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.

Ouchy on the tooth need
and on the compensation. Very vexing when you don’t get what you signed up for

yeah on the benign mole frugal

Verrry hot today. I took a half-day this morning, to take DCat1 to the vet. He's been diagnosed with early kidney disease, so he's had ongoing vet visits over the past six months or so. He was due to have a procedure on his eye, but then they reckoned it probably wouldn't be a success, so they didn't go ahead with it. It might have done more harm than good. I've signed up to the clinic's treatment plan of €25 a month payment, which entails free visits and vaccinations. I also get a discount on flea and worm treatments. DCat2 is pretty healthy (touch wood) so I haven't signed her up.

Managed to mow my lawn.

Need to sort out my alarm. One of my alarm sensors needs a battery change, so I need to unscrew the panel. They posted me out the battery, but I had to buy a small screwdriver set, to open the panel. My smallest (normal) screwdriver was too big.

I've my nephew's wife's 30th birthday party coming up on Friday night. DD and I will go halves on her present (voucher for a spa treatment place she likes). Guess I'll buy a few drinks on the night also - DD has offered to drive.

I also need to pay for accommodation for my niece's wedding (the wedding is in Portugal). I messaged her to check how much it is and if she has Revolut.

Happy birthday to your DD2 @MaryGreenhill
Brilliant news @Frugal25
I hope you had left the radiators out for the scrapman @Rainbow1901 and they didn't just take them!
Ouch indeed on the tooth @BigSkies2022

Edited to add hope your cat is ok @Taytocrisps

Well I have finished updating my finances for the back end of July and to date in August and I am shocked (horrified really) at how much thoughtless spending I have done which has really added up. I think I was overcompensating for a few days where I felt sad/emotional and the fact that my pension still isn't sorted - plus, because I hadn't kept up to date on updating my spending against budget I thought I had way more than I did. Just goes to show that what you measure keeps your focus!

So I am going to be much more focussed going forward - I've set up spaces in Starling and pots in Monzo but I'm not sure how these will work in practice as I think I need to move money out of them if I want to spend it - rather than just swiping my card (I use these to allocate money for groceries/petrol and personal spending).

Hey ho. At least I didn't get any further with the spending 😂

Edited to also add that I've also got a parking ticket today for being 'not wholly parked within the bay' - cross about that!

£790 for car repairs, cheeper than we were expecting.
£75 for chicken pox vaccine.

Aw thank you @needastrongoneagain( & yay for the Plusnet comp )😁 for Dd2 birthday wishes , she's gone to Bath to the Thermal Spa and is having a massage and afternoon tea bless her with her own Mr Darcy ❤️
Thank you @chimichangaz for Dd2 birthday wishes😁
So sorry you have a parking ticket just typical 😔
£30 today for an 18th birthday present and that's it l hope 😁

Ouchy on the tooth coming out. I hope they feel better very soon. @needastrongoneagain
So glad your cat has you looking after it @Taytocrisps
£10.85 on a swimming session today for next week, and £30 for nephews birthday. I've over spent this month (becoming a habit so need it nip that in the bud) so being careful for the next few days until pay day. All doable though.

Parking tickets for minor infringements with no victims are so annoying. I have had similar penalties rescinded by appealing via a very polite and reasonable letter- had to take account of other cars and how they were parked, completely empty parking lot and no-one prevented from parking as a consequence (both true in these instances). All very much in the tone’I hope you can consider my request to review the penalty…’ Worth a try?

£35 in Waitrose - good deals on salmon and haddock, good freezer fillers. Started the day with a garage clear out and cleaning all the cobwebs and accumulated grot so that DS could do the woodworm treatment. A job overdue. Now have a relatively clean and pest-free garage so can organise it again. Prolonged errands for Olds - six hour’s ferrying, waiting, hospital, pharmacy, shop, visiting,Ddad, organising meds and catheters. Home to ravenous dog, who seems to have decided not to eat unless fed by me.

Sweaty weights workout and protein shake. (Now getting a kilo every 2 months for £21- good deal? Rubbish deal?) Dropped DS at football practice. Now waiting for salmon to cook and plan to watch The Durrells (again!) tonight. Could use a jolly family tale - mine recently has been a catalogue of stressful fights with bureaucrats, interspersed with periods of agonising inaction. Every week I think this will be the end of it. Oh well, we’ll get there!

Boooo to the parking ticket @chimichangaz so rubbish.

£25 on 4 Etsy birthday cards. I've always got lovely personalised ones but I'm thinking maybe I should stop and go cheaper? I don't know, I want to save money but then I want to do what I've always done! Probably just gets looked at once and chucked in the recycling anyway. In fact that's me convinced, I'll stop getting the fancy ones and just get some normal ones.

Happy birthday to your DD2 @MaryGreenhill
So pleased on your mole results @Frugal25
Your cat sounds lovely @Taytocrisps and we'll looked after
Boo on the parking ticket @chimichangaz I paid one a few months back for being parked in a bus stop (it's outside DDs school and normally I avoid the whole area but was dropping her off after a dentist appointment). After I paid someone told me they should have been warning signs up and on checking there is not! Its very annoying

Been packing all day in the heat 🥵 spends have been
£27.18 Lidl
£28.67 Amazon
£3.60 co-op.

Will likely not post now until we come back from holiday (leave first thing Friday) but I'll be trying to stick to budget!

Thanks all - I think I will
appeal it, I just groaned today as I didn’t have the energy to fight yet another battle (as well as the pension one!). @BigSkies2022 that sounds like a plan - and I was definitely not affecting anyone else as the space next to me had a barrier in it. The other side of me had parked fairly close to the line so I took a bit of extra space. This parking area has a lot of trigger happy wardens - the local Facebook group has had lots of people this has happened to!!

@PearlsPearl - whistlefish have lovely cards and you can often (always?) get a great selection for £1 each. I’ve bought a whole load the last couple of years and it also makes me feel super organised!! And you’re right - they go in the bin after a week or so. Save your money for something else rather than the expensive ones I’d say (I do still buy a special card for my DS birthday but these are great for everyone else).

Back from speedy holidays. So back on it

@PearlsPearl your cards sound lovely. I've gone very cheap lately and getting all mine from lidl although I think I've exhausted the selection now so may check out this whistle fish myself.
@chimichangaz my DM was caught by a parking ticket much like yours. She was parked at an angel but within the white lines of a space so she didn't hit a load of trolleys parked in the space. She didn't appeal although I think she should have.
@BigSkies2022 your dog sounds adorable!!!

£89 in lidl today. Bought a hell of a lot for that though.
£7 for play group.
£11.25 for entrance for myself and DD to an animal sanctuary for an afternoon out. Was lovely.

And DD broke a glass. So that's a bench, measuring spoons and now a glass that others have broken for me and I have to replace.

On the plus side OH sold two watches and gave me the money he got for them which means I can do so. Phew.
Should be a NSD tomorrow and Saturday. Fingers crossed.

That’s your three things then
its a bit harsh ticketing for a wonky in a bay.
I like whistle fish cards. There is often a deal on as well.

Spendy day today 🙄
£130 for Dd2 for MJ so she can get a spare vial in because it's going up so much in September and at least she will have enough supply in to weather the initial price storm .
I envisage a lot of ppl will have to stop buying it unfortunately.
£66 Aldi
£14 Asda
£66 petrol
£26 Waitrose
Thank you @Mochi1fudge
She had a wonderful day 😁
Have a brilliant holiday ☺️

Unfortunately I think they will! I might be able to afford it short term but I certainly won't be keeping it for much longer. Breaks my heart to be honest.
I only have 60 calories left for today honestly feel like I best go to Bed so I don't eat the Haribo I am eyeing up.

I am so sorry @ChipshopPickledEgg🤗
My Dd2 is distraught , her whole life has changed so much for the better since starting MJ .

Today I’ve spent £1.50 on rawlplugs as my son was helping me put up some shelves. He’d already bought two packs which he refused to let me pay for but unfortunately they weren’t quite right. I also booked a speciality restaurant for an upcoming cruise (October) which was on sale so that was £25.

I’ve downloaded all my YNAB transactions from last year so I can have a look at where my trapdoors are….bit scared to look 🤣🤣

But I’ve decided to eat from the freezer for the next few days so that’s led to two inventive meals - tonight’s was yummy. Cooked chicken tossed in chipotle paste and fried, warmed a flatbread and spread some soft cheese in it, added salad, the chicken and some garlic mayo. 👌🏻

I've had a big cry tonight, I am worried sick about it and really feel panicked.

Mounjaro has changed my life, I planned to be on it for two years as I had 50% of my body weight to lose- 11 stone.

I cannot afford a 50% price hike. I can barely justify it as it is. From £130ish to £260ish. It's completely out of my ability.

@PearlsPearl try not to get too upset sweetheart.
I know that's easier said than done bless you .Honestly no one knows what is going to happen yet . If you think about it the companies won't want to lose all the customers they have so l think it won't be as bad as we first fear . My Dd2 and l have been reading up on it all and apparently Oxempic and Wegovy are much cheaper and owned by Novo Nordisk a Dutch company and they aren't American like MJ .
I know Wegovy isn't as successful as MJ but it's still excellent . In trials 84% lost 5% of their weight whereas MJ users lost 96% lost 5% .
So hang in there ❤️🤗

My Dd2 is considering changing to Wegovy in case MJ is too expensive 🫰

I haven’t read the Mounjaro news item yet - a big price hike affecting those users who have been self-funding? But Pearls, with such a challenging target weight loss, would you qualify for NHS support? And bloody well done for your weight loss to date. Am I being hopelessly naive here? And for those who have less to lose and therefore don’t qualify for the prescription, can you start to reduce by small increments and lean progressively towards the healthier nutrition habits that the WLI have been helping you to develop? I hope people find a way through it- I will read the coverage now.

£20 on lunch with friend, tea and cinnamon buns for DS and DH today. £8 on parking. Then £16 on a bottle of very nice Muscadet because the stress with DParents situation doesn’t end, and I did the workout and walked the dog and did all the chores and still wanted to decompress with a cold glass. These expenses, plus 2 more that are normal scheduled ones, will take me £4 into overdraft. I can get back into balance with survey earnings, but I am ludicrously tight on cash flow this month. Bloody laptop!

As for being adorable- well yes, if being a needy great melt is adorable then Ddog absolutely is! Same thing today: I was out all day, Ddog refused all food until I got home, by which point he was beside himself with hunger.

Thank you both so much. Fortunately I have no health conditions (how, when I've weighed 22 stone I have no idea how I've been so lucky) which unfortunately means I can't get it on the NHS.

I am nearly 50% of the way to my target, there's that at least.

These price hikes are happening everywhere - it's so harsh on everyone no matter what you are buying. I did spend on Tuesday when I took NDN shopping - she can't drive while she is waiting for a cataracts operation so is relying on friends to help with lifts to the stables, doing a big shop when I can take her or walking her dogs to the Spar for a loaf when she has run short. But I can't remember what I spent but it was a lot less than my NDN!! She spoils her pets something rotten 🤔
@chimichangaz The radiators were left at the top of the drive which in our area means it's okay to go. New radiators have now been ordered and we trying to finish off the paintwork in between having the GCs. DH has been busy prepping or at least scraping off old paint off glass doors, removed a door which will need painting. Bi-fold doors in the porch and the door need painting too but all the skirting boards have been done. This is the smallest area but has the most doors that need painting!! We have some laminate flooring left from another job which DH will lay in the cupboard to tidy things up so effectively no cost there. We do have paint ordered last year to refresh our PVC front door - but we just never got around to doing - so that to do too when it's not raining or windy. So that's a no spend too! We are just too slow to get on with things when working around GCs or more likely enjoying a chill day when there are no children around!! 😆
£3 from Vinted - so money in for a change!

Ah @Rainbow1901 phew!! I remember when I was having a new boiler and the engineer left his Henry hoover on the drive while he was working. It was whisked away by a charity van (I’d left a bag of stuff out for them)!! I managed to track the charity down and an embarrassed driver returned it!!

I have a few DIY jobs I’ve been putting off that I’ve done in the last few days - quite cathartic!!!

Planning on a nsd today, DH is doing grocery shop though so household is spending