Frugal January, part two.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everybody is welcome.

Encyclo probably good that ye had it booked prior to you finishing work because ye might never have gone otherwise. How many days left at work now?

Don't forget to transfer credits to dh when you finish up and apply for carers for dd if possible?

Hi lila that's good advice re the credits.

I qualify for Carers benefit as I've worked non-stop. That will give me two years out before I need to apply for Carers allowance. We probably won't get that as dh has okish money, but we'll see.

So NSD so far but realise I need stock cubes so will have to go and get them now. On the plus side I have 1 freelance job, a possible interview and 4 events about starting a business coming up so it is beginning to look a bit better.

All I can say is often what a difference a day makes...

Tomorrow is Aldi shop so will be moderately spendy but none unplanned. Going to look at switching broadband and phone this week as Sky will be cheaper.

Thanks guys. Feeling vile but I suppose it means I can't go out and spend.
The antibiotics keep getting stuck in my throat though. Fgs

babs My Mum used to make me gargle aspirin. It really helped the pain.

todays spends:

£69 in Co-op (cheapest supermarket here - other one is waitrose) for perishables, and cleaning products and tea/coffee. Annoyingly I ran out of peppermint, camomile, earl grey, and regular tea all at once. Should have stocked up in tesco when I was in uk at the weekend - all the above were on specials.

£9 in M&S (technically £59 but had a £50 voucher...) for meat & fish for the freezer. Loads on 3 for 10. Have unpackaged it all, portioned it up and put in freezer. Pork chops, turkey steaks, chicken breasts, salmon fillets, haddock in crumbs, and my favourite... rainbow trout.

Thanks encyclo I tried salt gargle to kill the infection but didn't work. Think I have some aspirin somwhere..wil give anything a go at the minute. Also will help the whole body aches too.

Sorry my last few posts have been quite wingey I hate feeling sorry for myself.

Just spent €150 at dentist on check up, xray, cleaning and wisdom tooth extraction. Was expecting it to be more and glad it's done.

That's a nice cushion encyclo to ease you into being without wages.

Have Valentines Day sorted for Mr Opals. Pound land are selling small white ceramic dishes in the shape of a heart, which I will fill with his favourite sweeties. We have a card from WH Smith which entitles us to twenty five percent off greetings cards, so used it for a birthday card today and will go back for Valentine card tomorrow.

The Poundland forray continued in the shape of a fridge pack of Heinz baked beans, again for Mr Opals who has been told that is his Valentines present, and three strawberry jellies. We live the high life in this house.

And one eighty for library books reservation fee. Am using the library rather than giving in to the Amazon fairy.

Working two extra shifts next week at double time. Am going to be tired but will be worth it.

NSD cash wise, but I've put a deposit of £150 down on a caravan holiday in the Isle of Wight for a week in August. It was £496 including insurance for us, so feeling pleased with that.

Nsd.

I've seen the card I'm getting dh. It says

'You're awesome (although secretly I wish you were a bit more like Jon Richardson)'

I hate all the soppy stuff

Afternoon all

Bank: £589.22 (was £599.22)
Purse: £9.39 (was £1.53)
Jar: £46.20 (was £48.50)
Grand Total: £644.81
Reduced by: £4.44
Days to payday: 17

Spends:

£0.20 – gravy
£2.00 – Fringe trim
£2.25 – bus fares

Nothing frugal to report today other than I found a penny - wooh.

The bit inbetween getting a handle on your budget and becoming debt free is really, really yawnsome isn't it?

Very spendy day:
£26.50 on haircut and £10.05 on lunch with a friend although these are both rare events and I had budgeted for them BUT passed Waitrose and impulse bought some of our favourite American craft beers for a weekend treat which was £10.90. That will be for Friday, Saturday and probably the following Friday though as we rarely drink more than one each since DD arrived in our lives last year!
Got Economy Gastronomy and The Credit Crunch cook book from the library and mum dropped the slow cooker round so I feel like I've made some attempt to find ways to save money (and hopefully time!).

NSD and payday tomos woohoo!!!

Pointless fan I would be interested to hear your impressions of both the books you mention. I have just taken Economy Gastronomy back to the library. I took the compote, smoothie and lemon cream recipes from it, to use up excess fruit. Was looking at the other one in the library today.

NSD

Oh lord yes it's BORING. Tiresome but you have to keep going. Then buy champagne etc & celebrate but never get in debt again.

£15 petrol
£4 bits in aldi.
£9 on 9 bottles of carling cider, there's an offer on quidco & checkout smart & tesco sell it for £1 each so it's only 50p a bottle. It's buy 3 get £1.50. Don't forget Dh's can have an account for these things but signing the cat up is fraud.

I will be buying cider most days this week now because it ends of the week.

My miele hoover broke out of warranty so I complained to John Lewis who offered to cover part of a new tube, £44 fecking quid for a metal tube, so I complained to the ceo of JL and lo and behold they are now offering to cover the whole cost of the part by refund when I've received it and email the receipt to them.

I've emailed the ceo of miele uk too, just so he knows I'm a loon whose cat sheds fur & mud everywhere so much that I suspect several large pet dogs wouldn't phase me now, & that I'm not buying a dishwasher off them in the summer now. That'll learn them.

Cannot abide shoddy customer services or products.

The list of companies who have let me down gets longer every year.

lord its depressing isn't it? we've just done "the budget" new house in 2017 here we come.

from now on we are save save save. frugal mode activated. DH has already failed by talking about holidays (yes...more than one...) this year. have put him on the naughty step.

Fluffy i hear you. So far this month I've raised a dispute on pay pal with a taxi company who didn't show up to collect me from airport so am waiting for a decision as to whether I'll have a full refund (instead of the partial refund I originally asked for). I've also emailed Flybe, and have told them how disappointed I was at the service i received on Thursday evening on my flight.

£36 cleaner, other than that, NSD.

Ds is unwell so no nursery for him tomorrow. Suspect it's viral so won't see a Dr yet unless he deteriorates.

Made spag bol for dinner but as Ds was sick halfway through I didn't get to put in half the veg or lentils I normally would so will only get two meals out of it.

I got £156.39 back from co-op energy today , (rebate on overpayment from old supplier as i switched to Eon on the MSE cheap energy club ).

However £94.17 of that went in Sainsburys.. £30 on cat food ,(whiskas was on offer and my cat wont eat anything else), £30 on , then (other!) basics like bread flour,and other baking stuff, nuts and seeds a big can of olive oil, tea , coffee, house cleaning stuff (tho forgot the washing up liquid.. grr.. ) meat & , dairy but we should also be ok for food until next week now (will have to get veg for weekend on Friday ) .

Get paid Friday so thats good,and if i dont need to spend before then ill be ill be about £50 up on this months money, so hoping to put that in savings account .

Im STILL waiting for a £110 refund from Hush though on returned sale items.. Posted these back over a week ago now.. (they take yer money quick enough, but take their time giving it back) .

Strangely enough it probably ever was so , but you see i never really used to check in the days of buying on credit cards ( before last November when I started using YNAB ) and only now , I pay direct out of my bank account instead and its MY actual money rather than borrowed, have i noticed, (and I resent the time they take to refund)

Do you think i've become a bit of a frugal nerd?

i' ve certainly already become much 'meaner about buying stuff from internet shops for myself).

spotty, cant you cook the lentils veg sperately and add to cooked bol sauce? im sure no one would notice , esp it they are 'mushed up' before adding

£36 for a cleaner, that seems expensive NK5BM3? I have just paid mine £20

Oh, hope your DS is ok soon spotty.

bantam I don't think you sound self-pitying at all, just ill. It's hard feeling positive when you feel crap.

fluffy Who do you think has great customer service?

ememem Great shop from M&S. Nothing ever tastes bad from M&S

Spends - start of month always a little more expensive.

£6 B&Q
£7 Asda (cookies for work, milk, tub bucket for pony, jam for DH)
£30 - Pony related spends.
£5 for DD to go to the gym, bless her, she rode the pony straight from school, fed and sorted her, ran home, changed, then went to the gym for a work out with her mates, so she can ride better and have a stronger core

Also, had laska pie tonight. Re-named from Dragon Pie. And altered marginally as I do with all recipes to suit us, which irritates DH. Was lovely and cheap as chips.

Tomorrow will be vegetable curry and rice as we will all eat at different times and this can be a slow cooker job.

needs a totally frugal pan fried rainbow trout with fennel risotto for dinner thanks to M&S.

you know...standard tuesday dinner.

needastrongone 'Ere, steady up! who said you could put me in a pie?! (though i probably wouldnt notice a bit gone missing I am fat as a porker still after christmas) -Note to self: give up the ..

Glad you like it .. What did you change?

I got caught up on the cottage cheese thread last night so today had to have cottage cheese beetroot, watercress and spring onion pitta for dinner.. (mmmm!)