Don't Panic, December is frugal this year.

[Fluffycloudland77]

NSD = no spend day
LSD = Low spend day

£15.50 on a family swim at a slide/jacuzzi/wave pool, £8.50 in sainsburys after, buying sarnies, sausage rolls etc as starving after going up and down the steps to the slides over and over and over....

Money in purse: £40.93 (was £58.20)
Money in bank: £319.08 (was £398.07)
Money in coin jar: £27 (was £27)
Available money reduced by: £96.26
Grand total remaining: £387.01
Days to pay day: 17 (which includes today, and I won't need to spend anything else)

Spends since last financial round-up...
£19.99 on a heater (didn't put this on the CC – wooh)
£59.00 on petrol – dead mad about this as we put it in on Xmas Eve and I forgot about it so it has only debited my account today
£2.99 – lemsips (am full of cold boo hoo but I feel loads better after just one)
£4.50 – On a taxi to work this morning because of the bloody Saturday bus service meaning I missed the bus by three minutes and there wasn't another one for 45 minutes (I know what time it should arrive tomorrow now at least).
£9.78 unaccounted for - must be DH's £10 cash withdrawal, but when he went to the shop for the lemsips he's given me the change he had in his pocket so 22p of it must have been his.

DH didn't take the kids out today as they were entertaining themselves so the £50 his mum gave us for Christmas is still intact. If it hasn't been spent by Friday I will put it towards the household budgets.

NSD today and probably tomorrow too. Currently in the airport and as I don't have a card that will work DDs can't access their pocket money. Will arrive in UK tomorrow and I still won't have a card that works.

I need to buy boots or shoes, T's and jeans while in UK

Took dd and a friend out today to an animal park type place, cost £16 to get in for the 3 of us, spent about £10 on drinks and snacks, took the bulk of lunch with us but stupidly left the water bottles in the car. Was a nice day though.

Might go and see Annie tomos with dd, its £5 a ticket on Tues but then will need a few NSD! Also need to log in and check the budget for Jan.

New Years Resolution to budget better but try and find the line between being frugal and being tight!! I also need to spend some of my savings next year as the bathroom is quite frankly an embarrassment plus need to sort out my car, current one is not economical at all.

Hello - I'm hopping back onto the frugal wagon if that's ok? There was no point even trying while we were buying our house and spending horrible amounts getting heating fixed, paying plasterers and electricians, etc. But now we're coming up for air and are getting serious about being smart.

I've got from the library:
How to survive the credit crunch - lots of tips
How to store your garden produce - now we have a decent freezer and a garden.
Which? Money saving handbook
Reader's Digest Energy Efficient Home handbook
Thrifty Chic - trying to decorate on a shoestring
Eat well, spend less.

One weird trick at the moment for me is that I'm trying to reduce/eliminate any plastic that can't be recycled from my shopping. Which rules out a lot of ready meals and pushes me to buy in bulk or from places where they use paper bags for fruit and veg. It's really reducing our grocery spending.

Good luck everyone and hoping to be able to keep up with you all on the threads this coming year.

Natwest lent to us when halifax wouldn't. It varies from lender to lender.

Id Reduce that cc debt, Dh's was £2k or so and we had to pay it off to get the mortgage. As long as your not trying to buy a mansion you'll get a mortgage.

Have just checked my account so after all the DD go out on the 2nd will be left with about £100 a week to live on, that will include all food, petrol and anything else that crops up. Dds bday is in Feb God knows how I am going to afford that!!

Will be reigning it in now big time.

29/12
£4.20 bus to and from work
£2 wasted on bus ticket on app that didn't work - unless payment didn't go through but too early to tell online. Thankfully it was only a single ticket as I don't think there's any way of proving it didn't work.
89p small fries on way home!

Omg I've fallen off the frugal wagon. On one hand it is the holidays but omg I really need to reign it in.

First cc bill came and it's £1200. Ordinarily before frugal kicked in we were maybe £800. Frugal behavior got it down to £300! This months bill did include the two cars MOTs so that worked out to be £740 together.

Over Christmas we also did a lot of eating out and paid £100 towards some baby stuff for a close relative. I'm dreading that credit card bill. But I'm expecting this months pay to include some extra money that I earned way back in September so hopefully that will be fine.

Also owe the plumber £200, afterschool club £199, swimming lessons £100. Argh.

And my washing machine has just started to make a noise. Given that it's never ever done this in all my years of using a washing machine, this is annoying. It's probably the bearing but I don't know whether it's worth repairing or not... Sigh. It's only a 3 year old Bosch.

LSD here. Took DD to see Paddington, but her lovely aunt paid for her ticket so I just paid for me (reduced price because an early showing on a weekday), and bought us all coffee and cake afterwards. About £15 all in, including my train fare.

Back at work tomorrow, so hoping for NSD. I put most of the leftover turkey and ham in the freezer today, but left enough to make myself sandwiches tomorrow and Wednesday, then I'm off work again till next Monday.

Lovely day today spending time with old friends. Went for a walk and managed to stay on our feet despite the frost and ice!

Spent £8.50 on housewarming card and bottle of fizz for friend who cooked lunch. £10 on our food contribution for tea tonight. £1.50 on bridge toll coming back to Devon from Cornwall.

Tomorrow we are going to spend £9 on a day bus ticket for the 4 of us, walk 3 miles of the coastal path and treat ourselves to some food at the end of the walk max £20. Driving home late tomorrow night, I have work Wednesday .

Yesterday was not too bad, tank of diesel €55 it has come down in price & this should see me through until I get paid again Jan 8th. Drinks & snacks at soft play €9.10, sil paid for soft play. €5 meal deal of triple sandwich plus crisps and water for me & dd to share on the road plus €1 for milk for ds.

Might be going to panto today treat from my mother, roads aren't great so will depend on that, should be a nsd.

Getting loads of new tips from here for next year too.

My big saver is going to dividing tax credits more evenly so that my net wage increases & all joint bills coming out of new joint account so its not me alone that gets stung when bills increase.

Sounds like a lovely day northender.

Nice one! Someone is definitely on your side.

To de-motivate my spending I remind myself I have a tax bill, an accountancy bill, a national ins bill & my society bills going out in January.

I only have enough to pay the tax & accountant so far.

Clydesdale & Yorkshire bank were offering £150 if you switch current account to them & pay a £1000 in to it in the first month. I'm going to get dh to it.

Yorkshire has more branches than the Clydesdale iirc.

NSD.

MissMysticFalls

Are the library books any good?.

collie that's amazing!

Nsd here today.

Afternoon all

Money in purse: £39.10 (was £40.93)
Money in bank: £308.08 (was £319.08)
Money in coin jar: £25 (was £27)
Available money reduced by: £14.83
Grand total remaining: £372.18
Days to pay day: 16

Spends since yesterday
£2.20 - me - bus fare
£10.00 – DH cash withdrawal
£2.08 (2 x 2l bottles of Pepsi Max – my one true weakness)
£3.68 – Packet of lemsips (still full of cold)
£2.00 has disappeared out of the coin jar and I am not sure where this has gone but I'm going to give the family the benefit of the doubt and assume DS1 has taken it for bus fare.

Also, although DH took out a tenner yesterday he seems to have just bought a pack of fags out of it and given me the change as there was £5.13 left out on the side yesterday and when I asked what it was he said it was the change from the lemsips he got me yesterday, so I am actually up on what I should be (woo).

He's taken the kids out today so that £50 has been broken into – I doubt there'll be very much leftover to put towards the family budget but hey ho.

New Fridge Freezer has still arrived – it's currently stood, still boxed up, in the middle of the kitchen and they've told DH to leave it for 5 hours after delivery before plugging it in, and then not to put anything in it for 24 hours after it is plugged in? I hope it works...

collie good news about your vouchers . I am sorry to hear about your Grandad and your cousin

ohhelp good news about your beef

I have had a plumber out today to do some long overdue jobs for me. On the one hand, I was reluctant to spend even more money during the Christmas period but then once I am back at work next week it will be more difficult to have him over. He is a nice man who I have known for years and I give him cash so we are all happy. He has changed my kitchen tap for me and replaced both hoses, mended a bathroom tap which wasn't running, fixed my toilet which overflows when you run the bath taps (?) and also fixed my outside security lamp. He charged me £70 which was less than I was expecting. It is a lovely feeling to have these jobs done

I am determined to get hold of my food shopping over the next few weeks, things have gone off the rails lately. I am planning to have a Tesco delivery on a Wednesday when the delivery slots are £1 and then I will just go at the weekend for meat and fresh stuff. That is the plan - keeping out of the shops is the key for me.

This morning I got a new coat in Asda for £10 - I am really pleased with it. It is navy and has a hood and has the duffle coat toggle things on the front. What a bargain

bantam - I like your daily updates

collie good news on the vouchers.

fanta Feels good to get a few outstanding jobs done doesn't it?

NSD today for me, woo hoo!!!

Irrelevant to thread, but had some friends over last night, and did the Jamie Oliver 'drunken chicken' recipe, which is (sort of) BBQ chicken, cooked in oven, but you put a tin of beer, half full, up it's bum and roast with the chicken stood upright. I marinated the chicken in the rub all day. Served with salad and wraps roasted sweet potato slices, made my own banana cake for pudding. So fed 2 families, with stuff I had in the house already, with a really different meal and spent very little.

And I would have spent £15 today on New Year shellac, but the beautician didn't turn up in the salon, waited nearly an hour then got pissed off.

I'm back and broke. The surplus I thought we had has gone on new, essential, suit for dh. I've also bought Sainsbury's gift vouchers to the value of £60 as if I did 5 £30 shops I get £15 of Nectar points but I've discovered a glitch that means it recognises gift voucher sales as a proper shoo so I've earned my points and still have the money to spend

Going to sit down this week and create financial plan for 2015. It's dull but I think it really helped doing one for this year.

I'll catch up with everyone else's news now. Hope you all had a good Christmas and have frugal plans in place for tomorrow.