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!

Hi all blimey this thread is getting busy!

Well done Collie thats great news, am don't think I will ever be able to afford to buy!!

So went to Sainsburys today to take some bits back that dd didn't like and to pick up some baby girl clothes for my friends new baby, ended up being being a straight swap as realised once I got there that didn't have my purse!! Thats one way to ensure I don't spend anything

Also spent £3.99 on getting some photos printed from Snapfish (40 photos!) seems very cheap so hoping they will be o.kay!

Just spent €11 on a deal for 100 5x7 prints in a local chemist which has great quality photos. Our present this year for Christmas was the disc of children's portrait photo session, now can print them!!

Will also buy independent for aldi voucher thanks for headsup plus there's a success story article from a unislim member in it too.

If anyone here is in Manchester unislim will be opening 6 classes there. I'm a leader here in Ireland , it's a great plan suited to all the family.

Congrats on mortgage!!

NSD.

Cheap day at the museum. £3.75 on tat in the shop. Surprise lunch out after I packed a pic nic so £20 but saved on treats and pudding as had them in my rucksack from the pic nic.
Lovely day out with good friends.
£50.07 on fuel but that is a monthly regular - well £50 not the 07

Had an annual summary from the credit card I use for online purchases that I don't pay off every month, and to my horror have paid £600 in interest in the past 12 months.
Totally my own fault for not keeping an eye on this situation, we didn't go on holiday last year to save money, I just didn't realise how much it was adding up to.

So today finally got off my ar*e and found a 0% card with low balance transfer fee for 35 months via the excellent MoneySavingExpert website, was accepted in minutes and have transferred the balance. I should have done this ages ago I know, but seeing that summary really bought home how many ad hoc purchases I make and how easily they add up, so endeavouring to be better organised and more proactive this year!

LSD today, £5 on a pony club rally for DD. Kids got bacon butties, a drink and a cookie for the cost. I resisted and brought some soup, a banana and my own flask of coffee.

Interesting though, the pony hasn't hunted much and gets stupidly excited, to the point where she wouldn't stop and took DD randomly through a hedge at one point, which was half scary and half exciting for DD.

collie great news on the mortgage. We have been lucky over the years with houses, we have owned for about 15/16 years, but the first house we bought and the bottom of the market, and sold 6 years later at the top. We made £160k on that house, which is insane really, and has enabled us to a very large extent to have the house we do now iyswim?

Never fails to amaze me how much rent is compared to a mortgage.

You can't rent a house around here for less than £1000 pcm.

So redid our budget and we're currently putting in £50 a month more than we need. I'm going to get back into putting in our actual spendings and anything that is left at the end of the month will go into 'savings' which can be used for car things/birthdays etc

well i had a NSD yesterday ..( However DH took me out to lunch.). and again today

I should say that im only being very frugal for myself with my own money from my earnings (I work f/t) as he is very frugal already. (but not at all mean, IYSWIM).

But I'm the spender and hes the saver in the relationship , and although we are fortunate enough to be pretty ok - mortgage about to be paid off and we have some savings - he is planning on retiring (early) this year and so we will be losing over half of our income, so I need to make sure that my money is not tied up in debt as it has been every year for many years now.

Ive aways paid it off at new year , and have just done so now, so im debt free again but now i need to change my bad spending habits ensure it stays that way .

Also I work in the public sector and redundancies are looming due to cuts.

But although i got paid before Christmas ive hardly spent anything since so , YNAB still reconcilled and after DDs and other outgoings theres £600 in bank.

Also £355 in savings (this is pretty much a first ever for me!) .. but about £250 of that will be for house insurance ..

I have £19.37 in purse, and have just put another £2 coin in piggy
(there are some loose £1s in car i know, but thats car park money if needed so ill not count that .. its probably about £6-7 ).

I have two sale items going back which i bought on CC and so which will cancel out whats onthat , and im due a refund (hopefully over £150) on my dual fuel as switched on the MSE cheap energy club deal as from Dec

Lunch was lentil and veggie soup, and that will also be my lunches for the rest of the week ( DH wont be here as he works away all week)

Dinner tonight is the rest of the venison casserole I made the other day and no doubt we will have a final 'holiday' bottle of

I tend to eat veggie all week when he isnt here , so am planning super cheap, alcohol free and hopefully healthy week after two indulgent weeks
Sigh... am back to work tomorrow ah well...it was nice to have time off .. I hope i can mange frugal when back in town all week ..

(note to self.. must keep out of shops.. esp TK Maxx! .. think ill take my kindle in to read instead of going out lunch time,)

I hope we can all frugaleer once back to day to day reality ..

Oh and JIC it looks unfair .. when i say being only frugal with myself, I should say that although I do pay all the food , fuel and other house bills ..
DH pays the mortgage and saves, and pays for holidays and all the bills and expenses on the flat he lives in that he bought a few years ago, when not here .. )

So yes, I am fortunate.. (but still need to not be in debt anymore!)

Final blow out of school hols, £5.45 kids club film, took popcorn and Xmas sweets in. £25 soft play (inc latte and jug of squash), £40 Frankie & Bennys (found 20% voucher cloud). That's it for fun splurges until feb half term! That was pretty much the only one of the Xmas break anyway.

Came home to find the childminders invoice. Not fair that we have to pay half fees over Xmas.....maybe next year I'll send the kids and call her bluff

eek passthe cake half fees even when they are not there? , thats outrageous..

However its been some years since i have had children at childminders (over 20years!now have grandchildren) is this normal nowadays ?

Yep, rent is mad here too. We pay £1200 pcm (well, we pay more off to be fair, but that's the actual figure) on originally a £250k mortgage.

I am late but I am here, please,please, please let me in kind people, got to pull in tight the next 8 weeks in my never ending quest for a VW Beetle
Back to work tomorrow, YEY! NSD and overtime to boot
Good luck to all the regulars and the old faithful ....

Rent is crazy where we are, a small flat is £1200 pcm. We are lucky as my job provided subsidised housing and that's what has enabled us to pay off our debt and hopefully from this month on, save for a house! It does put a lot of pressure on me to stay well as if I got sick again I might lose my job and then we would lose our home too. trying not to think about that at the moment!!

I failed to only buy apricots in Sainsbury's but my other purchases were 2 boxes of the tea we drink as it was on offer so would be bought in the next couple of weeks anyway, a jar of mincemeat for next Christmas, 10p, a loaf of really nice bread, 40p, cheaper than homemade it's all gone now and 4 blueberry bagels as a treat for dh, 80p. I did use my £1.63 voucher and £2.50 in points though. This year I MUST stop top up shops.

pass I've never used a childminder but listening to some of my friends things have clearly changed since I was a child. I like your idea of sending the dc next Christmas!

Oops £36.99 on Amazon on 3 presents for dds bday, plan is only to spend £50 ish on her bday as rest is going on a London trip which we have decided will in Easter time, can't leave her with nothing to open on the day though

Anyone got any ideas for cheap presents for a soon to be 9 yo girl? She likes Sylvainian families, books and games but got lots over Christmas.

I think I must have been lucky with my cms as have never been charged over Christmas! I think they have taken it as time off though and as a rule don't charge for their leave iyswim. My current cm only charges when dd goes which is ideal, so much easier now dd is at school though.

Please can I join? This is just what I need at the tail end of mat leave especially as we unexpectedly had to get the boiler fixed over Xmas. Have skim read and already got a couple of good tips!

£23 in Asda on DS party food (just us 4 but doing special party tea) decorations and cake and cake. I thought that was quite good as I got a cake reduced but still in date (? - I think they thought the 8 was a 3).

I used a voucher to pay so no impact on cash budget.

I have a cheque to pay in to cover £30 petrol to top up.
£200 for food for the last 3 weeks, as I have one weeks worth of food in. Just hope nothing comes up as getting rid of overdraft this month.

Here we go again another year where the boiler packs up. Will be forking out for a plumber tomorrow then, defo not budgeted for. Sigh!

Wonder if it's worth doing the monthly insurance thing on it?

£24 on fresh veg and fruit and bread, adding fresh stuff to freezer stocks is working well.
£14 on flowers and a vase for newly de-cluttered living room. Looks lovely though.

Nothing else spent, DH and I are doing a modified version of dryathlon - no buying alcohol, we are both going to posh work dinners where it will be provided and have no intentions of sitting through that shit without copious amounts of booze but it will be free booze!

Welcome pointless I'm sure we've talked on another thread?

Evening all,

Money in purse: £27.70 (was £27.70)
Money in bank: £210.56 (was £230.56)
Money in coin jar: £43.50 (was £43.50)
Available money decreased by: £20
Total remaining: £281.76
Days to payday 11

Spends since yesterday
DH - £20 cash.

He reckons he is giving up smoking and drinking from tomorrow for dry January. That'll be my grocery bill drastically rising then :-D

Everyone and everything back to normal tomorrow, so money will be disappearing left, right and centre for bus fares and activities money etc . I found out today that bus fares locally have risen too, not much - only by £2 a month for me (£52 a month), but I really begrudge paying it as I only get 2 buses per day, and live 2.5 miles away but I have to be at work for 7am and would have to walk through a really dodgy, unsafe area in the dark.

My cminder doesn't charge for 2 weeks over the summer holiday but when I questioned her closure days for winter she wasn't forthcoming. ..think she's done a crafty as knows most parents don't work? She doesn't charge for the bank holidays. Tbh, I wouldn't want to send the kids as she has one's of similar age and my kids wouldn't be allowed to play with their new toys - they would have to stick to the childminders huge amount of supplies - but they wouldn't understand and tell me all about it later. ...