Marching into a miserly march with the mumsnet frugaleers

[Fluffycloudland77]

Newbies, helpful tips & lurkers always welcome.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

Hello all, can I join please? I am on the debt thread with possiblyorange - thought I'd pop over here to say hi too.

Am shattered today and wondering what I can make for tea out of the Savoy cabbage, curly kale and avocados that are sat in my fridge! Was thinking egg fried rice with diced greens in butter or something but ds2 is egg allergic so no idea what to make him..

Love all the hints and tips here

puffy what about bubble and squeak for DS? roughly mashed potatoes fried into little cakes with savoy cabbage diced into it?

We have separate bank accounts but dh is a fritterer and we have different attitudes to what is a luxury etc.

£2.60 on lunch, I was up in the night cleaning up cat sick & I'm tired and hungry today. It tasted rubbish so I regret it on more than one level.

£6 cashback came through today & 6p.

£35ish on groceries but hoping to make it through the week with that and bits in freezer and cupboards. Payday today and I think I need to make £20 this month to hit my saving/spending target. I have nothing left to sell so will need to get some surveys complete. I'm tempted to apply for another credit card as the cashback is easy money but I want to get a new mortgage in a couple of months and even though we clear them every month we already have 2. A third might look like we're in/expecting trouble.

Adora I simply put corn in bowl and cover with loose lid/plate and microwave. When the popping slows down I presume it's done. I don't add any flavour until afterwards. Hth.

Just realised I need to make a one off £50 payment. That's knackered that plan then .

£4.70 on a tick remover, total waste of money.

Adora with popcorn I have found the best way for me is in a pan on the hob. You need plenty of oil (enough to easily coat all the corn, a good tablespoonful or more for a handful of unpopped corn - it's a surprising amount!). Turn the heat up to max, leave the lid off and keep the pan moving NON STOP back and forth so the kernels don't burn. As soon as the first kernel pops, whack the lid on and keep moving it back and forth. You don't need to keep going till the popping slows right down (the longer it's in there, the greater the chance of burning it), as you can always fish out the popped kernels and go again with the unpopped ones.

Spendy day yesterday, finally admitted defeat and ordered some bits for the baby - a couple of babygrows and vests and some new nappy wraps as some of ours are seriously tatty (although if £18 is all I have to spend on nappies for the first year, I'll be happy!) Using cloth nappies again also means being able to use washable wipes, which will save a bit more money - DC2 isn't potty trained yet, either, but grew out of the last of our cloth nappies a year or more ago. I am already eyeing up all the expensive baby stuff and looking forward to ebaying it - we have a stokke cot, a bednest bedside cot, slings, cloth nappies etc etc etc. The only thing I'll actually realistically be able to sell any time soon of course is the bedside cot, after 6 months or so (it's kind of crib sized, so no use beyond that).

Thanks for that Possibly I had given up as I always seem To burn it used To be able To do it but kind of forgot How after 20 years of not eating it. Will have another Go later.

I do popcorn on low & keep the lid on.

It freaks the cat right out.

Going to try the popcorn, that way there's not too much sugar and da can't go loopy.

Had a spendy week- been trying for a NSd, but failed. Sat took dd's to spend their Christmas money in town, had to get a few bits for dd2's party.
Spent: £6 poundland. Pass the parcel present, paper plates, napkins, balloons
£9.95 mini Zelfs for party bags (not that generous- all they got was a zelf, bracelet, cake, balloons and chocolate. And the biccies they'd decorated)
£4.49 pack of 5 bracelets and sunnies for dd2 in H&M
£3.17 Wilkos- tea tree oil and body lotion
£58.86 Tesco- Party food, cider (dp stuck it in!)couple of other bits for dp

Sunday, church and party. I did manage a NSD!

Monday- £4.84 Had to cycle to ASDA, had run out of washing up liquid and handwash. Bought a pack of kids socks reduced to £2, as they're always useful!

Tuesday. £10.08. Sliced bread, doughnuts, school bars (ds won't eat fruit, mega food issues there) mushrooms for tea, and hot x buns.

Wed £54.48 Tesco shop arrived. Meal plan for the week is:
Thurs: Chorizo risotto
Fri: Jacket potatoes for kids w/ tuna mayo, grated cheddar and cucumber. Jacket sweet potatoes for myself and dp w/ mozzarella and chopped chilli
Sat: kids w/ their dad, dss w/ his mum. soup for myself and dp.
Sun: Roast Chicken thighs. Roast potatoes, mashed swedw, buttered greens and carrot
Mon: Kids pasta and fishfingers, dp and myself pasta, sweet tomato sauce and baked ricotta.
Tues: baked beans on toast/ scrambled egg on toast.

That's to feed 5/6 depending on the day!

Thurs: £7.79 Morrisons for sweet potatoes because the fecking picker at tesco decided to give us two tiddley sweet pots! Also grabbed hayfever tabs for dp and ds, paracetamol and some bacon from the reduced shelf. Had cycled into town to save petrol, but spent 39p on a drink, as I forgot my water bottle.

£8.90 Wilkos - laundry liquid, food bin bags, and a pack of sweet pea seeds.

Then today, nearly there! £3 on the dss' swimming badge that I've been forgetting to get since before Christmas!

Tomorrow the kids are seeing their day and I am going to work all day. I'm so behind.

Off to band with ds in a bit, I appear to be learning to play the cornet alongside him!

Hope the tick came out ok- dp had one last year, it was horrid.

Nsd.

FREE: massive tub of m&s coleslaw, one of m&s cous cous and another of pesto pasta and two bananas left over from a meeting at work.

Ds is ill high fever and vomiting.

Sorry Nugget didn't mean to ignore your tip re popcorn, I hadn't seen it. Will try all methods and see what works best.

Fluffy we pull ticks out by hand, but I think my German shepherds might be a bit tougher than the average cat. Hope he's feeling better now and you got rid if the tick. Our dog trainer told us to clean the wound with alcohol then burn the tick, he used a piece if paper the grip it, then clean hands with alcohol. Don't know if our's carry different diseases to your's.

I'm having a treat afternoon tea and first the milk in the coffee was sour, then my cake was still frozen. They're happy to change things though so it was nice in the end £6 for me and DD2, t'other one is at her BFF's.

Need to buy disinfectant for the dog pen.

Tomorrow DD2 is out with her friends, paid for by friend this time so she just needs a bit of ice-cream money,

Welcome puffy

Spendy day for me today. I got a small back pay increase in my wage today so allocated 50 to spend on things I've been putting off for ages.

So, 30 petrol. 18 car oil and two easter eggs for kids we're visiting tomorrow. However, I had 13.08 remaining on a shopping card so only really spent 5.08. 10.61 in Aldi on bits including wine and nibbles for visit tomorrow. I thought we were staying over but misunderstood. I'm now thinking I should get flowers rather than the wine etc as that's more of a dinner type gift. What do you think? The wine/nibbles can be taken to family holiday next weekend instead. 30.58 in boots on electric toothbrush and razor heads. Using my coupons I got 3.90 in points. Then, an extravagant but well worth it, 13 on a mini valet. My car is like new!!

Spotty

Hope DS gets better quickly.

In theory today was a NSD although I have done a Tesco online shop to belivered tomorrow. Planned to spend £100 and went over by £1.50, but that included food for DD1's birthday party next weekend and cake/candles.

You ask why we had separate finances, I guess at first, after a nasty break up I wasn't sure DH and I would last. I rented my house and moved in with him, paying half the bills but not really sharing finances as I was insecure and knew this would be easier to get out of. I guess also it was what my parents did so to me it was normal.

We also have very different attitudes to money, as is now apparent!

DH is using it as a stick at the moment, and if it will let him get over the betrayal, I can live with it. He is being constructive, but not giving me an easy ride. He is going to lend me the money from his inheritance to clear my debts but wants a proposal of how I am going to get things straight. It seems fair.

I'm waiting for the nursery to let me know if I can reduce DD2 to term time only, but have said I will be taking her out of nursery if they can't accommodate this. They have had literally thousands of £ from me in the last 8.5 years so if they can't accommodate me I will look at the little playground near here which used to cost £1 per 3 hour session after EYF and perhaps she can do that or similar. (I have just estimated that I have paid £55,000 in nursery fees, plus I had a nanny for a year which cost about £17,000 plus after school club on top at roughly £9.5k so that means child care costs of roughly £81,500 and DH wonders why I have no money!)

Regarding the DC activities, I have said DS is giving up karate and said we will look for something different after Easter.

Better news is that I have got the new job. I will be spending 3 days a week on the new job and 2 days on the old one, starting 1 May. I don't know if I'm getting a rise, but I'm asking for one and I have my justifications for the rise ready.

Will be speaking to the new boss Monday or Tuesday.

Audit - congratulations on the job! Those childcare costs are scary - I'm too much of a wimp to work out how much I pay a year but I am lucky and have my mum who helps out a lot. Have you told your DH how much it has cost?

Spotty - hope your DS feels better soon. It's awful when they are ill.

No I haven't told him all the child are costs. I did tell him that I had paid £18,000 in fees just for DD2 and he just couldn't comprehend it. I have said for a long time that he doesn't understand what things cost. It was then that he said to pull her out of nursery.

He called earlier from work to see how I was, I said spoken to nursery manager and waiting to hear what the options are. Told him I've got the job, now just need to know what they will pay me!

£52.96 on online Sainsburys shop, although that won't come out til Monday or Tuesday. £1.50 on bread, £18 on DS' s subs for Scouts and 80p on his bus fare. So, £73.26 in total.

Hope everyone has a good weekend :).

Spent £32.40 on Chinese takeaway on account of relative in town!! Other than that, NSD. Happy weekend everyone....

audit why are you just paying for nursery alone - surely this should be split evenly between you and your DH?

Yes audit why are you in charge of the nursery fees? I said earlier that by the time my younger child (I have 2) goes to reception year we would have spent £100k for 2 kids over approx 9 years of nursery fees. Mad. Just mad.

Dh & his ex had a similar arrangement, he paid mortgage & cars, she paid council tax, fuel, water, food & the phone bill.

Spendy! Coffee with friend this afternoon, 3.50. Dinner out with dh and dd, about 50 with drinks !

I'm really intersested in other peoples financial arrangements and how they came about. Me and dh always paid a set amount to joint account when we first cohabited. At this point I earned more than he did. As the years passed we still paid the same amount even though his wages continued to increase. Now he pays about 400 more than me a month into joint account but in terms of ratio he pays about 60% of his wage in whereas I pay 90% of mine. This suits us fine. Dh is more likely to spend his excess on family spends and treats than I am and he buys many more gifts for his side of the family throughout the year from his own money. However, if I do build up money in my account, I'm more likely to spend it on home improvements and bills!

I don't think we'll ever have a truly joint finance like my parents do - ie everything into one account - despite being together for getting on for 15 years this anniversary!

When we first moved in together, and I was working Pre DCs, we pooled our money and both had £15 Per. Month pocket money. He earned moré than twice as much as me, and I had moved from being able to walk to work to a £6,000 a year commute. He didn't view it as his money though. He has tried To pull that one recently - few years ago- and I pointed out that if he can't regard it as family money then he doesn't need To have a family. That was rough times though and I'm we're much better at keeping him in line now.

We still have our own seperate accounts in addtion To the joint account.