1. I didn't pick up a free travel sized tube of Cordosyl toothpaste when I visited the dentist this month. I was too embarrassed to ask, which isn't like me. As I won't be going again for at least 6 months, I missed an opportunity, albeit a small one, as they are great for travel and when you run out. (In all honesty I was a bit distracted at the time and didn't book my next appointment either.)
2. I succumbed to buying a new pair of flip flops in a CS near to the one where I volunteer. The reason I couldn't resist them is that a) they were black and b) they were my favourite brand of flip flops, namely Gandys. They only cost £6 and are brand new. I've mentioned this brand before, as they raise money for orphans in Sri Lanka, after the founders were orphaned themselves in the Boxing Day Tsunami. I've wanted a black pair for a while, so at a bargain price, I'm very happy. Here's a picture.
Frugal Measures and Freebies lately have included the following:
1. I used a £4 off a £30 shop at Tesco voucher on my grocery shop this week. In effect, this just about paid for some small Father's Day gifts for OH, which I hadn't really budgeted for this month.
2. I bought LB's school uniform for next year this week, as I received an offer by email of free postage, which saved me £3.95. I guess this could be considered a Frugal Fail too, as it did take me well over this month's budget. On the other hand, they would have to be bought between now and September and it means I'll be ahead of myself in this respect, if not in a budgetary sense.
In all honesty, she needs to wear one or two of the shirts for the remainder of this school year, as her current ones are now so disgusting that I don't want her to wear them anymore and can't wait to recycle them for rags. In addition, I avoided the rush of parents buying them over the summer holidays, often leading to them being out of stock and I got them quickly without any last minute panic.
4. I got out the remainder of my travel sized Cordosyl toothpaste towards the end of this month, to try to tide me over and avoid spending another £4 over on this month's household budget for a new tube. This didn't actually last me until the end of the month, so I'm now having to use the regular toothpaste that OH and LB use, but it shouldn't cause me any harm for a couple of weeks.
5. I kept to a very strict budget and list for the last grocery shop of the month to try to limit any overspend as much as possible.
6. I used up the last £1.10 of my M&S voucher to buy a cold drink on the way home from the CS the other day, when it was the hottest June day in the UK since 1976 (when I was 10, incidentally). I had to just add 5p cash to pay for it, but at least I used it all up. Talk about penny pinching!
Good idea to get the uniform while you can and even better if you can use the new shirts to tide you over.
ReplyDeleteYou are very aware of where all your spending is going which is half the battle of budgeting.
Yes, I think my budgeting muscles are definitely getting stronger with practice and having a strict budget means no room for non-essentials which is good. It helps to control the amount of 'stuff' re-entering the house.
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