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!

Can I join? Six months into running a house for the first time and am struggling with getting my savings back up.

Should be able to have LSD today and tomorrow. I'm also doing the coin sweeping thing with my bank so hoping that will add up!

No way I'd be decorating with 3 under 7 Ohhelp - just hunkering down with storms outside, and maybe a few mugs of cocoa all round if they were lucky!

Thanks everyone for your kindness. Mn really is lovely at times like this. :)

I've just realised that I've only cooked 2 evening meals from scratch so far this week as all the others have been mainly left over with just a bit of bulking or some sides added. I've even got some left over, left over soup for tonight. I've not really had time to plan food much as I've been up at the hospice in the afternoons so it's just worked out this way. It's been really easy and convenient though so I might start trying to do left overs more.

Pass some dryers come factory set to the lowest setting. Check yours isn't one of them.

£66 in lidl got loads though
£32 top up in sainsburys but that included a big pack of nappies and a birthday card and a twirl

I sent £60.62 last night (after a couple of glasses of wine )on line buying Mexican food after realising id run out of some things I needed .. (silly) , but at least ill have ingredients in store for several yummy Thomasina Miers recipes for the next few months .. ( we do love our spicy food in this house and theres no where to buy that kind of thing locally)

However that was a definate Frugal Fail ..
Moral.. do not online shop tipsy..

However, we will be saving the ferry fare today as its blowing an absolute hooley here ... I aint crossing the sea in this..

I realise it may be a little late pass but I have a beko DPU8360. It's cheap to run compared to most tumble dryers, costs approx 10p an hour. However, it does take around 2 hours to dry a load and will only get things bone dry if you set it to 'extra dry'. Reading some reviews I think how good your washing machine is plays a part too. Ours is fairly new and the load comes out damp so the tumble dryer only needs the water emptying after 3 loads but some people say they can't get one load dry without it needing emptying and it takes ages. I presume their washing is quite wet when it goes in. Anyway, do as fluffy suggests and change the settings.

Make that £64.68 in lidl and £31.55 sainsburys. Now to find somewhere to put it all...

I love mexican food!

Try doing an extra fast spin before you do the drying. Our manual (hotpoint) had some good advice on how to get the best out of a tumble dryer I remember e.g. mixing up different size articles of clothing i.e. not all bed linen. So I do a couple of washes and then tumble dry in batches. We also dry a load of stuff over the Rayburn now we have one of those but have a window open in the kitchen so we get rid of any water vapour.

to all who are dealing with loss (or caring for those who are coming to the end of their lives). Being frugal was the last thing I wanted to do when I lost my DD. Being frugal doesn't fit with the Seize the Day, spend it while you can because you never know how long you've got, feelings that come along with losing people you love. Honestly, you might even want to set aside some money for it so you can feel like you're letting yourself "live" while mostly being careful for the future.

Should be a NSD today because I'm not planning on leaving the house in this weather. Making up a big batch of leek and potato soup and cakes, pizza dough, etc. with DS to fill up the freezer. Plan to keep going until we run out of space or ingredients...

Sorry - with DD I meant I lost my Dad not my Daughter. Couldn't remember what the shorthand is for him.

Spendy today: £36 groceries, although hope that will do until payday in two weeks. Also more medicine for the flaming cat, although we'll claim that back on the insurance. From the upcoming payday need to start budgeting a category for pets again so there's always money there if they need something.

Renewed house insurance. Contents only. £80 including interest for paying monthly plus £21 cashback which has already tracked.

Dinner tonight - veggie burgers from the freezer with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and HM sweet potato wedges. DH going into town to buy 2 x burger buns and some ketchup, he's so good at not buying extra stuff.

NSD yesterday. Not today though as we bought an armchair from IKEA (DH want while I was in work this morning) so £150. On the other hand I am sitting very comfortably now

I got an interview for one of the jobs I applied for. I know all the people interviewing me awkward

Not sure why it didn't post. Here's the doner kebab recipe. Am going to make it today but the comments have been pretty good on the site.

My fake away

Donner kebab meat

5OO grams lamb mince
1 tea spoon salt
1.5 tea spoon cayenne pepper
1.5 tea spoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Mix all herbs together
Add mince and mix very well
Roll in to a loaf shape
Bung in slow cooker low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours

Take out and wrap in tin foil for ten mins
Slice thinly and serve with what ever u have

Engineer is coming tues to look at the dryer. Apparently I can refuse a fix and for them to take it away, which is what I'd want, they can replace with the same (non faulty) or refund me! There are 15 heat settings and I'd used hottest as trying to dry towels. I don't think it heated at all.

£42 ds school shoes, grown since sept, £18.50 swimming lesson

Dinner is turkey enchiladas. ....using this time off to clear freezer! Might also try some new recipes as we're stuck in a rut.

21 people watching my fat face jumper on ebay. ....

Hello Everyone, is it OK if I join please? I have only just joined MN and am really glad I have found this section.

I am a 35 year old single mum of 2 boys (15 and 10) and am self-employed. I run and own a cleaning agency. It provides an OK income. Enough to pay the bills, have some treats plus save a few £'s and I have 1 employee too. Trying to interview for my 2nd employee at the moment.

On paper, I should be able to afford to save £600 a month, but December was a slow month for business, plus Christmas spends, and this month my car MOT is due. Yikes!

Anyway, that's me. Nice to 'meet' you all.

Welcome to Bookaholic and other newbies. If you haven't already, read through the links Fluffy posted in the opening post for lots of useful hints and tips.

Very best of luck, spotty.

£2.48 in Tesco (bread, hot dog rolls, doughnuts and a paper).

Hi Book I am also a single mum I am at you being able to save £600 a month, I struggle to save £100 a month, this month I have saved nothing

So been into town today (braved the wind and rain) done o.kay I think, I spent £1.98 on some nice face wash which was more than half price, spent £11 in Waterstones which was annoying as had to replace a school book dd had spilt a drink over but it was in the buy one get one half price section so got the replacement book and another one for half price which will do as a bday present for dds mate later this month. Also going to get dd to give me some money towards it prob £3 just to hopefully make the message clear to be careful with school property!!

Also £2.30 on 12 cards in Card Warehouse God I love that shop!!

I picked up some clothes I had bought online in the Next sale, don't like any of them so they can all go back. That will be a refund of about £27

My mum kindly bought dd a sandwich and me a cup of tea so think that was al spend wise.

Oh and also got some more photos printed off via Snapfish was very pleased with the ones I had ordered last week and they are so cheap, think have ordered about 200 pictures and it came to £11. I realised I hadn't printed any pictures off of dd for about 2 years

Welcome newbies

Working on my first quilt today, for a friend's little boy turning 1. It probably will work out more expensive than buying a toy, but I hope he'll like to use it for games and den-making as he gets older, as well as cuddling of course...plus I wanted to try making one, and I figure a 1-year old won't mind a few wonky seams!

£54 in aldi today. Need to top rest up in sainsbo tomorrow.
Was going to be £20 on bowling but the site crashed and I couldn't book so dodged the showers and went to the skate park for the first time with the kids. They loved it and we parked at the nearest gate. Ran back to the car in a snow shower to much excitement although it's too wet to lay.

Welcome Book :)

Got a bit spendy today, ended up spending €25 on lunch with Dh and dd. Ds had a Maths 'grind' €30, coal cost €36 and a new dog bed €10.

NSD tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the welcomes.

Haven't spent any money at all today, which is good (and rare!). My son had a school trip to London yesterday, so is shattered today and didn't want to go out. So, we haven't even left the house! Very lazy, but lovely too.

NK5BM3 I have been looking for a good kebab recipe, so will give that recipe a go, thanks. Do you add any water into the SC?

Passthecake- whats up with your tumble dryer? I fixed mine last year, a grand total of (drum roll please) £22! The engineer quoted £100, so I went online to a forum about electronics, told the people the model and the problem, and they told me what I needed to get and chatted me through how to fix it. I was SO proud of myself, as I am rubbish at anything like D.I.Y.

Girliefriend- Ahhh, Waterstones, my idea of heaven. I can walk past all of the clothes shops in our local shopping mall, but cant resist a peek in Waterstones.
I am saving money at the moment by buying e-books on my kindle instead. If you go to the kindle store on Amazon and just type in 'free kindle books', you'll get a long list of them. I have about 30 downloaded onto mine. Don't forget that you don't need a kindle either, just the app.

Hoping for another NSD tomorrow, but Monday is shopping day (food). I allow £60 a week for us, sometimes £80. And I buy my meat at the end of every month from the butcher. £45 normally fills my freezer to the point I cant fit any more in!