I know what you mean about lending money from parents but my parents gave me an interest free loan over 5 years instead of me getting a bank loan.
I just set up a standing order and pay them an agreed amount per month and they are happy that they are helping me out. We have a written agreement that if anything should happen to them the balance owing is deducted from my share of any inheritance money.
As long as you can keep moving the balance to a 0% credit card or pay if off before the term expires you will at least avoid any interest but do you have to pay a fee to move it to the 0% card ?

OH's car is definitely a right off but the good news is that it has been valued higher than we thought it would so we will not need to borrow as much. Yes there will be a fee Skint yet again but I think it will be as little as 0.85% with MBNA so not a great deal.
Our transfer with Scottish Power has gone through so now we have to wait and see whether Npower will charge us £40 exit fees for leaving them in the last week before our fixed period expires and also how quickly they will return the £414 that they took from us last week on direct debit, which was their calculation they did based on incorrect readings even though they later told us that we were actually in credit with them!!
Feeling pleased that DD has been asked to work on Saturday. The more she earns the less chance she will want me to pay for things!

0.85% That's not too bad is it . Good luck with Npower hope they sort things quickly for you

I'm really sorry to hear about the car problems. I hope things start to look up soon for you.

I hope the spate of bad luck will be over for you soon, Maiden.

Re. the car. What are you thinking about getting? I'd be careful buying a new car on finance as they depreciate in value so quickly.

Bad luck about the car accident. Hope it gets sorted out, and your new-ish car comes soon
I'd pop over to the old style board, and have a look at the meal planning threads. Sounds like your teenage boys are snacking quite a lot, and I agree with Alex, if they want junk, let them buy it.

There are recipe finders online where you plug in what you have, and they suggest meals.
I'd probably start making quite a few rissottos with the turkey/meats, Rice is gluten free, rissotto is filling, one onion, four handfuls of rice, a stock cube, handful of peas, chopped up turkey and a bit of cheese, one pot wonder too You don't have to use arborio rice, you could make it like a paella.
What are your store cupboard basics like?

The car will be a few years old Alex, not brand new. I'm not really sure what it will be but I do know it will be something small & cheap! I want one that my daughter can perhaps learn in or get insured on at some point so I want it to be small and we tend to use my car to go out in as a couple or family, Neither my husband or I have any interest in cars really, we just view them as something to get from A to B in.

Thanks for commenting Taff. I've often wanted to use a website such as you describe but do not know the name of any. I love the Old Style board but it still doesn't seem to help me reduce the food bill unfortunately although I will be trying to use up my supplies in the freezer and cupboards! I have also never made a risotto and it has been on my list of things to make for ages so thank you for the reminder of that!

Looks like we will get £1,100 for Oh's car which is actually more than we thought we would so once that is sorted we will go car hunting as he only gets to keep the courtesy car for 1 week after we have received the money. Just renewed my car tax - £270!
The weekend was fairly cheap considering that OH got paid on Friday - £10.20 on lunch out for my son & I after we had bee to a local college Open Day to explore what he will do after his GCSEs & £7 for one drink each for OH & me in the pub Saturday night. Quite good but I am aware that it will be a 5 week month so some caution is needed!

I've just been adding up my spends for February & they are still rather scary! From 26.01.17 to 25.02.17 I spent £652 on food or £600 exactly for the actual month of February.
We also spent £188 on petrol & £44 on clothes (£27 me, £10 for DD & £7 for OH)

Oh & £187.70 on drinks and meals out!
If I could only get those food spends down!

Hi MM do you meal plan ? How about planning a week of meals from your freezer / stores and just buying basics like milk. One week out of 5 should go some ways towards reduce your shopping bill.

Yes Skintyetagain I really do struggle with meal planning but I should definitely keep trying, although in my defence we never get a takeaway if I get home from work and don't know what we are having for dinner - I would then just make something like tuna pasta.
Food for Feb was actually slightly less at £589.57 as I had included a Mother's day card and some socks in that previous amount.

I'm feeling grumpy & miserable tonight with tooth ache. I had a dentist appointment Monday where I thought I would need root canal treatment for which was going to cost £233. Anyway dentist then said she didn't think I did need it and instead just gave me a large filling at a cost of £53. Since then however, I have been in a lot of pain and the nerve definitely feels exposed so I have another appointment booked for Friday at 9am. Really not looking forward to it as I guess they will have to get rid of the new, big filling to be able to get to the root. That makes me feel really anxious and also cost wise I guess I am now going to have to pay the £233 on top of what I have already paid. My cheeky DS said he doesn't know why I don't just have the tooth out "as it is not as though it matters at my age"!

Still no news about OH's car so still using the courtesy car & still no letter from Npower with a cheque for a refund on the large credit that the account closed on!
I find that although OH & I have both been paid, I cannot do a budget by deducting all expenses as they all come out in dribs and drabs throughout the month as does the money that goes into the account to a certain extent.

Still nothing from Npower so I spoke to someone on line to enquire where my refund was only to be told it can take 30-45 to be sent! What a joke! I raised a complaint but I bet it doesn't make any difference. I need that money returned so that we can pay the CC which we paid for OH's clutch on.

I wanted to update my freezer list as some things have been used and some things have been added & I'll loose track if I don't update it. So..

11 raw chicken breasts (2,2,2 & 3)
Raw mince - enough for 2 people x 2
Large bag of prawns
50 mini sausage rolls
3 packets of bacon
1/2 bag of oven chips
Full bag of potato wedges
12 chipolata sausages
7 small salmon fillets
2 bags of cooked beef (2 portions in a bag)
2 bags of cooked chicken (2 portions in a bag)
2 bags of cooked lamb (2 portions in a bag)
6 bags of cooked gammon (2 portions in a bag)
2 bags of cooked turkey (2 portions in a bag)
A bag of garlic mushrooms
4 breaded haddock fillets
3/4 box of normal fish-fingers
1 box of g/free fried mi chicken fillets
Garlic dough balls
2 g/free burger buns
4 normal burger buns
G.free wraps
G/free pains au chocolate
Vegetable casserole / curry - 1 lot of at least 2 portions each
3 unidentified bags!
1/2 bag of quorn chicken pieces
2 & 1/2 bags of peas
1 box of hot chill - 2 portions
4 Aberdeen steak burgers
20 meat balls
1 G/free cod haddock

Got to keep on persevering with using up what we have!

Still nothing from Npower, still nothing about OH's insurance claim & still have tooth ache!

Had a fairly cheap weekend, that's two on the trot but just paid out £80 for new glasses for my DD. Just need to get some for myself some day soon!

I've been pondering about paying £150- £200 off my mortgage balance this month but think I will wait a week or so in case any nasty surprises happen!

(20 meat balls used up.)

Well still no progress on the car front so OH still using the courtesy car! I am beginning to think the other party want actually insured but his insurance company seem happy for him to continue using the courtesy car so not a real issue I guess!
Transfer to Scottish Power has gone through and refund received from Npower so all good there! Tooth ache has also gone and never actually needed the root canal treatment in the end - I just had an ulcer and lots of bruising.
Never paid anything off the mortgage in the end which is just as well as had forgotten that we needed to pay annual cricket subs, plus our dog has had kennel cough so we had vets fees as well and Sunday we have a big family meal to pay for as part of Mother's day celebration.
It has seemed like a long month however and I will be glad when pay day next Friday finally comes round. OH & I haven't been out much although I did have a nice pizza last Friday night with DD in a local pub which was nice although not particularly cheap.
Oh just remembered also why money is a bit tight this month - we have paid for a couple nights away in a cottage in Whitby at Easter. Sooo looking forward to that!

Well March ended with being about £100 overdrawn which was not great. £569 spent on food from 28 Feb to 31st March or £536 just for March. Still way too much I know & I will try to do better this month. Eating out costs came to £102 which wasnt actually too bad as this included a rather rare spend by OH with his two sons and also a big family meal for Mother's day. Spends on clothes were £95, £60 of which was on DS & £35 for me. Petrol for me was £96 and I'm not sure about OH, probably £100 or so.

I have put £300 away into savings already for this month but will have to see whether that is even possible or maybe I will be able to add to it. Depends partly on how much we spend when we go away for a couple of nights. But starting the month £100 overdrawn, plus a couple of annual things to pay for this month leaves me unsure really!

OH's car has just been sorted out so he has to return the courtesy car this weekend and is now in the process of buying a little Citroen.

DD is just about to start a part-time job which is great as it will give her some money although it will also affect me in terms of petrol and also my sleep as I will have to pick her up really late some nights.

Never paid anything off the mortgage last month after all. Still want a holiday and so still undecided about the holiday / new kitchen / reducing the mortgage debate! Just wish I had the money to do all three at once!

Well it's been a while! April did turn out to be a very expensive month and I don't think any saving got done. A shocking amount of £692 got spent on food, plus a whopping £270 on eating and drinking out, £65 on clothes, all for me and £135 on petrol for me (don't know about OH). I can't quite believe the horrible amounts on food & drink, in and out - a total of £962!!! This is partly due to going away for two nights so buying food and drink for lunch and dinner for four people for three days, a couple of work events and an unexpected family lunch with my DB and his wife. My petrol also went up due to the 2 days away plus taking and picking up DD from her job. Also, from now until mid September are always manically busy months for us all and I guess more convenience food gets eaten. I have also eaten a few home made meals from the freezer which were so lovely to be able to do on busy nights but they have all gone now so I need to try and find the time to make some more.
May so far is not going any better I feel but I will update once I have added up my receipts.
I haven't actually put anything away into savings so far this month. I know you are supposed to do this at the beginning of the month and then live to your means on what's left for the rest of the month but I forgot at the beginning of the month and as we are now half way through I'm tempted to just carry on for the rest of it and see what is actually left. We haven't eaten out at all this month I don't think apart from a £3.50 spend on a McDonalds so hopefully there will be a few hundred left!
Got to supply our new energy supplier with a reading which I feel a bit nervous about in case it turns out that in reality they aren't actually any cheaper than our previous supplier!
Right off to add up my spends so far for this month and also to catch up on some other posts as I haven't been on here for a while.

OK so just added up food spends for May so far & they come to £333.29 & clothes (for me, well shoes actually) are £28. Not sure about petrol yet.

Hi Maiden Mum, I've just been scanning through your thread, and I can see that you're really hurting with the grocery spends. I'm "quoting" this list from page 1, its the first time you put your Use Up freezer list onto the thread, and what I notice is how many branded foods are in there, rather than supermarket own. Even herbs! And oats really don't need to be from the Free From section - you can just buy ordinary oats.

I've seen a rec. for you to go to Old Style on here to do some research? I'd really recommend that. And the other posters are right in that snacks are always going to be way more expensive than meals; batch cooking?

Good luck!