Frugal January, everyone welcome.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Useful links.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

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

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

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Afternoon all

Starting off the month quite well grocery-wise I think; ordered an Ocado shop last night (all cupboard/freezer stock ups with a couple of little treats that were on offer). Would have been £50.55 but got £10 off, so down to £40.55 (and I think I managed to get some cashback too, so that'll be nice when it comes through). The stuff we got should do us a fortnight, and delivery was free too.

Then spent just shy of £10 in the greengrocers today on two massive carrier bags of fruit and veg (including half a kilo of grapes for 92p! My mouth did fall open haha). Just need to call somewhere and get milk as forgot about that.

Also spent £55 on a birthday present for DH, but splitting that with his mum, so will have some to come back. Had a chippy dinner that was about a fiver. And going bowling this afternoon so that will cost too, although not sure how much.

Mon-Fri is going to have to be pretty frugal I think!

We've not spent anything on entertainment this holiday - other than the breakfast out with DSCs. In fact the DCs and I haven't left the house since NYE they've been happily playing with all the lego they got - since building it all they've been rebuilding and inventing new stuff. Everything else has barely got a look in - not in an unappreciated way, just that they're so excited about the lego! I know the board games etc will get plenty of use. We've also played Mario kart a little each day :o

I think we will keep track of food spends this month - should be more accurate now DH is recording spends too, as it's usually he who goes to the shop for milk etc - and use that to figure out a weekly budget from February onwards.

Should have been an NSD today but we'll need to get milk as the milkman didn't deliver any (he calls every second day).

Hello everyone

I am hoping for a NSD but I might treat myself to a couple of tops in the asda online sale. I could do with something new for work and at least if I get them now then I will get my full wear out of them before Spring.

Afternoon all

Money in purse: £27.70 (was £20.94)
Money in bank: £230.56 (was £240.56)
Money in coin jar: £43.50 (was £25)
Available money increased by: £15.26
Total remaining: £301.76
Days to pay day: 12

Spends since yesterday
£10.00 – DH cash withdrawal
£00.09 – copper shifted to pennies tub but then I shifted 30p in 5p coins from the tub to the coin jar
£2.00 on craft stuff for DS2 to make a 3D model for homework
£2.50 on 10 cans of pepsi max (my addiction)
£2.50 on groceries

I had a bit of unexpected, good money news last night. My annual fuel review arrived and for the first time ever I am actually getting a refund from the fuel company for being in credit at the start of my billing period! Around 7th January (so still within this pay period as I won't get paid until 15th) I will be credited £147.46 and my direct debit payments are decreasing by £13 a month from February, so thanks to that – I think I will come in this month spending less than we have earned. WOOH!

As the week is over I have added the money I found and the kid's unspent fun money back to my purse. Purse was quite heavy with change so I've taken some and added to my coin jar where the kids get their bus fare and activities money from.

sporting - I don't know about 'existing customer' deals re Sky, sorry about that. I used topcashback.co.uk for the deal. I did notice there were lots of deals on there, so it might be worth having a quick look to see if there's a deal relevant to you.

Fruit and veg delivery is huge, so figuring out what to do with it all at the minute! Carrot and chickpea curry sounds lovely.

So, the National Trust membership, can I just ask, can I join Scottish NT and use in England, just before I join? The info is a bit vague that I can find. A monthly DD rather than annual would suit me more.

So far, January is so much less spendy than December!!

We are all doing well aren't we?

Yes you can use scottish nt in England. You won't get a parking sticker for the car but you can buy them on eBay.

Some of the cashback offers for sky are for existing customers, I had to wait 6 weeks or so for a decent deal but it was worth it.

We use the not thistle sticker and that seems to work fine in tbwcarpathe car parkstks.

Oh, nasty autocorrection! 'The car parks'

Thanks guys, that's so useful. I am just having a cuppa before cracking on and trying to find room for all the veg, so I'll join now.

Then, while DH continues clearing out the man cave aka the garage, I will start on all the paperwork in the study. One DC is out, the other has his mates round. Rock and roll us......

bantam great news re your rebate!

Great news bantam

Well, a partial success in town. The sodding bank was closed despite opening hours clearly stating it shouldn't be. Lots of cross people huffing outside. But took my body lotion back and got the money off my hideously expensive face cream which is about to run out.

DH couldn't see anything he wanted in CEX so we've still got our credit there for another day, and the best bit was finding sturdy, stackable 60-litre plastic boxes with proper click-clunk lids for £6 each. We nabbed the last six - moving house soon and these will be great! It was quite a scrum - on the way home even the bus driver was telling us how he bought some yesterday It's all glamour and drama here in our town!

Re the parking stickers, is it a retain colour for certain years? How do you know you are buying the right one? And the sticker lets you get free parking, right? Do you have to buy one each year? Or how do they know if you buy a membership once then never pay again?

bantam great news on your rebate

I usually find the opposite with fuel payments. Last year, we had an estimated bill for gas and it was over £400. I started huffing and puffing and stomped off to read the meter myself, while telling DH that there was 'no way I am paying them that much, it must be wrong', only to discover that it was an under-estimate and we actually owed them more than they had said...

It's a different colour for each year hamper.

I have a frugal dilemma - do I go to either sainsburys or the co op for 2 bars of cooking choc and make the mary berry chocolate mousse cake or sack it off and risk waiting a £1.60 whipping cream or find another use for the cream of which I'm not sure what and what ingredients I could put with it. I have been longing to try the mouse cake but realised this afternoon we don't have enough cooking choc.

Yes I know first world problem too .....sorry

NSD

Like everyone else I'm running the freezer down at the moment - leftover turkey pie for dinner tonight!

Everyone is doing so well, it's really encouraging! I've got my sainsburys shop being delivered tomorrow (£40.43) and withdrew the rest of my weekly budget in cash

3/1/15
1 - Found £5 in the street - paid straight into savings
2 - Coin sweep - 66p - paid into dds account
3 - Spends - £12 on card and voucher for a birthday
4 - Applied to close my overdraft. It was £500 which I now have in savings so will stop any fees. Just waiting for the bank to post the form to sign.
5 - discovered I have £66 in nectar points so will use those over the next few weeks towards dds birthday.

You can buy tins for saving that need tin openers for £1 in Home Bargains and Card Factory although I admire your creativity!

I've had a much needed no spend day. We used a bit of leftover steak in frozen baguettes for lunch but really they just consisted of piles of fried onions once we split the steak between 4- fab all the same!

Dinner eaten. Although dc don't like shepherds pie weirdos. Dd ate all her cauliflower and none of the pie. I still offer it to them both though because I like it. They won't eat any potato really.

Hi all. Spent £45 on groceries and £4.20 on a bus to see my dad. He bought me lunch though

I am building up to a bit of a rage because dh hasn't been using his YNAB budget I set up for him. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't for the fact that he always goes over his allotted spending money and ends up in over draft. To make it worse he then wants to go on holidays! Gah!

Hmmmm NSD here but just realised we've nothing in for dinner and we are ill so think we'll have to spend on something low energy....

£15 fuel
£7 sherry
25p sanitary towell (or insanity towels as dh calls them)
£3.75 reduced Christmas nuts.

We only went out to look at wall paper.

House insurance up for renewal in feb. I think Hastings are the best for cashback (£15 on contents only) but will research some more.