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

[BigSkies2022]

New thread

Thanks for the thread. I’ll be joining

Spends today , £4 postage for a gift , gift cost was £28 .
Papers for my Mum £2.20 .
Cold and raining here 🥶

Just booked 3 tickets for Penguin Lessons - just under £20 at local fleapit. I really, really like our fleapit, (which has also just launched a bursary scheme to help local students with FE/HE costs) and I particularly like paying £6 rather than £15 for a ticket to the same experience.

V low spend today. I took some suncream back to Boots for a refund (Soltan factor 50 that made me burn - only read the reviews after burning, so many people unhappy with it!) so I used that to buy some toner (had balance of £1.75 to pay).

Have also ordered a water bottle from amazon using the last of a Christmas voucher (.87 to pay). I got a £15 credit towards a Morrisons shop so I’ll use that for my next big shop.

€65 today on petrol, bread, ham and a few treats in the shop.€20 as a deposit for summer camp.

yesterday was €25 on clothes and some other small bits for small child.

one set of solar lights isn’t working. I’ve changed the battery so it’s likely a wire problem, tomorrow I’ll take them off the tree and see can I locate the problem wire. If not I’ll have to get a new set. It would drive me mad to have one set missing.

LSD here £4.00 on parking for a day out. OH paid for the lunch, ice creams, train ride and also my car's new tyres and battery, he is a good man.
Pay day tomorrow. Yippee!!! Off to Lidl to celebrate with my £5 off voucher!

Lsd Tuesday - got some nail varnish and deodorant.

Nsd yesterday (well apart from the planned childminder cost).

Hoping for a NSD today again. Its payday in 8 days. I do a kind of 'fun fund' each month where I leave aside some money for non planned spends like coffee, takeaway, lunches out, nail varnish, clothes. Unfortunately I have spent all of this months budget already.

£20 on cardamom buns for Easter weekend - DH has also bought some, so we're probably over-provided, but never mind, we'll manage...
£8 in greengrocers. New discovery:Thai basil - it's got a really great, clove-y, aniseedy flavour.

Took laptop to DParents, to help them shop online. Bought cushions (for new sofas, due 2 May), and some towels. Then DMum gets a bit overwhelmed and we put the screen aside until next time.

Came away with a nice bottle of Bordeaux for Easter dinner table on Saturday!

£14 Home bargains
£44 Aldi
£33 Asda
The veg in Aldi is cheap , 8p carrots and broccoli .
Looks good quality too TBF
Happy Easter everyone 😁
🥚🐰🧺🐥🐤🐣🐇

Today …
£35.41 on a card and flowers for sil’s 30th bday this weekend
£26.40 in b&q on some bedding plants. Then I got home and realized that one of the trays of plants is basically out of season … flowers feb-may! They weren’t expensive, 3 for £10, but still. Annoyed with myself.
£15.98 Superdrug, on nail varnish and lipstick.

Hoping for a nsd tomorrow or at least a very lsd, may go swimming in the afternoon.

Today €20 deposit for summer camp. €11 groceries I didn’t really need but wanted to buy something.

the big one €1186 on a car service! We budget €250 for a yearly service but DHs car is now 11 years old and needed a new battery, brake pads and other bits that just wear out over time. So my stove and fireplace fund got raided to pay for this. DH was going to pay it all himself but we pay for cars jointly so it’s only fair.

in small wins I fixed the solar lights!

DH also finally fixed my wardrobe. We have weirdly deep built in wardrobes and the rail was hung too low and not deep enough. So dresses just pooled on the bottom of it and there was loads of room behind them. I can now fit a low shoe rack at the front so hoping to get to jysk tomorrow to buy these. Then I can do a proper sort out.

this frugality game is getting hard! Really need to focus on not spending needlessly next month. 1 week to payday.

Pay day for me yesterday so £101 in Lidl (big shop as had run cupboards down to nothing) £34 on sis in laws birthday gift, a new book for me as favourite author has released a new book, and a father's day gift that I found.
£15 in charity shops on plastic that kept my daughter happy whilst I mooched with mum.
Very spendy so I'll need to be very good for rest of month. I did replenish savings though which I had raided last month.
Well done @pistachiosanscream on the solar lights! I hear you on this game getting hard. Especially during Easter holidays trying to keep little ones happy and occupied.

DS is here for the holiday and we're going shopping today so I'm bracing myself for a spendy one. He wants a new backpack, protein powder, workout powder and gym clothes.

So far so good!

Last night spent 0.97 parking as I'd pre paid for the tickets and Dsis paid for food. The Penguin Lessons was thoroughly enjoyable, hope bigskies and anyone else going enjoys it!

Also hair cut yesterday £29.50 plus tip. Growing it out so only a cut every two months for this year.

Today £16 Lidl.

Headed to stay in a caravan 45 mins up the road, my car is packed full of food to avoid the campsite shop!

Hope everyone has a good Easter weekend. 🐣 🐰

LSD here today!

£17.55 on a family swim & that’s it 😊

Really need to up my game with saving, I’ve been looking at holiday for next year, probs looking at about £2000 so need to put as much away as possible!

Has anyone booked with eurocamp France before? If so any advice on which sites are best, more specifically for sen kids? Any advice on booking ferries - best time to do it?
Im also looking at Airbnb and have found a really lovely villa, but think eurocamp would work out cheaper!

€11 in jysk on shoe racks
€9 TK maxx for a plush for Easter bumny
€19 coffee shop
€27 homestore and more, some decor, baskets and tomato food
€69 In band q on tarps, turf and hooks
€29 Lidl for groceries
€6 smyths for a treat
€9 Homesavers on glass bottles come, and some treats to make into treat bags for a party.

expensive day! But it’s the season I’m in. Next month will be better. Also need to return my cans and bottles to get the deposit back. We have nearly a years worth collected

DH spent £4.50 on a loaf of bread and three packs of Red Leicester hot cross buns from Morrisons. That's it though .
My Dd2 cut my hair for me and saved me £25 bless her 😊

Today spent £27 at Whistlefish. They have a great offer on for 20 cards, three wrapping papers, a card tin and gift tags, all of your choice, for £25, I used JOIN20 for 20% off and added three large gift bags to take it over £25 for free delivery.

peena I don't have knowledge of France but couple of my friends have visited Delft in Netherlands and stayed in lodges on campsites. Depends on where you are though, I'm in the North East so an overnight ferry trip to Amsterdam is accessible and easier than France from our parts! I know what you mean about holiday costs!

Im also looking at eurocamp in France so equally looking for ideas :) looks amazing at the mo when browsing.
£16 in Lidl on a sandpit the OH wanted for our child and now doesn't want.....she has seen it so it stays but I wasn't keen in the first place .. my lawn!!
£3 on another Easter egg hunt. She has fun so all good.

The one thing about euro camp is when you read about the pools, a lot of the sites insist on men wearing speedos or tight fitting trunks. No shorts allowed. My DH would absolutely not wear speedos or tight trunks.
You can do a filter to show the sites that do allow trunks! Not a big thing for some, but it would be for others!!

I did an online chat with them, and they did 2026 dates will be released mid-late may this year x

Yesterday ended up being a spendy day.

€45 for DS eye test.
€13 in a clothes shop for a reduced cardi and reduced top.
€100 in tesco on a top, trousers, iron and a few groceries, birthday present for a friend. The top and trousers were worn last night and will re use tomorrow for our easter lunch and one of our upcoming communions.

We haven't been to eurocamp in France but agree they look fab. We went to one in Italy last year. In my opinion, go slightly off peak so mid June as it will be quieter and would suit most sen kids better. Also have a look at the distance to nearest supermarket etc. We hired a car and then on a rainy day at the camp site, we drove to Venice where the sun was shining. We booked in advance and flights AND eurocamp came to €1000 for the 4 of us for the whole week!

Airbnb are great too, but if you want pools, entertainment etc, eurocamp would be better.

Hi. Can I join you please?
I’ve always been a bit rubbish with money. I waste lots of money on unnecessary and knee jerk purchases.
My current situation is that my husband unfortunately died very suddenly and unexpectedly 2 months ago so I am now responsible for all outgoings. I am trying to find that sweet spot of being able to pay all the bills and costs (probably an extra £700+ a month on what I was paying before) and create some savings (both long term and short but also keep some bits of joy in our life.
I have an 11 year old dd who I want to be able to treat still as well as keep up her hobbies etc. I’m happy if she’s happy so I can generally go without stuff. I’m also aware that she might well need some counselling soon and although some is available through charities there is a chance I’ll need to pay for some too. She’s also starting secondary school in September so I’ve a whole new uniform to purchase.

I think my main savings will come from stopping buying all the random crap I don’t need and also through budgeting and planning our food shops properly. We had a cleaner who I have now stopped - although she has said she is happy to come one day a month only so maybe I might have the occasional visit. I’ve already cancelled direct debits and subscriptions I wasn’t really using. I’ll look at making savings from changing our household and dog insurance policies as these are both at the expensive end of the scale.

I’ve opened a Starling bank account and I’ve created spaces to divide my money into although I’m not convinced I’ve got everything covered or I’ve been realistic about some of our outgoings. Any tips about what pots/spaces have worked for you would be very useful.

My dd and I have been staying at my mums since DH died so we are not yet in the swing of normal life and expenditure. Mum has very kindly been paying for a lot of the food shops. I’ve had lots of expensive one off costs and bills (the funeral, applying for probate etc) on top of my own utility bills at home. I think I’ve paid everything now though so I will be able to get a better picture of how realistic my new financial situation is from next pay day. I’ll need to do mainly no or low spend days up to pay day first though!

I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone and gaining tips and inspiration from those of you who’ve been doing this a while. I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions in the coming days and weeks.

I’ve not been to a euro camp myself since I was a kid, but I was actually speaking to a friend about them this week and she said it’s cheaper to go at the end of August when European school term has already started back. No idea how true this is!

@SockHop
I am so very sorry for your and DDs loss. It sounds like you have managed to sort a lot already. I'm glad DM is helping you.

The only tip I would have is to track all your spends. I found that I could budget for the month but then a forgotten direct debit would go out. By tracking it. It means I wouldn't forget it for next months budget.

Re pockets for saving for different items, I've started saving for the big hits like DCs birthday and electric bills, small amounts into different pots each month. After 5yos birthday in June, I'll switch that pot to a Christmas pot. I think this is going to be a game changer for me.