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Cost of living

Stretching your budget? Share tips and advice to discuss budgeting and energy saving here. For the latest deals and discounts, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Frugal January, part two.

786 replies

Fluffycloudland77 · 15/01/2015 21:57

Everybody is welcome.

OP posts:
SpottyTeacakes · 17/01/2015 06:51

Welcome zazza

Should be Nsd today. Dh isn't working for once but doubt we will go anywhere.

SpottyTeacakes · 17/01/2015 07:37

Dd has to dress up as an alien for her school's book week Hmm any ideas?!

babsmam · 17/01/2015 09:03

Spendy day today dance fees of £153 to pay and I'm out with the girls for a rare treat booze afternoon too.
Good news is overtime is back on at work so will have to plan a few of those in.

Fluffycloudland77 · 17/01/2015 10:03

If you take a cap off an aerosol of hair spray or furniture polish and use one capful per wash, 2 if you have a big capacity machine. Mines 9kg so I use 2 caps. Put it in the drum at the back.

If its a short wash I dissolve it in boiling water in a jug and chuck it in before the wash.

OP posts:
RobinEllacott · 17/01/2015 10:14

Spotty, green face paint and green clothes if she's got some - job done!

SpottyTeacakes · 17/01/2015 11:26

She doesn't have a single item of green clothing!

nocutsnobuttsnococonuts · 17/01/2015 11:27

spotty no-one knows what aliens really look like so could wear anything...

LSD yesterday, was going out had budgeted £25 but only spent £8 so bit of a result there Grin but am going out tonight too but again have budgeted £25 so hoping to come under budget again!

SpottyTeacakes · 17/01/2015 11:45

£25 top up in lidl. Would have been about £29 in tesco so not really worth the extra petrol cost Angry

Pointlessfan · 17/01/2015 12:18

Spotty try the 99p store, they often have masks and things. Could you also make antennae with a hair band?
Just been on my long-awaited shopping trip. I've spent over £200 but all of it was either Xmas money or unspent gift cards and I planned very carefully before hand as I know I can't afford more shopping for myself for a while.

Sixforgold · 17/01/2015 12:34

£30.68 in Aldi. I've only planned meals until Tuesday but did top up on lots of 'stuff' eg cling film, bleach, drain unblocker, loo roll, toilet roll, snacks for work etc so quite pleased with that.

I'm going to Costco tomorrow - any tips on good stuff to bulk buy?

Sixforgold · 17/01/2015 12:35

spotty how about something ingenious with tin foil?!

SpottyTeacakes · 17/01/2015 12:36

Hmm thanks everyone I'll have a think, hopefully I can come up with something!

fuzzpig · 17/01/2015 12:56

So sorry about your colleague NK Thanks

Welcome Zaz and other new joiners (sorry I'm rubbish with names, and the mobile site is being very weird today - page keeps going blank?!)

Thanks for the potato info laska, sounds fab.

fuzzpig · 17/01/2015 12:59

Yesterday

16/1
£3.90 bus fares
£11.34 Coop for me, yummy stuff and a ready meal for lunch. This pain can seriously do one now, I'm fit for nothing Angry
£3.29 DH lunch
£4.38 DH picked up popcorn etc for movie night

NK5BM3 · 17/01/2015 13:55

Aldi shop £22. Sainsburys with a £10 redemption was £1.29. Grin
So at the moment, the week's shop was £23.29. The sainsburys shop included a present for ds' friend £4.99.

Dh paid £20 for ds' tennis lessons.

Taytocrisps · 17/01/2015 14:07

Should be a No Spend few days 'cos we don't get paid until Thursday 'cos we're going to a friend's house for dinner (maybe we should bring a cheap bottle of wine with us?) and we've enough food to do us for the next few days.

lilacclery · 17/01/2015 14:23

If you have one tayto not if you can't afford it.
I spent €30 in butchers that's 7 meals sorted, €52 in dunnes but earned €10 voucher off €50 spend next week. This will top up presses with extras we wouldn't usually get in aldi,€7 on swim with ds while dd had her lesson so we're all showered now so its actually a time saving exercise! We spent our total food budget but not a thing needed until next Sat so I'm happy with that.

bantamgirl · 17/01/2015 15:13

Hi all, I didn't update yesterday but here is todays'

Bank: £944.29 (was £1223.87)
Purse: £0.01 (was £1.37)
Jar: £65.60 (was £3.00)
Grand Total: £1009.90

Reduced by: £218.94

Spends:
£10.00 – petrol for neighbour's car (U)
£190 – DH's spending money given to him as a lump sum (B)
£15.00 – haircuts x 3 (U)
£3.00 – bottle of wine for next door neighbour (U)
£0.94 – bottle of pepsi max (U)

Days to payday: 27

Spends from Savings: £180 for roof (£875.26 remaining)

Spends on credit card: £2443 (sob, weep, wail)

We have a car (hooray). After the performance with the garage through the week, I decided to take a deep breath and just pay more for a better car, so we've gone for a 07 plate Vauxhall Vectra which is a 1.8 (our other was a 2.2 and a better model) so we've got a more basic car but at least we are on the road. Including the card fee, it was £2045 on the credit card, I had to put 6 months road tax on the card too which was £115.25 for 6 months which I will pay off my monthly standing order and in June when it is due I'll go onto monthly direct debit. I'll switch the Green Flag cover over to the new car once the old car is scrapped.

I'm £25 out of pocket as far as insurance is concerned because of the utter shambles that Car Insurance is. When I insured the Megane I paid a deposit of £43 and they kept the policy open so that when I got a new car, they would just add the car to the insurance. So I went back to them with the details (having checked on compare the market that it was roughly the same as the Megane) only to find they wanted £127 a year more! When I said that it had been a lot cheaper on CTM they said that was for a new customer internet quote and unfortunately I was now an existing customer doing an over the phone quote so it was more expensive! So for the sake of not spending £127, I had to lose £25 to cancel it. Car insurance is the biggest legal rip off going.

I have then had to reinsure with the same bloody insurer with my CTM quote and as I had to change the total annual mileage and put business cover on it (as DH drives for work occasionally) it did push the premium up by about £40, I've had to pay a deposit of £80+ on my credit card with 11 payments of £40 (which is what the Megane would have been).

Hopefully that shenanigans is over and done with now. Touch wood.

I think DH is on board with the money thing. I gave him his monthly pocket money today (which is good going because I got paid Thursday). He likes a drink and has finally deduced it will cost him £2 less if he gets it from Asda, so he's made the extra effort to go to Asda to get his wine. He said he'll definitely stick to his money this month, so we'll see.

Ohhelpohnoitsa · 17/01/2015 16:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Passthecake30 · 17/01/2015 16:58

£18.50 private swimming lesson, £29 asda. Not bad for a SaturdaySmile

Made a ton of cookies with the kids and ate so many.....not sure I can manage dinner lol

sportinguista · 17/01/2015 17:05

Spendy at start of week. £22 for haircut on Tuesday, £13 for 3 bottles wine Wednesday, Thursday was NSD, Friday was LSD £3 for coke and Naan breads. Today NSD as stayed in house as felt a bit off colour, Dh looked after DS and I get to relax a bit.

Had interview earlier in week for 11 month contract but didn't get itSad. They gave to recent graduate, so I guess like 20 years experience doesn't count for much Hmm. So I've been busy registering with agencies to get temp work and contracts etc and they've all been quite positive about getting something to tide me over. I guess my confidence has taken a knock. Going to set up a website for myself this week and start building on getting myself out there.

Aiming to stay frugal this week and see how much I can make from what's in cupboards and freezer. No real spends planned this week. Am going to start exercising this week might go for a run will have to use Converse though as have no trainers at the moment.

Tomorrow should be LSD as only milk to buy.

SpottyTeacakes · 17/01/2015 17:31

Just made this for dinner. Was really nice and used up all the wiggy salad stuff Grin

NK5BM3 · 17/01/2015 17:40

I'm making the lamb kebabs again!! Yums. And have just made a batch of choc chip cookies. Kids will have sausage pasta I think.

Fluffycloudland77 · 17/01/2015 18:11

NSD.

OP posts:
needastrongone · 17/01/2015 18:29

LSD - £3 for milk and some rice.

Hope you feel ok soon fuzz Flowers

Been through the finances with DH. As predicted he's pissed at me keeping us so tight when he thinks we don't need to be. So he's definitely less on board than he could be!! But agrees re the food.

bantam - good news about the car, but bad about the credit card and car insurance Sad

I was useless at costumes for the DC at primary, so will not contribute to that one!!

Welcome new people Smile

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