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.

If I’m having a low spend day I try and make some of it back by doing some quick and simple surveys, you can cash out once you hit £4 so you’re not waiting ages for money to build up so if I’be accidentally bought a Tesco meal deal I try and make the money back on here in the same day! I’ve made £28 in 16 days and just do it when I’m watching Love Island or doom scrolling anyway! 😂

Hey! Use my code 8XNW37 on Eureka Surveys and unlock a short 80p survey just for signing up! https://eurekasurveys.page.link/MEhHnWi5iKPDgAMK6

Very busy week at work catching up from being off, on the plus side not had chance to spend much 🙈😂

A couple of spends on food as haven't been to a supermarket in ages, prob around £40 ish, filled car up Ystd £42.

I bought my friend a present on Etsy and it was free delivery so I'm definitely doing that again as it saves me money in buying packages and postage. The gift was a tenner.

Sent my sil a gift I think postage was £4 ish.

Lots of July bdays!

Dd has got herself a summer job which is good news, she's also started driving lessons this week. She's paying for the lessons herself £170 for 5 lessons 😳 I said I'll pay for the test and will look to add her to my insurance as a learner.

It's her boyfriend's bday tomorrow so have been helping her make him a cake all evening.

Suddenly seems very grown up, job, driving and a boyfriend 🥲

@Girliefriendlikespuppies Lots of July birthdays here too! DS1 turns 18 next week, it’s my mums birthday tomorrow, and tonight we are off to a60th birthday party! Plus ds2 had a school trip abroad so that was more expense too.

I got everything I need for all the birthdays this week, then I know that everything I need to pay out for in July is done.

Our last payment to Sky went out this month, I think we will be due some money back from them in August. And also happening in august is the final payment to our additional mortgage boring that we took out a few years ago. Which will see us just under £200 a month better off. However I’m going to be chucking that at the remaining mortgage with the aim of paying it off by the end of the year. Maybe not quite, but almost. Very excited for this.

£114 Aldi and £25 in dun elm.

Big shop included lots of non food stuff like washing powder and toiletries.

The bits in dun elm are for my recently decorated bathroom!

Big I’m picturing your garden as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Hope the Almedia was good.

Decaff The increasing mortgage rates are on my mind too. I’m not there yet but think I’ll have to find around an extra £1,500 a month if I keep this place. And that’s not going to happen.

Need Boo to the electricity (or lack of) glad it’s fixed.

Half One more week? That’s flown by in my mind though for you it’s probably been eternity.

Spending has not been remotely frugal. Wednesday was a no spend day (hurrah for the office). At Lidl between Thursday and today I spent about £25 on, mostly, quark snacks. Yesterday I was at Stanfords and went wild in the aisles spending £58. It was my birthday so I had lunch with my friend that was another £52. Today I’ve spent £20 on ordering some photo stickers for my holiday planning book and £11 on some stamps.

Had an email from the council re my council tax. I’m even more confused now. I didn’t think I was paying enough and now the instalments have been reduced further. Not sure I want to go back to them again as goodness knows what will come back. Finally got round to making a complaint to the utility company so the ball is now rolling on that.

Bloody rain. I've had to resort to tumble dryer going back on
£50 Lidl. Yesterday. About the same in the cinema
NSD planned today

Hear ya on the tumble dryer being on again @lifelongfrugaleer, do a lot of washing at the weekend too 😡

Happy Birthday @RumBananaSundae!

Spending relatively controlled this month and payday Tuesday. It's been a quiet weekend, which helps.

Meal plan
Veggie sausage and mash, veggies.
Beef and beetroot curry
Erm.....that's as far as I've got - scurries off to do better!

Posting after a break as we are just back from
Croatia holiday! Welcome to the new joiners and those posting after a break. I won’t attempt to respond to everyone’s individual news as there is lots of it….but sorry to those having a hard time in various ways.

We had a lovely break (not been abroad for years for context). The DC were great and really appreciative. It was more spendy than I thought though so had to raid other pots to top up. Partly cause DS2 accidentally broke the rubber dinghy that came with our apartment by the sea..I fessed up as I felt bad to leave it for the owner to find and she was grateful but charged me 120 euros (apparently half the cost)…

So, came home with new frugal determination to spend less and be able to go away again. Off to supermarkets / local shops and spent
£55 butchers
£89 tesco
£20 greengrocer
£52 local cash and carry

which is waaay too much for a week - though it will last longer than a week.

Realised I am just bad at saying no to myself if that makes sense - so need to get better!
Planning to go for a run but it’s not stopped raining yet today.
in other news, DD has a conditional place at Manchester and they’ve been hacked so can’t log into website to book accommodation and send back documents relevant to application. Apparently it’s going to be fixed by end July but OMG August is going to be crap for the staff working there…Also a bit stressful not knowing about accommodation etc.

Happy birthday, Rum! and yes, Romeo and Juliet was fabulous, and it was good to see a lot of young people in the theatre for once. I had a good cry, which I think I needed. It's amazing how, even though you know the story, (and even if you didn't, you are told how it ends at the outset of the play), you can somehow keep hoping it might turn out well, and they get to Mantua. I am now hunting down the Baz Luhrman 1996 movie (on Disney +) and the 2021 Westside Story remake. I'd like to see the Matthew Bourne Prokofiev ballet at Sadlers Wells, but budget forbids.

Welcome home, martha. Mmm, Croatia. Don't feel frugal-failure - I was reading this morning that inflation has busted holidaymakers' budgets across the board in most destinations in Europe.

Right, white wash on, out to tackle garden tidying. Six weeks to France One.

Weather is dreadful here. DD is camping with Scouts on the North Yorkshire coast, even worse! They have a day trip planned for a theme park tomorrow otherwise I wonder if they'd have come home early! Weather looks better tomorrow.

Caved and put the heating on for half an hour yesterday as no tumble drier here. I'm not washing today!

So far today I've spent £2.50 on some hamster food and £4 as for a retirement card and box to put some goodies in. my Dsis retired on Friday and a long time coming for her so sending a pamper gift.

Yesterday spare parts bought for DH car plus paid the salvage fee £660. Its Cat N so we are putting it back on the road rather than a new car. We got £1919 back from the insurer (it's 15 years old) Hopefully we will break even once it's repaired and goes through an MOT.

I loved Croatia, we were self catering and it was on the pricey side then.

Sorry no catch up from me, but hello to all the new frugal posters. 😊

Thanks for your thoughts kessie
and big. Yes we were self catering but I was surprised at how pricey it was even so. And the food was the only thing we weren’t that keen on. That probably explains my mega food shop when I got home 😂 Plus, as it was so hot we couldn’t do without drinks on days out.
Been for my run and now resting after a hot shower - got absolutely soaking.

Hope Croatia was good @marthasmum. And your cupboards will have been bare so despair not!

Better menu plan..

Sausage and mash, veggies (veggie sausage)
Sausage pasta with any leftover sausage
Ukrainian beetroot broth.
Dhal
Gnocchi
Red pepper, courgette and white bean chilli
Goan fish curry.

Croatia is expensive especially when a cruise ship is in port.
Still want to go though

It was great life - loads to do although we mainly stuck to free stuff like swimming and wandering about sight seeing! In retrospect we spent a lot of time in Dubrovnik and I think prices were probably higher there than possibly in other parts of the country?

Thank you for your birthday wishes. I’ve been a tad indulgent these past few days. A friend has sent me some things from Betty’s, arriving in the week, so sensible eating will not resume for a while.

Tomorrow I’m in town for a meeting so that will involve spending. Today was £5.09 in Waitrose and £15 on some metallic pens on Amazon for my holiday planning notebook. I had a quiet day that involved Disney+ and quark snacks. Lots of rain and wind here so didn’t do any walking.

Martha glad you enjoyed Croatia. I know exactly what you mean about trying to be frugal to be able go away again but not always being good at saying no to myself. I need to get back on track. My spending has mostly been maps this week so I’m putting that down to necessary planning.

Big glad your show was good. One of my friends has been trying to convince me to go to Macbeth but so far I’ve resisted. I’ve had too many bad experiences of redone Shakespeare.

Which Macbeth, Rum? don't tell me your friend has tickets for the David Tennant/Cush Jumbo at the Donmar??? and you are saying no thank you???

£37.50.lunch out with DH. Very tasty Sunday lunch plus a take out for DS.

£14.98 Home Bargains.

Croatia, we had this really great location with a view of Dubrovnik Harbour, we'd sit on the balcony watching the cruise ships come in and out. I'd definitely go back one year, such a beautiful country.

Glad you enjoyed your holiday Marthasmum hope your dd gets her accomodation sorted.
Brief catch up from me. Busy weekend here, test match Friday, Tatton flower show Saturday, Golf Sunday. All things budgeted and paid for last year. Weather ok Friday, worse Saturday and apocalyptic rain yesterday! Managed not to spend anything at the venues on food or drink due to extreme picnic planning! £8 for a not very big Cornish pasty ...
Was good to be able to do the cricket and golf with the dc.
Back to reality today

sounds like you lot have been busy busy this weekend, I didn't log on since Friday.

My dc are with their dad for 9 days so I'm attempting to make the most of it but also working. I took them for dinner Thurs eve, and since then have eaten out 5 times! Fri night dinner with bf so that I could spend the time cleaning my house which was starting to bring me down! Sat lunch in an amazing accidental find of a cafe in an old college, we walked in and were sceptical, bf said afterwards he was ready to turn on his heels and leave, it was the nicest lunch I've had in ages and wasn't pricy at all. €13 for a salmon salad with lime dressing avocado, spinach, lettuce, rocket, sunflower seeds, capers and roast squash, I'd salmon left when I got to the end of my leaves. Had the pub we were planning to have breakfast at been open we'd never have discovered this place We stayed away Sat night but weather was awful so we just had an afternoon nap and went out for dinner. Yesterday was an improvement.

Spends
Drinks Sat night €10.70
Dinner Sun: €59.45
Chemist Fri: €184.65
Lunch Sat: €49 including gifts for my parents
Amazon: €38.63 on shampoo, conditioner, mattress protectors
Tolls & Parking: €6.10

This month has broke me. Honestly it has been non stop paying out of money. Bring on August.

Sorry to hear that @Neverinamonthofsundays. Anything specific re paying out? Was it unexpected?

Enjoy the DC-free time @Happierwithouthim.

Busy weekend @northender and super frugal managing not to spend anything too!

Spends today
£1 on some passata!

Thanks need usually he does two weeks in the summer & that's the only time he takes them overnight during the week but this year it's only one week so I'm cramming!

Todays spends will be €30 on kennels for the weekend.

Ended up spending £15 over the weekend in coffee and food whilst we went to meet friends. I generally try to keep "day out" costs to under £15 a month atm so that's this months gone - lots of walks and trips to the park for us here on out

DH picked up bread and milk on the way home today, but that's it. We should go a good few days longer still before I need to do a food shop now so that's good.

I need to do a stock up of shampoo and toiletries etc but I've got a boots voucher to use that was given as a gift so that's a plus.