The Friendly Frugaleers, figuring out our finances with furry feline photos!

[Cagliostro]

Hello all :)

[CremeEggThief]

Hi! Thanks for new thread, Cag. I love the title too.

[Mummyshortlegz]

Thanks for the new thread :-)

No spend day and no petrol. I have used the car four times this week

1. Swimming on Monday - can't get there from preschool in time
   
2. To preschool - needed to bank some cheques
   
3. Home from preschool - flat buggy tyre and I couldn't be faffed with sling
   
4. Aldi shop
   

Last term it would have been at least 13 trips in the car. I'm so pleased. I still have 300 miles in the tank so I may not put more fuel in till November! Dh drove to stay with friends for a couple of days and to the station and he's still got 70 miles. Will last out September. I'll have my last physio 100 Mile round trips in October and so I think my fuel spend will have at least halved.

[WreckTangled]

Great title Cag!

Another spendy day I ran out of my pills last weekend so was without them almost a week I think it made me a bit crazy. Hopefully feel better tomorrow.

[Noitsnotteatimeyet]

Hello - can I join you? (Have posted a photo of one of my cats as an inducement )

I'm determined to get out of debt but it can be very wearing, especially as I have a spendthrift husband and children who're convinced we have a lot more disposable cash than we actually do - after all who needs to pay the mortgage?? How dull!

I have £7000 credit card debt (was nearly £12000 at one scary point) and nothing else is going on it now but it takes a long time to go down .... I'm paying a fixed amount each month, not just the minimum plus extra payments when I can

In the last few weeks I've changed our electricity and gas suppliers (£700 saved over the year plus I'm owed more than £800 by our old supplier), got cheaper car and home insurance and persuaded dh to shop at Lidl (with a small ocado top-up of what they don't have) - that's saving >£200 a month

I've also written down every single cash and card payment I've made so far this month (and will do so for the next two months) to try to work out where else I can cut back

The one thing I won't cut back is pet insurance and dd's riding lessons

Anyway here's a couple of feline photos

[Noitsnotteatimeyet]

Actually both cats .... dcat1 took a selfie the other day

[Tryingtosaveup]

Wow, Cag, great title, and thanks for new thread.
Wreck, I can be crazy and speedy without running of of my pills
My friend bought some freezer boxes for me. She goes to a local Chinese supermarket and gets 50 of those take away boxes for £6.60 including VAT. They stack so easily in the freezer and they are just the right size.
So, pumpkin soup and frozen butternut squash from the garden to go in my slow cooker stews in the winter.
Opened a Nationwide account last night. I can get a good rate for £2500 of my savings. 5% I think it was. And I didn't have to close my main account.
Can't decide whether to change my main account to The Co op bank and get £150 or to First Direct and get £100 .... but First Direct have good customer service and the nearest co op bank is 20 miles away.

[Mummyshortlegz]

50 x Plastic 650ml Microwave Food Takeaway Containers www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007SA7Y40/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_q2x5xbVK3FRGH?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 Like these? That's a really good idea. I might buy these ones as I want to batch cook some soup.

[Collieballs]

creme he would be a great professional haggler / buyer.

We had an unintentional vegan bhuna and if was gorgeous!! We're so full up and we used up loads of veg. Tasty frugal win!

Fluffy yep I'm going to buy loads of cheapy bulbs. Thanks for the NZ NT info. Can I order it from the UK then?

DH is doing a car insurance quote. Fingers crossed it doesn't go up again (despite years of no claims)

ATTN Lidl shoppers what's your favourite Lidl bits?? Going for a nose around our new store this weekend!

[WreckTangled]

Yes collie you can.

RE LIDL:

THE BAKERY! It's the best ever.
The massive tubs of yoghurt
The stuffed chickens

Also great for biscuits, crisps and chocolate bars (Dh for lunch). Their multigrain seeded bread is great and about 75p a loaf. Their premium coleslaw.

I'm sure there's more!

[Tryingtosaveup]

Mummy, yes they are the ones. If you have a Chinese supermarket nearby they are £5.50 plus VAT.
LIDL bakery stuff is irresistible. I have a theory it has cocaine in it because it is so moreish

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Ha ha fab title

£££in the range and home bargains

[Fluffycloudland77]

Cag Thank you

Collie Yes, I ordered it online and it arrived about three weeks later.

no Welcome. Beautiful cats. You are well on the way by the sounds of it anyway.

£15 Aldi. Frozen pizzas, booze and lawn feed.
£3 lunch.

Like I said, I am disorganised when stressed. Next week will be better.

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Welcome noits. Have you/ are you able to get your cc debt on o% or low % interest?

[Collieballs]

wreck thank you!! I am actually excited about Lidl now! Eeeep. The bakery department sounds amazing. I have a feeling I'll pile on the lbs again. Ha!

fluffy and wreck it sounds SO easy to do the NZ NT! Like, too good to be true. Another exciting frugal win! Thank you both for your help

fluffy hope next week is a better one

cag love the title and thank you for the thread :)

The cat just farted. The first cat fart I've ever heard in 30 years of cat ownership!

[isthatmorelego]

NSD here

[Girliefriendlikesflowers]

Oooo lovely new thread thanks Cag

Quickly catching up before bed, been a busy day with work and then packed dd off to my dads for the wend (I'm working all wend) and then going out to a works do tonight!

Spends
£15 going out
£1.70 ish on a drink and sweets (sweetie Friday!)

Collie Lidls do loads of good stuff! I like their breakfast biscuits, the yogurts, the salmon, the crisps...... mmmmmm

[Cagliostro]

Hi all :o

What was that I was saying about having escaped the annual September cold? FFS just grateful I have done all my teaching for the week and should be better in time for the next lesson.

Loads of people flaked on us today so I have decided to do a month booking at a time in future. So once a month I will set out the available lessons and people can sign up to the ones they want and pay for them. I figured that's enough to get some commitment but it's also flexible enough that if for example people are going on holiday, they don't have to pay. Hopefully that's a fair compromise. Obviously I'll refund or roll the money over if we have to cancel ourselves though.

I had an awesome couple of lessons myself today - one family came back with us after sports. Went really well! No money switched hands though as I owed the mum the same amount for the upcoming reptile handling thingy. Another thing sorted and I've decided not to bother with the watercolour thing either - shame but then the art shop near mum's often has free workshops anyway!

[AGenie]

Welcome noits. I love the cat pictures.

Your one month booking sounds great Cag. Good scheme.

I've started a big tidy out today to try and get the house civilised for the winter. I always feel bad about throwing stuff away, but then ds can't just play with toddler toys for ever and I do need to buy new stuff for him. What do you all do about that? We seem to have an every growing mountain of stuff.

[lilacclery]

Hi all!
Cag great thread title & good idea about your classes too, gives it more structure & security
Noits you're on the right track for sure, cats are not a prerequisite to the thread but most of us love them
Mummy that is absolutely amazing savings on driving, we live 2 miles from anything so drive everywhere
Collie bags of avocado & the 10 pack of toilet roll with the pink design(not cheap but lasts forever) I don't buy anymore because au pair could use a roll a day just blowing her nose no matter what the quality we actually noticed while she was away for 3 weeks that our consumption of toilet roll halved

I'm up shopping Argos 3 for 2 on toys, and I guess excited about my new car & on edge about work today there's a lot on but I've prearranged everything to happen without me there & that makes me anxious

Dd was in awe of a my little pony castle €64, but it's fairly crap, there's one for €122 which is amazing but too much money. I had recently purchased a tractor for ds €155-15 disc(it's on free returns & collected for free) I have now purchased the €122 castle plus a better tractor & a bike which is half price at €110 on the 3 for 2 for 242.98 RRP €523, the castle she wanted was 64 & original tractor 140 so bike is costing €38

I've stopped shopping for a while because want dhs opinion on some other stuff. Dd is pretty much sorted for Santa now.

I want to buy some gifts for the birthday parties she'll be invited to this year also. Have got some art sets so far on 3 for 2.

Genie every time I try to clear out toddler toys the dc start playing with them again, I need them to go somewhere for a few hours while I do it! Can you sell stuff on fb to fund more toys? Or is it fit for bin?

I also discovered baker Ross today going to use it for dc advent calendar

[Sierra259]

Thanks for the new thread - great title cag! SierraCat says hi!

NSD yesterday. Will catch up on old thread tomorrow. DC2 has just dozed off again so going to attempt putting her back to bed!

[Ememem84]

Morning all. Very hungover here today why. Why do I do it to myself??

This is where I found kittycatface this morning. She's camping out in the stairs. We had a chat.

[needastrongone]

Thanks for the new thread Cag, good plan re the payments. Too easy to dip out of a class if it's PAYG.

Welcome Noits

I don't even like cats......!

We were out last night for DN's 18th and a stupid amount of money was spent. Glad DH paid.

Hope you can relax a bit this weekend Fluffy.

Today will be LSD.

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Good idea about the class cag.

Just need to stand up for the other side as I'm allergic to cats.
Dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs

[Ememem84]

Spends today if I can stop feeling sick and get my ass out of bed £11 eyebrow wax and £25 riding lesson.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Thank you Need

em Drinking straws make excellent cat toys for playing on the stairs.

I've bought a chop cloc. £4.50 off eBay using nectar vouchers from surveys instead of £69 off the internet.

Dh not happy, he was against the spin dryer though & we all know I was proved right about that.