Significant Summer Saving, significantly less spending, super (non) splurging. Frugal folk continue being frugal here. All welcome.

[needastrongoneagain]

Making a new thread!

Please check in regular posters and welcome new people.

This is a super friendly thread to contribute to. We are all wanting to be as efficient as possible re spending but all have different budgets and priorities. No judgement here.

NSD (no spend day) for me.

€60 on my nails yesterday. I've never had them done before but am trying to practice a bit of self care to help with my mental health. I'm really happy with them, I just need to see how long they will last.

We're flying to London this week so we're all Off to get some walking trainers today. Thankfully, DH will be paying.

We're in London for 8 days (for DH appointments) and intend on eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in most days. Weve done all the main sites previously but I have a long list of free places to go.

We looked at shows but the price was just too much for 2 adults 2 children considering my 2 boys would rather be in a park than sit through a show anyway.

Have a lovely Sunday all.

Such a treat @Pigtailsandall
Have looked them both up, they sound amazing have the most wonderful time.
Thank you for sharing that with us .
NSD for me today, just going to watch Glastonbury all day 😁

Hello all!
Loving the sunshine, have been pottering about the garden dead heading and weeding. Lovely.
£2.50 on car park yesterday, and absolutely waste as DD had a tantrum five minutes later so we all came home.
£22.50 in a bottle of wine for me and a friend last night. I had to have a sit down after, so used to paying £7 in Tesco!!
£19.34 on nibbles in corner shop to take home as I was hungry after the wine. Tut tut.
£2.00 on parking today. Much more successful morning out today. Hurrah.
£3.50 on garden twine as everything is hanging over and I can't tie it up at the mo.
Going to work tomorrow so should be a NSD and Wednesday and Friday also.

Almost a NSD. Had to get change for DDs bus fare tomorrow so spent £1.25 on a bag of Real McCoys. She needs cash as sometimes her bank card doesn't work on the bus.

Had to rescue my DM from hospital earlier as she was taken there last night by paramedics. I, too, am stuck in the middle of an elderly DM, working full time and two teenage DC (and a DB with higher needs than DM!)

Never mind. I managed a 4k run before it got warm and more or less prepped for work tomorrow. Sitting in the garden with a (free) book ☀️

Hope your DMum is ok @Mochi1fudgebless you both 💐

Nsd. 3 hour dog walk at 6.30am to beat the heat. Then went swimming. Pottered in garden this afternoon and read a book

Ah I'm not sure I'll ever have a nsd. Today was £8.50 for a garden rake from Argos; we did need it. £4 for a loaf of sourdbread. And dh took dc to the cinema as we were going to go to the park but it was 31 degrees and boiling, so thought an aircon cinema might be nicer. I think that was £15

£1 chocolate bar for DD
£6 Asda for some bits and bobs that was needed.

£38 yesterday in Sainsbury's, admittedly buying olive oil, wine and minced beef, as well as fruit and veg. But seems a lot for essentially 2 meals. Must get this back in hand, but am struggling to think beyond the next evening meal at the moment.

DS and DH got back from Leeds. Dining room now full of DS' stuff, and smells faintly of northern student house. DS departed for GF's house this morning, thence to Greece for a holiday, leaving his stuff. Oh well. DH came home with a very nice Tissot watch, bought with a bit of his bonus. Am glad to see him spending money on himself, and his watch looks proper grown up and sexy, much better than those stupid Apple watches.

Nearly a NSD here, aside from a loaf of bread. But only because I couldn't make the booking system for the holiday rental I have found for my birthday holiday work. Will try again tomorrow!

If the weather cools off, might make a journey into town this week to check out Me & Em - have seen a possible dress for graduation ceremony on the website, but I'm not dicking about with any more online purchases which then just get returned!

Payday on Tuesday, can sort out all my pots and payments and reboot my spending plans.

Tesco today. Don’t need much, fruit salad and essentially more ice cream

Payday today
will round up the pots and such like

Nsd yesterday,
hope people survive the heat today

Morning.

I'm enjoying the idea of a northern student house smell @BigSkies2022. I'm picturing a friendly, chatty aroma that calls you 'luv' as you wander past....

Hope your DM is okay @Mochi1fudge

Today WILL be a NSD.

Spends over the weekend
£46 Ocado - all the bits I needed for family over, plus some reduced haddock fillets. No one had a drink other than a couple of small bottles of lager, so there's plenty of wine in, which will last anyway.
£20 Just Giving donation to our best friends sponsored event.
£4 Iced Latte from Pret. I very rarely buy takeout coffee as I resent the cost and plastic, but I had been running for 2 hours yesterday morning and felt quick sick and shaky. It wasn't even 9.30 am by then!
£4 tinned tomatoes and cumin.

On the plus side, the food from the weekend will stretch to one extra meal this week.

Keep cool in the heat folks.

Payday for me today too.
Ive topped up my pots and added to my savings.
I’ve put the same amount of money across my pots as I have been each month since I set them up - but more has gone into DDs pot and less into groceries and general spends. Dds pot is going to get hammered this month as I need to buy her secondary school uniform (£130 for the logo-ed bits) and pay for new kit, registration and autumn subs for one of her sports teams (£245). I’ll need to look at holiday activities too. I’ve enough in it to cope with this month but I am very conscious of having to build it up again.
Food shop coming tomorrow. My freezer is still very full, so I need to be strict with myself about using the contents of that rather than buying more stuff. Once tomorrow’s shop has arrived I shouldn’t need to buy much more than fresh fruit and veg for the next 2 weeks or so.

I hope your mum is ok @Mochi1fudge
Ive got a few insurance quotes that are cheaper than my current one - I just want to run through them with a friend before I switch though. Ive always been in charge of sorting and paying insurance so I should know what I’m doing - but with the cost of coverage so wildly different across providers I want to check I’m not missing anything. I think my natural tendency is to over-insure so looking for cheaper policies freaks me out a bit!

Had a fairly low spend weekend. Spent about £40 in total, Itsu lunch with DD while out and about yesterday, some birthday cards and some other bits.
Today should be a NSD. Got paid from one job today so £500 paid off credit card.

Bit of a spendy weekend - too much to list here but a share of a bingo win was a useful bonus.😎 But it is pay day today - money shuffled and transferred to where it needs to be for bills and Christmas and Holiday savings boosted.

£17 in Sainsbury's.
£382 deposit on Devon October bolthole. DH paid for the hotel we'll be moving to for my birthday weekend itself. Devon is not Japan, but Japan will still be there in 2026, and we may have even organised some kind of dog-sitting that won't leave DH on edge the entire time we're away.
Deferred July's Dermatica subscription, thus 'saving' £25 for July.

Rang the electrical inspection folk, and discovered that the work I need to be compliant with the EICR is actually only £168 and not the £500 I thought. AND they will send someone on a Saturday, which means I don't need to arrange and pay for a trader day parking permit (£30, plus hassle).

Found the £30 sunglasses that were temporarily lost/misplaced and managed to do so before spending £50 on a replacement pair - procrastination/laziness/forgetfulness sometimes pays off!

Working my way through the laundry that DS has brought home. There is not much space - as in, there is next door to no space - to store the additional items. Might need to get up into the box room/loft storage. But not today. Today is a day for keeping my revs low! might run to some stretching and a gentle workout later, but that's about it.

Aldi's £12 ice creams , drinks, bread and a few bits.
Boiling here, took the opportunity to wash our duvets and hang them out because it's only days like this that will dry them out .
Saves me going to the cleaners and shelling out .
Hope everyone is fine and enjoying this glorious weather 😊

Hi all - haven't updated on spends for a few days but have just reviewed my June finances and planned my July budget, moving money around as needed. I had quite a lot of 'unplanned' spends in June <looking at you Amazon> so I know that's one area to watch in July. I slightly overspent my groceries budget by about £20 but I did have a couple of meals where I was catering for others (one of which was a very expensive piece of lamb!).

I've realised I'm a 'payday millionaire' kinda gal, so I know I need to be careful in the first couple of weeks of a month!

Have also caught up to week 3 of Rebel Finance - will try and watch week 4 tomorrow and then I'm only a week (tonight's session) behind. Finding it all very interesting, and it's definitely the case that what you focus on expands (or similar) as I'm still reviewing my monthly costs and realising I can cut down even more.

I'm looking for an account with decent interest to save my 'seed' money (savings for Christmas, car costs, insurance etc) - has anyone got any recommendations? Not an ISA, but an account where I can get my cash out easily (to pay the credit card bill).

Hello! This weekend we went out for dinner and then the pub, spent around £100 between the two of us all weekend. I did get on with some chores in the house, husband has listed lots of items for sale, and I'm almost ready to list some furniture I've restored for sale. The money will go towards holiday spends and any left towards home improvements.

Shopping today £40.03 in aldi, we had plenty left from last week, so didn't need loads. Whilst son is working at camp america I'm making the most of cheaper shops. He is a gym bunny, so eats a lot. And its all healthy, no cheap junk, so can add up. He also prefers protein / meat, but my husband and daughter are happy to eat veggie most nights. In 3 weeks I've spent less than £200 for 3 of us, which is a saving of around £100!

Tonight was chicken curry, tomorrow its veggie pizza, chips, salad. Wednesday i think veggie pasta, Thursday something from the butchers. Meat seems to have gone up in price in aldi, so decided I would see what the local butcher is offering. Friday veggie burgers with nice ciabattas from bakery. Lunches will be salads and sandwiches.

Paid £300 for gas and electric today, fell behind a little when I moved gas to same supplier. I stupidly thought they would adjust the dd, they didn't. Caught up now, so that should drop to something more manageable soon.

Busy saving items on h&m for my holiday. Might have to place an order in the next day or so to get 15% members discount.. not that I can afford anything until Friday.

Marcus is still doing 4%, Chase it’s possible to get 4.55%. Both instant access and pay interest monthly which is quite motivating. I’m sure there are loads of others - check out the blogs/online comparison sites? I don’t chase these deals down as hard as I might so my info probably out of date.

Salade nicoise for dinner tonight. Very tasty and cooling, and a cheaper way to eat protein than I’ve been doing of late. Managed a fast and sweaty workout with weights today- will up my weights next time I’m feeling stronger!

Thanks for the good wishes for DM. She's 93, still at home with full capacity but frail so falls are increasing. Ongoing family saga. She's okay though which is the main thing.

Today was £12 M&S for some lovely BBQ food which we had tonight.

I'm tempted to do a detox / clean eat plan next week bigskies and salade nicoise tends to be a go to lunch for that. It is really filling I find.

I'm with Yorkshire Building Society @chimichangaz looking now, they've got an instant access at 4%. I don't have a lot in savings but aiming to change this so even a small amount of interest at the moment is encouraging.

Hope your mum is ok @Mochi1fudge .
Well done on the workout when it's so warm @BigSkies2022
£9.50 today for posting birthday gifts and cards. I normally buy gifts online and send from the site to friends. Costs a bomb. I bought nice but cheaper chocolates from Lidl this year and sent via royal mail. So much cheaper.
OH didn't want dinner tonight as too hot to eat so that's a meal I can cook and freeze for next week.

Today may be more expensive!
I have to go to another county with work today so I'll be spending a lot of day in the work vehicle which has shoddy (at best) air con I suspect I'll be running on iced latte going with my favourite colleague though which will help.
Can't wait for the weather to cool down some I'm getting really moody because it I'm not sleeping.
Yesterday -
£6 on picky bits for tea
£5 on dog food