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

[BigSkies2022]

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NSD for me today.
I’m meeting a friend tomorrow for a coffee but I’ll suggest a freebie walk in the park instead. Seems a pity to waste the lovely weather.

I was paid today for some reason even though pay day isn’t till Wednesday. I’m not going to touch it at all tomorrow. My bills won’t come out till Thursday anyway and I’ve no big purchases I’ve been waiting to make. I don’t think I’d have been able to manage this in previous months!

I’ve got a little book to write every purchase in this month. I’m quite looking forward to it. I semi tracked last month on my banking app - but I think I need to be more thorough. There are a few monthly subscriptions and charges I need to make decisions about keeping or not.

Accidently NSD due to a busy day. Was planning to buy niece's 21st present so will roll that over to Thursday.

Another one that absolutely loved Laugh Out Loud on Prime. I think it warmed up after the first episode especially. We pretty much binge watched it, which is very rare for us. Definitely recommend.

A walk sounds much nicer than a coffee in this weather sock.

Yesterday I spent £60 on a race entry for Manchester Marathon 2026. It's a case of 'you snooze you lose' with early, discounted entry fees. I had two links emailed - glad I clicked on both - one had entries at £80 plus cost of medal and T (I only ever buy these for marathons, I choose not to receive for other races), the other £60 all in!!

Hotel booked a year in advance too but fully refundable so I'll budget for it (£80. - again early bird offer before the masses) within the holiday pot.

Mexican chicken and cous cous tonight and I'm meeting a friend for a run later, as DS has kindly offered to sit with DH.

Spent €2 yesterday on some paracetamol.

I agree that it's a great idea to track all spending. I might try it this month too. I have my bills mapped out well but would be good to watch my disposable income spending and see how I am wasting it.

I'm also growing tomatoes. It's my first time doing it. They look like they need to go into big pots very soon so I might go to look for some on my lunch break today.

Ooh, another lovely day. Have been out and watered the new planting. My pot clear-out on Sunday revealed a colony of vine weevils. Gross! Have drowned the filthy grubs in a bucket and thrown out the compost which I was going to re-use, but which is probably still harbouring eggs. I think we brought them in last year with some of the nursery-raised plants in pots, and they account for the hydrangea losses. Anyway: apparently, if you soak new plants still in their pots, for 24 hours, in a bucket before planting, you can drown any lurking grubs and halt the life cycle before you merrily transfer them into your own garden. Don't omit this step, it's not just about hydrating the plant! We, of course, have omitted this step so far, but won't be again. You can also treat plants already in the ground with nematodes, which should also kill off the grubs.

Evil weevils aside, the garden is looking pretty nice at the moment. I'm hopeful we can enjoy the work we've done this year, and dial back the effort:pleasure ratio a bit.

Have adjusted tax direct debit budget plan, as I think I"m ahead of myself, so freeing up another £65 per month. At least until August, then we'll see how it's going.

I think that makes sense @BigSkies2022 - it's not something that we tend to do and we're not planning on massive plant spends this year. Believe that!! and you'll believe anything!! 😁
DH and I keep pottering in the garden - he's working on his pond on a new filter and I keep drifting from hanging out the washing to sweeping up the patio to Mumsnetting!! is that procrastination? Just had coffee and crackers for lunch sat out in the sunshine. Still need to plant the tomatoes but forgot to pick up growbags - DH being fussy - wants fresh compost for the tomatoes. Can mix up old soil from a dismantled planter with other compost we have and prick out some black-eyed Susans into pots - just need to drift that way and get on with it!!
One of DH's paydays came into today so have spent a bit of time on Finance bits - there will be more to sort later but on the spreadsheet we still have a small surplus. Just need to wait and if the new boiler payment goes out tomorrow - if it doesn't then that's more to chuck into savings/debt before we start the new month.
Been looking at the so called rises in pensions and because of fiscal drag we are paying more in tax almost to the point of why bother giving us 1.7% extra just to ultimately give us less!! Annoying!!
Cat has her health check this afternoon but she is on a plan - so no expenses are expected there. So if I don't get any compost - today has the potential to be a NSD!! Happy Tuesday Folks!!

Afternoon everyone 😊
NSD for me today and have given up looking online for an oven going to go to Currys tomorrow to take some measurements . Fingers crossed.
Hope everyone has this glorious weather 😁

I’ve spent £10 on some grocery top ups. I think that will be it for today. It’s (official) pay day tomorrow and I’ve no pressing purchases to make which makes a nice change, although I am going to pay off the final payment on my Klana account and then shut the account completely.

I have arranged the sale of DHs motorbike today. I’ts not worth a lot but I’ll get £1300 so better than nothing. Not sure what to do with the money (I mean I can think of lots of things to do with it if I want to be frivolous!). Do you think it’s sensible to split it across some of my spending pots so I have a slush fund in each one - or would it be better to save?

I changed the timer mechanism in my toaster today and it works perfectly again. It cost me £20 for the new parts - but it’s a nice dualit toaster that would cost almost 10x that to replace if I went for an identical model - so I’m feeling pleased with myself.

Well done @SockHop re the toaster and paying off Klarna also sounds like a very good idea spreading the money out over the various pots .

Half and half sock. Put maybe 600 in savings and the rest across your pots.

Good luck with the oven hunt Mary I sometimes need to look at actual products before buying.

£10 George at Asda. Star Wars T-shirt for Father's Day for DH. Type of thing that goes out of stock quickly.

£7 Morrisons. Work notepad and some summery puddings - just enjoyed a tiramisu in the garden while the sun sets 🌄

nsd here today!!

although I keep popping into vinted and looking at casual summer dresses for work 🫣 …. I need to ban myself. I must be good this month 🤞🏻 x

NSD here too but that's down to DD being poorly so a sofa day was had. I emptied my Tupperware cupboard out and ditched all the plastic ones, kept the glass and ceramic ones. Now trying to convince myself I don't need new glass ones....

Thanks. Putting half the money into saving sounds like a good idea.
I think I might put £600 into savings, £400 into Dds pot as she’’ll have school uniform and summer holidays to pay for soon, and then 100 into each of the dog, presents and house pots. I mainly want to avoid frittering it away.

Its a speedy day already as Ive paid the Klara balance off (£190) and 2 months of dog food (£90). On the plus side I got a £35 rebate from my last mobile phone bill.
Tomorrow is when the majority of my bills will come out - I’m hoping that I’ve managed to fix the direct debit errors I made on some of the new bills.

Ooops! Spendy not speedy. I’m still in bed so definitely can’t claim to be speedy yet!

Such a gorgeous day today, am currently enjoying a cuppa on the patio before work.

We go to our nearest big town later today to collect DCs glasses. Will also get their hair cuts but this is built into my monthly budget. Hoping I can avoid any unnecessary spending.

£56 Lidl on assorted food bits . £15 on Primark . Trainer socks , pegs and a gorgeous Strawberry plant pot
Beautiful day hope everyone is enjoying themselves

Hope your Dd is better today @Frugal25 💐
Thank you@Mochi1fudge sadly no luck re the oven .
Back to the drawing board 😁

Gorgeous day - I've just walked to the Post Office and back for a later lunch break.
£4.01 Coop
£1.70 stamp to send back old passport.

Working until 7pm and I have awful cramps (you'd think at 52 on HRT that could be managed but not this month!) so I will be doing no more spending today.

I did end up spending a£12.99 on plants last night. The deal was on the Martin Lewis email, 9 bare root plants and 150 bulbs. Other than that I have £20 in vouchers for a nursery to buy some plants in later May and I will try to refrain from any more garden spending! It's so tempting in this weather!

My no spend week hasn’t happened ….

£17.50 on a paddling pool. The one from last year had a hole so we needed a new one. Half price at argos.
Then whizzed round sainsburys to get bits to do a bit of a bbq tea (but in the oven 🤣) and spent £25.25! Did get some ice creams/lollies too!

Spent £270 for an emergency filling at the dentist today after my filling fell out last night! Paying for pain! Will get half back though from health plan.

Payday today for me! My second one. Very much a novelty feeling after years of not working. It all feels like magic money now as absolutely not used to it.

All bills (most of the that I was able to transfer to the 1st of the month) fly out tomorrow, which as I've said before, gives me joy every month. Hurrah for having a lovely home and all of our bills paid.

Spent £10.50 in charity shops (books….AGAIN), and £5 on lunch as I was dropping a relative at the station just after lunch. Then spent £61 on an excursion on my upcoming cruise, and £30 on a pair of Crocs (I have been thinking about buying a pair for literally months!).

Haircut tomorrow but not planning more spends which is just as well as I’m going away for a couple of days on Friday with a friend….

NSD for me again today. Went for a walk with a friend at lunch and took my homemade lunch with me to eat on the way.
DD still no better, hopefully will be better by tomorrow as we have lidl shop and a free play date in the park to go to. I can see this being cancelled though.
Quite proud of myself. Made dinner tonight with things already in freezer and veggie drawer. Fish pie. And tomorrow we have sweet and sour veggies with rice. Again, found all the bits already so two frugal meals. I've also been freezing half the meals I cook. We just used to eat it all, the portions were far too big. So I now freeze half to stretch the food and hopefully shrink my waist at the same time.
Hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine today!

Morning.

Hope your DD is feeling better @Frugal25. I'm getting better at batch cooking too, I don't do well freezing extras, but I am pretty good at turning the extra into another meal the next day.

Dentist for us today @PenniesButton

Might look at that plant offer @Mochi1fudge

Spends have been a bit higher the last few days but we will be stocked up and we have nothing planned for the weekend.

£11 coffee and cake at local country house (unplanned).
£30 Amazon
£55 Presents (I have a pot for presents though).
£200 Ocado delivery (big shop, includes wine for hosting next weekend)

We got our financial advisor coming next week. He crunches the numbers regularly for us and has looked after us (or DH, specifically) for 30 years so nothing will be a major surprise. He knows what we have in the pots, how long it needs to last and what we want/need to live on. This will be the first month with newer circumstances (albeit I'm still working) so it's interesting to see how we do. I need to tweak a few bits already I think, to account for literally everything.

Wonderful day - I'm going for a run before it gets too hot!

Morning all

Beautiful day here today.

Managed Tuesday as a NSD Wednesday as a LSD £3.30 in Aldi and hoping today might just be another very low spend day as I need toms cucumber and lettuce.