Frugal January, part two.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everybody is welcome.

Can I ask about frozen onions? I've never used them but I'm thinking of ways to save time when I go back to work soon. Are they any good and do they work out more expensive than buying onions?
I had a lucky find in the garden at the weekend, a whole tub of garlic that I planted 2 years ago has finally grown! I just need to figure out how to store it now, it should last months.
NSD as still poorly.

bantam - damn dentist charges eh?

Agree, no point in saving if you are financing debt to a greater extent fuzz. Sorry to hear about your anxiety.

I might have mentioned before that DH is bi-polar, so, while I am reasonably ok myself (I sometimes need a beta blocker when his lows trigger something in me), but I do understand a little of what it's like.

DH also started on half a 10mg tablet of Citalopram and moved onto a full tablet. He felt awful for a good week or so, but felt his mood lifting immediately, even with the side effects. This built up and his mood is much steadier overall, but he's very affected by how I feel, which can be hard sometimes.

I have veggie slices in the oven and we are having these with cinnamon baked sweet potato. I have made sweet potato and carrot soup too for tomorrow.

Have sold a rugby tackle bag on Facebook for a tenner I think too, if the buyer turns up!!

Another NSD for me, DH paid for lunch out today, gluten free pizza, I think it was about €23 for the four of us.

Hope you find some childcare Spotty. I know we wouldn't have DCs if DH hadn't been made redundant and taken a chance on a job overseas.

Well done on that balance transfer bantamgirl

I've fallen in love with seen a coat reduced to half price but they didn't have my size. I'll see if I can find one before we return to Chile.

NK5BM3 Morphy Richards Sear and Stew. Worth shopping around for a good price deal. Ours was about £22 on Amazon and is Red!! You can use the pot to brown/saute things prior to using the slow cooker, so really a 'one pot' process. It's very very light. I also have an Aldi SC which is fine. And a more expensive but multi purpose SC which does porridge, rice, and has a timer etc but that's quite bulky. I use this for my rice a lot though.

Fuzz there is a lot to be said for paying off debt with savings, even just a bit.. Our money is totally shared although I manage it
Girlie anxiety is horrible. Well done on getting help. I've been on citalpram since I had pnd with my youngest who.is now 5 my lovely Dr said sometimes women just seem to rewire from hormones after having kids and they become anxious. Quite a common phenomenon apparently just not well spoken about..
My £4 became £30.03 on fuel and £3.73 in tesco collecting my second slow cooker.
NK5 I have the seal and sear one which is good but I think the metal pot gets too hot for leaving food in all day (10 ish Hrs) so I have just collected the £12.50 tesco one as recommended in reviews on here. The ceramic pot is better for all day cooking imo

My minor (undiagnosed) anxiety is rearing its ugly head again. Think I might go to bed.

The slow cooker you can put on the hob sounds great. I'm going to try and make a keema curry next week as I have loads of mince, not sure anyone but me will like it

Net gain today
Spent £3 on lunch but £30 cash back from the MSE energy club landed in the account this morning. Very happy. Joint account looks far healthier than it usually does at this time of the month. Our dual fuel bill is down £16 per month and those useless tossers NPower have still not sent a final bill - 2 months on. We have the money saved for it but they're not getting a penny til I see it in black and white. I had to reclaim 3 unauthorised DDs which they took from our account. Total bastards.

confused - mse energy club? Tell me more. I get emails (alerts?) from the energy club but I think I'm tied into my rate...

Ds school shoes that he wore for just 3 months made £5 on Ebay to go towards the £42 replacement. Big deal eh but hopefully they'll do someone else a turn!

waiting for Asda to refund for the subs I rejected on Sat, they are never usually this long....I feel a rant phone call coming on

Well a NSD except we have a huge garage bill to pay tomorrow. 4 times what expected...

Sat here without heating. Just been on MSE energy club to look at switching.

Our health insurance company refunded us €90 as we claimed back some of the cost of our prescriptions.

I got a free latte 'cos my loyalty card was full (buy 5 coffees and get your next one free).

I spent about €1 on a yoghurt in the canteen at work.

Pay day tomorrow. As well as paying all our bills, we've ordered more home heating oil. We got 500 litres for €310. This time last year we paid €200 for 200 litres of oil . Thankfully the price has dropped since then.

Not caught up with thread yet, but I also got my £30 from MSE energy club today also confused.

I had to call my old provider (Co Op)this week as they hadnt given me the final bill either , but they now tell me I will get £156 back - but might be another 21 days until i get the money back !! The buggrs .. They switched me at beginning of December..

My new tariff is £21.34 less a month dual fuel so was worth it ..

Pass Moneysaving expert cheap energy club here. They recently did a mass switch deal which i did and loks like confused did also ..

NSD yesterday, Today was spendy

£29.53 co op, fruit, cheese, wine, toiletries and turkey steaks (to make yummy Turkey schnitzel ) all for the weekend. I found a £1.50 off voucher someone had dropped in the car park and used that !! (A bit cheeky and a bit naughty ) and so I still have my own £1.50 voucher left for this week which ill use on top ups for milk etc on Saturday.. We have DGS (aged 2) staying so ill be needing to get some things for him . (they often issue discount vouchers to co op card holders )

£7.50 in Boots , some slipper socks and a pair of tracky bottoms for DGS, both reduced

£17 for my half of Malaysian meal .. been out with my best mate this eveing ..
£ 7.75 in cafe bar for 2 glasses on wine (one each) before meal , my treat... this has been my only evening out this month so not feeling guilty .. ..

TBH, my bank current account is not looking as good as hoped with only £87 in today , but the £30 MSE cashback was a boost . and I have £45 in cash..

Im also awaiting a refund of £55, and maybe , just maybe ill get my £156 co op energy refund before end of month .. Roll on payday! (its been a long month.. I last got paid 2 days before Christmas )

Houseand travel insurance due on Monday £288 but i do have enough in my savings acct to pay it though

Spotty for minor anxiety try essential oils, lavender, sage or neroli - all can be added to a bath and I use lavender with any old cooking oil to massage my temples, neck, shoulders, arms & hands plus legs & feet while taking long deep breaths of the Neroli. About 3-5 drops to a teaspoon of carrier oil depending how far up the wall I've reached. I've become practiced at handling my anxiety because I obstinately steadfastly refuse to go back on the meds - ishoos.

That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with using meds when needed.

Wow Sock four times? Sounds like daylight robbery

Thanks adora.

Should be a nsd today as I haven't got anything planned. Should probably do some housework

Dinner is chilli from the freezer probably with potato wedges as I've got some potatoes that need using.

Aldi £5 off voucher in the Mirror / Record today. We need to shop so that us timely. I have a nasty stomach bug so will be off work. Hoping I'll be OK to pop to Aldi this afternoon. Apart from that, should be no more spends.

NSD yesterday. Won my Ebay auction for some ski gloves so £8.09 on those this morning - will pay for themselves in a week if I can get back on my bike to work while the weather's still cold. Hoping not to spend anything else today.

Spotty, sorry about the childcare - it's appalling that it's so difficult.

I think we've decided to go for a Lakeland slow cooker. Primarily because I got a £5 voucher from there! And the ratings and reviews look fine (and even those that and complaints said that Lakeland then sorted them out...).

So it was an NSD yesterday, and will be an NSD today as well.

Hello adora! Have been wondering how you were... Are you still here or back in chile??

Pointless - frozen veg are a great way to save time, but make your own. I'd always thought veg had to be blanched before freezing but the wiser lovely ladies on here have convinced me otherwise. After investing in strong zip lock bags from Amazon and a happy chopping session I have a great stock of onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms and leeks separate and mixed ready to go, all for a lot less than the cost of pre-prepped supermarket stuff. Another tip, loose veg is sometimes more expensive than the packaged, certainly true re leeks in Tesco the other day. Can't see why garlic can't be chopped and frozen too, will give it a go later.

Have been reading with sympathy and empathy about all of you suffering from depression/anxiety and about taking Citalopram, it seemed very common so went online to check out what the generic name for Cipramil that I was on in my late teens was and guess what citalopram!!
babsmam that's interesting what your doctor said about women being rewired following pregnancy or childbirth. I used have a dark day once a week or so prior to my first pregnancy 5+ years ago and I can honestly say I haven't had one since! Maybe it worked the opposite way for me. Citalopram definitely helped me to cope better and wasn't a longterm thing, just for a few months on two occasions just to get things back on an even keel. It's a chemical imbalance in the brain is what my doctor told me, and can happen to anyone.

I had a great class last night, numbers were up by almost 20 compared to last week so that's a welcome boost to my finances.

Can you do rice in a slow cooker?!

Thanks everyone for the responses about the savings vs debt. I'll definitely tell DH about that idea and transfer it ASAP. I am going to be stubborn and not let my ISA go below £5k though - I just can't bear to. Anyway the excess more than covers the CC bill, and DH is only paying in his tax rebate today, so should work out pretty well. Also got the two months without council tax so that'll help! I need to make sure the rebate from the electric company has come through too.

Yesterday:
21/1
£9.68 in Coop on random crap, lunch etc. Had DS with me as I kept him off school (thought he might have a UTI type thing but went to dr and he's clear)
50p charity donation
£4.65 bus fares (would've been more but one driver insisted on telling me my DS is still 4 so too young to pay :o)
£4.50 taxi home
£29.71 pizza! DH's birthday treat since we couldn't go out. Was hoping for a nice meal just the two of us today as he's got a rare day off, but I'm not well enough. Might make soup and then we've got leftover pizza for dinner :o

Great news about your class lilac!

It's interesting about being wired differently after babies. I definitely feel different and I did have PND after both mine. That's not when it started for me though - I've had depression/anxiety since I was very young, I was abused as a child so that's why I strongly feel that (for me anyway) medication is not the full solution. It's certainly helping this time though! :) I've been on sertraline 3 times now and it's had a different effect each time. Bizarre. Anyway I'm now taking amitryptiline as well which is technically an AD but at this low dose it's used as a painkiller. I'm hoping the combination will really help get me better.

I didn't get the job. Was second choice apparently

Thank you confused. We shop at Aldi so will use that voucher. For some reason I thought it would be next week. Anyone know expiry? Might get two.

Adora. Yes I'm highly suspicious. Its a £120 job plus recovery so £150. Then I knew I needed another tyre as damaged from problem.. However apparently other tyre is bald and also more parts needed. So just shy of £500. Not what we need right now.

Those of you taking medication have you looked at pre payment certificates? Sometimes worthwhile.

Was hoping our council tax would be 2 free months- feb and march but looks like its over 12 months and was high because of some changes.

Need to check our water too. We pay £45 a month on a "social" tariff. Our usage would be £70ish otherwise but we have eczema and get child tax credits. Hoping we have Feb and March off.

Managed to look at lots of different loyalty cards balances.
Texaco £5 voucher to redeem. Prob get fuel.
Nectar points £ 18.78.... Not sure what to use on. Any tips?

Morning! Been one of those mornings.

Farrier came for the pony this morning. So £55 for a refit of her shoes. £5 on sausages from the farm (massive bag).

DH had forgotten his keys so had to drive to work on my day off (out of love!!!). Back home, straight out with the dogs.

Waiting for a Morrisons delivery, about £60, then will make chunky vegetable and pancetta soup for tea, before taking dogs out again and doing various chores. So much for a day off.

Ouch to the bill sock. Did they ask you before doing the extra work?

I second the pre payment certificate, DH has three ongoing prescriptions. I signed him up after having advice on here and it's brilliant. £10 pm or thereabouts. I think over 10 months but would need to check that.

Fuzz

lila good news about the extras!

Sold a music stand and rugby tackle bag, £15 total.

spotty I am sorry about the job, that's a shame. Did they provide any other feedback?

tayto That's a big drop in fuel cost! All helps doesn't it?!