Is your March miserly or munificent? Join the frugaleers sharing news and tips.

[BigSkies2022]

New thread

Joining in I've slipped off the last thread but not fell off the bandwagon
Yesterday was spendy though

Thanks for new thread bigskies2022

As a self employed single parent, I always stalk this thread to get good ideas - but am joining in earnest this month as I have an unavoidable household expense that has been brought forward from September and I'm now skinter than skint could be. It's good it's been brought forward, as it was creating more damage the longer it went on, and it was planned for this year anyway so it's not life destroying, but gosh am I feeling it.

Thank you for the new thread @BigSkies 👏😁
No spend day for me again and another load of washing on the line! So no terrible addition to my electricity bill thank the lord 😁

Checking in. Thank you Bigskies.

Welcome new folk and regulars.

Thanks for the new thread bigskies
Changed username as I've been a little more chatty and my old name is connected IRL.

Thanks Mary for the tip off on the More Card Easter Eggs at Morrisons. Turned out I had a card on the app! Got one today as they only had Fruit and Nut left for DH and will see if the store near work have more.

This weekend has not been as much as I thought
£41 Lidl (only 21 for grocery rest was gardening)
£43 food last night
£15 food yesterday lunch
£11 superdrug
£29.61 Morrisons today. Included one Easter Egg plus a bag of Cadburys Easter minis for the staff at a camp DD is going to over Easter holidays. Feeling organised for Easter for once, as it always seems to creep up!

Also £360 for a caravan break at Easter. 40 mins drive on the coast so DH and DS can come and go over the weekend and DD and I will decamp for the four days to chill, eat and walk. Have quite a complicated situation with some wider family and let's just say this is about self preservation! I winced when I just checked the credit card bill but it does get paid in full every month.

Thank you bigskies
I had a NSD today.
Yesterday I spent £45 on DB birthday present but that was budgeted for. I also spent £22 on fish and chips for the family as I had extra money left over and I never ever buy takeaway so it really was a treat and the leftovers were lunch today. So it did 6 meals in all. Feel guilty though. Which is a new experience for me.
Mochi1fudge your Easter break away sounds wonderful and needed

Thanks big

I need a kick up the ass to get back to the gym. Zero motivation. Also struggling with being frugal but it's all related
I'm be ok

Hello everyone I would like to join in. Single mum here 1 teen 29k salary for admin role in public sector.

I have a low mortgage and no debt except a (not like me usually) 0% credit card with 3.5k for an upcoming trip to America later this year. I upgraded to business class flights its first time I have ever splurged like this and no regrets. I booked in January was £5100 and already down to £3500.

I have some savings few thousand only I don’t want use them to pay the credit card then have no safety net.

My teens bday this month and already bought all presents in cash.

I want to save as much as I can clear credit card and save for home improvements mainly a en suite in the spare room as I have one bathroom and its downstairs lol after 10 years it’s getting to me now.

Welcome to the thread newcomers and thanks for the new thread, @BigSkies2022!

I've had a fairly expensive, but lovely day in Edinburgh with my wife today. We went to the Mosque kitchen for lunch which was delicious, £30 was a total bargain. Then spent £60 at M&S but with vouchers and discounts it was £45 and now got some nice treats for the coming week and she got a lovely jumper too.

(I've name changed as my last one was too outing for another reason on another thread- I'm the one in Scotland who has just started a new job this week. Thanks for all the well wishes by the way, you're all very supportive!)

Happily found out yesterday about the benefits- 7.5% off at M&S, 4% Tesco, and loads of others in places like B&M etc too. Yay! Also £5 cinema tickets, so I'm cancelling my Odeon Unlimited pass which is £20 a month as we only go once, max twice a month so no longer worth it now I can get them cheaply.

It's hard getting motivated but I really hope you can do it! I find it helps to schedule it in and treat it like an obligation sometimes.

Tough times will pass. Keep trucking on

Ah you're welcome @Mochi1fudge 😁

Hello Dot, loving your goals, your organisation and your decision to upgrade to business class.

Pennies - I haven't been to Edinburgh since the 90's (visited the festival as part of a bigger trip to the Western Isles and coast - fabulous, all of it), but will bookmark Mosque kitchen should I ever go again.

life - I am trying to get my step count up (having fallen to wretched numbers with wet weather), and I find home workouts so much easier to achieve the 'little and often, marginal daily gains' than getting up and out to the gym. Maybe start there if the gym is a big hurdle? I need to tackle my food intake - have upped my sugar while DH has radically cut his! Made flapjack today, just because we have the ingredients and DS and his GF love it...

Very much enjoying this spell of lovely weather: increasing walking, as stated; also working in the garden - still clearing winter grot, rather than planting new, but feels good nonetheless. Took some stuff to the recycling centre (dog crate, old bin from garage) and I'm surreptitiously discarding books and other stuff as I go,,.

NSD today on personal account (will have to do a lot of these this month), £30 on bakery, Lidl and Sainsbo's. Should be able to feed us without further spending on the next couple of days.

@mochi1fudge I ve mentioned it before but the mindset mentor podcast is fantastic for motivation and habit forming. I gave up vaping on the back of listening to his podcasts, and I was a heavy vaper before. I also need to start using the cycling machine, even just 20 minutes a day would make a huge difference, its just hard to find time and energy between work and kids. It's my next goal.

One spending day this week, a bottle of my favourite perfume. In my defence, it was significantly cheaper than normal and I've made the money back in extra income this month so I don't feel bad.

DD still hasn't any ideas on prom dress. Was hoping to buy something this weekend but no luck on her decision as yet.

Planning a healthy shop for a vegan diet next week, need to scout down some good recipes that DH will eat too. He likes vegan burgers but I'm not so keen as its still highly processed food.

I hope everyone is doing well

Thanks @BigSkies2022 for the new thread. I’m crossing all my fingers and toes I stick with this one to its end. I traditionally fall off the wagon about now!

glad your first week of work went well @PenniesButton

dinner out on Friday was €110 and well worth it. Very pleased with it.

saturday was a NSD as I’d family over for the rugby and made homemade pizza using ingredients from the fridge.

today a spent €20 on some groceries that included a box of crème eggs. Between the UTI and my period arriving I decided I needed a treat.

hoping this is a low spend week. Last week was definitely the first week this year with multiple unnecessary purchases. No regrets but I hope It’s a one off rather than the opening of the flood gates.

Work benefits are something I need to actually pay attention too @PenniesButton thank you for the reminder. Think my workplace I can now get a blue light card 😁

I have just finished making work and school lunches and had scan of freezer and cupboards I have so much food. Committed to using everything up over coming weeks to defrost the fridge freezer and use any grocery savings for a good stockpile shop.

Anyone else on freezer clear out?

Have you looked on vinted for prom dress? I’ve saw A LOT on there at great prices 👌

psuedo - The new vegan is a Guardian food column by Meera Sodha, which you might find a useful source of recipes/ideas. I made her white bean and artichoke stew at the weekend - twice, it was so nice! It's a free website, only the app is subscriber.

This week's micro change from the Afford Anything podcast is to experiment abstaining from a discretionary spend for a week. The idea being to test out whether that expenditure brings you value or not. Not quite sure how I'd put this one to practice IRL, since most subscriptions are monthly. I suppose you could leave a regular non-essential purchase off the grocery shop, but a week doesn't really seem long enough to test these things out.

At the beginning of the year I decided to use up my remaining supplies of certain things (Olaplex hair oil, NARS blusher) and not replace them until at least April, when I'd have a bit more money for discretionary spends. My hair has been just fine without Olaplex, and I've substituted a bit of lippy for the blusher, all good. I think I will buy the blusher again though, just because it was nice!

NSD again today
Dh £70 petrol
Am looking at changing to an E ON fix till June 26 for the gas/electricity
am a bit worried about going to them because l have never been with E On before . Has anyone had any experiences with them please {smile]
TIA

Mary - We've been with E.On Next for the last few years, and have just switched to their latest lowest fix - I think for 15 months. They're fine. Obviously no-one has been offering hugely differing savings on tariff deals because of the price cap, but on the other variables - responsive customer service, flexibility about monthly DDs, good website/customer interface - they have been good. They keep bugging me to get a smart meter, and I have told them I"m not getting one because I don't want to risk it going dead if I switch suppliers, and I'd rather send my readings manually each month and keep track of where I am, and I don't need the stress of seeing how my usage is outrunning the budget on a daily basis during the cold months - I prefer to bring the account back into credit over the course of the year. They've accepted this.

Thanks for the well wishes. I'll get back to it it's a Feb blues meds change dip

Nsd

Pleased the first week at work went well.
Garden work started here. Just seem to have got rid of a coat of mud. Not actually cleaned anything

Evening.

I'm with E.On Next too. I have been for 3 years. I fixed right before the first initial huge spike in prices and then more recently, I find their App really easy to use. Like Skies, I submit monthly readings as our smart meter doesn't work and hasn't for a long time, plus I like to know where I am at monthly too.

£50 Boots on toiletries for my holiday in two weeks.

NSD yesterday. Glad to have one on a monday. Also received all my online deliveries and most of what i bought for myself will go back. i'll keep 2 pieces that total €20 so i'll get €65 back on my card. I was very selective with these and only kept the items i knew i really liked and refused to keep the ones that were only ok.

I've also decided to change my savings/debt goals this year. i had planned to put all "extra" money at my car loan. however we have to replace our stove and fireplace this year and i don't want to take the funds for this from savings. So i'm funnelling all extra cash into this goal and i've setup a revolut fund for it. I know it makes more sense from an interest point of view to pay the car but i find it so demoralising to see the savings go down.

2 weeks to payday so half way through the month and i'm doing ok so far. Not amazing but as its a short month between paydays it certainly helps.

No spend here been taking lunches and clearing out freezer. Had mince about to go off so made spaghetti bolognaise can freeze half for another time.

I need to sort a bundle to sell on Vinted.

planning for a mindful March. Have one night out planned and nothing else on. Small work bonus comes in April, normally I would push into my pension fund but will take the tax hit and use it now to pay off the credit card. Am really aiming to have that paid off this year and will do the same with the £50.00 payment from the Nationwide Big Thank You thing - just got notification in the app.

I'm definitely spending less by not going round the corner shop too much and I really really don't want to go into my overdraft at the end of the month. Am 'spending' money using up gift vouchers I got for Christmas and last year's Birthday.

I don't post very often but am grateful for this thread.

FF25

Spent quite a bit last few days so having a trying to avoid the supermarket meal for lunch sweetcorn peas and a can of tomatoes 😆