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

[BigSkies2022]

New thread

Sold a few more bits. Finally thought the mountain of washing
another £9 on bark but v pleased with how that strip of border is looking. Next bit maybe today or ASAP

good luck runners and friends of runners
i agree dentists are £££.. you’ve been now and that’s good
sound like some lovely & frugal weekends going on
I need more food for meals next week. Will do though the books today for ideas

Good morning everyone 😊
Looking very nice out this morning , hope it's nice for everyone too 😊
London marathon today , we love watching it, the atmosphere comes through the telly and it's so moving listening to their stories of the runners . Good luck to everyone involved ☺️ 🍀👍
Hopefully a NSD today fingers crossed 🤞
Have a lovely day everyone 😊

Yesterday was £152 Lidl, £36 of that was their Crivic trainers and 8 x sun spray for holiday this summer. Big shop, but saved £22 altogether on the 10% off and other Lidl Plus discounts. £31 two smoothies and two Acai bowls for lunch with DD.

Today I need to get passport photos done (I can never get shots against the wall right) and a couple of things from Asda that I couldn't get in Lidl yesterday. Also email the solicitor about our wills - getting the free ones via union membership. It's been an absolute clart on as we have two adult DSC, one adult DS and one teenage DD so need to think of all of their needs but I think this is the last email!

Enjoy Cutty Shark @ememem84

Good news on Vinted @needastrongoneagain I've a bag of DDs clothes that have come down from the attic but sitting in a cupboard - job for today!

Fingers crossed for the council tax reduction @lifelongfrugaleer

The weather is also good here this week @MaryGreenhill hope everyone has a lovely day 🌤️

Morning all. Beautiful day here, had a lazy start to the day, now planning on house and garden jobs so a NSD on the horizon.

Forgot to say yesterday I also spent £7.50 on a car wash but then came home and cleaned inside the car and tidied my boot out. The whole clean was desperately needed and now I keep looking out of the window at my shiny car 🤣

Hi all,
such a beautiful day today ☀️

Had a great night out of Friday! Spent quite a bit though … about £110! But I never ever spend like that on a night out. And it was so worth it. The hangover yday said otherwise 🥴
Means I need to be extra good throughout may.
I do have some bdays coming up though. But I won’t be buying anything for myself

Tesco canceled my order today, an hour before it was due. Not impressed! I have now cancelled my delivery saver pass with them & will go back to sainsburys.
Dh has gone to get the bits we need for today’s dinner and lunches for tomorrow and I’m doing a click & collect after school tomorrow. Good thing for me is the weekly shop is now costing me less due to dh getting bits today.

Forecast for this week looks sooooo good 😎

em - great news on your promotion. You are seriously impressive, pulling off that in the midst of health challenges. Enjoy the exhibitions/museums!

Richard II at The Bridge for us last night, with a big and vocal fan base for Jonathan Bailey out in force. It was a really good production, and I do like that theatre. I need comfort on my nights out these days!

Today I'm planting up some garden pots, I've cleaned the floors, sorted out yet more laundry (I cannot understand why we generate so much), ordered two T shirts from COS, paid for by PayPal, pay in 3, so £16 today and 2 more payments to follow in May and June.

£23 in supermarket on fruit, coffee beans, chicken for dog to supplement his remaining frozen/dried food while I put in an online order, carpet cleaner (really need a new carpet in that room, Ddog vomits/scoots on it regularly), dishwasher tablets, washing up liquid - not a big fat lot to show for the money, but all needed.

We're using the overdraft on the joint account for housekeeping this month: will get topped up on Wednesday. Really not too bad considering: overpayments on energy account, Easter catering, dishwasher repair, annual payment for garden waste collection service, rise in council tax. But costs are only going to go up this year, so I think I need to take another look at our budget. We might need to put in more each month.

Well yesterday was reasonably cheap my husband's dad paid for the meal which was kind.
Didn't go shopping in the end today - ended up deep in a book I've had ages and not read.
We did need to go supermarket and have nothing really in so might be a cheap takeaway night.
Other than that NSD today so far!

I have just started filling in my budget planner ready for Thursday.
My direct debits each month come to about £200. Not much I can cut from it tbh.

Im really hoping that writing every purchase down will make me think twice & open my eyes to how much of my money I waste!! And mean that I have more left over to put away into savings 🤞🏻

£94.50 passport
£12.99 Timpsons
£14.81 Asda

Passport application done and planted some free plants out. DH brought them in due to surplus at work. Couple of jobs rolled over to tomorrow as it's a Sunday and in theory my day off! 😂

NSD today!! 😊But been very busy all day pottering about the house and garden. Been on with decluttering with a vengeance. Two kitchen corner cupboards cleared out - some to the recycling like takeaway tubs, some into a charity box like gift beer glasses from Xmas Presents, others washed and put back. Took a look through the booze cupboard - there are nine bottles of wine, four bottles of Baileys, and multiples of other spirits 😱but we are away with family in May so will take a few of them with us. Cleared the sideboard cupboards and drawers too - still got our dinner set in there but will be lobbing the current decimated set into a box for the tip which means it is empty bar flower vases. Done a pile of ironing including what was on the washing line. Did random jobs in the garden like covering the potatoes, washing old plant pots and watering strawberry plants. Have washed kitchen floor twice (it was really grubby!) and hoovered downstairs - need to do the stairs and upstairs but will deal with that tomorrow. Passed on a dozen strawberry plants to next door neighbour who has a new allotment and received some fresh quail eggs in return.
So a trip to the tip and the charity shop to do tomorrow - need to get stuff actually out of the house and while I'm out go back to the Opticians - I have new prescription varifocals and they don't feel right because I can't read properly with them!! 🤓DH has been doing DIY jobs in the garden - adjustments to gates and bits to do with his pond. We have had plenty of coffee breaks to enjoy the sunshine too so it has not felt like a hard slog at all today. 😊
So tea has been prepared and eaten - very easy chicken fillet, salad and Jacket potato - now watching the London Marathon Highlights and having a relax!!
Hope you have all had a great weekend!! 🤗

Had a lovely day here, a trip to the park with DD, lunch out at a new cafe but OH paid which was kind of him. Then pottering about my garden watering bits etc. I also need to wash pots, must do that this week.
£30 on vinted for some shorts for DD as I realized she has none and two dresses for me as most of my summer stuff doesn't fit, really do need to lost weight and get my old wardrobe back!!

Oof my body is sore and tired after yesterday’s cycling. Tiredness possibly also due to the two mojitos I had late night as well.

busy day making the most of the good weather to do some garden jobs and also try to sort out the house before school starts tomorrow. Today’s spend were €17 on garden clogs, €10 on lunch supplies and €8 on wood briquettes. These we use in the outdoor firepit as they don’t give off much smoke.

I’ve prepped lunch for tomorrow for myself and small child. Do need to di a bit of a menu plan though

Been following this for a while but not commented.

2 NSD in a row, been a while since that happened. I have my eye on something which is fairly expensive but v unusual and if I have a few more NSD or LSD I will feel justified in buying it. Can’t say what as once I get it family members on here will know lol

Hope everyone has had a lovely and frugal weekend 😁

Very productive here and no spends. had a batch cook and freeze day. Cooked a chicken roast for dinner and made chow mein with some of the leftovers, the rest will go in a curry and the famous MN chicken alfredo lasagna. Also made two big pizzas again as they were so good last time popped in the freezer for later in the week.

I've done next months expenses, transferred money into sinking fund pots. Made a list of essential spends - clothes steamer for DDs prom dress (have a voucher to cover most of the cost), shoes for said prom dress, anniversary gift for DH - already have an idea but need to see it in person to check for quality, and vitamins. I might need hair products but need to check my empties for recycleme to see if the vouchers will cover the cost or not.

I actually looked at my financial plan for the next few months and should have had my eyebrows, eyelashes and a haircut at the hairdressers but I seem to be at the bottom of the pecking list and hasn't happened.

Morning.

Lots of very frugal and productive endeavours over the weekend it seems by folk! We also did a bit of gardening and tidying etc.

I did spend a lot of time watching the marathon. And, given running is such a huge part of my life, I knew a LOT of people that were running it, so a lot of tracking, messaging, commiserating (mostly, it was too hot for a lot to achieve their goals) and faffing on social media was done.

Spending £48 on fuel, but I budget £50 a month into a pot (hybrid car) so doesn't come out of my spending 'allowance'.

I need oven chips or potatoes today only, to use with the beef casserole leftovers from yesterday. Probably the former, as we had spuds yesterday.

Looking like a beautiful week coming up.

Good morning.

We had a fairly frugal day yesterday. Dd had a sports match and then we headed into london to cheer on my best mate who was running the marathon. Managed to find her 3 times which was pleasing and then we all headed to a pub.
I spent £20 which went on tube fares, lucazades for my friend and an icecream for dd. It could have easily been double that but they wouldn’t let me contribute towards the drinks and food afterwards. I only had a bottle of alcohol free beer but I think Dd probably ate the majority of the chips..

I'm looking forward to the good weather this week. I’m going to be inspired by all of you and spend some time gardening this week. Nothing major needs doing - just some weeding really and cleaning the green from our patio.

Hoping to spend only on tube fares today and to have a NSD tomorrow.

I overspent on the food shop on Saturday, didn't have a €2 for the aldi trolley, only had a €1 coin so had to go to Tesco. I always get caught by the homewares section in big Tesco. We had family over for dinner so I bought some lovely new mugs, glasses, cutlery, a duvet cover for DS. I did avoid the clothes section.

Managed a NSD yesterday thankfully. Went out for dinner but DH paid.

Today I have a relative coming to stay for a few days and I need to go food shopping (she has a restricted diet). I also need to replace my bathroom pull cord which snapped off this morning! Hopefully none of that will be too expensive.

Been awake since 4 so I’ve done some scrolling in bed with a coffee and then lots of housework before it gets too warm (we don’t often say that in this country!).

Bit of a spending flurry at the end of the month...
£70 Sainsbury's - buying in a bunch of food plan food to prepare for the start of my 12 week fitness plan on 1 May (first payment of £414 will go out on that day). Will also get DH back on the straight and narrow. April has been a month of indulgence for me - birthdays, dining out, Easter - and I am feeling a little - lusher than usual. A bit more Nigella through the mid-section, IYSWIM.
£27.50 annual NHS dental check. Thankfully no treatment, just keep an eye on a couple of chipped fillings.
£17 on a big bottle of Bioderma Atoderm cleansing oil. I use this to remove make-up, and in the shower, lovely and gentle.
£60 on Ddog's food order
Got a £5 voucher from MoneySupermarket for checking credit score - applied it to my Amazon order and have a month's free Prime as a result. Will check if there is anything worth watching.

@psuedocream3 i like the idea of a financial plan. I tend to be more slush fund when it comes to personal spending but that can then go off the rails, like it did it April.

Payday was last friday. the Joint account, Credit Card and savings pots have all been replenished and the slate has been wiped clean.

At the weekend we went and priced a new fireplace and stove. This is necessary spending as our stove has a crack in it and will need to be replaced before winter and ideally before the school summer holidays. I had estimated about €5k but the quote has come in at €3.3k. Though this needs to be confirmed with survey and i will need to get tiles done so probably more like €3.8K. of which my half will be €1.9k.

i had hoped to save an extra 150 a month into a stove and fireplace fund but that got raided to pay the higher than expected car service bill. So now i need to find €215 a month for the rest of the year to pay back my savings. This will be difficult, my AVCs start next month so pay packet will be smaller and parental leave over the summer means i'll have 2 reduced paydays. So i really need to watch the pennies this and every other month.

Big bills this month also are the balance on our holiday accommodation. Still no sign of the tax refund i was hoping to use so we will have to float this ourselves. we have much of it put away so not the end of the world but i prefer when i don't have to do any fancy accounting.

Ouch!! Water bill monthly payment up by 32% 😫
Spent £30 in Garden Centre but half of that is to be repaid by DD - we have a Clematis to replace a plant that didn't come back!! Plus tomato plants which I need to sort out.

@BigSkies2022 we just watched 'Laugh out loud' (the UK one) on Prime and it was so so funny, if you like comedy

Click & collect @ sainsburys came to £98.98!

Other than buying my sister a voucher for Dunelm this week as a house warming gift I’m hoping to not spend anything all week!! 🤞🏻

I do have direct debits coming out on Thursday but that’s an expected spend so not really counting that!

£20 spend on a sun lounger cushion for DH to lie on the ground in the garden 🙄😁
£30 on 3 summer tops from George for me .
I must not spend anymore .l need to concentrate on buying an oven . I can't find one for the life of me 🙄

£3 for a sarnie at work as I didn't take one in thinking I could skip lunch and lose some weight. Nope. I got hungry. This was the cheapest I could find in London.
£5 on a meal for mum from m&s as she is struggling to eat and I know she will eat this one.
Gas and electric have doubled as from next month, have tweaked budget but urgh.
My tomato plants aren't doing very well so may take a look at them tomorrow and see what I can do to salvage them instead of buying plug plants. May try and plant seeds again to see if that works.
Hope everyone is ok and enjoying the gorgeous sunshine