Frugal Friends Fearlessly Facing February.

[needastrongoneagain]

Thought I'd start the new thread. Been ages since I started a thread!

Hope you all find me!

Exciting talk re France. It's not a country I've visited in many years (my heart seems to lie in Scotland and Italy), but Brittany sounds lovely. Not sure we will get away this year but I'm saving a bit just in case.

Awful to hear that folk who really shouldn't have to struggle (not that anyone should) are doing so.

Fingers crossed re your DH's job @marthasmum and the extra income.

Sorry about the long week at work @Taytocrisps

I'm the same @Unescorted, it's another reason we don't eat out regularly, the quality/cost ratio doesn't seem worth it.

Just a few additional spends this week related to DH that I hadn't expected getting close to payday. I'll very slightly over the monthly budget I've set myself as a target to live within (my wage, not DH's). But not bad at all. They were things the hospital suggested to help at home that don't fall within those supplied by the trust.

Big spend last night on expenses as it was our postponed Christmas do, but that'll be back into my account Monday. I drove, so no additional spends and actually the curry we had was absolutely lovely.

Menu plan

F - fennel and lemon risotto
S - veggie chilli from the freezer
S - sweet potato , ginger and coconut stew from last night with jacket potatoes and broccoli
M - aubergine parmigiana or aubergine lasagna depending on mood.
T - parsnip, leek and white bean crumble
W - potato pepper and broccoli frittata
T - probably leftovers from the above or I'll make soup to use up.

I've also made broccoli and Stilton soup and carrot and coriander soup for lunches. I'm in a lot more over the weekends now, so might as well be useful. The Stilton was from Christmas.

Spends today will be £25 accessible taxi.

I found you need. Thanks for the thread.

Thank you for the new thread need

Spendy day yesterday as I paid the balance for our holiday at Easter, budgeted for though.

Hope everyone has a lovely day, hope you made it to the pool eventually em

Thanks need

gym this morning and then I might look in the furniture chazza as I want a side board for an alcove,

you are doing amazing keeping in budget need and hope the team had a good night.

hope you made the pool em and that starter looks lovely

Thanks for the new thread Need.

Can I join? Am single mum with DS (10) would be alright financially if it weren't for having to run a car for work and money pit house. Just had the roof repaired again and holding my breath if its going to work this time- had water running down the wall 24 hours after repair finished which isn't a great sign.
I am inspired by the white bean crumble needastrongoneagain I am going to try that.

Starpatch all welcome here we're a friendly bunch! Fingers crossed for a successful repair this time

Cheers @life. Bit easier when you're kind of stuck in the house anyway! 🙃

Very welcome @starpatch, we are a friendly bunch. Hope the repair works. The recipe is from an Anna Jones book - One Pot, Pan, Planet which I think is available from the library too.

Thanks for new thread, need. Nice to think February is almost here (although my financial month doesn't start until the 7th, so I've more January to go, IYSWIM).

Spends yesterday - £5.40 on a big chicken and a bag of carrots - roast today, stir-fry tomorrow, stew Tuesday. Fares to north London to see the Wife of Willesden at the Kiln, booked aeons ago, cancelled twice, once for Covid, once for flooding. Haven't been there for decades, when it was still the Tricycle theatre. Brilliant night, and still home for 10pm, oven chips and Chuck D's hop -hop documentary. Then bed with the newspaper. Bloody love getting old.

Lots of love for Brittany here too, - have had some very happy times in Dinard and along that coast in particular.

Hi, dropped off the last thread a bit but here again.

Welcome @starpatch lovely to meet new people!

Want to have a bit of a grumble. I work for a small business and one lovely lady is retiring soon. I’ve been hopeful that when this happens I might get some more hours. Well, what with the whole COL thing, another colleague going back up to her pre mat leave hours, there’s no more hours for me. However, when anyone is on annual leave I get as many of their hours as I can do. So while I’ve no more contracted hours, on average over the year I’ll be getting an extra 2 hours a week, if that makes sense. I mean it’s not guaranteed, if things get worse the bosses could decide to cover the shifts themselves I guess to save money. But I appreciate they’re trying to protect the business and our jobs at the end of the day. And a bonus is I won’t be working weekends at all, unheard of in retail. And there’s the NMW increase. Got to think of the positives.

Right, grumble over. Today is NSD, pottering round the house, making cottage pie for dinner and staying in the warm.

Curls am I remembering right, you are in London quite near me, I think. Early years? Tough times for small businesses, for sure, but I hope You keep your hours.

we couldn’t live on one salary Need, I’m really impressed you’re keeping it up so well. Maybe this year will be hard to get away but I hope those opportunities come back x I also agree about takeaway /eating out, we don’t often do it, and whn we do we tend to go for Asian food (Korean, Thai / Japanese are favourites) which are harder to do really well at home.

hi Star, money pit here too. We just spent £700 on fixing a leak in a conservatory that is shortly to be pulled down (can’t leave it because of electrics in the vicinity) and it is STILL LEAKING. I am so cross about it 😬

thanks for all the Brittany love. I wasn’t all that excited about it, being so focussed on what will work for the Dc, especially DS actually I really wanted to go to the western isles of Scotland but now we’ve booked I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t been to France for years and years, I really need to brush up on the little French I can remember!

Weekly shop this week was £115, not too bad, just to top up on berries (not seasonal but ds, asd, really loves them. And £10 on button batteries as my stocks are low and my kitchen scale eats them.

wiLl be £££ later as I’m doing my tax return and defo owe money 😭

Thanks for the new thread need. Welcome starpatch.

Well I've been totally AWOL for I can't even remember how long. I've been keeping up with the thread and enjoying reading all your updates but I just haven't fancied posting for some reason over Christmas and into the new year. Sorry about that!

Anyway I'm back. We actually managed fine over Christmas (stayed in budget which is a first, in fact in previous years barely had a budget and struggled) and have had a relatively frugal start to the year. We are trying to save to redo our kitchen floor in March/April so trying to funnel any spare money into the pot for that. So just been working and doing free things like dog walks in the woods. Miraculously 3yo DS has started actually wanting to do dog walks, a game changer as previously he wouldn't, he would insist on being carried and have tantrums. So it's great being able to entertain him for free with a dog walk and it tires him out too (he seems to have relentless energy at the moment). Fingers crossed it stays that way.

I'm trying very hard to only buy essentials for a couple of months. Had to buy new work shoes and walking trainers the other day as both of them totally wore out (sole fell off my trainers!) but went for cheapie Sainsbury's ones instead of the usual brands. So £14 for each pair compared to about £40. Slipped up and ordered a jumper online but returned it and put the £30 into the flooring savings instead! Pleased with that and that's the sort of little boosts we need.

I'll try not to fall off the thread again! But I'm always here reading if not replying.

Thanks for the new thread I dropped off the last one been so busy working and sorting dm insurance claim for the flood she had 6 weeks ago and think I’ve got a touch of the January blues now ds birthday is over but trying to snap out of it

welcome starpatch

Welcome star and don’t worry about not posting soc, loads of us dip in and out

@HalfWomanHalfChocolate I think you’ve got me mixed up with someone else. I’m in the midlands and work in a shoe shop!

Welcome star

socathe & Alfie I am the worst for falling off. One time I vanished for over a year. I kept reading but not posting. I think I got to the point of boring myself.

Boo for poor roofing workmanship. I leave my PPE in a conspicuous place when I have people in to do work. It is doubly annoying that if they think they will be pulled up on the work / they think I will put a good word in they do a good job. Yet if I presented as Mrs Unremarkable Unescorted they would do a Bodgit & Scarper job.

Hi everyone,

As mentioned previously, I really need an emergency/appliance budget. So I sat down today and calculated my income (salary + child maintenance). Then I listed every expense I could think of (from large direct debits like my mortgage to smaller things like hair cuts) and worked out how much income is left after that. Then I worked out how much extra I need to put away into the three savings accounts I have to cover

(1) Long term savings
(2) Home heating oil
(3) College fees/Weekend away in December/Christmas

I was relieved to find that there is capacity in my income to cover the increased savings and still have a small amount left over for clothes/entertainment etc. So I'll call to the Credit Union during the week and increase my savings. It took me a while to work it all out but so worth it for my peace of mind.

My long term savings can't be touched unless it's to replace an appliance or some other unanticipated expense. I bought my dishwasher in August '22 and obviously my washing machine is new. Hopefully my fridge and oven won't give me any problems this year (touches wood).

I'll order a half tank of home heating oil during the week and book a boiler service on the 1st February. Need to get my alarm serviced also (maintenance is free but I'll probably have to pay to replace some alarm panels), so I'm putting that in my diary for 1st March. Wish I had room in my budget to pay for a cleaner and housekeeper .

thanks for the thread need

spent a fortune on seed potatoes and packets of veg and herb seeds for our allotment 😁 hope it all works out and we get some actual veg at the end of it.

turns out the panel for the promotion I applied for haven’t met yet so I am still in with a chance but not sure I want to work for a department that’s so inefficient it takes them over a month to get back to applicants 🤔

DH is now credit card debt free and I have halved my CC debt, thanks to his old policy. Our budget will mean I should be CC debt free by the end of March.

Crazy week ahead but nice weekend plans to look forward to - tapas restaurant on Fri eve and dinner with friends on Sat eve.

Tayto well done on the big financial scrutiny. Time well spent.

Well done in the budget tayto and paying down the cc debt gen
a month is a long time to wait gen.

no other spends today

Gen don't apply for a job at ours. It takes months because of all the hoops we have to go through.
Nice one on the credit card pay down.

Tayto I so need to have your fiscal discipline.

DH is getting the frugal bug... Bike bits that have been gathering dust are listed on eBay. Some are so old they are getting a premium price as "classic" I am just pleased to see the back of them.

NSD ...

Placemarking

Ooh, sorry Curls! I am sure there was someone who was but names are not my strong point (and I can’t keep track of name changes at all so I do get easily confused!)

Done tax return. It was a bit more than I expected but I’d put it aside with a good buffer so no stress, just a shame! If it wasn’t a Sunday night I’d have had a glass of wine to celebrate - I’ll have one tomorrow. I’m going to Nando’s for the first time ever with a few friends, finally I’ll see what the fuss is about 😂

Last full day in Aussie today. We fly home at 530pn tomorrow. Should get through the door at 7pm Wednesday. Eeek.

off to the WA aquarium today. I haven’t told dd yet but I think they have actual mermaids there.