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

[BigSkies2022]

New thread

At some point, most people feel at least tempted by the lure of the cream sofa. Rather like crisp white shirts, or cream linen trousers, they suggest a life of luxury and elegance, far from the realities of filthy pets or clumsy family and friends! My mother has waited until 88 to indulge this particular fantasy of the good life, so I wasn't going to pour cold water on it. I will just be buying nice throws and blankets and encouraging their use!

Today holds a bit of food shopping, planting up a pot or two (so need a run to a garden centre for more compost) and an upper body workout. Tomorrow we'll head out to the South Downs for a good walk I think. First barbecue of the year last night! Very nice too.

Had 3 NSDs this week along with a couple of LSDs (always feels odd typing this 😆)
Today should be a NSD, hoping to go out tomorrow using membership but DD isn't feeling great today so will have to see.
I'm working all lot over the next few weeks and have a couple of cat sits which is good.
I'm making myself wear my existing summer clothes so I don't feel the need to buy more. I have bought a couple of pairs of trousers but really need to not buy anything unless necessary.

Spendy Fri and sat for me as away with a friend. To answer @Frugal25quesrion about where to get vouchers - I signed up to Las Iguanas email and got an offer yesterday for £20 off a £50 spend which we easily met. Brought the bill down and we paid just over £25 each for a meal, drinks and a tip. Also keep an eye out on apps!

Thank you @chimichangaz I shall be doing this!
A spendy day for me. Went out for a friend's birthday lunch and spent £50. We only see each other twice a year but ouch. Id budgeted £20! I always understand budget. I need to learn from this.
Other than that I have no other spends this long weekend which is lovely. Just park days and sitting in the garden.
I'm a sucker for a cream sofa @BigSkies2022 . I currently have a cream leather sofa. Bought it 20 years ago second hand for £70 and it's lasted until a few months ago when the leather has now split (quite badly) so looking at refurbish ideas.
But a lovely cream sofa is beautiful. Glad your mum went for it!

Evening all,

Today I spent £40 on a Dunelm voucher for my younger sister who has just moved out into her own house with her boyfriend! Think she is going to put it towards curtains!

Random question …. Has anyone here got curly hair and use a diffuser?! Are they really worth it? Does it make a difference?
Im naturally curly/wavy. For the last 10 months I’ve had straight hair due to keratin treatment, today was the first time my hairs been curly since about Christmas (just before my keratin treatment). Thinking I might try again with my curls, and thinking of getting a diffuser. But I am really thinking about everything I buy, so don’t want to get one if it’s not worth it.

DH and I have spent a lot of today working out what we’re doing with our bedroom in the summer. We’ve measured and been on the ikea pax wardrobe planner so we know what wardrobes to get etc & looked at all the other furniture. I had budgeted about £1000 just on the wardrobes. But for the wardrobes, chest of drawers, bedside table, vanity table & mirror it’s under £800! I’m happy with that. We also need to get paint, door for the built in cupboard we already have & I need a chair for my vanity table, but that won’t cost too much more.
My bedroom is such a mess, not a relaxing space at all, I can’t wait to get it sorted!!

I love a cream sofa too. Maybe one day…

It was nearly a NSD for me but I ended up buying a chopping board for £30. It wasn’t an impulse purchase- but one I was planning on making towards the end of the month rather than now. However it had quite a long delivery time so I caved a bit and bought it earlier than planned. I’ve got a really small kitchen with virtually no workspace and a very annoying drainage sink thing right in the middle of the usable worktop. The chopping board is the perfect size to convert the drainage sink into usable space…. I think. I’d been looking into getting new worktops fitted so it’s a very frugal option compared to that at least!

I’m too scruffy for a cream sofa. End of. 😂

wednesday And today we’re NSDs. Thursday I spent €95 on groceries and Friday €30 repeat doctors visit and €80 medication, €25 on groceries.

sisters party was last night and today was recuperating from that so a NSD!

regarding sofas I have a pale pink velvet couch. The small child is not allowed to bring food onto it and I keep a sprat bottle of Folex carpet spot remover to hand in case of spills. I could never go cream though.

We have a cream sofa in the hall but its jist for decoration so we dont sit on it!

Popped to aldi for a couple of bits yesterday and still spent €26. Today was a LSD.

Tomorrow, I need to get some bigger pots to move the tomatoes into. I might also be tempted by a lovely coloured parasol that I have had my eye on from the same shop.

Quite a lot of spends in two days.
On credit card which I use for monthly day to day spending then pay off.
Friday
£5 M&S
£15 2 x pendants for me at a little jewelry stall in town.
£12.60 Boots
Saturday
£21.34 Lidl
£9.60 Asda - this was impulse as I went to collect a parcel and saw a lavender plant I really liked. Might help the bees🐝

Also
£30 cash for 21st present
£1.70 for first class stamp
£113 for a ferry trip in Italy this summer. There was only 9 tickets left for the cabin (and we need to take luggage) in August! This worked out at £60 cheaper than the airport shuttle which we are using on the way down to the hotel. Doesn't feel frugal though!

Morning.

What have you started with mention of a cream sofa @BigSkies2022 😁

@PeenaM my DD uses the Curly Girl method for her hair and it's stunning, when she's not exercising (it's in a sweaty ponytail then), I'll ask re her regime, it's quite labour intensive one day a week!

Hope your DD is feeling better @Vinorosso74

Spends

Parkrun wristband - £14
£4 postage for free sports recovery nutrition (running club offer)
£23 Amazon
£7 extra fluoride toothpaste
£12 oat milk
£23 bi weekly veg box (technically tomorrows spend)

I'm quite anxious and stressed at the minute so this weekend is deliberately quiet to recharge and try to calm down!! I've spent a lot of time reading the MSE website/app. I don't find it too easy to navigate in truth (anyone else find this?) but it's full of information. The Facebook page is pretty good though.

Today we might get a few plants from the garden centre if we do spend anything.

Have a lovely day folks.

@needastrongoneagain thank you, she is so we're off out once everyone is ready.
I find quiet time helps me recharge.
Need to do meal planning for the week which ends up with "I don't know", "I don't mind" when I ask DP and DD for ideas. Not helpful!

It isn't helpful is it? When you ask for ideas for meals. Cook what you want and like and if they dare to complain - say you had the chance to have an input and offered nothing. Eat up or go without!!

That is what I do. Luckily, there's not too many complaints. I just get stuck for inspiration.
Apparently, DD is going to make fajitas one night.

I think the MSE website is clunky need. Sorry you are feeling anxious and stressed

bees love lavender. You have done a good thing

spendy today all wants no needs. Food festival i. Town and we stock up on local honey & sauces. £45

NSD for me yay ☺️

We went sofa shopping this week too, and have to admit I admired the cream sofas with the luxurious fluffy cushions ,but we have young kids, it wouldn't be fair on the sofa 😅

Mostly a no spend week, two spend days. Bought DHs anniversary gift and father's day gift. Booked in alterations for DD's prom dress, they were shady about the price but I'm hoping it will be reasonable. Had a stressful week so I also treated myself to some earrings. Dental work has chipped, will pop in on Monday to see what the cost (if anything) will be to fix, I assume the cost of an appointment. My Asda rewards app has a £10 off £35 spend voucher, wil use that next week.

@Frugal25 I get vouchers for doing surveys, THX. app and scanning my grocery shopping. Cashback through topcashback/quidco/rakuten. Buy giftcards for places like Aldi and Asda cheaper through Jamdoughnut to save on food shop. The giftcards are instant and can be for the exact amount you need to pay.

£20 in Morrisons today for a few bits, although I’ve made a bolognaise sauce which should do 4/5 meals for me.

@PeenaM I have curly hair and have to use a diffuser - which is a real pain on hols as the supplied hairdryers never have a diffuser attachment!!

Edited to add that I too am having a quiet couple of days and will be perusing the MSE website!!

I got 60p off my next shop in the Asda game. Think I’ve a Lidl £5 off as well

£4.54 Greggs and no other spend

For inspiration for meal planning and tips for reducing waste, I've just been reading through an MSE guide which actually is really good. For example, if you have leftover yoghurt, fruit or fruit juice, freeze into ice cubes for smoothies.a guide to make the correct serving size of pasta/rice/spaghetti (one thing I always cook too much incase it's not enough), and things like potato peelings are perfect for soups to thicken them up, or alongside vegetable peelings boiled into a stock.

Might be old hat for some, but it was an interesting read
Link

I have been surprised, need, by the response on the cream sofa.

Yesterday: £26 in Lidl. £16 in B&Q on compost and drain cleaner.
Today: £18 in a deli in Arundel for lunch and dinner supplies while we were out and about on a great walk. 18000 lovely steps, home, Ddog washed and fed, dinner done, settling down to some telly and a chilled BH Monday. Have a lovely evening, all.

£14.50 on a Chippy takeaway for tea yesterday. Today, £32.52 in the Garden centre, two bags of tomato compost, a bag of stones for DH's project to do with his pond, a dahlia and a Lavender plant. I seem to buy one most years - for some reason they never seem to last more than a year or two - even when I follow Monty's advice. But love the smell, did try cuttings last year and two survived the winter only to fry in the green house in the recent warm spell. So hence back to the garden centre!!
I have a free veg and a free cake to pick up from Lidl at some point this week according to my coupons. Never one to miss a freebie if I can help it. 😉

I love the Lidl freebies rainbow

Another one having a quiet weekend. DD asked to go out earlier, otherwise would have happily stayed in all day. Finally put listings on Vinted, sold two 👍 also very tempted to offer a takeaway to DC but made a curry using some M&S curry paste 😋

£9.20 Bubble Tea Bar
£0.64 parking
£3.75 coop
£28.34 Temu - curtains for privacy, still sorting out the back of the house after all the trees were taken from the land in the bordering property.

£15.97 T-shirt for DD birthday.
£50 bag for DD birthday
£2.41 Temu DD birthday
£33.57 Kiko - 2 lip glosses for DD and eye cream for me. Got 20% off and free delivery.

Morning.

Thanks for the reminder re Lidl. I have the £5 to spend voucher too.

I'm locked out of Vinted so will sort that today as I've some items to sell.

Thanks for the link @psuedocream3, there's some great tips in that article. I like the use of AI to figure out recipes with what's left in the fridge.

Thanks Life, I'm okay, or will be in a couple of months or so when all this business stuff is done.

So yesterday I spent a little more than I anticipated as I finished my run just as M&S was opening, close the where I'd parked. Popped in for bananas and took advantage of also buying 3 extra large chickens they'd reduced to a fiver each! We'd room in the freezer and I'm fairly good at doing MN wonders with chickens.

I also bought two packs of 6 cartons of oat milk on Amazon rather than the planned one, as the price was so low that day (can vary between £9 and £13!) -£18.

Rough menu plan

• roast chicken dinner (got my DM here for dinner).
• cauliflower and chickpea curry.
• chicken dhansak
• an easy meal using freezer items - breaded fish and chips or similar
• lemon and asparagus (it's 'cheap' at the minute) risotto with some white fish from the freezer
• Saturday we've friends for dinner so need to plan that - might do Mexican.

Have a lovely day folk. This thread is lovely and keeping me focussed as it has done for years ❤️

Well I wrote a half decent post and it reloaded and lost. Reasonably good weekend really. A very quiet one at home really which is good as saves fuel and ad hocs.
£10 cakes and scones from the farm shop - the scone was huge and became dinner with some kitchen tapas.
£15 birthday gift.
£2.5 pet shop - the dog and I have an agreement she will put up with the child attempting to ride her I buy her the good shit treats.
£1.5 ice creams - frugal in me daughter wanted a mcflurry I got her to agree to a packet from farm foods 8 ice creams.
£20 groceries.
£5 happy meal for DD and cheeseburger for DH.
Came out under my weekly budget which is nice.
New weekly budget starts today hopefully not much of a spend today as we have the food we need in I think and DD seems happy pottering around.