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!

Sorry for your losses collie and audit. And pass, what the heck??! The men got the jobs???! That's a bit careless of them to do that. Unless they have a v robust hr scheme, I imagine holes can poked into that.

NSD yesterday I think. Can't remember much. Did pay 2nd cc bill. It wasn't as horrendous as I'd thought. Was expecting over a thousand but came in at £800+ and that was even lower than the previous month which was amazing. This was our Christmas spend so we are quite chuffed.

Also paid for swimming lessons for the kids. £96. And paid after school club £164 or something (all this is only up till February).

Owe pre school some money but that can wait till end January.

Happy weekend everyone. We've survived first week back!!

£75 in Tesco including year's supply of tampons, loo blue, fairy liquid etc and loads of veg to chop and freeze, great idea!

Sorry for your loss too, audit :(

Sorry for your losses collie and audit

Still decluttering and Ebaying.....but now I have a dilemma, I put a fat face jumper on ebay for a starting price of 2.99, I have 16 watchers and someone has asked if I'll do a buy it now? It's nothing special??!! I guess I paid £45 last year......I thought I'd get about £5 lol but now what shall I ask for??! Will supplement my redundancy lol.

yesterday wasn't as bad as I thought, mostly stuck to my frugal list and will be sticking to meal plan

Iceland £28
Aldi £15 (included nappies, 3 x shower gels, wipes, soap)
91p had 2 'u could have saved..' vouchers I found in my purse
bus fare £4.50
mcdonalds £6.50 (monthly treat when we go into town for Lego shop monthly minibuild)

so this week I have £10 left. got dd girls brigade to pay £2 and possibly art club if she gets a place (£4) so will have to be a low key weekend with lots of nsd's till next Thursday

passthecake is there any similar ones that have ended that u could get a rough idea of what they sell for?

Does anyone know how much it would cost to have a pair of trousers altered? Trying to decide between buying a pair for 35 quid and getting them altered or buying a more expensive pair that fit better.

needsa it is good and best of all cheap, I will post a red kidney bean and a thing called empadao de atum (like a tuna shepherds pie) on the credit crunch recipe thread this evening.

All good here just bus passes bought, but now have interview for an 11 month contract next week so very happy pixie here !

I've gone for a buy it now of £20 (greedy!). If it's too high...then they won't bother and it can go to auction!

Day 2 of "gardening leave" and 2 rooms (my bedroom and dds bedroom), spring cleaned....more stuff on FB and Ebay. DS bedroom next week!

Planned spends are ds street dance subs for the term, tickets for his show and uniform hire - not sure how much that will total - maybe £130-£150? Owch.

Dinner is prepared bolognaise pasta bake for kids (previously frozen for a long- commute day) and a value prawn cocktail salad and french bread for dp and I (using up Xmas thousand island dressing and frozen prawns) - don't think he'll be too impressed lol!

My new condenser tumble arrived today at 7.15am (delivery guys woke me up!), it's been running for hours and my washing is still wet? Hmmmmm....thinking there might have been more to it than plugging it in??

Nsd. Haven't done a big food shop since 29th and still have:

Lasagne (in freezer)
Meatballs
Two packs of sausages.

I might go and do a big shop tomorrow though as we have no fruit and not much veg.

Sorry to audit and collie

The spaghetti squash and arrabiata sauce from last night was amazing and there was enough left for DH lunch.

NSD again today, that's 3 in a row. Tomorrow won't be though we have a lot of big bills coming, insurance renewals etc, right after Christmas so the usual cushion is rather thin!

NSD finished a big piece of uni work and might break into some of the interesting spirits we were given for Christmas to celebrate! No need to buy wine then.

I'm annoyed with Halifax. They wrote to me saying I had some money in an old account but for some reason they couldn't give it to me so I was to go to that My Lost Account site to get it back. So I did, and now I've had an email saying they can't find it and to go through the complaints procedure with Halifax What a faff! It's over £40 though, so worth doing!

Store cupboard sweet and sour from last night:

Meat or meat substitute, cooked and cut into small chunks. We use 4 pork steaks, yellow-stickered down to £1 for all four.
Boil rice for four people. We used brown rice.
In a pan mix and heat 50g ketchup, 50g brown sugar, 50g malt vinegar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, and half a tin of pineapple chunks. We added two chopped-up peppers and a load of frozen peas.

Add your meat, simmer until cooked through, serve with the rice. We ate two big portions and there are two big portions left for the freezer. Cheap and cheerful :)

NSD!!

earned my riding lesson today by mucking out and grooming for a couple of hours (in the rain...).

and had lunch with a friend (she paid).

Money in purse: £0.00 (was £3.00)
Money in bank: £206.93 (was £263.58)
Money in coin jar: £27.05 (was £31.10)
Available money decreased by: £63.70
Total remaining: £233.98
Days to payday: 6

(discovered the missing £3.10 yesterday and only 10p is unaccounted for. I'd used a pound for the trolley and put it in my bag and not my purse, and DH took £2 for his lunch)

Spends since yesterday
£14.65 overdraft interest (YIKES - I hope one day this will be less if I can build up some reserve money so that it is sat there in the current account if I need it but because it is there it means I don't get charged interest on the overdraft)
£42.00 football tickets
£4.95 – Slimming World (0.5lbs down this week, I really cannot be arsed)
£2.10 – not sure whether this is DS1's athletics, or both kids bus fares – either way I seem to be up!

I had an e-mail from Quidco to say they had sent my payment but I don't know when I will get it.

I'm another one joining the bereaved club as DH's 88-year-old grandma died today – it was expected but still sad nonetheless. DH has been over with his mum all day.

Colliewobble – Ask the prospective buyer a price first. Don't say you were only wanting a fiver, just ask them what they had in mind and casually drop the hint there are 16 watchers. look at past Fat Face stuff first and see if you can see how many bidders there have been and how much stuff has gone for. Surely out of 16 watchers it is going to go? I'd be tempted to leave it.

Pointlessfan – the last time I had some trousers altered it was £7. But that was about 5 years ago, at a stall in a market, and the cost of living is cheap where I live, so it's probably gone up by now and will cost more if you live somewhere naice. If you like the item that you are having altered it is probably worth it.

I'm so sorry to hear of all these bereavements. to all grieving a loved one.

I'm sorry to hear that Collie, Audit & Bantam, not a nice way to start the year.

£15 petrol
£67 vet
£2 cat food.

spendy.. the cardi i wanted in th e Toast sale came back into stock againin a much smaller size (there clothese are Huge .. ) so I reordered.. so thatsthe £93.50 with postage out again . but it really is fab am hoping it wont be too big this time..

Co op 1:- £6.84 all reduced barganious stuff , lettuces, posh quiche, clementines more ham and a newspaper ..
Co op2:- £4.08 eggs and lemons 'cos i forgot them
O2 bill £11.89

However £20 cash came over my way from DH

So money in bank £271. 32
Money in purse £21. 40
Savings acct £ 449.45 (I didnt take that £93.50 out again.. will see if i can manage to keep it in there) .

BUt windscreen took a hit from a flying stone off the road in all the bad weather yesterday, and has cracked, I'm told ill have to pay £75 excess on my car insurance when i get it fixed on monday (will contact them about this , I was sure it was all covered)

Weekend shouldnt be too spendy . We are going to see my parents and they are taking us out to lunch for my birthday ( last month) and for my my bros (this weekend). Will cost a ferry fare as we are on the IOW but we are not taking the car .

Sorry to hear of all the losses

Laska I have a £75 excess on my windscreen too.

for Bantam and family. Sorry for your loss.

£1.59 on bread and milk from Lidl.

Yep, £75 excess here too.

I have two massive chips in mine but it goes back in July so it'll get done literally the day before we take it back.

Sorry to hear of all the bereavements. I shall be joining the club any day as my mum is in the last few days of terminal cancer.

I have had a nsd today but it's going to be a more spendy day tomorrow as I have decided to allow myself a frivolous comfort shop item and am buying a nutribullet for £99. In my defence I do desperately need a blender as I haven't had one for ages and it's very annoying. Also as I broke the last 2 cheap ones blending frozen fruit and other difficult stuff I have decided buying another low price one is a bit of a false economy. I have followed the YNAB rule and moved some budget from other areas so though it wasn't planned it is now accounted for.

I am feeling quite pleased with myself as previously if i felt rubbish I would just fritter money on things without thinking about it. At least this is something I sort of need and I have thought through the budget consequences. ok so i could probably survive with a slightly less poncy blender but sod it, sometimes you have to go a little wild... right..