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.....

I've finally listed some stuff on Facebook. I think I've priced it quite low so I'm hoping it'll all go. I normally use ebay but there's so many fees and if they don't sell for much a miscalculation in postage wipes out your earnings but increasing your starting price increases your fees so I'm trying something different.

Popped into Sainsbury's and bought reduced garlic bread and pizza that was clearly not on this months meal plan but it's my reward for giving bags of stuff to charity.

Have booked a very, very cheap holiday. I have low expectations but the dc just need a pool and a bit of beach so fingers crossed.

Fluffy I love your justification. How many times will you need to mop the floor so that the hot water saved is greater than the cost of the mop?

I've finally listed some stuff on Facebook. I think I've priced it quite low so I'm hoping it'll all go. I normally use ebay but there's so many fees and if they don't sell for much a miscalculation in postage wipes out your earnings but increasing your starting price increases your fees so I'm trying something different.

Popped into Sainsbury's and bought reduced garlic bread and pizza that was clearly not on this months meal plan but it's my reward for giving bags of stuff to charity.

Have booked a very, very cheap holiday. I have low expectations but the dc just need a pool and a bit of beach so fingers crossed.

Fluffy I love your justification. How many times will you need to mop the floor so that the hot water saved is greater than the cost of the mop?

Claret my dsis who is very frugal, won't let me womble when I'm with her. She thinks it's stealing . I think if the original owner wanted it they should have kept hold of it.

Not long, we use three kettles full per floor wash

I needed it.

Delasi I think you are thinking of Carlos Slim? Mexican businessman and world's richest person 2010-2013. Yes, monopolies make some things here too expensive for the majority it's of the population. Definitely a Two tier system in Health and Education.

We are in Chile.

hippo , I hadn't seen your post.

NSD for me.

Fluffy I think my E Cloth mop is great I just have a squirty bottle, spray it arbitrarily and then mop a bit. Repeat. Takes a few minutes and I'm done!

Adora Yes! I believe so. There are certain people around me who think Chile is the best country ever btw... remaining ever so vague It certainly scores way past all the other L.Am. countries on the TI corruption index, but I digress into the sad, sad world that I possess

Haven't been spending much but working out how much the big present may cost me, it's, well, more than usual for me!

So possibly not so many savings this month, but on the plus side our grocery bill looks set to be the best month ever since records began 4 months ago. When the end of the month rolls around I'll be able to tell just how much I was able to save, beyond the saved bus journeys by walking (£9 saved so far, yay!).

Sorry adora I'm a HCA. Cleaning up people's bowels is sort of my thing

I have been following intently from the start of the thread but haven't contributed yet as I always use my phone and it's a PITA typing on it. Just wanted to add that I signed up to check my file and got £5 topcashback. I then saw I had £26 credit on an old credit card account. So I phoned up to close the account and they are transferring the money into my current account. So £31 made in half an hour

Spent £5.40 at the play gym which included entry for dd, 2 hot choc as friend treated me last week and two juices.

Have found a few presents lurking at the back of cupboards so they will do for 3 6 year old presents this weekend and next (part of my present cupboard!!). Cannot spend more. I'm kinda looking forward to the next cc bill. To see how little hopefully we've spent!!

I'm sure you did giggle then hippo , Well done on your savings.

Delasi Chile is in the OECD, dontchya know, and yes, much less corrupción than some places. everything generates a piece of paper in duplicate, or triplicate. If I buy a button I Get a written reciept and the shop has To file their copy along with all the rest of their paper work. That's in towns and cities. You can buy things from a road side greengrocer in the country without getting a reciept.

Of course there will always be someone who wants To cream a little off the top, but they don't Get away with it nearly as much here.

Good evening just reporting today's spends. Not a good day but not as bad as I thought. I went for an impromptu coffee with colleagues today. I felt so guilty paying £2.50 for my coffee after I have been so good all this month, it wasn't even all that nice. My car cost £70 to get repaired which wasn't as bad as I thought but still an unexpected cost this month. On the plus side the mechanic was very cute! I will be having my MOT and service done there . I did my weekly grocery shop, £13.00 in Lidil, very happy about that. £2.00 on strawberries and golden syrup in morrisons. We are having pancakes for lunch tomorrow and Lidil didn't have the strawberries or Golden syrup. Hpefully I won't need to spend anymore this weekend., I also have overtime in the morning which will claw back some of the money for the repairs on my car.

I miss golden syrup, saw it in a posh shop when we first moved here and couldn't bring myself to pay a tenner for it. Shop was just up from Louis Vuitton, that kind of posh. Hope you enjoy your pancakes

We ate out tonight, shared food but I didn't see the bill. Still NSD for me.

Have not been on the thread for the last couple of days as frugal has not been a way to describe them. Basically, various things have cropped up which combine to mean my target for the end of Feb is almost certainly unachievable. We're going to carry on anyway and see where we end up. It's all unavoidable stuff which can't really be frugalised. Have sil and her hubby here for the weekend so won't be cheap either.

Have a good weekend everyone x

Afternoon all. Took DS to gp yesterday which resulted in an overnight at the hospital. He is ok and just has an ear infection but it wasn't obvious and his temperature was raging. I spent £8.60 on parking but only because I moved the car twice. I HATE paying for the privilege of parking my car. £2.79 on bread and milk as not sure when I'll manage to get to the supermarket. Feeling knackered and looking forward to bed but mostly relieved that DS is ok and hospital trips are not a regular thing for us.

ilovepic glad he's ok, the hospital must have been stressful though.

I set up a savings account with the same bank as my current acc, it allows easy access and online standing orders etc. I'm aiming to save at least £50 per month in it towards Christmas, birthdays and so on (hoping to actually save more once debts are cleared).

Even though I have (a relatively small amount of) debt I think it's still a good idea to save a small amount with the aim of not going into credit card debt for things like birthdays.

I've got a stupid and embarrassing question...

If I were to buy alcohol now and stow it in a cupboard - would it still be okay in December to give to people?

Alcohol doesn't normally last in my house for that long for me to have found out before now.....

Yes it's fine unopened.

Thanks Fluffy - there's quite a few people I buy alcohol for as presents so I might make a start early this year rather than leave it til the last minute as I normally do.

Grr. Did a supposed small shop today. Resulted in £64 spend including a superhero costume for ds for his birthday. And goggles for dd who for the first time today went into the pool by herself. She's 3.

Topped up at Aldi with £1.94 on lentils and nice bread for my soup dinner tonight.

Lunchtime we had leftover stir fried rice and dumplings (Chinese style).

Picnmix - glad ds is ok. Hospitals are not nice places.....

Get well wishes to your son picnmix. Sounds like you need some serious hibernation time - tea, biscuits, sofa, movie!

NSD so far today and yesterday but I am popping over to a friend's house party later so should probably take a bottle of something; what's the etiquette if you're not drinking? Ok to take a bottle of nice soft drink rather than wine?

3frugalthings: no alcohol for second weekend running, I'm not doing dry January, rather just not having wine as a regular feature in my shopping basket!; home cuppas rather than coffees out x4 this week, also much less stressful meeting friends in home environment with toys and space rather than cafés; have used some of the Christmas chocolate to top some flapjacks made for visiting friends this afternoon.

Ok, so I'm clearing out drawers and found some old tights. Are they worth keeping? Too tired to remember but sure there must be some frugal idea there.

Fed up. We are living in a flat that's too small for us (can't afford to move yet) and have had to stop using a storage unit for all the stuff we'd keep in a loft or garage if we had one. So tired of living with boxes of stuff around that I'm trying to get rid of anything we don't need. But it's hard to declutter and be frugal because in the next year or two we may end up having to rebuy all this stuff again or at least regret it.

Anyone any advice?

£20.84 at Tesco, on enough to keep us going til Thursday. I'll just need milk, bread and salad as well.

Hope your DS's ear infection clears soon, Picnmix, and you both managed some rest today.

Freelance, could you use the tights to stuff draught excluders, if you're the crafty type? Otherwise, just chuck them. You sound quite weighed down by your boxes of stuff. Might the space gained and the lifting of the burden ultimately be more valuable than keeping them 'just in case'?

Just marking my place really...

We are shockingly in debt, but have sat down and really thrashed it out. Basically, we've been living way beyond our means and spent what we wanted on credit cards all our own fault.

So this month I've not used my cc, I've started doing shopping lists and only buying necessities and going to Lidl - wow what a difference to our weekly shop bill.

Rather than eating out we're making sure we get home to eat, as others have said we've started eating stuff from the freezer - shocker ! Who knew food was in there.

We want to move house in about 5 years time so the plan is to reduce (ideally clear) all debts by then!