Frugal January, part two.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everybody is welcome.

Nsd as not doing food shopping until tomorrow. Also buying ds first pair of shoes tomorrow, and as its a sale might buy dd some too

I agree with you audit. We get all our child benefit as dh doesn't earn enough for it to stop and I'm a sahm but I think it's really unfair that a household earning 60k get nothing while another earning 100k still get the lot. It seems poorly managed when every other benefit is based on household income.

£14 on lunch as treat for dc. Dropped some stuff into charity. I have some more to deliver later in week.

24/1
£6.62 DH in coop

DH paid more off the credit card as his wages came in so should be very little to pay when the next bill arrives

Dinner last night must have been spendy. I don't even remember leaving the restaurant the wine alone would have been £60 now I can't sleep!

Oh spotty you rascal!! Did you enjoy?

Yes thanks dh told the dc we would take them swimming this morning though and I'm really not up for it!

That's hard work with no hangover, I brought my two yesterday.

I have mixed views re child benefit. We stopped ours as soon as the changes were made. DH and I were both of the opinion that CB was introduced to feed and clothe your DC, provide them with the basic essentials. When he first started the business, it really was just that for us. When it started to help pay for things like sports lessons and treats, however small, then it wasn't!! I remember my friend being astonished 'it's free, take it', but for us, that didn't feel right.

Just a personal view of course. One one particular thing, I am not very political really.

We were also out far too late and had too much to drink

Loved our friends catering ideas though (joint 50th), they hired a local fish and chip van for the evening, which parked outside the hall. And, they had a 'cheese cake', so all the layers were different cheeses. I adore cheese, good job a drank too much wine as my dreams were probably insane

LSD - popping to B&Q for paint tester pots but collecting some money for a punch bag too.

Hah Northender - thanks for the shout out - you were right, we had a fantastic day out at the football, and the expensive tickets / travel were worth it :-D Bring on round five!

Bank: £657.48 (was £657.48)
Purse: £2.91 (was £57.94)
Jar: £52.00 (was £52.00)
Grand Total: £712.39
Reduced by: £55.03
Days to payday: 19

(still have £120 from scrapping the car, and £15 from my savings account to pay in – but looks like these will be paying for the 5th round tickets!!! - typical, just when I can ill afford a cup run LOL)

Spends: Friday night
£11.47 in home bargains mostly on treat-stuff (crisps, cake bars etc...that are more expensive in the supermarkets) which is coming off my grocery budget, which is looking very healthy, and has meant that I spend a bit less in Morrisons next week.

£5.25 in Asda – sandwich stuff for the coach journey – again, coming off my grocery budget.

Spends: Saturday
£6.06 – McDonalds breakfast / coffees for our early start down to London yesterday
£19.45 – 2 x rounds of drinks in expensive London pub.
£2.50 – DS2 spent on sweets in service station
£8.00 – Half n Half scarf

£2.30 – unaccounted for.........

I had my Morrisons order delivered Friday night and have ordered next week's for delivery on Friday which came in at less than £50 :-)

Had a brilliant day out at Chelsea yesterday. I set off in the morning for a lovely family day out with DH, DS1 (18) and DS2 (11) and it turned out to be the stuff memories are made of. We never stopped singing for the full 90 minutes. I had walked in thinking if we had lost by less than 5-0, that would do for me, so to beat the best team in the country and their world class players 4-2 – well, you can imagine how I feel. #UpTheBantams

Hello all,

yesterday £4 on neurofen and a drink for dd (her ear drum burst - ouch)

today £36 on petrol, milk and 2 fudge bars.

I have still not been feeling great since taking 2 antidepressants last mon and tues, have done nothing but retch and feel nauseous since awful!! Never again, back to drs tomos to see what they can suggest although tbh have lost quite a lot of confidence in them.

Am counting days down to payday as am in the red now in my bank account, its the 28th!!

Hello all

£9.84 on fruit and veg in Aldi
£23 on more fruit, veg, free from milk, coffee beans, dairy free ice cream and household cleaners/loo rolls etc in Waitrose.

Need to get more contraceptive pills from Dr at least those are free.

NeedaStrongOne I see where you are coming from with the child benefit, but it contributed towards my childcare costs which enabled me to give the Government £1,600 in tax and NI every month. Also, there should be fairness, so there should be a household income level that it ceases at, not a level on one parent. This unreasonably penalises both single parents and families who chose for one parent not to work. We don't fall into either of theses categories. I am also happy for working families to receive support to help them work, they should be better off working than not.

Now I'll get off my soapbox

Today £20.02 to buy descaler for the coffee machine. I could get that from Amazon for about £11.50, but it is half the price to buy direct from Dolce Gusto themselves, so I got 4 packs of pods to top up the basket to get free delivery. We use the coffee, it will save buying it from Tesco.

I need to pay £22 for DS cycling proficiency and another £70 towards his residential trip.

Ouch girlie that happened to me when I was little. ...plus side, after it burst the pain eased.

Nsd but just discovered dd needs a new scooter and they both need new bikes, want to get ds a unisex one so it can be handed down to dd. She is objecting to taking his ben 10 one but that'll sell.

Pleased you enjoyed your day out, bamtam. Seeing you lot beat Chelsea made up a bit for when you beat us (Villa) in the cup a couple of years back!
NSD today and made a big veg/chickpea casserole for lunch with leftovers for tomorrow and a portion for the freezer.

audit I know, I get that totally. I think that it was a cost issue to administer the changes in such a simplistic way, as I recall? As the cost and administration involved of trying to apply the joint income scenario would have made it not worth their while I think. I wouldn't imagine that they save all that much anyway in any event, all things considered.

For us, as I said, it was just a personal feeling that it felt 'wrong' to take something we didn't need as an essential.

What I did essentially need was 8 tester pots of paint, which DH claims are all the same colour anyway, so I can figure out what colours I want on my walls

I also went absolutely wild and bought a cushion in B&Q for £4, reduced, for a tub chair that we have.

Ouch girlie that must have been very painful for your DD. Earache is the pits. I am sure that there are alternatives. The very first set of antidepressants DH took were absolutely awful for him and he said they made him feel that he was living his life in an alternative universe.

Bantam I couldn't remember if you were playing the Northern giants or the Southern ones yesterday, but did think of you when I heard they had both been beaten. Awesome, I listened on the radio and the commentator was loving the fans enthusiasm!

I need to stop eating the cheese that I brought home last night as I will be huge if I don't.

poor DD girlie hope she feels better soon. My ears were a nightmare when I was little, it's such a rubbish feeling.

Hi everyone , such a busy thread. Struggling to keep up tbh!

Weekend spends so far:

€30 on maths lesson for Ds
€42 on groceries, Sunday papers and various treats.
€60 on diesel
€15 on bottle of wine and lotto ticket

Not too bad, we are usually very spendy at the weekend.

Rediscovering my slow cooker for batch cooking. I've bought lots of 'lunchables' so hoping for a few NSDs as the week progresses.

Still loving my laundry gloop. I use it as a fab all purpose cleaner and Dh, who is very cyclical about home made cleaners is a big fan. I encourage everyone to give it a go.

Tomorrow is the start of my last working week for a long time, (maybe forever). After 30 years of full time work it's gonna be a big change.

£4 cat food (some of that was for cpl collection basket though)
£3.85 contact lens fluid
£500 footstool off eBay.

Nsd.

Forgot to get butter beans in the food shopping which is annoying!

£500 fluffy?!

Fluffy !!!!

Nsd, hurrah. Should be tomorrow too.

49p on a pint of milk.

Enjoy your last week, Encyclo.

Girlie , hope your DD is feeling a bit better now. Regarding anti - d's, try not to worry too much if you feel a bit rubbish for the first few weeks of taking them. I had very disturbed sleep for my first couple of months on Citalopram, although the nausea, sweats and slight dizziness went away within the first ten days. You might need to experiment a bit to find the right one for you.

£1 at church and that's it I think!! Omg. Well, dh paid for food shopping yesterday and I think it was £40 at Aldi. Today he went to tesco to pick up some stuff which we forgot/needed... £15.

Kids went to two birthday parties.

Happy work week everyone!