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!

Council tax is usually not collected in Feb and March Laska.

I have done a meal plan for the whole of January this morning and my weekly shop came to just £37 (4 of us). I have never spent so little on food so I hope I haven't missed something essential.

Today is going to be spendy. 2 laptops to repair (but hopefully not replace as I need mine for work and DD needs hers for school work). Also school shoes (saved 20% in sales) and new skirts. They just keep on growing...

Ok im counting it as a LSD.. £8.95 in Co-op

Celery, carrots , milk, 1 doz large eggs (local FR as i am dead fussy about eggs) 2 big bags of onions reduced to less than half price ...and... yet another large baking camembert with onion relish - we enjoyed the christmas one so much - Was also reduced to £2 (well below half price , though, and I only paid that for the last one also ) .
Off to cook up a storm now .

Thanks for council Tax info.574ejones

NSD went out the window as had to nip to the shop for some bread and bits. Signed up for Checkout Smart and thought I'd bagged myself a free bottle of Pepsi Max... Only to realise partway home that I hadnt been given a receipt so can't scan and claim! Doh!

Still... £5.76 spent and that was out the change in my purse that had loitered from December, so it doesn't need to come from this month's budget. And I managed to hold back on buying some veggie sausages as they were really pricey, so looks like I'll be bulking out tonight's tea with beans instead

NSF yesterday and probably today too. Mainly because we're all poorly and not up to going anywhere! DD did buy some gems for her My Little Pony game, but I used Google credits from surveys to cover that.

Off to upload her first YouTube video ... she did one of her opening Shopkins. I think she thinks she'll be as big as Stampy by next week

I have just spent £18.05 on entry to soft play and lunch. Ouch.

It's the last day of DP's holiday so we thought we'd take DD1 somewhere together. Whenever we go somewhere like this DD always wants food and you can't bring you're own.

I find it difficult to find cheap places to go that keep both DD1 (3) and DD2 (1) happy.

Had to take emergency leave from work as dd I'll and needed to see doctor- spent £17 on a dog coat for the dogs birthday as a distraction after the docs to cheer dd up it was needed though and it is her birthday ( both dd and the dog) and i need some bits ( nappies, milk, yoghurts) in the shop- will try to keep that under a tenner and nsweekend to compensate

Bloody hell calm down you lot I can't keep up!

Nsd here. I have enough meals until Wednesday too which is half a week extra

Council tax free definitely feb and march.

Yes, yes, yes to slow cooker! Mine was £15 from tesco.

We haven't booked disney yet but are looking to go in may fri-Sunday (take dd out of school for one day-bad parents ). We are going to stay at Kryiad and fly there, probably easyjey.

Frugal win today - soup made from random veg for lunch, it was healthy and actually nice!

Made lentil and butternut squash Dahl for dinner in slow cooker (everyone seems to be digging these out now, love it!) which will be served with iceberg lettuce shredded and wholemeal wraps brushed with garlic oil. A bit odd but wraps need using up!

Well done collie for your heating bill and good luck with jobs.

Spent the equivalent of £180 today on six month passes to theme park (£150) and then food, juice and parking. It is a lot, but we really go there all the time and won't pay for the extras for the next six months as we built up points by buying tickets.

Going out with friends for breakfast tomorrow and need to buy milk and bread, as well as coriander or lentles as I have loads of carrots, but I will try to not pop anything else in the basket!

Hi, can I join please? Trying to make cut backs now to help with going on maternity leave in July/aug. I'm feeling inspired and motivated after reading these posts!

I'm scared of npower now! I haven't the strength for a good barney these days.

Oh dear ended up a bit spendy today, £9 in the post office on a book of 12 2nd class stamps (God they are expensive but hopefully will last ages) and posting a gift to my friends son for his bday.

£4 on getting the car washed - it looks like a different car now though

and the biggy £57 in Sainsburys eek! £27 of that was on clothes for dd, mostly PE kit stuff as I didn't get her any new for Sept and she has grown a lot since then!! It annoys me that you have to buy packs of 2 or 3 of everything though, you can't just buy a white t.shirt for £1 but i suppose useful to have some spares.

Also £7 on a book and Cd, the book is a gift and the Cd was only £3 and one I have wanted for a while.

The rest was food and I am going to try and make it last til the end of next week.

Peonies- recipe please!

A few things put me off slow cookers the main one being I have no where to keep one (small kitchen and limited storage) but also dd isn't keen on most things that involve sauces... annoying as they do sound good.

Peonies - dhal recipe please! Sounds lovely ....

girlie - if you have a sturdy chopping board you could always put it on the stove top and put the SC on it, or put it on your draining board - where theres a will, theres a way! Oh and slow cooking doesn't have to be all sauces at all - you can put joint of meat in there - a whole chicken is lovely and you get so much more meat from it slow cooked. Also things like cakes and fudge etc are really nice.

£35.87 in Sainsbury's but that includes a £20 gift card to push the bill over £30 so I could get my bonus 3000 points. I accidentally picked up pink lady apples which had better be worth the £3 for 5 that I paid back to gala next shop.

Well done with your energy bill collie we spend £80 a month but I don't think we could get any lower. I do use my slow cooker a lot as it's very cheap to run and I find it convenient when dc have after school activities.

Joan have you tried your local SureStart for groups (presuming you still have SureStart bitter )? My dc also enjoy(ed) museums. As for soft play find out if they have a loyalty scheme and I ALWAYS sneak in food for dc and then buy myself a coffee. I know it's naughty but food and entrance can end up costing £30+ otherwise.

Welcome littlemiss and congratulations.

I used to collie, but tbh once the postage is factored it, it became extortionate.

Had to get a birthday present today (€14) and bought myself a 2015 calendar (€16. Woah). A few bits and pieces for tea and a snack came to €13. Very spendy day but will get going on meal planning tomorrow and hopefully bring our January food costs down quite a lot. €5 of the grocery costs were on a snack but it would have cost me around €10 to pop into a cafe and have a coffee and sandwich - the price of sandwiches is extortionate in the neighbourhood I was in - so I actually did pretty well I think. Still, plenty of room for improvement.