No-spend January/Frugal February - the no-spend challenge continues

[roguepixie]

OK - am attempting to start the second thread ... hope this works.

nsd here today :)

The app I use is android ' expense manager', same as debs I think. it's great, gives bar &pie charts for daily, monthly, weekly expenses etc so I will be able to compare months. it's quite addictive actually! I keep looking at it & thinking where I can cut down.

aiming for a nsd tomo too, then will check out car ins at weekend.

Spent £32 at ALDI yesterday.

Bought tins tomatoes, fresh vegetables, washing up liquid, yoghurts, milk, eggs, lemonade, juice boxes, red wine, pixo stuffing, loo roll, kitchen roll, biscuits.

Have a freezer full of reduced Waitrose food but had nothing to go with it so this will keep us going for a while. Nipped to Sains for the fruit bars the boys like for packed lunches.

Had 35p beef chilli with lentils, rice and tacos tonight.

45p pepperami pizza tomorrow

£3 venison (Waitrose organic reduced from £18!!!!!!!!!) with red wine, crushed potatoes and spinach on Saturday night

£2.60 roast beef (reduced from £8) on Sunday with all the trimmings.

40p beef meatballs with pasta on Monday

50p prawn risotto on Tuesday

15p Heston Blumenthal burgers over the weekend for lunch but that sounds like a lot of meat so will do something fishy I think.

Almost a NSD today, didn't leave the house, but had to organise things for the new house, so contacted Sky. Got it all set-up, but had to pay £10 for set-up :( Was then told that after account is activated I'll recieve a £50 M&S voucher in the post :)
Got a £25 M&S voucher as an Xmas pressy, so will combine the two and treat our new home to something nice, hopefully that will stop my "need" to spend our actual cash on nice new things

Dont forget that you can order magazine subscriptions on tesco clubcard vouchers - nice to get a treat popping through the door.
When I bought DD wardrobe from M&S I got a £60 voucher as part of the deal -used it to buy all her new bedlinen .
Whilst I was clearing out a cupboard to make room for my Approved food bargains I found 2 Mary Berry cake kits I got for £2 after Christmas.
I felt a bit miffed I would need eggs until DH went to feed the chickens and they had all laid

Morning everyone, unfortunately for me my ironing board collapsed on Tue narrowly missing my feet. Fortunately for me my other £50 of love2Shop vouchers for an energy supplier switch arrived yesterday. So I got a cheapy ironing board and also a rug for DD from Argos with the vouchers. She has been pestering me for months as the rugs in her room are too "babyish". Plus some basics(mostly rose wine ) with the vouchers from Iceland and I still have £10 left.
My one bad habit is buying magazines but a friend and I have realised that we buy similar so I am buying Woman's Own each week now and she is buying Woman and we will swap.
I should be in Woman's Own next week

Ok, am going to download expense manager app (or some such thing) - did download one but it is weird and I don't like it. Will have to try to find out how to 'undownload' it from my phone . Can you tell I'm not very technical...huh...can you???

Welcome to all the newbies.

Off to meet a friend for a coffee today...not until 2pm so won't be tempted to turn it into lunch. I will eat before I go so no extras when I am out. I might have a look in Boots for some 3 for 2 offers (mouthwash for DS, cocoa butter lotion etc - and buying in Boots means points).

Made a lovely Pineapple Upside Down cake yesterday from store cupboard stuff. Making banana buns today (v v v v ripe bananas) and scones, if I get time. Need to get some risotto rice for tonights dinner as well.

Has anyone seen 'Housewife, 49' with Victoria Wood? It was based on the wartime diaries of Nella Last and I ordered the books from Amazon (present from DH). I must admit to being very interested in this period of history from a woman's point of view - making do and mending, growing your own etc and the change in women roles. The diaries are fascinating and it has made to think about how much the women then had to cut back and change the buying habits they had, not least because of rationing. No real point to this ramble just focussed my thinking on how much we really didn't need and perhaps how much we could learn from our 'grandmothers'.

Wishing everyone a very happy Friday .

Well my grandmothers were thrifty but one went spectacularly bankrupt after her business collapsed, and the other had a Magli shoe habit and got my grandfather's driver to take her to the Munich equivalent of Fortnum's to buy her groceries, so maybe I'll aspire to the lifestyle of the second one.

Hi,

Had a NSD yesterday (well after the 100pounds bank charges!!) And planning a NSD today

Although do have a few bits to buy this weekend, such as a coat/hat and gloves for myself....but going to search for a bargain! Too cold to go without now!

I spent £24.50 yesterday on food, bird seed (huge bag from the market for £3.50) and a chippy.
My parents are really thrifty and so is the rest of my family. I should really follow their example and stop being snobbish about Waitrose food and such.

chickens, re bread making. Two words: Soda Bread. Perhaps the easiest bread to make, ever. No kneading and rising needed. Just mix it all up, shape and bake. Let me know if you would like a recipe (I have several).

Not an awful day yesterday, but could have been better. I am focusing on the +ves, like the fact I didn't spend £27 on a pair of spotty wellies. I did spend £10 on fabric to make an infinity scarf, but I could have bumped that up to £37 if I bought the wellies. Also bought a Fat Face (warm) jumper in charity shop for £4.

Oh, and the boy's first tooth finally made an appearance (at 9 months)

spew - I'm terrible at making yeast type bread, and would really appreciate one of your recipes. I've found some on the web but it would be great to have one that was guaranteed easy!

I do a 3 min spelt bread, it's yummy and no kneeding/rising either. Just google - it's a recipe from the Telegraph.

Boffin, & at your grandmothers shoe habit . I think I would aspire to that lifestyle as well .

spew, congratulations to spew-minor at his first tooth .

I love my breadmaker! I've had it for over 10 years now and it gets used every other day (sometimes every day!) and does bread, dough...all sorts really. It is a big expense and against the 'roooools' of Frugal February but it is a fantastic gadget - a quick loaf in 1hr 55mins ... mmmmmm yum yum yum .

Right, done the cleaning and the ironing ... off to to the baking!!! And here I was thinking this was my day off

Jumps back on thread after falling off the wagon.

I'm impressed with all the savings at Approved Foods. I had a quick look but tbh i would just end up buying loads of stuff like biscuits etc which i shouldn't be buying anyway so would really be spending money rather than saving it :o

Feb not off to a good start. Spent about £60 on birthday presents for dc's friends, cards, and lots of other 'bits'. It suprising how it all adds up!.

On the good side I finished my tax return in Jan to discover the tax man owes me £15, and transfered to ds's savings account to another bank, so now they earn interest at 7.5 times more than what it was!

Now I just have to wait for the gas man to tell me how much it will cost to repair our leaky meter . Fortunately the leak was just before the actual meter so we've not had to pay for any lost gas. I thought I'd finished with household repairs for a while. Bah humbug!

TheDog, here's one from Peyton and Byrne's British Baking.

You need:

500g wholemeal bread flour
140g porridge oats (jumbo ideally, ie not the really finely ground ones)
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
500ml buttermilk (or, 250 ml ordinary milk mixed with 250ml runny, natural yog. This is what I use)

1.Preheat oven to 230C and line baking tray with baking paper. Sprinkle a bit of flour on paper.

1. Sift/mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in buttermilk/yog and milk mixture.

1. Bring it all together, don't overmix

1. If you want, you can knead it lightly on a floured surface. But I just give it a bit of a knock in the bowl and then turn it out on the tray and shape into a disc about 5cm thick. If you do knead it, don't overdo it otherwise the bread will become too heavy.

1. Score a cross in the loaf if you want

1. Bake for 25 mins then reduce temperature to 200C and bake for a further 15-20 mins, until the base sounds slightly hollow when tapped.

1. Cool on a wire rack. Or start picking at it straight away .

This keeps for a few days in a bread bin, or whatever. Might be best toasted on the 2nd/3rd day, but yummy with spread and marmalade.

I've made this quite a few times and not had a bad loaf yet.

Thank you! Going to try that, later.

Pixie, the shoes are still going 35 years after she died, as were the Jaeger sweaters, the Wolford tights and the Gucci handbags. All that great stuff bought in bulk and subsequently used for three generations. Now that's value.

In the war of course she had nothing except her common sense, a mother in law who grew veg and kept chickens, and a husband who was good at foraging (when he was home on leave), and who was best friends with the local butcher from his schooldays. Nobody starved, quite something for Stuttgart during the war. No Marshall milk allowed in my grandmother's house after the war either. She could always manage to sort everyone out food-wise.

She could also sew brilliantly, make supper out of practically nothing and serve it on Copenhagen china, and grow amazing sweetpeas. Wonderful woman.

another excellent grocer/fruiterer trip... £9.90 for the following:

bowl of pears
three huge oranges
six small bananas (not charged because of the cold)
small tray of sugarsnap peas
iceberg lettuce
two aubergines
two courgettes
small bunch spring onions
tray of purple sprouting broccoli

I also went to Waitrose for milk, naice ham, crème fraîche, eggs, bubble bath, oats, and stupidly bought mint for 89p even though I knew I was about to go to the fruiterer (i love that word!) and they have huge bunches of herbs there.

Ebay parcels sent too. I've just the musical potty to post, once she pays me. Have run out of bubble wrap, all reused of course, and have been mulling over how to pad it out in the box. Well, I saved lots of Christmas wrapping paper which I was going to do garlands with, but could scrunch up as packing. Any better ideas or do I have to buy bubble wrap really, and if so where's cheap for that sort of thing?

Afternoon all!

not quite a NSD today..... unfortunately!

£6 odd in chemist for infant paracetamol, 6+ paracetamol and kids cough mixture (DD2 poorly and got in the infant paracetamol for DS as he is a clumsy bugger and can fall and hurt himself at any moment! We ran out last week!)

£5 odd in Lidl for shower cream x 2, shampoo, conditioner, new toothbrushes for the kids, toothpaste and mouthwash. Got £20 cash back too as my purse was literally EMPTY!

I have been saving all my small change in a pot - 20p 10p 5p (1p and 2p go in DD1s pot) since beginning of January, and already have over £20 in there! Am waiting until I have the right amounts to bag up and bank.

I got an unexpected £50 from Quidco yesterday - from the house insurance policy I took out in november 2010!! Granny gave me £20 fuel money today for running her around (we take her shopping etc each week) so my savings account has gone from just under the £200 mark on monday, to £449.23 as of 1pm! Only another £1000 to go and Ill have my moving fund complete!

Lovely grandmother stories, boffin. My maternal gm is still going strong at 80 and has an attic room literally bursting with fabrics, patterns and gadgets. Also the national collection of Pyrex, I think, down in the kitchen. She grew up in wartime and I expect that is a large part of the reason she hoards and saves.

Afternoon all.
Food shop in aldi today £62
Toddlergroup 2.50

I bust the £40 target spend this week, but i did buy a huge bag of chicken brests and uht emergency milk. Also a few bits we won't eat this week so i will total it over the month to try to achieve target. Think that makes more sense in terms of budgetting. ( also worried about snow, rural location so i can't run on empty)

Spend for Feb £64.50

another NSD here but only because its so cold I haven't wanted to leave the house not even for a paper. Instead I have been preparing for an essay for uni and such a small thing but so pleased. I have had a bread maker for years and have only ever baked a bog standard white or granary loaf in it. I decided earlier in the week that I would work out how to use it to make rolls i.e. at what point do I take the bread out and separate in to rolls to bake in the oven. So excited they have risen and now I can try all my mouthwatering recipes for rolls that I have, to use for my work lunches.
Another little tip from me, if using fresh herbs but you are nearing their best by, freeze them. I froze some rosemary at Xmas that was left over so that I can just pull out of the freezer and use. Also mint, someone had suggested that I freeze it in icecube trays which is what I did. I have yet to use them. I also had some Oranges and Limes that were nearly past their best so I extracted the juice and put in icecube trays to use in future casseroles etc.
Someone also advised me to put any leftover wine in icecube trays too to use in cooking.......leftover wine.....whoever has leftover wine !!

Lexi, I quite often scrunch up old newspaper to pad things out when sending ebay items. Or if you have any old cushions that you want rid of, you could always use the stuffing (but you'd have to really hate the cushions!).

A cheap day, just a diet coke break with a friend, then two free children's groups and a walk along the canal.

Not entirely no spend today:

£17 on baking supplies online for DD's next fundraiser
£40 on essentials in Waitrose (still mostly feeding off banquet leftovers so less than usual)
£2.30 on post-rowing coffee even though rowing didn't happen b/c the canal was frozen up.