How to have a brilliant time without seeming tight all the time??

BankFree

Thanks Longhotbath, I love crafty things so definitely think taht might be an idea... might even see if the local college runs a course on dress amking as it a skill me n my mates are always saying we wished we had!!

We've also attempted to organise a DVD night for the end of this month, one person chooses a dvd and we go round someones house to watch it, chat eat home made pop corn :-)

We are planning on renting a bigger house (further out so cheaper rent) in May so once we get our own place we can organise lots and lots of things!!! Especially as we are looking for one with a garden so we can have bbqs :-)

Oh and BTW for anyone who reads this there is £10 off a £50 shop at tesco at the mo... and also I found these codes but I don't know if they work:

200 Points when on groceries. Code: XX3W8G Expires: 18th February 2010
200 Points when on groceries. Code: XX8YHK Expires: 18th February 2010
200 Points when on groceries. Code: XX8PD2 Expires: 18th February 2010
If you use all three 200 point codes by February 18th 2010 you will get 400 bonus Clubcard points.
25 Points when spending £1.50 on cheese. Code: GR2BRM Expires: January 2010
25 Points when spending £1.50 on ready meals. Code: Y88T6K Expires: January 2010
25 Points when spending £1.50 on lamb. Code: GR274B Expires: January 2010
25 Points when spending £1.50 on hot drinks. Code: GRWL4D Expires: January 2010
TESCO VOUCHER CODES - FREE DELIVERY
Free Delivery on a £50 Spend. Code: GRRX4F Expires ?

Got them from: tescovouchercodes.blogspot.com/

Hope they work as it is always nice to squeeze some little extras out of big corporations...

Also despite trying to be really tight with shopping budget have nearly finished reading the farm by Richard Benson and feel so sad that I'm trying to get all my meat from the butchers... I don't know if you can still buy direct from farmers, if you can mayeb not in teh Herts/Essex region but if anyone knows of anywhere would love to hear from you :-)

linz

Don't know about the Easyjet prices for when you go to Turkey but it's worth looking on the Pegasus Airlines website aswell - they're the 'Turkish Easyjet' I suppose and i've had decent flight deals with them from Stansted. Worth a try.

ziggles50

Hi BF
this thread is great because i feel the same way and i have a friend who just bought a house and is in the same boat so we generally just go to her house and cook and eat there with our fave cheapo wine.:beer: Even if it is just the 2 of us.
people can be quite clueless at these things. i have managed to do this frugal thing and go out at the same time by-
catching the bus into town then taxi back- if you have buses nearby and aren't too dresed up for it!
having a set going home time despite any protests (you know the time- money's almost all gone and you're tired anyway?). Prevents overspend and gives you a chance of coming home with change...and not being rat-a!!ed. I had a date las.t night and met at 9p.m (had a wee drop of dutch courage before) then said i had to be home before witching hour to wake up for 'stuff' today.
A coffee night too (we had a starbucks that was open til 9pm) can drive there straight after work have coffee maybe a cake and still go home to supper:cool:
And be strong against all the moaning about not drinking, coming out or home-based fun.

good luck!

longhotbath

Oh - and dont do what Ive done when living in London - got tiddly BEFORE we went out to save money. We all got in ratty moods and didnt enjoy ourselves!

BankFree

My budgeting has gone terribly wrong this week and so far I have had not a single no spend day :-( and went crazy Monday and spent £7 on fish and chips (which were horrible and made me feel like I had eaten a whole tub of lard!!)

BUT today I discovered Aldi. Seen the ads on tele and thought I would go and check it out. Due to just reading 'the farm' by richard benson I am also being very pro-british produce so entered Aldi thinking, 'oh it's gonna be cheap and be imported from some poor third world country.' How wrong was I???? LOADS of British produce and I got a bag of carrots for 29p (Im going to make carrot and coriander soup, a recipe my sister is giving me from come dine with me and have it everyday next week with 6 rolls I got for 35p... lunch for under 50p!!!) Even the meat in Aldi is British AND cheaper than Tescos!!! (streaky bacon £1.29 normally but because it was going out of date on the 25th got it for 59p!!!)

Sorry waaayyy too many exclamation marks but it just really surprised me that I had never considered it before. Feeling full of money saving esteem I came home and have now applied to move my account to Alliance and Leicester to (hopefully) get the 0% overdraft for a year and the 0% credit card with NO transfer fees!!! (Fingers crossed, I don't really know what my credit score is like, have tried using experian but you need a degree to work out what your credit score is and if there is any bad bits on it!)

Thanks for the tip on Pegasus airlines... have checked them out and they do well cheap flights :-)

Also our friendship group has started a DVD club set for Sat night so Ill keep you posted on how it goes... hopefully everyone will love it and not want to go to the pub halfway through, have to wait and see!!!

Have got to the end of our second sack of farm brought potatoes (£5 for 25kg) and feel very satisfied that each time weve eaten a potato it has cost less than 5p :-) we are also sharing it with our next door neighbours as we would never get through them all alone :-)

I am determined to sit down tomorrow and work out my budget etc and set myself a debt-free target... watch this space!

BankFree

Looking back this week has just been complete and utter !!!!!!!!!! Not only have I spent everyday at work since last Monday, now on on day 11 :-( because I left all my PGCE work till the last minute and it was due on Monday, but ever since then I have just been either spending money or eating, or both!!!

But today is the turn around point... no more moaning I have just done my predicted Debt Free Day, the dya when I will owe no sodding bank any money and I can go back to my nana's good ole days and just hide money under my mattress, be able to breath after opening my bank statement online... the day seems like forever away but it is May 2012!!!

This sounds ages compared to other people!! But it's also realistic, and it will mean paying off all of my £9000 debt!!!

Well worth celebrating if you ask me!!! I haven't included any money making extras i.e. overtime, selling stuff on ebay, winning the lottery, so hopefully it may be even sooner :-)

The other reason it is going to take so long is that hubby and me are still trying to save a deposit for a mortgage so while all this debt paying is going on from May this year well be saving £500 a month... which means when my debts are paid off we should also have £12000 for a deposit on a house/shed/ tent ... depending on what happens with the property market!

Also I achieve my PGCE in July so am free to immediately look for a job that may earn more money... more hassle too, but worth it I'm sure!! After teaching at a specialist college not sure I could handle mainstream but it must be equally rewarding/frustrating...

Plan on getting to work early (not late like everyday so far this week!!) and actually getting some work done so next week I will feel all ready to tackle anything including the next 2 Saturday overtime shifts I have signed up for!!

BankFree

I am sitting here trying to remember the last time I got really excited about a pay day. I'm sure it must have happened in the hazy mists of time long ago, before credit cards and loans loomed...

Thats enough of being miserable unfortunately it doesn't help kill debts!! I'm ridiculously excited about my debt free date (May 2012) and the best part will eb going into a bank, showing them a cheque worth (hopefully) £12000 and telling them to go !!!! themselves!!! I swear here and now I will close all fo my mainstream bank accounts and just go with the local building society (or keep money in my sock drawer!!)

So have done quite well this month so was feeling all smug on Sunday (managed to save £80)... until I found some funny thread coming from one of bald tires... unfortunately my little car Rusty (£195) has been unable to ignore the neglect any longer and has limped to the garage and found 2 new tires. It has also revelaed it's naughty rust spots (£90-150 of welding) and as a result has been denied the service it is so desperately crying out for, sorry Rusty.

Normally I would bin any old banger once it cost over £200 to fix but unfortunately I have kinda fallen in love with the rust bucket that is (or was) a ford fiesta, so have vowed to stand by it through an MOT in February.

After my last car departed last year I vowed to cycle to work (5 miles) but unfortunately my little Norfolk body is apparently unequipped to deal with the hills of Hertfordshire so the whole 4 month experience involved lots of swearing, crying and anger (bike nearly ended up abandoned in a field.) Despite this, probably thanks to teh sunshine today, I have decided I miss cycling and will start again soon which means I will be saving approx £2 of petrol a day, and be killing myself in the process.

I admire everyone who has been dieting/excercising etc since Jan, so despite having no desire to be fit or healthy, the money saving is a carrot and it means should Rusty be terminal, at least I have come to terms with it.

I will start cycling next week so will keep you updated on how close I come to death as my body slides into a too much drink and fags not enough excercise coma at the pure thought of cycling.

On the plus side I am going to dedicate some time to earning more cashback through Quidco and have my first payment coming on Friday £57 Woohoo!!! I have also entered lots of competitions so fingers crossed!! Also went to local pub on Friday (only spent £7 on a bottle of wine and £1 to do the quiz) and our group (9) won 3 bottles of wine :-) I ended up with 2 so am classing that as a profit!

Also used Aldi carrots to make carrot soup, ended up like baby food but am determined to finish it this week. Luckily they are doing celery for 29p this week and I live celery soup so am gonna make tons on Thursday. My friend at work ahs also told me Sainsburys are giving out free tupperware and gave me one :-) So all in all a good money saving week (if you ignore the Rusty crisis!) so far....

dalleDF

You will be so fit and healthy with all that cycling that it will cancel out the fags and booze, surely?
Good work on the pub quiz. Fingers crossed for the Rustbucket!

chops22

Ha the quizz night "proffit wine" really made me laugh.....I am off to subscribe to your thread

carlaf_2

How about doing mystery shopping in eateries? You can normally take a friend along and once you get into it, take a party of up to 4.