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.

Evening everyone
Hope everyone is ok
Morrisons 5
Aldi 64
Bon Marche 34
Had some wonderful bargains for my Mum from Bon Marche
2 Nighties for 3 each , 2 dresses for Autumn 7 each & a skirt for 6 and 2 short sleeve jumpers 4 each , all a third of the full price .
Hope the weather is better soon

It’s the Macbeth next year somewhere in Docklands Big. With Ralph Fiennes. I was put off Shakespeare at the Donmar after the dreadful Hiddleston Coriolanus.

Spending yesterday was £13.65 on lunch. The smallest jacket potato I’ve ever seen with so little cheese you could just about see it (£9) and the rest on a sliver of cake. Won’t be going back there.

Work is dreadful. Was out yesterday evening and all I could think of was being signed off. I won’t as I know it’s not the best thing to do. Unexpectedly have to go to the office tomorrow (there was a meeting then there wasn’t now there is again) so I’ll have to put money on my card when I wasn’t planning to until next month. Have seen a job I think I’ll apply for. I won’t get it and if I did I don’t think I’d be able to take it but maybe applying might make me feel a bit better.

Morning.

Ouch to the cost of a crappy lunch @RumBananaSundae and I'm sorry to hear work is so rubbish.

Yes to the bargains for DM @TheNewlmprovedMrsMadEvans 😁

Eating out is SO expensive isn't it @MrsTwiggy.

So it's payday today, hooray! I've gotten up earlier and allocated all my various pots with money for the month or longer term budgeting on the Chase App.

I'll need a few groceries today but will pop to Sainsbury's and buy the Aldi Price promise items, which I'm finding decent quality and value and update later.

Right - work!

Mrs great bargains for your dm
Half ouch for dh
Rum sorry to hear work isn't going too good, and bad food out is so disappointing when you consider how hard we work for our money

@needastrongoneagain Some expected but I overspent on what my budget was, some was unexpected to the tune of 400euro.

I am so looking forward to a new month for many reasons but this month I still have another big bill to fork out by 31st and I have an exam to pay for which is 150quid. I have no idea where I am getting the money.

Very hard month with two kids off for summer and surprise dental work. Any ways to fill the days greatly appreciated!

Hold on @RumBananaSundae an extra £1500 mortgage a month 😱 do you live in a mansion 😂 that's an insane amount!

How old are the kidoids, @TwoManyKids ? Cheap summer ents I use to do in penny-pinched summers were things like: bikes to park with picnic, treat being an ice-cream. Water guns in park/garden for messy play. We had a cheap tent from Woolworths, so would put that up in the garden or the house, depending on weather, for dens and sleepovers. Get the felt-tips and paints out, and we drew/painted every Pokemon character. Library, library, library - I think we went through every DVD in their collections. Popcorn with DVDs for at home cinema. Make cakes and biscuits (ready mix and chocolate crispy variety mostly). We have a couple of lidos not too far from us, and we'd go there and buy a bag of chips from the cafe as an extra treat. We have a cheap cinema locally , so at £4.99 a shot, I could manage a summer blockbuster. Computer games. Local museum did arts and crafts workshops and had hands-on exhibitions. Free museums/galleries on the days I could manage transport costs.

Last week in the month for us and we are clearing cupboards, fridge and freezer trying not to shop before the weekend. I have added up the food spends this month and so far it comes to £425 (includes about £25 on wine, and cleaning products/basic toiletries, but excludes DH's expenditure on things like beer, a takeaway, the odd lovely pastry that has crept home and his lunches). We've had a few indulgences, but not wildly so, and DS has been home for a few days. Still feels like the housekeeping has run out one week too soon!

Great ideas thanks @BigSkies2022 ! Last summer we lived in walking distance (for me-girls in buggy) of beach, multiple parks and library. Now everything comes with having to drive as we are in the centre of a huge estate!

First week of the hols here. Fell off thread again.

last week or so has been busy. Thought dd had the pox. Turns out not. Just a viral rash. wierd.

did her birthday party on Sunday. Made cake

went to see the falconer (again) for ddads Father’s Day gift. Met an eagle owl and a arctic falcon. Such beauties. Also a harrier hawk landed on my head which made for a hilarious picture. 😂

swimming today with the kids and then treated them to beach bar for lunch. Nachos. Nuggies and fruit shoots. Woop.

Great cake em looks 😋

I've managed a low spend few days as am down to £4 in my bank account! Payday is Thursday thank God.

Great pics em

@TwoManyKids parking can be a pain can't it. We have a blue badge for disabled DC so generally parking is free for us. Have you looked to see if any car parks you use have an app as often they are a bit cheaper to pay on the app than on the machine.

We are always on a budget in the summer, do you have anything like national trust pass or something like that? That can be a good way to get "free" days out I think we pay £11 a month and we use it alot.

Library reading challenge is always good.

What about trying different parks in your area. In lockdown we found lots of new places we didn't even know existed!

Some places do summer passes aswell eg soft play, farm parks etc, useful if you go somewhere alot.

My DC also love a baking afternoon (nothing fancy just those box kits) and also a film and pizza evening.

Thanks for the lovely welcome. Started the week off frugal by doing an Ocado shop of all things. £15 of £60 spend. In total spent £89 on food which is by far THE CHEAPEST weekly shop we've had in ages. Sooooo. What did I forget? 😅

Yesterday was the opposite of frugal. I took my one and two year old toddlers to soft play we've never been. Should have read the fine print as the place we went to won't even let you drink your own squash! Spent £30 in total for entry, socks, food and drink. Yikes!!

That happened to me too jenny when the kids were small. We were at a play barn where you paid for entry - my friend and I had just assumed you could eat your picnic once you came out of the barn, as we never went anywhere you couldn’t take a picnic 😂 We got sternly told off, apparently there were signs but we hadn’t seen them…

Thanks @Decafflatteplease ! I'll deffo try the apps. We are in Norfolk so lots of beautiful places to go- when it's dry!
£0 yesterday- swimming today so will have to get petrol but saved money by getting a family ticket with my friend. Have to get some shampoo and snacks as well.

em cake is fabulous
Spends yesterday
€1.50 on small pack of haribo
€14 10kg dog nuts in my local shop, these have steadily risen from €8 per bag when I got our dog, they were €10.50 in dunnes last time I bought them but have now gone up to €12, next time I need them I'll use my €10 off €50 in dunnes I just didn't want to be tied to getting a shop delivered this week

This morning
€11.43 in Centra on half sliced pan, pack of rashers, pouch of Skyr yogurt, can of Monster & a Galaxy ripple. Got a text at 6:30am to say my colleague wouldn't be in so I grabbed a few bits to get my through the day. Bacon sandwich for breakfast soon le yum ^^

That's a great idea about a family ticket. We've done similar in the past with group tickets if we are going out for the day with friends as usually you need 10 people and there's already 6 of us so it works well!

Re swimming if you go alot can you get a pass? We have annual pass which was expensive £1000 but we go most weekends as a family and I often go on my own in the week. If we were to pay as you go as a family it would be £80 a time no that's not a typo 😱 there's a cheaper council run pool that would be £20 pay as you go but thats not accessible for disabled DC 🙄

Can see pay pending and it's a good one as I did loads of overtime last month.

I've just ordered my step mum a m&s cream tea delivery for her bday tomorrow £20.

Planned August spends;
Get new bathroom and downstairs loo flooring, going to budget £250 but hoping it will be less than this.

Dd needs new trainers as previous (cheap) pair are falling to bits, budget £60.

Blind for bathroom £40.

Dds theory driving test vac getting her on the car insurance, probably around £70.

The OT should cover the above hopefully!

I've sent dds bursary application off so hoping she gets that as it saved me loads last year. I've also started the universal credit claim, I get a tiny amount of tax credits but think it will be worth applying just for the cost of living payments if nothing else!

Need to ring pet insurance and car insurance companies today, oh joy 🙄

£15k from saving for house stuff planned
£106 vets from savings not planned

That's a big spend @lifelongfrugaleer 😳😁

Hooray for the decent pay packet @Girliefriendlikespuppies Fingers crossed re the bursary.

Boo to the soft play cost @JennyWren87, a bit naughty too of them....

Poor you @Neverinamonthofsundays. I've no real suggestions for magicking up quick cash I'm afraid that are realistic 😢

Spends
£54 Sainsbury's pretty much all price match or Nectar price items
£21 other shopping
£20 flowers for DM who had a nasty tumble yesterday but is okay.
£22 Earth and Wheat box. Okay, but I won't get again as I don't think its amazing value although the veg is very fresh.

Hey Everyone!

It's been an age since I posted here, I've read through lots of the posts but struggle to keep up! It's good to see some familiar usernames are still here keeping these threads going.

8 hours ago we arrived in Asia after 16 hours in the air and 24 hours door to door travelling, honestly experienced the worst turbulence ever, it was like a rollercoaster and loads of people were screaming 🫣 it's 3:58 here and I've been laying in bed wide awake nursing massive cankles since midnight, so I've been trawling mumsnet and thought I'd pop back onto this thread.

In preparation for our trip I've been spending so much money, it's almost like it's not my money I'm spending! Thankfully payday is approaching whilst we are away so I won't touch that until we get home.

Life has become quite boring and repetitive really and I rarely do anything other than, work, go to the gym, dog walk or food shopping,I don't even get a chance to watch tv.

Food is where the budget is being blown enormously, but what are the options? Aldi seems to be almost as expensive as the bigger supermarkets right now. I've also being trying to use up as much freezer and cupboard stuff as possible.

Thankfully ds works full time so I don't have to contend with the cupboards being raided constantly and my girls have to be persuaded to come downstairs in the school holidays.

I hope everyone's having a great first week of the summer hols, if you have kids off school or if you have the summer off as you work in a school, fingers crossed for good weather and chilled out days for you all 😊😊 I'm off to catch up on lots more of the posts on this thread!!

All. Part of the savings for the updates needed to this house. Next stop roof and bathrooms

Hey Camden. Sounds like an eventful journey. Hope the bloat subsides soon. Did you get your building works finished in the end?

We've the bathroom and downstairs cloakroom being done in September, pricey business indeed.

Annoyed with my sorry self. Ordered some bits on click and collect from Sainsbury's with the intention of logging back in that evenand taking loads out of the basket once I'd had a chance to plan. Fell asleep and forgot so spent more than I wanted. It won't get wasted but I'm still annoyed!

Welcome back @CamdenLurker. Honestly, boring and repetitive life is fine, having had very little of that for the last year.😁

£100 Sainsbury's

I did have membership but we ended missing so many lessons due to illness I put the money directly in savings instead.
Getting my nails done today as I have two weddings in August.