Judicious January - Long may the credit crunching continue

[roguepixie]

So, the credit crunching team are into Year 2013. Happy New Year everyone.

Let's continue our cost-cutting, , money saving,penny and pound pinching, NSD ways.

Congratulations Mrs F brilliant news.

Today has been a NSD. I also tackled my power bills and switched to Scottish Power. I'll be saving about £160 a year. Really pleased that I've saved £360 on direct debits just by changing insurance and power. Next to tackle Virgin and maybe move to Sky. So far that's £30 a month back where it belongs. Its not a fortune but it will all go towards sorting out my longed for kitchen :)

His attitude really pisses me off at times. I was with T-mobile, for ages, but left and joined my phone to his contract to save money, so I don't see why he has to be so stubborn now!! Bloody men
I will phone Sky on the weekend, as our 12months initial contract will be up next month, so if they won't offer me a better deal then I really can go elsewhere.
Have switched car insurance, from Tesco £43 per month to Hastings £27 per month. Contents and Life Insurances are due for renewal in the next 6 weeks, so will be researching that soon. Went through TopCashback for Car Ins, so that will be another £30 at some point. :)

MrsF - sorry that was an x-post, I have this thread open in a tab and I hadn't refreshed. Congratuations! That is brilliant news, you must be so relieved

Thank you everyone. I start in about a month (its at a school, so straight after half term.) Spent on a takeaway and , but I think that's OK today

Sending you lots of positive interview vibes helena

There's a free kindle book called the rules of money by Richard Templar. It was £12.99 for ages but its gone to free.

I've just downloaded it. The £200 challenge is also free.

Congrats MrsF and good luck to Helena

Today I spent,

Coffees first thing plus drinks for DDs £6
Roads £3 because I went the wrong way
Lunch £20
Half price clothes for DDs £30

DD omitted to tell me her chicken felt odd until she started vomiting about 3 hours after eating. I'm hoping she's finished throwing up now as I really need some sleep. Off to put yet more towels through the washing machine, but not hanging the others out tonight, it's 1am

Oh dear Adora hope she's ok.

Thanks for the book recommendations fluffy. I downloaded them both to my phone.

Should be a NSD today. Have to buy a present tomorrow.

Popped out for salad, garlic bread and a few other bits. Also ended up with a big carton of tropicana on special offer as we're running low on orange juice. Spent £10.25 altogether.

I've just done a spread sheet and excluding normal household bills which go out by direct debit and the insurance I've spent £194.71 so far this month. £134 of that was on groceries the rest on other bits and bobs - eg dd's drama exam. Excluding bread, milk and fruit I don't expect to need to buy any other food this month.

I've just put £200 in a savings account and i think we've about enough to last until payday :)

storm that's really impressive.
1stmrsfrugal well done on the job, great news!
We've had quite a low spending week so far. The garage couldn't find a problem with the car and it hasn't happened since so no spend there at the moment......... Sil and bil coming for the weekend so I've planned all the meals ahead, the only expense left is alcohol!
We still have a chance of coming in on budget next Thursday. We've promised to take the dc out for tea if we manage it (we have had no meals out or takeaways in Jan). Their favourite place is an Italian where they do special offers during the week so we can do it in a money saving way. It's interesting how well they've accepted the idea of spending less.
All the games the dc put onto ebay sold and gave them almost enough to buy the 2 games they wanted. They have used saved pocket money to pay the extra.
I've transferred all their savings today to Virgin accounts that pay 3% interest. I got them to research the best deals as they were disappointed when they saw how little interest their money was earning. Hopefully all these skills will stay with them.

Helena thanks, she is okay, but doesn't feel it IYWIM and now instead of just staying home (and not spending) I need to go out to get liquids. The water treatment plants in Santiago were contaminated yesterday and even though they say everything is back to normal today I don't trust them. Later I'll be able to leave and stock up. We have enough emergency bottled water (because of earthquakes) for a few days

Adora glad she's a bit better but she must have felt awful. I had food poisoning from sea food last year and its an utterly miserable experience. Hope she improves quickly

£2.39 cat food
£3.69 toro loco wine
£1.99 aldi night cream
£1 bird seed.

Well done on your monthly budget storm.

North, try aldi for wine. My supermarkets brilliant for comparing prices for beer.

I need new jammies, my old ones have a hole in the top and the trousers and only one button on the shirt after one pinged off this morning. So I think I've had my monies worth out of them. So off to TK Maxx tm after work to see if they have any more cyberjammies ones. They had a pair at £12 before Christmas that were still £45 on debenhams website.

Helena hope interview went well

Adora glad your DD is getting better. Food poisoning can be nasty.

Great going to both Stormforce and Northender

Fluffy I'm sure that I've had that Aldi wines have won awards or something?

A very busy day here, so spent a fair bit, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

This morning: 60p on Get Well card for Dgrandad, 50p on ham (down from £1.25), 40p on a cheeky Battenburg (down from £1)

This afternoon: Got car back from MOT retest which it passed . Went to visit Dgrandad in hospital, but somebody gave me a ticket with a couple of hours on it so didn't have to pay for parking. He is doing well & it was great to see him, but very very hard trying to get a 21 mo to behave appropriately in a ward of sick geriatrics when not allowed the pushchair to strap him in & also for 4yo to see his Papa quite poorly & not really understand or have seen him like that before (we have explained, but is difficult for him to visualise, I guess). Also, some other relatives were visiting at the same time so I was entertaining kids & didn't really get a chance to chat. The main thing is that he's ok, though.

From hospital went to Tesco. Had a little Costa treat - £2.50 for 2 babycinos, a tea & a pack of biscuits (used points for one babycino). Spent just under £15 on groceries, but stocked up on cat food, potatoes, bread for the month (got 5 loaves for 20p each) as well as bananas & crisps to keep us going. Have plenty of meals in freezers & cupboards, as those of you doing my cupboard challenge will know!

May well cave & get chippy chips tonight as DH will be late home again, train delayed again

Still no baby.

£1.50 today on playgroup and £3.52 at coop (3 x reduced quorn slices and 1/2 price golden syrup for baking).

Congrats on the job, MrsFrugal!

NSD today :)

PAYDAY Tomorrow!!

Yes, some aldi wines do win awards. We preferred their ruby port to Taylor's reserve! Even dh is converted. Didn't like their prosecco, lidl is supposed to be better for prosecco.

Sending labour vibes to economy, you can thank me when you're screaming in pain

NSD for me. Get paid tomorrow too, so going to do a food shop on Saturday. We are running out of everything .

I weakly abandoned the credit crunching thread around November last year...all my Christmas spending depressed me and stopped me feeling motivated to post my daily totals since they were too big for my liking!

But have to come back now...this January has been ridiculously expensive for various reasons (the main one being booking a holiday for March that I really shouldn't have, but talked myself into as once-in-a-lifetime). Have to get in lots of NSDs in the next few months, and stay away from any and all unnecessary spending. So far have managed to stay away from the January sales, at least...

The one thing I have really continued from my last savings drive is meal planning. It's now part of my every day life, and it works so well both in terms of planning my own time and planning my budget too. So thank you mumsnet credit crunch forum for teaching me about meal planning!

Welcome back river

OMFG
£200 on school dinners today including arrears , £75 for Duke of Edinburgh trip, £154 for organ lessons.

I need a sherry and a lie down.

Well done MrsF and I hope your interview went well Helena - fingers x'd for more good news.

I have been AWOL for a few days - not spending so I don't have too much to confess ... no! I have been knitting!! My DMum taught me to knit when I was little and I did the usual stuff (doll's dresses etc), then the punky stuff (yes, I am that old) and then the more useful stuff and baby cardi's etc. I also learnt to knit socks recently and have been merrily knitting socks for everyone. My DS wanted to cardigan so I have just finished that - only need to block it and sew it together now. Next on my list is the Lima scarf and I have some sewing to do.

So, will re-read the last few days of posts and see you all later. Have a wonderful Friday everyone.

Oh Boffin, I feel your pain. My last invoice for school meals was £187.00. Then followed the invoice for piano lesson at £179.00 ... oh joy!!

Btw, Boffin, I was invited to review your book on Amazon ... have left a glowing review. Hope downloads and sales are going well?

Thanks Pixie! I think I noticed that. I have sold about 100 and given away 2500 via the free download option at New Year. It's quite high in the Amazon rankings now.

Desperately trying to make today a NSD. DP did school run this morning so DS and me are still in our pyjamas so cant go to shops Have cleaned the kichen and living room (well sort of cleaned more tackled the chaos)

Welcome back riverboat

at price of school dinners & other school expenses. DS1 is only in pre-school each morning atm, so expenses are things like 50p class money each week for snacks, mufti days & school bazaars. Even uniform is not compulsory, but he has it as most other kids in his class do. Costs still add up, though.

Your knitting sounds great rogue just right for this weather.

Boffin well done on your book doing so well.

Storm pj day sounds great!

Not too spendy today. Had our free fish & chips in BHS as DH was home (gone out for the evening though), so about £5.30 for lunch for 4 of us including hot drinks (DS2 just had a bit of everybody's!). Then Tesco for a little fleece for friend's new son, which was reduced to £3 from £9 & some milk, drain unblocker & tinned toms. And that was it spending wise.

Oh, also had estate agent round to get our house back on the market. This one works on a monthly fee rather than on a commission basis. So, initial payment of £405 inc VAT, for which they advertise our house on websites, with clients etc. Then £39 per month thereafter. So, will be considerably cheaper than the £2k plus we'd be looking at on a commission basis, although obviously there is the risk it won't sell. We've only taken their basic package, so have to arrange & do viewings & the selling side of it ourselves, but we are happy with that as essentially that ended up happening last time anyway! So keep your fingers crossed for us