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

[BigSkies2022]

New thread

Good luck for London @ememem84 . You are nearly there.home straight now.
end march 1000 into savings. Plus 125 won on premium bonds. 600 into pension
away this weekend and next though so spendy

Good luck for London em

Fallen behind somewhat.
Thursday £15 Aldi, £35 Face Theory for moisturisers.
Friday was a NSD 🎉
Today has been £99 for some ivy trellis screens - for a very good deal on Shein. Needed desperately for the bottom of the garden as our bordering property has taken all of the trees down. Privacy gone!
£9.93 Lidl
£8.98 B&M
£15.25 Starbucks - meet up with a friend.

Credit card where I add all grocery, non grocery and eating out, then pay off in full, looks a bit leaner this month. Will know by the 25th when the bill comes in and we have a weekend away at Easter 🤔

It’s Norwegian Cruise Line - mine isn’t until January (60th birthday treat!) but I’m hoping to get away this summer too!

I did consider buying Carnival shares too (they own P&O, Cunard, Costa as well as Carnival) but P&O don’t really have solo friendly prices any more, plus I don’t want all my eggs in the same (cruise) basket!!

Just renewed our two cars and the house ins . 3 different ins companies , l used compare the market and it was all in £622 instead of £978 last year with Admiral multi policy . They wrote to say they would give us £100 off this year but l thought sod that for a game of soldiers . It's much more faff but honestly took me about an hour for the three, all in all, well worth doing for £250 less .

Good luck in London em ❤️

That’s defo worth the faff
went to Aldi & Iceland yesterday and have spent £165 on food this week. Though did buy a camping dog bed for £5
dc went to see Minecraft movie £30
£6 Chinese for dd who is working hard on college and needed a walk out

@ememem84 good luck with the radiotherapy! That is a trek if you're getting flights. I had a brief moan about having to go to UCLH (3 or 4 miles away) for mine compared to my local hospital just up the road. It was a stupid moan really.
This week has been a bit spendy, new tyres £240. I've been doing a lot of cat sitter and have been guilty of grabbing snacks on the hoof. Off out today using annual memberships and taking our own lunch.

NSD for me today thank God after that huge Ins bill yesterday.

Day out at the beach today. Went early and brought food. Spent €14 on fish and chips to share and €9 on ice cream.

saw a lovely bomber jacket for €95 which they didn’t have in my size however I then went online and spent €70 on a couple. No more clothes spending this month.

Good luck @ememem84 . I'm right by London if you need anything or a friendly face.
NSD today. Needed as yesterday I spent £60 on a printer as I'm trying to set up my own business. Will put me £60 into overdraft which I've done well to get out of so I've popped more on eBay to try and pay this off.
Def time well spent @MaryGreenhill love shopping around

Aw thank you re the ins @Frugal25, just wanted to say that was so kind of you to offer to help out @ememem84 bless you 💐
Best of luck @ememem84 you take care sweetheart 💐

Morning all
small shop planned for today
just milk fruit and veg
have plenty in freezer and away again next weekend
have a good week all

Unplanned spending of €18 yesterday. Dc wanted new lunch boxes and I got some nail varnish as don't like my toe nails bare.
Then went to Lidl to buy bread. Forgot to buy bread and spent another €20 on unplanned spends 😒

Planned spend of €50¡for diesel. ThIs was good Because usually I would have been empty by Thursday already.

Please can I join. Struggling single mum

Welcome @Peanutlicious
😊
Been out for lunch with my friend £20 , then Aldi for shopping £24, sweet pea plants £7 .

I’d like to join in!

Went into Waitrose for milk for work… spent £4 on random nonsense. I need 1 carrot for tonight’s dinner but will send DH instead.

Just renewed our car insurance due in two weeks time and it has gone down saving £6.12 per month. Not bad!!
Final payment of £99 for the holiday was taken today - so that's sorted. Just need to keep saving for spends and also for the big family group holiday booked for October - half paid already so cracking on with that.
Still chipping away at credit cards with final payments due to settle in June 2027 but I'm hoping to knock another 8-10 months off that. We'll see how that goes as we had to install a new boiler last month and we have other plans in the pipeline for keeping the house decoration/maintenance up to date and fresh!!
We need a new settee and armchairs but have a young cat and active grandkids so may just buy some throw covers on to hide the worst of the wear and tear and hold on for a while.
Overall bills for this year have gone down by £37.32 but in that there were some increases for council tax, Energy etc but by a bit of work by shopping around on other bills we have saved money but that could all change when the water bill comes in - it went down in October but a new bill due imminently. 🙄

Happy new tax year, everyone! I have submitted my tax return for 24-25, proud to report that my estimate was correct. Hopefully will get confirmation by the end of the week and set up a monthly budget payment plan. I prefer to pay it down as I go, although some put the payments into an interest bearing account, or premium bonds, and I can see the positives in that,

Tonight's dinner is fairly frugal spaghetti with lemon and pesto, with rocket and avocado salad. I have lamb chops and leftover chicken tikka masala to get us through tomorrow, then Wednesday will need to do a run to the the butcher and place Easter order too.

Spring cleaning continues - horrible tops of kitchen cupboards, and mucky shelves. Up a ladder, lots of elbow grease and white vinegar. Crap behind the badly fitting kickboards under the units, yuck. I am listing points and problems to design out of the kitchen renovation when we do it: cupboards to go up to the ceiling, so they don't form a trap for dust and grease. And who was the cheapskate who decided only to run the flooring a few inches beyond the front edge of the kitchen units, instead of right to the wall? It's not as if it's super-expensive hardwood flooring - they must have saved all of tuppence-ha'penny.

More weeding, pruning, sweeping in garden.
£34 - 300 litres of compost, plus delivery, Wickes.
£96 - annual renewal of garden waste bin collection sub from local authority. Was £40 per year when we began doing it, but it gets used, a lot, so we keep it on.

Oh April! keeping the spending in check has been hard! Last night DH broke the garden chairs listing them down from the shed loft. so they will need to be replaced. Hosting a party soon where we will need them. Currently the ones i want are not in stock but i'm hoping its just too early in the season and they will turn up soon.

Trying very hard to not buy more clothes but already have a laptop bag in my amazon basket. I do need one but do i need it right now?

Its illuminating how just a couple of weeks of looser spending puts me off track. i know that this time last year i stopped off these threads as i spent willy nilly and didn't want to be accountable. This year i'm hoping to stay here and help curb at least some of the spending.

I've run the numbers on the joint account and we will have €400 for food, petrol and incidentals until i get paid again on the 25th. Easter Holidays are in this period too and i will have more expenses with small child being off.

On the plus side i have done an inventory of my fridge and fruit bowl, and while it looks very empty i have a menu plan for the rest of the week to get me through until i go grocery shopping.

Today i returned 2 dresses to next for €108.

Spent €3.80 on coffee at work.

Welcome @PinkPonyPugClub and @Peanutlicious it really does help being active here. i'm always glad to have others to keep me accountable.

@BigSkies2022 i share your pain about cheap kitchen decisions. I have an objectively nice kitchen with lots of cheap outs like the floor not going underneath the presses, corner cupboards with small doors and a filler piece so the opening is even smaller! drives me mad and i know in 10 years it will be oly fit for the skip and im insisting on a solid woood properly made kitchen.

Well done @Rainbow1901 on keeping the bills down. they normally only go up.

@ememem84 i hope everying went ok for you today and that youre not too exhausted.

Spent €25 in the chemist today on a few essentials. Then popped intot tesco and got a xxl bottle of fabric softener and some sun cream, both with clubcard offers. I also picked up another couple of bits but realised I was about the impulse buy and put them down again.

Decisions to be made here. I've just had the paperwork through about my (tiny) pension and I need to decide about how much to take as a tax free lump sum. I buried my head in the sand for years about anything financial due to childhood stuff and then a financially abusive ex. I'm much better now but still panic about making financial decisions. Thank goodness for financially savvy friends!

Oh, and NSD today, yesterday AND Saturday. Meeting a friend for a beach walk tomorrow but hope to keep it to a LSD

£100 on a food shop today. It seems like so much money for just me and adult DS, but we both work from home so that includes all meals. If you break it down per person, per day, it’s not so bad.

Spurged £38 on a neck and shoulder massage. I’ve had a lot going in recently and was carrying a lot of tension/ pain in my neck. It sounds like a luxury but was very much needed (and painful rather than enjoyable!).

Also £40 on a 4 yoga classes. So all in all, an expensive day!

pistachio - I'm curious about how people go about making these decisions on kitchens. LIke, I want doors to replace a window, and windows where doors are currently. Who do I ask about this sort of redesign?