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

[BigSkies2022]

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Loving that calculator @pistachiosanscream !
Mmmm homemade pizza.... May have to do this instead of buying one this week. Might be cheaper.
I also hit the asparagus when I saw it last week. Delicious made into a tart with salad.
£10 today for swimming session for DD. That's is for today though.
Checked budget and doing well this month. Credit card and car loan have gone down. Shares and savings are going up. Feel so happy I went dizzy!

If you must keep a card keep one. Delete it from all accounts and hide it so you need to find it and type the number in to spend on. When you have savings look again to delete it

back from saved for holiday. Back in the frugal wagon

A if I don't get out of the office coffee spend day £4.27
Worth it for my sanity.
Ate whatever we had in the cupboards and freezers today though.
One cost saving thing I am doing is using frozen fruits I buy fresh at the start of the week and then use frozen so I can limit my shopping trips.
Low key looking forward to payday.

@PenniesButton loose your current card and have a replacement sent so it's not been saved anywhere online and then put some tape over the numbers and freeze it so it's a huge effort to get a hold of and only worth it for an emergency.

@PenniesButton put the £65 into starting an emergency fund. Aim to get it to £500 and then £1000. This then covers the emergencies.

once you have that saved you can throw more money at the debt. Have you ever looked at the snowball debt payoff method? There are calculators online you can use to see how fast extra payments will help to quicken up your debt payoff date.

€20 spent today on food in the shop and paper plates from Amazon.

£6.85 coop
£2.05 for snacks
£8.97 Asda

Couple of days to go to the end of the credit card cycle which is cleared in full. Grocery / non grocery was £800, airport shuttle £173 and what I class as a 'basic social life' was £300. Interesting to see where the money is going, I thought it was groceries not eating out!

Morning.

£12.48 Aldi yesterday (pasta, rice, shower gel, hand soap, washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets, packet of fizzy sweets 🤣).

Nothing planned today re spending but as we are having stir fry I've told the DC if they want noodles one of them can bring them in from work, otherwise it's rice!

Ocado are delivering tomorrow and that will be £100 (almost exactly), we have plenty in the freezer, so it will only be fresh items/top ups required for the first shop of the payday month. That includes a huge bag of washing tablets which are branded, but half price and I love. I don't specifically need these but it's not like they go 'off' 😁

Fizzy sweets are an essential need
£140 Sainsbury’s yesterday but needed a lot as ran down before holiday.
resetting ds gym membership so will be £15 pm but he’s 15 so it’s important to him
no other spends planned

Had a spendy day on Tuesday with shopping top ups which took a bit longer as with DH being diabetic keep looking at labels for sugar free, carbs etc etc
So Home Bargains £21.33 Lidl £25.21 and £13 in Iceland. Yesterday was a NSD but this morning needed petrol so £20.03 so far.
Need to find a decent diabetic recipe cook book that uses fairly regular ingredients as all the ones I've seen use way out one off ingredients which we would never use in a month of Sundays. So far due to limited knowledge DH ends up with a load of veg (and very limited potatoes) with some sort of protein. He loves his food so I want to keep things interesting or find alternatives.

Good to get gym as part of teen routines, life. When DS was going through his adolescent angsty period, I booked him some PT sessions with a sympatico trainer at my gym, and started some positive habits.

Back to DParents again today. Using up veg in fridge for dinner tonight - fennel and lemon with lentils, courgette with ricotta and, er, lemon. Probably need to cook some rice as well. And chop the aging herbs into it. Still have a chicken in the freezer from Easter shop so will probably cook that tomorrow night and eke it out over the weekend. Trying not to shop beyond eggs, butter and bread.

Builder/plumber came round this morning and we talked through the kitchen reno. He's going to send me some links to suppliers for doors/windows, countertops, flooring and price on what we've got in mind. Says I should pick a kitchen supplier and get a designer to come over, so I will do that. I don't imagine it's going to happen this year, but we will at least have a target fund to work towards.

Jobs day today
£38 a Amazon refund, £52 boots refund as had a reaction to some no 7 skincare, £10 premark
outs £2 primark, £9 boots £2 car park, £30 gym starting

NSD for me as of yet but l am looking for a new oven but not having much success 🙄

Thanks everyone for the tips, and for @BigSkies2022 for making me realise how important it is.

There was £900 left after the loan (I had £1410 on cards and it was a 15k loan) which I have put straight into a savings account (which I opened especially for this). I won't touch it. I was going to put it as a payment to my remaining credit card but it makes more sense to have it as savings that are accessible.

I have also removed the cards from mine and DWs Apple Pay stored cards, chopped all cards up, and done the great suggestion of saying I lost 1 card (the one with the lowest APR) and requested a replacement which I will put in the freezer.

This probably sounds a bit soft but I feel really moved by everyone in this thread for helping me so much. I honestly can't believe how bad things were for us at the start of this year and now everything feels manageable, and much less terrifying. I still feel hugely overwhelmed at the debt total but we got into it and we can get out it, especially now I am finally back in work.

SO thank you all 😍

@PenniesButton sounds like your making amazing steps in the right direction.

Ugh, woke up way too early this morning so always a danger time for me, €30 on football boots for small child. €55 on Amazon picking up some craft items and a few other items I’d saved for later.

tomorrow is payday and it can’t come quick enough

Well done pennies. It’s tough but you are doing great. We’ve all been there / are there so understand

no other spends today

Brilliant! Well done @PenniesButton 👌

Good to hear that @PenniesButton

Other than paying for DDs activity and a diet coke and creme egg in the cafe which comes from another pot of money, there was no other spends today.

Well done @PenniesButton, this is indeed a kind and supportive thread.

£6 for play group and £66 in Lidl (10% off this week) so all in budget. well done @PenniesButton !! You're doing amazing 😍

Well done @PenniesButton. I think I need to take some of the advice you’ve been given. I’ve just paid off my credit card and am scared to get rid of it but also scared of misusing it too…

I’ve done 3 NSD in a row (although I’m ignoring 2x tube fares to work). I’m hoping to do a 4th tomorrow- or a LSD at least if not. We’ve got a busy weekend - not all expensive - but I’m know it will add up. Pay day is Wednesday and I’m on limited funds till then.

Do it sock. Take the control rather than the fear.
i don’t get paid until the last day of the month either it’s a long month with holidays in

hair cuts today £80 for dd and I. We have a lot of hair 😂

Hi all!
On Wednesday I got my eyebrows & top lip done - £42
Thursday was a no spend day!

Im ‘out out’ tonight with the girls! I don’t want to spend a small fortune though, going dinner & drinks. But we’re going into our city so it’s not going to be as cheap as I’d like. Don’t do it often though. I’ve no idea what to wear which is stressing me out!

Pay day next wed (finally!) & I’m starting my budgeting diary on the 1st May. Hoping to get it all set up over the weekend & look at all the direct debits I have set up 😬

Well done pennies, you're making huge strides to getting it all under control.

Yesterday I spent €45 on amazon. I got communion and confirmation bracelets for nephews. I needed to spend a bit more to qualify for free delivery so I bought some supplies for DS birthday in June.

My pay came in yesterday so I've moved my savings for birthday and electricity over to my revolut pockets.

My phone is giving up on me, so I'll have to buy a new one tomorrow.