Judicious January Jangling & Juggling *blows budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

Sorry, couldn't resist going overboard on the J's

Happy new year y'all. Welcome to expert budgeteerers, newbies, lurkers and de-lurkers. We're a very friendly, non-judgmental bunch so please use this thread as you choose whether it's as a spending diary, to confess your money sins, ask for help or have a general whinge at the cost of living.....

Great news CoCo - must be such a relief x

abby love the idea of going to the park in the dark with a torch! Please everyone keep posting good ideas like this for free/cheap family activities!

NSD so far. Went to friends house for a lovely lunch. Our contribution was to take pre-dinner nibbles which we luckily managed to source from Christmas bits and bobs.

Bought my Sun newspaper! Mum gave me the 60p as she's staying and i think we'll be going on the holiday together with dd and my niece, hopefully in March.

I opened my very first isa today. Only a pound in it but its a start!

Waves to Rogue
Great news Coco must be such a relief.

Top Tip for the Sun Holidays. If you are booking online you don't need the physical coupon, just the printed codeword, so you could nip into a newsagent, read the word, and not buy the paper! Today's word is GOOD :)

Spendy day today, but expected. Both DS's needed new shoes, so DMum bought DS1 new school shoes (and a 2nd pair next size up 1/2 price in Clarks sale) and some boots for DS2.
I bought DS1 some 'play' shoes, daps and tshirts for PE from Sainsbos, and a new jumper for DS2 in the sale. Also got 2 new chopping boards as ours fell apart over Xmas, and some deli naice ham for tea, so a spend of £43.57 today, but all needed.
Got vodafone bill of £73 to pay on Monday, extra £40 on our normal bill due to loads of calls to Sky to get our broadband sorted in December Sky did deduct the months internet fee from our bill, but we're still out of pocket I need to phone Sky and threaten to leave, to see if we can get 1/2 price package for a while...

I think you've got good reason to threaten leaving, dh would be laying it on with a trowel for that, he has to do it because I'm a big fraidy cat.

saynoto0870.com has a lot of numbers for companies which are normal landlines so it should be free if you have sufficient talk minutes on your calling plan.

NSD day.

Went to Lidl bought apples sweets stuff for dd to take back to uni red cabbage yoghurts etc all came to 15.26. Result!

School pen and pencils for ds in smiths 12 pounds

Umbrella in m and s ...big fail as not in sale but 9.50 and I really needed one.

All in all not too bad as staying home tomorrow as storm forecast.

Ds1 and dd babysat ds2 so no childminder fees all holidays gave them a bit of money as a thankyou( they didn't ask which was quite sweet)

NSD here too, In a way. DC bought sports stuff with Christmas money and DH did a massive shop - we take it in turns. I was the sad cow trotting round after him replacing brand names with own brand basics and checking weights of stuff. He really won't take it all on board.

Still, apart from milk and veg we have enough food until end of the month now. Once bills are all paid, I have about £100 till end of month for any bits and pieces that crop up. Not even sure if that is good or not when on a tight budget. I'm used to having more but we've had so many big bills recently. That's £4 a day till pay day which isn't even a bus fare into town and back, so will have to have lots of NSDs.

Great news cocolepew

We had a good win today. dh decided to take our kitchen sink pipes apart as it has been leaking into the cupboard for ages. He cleaned them all out but then discovered the cause of the leak which meant a new part would be needed. We rang a guy who has done loads of jobs for us, he found the part we needed in his workshop, brought it round for us and wouldn't take any money for it. He is a legend , but so is dh for sorting it all out with only a few choice words along the way

Turnoffthelights one of my family's favourite things is to do a hot dog picnic. Tin of hotdog sausages, drained in a bag or plastic box, rolls, ketchup and a flask of boiling water. When you want your hotdogs put the sausages in the flask, put the lid back on and wait a few minutes. Really fun thing to do after a walk.

Something else I used to do was make bingo cards for the children. Things like a post box, a green door, two dogs etc. it kept them going a but longer.

I also had a sparkly box which had ideas for things to do on pieces of paper inside it. Somehow going to the library (again) was more fun if the idea came out of the sparkly box!?!

NSD today. Second one this year!

Fabulos News CoCo, and good luck with the surgery.

Thanks for the SUN code word! Are there any of their holidays you'd particularly recommend?

Are the Sun holidays in term-time, or in the school hols?

Earned £4 again today as DS1 wanted a lie-in. Christmas fund is now in double figures (woo) at £13.33. Mind you, I should have got danger money as the pavements were treacherous with back ice which I hadn't known about until I nearly went arse over tit.

Haven't spent anything today, but I forgot to confess some spends yesterday
£0.70 on the Daily Mirror as I wanted the SW recipe book in it.

£11.79 - on a birthday card and a tenner for a party that DS2 had been invited to.
£6.27 - groceries at Morrisons
£2.00 - lightbulbs.

Hopefully I have bought most of the SW stuff that I need for the forthcoming week (apart from maybe a £1 salad or two).

OK, so plans to have a frugal weekend didn't quite pan out. I found a lovely bedframe for DS2 in a charity furniture shop and decided to get it for him as he's outgrown his junior bed. Then I ordered a new mattress from John Lewis. We would have had to spend this money sometime soon as DS2 isn't going to stop growing. It's worked out cheaper than I thought so I don't feel too guilty.

On the positive, tidying up yesterday I found a little stash of Tesco vouchers... £20 towards the next food shop. With what I have the cupboards already this should get us through quite close to next pay day.

Hello Lei .

Good news CoCo - the relief must be immeasurable.

NSD yesterday (Saturday). Aiming for another one today but may pop out to buy the paper and some carrots

Not including today (yet) I've managed 3 NSDs out of the first 4 days of January ... long may it continue.

Am continuing to sort out my yarn stash so will have some yarn to put on Ebay when there is the next free listing weekend.

Morning. I was supposed to have an NSD yesterday but couldn't resist having my Saturday morning coffee treat at Cafe Nero - £2.05. At least they give you a stamp on your loyalty card for every drink you have.

Spent nothing after that until I went to Waitrose after the cinema (paid for with my Cineworld Unlimited card direct debit, £18.90 a month). I bought a pesto muffin and chocolate Berliner for 10p each, and two huge Heston chocolate puddings reduced to just 49p each.

So quite a good day all in all.

Thanks everyone .

DH is away with £20 for his petrol this week and I have the £12.50 sitting out for each DD for their dinner Monday this week.

I cut and colour my own hair and cut it last night. This means I need to throw more bleach at it, but for the first time ever, I'm going to wait until payday in two weeks before buying the hair dye.

I didn't know about paying for line rental up front I'll sees if DH knows if we can do it.

Woo-hoo ... managed to finagle a NSD for me today. DH has to go out so he can buy the paper...not sure he'll get carrots though so that might be a spend for me during the week!!

Just £6 today on potatoes and toilet rolls. DH was amazing and replaced two fence panels in the pouring rain while I passed him screws and made appreciative noises.
One thing that I am going to start again that I did last year was when checking the bank account, I transferred the odd pence of the balance into my emergency account. I already have 'save the change' set up on my debit card. Those pence are usually adding up to £10 to £15 a month.

Great news coco - a big sigh of relief all round!

I'm still trying to work out how much to increase regular monthly save by (currently £100pcm on standing order). I want to save more but don't want to over stretch!

I worked out we have about £9k per year left after rent, bills and food but can't figure out how much to allow for extras, household etc. It's the now and again stuff, like clothes (only on a needs basis, none of us shop for pleasure (I used to for the DCs' clothes but am now much more minimalist!), the very occasional day trip, kitchen stuff if something needs replacing, vitamins etc help!!!

I think it is just with Lloyds or Tsb at the moment, when you spend for example, £4.36, it automatically transfers £0.64 over to your named account . You don't notice it and it mounts up.
Is your name from Finland at all? I lived in Helsinki for a year :-)

NSD for me today again, but mainly because I'm ill! Staying at home with DS and a big blanket. Mentally spending money however as I need new bedding for DS, will probably actually buy tomorrow or Tuesday as I think I've found what we need (awkward sized mattress/bed).

Frugal, I save as much as I can then if something comes up on offer I either bulk buy for the year or buy enough to last me 6 months if its a recurring offer.

It's nice to have a cushion of savings.

I use amazon a lot for vitamins, or homebargains/aldi/savers/eBay.

I like the idea of save the change, maybe I need to change bank accounts again.