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Cost of living

Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

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

1000 replies

needastrongoneagain · 05/06/2025 21:46

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
26
Seaside3 · 02/07/2025 20:12

Another nsd for me today. Lunch was left over courgettes, salad ans chickpeas. Daughter and husband ha left over salad/pizza.
Tea tonight was mac n cheese with added veg and almonds on top.
Should be left overs for lunches. If not, there are eggs for egg mayo wraps.
Hoping tomorrow will be another nsd.to make 3 this week.
Also hoping I'm finally caught up with dd so my weekly pay won't just disappear.

I've also 'sold' a table, its one i need to work on, but it's off to a regular customer, so I know they're good for it. So that will be £120 profit towards my holiday.

March2027 · 02/07/2025 20:53

Nsd
tomorrow need a couple of bits

chimichangaz · 02/07/2025 21:10

Yesterday I was fortunately treated to lunch so the supermarket spend was my only one. NSD today and I made a lovely salad from bulgur wheat, home made tzatziki and air fried chicken with Greek seasoning. Bit of hummus and a pitta bread and it was absolutely delicious.

out with friends for a walk and lunch tomorrow followed by a (careful) mooch around the shops.

@PearlsPearl others have posted some helpful advice and words of wisdom- I’d just reiterate to keep posting here as I’m sure it will help you keep your focus on your finances. You won’t always be perfect, none of us are, but as long as you are aware of what you’re spending, what your triggers are etc it can only help.

Frugal25 · 03/07/2025 10:32

Today was planned spending and was in budget.
£88 in Lidl but in this was my 10% off and three Christmas presents and a birthday present too so I'm pleased. Oh and some flowers for mum as she is babysitting for me later when she doesn't really have the time bless her.
£6 for play group. £24 for hair cut. Bit obsessed with Beth's hair from Yellowstone so I've gone for her fringe. Fingers crossed I don't regret it. Now I just need a ranch.

MaryGreenhill · 03/07/2025 12:21

@Frugal25 excellent job , pray tell me please , what did you buy for presents .
l am all ears and
nosy 😂
NSD for me yay!

PearlsPearl · 03/07/2025 14:26

Thank you everyone for being so nice and supportive, yes @MaryGreenhill struggling after the overspend but just generally not having enough anyway. Have the most expensive time ahead planned and honestly just feel like I want to cry and stick it all on the credit card. But I WON'T or the big loan I took out would have been for nothing.

Sorry for my misery.

This week I needed to buy DS his birthday presents (why are teenagers so expensive) and order and pay for his cake. That has wiped me out for the month. Think I might start a 'pot' and add to it monthly for his birthday next year, not done this before but I've seen some of you do this and I think it makes sense. Never tried pots but I can't keep getting wiped out with big expenses.

I also have my 10th wedding anniversary this month, we're going away for a spa break but thankfully have already paid for that. Just need to pay for the afternoon tea which is just under £100. But another £50 for the dog boarder.

Then we go to Belfast for the weekend trip for our anniversary , flights and car park all booked, but the hotel we've booked isn't paid for. I just checked and was hoping and praying I'd paid for it when I booked, but no. So that's £450 :( plus £100 for the dog boarder. It includes meals thankfully. So will just need taxi fares to and from the airport and nothing else.

Sorry. I know I'm very lucky to have a lovely life and things to celebrate after my poor health the past few years, but life really felt easier when I just stuck things on cards and didn't worry. Now I feel like all I do is worry and it's gonna be another FIFTY ONE months til the debt is gone.

😭😭

MaryGreenhill · 03/07/2025 14:36

Bless you @PearlsPearl.
I know it's really hard to focus on the good, especially when you feel like this is so overwhelming.
Little steps sweetheart, you will get free of this . In the meantime can you talk to your beloveds and get it off your chest because the old saying , a trouble shared is a trouble halved is so true .
You come here and talk about it all you like to us we are all behind you sweetheart 🌹

Frugal25 · 03/07/2025 15:07

I've found talking about money very helpful. To friends, family and of course you lovely people.
I still have months of my two debts left too, I do get it. It's depressing but I then just get excited about counting down the months. In * months I'll have * extra a month. That kind of thing. I try anyway. But it does get me down so I know what you mean about it being "easier" sticking it on credit cards. Being responsible for money is hard as I'm finding out.

Present wise in Lidl, I got two paw patrol clip toys for DD (she saw them, I've had to lie and say then aren't for her!) and then an activity case for DD too. Gift present was a really lovely drawing pad and pen set for a friend's daughter. It's really cute so very pleased. Last week I got two nice boxes of chocolates as gifts, I thought they looked lovely anyway.

Hair was £35 and not £24. She has put her prices up. But still cheaper and I'll cut £11 off my budget elsewhere to stay in the same position.

BigSkies2022 · 03/07/2025 16:12

Hiya pearl. Look, you've sorted your credit cards with the loan and you know the date when that will be paid off. This month you have unavoidable commitments which require money, but you are back at work, and you have money coming in each month, so you can and will chip away at the overdraft/overspending.

You need SYSTEMS, my love, so that you're not relying on willpower and motivation when the desire to spend strikes. And you might benefit from not having an all-or-nothing approach (if you think this is you) - like if you've overspent on one item, sod it, I've cocked up frugality now, might as well go for it before the regret really kicks in. It's (in my experience) very like the dieting yo-yo: oh, god, I've eaten something 'bad', so now my diet plan is spoiled for the whole day/week - I'll just eat the whole packet of biscuits/chocolates/fried cheese sandwich, and I'll gorge all weekend on the sofa, because I'm a pig who doesn't deserve to feel well about myself, and I'll get back on the diet on Monday. Whereas if you just ate the biscuit, shrugged and didn't let it blow up into more, you'd be fine, you'd eat your protein, drink your water, do your steps and your workout and you'd carry on getting fitter.

Have something nice that you can do for yourself when you're craving spending: actually, have five nice things that cost next to nothing - ordering a book from the library, walking to pick it up, a workout and a bath, home mani-pedi, sort through your wardrobe and put some outfits together while listening to a podcast, - whatever it is for you.

And honestly - I cannot emphasise how much a difference this made to me - stop being surprised by your own life. You know you have anniversaries, and birthdays and Christmas and holidays. They are literally in the calendar! Plan ahead in the cash flow/budgeting spreadsheet. Dial down some events so you can spend more freely on others (for years we didn't buy adults in our family any gifts at Christmas, and we still barely do, so we could prioritise children; birthdays are always marked in some way - home-made cake or special meal - but gifts might wait until the finances improve. Obviously this is not the case for kids, but DH and I are adults, and we can cope very well with deferred gratification!)

Surround yourself with a helpful community - this forum, (I hope!), YouTubers, bloggers, podcasters - to support you as you develop your frugal-positive mindset. And just don't give up - you wouldn't counsel your friends/DW/DCs to just give up or berate themselves at a setback, would you? So don't treat yourself worse than you would those you love.

needastrongoneagain · 03/07/2025 16:46

Afternoon.

I really love that expression that @BigSkies2022 mentioned - don't be surprised by your own life. It's so helpful and practical. I sometimes read the threads where folk say they manage really well on £Xxx a month and I wonder if that includes everything, really EVERYTHING that costs money over the course of the year. Because bloody hell, life costs a lot. There's always something that costs it seems.

Don't be sorry @PearlsPearl, we all are here to listen. ❤️

Yesterday was a NSD. But talking of extra costs £90 at the vets for Ddog, who seems to have strained his back leg, or possibly injured his back but is in a lot of pain anyway. He's currently sleeping in his bed at my feet loaded up on pain relief for us to reassess in the morning. Poor love. I've a dog pot for the dog's costs and they are insured but it's an example of life costs for sure.

A tip from the Martin Lewis website that I've utilised today. There's a new savings account he's recommending that's paying 4.5%. It's a one year fixed rate saver. You can withdraw money before that, which is unusual, but you lose interest. Martin Lewis doesn't think it'll be around for long so if you do want to utilise a higher savings rate, act quickly!

The name of the banking appis Marcus and it's a Goldman Sachs account.

OP posts:
needastrongoneagain · 03/07/2025 16:48

Your meal with the Greek salad and air fried chicken sounds lovely @chimichangaz

OP posts:
MaryGreenhill · 03/07/2025 17:20

Thank you @Frugal25those presents sound fab ❤️

MaryGreenhill · 03/07/2025 17:31

Just read all the posts encouraging @Frugal25 and wanted to say you are all so amazing ❤️
@BigSkies2022
@needastrongoneagain
@Frugal25
And @BigSkies2022l hope your poor doggo is better soon bless him ❤️

WhitegreeNcandle · 03/07/2025 18:34

@chimichangaz am copying your meal this weekend, sounds delicious!

@PearlsPearl can you have a bit of a mindset change. If things are that tight and getting you down could the teen not have Colin the caterpillar instead of a cake you order? Will the spa weekend not be enough without a £100 afternoon tea?

chimichangaz · 03/07/2025 19:06

Thanks for the meal love @WhitegreeNcandle and @needastrongoneagain
It really was delicious. I used some Greek gyros seasoning I bought a couple of years ago and haven’t made full use of (one of my food aims is to use herbs and seasoning more!) and the bulgur wheat was surprisingly nice with chopped up cucumber and chopped up roast root veg in it!! In fact I’ve had some more bulgur wheat tonight with my leftover veggie wrap from lunch!! The tzatziki is equally delicious and was a recipe a long time ago from the BBC food website (the printout has lots of tzatziki stains on it as proof I’ve made it often!).

So today I bought coffee and cakes £17 and my friend bought lunch. I bought some new tea towels and an old plant pot from a charity shop £6, a new egg slicer £3.99 and then about £3.50 in Waitrose which was actually very disappointing (good for my purse though!).

Love that saying @BigSkies2022 about not being surprised by your life. I think a few years ago I had my head in the sand pretending that upcoming expenses didn’t exist, and in a way it was much easier (like sticking everything on a credit card!). But now I have an honest budget it feels much better and I am more in control. But it doesn’t happen overnight @PearlsPearl but it will be so worth it when you have paid that debt off (and you will chip away at it I’m sure).

psuedocream3 · 03/07/2025 19:59

@BigSkies2022 I do love a journal, there’s just something about pen and paper that feels different, a bit more intentional, more grounding than digital. That said, Trello’s been brilliant for tracking progress with photos, links and reminders and easy to access from both laptop and phone.

@SockHop I'm really glad that debt was written off. Such a relief, especially in tough circumstances.

@PearlsPearl Totally get the overwhelm, this stuff isn’t easy but you're doing so well by not slipping into old habits. The birthday pot idea is a good call. It will get easier. You’ve got this.

£50 For petrol this month. £56 Ocado shop covering two weeks of dinners for five (two little ones!), including Percy Pigs and a £15 body brush. I used a £30 voucher and caught some flash deals; paid from joint account, so not in my budget.

Post-workout treat: a lovely tiramisu coffee (skimmed milk, diet intact!). DH paid. DS wanted a cupcake, but since they didn’t sell any, we made homemade ones with extra sprinkles.

ChipshopPickledEgg · 04/07/2025 09:38

Does anybody ever have a urge to just buy something - you don't really care what, just 'something'?
You don't know what you want or what you need you just want the endorphin.
I get this urge and it actually makes me feel oddly sad because I get obsessive over it?
Does that make sense?

BigSkies2022 · 04/07/2025 10:39

Chip I’m pretty sure that describes most of us, at least some of the time! How else do bazillion dollar industries persuade us to buy stuff that too often goes unused and ends up in landfill? The reward for the bad day, the reward for the good day, the thing to pep you up, the thing to calm you down… it’s a super-flexible drug, innit?

£44 on petrol.
£18 Sainsburys
then £7 Sainsburys
the £10 Sainsburys (bottle of wine for Dad) - my account
£10 prescription - my account
£35 Amazon order - top ups on family stuff, shower gel, dog chews, cleaning products- while I have free delivery with a prime offer

Will need lots of NSDs this month as once all my planned spends/DDs have gone I have £5 in my personal account! I’ve money set aside in guilt free and travel funds so it’s actually fine. But prolific surveys might be a good option to boost my current account a bit and cover things like the tube travel I know I will be doing.

lunch with DParents today. Waiting to hear from social services- we could be all systems go next week if things go as we hope. 🤞

chimichangaz · 04/07/2025 13:09

ChipshopPickledEgg · 04/07/2025 09:38

Does anybody ever have a urge to just buy something - you don't really care what, just 'something'?
You don't know what you want or what you need you just want the endorphin.
I get this urge and it actually makes me feel oddly sad because I get obsessive over it?
Does that make sense?

I get like this too. I try to deal with it either by distracting myself or more commonly allowing myself to buy something but setting a £10 limit. Then I know I can’t go too mad…..

chimichangaz · 04/07/2025 13:10

@BigSkies2022 fingers crossed for your DParents next week.

MaryGreenhill · 04/07/2025 13:44

Good afternoon everyone 😁Hope everyone is okay ,just been to Costco £85 and filled up the petrol which was 61 pounds. Having a lovely day going home through the back lanes from Chepstow, very pretty ride. Have a good afternoon everyone ☺️

MaryGreenhill · 04/07/2025 13:45

Fingers crossed for you and your DPs re SS next week @BigSkies2022 🤞🤞😊

Frugal25 · 04/07/2025 17:38

£50 on MOT today. That's it. Tempted to call it a NSD as the mot I consider a bill lol.

Good luck @BigSkies2022 thinking of you

Must get on with more vinted and surveys as slightly into overdraft and although it's small now compared to before, I still don't like it. Will crack on with this at the weekend to boost money.

Pigtailsandall · 04/07/2025 21:45

ChipshopPickledEgg · 04/07/2025 09:38

Does anybody ever have a urge to just buy something - you don't really care what, just 'something'?
You don't know what you want or what you need you just want the endorphin.
I get this urge and it actually makes me feel oddly sad because I get obsessive over it?
Does that make sense?

Hello and yes! Absolutely. And usually when I'm a bit down, and just did so this week because of work stress. I ordered glass tupperware containers from the John lewis sale (because microplastics, and our plastic ones are ancient). They came to £19 and were a planned expense. But then I threw in an expensive shower oil at £18.20 because I really wanted a treat for having a tough week.

I justified it because I'd had ns days on Wednesday and Thursday; cycled to work, one day took leftovers for lunch, the other work provided lunch and so I'd been really good during a crappy week. And I did need shower oil. But at £18.20? Not really.

needastrongoneagain · 05/07/2025 07:01

Morning.

Hope things have gone okay re social service @BigSkies2022

Ddog seems a lot better and is desperate for a long walk, so that was £90 of meds very well spent. He will have to wait a day or two before I go on our usual travels though, just to let him fully recover as he's stupid and doesn't know his own limits.

NSD yesterday. Today £20 on a bulk buy of oat milk. That'll be pretty much it for the weekend, unless we pop to the locals sports club for a drink.

I need to menu plan, so I'll be doing that later and posting it.

Have a great weekend folks!

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