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!

Hmmm might have to get a small shop tomorrow after all as we've invited someone round tomorrow for drinks and nibbles of which we have neither! And need some stuff like loo roll. Annoying as I was hoping to last til Sunday. We do have lots of regular food though.

The other thing is... I think I've seen DCs' Xmas present for 2015 I can absolutely guarantee they will not go off it (lego) and it's £40 rather than £60 (up to £100 in some places)... need to persuade DH! That reminds me that this year I absolutely am writing down every single Xmas related cost so we can start doing a budget per person.

Speaking of persuading DH I have asked him to also write down spends - he is concerned he will forget (as I frequently did until November) but is happy for me to nag him about it :o

I'm definitely joining. I've just spent £44 on this weeks shopping. £25 will have to go in the car for a weeks petrol to work, but I'm intending for that to be it until Wednesday.

I'm currently three hundred pound into an overdraft and have thousands of debt(7-8 to be specific) I can't even pretend it's not my fault- it is and I have been burying my head for too long.

I'm expecting to have paid the overdraft off by the end of jan and start making real headway into that debt thereafter. Looks like I'll be here a while eh?

£15 on ballet shoes for DD (I got off lightly - her feet haven't grown so I haven't had to replace anything else), and £25 on food shopping which will see us through to the beginning of next week.

Tomorrow we're meeting friends for an outing and probably going out for lunch, so that will be spendy day. After that hoping for no more spends till I go back to work on Monday.

girlie meet your sister I sorted out the freezer today, discovered we've plenty of meat for rest of this week & next. Plus some freezer meals. Also got out some roasted rhubarb and doing jools beef stew plus rhubarb pudding for afters. Stepson and granddaughter are visiting, it's real comfort food.

Have a drawer for everything and everything in its place now. Will do cupboards tomorrow & have a proper list for aldi shop tomorrow evening.

Thanks again for addtional welcomes up thread.

Well not great today - spent money on food when out - just did not organise ourselves properly by eating beforehand/timing.

I have to admit we need:

new hoover
toilet fixing
oven fixing

Dh is pissing me off - just now he asked about tickets to a gig and what about family fesival tickets - I've said no and said in my best teacher voice 'DH just stop, you've done nothing but sit online looking at spending money'

I've just done my first ever coin sweep as a result of this thread. Going to try and do it daily if I remember.
I'm determined not to buy any non-essential items in January as I've spent quite a bit over the past few months. I just need to work out a budget for the essentials now.

andsmile what is wrong with your toilet? I partially fixed ours with a part I bought off amazon and a yourtube video.

NSD - first one in ages

Hello ladies. I fell off the wagon in December, much due to busy at work and getting DD1 to and from panto.

I did my tax return earlier in the week, planning to file it before the end of December do I could get the tax I owed (basically my CB) collected through my tax coding, only to discover that I had underpaid £1,300 in PAYE so I owe too much to clear through my tax code. Bugger. That means I need to find £1,800 by the end of Jan to pay half and the balance for July. I have the money for now, but only by not paying my credit card.

I really wanted to stay straight with Christmas, I guess I will need to do a credit card balance transfer (I still have the last one to clear which I have only been making minimum payments on). I didn't want to do this, but I can't see a way around it. I will need to be really controlled about everything to try to clear this, pay the tax now and get the July money. Also, will need to do something about a holiday, but hoping to stay with a relative so that means just flights.

I am going to try to post everyday.

£30 lunch out dh paid out of his cash

£30 petrol

I just went through our spare change tub (which hasn't been cleared out for well over a year or so) and counted up £32.02!

I've managed to bag up around £24 to take to the bank to go into savings, and the rest has gone back into the tub as an incentive to chuck more in. I can't believe how much we had in there to begin with.

Some great tips on here for saving money. One I have just remembered that someone at work did was to put all £2 coins into a jar every time she received one. She said she didn't miss it at the time and the advantage is that it accumulates really quickly. So this is going to be my 2015 money saving resolution!

Thank you so much for all the advice! Fanta and needastrongone great advice. I will definitely go through my cupboards and freezer when I get back home on Sunday
I have ordered a test delivery for Monday and unfortunately we needed all sorts of cleaning stuff, bin bags, toilet paper you name it. Planning to spread these costs out over different weeks. I have discovered morrisons own brand washing powder (recommend by Which) it's great. Meal planning is a definite and so is coin sweeping. I am going back to a part time job next week, so the meal planning will be helpful there too. I am sure though I will have trouble keeping my sons (12 and 17) out of the fridge until I get back from work.
Planning to report back daily

Happy New Year everyone. May it be a frugal one for us all!

NSD to start things off for me. I'm also going to do Dry January and try coin sweeping, so every little helps!

Just back to say that I've gone through my account and saved over £100 a month just in unnecessary direct debits ( stupid things like gym membership which has never been used, an Rac membership for a car we don't have anymore and didn't realise that automatically renewed still paying £££ for life insurance as a smoker when quit two years ago) - too expensive utilities/ services are next. This thread has woken me up to just how much money I'm effectively throwing away

I am learning to drive at the moment and spent my last lesson hardly able to see due to the sun in my eyes so I have just had to spend £80 on sunglasses.

I know this sounds outrageously expensive for sunglasses but I have ordered them online and actually it's a bargain for me. I am amazingly short sighted and my last pair of everyday glasses cost around £400

Just hoping they are going to be OK now. I really can't afford them full price from the opticians and don't really want to swap to contacts at the moment.

Email rac's CEO (you can Google their email addresses for this reason) and ask them to reimburse you for the months you didn't need it.

Auto-renewals a bit naughty. It's 10 minutes work & you've got nothing to lose.

I've just tried to coin sweep but my banking app won't let me transfer less than a £1

Nsd for me. Used up Christmas cheese making a risotto for tea.

Hurrah! NSD. I meant to thank you earlier fluffy for starting a new thread. I realised that in my financial forecasting I've forgotten to include our mobile phones, they only cost £7.50 per month each so not a disaster but I'm annoyed with myself for the oversight so that's £15 less per month we have.

On groceries during the last year we've spent about £65 per week. We're vegetarian, 2 adults, 2 young dc and a baby but this year I've increased our budget to £80 as although we eat healthily it can be very 'samey'. Fruit is ALWAYS bananas, apples and satsumas, occasionally pears. Just once in a while I want to get grapefruit or mango. Also I've decided to move take aways from 'fun' budget to food budget in the hope that once I've done a monthly shop I'll see how little is left and it'll stop me ordering. I'm hoping to still have them occasionally so they'll be a proper treat again.

Following

Fluffy that's really annoying. Natwest and first direct are letting me coin sweep.

Having 'bits' for dinner as we went out for lunch so that's an extra meal for the week.

Fluffy could you keep a note of the amounts each day and transfer at the end of the week? Might be a bit annoying but at least you'll get it done still!

I'm hoping for an NSD tomorrow; I've got the day off work and I don't have any plans so hopefully I won't spend anything. Today would have been an NSD but I bought the YNAB software and a couple of bits of makeup (although that did come from my Christmas money, so perhaps doesn't count).

Also, for anyone with a TSB current account, you may already know but I believe you can set it to sweep automatically for you, which is helpful

£10.55 on birthday present for my little sister. Accessorize have a good sale on and I used my other sisters student discount

Hello all joining now I have stated to get sorted.

Could you sweep to the nearest fiver instead?