Have a fabulous frugal February with the fantastic frugaleers

[northender]

As we filled the old thread, thought I'd start a new one for February.

Ooh that roast deal sounds good.

I think people are worried about fakes on eBay.

NSD.

have spent half an hour or so testing each electrical appliance to see just how much juice they use! this is after a rather scary leccy bill!

It was a really interesting activity. I have one of those Current Cost thingies which show exactly how much leccy you use. Am definitely going to limit oven use and remind myself NOT to overboil the kettle any more!

...even the router cost more than I thought. I must remember to turn it off at night.

Was going to go to the supermarket for the few things... But didn't because of various things going on. So tonight we are having roast, have made some bread (waiting for it to rise now) and that could sort us till tomorrow or even Monday/Tuesday...although having said that I really won't be able to get to the store then as will be full on work as usual. So I'll try and get to Aldi or somewhere tomorrow.

Oh... And we are going to upgrade our phones because dh's phone for some reason has decided to go 'no sim' on him quite frequently and that's not good. He's out of contract though and I'm at the end of mine. Went to O2 earlier and they were going to give me a new iPhone 4S for less than what I pay now!! Or I could have a 5c/5s for same as what I pay. So will be doing the 4s I think. Don't need a posh one...

Do it online and go through top cash back. 02 give about £50 I think

Spendy day today but I'm having a weekend away with my mum sort of. 8.53 on stuff to take to my ex's for breakfast. 8.50 in a charity shop on two tops for me, book for DS and book for my mum. 8 on parking and 6 on tea and cake for mum and me. 8 something on random stuff in b&m for mum and me. However mum has paid for hotel, meals and a bread knife for me!

Good news too is that my ex has reviewed the child maintenance that he gives me and he is going to be giving me 50 more a month as of this month.

Hope you're all having lovely weekends.

This thread is flying! Will catch up tonight.

Spent £35 on bits for dd1's party. Plates and stuff are so expensive! Have just sent the last of them home and although they all had a great time , 13 7yo girls in the house was too much!

Love your idea Dark. Can I suggest lining fabric for capes? It's pretty cheap, and shiny and swishy too for full superhero effect! A friend made a cape for ds out of that and he loves it!

Fab news picnmix. Kids stuff is so expensive, especially shoes!

Agree about designer fakes fear. Boden is a winner tho!

silkknickers, what were the worst and best appliances in your test. Ashamed to say I rarely turn my router off at night. Must Do Better.

NSD here.

picknmix that's great! Will you ex have a word with mine, do you think? :D

Spendy day although bargains eventually found storage drawers to fit in bathroom 60 for 2 units so all sorted

n an 8ft trampoline with net for 40 one spring broken but slightly different spare included otherwise all new important boxes so fab bargain cheapest new price was 99 for same one - had been looking for a while

Lining fabric you are a bloody genius!

Spendy day today. £14 on second hand books

Never again will I take the DCs to a charity book fair! Was all change from the change pot so didn't feel like proper money IYSWIM.

silkknickers we borrowed one of those energy checking things from the library and it was a revelation. Have you checked out how much a shower costs? DP has much shorter showers now! Agree the kettle is a shocker but tumbledrying was less expensive than expected.

We can't turn our router off because of BTVision and recording things at night, plus a tech friend told me ages ago not to!

Was a NSD today but had to ask friend to get some emergency looroll and milk for me (out of both and home ill)!

NSD

How much does a router cost to run at night? I honestly never considered it... Now I know why FIL insists on turning his off all the time!

but if I turn it off, I'll have to get out of bed again after we finish watching rubbish before sleep...

Hi spotty and anyone else who uses topcashback
Right, I've never used them... It sounds too good to be true, why would they give me £126 to buy an O2 phone with them??? (Yes!!!).

Tell me more.....

I've PMd you

Naturally anything that generates heat uses up a lot of juice - oven, kettle, washing machine etc. according to my figures, with everything off apart from the fridge/freezer I'm using 113 watts. With the kettle on it jumps to 2.23 kw.
What particularly surprised me was that with the key lights on that I usually leave on of an evening it uses 208 watts (with low energy bulbs). I must remember to only have on the lights that I need. I DO LIKE to have a well-lit home, but I'd prefer a lower energy bill more

TV - 174 watts
ipod 115watts
Xbox and TV 231 watts.

Have been putting off doing my reconciliations but bit the bullet and did it this morning

Everything else budget: -£65.04 in the red (mainly due to 4 birthdays so far including DS2 and DH)
Petrol / bus: £108 remaining
Food: £192.84 remaining (I'm not sure about this and think I may have misplaced a receipt, although it's not like me so I might have to adjust this when I get my credit card statement)**.
Kids: £118.80 remaining

**I pay on my Tesco credit card and then transfer the balance across from my bank account.

I had an e-mail from SeeFilmFirst and managed to get 2 free tickets for "The Book Thief" so I'm going to ask my mum if she would like to come and see it with me on Tuesday.

I had a Price Guarantee receipt for £1.40 and a little bit left on my gift card (£2.11) so I have transferred that from the groceries to the xmas account which now stands at £64.50 with 2 presents bought and also £10 in newly accumulated club-card vouchers.

I joined Tesco Orchard (someone on here recommended it) and they've kindly sent me a voucher to enable me to get a bag of free spuds, trouble is without my own car I don't get near a Tesco now, but will have to see if I can get one of my work colleagues to get me some.

Re the car: I have sent off all my documents to the insurance company so will wait for them to get back to me. I'm not expecting to get anything back though. I also sent the tax disc off on 30 Jan hoping that I will get a full three months refund on tax but I haven't heard anything from them so I hope they have got it!

Only 9 full more days to work before I start my new job.

Put a pound on at Slimming World this week but it's still 12lbs in 5 weeks (60.5lbs to go, or maybe 53.5lbs depending on how I look and feel when I get there).

£30 petrol
£3.85 last minute birthday card
£2.85 yoghurts and choc bars forgot in shopping
£FREE breakfast from my aunt

Hi all, I've been lurking on your threads for a few months now and I just wanted to say thank you :)

Since following your amazing tips I now have almost £1000 saved in various accounts set aside for things from car tax / car repairs to haircuts and school trips, birthdays and Xmas!
I've made my own laundry gloop
I've started shopping at aldi and converted my sister ( which is even better cos we take it in turns driving the 26 mile round trip)

I am loving reading how everyone is getting on and smile every time I check my bank account!

Thank you all

Just requested that my overdraft be put to 'zero'

jadle- welcome and that's brilliant !

Spotty - good for you

A NSD here, had to go and get nappies for DS but had a voucher so nothing to pay.

More stuff sold on eBay so am now only £80 off my target after eBay fees!

That's great spotty!

Sounds like you're doing really well, Jadle! Don't envy you the 26mile round trip to aldi, though!

I've spent £2.90 on a carton of coconut water today! I have a cold coming on and I needed it's awesome hydrating powers. That's all I've spent for the whole weekend though, so not doing too badly