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

[BigSkies2022]

New thread

Aw thank you so much @needastrongoneagain and @BigSkies2022
I am going to change to
E ON for the energy 😊
BSD again yay! 😀

Thanks for the new thread Big
Welcome, always good to see new frugaleers on the thread Dot and Daffodil
My leaving do on Saturday was perfect, caught up with some old friends and just a really lovely relaxed evening. Not too spendy either as I was bought most of my drinks. Had a use up cooking day on Sunday, made 4 bags of pasta sauce, 3 big portions of smoked fish chowder, a batch of mini frittatas and some coleslaw. All duly stored/frozen, very satisfying from a frugal and food waste minimisation pov.
Dh and I are away for a couple of nights B&B near Bristol en route to visit his family in Devon for the weekend. Everything budgeted for. Setting off tomorrow after an early gym session. Will make breakfast barms to take with us and packed lunch for later, then won't seem too bad eating out Wed & Thurs.
Both dc have incurred unexpected health costs recently & my parents have helped out with that and some future costs for both. It's things that either wouldn't be offered on the NHS or that there would be a long wait for but that are causing both of them real problems. It irks me to pay but is definitely best for them in the long run.
Have started looking at new upright freezers. Our freezer is a chest one that we bought for £40 secondhand 30 years ago so it owes us nothing! I'm after something more energy efficient and easier to organise. We have the money saved but am trying to hold out at least another month.

Nsd here

I think having the revolut pot for the bits is better than the bar loaf in that case. You might end up paying more anyway

Happy travel north
Poop on as much as you want frugal

That was a big fat lie. £800 garden

Went to Ikea tonight after work to buy an office chair- £250 😲I have to be really careful with my back and it's the same one DW has, she let me use hers and it was really supportive so I've just got the same one. I did try all of the cheaper ones too tonight I swear, but the only one I liked that felt good on my lower back was £350 😄

Missed a day. Not been bad. Today has been:
£3.97 coop, including two boxes of luxury ice creams for 88p each.
£7.17 Lidl

£40 for 30 years that owes you nothing north happy travels.
Good luck with EOn Mary
Enjoy the chair pennies i need a proper work chair too or my back suffers!

Fell asleep on the sofa at 8pm after tea and one episode of The White Lotus. I'm trying not to eat after tea time so at least I wasn't tempted as I was asleep!

Hi I’d like to join. See user name for why

Hi there! I’d like to join in here. We’re doing work to our house (decided not to move so doing the house up to make best use of the space) so we are spending a lot on that but trying to save money on day to day spending. So spent £600 on new armchairs yesterday but that came from savings and haven’t bought new clothes this month.

AHH thank you @Mochi1fudge l am just glad to get it done now after all the trying to figure it out 🙄.
Hopefully a NSD for me again today fingers crossed 🤞😁

Welcome to @ThisHazelDog and @Spendlessretireearly 😊

Did a last bit of frugal cooking/baking last night. We had some filo pastry, lemons, apples & eggs needing using so now have apple strudel and lemon drizzle cake for our packed lunch today & snacks tomorrow. We reckon we've saved at least £35 by packing up breakfast and lunch today compared to a pub or cafe. Win win!

I get oddly excited about stuff like that Northern when usually I would end up wasting things/spending out on a takeaway I get a glow of satisfaction and achievement 😆

I'm doing exactly the same frugalfeb25. Using bonus on credit card to try and get rid this year and my aim is to never be in my overdraft ever again, that started this month.
Had a few days of spending. £2.70 on an ice lolly for DD. £10.50 on swimming with DD as her pre school had a day off so I did something nice with her instead.
Then got all panicked that I had got into spending habit again so I spent my boots points on a gift for my friends birthday so didn't spend there and today has been a NSD. 1 week to go until pay day and I'm so proud of myself, I'll be very much in the black still (and extra pennies will go in credit card bill)
Needastrongoneagain, making me envious about holidays. I need to start looking....
Dotcottonsocks. I'm on a freezer clear out. I've managed to clear it out so much it's nearly empty. Which means tomorrow's lidl shop will be high :(

£11 Maccies as took DD to orthodontist and then a lunchtime treat before we both returned to school / work
£2.30 spar
Think that's it..a bit for parking in town but that's accounted for in another account.

Keeping DH company tomorrow as he has a long drive to collect some live stock, so I've agreed to go for a tank of fuel and a meal! So that will be spendy but it's money he puts aside. Will also get work discount off the meal, only 9% but better than nothing!

Welcome to hazeldog and spendless

Caught up sp place marking. Welcome to newbies.

I'm doing lent to benefit my waistline, mental health and bank balance.

I did spent over €200 on supplements before starting & just downloaded garmin coach half marathon training plan on Sunday 2 x runs done so far this week and 2 more to go.

Reconciled my YNAB this morning turns out my overspent categories were because it hadn't recorded a inflow at some stage. Only ds's pocket money category is overspent now and that's because he got some new computer games.

Love Edinburgh
Love lemon drizzle cake
Love ikea

Anyone here grow sunflowers? I'm thinking I'd like them growing up against my garden shed and normally I don't think of them until it's too late. I grew them once years ago successfully.

Went back to my voluntary committee for a meeting tonight, got fed, win win

Hello all. Still keeping my revs and spends low to get through a tight month. DS has run out of money before the term ends, and since we're keen he doesn't go overdrawn, we're subbing him to make sure he doesn't starve. God, it never ends. Except it will end, and if he manages to graduate after a far-from-smooth passage through education, I will be delighted.

I am however helping DParents spend! They want new sofas and since they can't get out and about without cars to the door and sherpas and so on, I am off to various showrooms today to check out in person the sofas we identified online yesterday. So I'm going to have some fun, without the bill!

I did treat myself to a new Charlotte Tilbury lip pencil, replacing the one that I have run down. £22 including delivery, paid for my Prolific earnings so far this month.

I've fallen off the thread but not off the NSDs 😀
I've got two weeks until retirement, which is focusing my mind amazingly. NSDs Tuesday and yesterday. I've discovered that if I use my Blue Light Card I get 6% off at M&S so that alongside my Sparks card offer means my new Knickers are around £18 instead of £24! I'm also trying to into the habit of setting my food budget then using the BLC to buy a discounted voucher. When it's gone, it's gone.

Welcome newbies!!
Enjoy the sofa shopping bigskies, always nicer when it's not your money!
Ooohhh countdown is officially on songlines.

Yup. Lidl was as painful as I expected. I hope my face didn't wince at the till. £102. That takes some doing. I'd run out of everything and I did throw some Easter bits in that weren't on list... I'm trying to lose some weight before Easter so they will keep until the "big day". She says.
£6 also on DD playgroup session today and that's it today thankfully. Tomorrow is a NSD as is the whole weekend as we have a dentist appointment that's pre paid for and seeing family for birthdays at their houses with gifts already bought and budgeted for.

Welcome new joiners, great to have more people to keep us all going.

Tuesday was €5 folio for parents house, €5 for a bag of bagels from farmers market and €8.70 for breakfast. It was nice but my porridge would have been free!

Yesterday was a NSD and im hoping today will be one too.

@ChipshopPickledEgg and @northender i also love that type of cooking. However my freezers are full of it at the moment so i need to eat it now. Thats not quite as much fun. However i will now take soup out for my lunch rather than cooking something new.

hows the garden going @northender? that was big bill you got. its lucky i love my garden as weve put thousands into it over the last couple of years.

Ouch!! £455 for DHs new glasses. Mine were £270 the other week.
Been an expensive month so far but despite that we have a night away plus a Theatre show next week already paid for but still need to eat out - Greggs or Maccies anyone?? 😋

Afternoon everyone ☺️
Have been to Aldis to get groceries £56 which included a pr of their green gardening clogs for DH so he was very happy 😁
Beautiful day here but really cold .
Hope everyone has a frugal day ☺️

Sofa shopping is hard work, and I only managed one showroom. Still, found a lovely Argentinian cafe and treated myself to an empanada, a delicious almond caramel sandwich biscuit thingy and a flat white - £7.50, a bargain in Parson's Green! Will be back on the project tomorrow, and then round up my findings with DMum at the weekend.

Sounds a lovely cafe @BigSkies2022.
We bought our last sofas from a charity shop .
£300 for two lovely brown sofas . We only bought them as a temporary fix and here we are five years later and they are still going strong . I don't know if you are interested in looking in the charity shops but l do know there are some new sofas and chairs donated to them . We may just have been lucky l don't know but l thought l would mention it ☺️

Few spends today £65 Sainsbury’s mid week shop, £6 on not needed sweets
that’s it

Mary - I have also had good furniture from charity/thrift shops, and hung onto IKEA stopgaps for literally decades. My parents have also been great buyers of secondhand and up-cyclers of the unpromising. But, on this occasion, I think it worth pushing them to get something really nice to replace the sofas that they have had for 25 years and which are firmly in the realm of not owing them anything. Also - and this is no small matter - it gives my mum something to think about and enjoy in prospect, which means my dad has an easier time of it day to day! When the sofa question is decided, she'll move on to the important matter of cushions, curtains and lampshades. Also, summer jumpers, eyebrow make-up, additional plants for the garden...I am running around town like some lowly assistant from The Devil Wears Prada, but it is preferable to her moaning at my father and thinking about death.

I may draw the line at driving to Guildford to check out a showroom though.