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!

Dh and I haven't had any time off over christmas (apart from the standard three days). Not looking forward to the school run tomorrow though!

Thank you, Peonies - yes I think we have, on the Kondo thread. I'm thinking that saving money and kondoing will go hand in hand. I've already saved money by finding that we had at least 6 months worth of cleaning products shoved in the cupboard under the kitchen sink!

NSD fail - though I did manage to take back the can of paint that we bought two weeks ago that turned out to be the wrong stuff, so a refund of £10.50 can be set against £30 for new lampshades for DD's bedroom (I've been decorating it over the weekend and realised the old ones were pretty grotty). It looks excellent, though I say so myself - much cleaner and lighter.

Only other spending was £2.90 on the Sunday paper, and 70p on a bag of pasta.

Sorry, hadn't read all the new posts - collie, many congratulations on the mortgage!

I'm back at work tomorrow, but DD has one more day before school starts. I must take packed lunch - tomorrow I really ought to manage a NSD as all my social things are later in the week!

Tube fares have gone up, sigh. And it's been too cold to cycle - all the rest of me is fine but I have rotten circulation in my hands, and if it gets below 5 degrees I'm in real pain when I get to work. I've spent a fortune on gloves over the last few years, including some super-expensive high-performance ones that are supposed to cope with a Canadian winter.

4/1
£7.30 bus fares
£10 barber for DS
£15.11 Morrisons - fruit etc for lunchboxes, stuck completely to list except grabbing some lychees (see them so rarely I always take the chance when I can - my and DD's favourite!)
£40.90 last day of holidays lunch
£27.84 wilkos - heater and a few other essentials, again stuck to list

Plus two DVDs for £20 in hmv but they were completely free as we had a £20 giftcard yay :o (got HTTYD2 and the anime I've been wanting for months)

Mega spendy day! Quite impressed with myself though - I accidentally deleted what I'd typed throughout the day but actually managed to remember all the amounts. I think just the fact I'm making myself more aware of exactly what I'm spending is really helping.

And I just found out DD has a place at Brownies, so that'll be an extra £25 a term but well worth it I hope, she's not got any other clubs ATM.

Ok, 2nd NSD, 3rd NSD .

Today £30 in Sainsburys on not very much. DH wanted ribs for dinner, needed 3 packs at £6.50 each, plus some corn on the cob (or Cob on corn according to DD2) coleslaw and Waldorf salad.

I managed to dissuade DH from getting (and me paying for) new frying pans at £19 or £25 each, and he wanted 2!

£10 on an HDMI splitter from Amazon. DH got a new XBox One for Christmas, but wants to leave his XBox 360 plugged in until he has finished his current game! Ordered the splitter to avoid taking the TV off the wall, which I hate doing. I am convinced we will drop it (it weighs a tonne) and then DH will need to replace it with a bigger, newer bloody heavier one. Buying the splitter means we plug the old cable (already plugged into the back of the TV) into the box and two more cables into the box then into the Xboxes.

It's really interesting to see what people are spending their money on.

I walked to and from the shops today saving on bus fares. I've spent £36.61 today. £29.90 of that was in Home Bargains. But I did get some really good bargains for DD birthday. My Little Pony Pop ponies are £1.99 RRP £7.99. Also I got a MLP Equestria Girl £6.99 RRP £18.99 (we paid full price for one for Christmas). MLP Stage £9.99 RRP £35.00. So rather a spendy day but saved loafs and am all sorted for DD's special day.

Went to visit mum at the hospice today and put £5 in the donation box as they provide free tea, coffee and snacks and I haven't put any in for a while.

That's been my only spend today.

Today I used Christmas money for a deposit for a 4 night holiday in summer for myself and DD. Need to save the rest of the money and food, activities, petrol etc. I don't want to use savings to pay. I'm also extremely lucky in that a family member is paying for us to go to disneyland paris, just need money to contribute towards foods and any extra spends. Not frugal but things haven't been very good lately and I'm excited to have amazing things to look forward to. Extra focus to Save!

Frugal things for the day:
Coin sweep - 78p to DDs account
I'm saving all 50ps towards my holiday fund - £2.50 added today - it is one of the ones you have to smash and I have no idea how much is in there already!
Gas and electricity bill came through today - I'm in credit by £156 - can I phone them and ask for this to be refunded?

Yes, ask them to lower the DD too.

Hi Fuzz! (slowly catching up!)

I've spent today budgeting for the next few months. I'm going to need to try and earn an extra £50 a week if I want to start any courses in September, so I'm going to contact my local agency and get my name on their books for one of my "free" weekdays. My boss wants extra too so I should get at least £50 a week.

Has anybody got any ideas for bulk food that are gluten free, vegetarian and don't have huge amounts of processed things/soya in them? I am trying to bulk out my freezer and have bolognaise, chilli and lasagne all with soy mince already on my prep list. I want some things to put in that haven't got fake meat in them.

And if anybody has a good recipe for lentil cottage pie I'd be appreciative, I love it but have never made a decent one at home!

Thanks fluffy will do that tomorrow then.

congratulations collie on the mortgage!

Well, no NSD here, but not too bad. Spent £6 on tea in the pub (good old Wetherspoons) and about £4 on drinks afterwards. Leaves me with about £24 "pocket money" for the week until Friday (although £14.50 of that will go on travel, so I'll have to be skinny with pennies until then!).

Pixie I've made veggie shepherds pie before with lentils, I think I just did it as if it was mince but used dried green lentils instead. You'll need to add stock as well for the lentils to soak up.

Just depressed myself by checking my account online, once my rent comes out tomos will be left with almost nothing, tax credits go in on Thursday so will do food shop then. Ugh, hate being skint all the time

My dd came up to me today with £14 off her pocket money and wanted to give it to me I had hoped she didn't realise how poor we are.

Have got some bits to put on the fb buy and sell pages so will do that tomos. I got all my millage and overtime in on time so should get a healthier than usual pay packet at the end of Jan thank God also need to go through my direct debits again and look at ways of getting them down. Once I get a shower put in think will get a water meter as currently paying £56 a month on water for 2 of us in a 2 bed flat

girlie your daughter sounds lovely

pixie this Dahl sounds delicious

Ah girlie that's sweet of her. My dd must be listening when I talk about selling cloth nappies etc cos wanted to make sure that I didn't sell her brother!

Hurrah. NSD today. Can't do the thingy but flowers to Hearmyroar.

What a sweetheart girlie.

My DD keeps wanting to give some of her pocket money to DS. He's not due to start for about 18 months though - DD started on her last (7th) birthday and we planned to keep them the same, but now we are wondering about starting DS (2 years younger) on his 6th birthday instead.

I don't know - she gets £2 a week and we were planning to increase it by 50p a year (so if we start DS early he would start at £1.50 to keep them in the same rate IYSWIM). But then £4 in yr6 seems quite a lot? Anyway, it will be a lot easier to enforce the whole "if you want sweets/a magazine/a go on the arcade etc you have to use your pocket money" if they both have access to their own money.

I think you are right about it being easier to enforce, fuzzpig. I'm pretty sure my sister and I both started to get an allowance when I went into year 7. Looking back now, I probably came off worse on that deal as being in year 5 she wasn't allowed to get the bus into town to meet friends, so didn't have to use it to pay for stuff like that. Not sure either of us noticed that at the time though. As a hormonal pre-teen I'm almost certain it would have caused an argument if we'd gone shopping with my mum and I'd had to buy my own shoes and she'd paid for my sister's. Although technically she could rightfully have argued that she'd paid for my clothes when I was in yr 5/6.

Totally normal for childcare to charge if you choose not to use it different if they are unavailable. Our last childminder charged 50% for her hols n 50% for your hols n no charges if she was sick but full fee if your child sick. First childminder charged full fee for our hols n no fee for hers so over Xmas I waited til she said when she was available or not so it was her choice n then if she was available n we didn't send then we obv paid.

Our nursery used to close Xmas week so didn't charge

Banana, The lady at southern electric said they have to automatically refund you any credit even if it's only £10. New rule that's come in.

Pixie we all like this lentil cottage pie.

NSD yesterday, but thanks to my delightful(!) Children I now have to spend out on a new telephone cable - DS2 cut it with a scissors - and a new screen for my laptop as DD1 broke it by hitting it with a wooden block. Both have ADHD and no impulse control and sadly things like this is the norm here. It's tough.

Expected to spend a bit today. Birthday cards etc to buy as well as bills to pay.