Frugal January, part two.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everybody is welcome.

SHOULDN'T have bought the toilet seat even

Keep your fingers crossed for us. DH has put on a £5 bet. If Manchester City win today he will get £500 from it. DS2 said to him "what are you going to spend it on" and he said "I won't be spending it on owt, I'll have to give it to your mum to pay for the new car" :-D

Good luck, bantam!
Would you believe DH has just gone out for his 4th top up shop?! I'm quite cross actually. We didn't even need a big shop in the first place, the things on the list were really essential.
I'm just looking for someone to alter some trousers so they fit. One website suggested £18.95 for side seams. I have 2 pairs of trousers to take in as I have lost a lot of weight. That seems a bit steep, does it sound right or expensive?

Were the trousers expensive in the first place? Might not be worth altering if they weren't.

I've just made the soup on credit crunch recipe thread with onion carrot and bacon offcut its amazing

Well done on the weight loss pointless, not sure about the price for the trousers but I would say trousers are tricky to take in so may be fair?

bantam fingers xed for a Man City win then . Have you got your cup tickets? We're in the 4th round too but a v non glam tie.

I've got 6 items on eBay ending tonight, all things that nearly went to the charity shop but they're totalling £16 plus postage at the moment with a fair few watchers so I'm hopeful. Need to buy cheap packaging for sending them out. Have a couple of Jiffy bags I can re use but thought I'd try a pound shop too. Any other recommendations? I'm looking for some brown parcel paper and some of those grey plastic bags.

lila we're going to buy a new slow cooker, some pads for the steamer and new Hoover bags
spotty I hope your dd can get her shoes on NHS. My friends Ds has a similar issue. She spent €200 on shoes for him yesterday. She nearly keeled over!
bantam good luck with the bet! Come on City!!
pointless I think we need a separate support group for dh's! Mine is off to get the papers and 'a few bits' in a minute. Grrrrr!

First gloop wash is in. It's better than watching the telly!

encyclo I love my slow cooker & spent Christmas gift money on a 6.5l one so I completely understand. I'm debating the steam mop in homestore if its in stock when I go in next weekend would you recommend?

northender - yeah, got the tickets - we were so lucky! So many lost out, but 11000 season ticket holders into 6500 allocated tickets was never going to go.

A guy we know put on FB that he was going to run a coach so wanted to know who was up for it. I, and a few others, said we were up for it but were concerned about paying the £10 non-refundable deposit for the coach, if we didn't get tickets. So he said he was going down at 10.30pm to queue for tickets for himself anyway so he might as well buy ours - so that is what he did. He filled his coach and managed to get tickets for everyone on the coach after queueing for 12 hours before the ticket office opened in snow and sub-zero temperatures!!! #Star

I'll have to see who you're playing but I bet you've got more chance of getting to the 5th round than we have :-D

lila I highly recommend them. We got ours in Harvey Norman 2 years ago and it's fab. We have a big chocolate lab and he brings in so much muck it's like the ploughing championships!

The steamer has it cleaned up in a jiffy!

Bank: £914.29 (was £944.29)
Purse: £4.35 (was £0.01)
Jar: £65.60 (was £65.60)
Grand Total: £984.24
Reduced by: £25.66
Days to payday: 26

Spends:
£5.00 on craft stuff for DS1's homework (has to make a mask) (U)
£0.89 on a bottle of pepsi max (U)
£15.59 on a birthday card / present (U)
£3.54 in Morrisons (B)
£0.64 – stamp

I have done my grocery shop online for delivery next Friday and it's come in at around £50 including £3 delivery which I am chuffed with – the one that was delivered this Friday gone was just a shade over £51 but I did get free delivery. I'm spending so much less by shopping online and we're eating different things every night for tea. I did have to go down to Morrisons today and spent £3.54 but £2.99 of that was on lightbulbs, and 55p on reduced price kidney to bulk out the steak that we are having in our stew & dumplings today.

Hi all have managed a nsd wend, but only because my anxiety has been really bad going to see Gp tomos as can't go on feeling this rubbish.

Not an NSD here I'm afraid as Dh wanted some beer and I got a bottle of wine for later in week also marked down carrots and mushrooms and passata to make a pasta bake to use up some cheese that is still left and unopened from Christmas. Need to be really frugal until I start working. Have started coding the HTML on website will add in CSS after and might use a template for a temporary site for a while till I get mine up.

Tomorrow needs to be LSD I will walk into town to get mould for DS hearing aid from hospital to save on bus. Added plus is I get exercise and it only takes around 20 mins if I walk fast.

Sorry to hear about the anxiety girlie I sometimes get bad too after all that happened last year and it only takes a small setback to make me feel bad. Going to gp will help.

I'm finally going to give the slow cooker a whirl and have got a recipe lined up which seems frugal and not complicated to start. It should help when I do start work as either can put on in morning or Dh can turn on when he gets home.

I'm having a sad competition with myself to assess how far I can stretch certain things. So far I managed to make a mega bottle of fairy last from end of September till this week. I figure if I can make things last longer we can save much more. Any frugal tips on making things stretch a bit further appreciated!

NSD yesterday , though did go to see parents on mainland , however DH paid for ferry and DF paid for lunch ..

DH also gave me back the £75 I so pent on the tyre so back to as last week

I do like YNAB, and really recommend it .. i was lucky and got a half price offer on Black Friday , but since then its also been reduced on Steam .. but even so I think its probabably even worth the full price of $60 as by using it have already reduced my overdraft fdown from nearly £500 to nil and saved over £350 sjust by tracking and being aware of what ive ben spending ( oh and us not doing christmas presents for adults this year by agreement )

anyway from going from a completre non-budgeter im now pretty anal about it , and its an eye opener for instance I never realiosed i spent so much on food and wine ! although with the festive season out of the way hopefully that wil change.

Am making a sausage chilli thing today - mainly veg and a pack of reduced sossies and a 'bashed' tin of beans also reduced .. hopefully that will keep me in lunches this week (Inever mind eating the same thing) .

so I now have £52,67 clear left in current acct after spending all accounted for

£55.50 in cash ( £40 of that to go into next weeks pot if I can manage with £15.50 this week, but dont need anything , i think)

and £ 367 in savings account ( of which £288 is earmarked forthe house insurance and travel insurance renewals , both due this month(in the past ive paid this on my credit card so please i wont have to )

Credit card has £163 on it at the moment of which im waiting to get refunded,

Im also waiting for £156 to come back from my old energy supplier .. (they tell me it wil be in my back within 21 days, cheek, its already been 6 weeks since i switched..how they like to hang onto our money

Sorry to hear of people still having a rough time and those losing friends and relatives .. Girlie hope you are feeling better soon ..

north I get grey postage bags on ebay and brown paper and tape from the pound shop. Also reuse packing bags from thiings I receive, or just turn a decent (next or clarks! ) carrier bag inside out.

Kids club film £5.40, McDonald's £18, ds trainers £20.

spotty my ds school shoes only lasted 3 months due to a growth spurt. Have put them on ebay to recoop a couple of quid...they cost £42.

Pass I'm hoping dd's will go on ebay as they're kickers boots (and super cute!).

Dh is cooking dinner [faints]

£1.49 on a pint of milk and some cake in Tesco.

Total frugal fail. £20 at h&m for kids clothes. Dd really didn't need another frozen top but she insisted and frankly, because I got her the 4-6 (she's 4) I'm hoping for 2 years wear. Ds needed trousers. I could see the tops of his socks.

£44 at the mac counter for make up. I've been wanting them since November?! I've been eking out as much as I could and I thought I'd get them. Also £90 for clothes for me (£29 tunic down from £49) and dh (a t shirt and a pair of Levi's reduced like mad!). Lunch out £33. Chinese shop £16.

So roughly £200 just today. That's the reason why I cannot go into town, and that's the reason why I don't do this every weekend... Sigh.

Back to being frugal. Will check out sausage casserole recipe.

Sorry I have been AWOL for half the week. I did try to post yesterday morning, but it was broken.

Thursday I had a meeting in London, work will reimburse the train fare and car parking. Stopped at the bookshop in London and spent £33.95 on books for DS. They had a reading list at the start of the year, we have been ignoring it, but his teacher is insisting that we start.

Went to Tesco to get lunch, rather than buying in London. Spent about £12, but that included a salad top up, plus £6 was on new socks as mine are getting bare patches and holes.

Friday, I got a meal deal salad, plus some sweets for the kids for the weekend, rather than buying them more expensively at the swimming pool after their lessons.

I found out MIL has been rationing her eye drops as worried about running out of them, so stopped at Boots to get her some more, plus antibacterial soap to minimise risk of her spreading eye infection, £6.80 I may get this back.

Popped into M&S, needed something for dinner, bought the makings of a stir fry, birthday card (should have checked prices more carefully, was looking at £1.50 cards but accidentally got one for £2.75!) £12 ish.

Funeral on Saturday, parked in NCP car park for wake, sister drove my car (and the kids) home, gave her £10 for the parking, not sure what it actually cost. I won't ask for any change as she had the girls yesterday, drove them to a party while we were at the funeral. She then caught the bus to the wake with the girls, (using my Oyster card). I was meant to be home by 10, so she could collect her fiancé, but she sent a message saying not to rush back, she popped the girls in the car, collected her fiancé and stayed over. I got home at 2am,

She has also taken DD2 out with her today, taken her for breakfast, hot chocolate etc.

LSD - £8.80 on newspaper, Cbeebies magazine for DD and stuff for packed lunches. But we had our first appointment to discuss getting a rescue cat, and when we find a suitable cat that will be £75 to the rescue centre plus all the costs of kitting it out, cat flap, insurance and so on. We've never had a cat before but I think it's important for children to have pets if possible.

£6.50 this weekend on entertaining dc and stuff for pets. £43 Tesco.

£30 on take away and £8.50 on drinks at Cafe but both of these came out of our pocket money so that's okay.

pointless I think that's about right. I recently paid £10 to get a skirt repaired for dd.

oh yes £21.31 in Co op, hopefully thats my food shopping for the week...

Shamefully ive been noodling on MN all afternoon instead of cooking.. I d better go do it no or else ill be buying sandwiches for lunches instead

SpottyT, was going to suggest Ebaying the shoes, hope it turns out okay for you. Thanks for the sausage recipe, will try that later in the week with leftover red wine from lunch I've just frozen. Paid again on 24th, should only need fruit bread and milk.

Thanks pass I hadn't thought of using good quality carrier bags. That will be ideal as the things I'm selling don't need much protection.

Pointless- taking in trousers would be quite complicated around the waist band so would seem a fair price.

Bought new prescription glasses yesterday £180, my prescription has changed so much so I can't wait to be able to see again. It always shocks me how much glasses are. £23 on top up food shopping today but this included a nice bottle of port for a birthday present.