaxing while dc are gone off to one of the playgrounds on site.

Realised last night we didn't have a spare sleeping bag for dds friend & single duvet was in the wash, have improvised by spreading a picnic blanket across two sims for ds & I and opening a sleeping bag across us. It's a warm night & we've fleecy pjs & spare towels & jackets if we do get cold & another picnic blanket too.

Was in regatta checking out sleeping bags which I didn't purchase but got 4 enamel mugs for tonight's hot choc for €12 rather than €10 each!

I made pancake mix in nutra bullet this morn and brought it with us for the morn, we also have sausages & rashers for sandwiches too.

Ds's school sketchers set me back €63 today he's extremely fussy so at least he has a pair now that we're both happy with.

Picked up a baby present in Tesco too and met my mother for lunch which cost €43.50, she's treating us to dinner when we get back tomo & is actually staying at my house while we're away.

£20 fun fair
£37 fish and chips restaurant
Friend bought ice cream then we went dolphin spotting.

Also £39 River Island school bag. Trade off is that she gets same shoes she has from Next.

Have a lovely holiday never see you Sep!

Splash out on takeaway for 4 at camping €54.42, everyone wanted something different I'm tired & its probably last hurrah of summer, there'll be leftovers no doubt.

kessie I am the same, fortunate to be able to cover the outgoings but this is a spendy time of year for sure
need glad you could treat yourself and friends
happier hope you’re having a good time, takeaway sounds a good shout
never hope you have a good break and forget the work stress
rumsounds stressful with the neighbours and the mortgage.

Spendy day today topping up food and petrol after payday.
petrol £50
company shop £63, some good bargains eg free range chickens for £3
costco £70 (I go in for the loo roll and dog food!)
butcher £32
aldi £58
that’s a lot but it will last more than a week.
Drove DS to Manchester airport with his friend and family - I put an envelope with euros in along with DS’s documents and said to his friends mum it was for them to treat themselves - am glad I did it that way.
It’s very strange having DS2 (15) away for 2 weeks now. He is at the cool, don’t want to tell you anything stage so wouldn’t be likely to say he’s going to miss me or anything. But he was lying on the sofa before he went and did let me cuddle his feet which is the closest I’ve got to a hug for a while 😂
Had an endoscopy yesterday, I had it without sedation as I needed to organise
stuff for DS going away and finish some work. It was quite grim. I asked the staff doing it to talk about ‘any old thing’ to distract me while they were doing it and they discussed going to pride and dodgy local nightclubs 😂😂

I got korma & garlic & coriander naan bread and it was very underwhelming but dc were happy & I made real hot choc afterwards just milk & melted choc in our new enamel cups so everyone is gone to bed happy.

Yikes endoscopy without sedation

Again not managed to keep up, just too much else going on.
Glad you had good news Martha. We did too, DD exceeded her expectations & so has made it to Newcastle with a bit to spare! I spent half of Thursday crying happy tears.
She will be going in 3 weeks as she's going a week early for pre season rugby training.
Did some great charity shop shopping today. 2 cereal bowls, pasta bowls, dinner plates & side plates for £9. A friend has cutlery she can have, trying to do it all as cheaply as we can because she's only got her second choice halls which are the most expensive...
£5 in today from a few books on ziffit
Listed 6 items on vinted
Got £50 for my medical books on eBay
Good progress with dd's quilt, mum is helping, joint effort.
Productive evening making curry & big pot of Bolognese. Have lots of plums & runner beans from dparents. Going to do a jar of picalilli tomorrow & blanch & freeze the runner beans
Got another great TGTG box from Booths in store last night. £1.50
Paid off loan today, in order to have money spare for ridiculously expensive uni accomodation

Hope you all slept ok happier. I would so have done the takeout too, sorry it was underwhelming. Bargain on the cups.

happy holidays..

bargain uni set up and booths box. Wish we had a booths. There is an ikea not too far from Newcastle north should you need it. It’s at the metro centre.

nothing much to report here.

I've fallen off the thread a bit as life's been very busy.

Congrats to those of you with dc passing their A levels! Scary to think that will be me next year, dd is talking about creating a UCAS account which is exciting but scary at the same time.

Dds done well working at her summer job and will have earned around £600 by the end of next week which she's happy with. It will go towards driving lessons and eventually buying a car.

Last week wasn't too spendy as work was too busy to have time to do any shopping! Spent £25 Ystd in Superdrug, £65 in Aldi (better than usual!) and £12 in the co-op.

Im getting the new flooring on Wednesday and have kept £100 saved for that and otherwise only need to get petrol before payday on Friday.

Am looking forward to watching the football today!!

That’s a great haul north! So glad your DD got what she needed too. I’ve also been shopping in charity shops and got quite a few bargains for her going away. Now that the offer’s confirmed we’re going to do an ikea shop too. Still waiting to hear about accommodation though due to the issues with Manchester Uni’s website.

girlie I know what you mean, it is very poignant watching them spread their wings. My DS2 must be the same year as your DD. He had AS results - he does very minimal work so I was fearing he’d be kicked out but he’s managed to get Bs and Cs. Which is good but also hasn’t underscored the lesson that he needs to do more!

how are your new work hours girlie? Another of my colleagues are leaving which is going to leave us incredibly short staffed unless/ until we recruit again. I’m just avoiding thinking about it until it happens.

Afternoon.

That Booths box looks amazing @northender. And honestly, most of the stuff that they take to halls to cook with gets trashed, so charity bargains a great idea.

Great earnings for your dd @Girliefriendlikespuppies

Blimey @marthasmum re the endoscopy. That's very brave. Hope you are okay.

Spends today was £23 in wine, and fresh stuff from Marks. We've family over in an hour or so.

I also ran 17 miles this morning. I'm pacing the four hour slot at Yorkshire marathon in October. Forgotten summer marathon training is grim, I hate running in the heat! The dc have been very supportive re giving me the time to get out of the door, and I do my other mid week runs at silly o clock so as to get the miles in.

Menu plan will involve lots of potatoes and green beans as my SIL's allotment is overflowing at present so lots of sausage and mash, veggie shepherds pie, gratin etc!

Blimey need 17 miles is amazing! I sweat my way through 12 km though it is lots of hill. That’s great that you’re doing the marathon on top of everything else you’re doing. Do you find it helps with stress?

17 miles is awesome. I have done 3 half marathons. Never managed the other half! Today petrol 45 and treated myself to a stripped sweatshirt from marks and spencer for no good reason other than I wanted it

Also well done to your DD north. She will love Newcastle. My favourite city.

Hope you had a good night Happier

My DS is also headed to Year 13 but is pretty set on not going to Uni and I think that's best for him. He wants a higher apprenticeship but I think he'll also have to look at advanced apprenticeship unless he makes the effort this year.

Wow need that's amazing. I manage 5k on a good day

Love a striped sweater thestart

Much better day for me. £3.50 ice cream for DD and £6.25 coop. Dsis bought us lunch at the beach.
£100 refundable deposit for apartment we are staying in next week.

Good luck for your Ds this year kessie. We’ve also considered apprenticeships as a lot of DS’s friends are doing them post-16. It’s only recently he’s showed an interest in uni, I think with DD going as they are close. If he has a specific interest I’d definitely be keen for him to look at an apprenticeship. Some are quite competitive I think aren’t they?

Some are more competitive than others I think martha my DS is looking at a competitive area of civil and structural engineering. He hoped to be an architect but doesn't apply himself to the academic side of things. I think he needs to broaden his ideas out as some areas of engineering and construction only want GCSEs in maths and English (and he has higher than that) but he refused to visit the careers service last year. Just hope he has a plan, but I'll keep plugging away.

sounds a bit like my DS, deals with things he’s not sure of by avoiding them! At least he has an area of interest. I’m trying to just keep plugging away, 🤞🏻 it will work! My eldest has now done very well in exams but she switched subjects midstream from humanities to science, took 3 years to do her a levels and is now flying - but all that came from her, not me. So I’m comforting myself that at this age, they need to decide what they want to do, not us 🤗

martha I spend way too much of my time worrying about DS's future and I'm sure it will work out! He's got another year at college which is the main thing, he can apply to apprenticeships all year until the right one comes along. 👍 My biggest fear is he will drift into a zero hours kind of job as he let's opportunities sail by. That said, he did a zero hours contract in a hotel for 8 months while doing his GCSEs and hated everything about it so maybe that's enough to teach him that lesson.
I agree it needs to come from them 😊

Another one here with a DS that doesn't do anything other than the bare minimum if he can help it!

£33 veg box and extras. They changed the delivery date and I wasn't expecting this until Thursday and might have made a change or two to reduce that cost. My own fault, they did email me.

Spends over the weekend
€56.49 in Tesco which included baby present, an led torch for camping, socks for ds and not much more I think
€37.50 in penneys which included velour pjs for me for camping, which are lovely, light and warm at the same time, vests for ds for school, a hallowe'en decoration, 2 multipacks of knicks for myself
€14.34 deli counter
€11.50 slushies
€12.70 kfc for dd & friend
€43.50 lunch
€11.50 deli lunch & bottle of white wine vinegar
€145 ozempic