Join the Fantastic Frugaleers for a February full of frugality

[northender]

Shiny new thread ready for Sunday. Newbies very welcome. This is a wonderful thread full of encouragement and support

We go through 14 pints a week and only have two dc its ridiculous! I do like milky coffee though in a massive mug

Well my £3 spend this week on yoghurt and bread has become £2 for this week and next plus a loaf next week!

3 for £1 large set lancashire natural yoghurt from costcutters which will last easily two weeks! £12 Feb here we come!

need if your rural you'll have rats & mice anyway. If you're 49 days from an electric contract ending they can't charge you to switch.

£40 hair incl tip. Made the poor lad write down the web addresses for quidco, tcb & taste card. He's saving for a house so maybe it will help.

£23 petrol
£13 work supplies

£6 car wash, they noticed a nail in the tyre. Luckily I was by Dh's work so he drove down in his car & we swapped. Hopefully it will be sorted today.

We might go for a meal later.

needastrongone we've had hens for 4.5 years now and only ever had a problem with rats once, and turns out it was because they were being poisoned elsewhere and were only coming into hens for their water. Some preventative measures is we only put out the scrap food in the morning so it's eaten during course of the day and not lying around for days - the girls go to bed early - when it's dusk they head off for their roost as their eyesight is poor, and we also don't leave their ration out overnight either.

kat360 I hadn't even had my first child at 27, god bless your energy and to be alone with them so much too. I'm guessing for some of the recipes using tomatoes you could subsitute either gravy/stock/mushrooms depending on if it's to make a sauce or to bulk up a dish? I use tinned tomatoes and passata a lot, I had to google to find an alternate dish one evening we had run out of both!

vinegar I hope you are looking after your health with a budget that low, I know you said you were using up freezer stash.

Ok was going to just be a lurker! But going to bite the bullet lol

Need to save my wages and live off DH. So need everything to come out of dh. No debts apart from mortgage.

Married with two teenage DS. I work part time & dh full time. Really need to get food bill down. It's been averaging €200 ?? shop mostly in aldi but get few things in tesco.

Anyway trying a NSD today as home with ds2 who is off sick.

Meant to say we cook a lot from scratch it's just that the DS seem to just eat & eat all the time!

We're not that scary are we booty? Welcome.

lilac do you mean is the orange oil necessary, or is it an essential oil?

I've just checked. I'm using Waitrose Home Baking, valencia orange extract (which has an oil in it as a carrier).

You don't need to add it - but if you don't then you just have apple bars, not apple and orange .

Frugal win. My lovely hairdresser (who's a mobile one) came to my house for lunch and cut my hair. Same charge as if I go to her home salon but saved me over an hour of driving and I figured lunch would be ok in lieu of a tip - she used to be local but now we've moved.

NSD :)

I know what you mean about cheap recipes and tomatoes! Gravy made from stock and a little flour might be a good swap for tomato stew type recipes?

Welcome booty, is that a week or month?

Making chicken fajitas with roast chicken scraps. Can't believe I used to just chuck them. If I had been more frugal in my 20's I would have saved thousands.

Spendy day as I got my hair done - cut and colour for €65. I only get it done every 2 or 3 months though. It was well overdue as I was starting to resemble a badger.

DH approached the bank about a car loan but they weren't overly enthusiastic. Said we probably wouldn't qualify as we have incurred referral fees during the year - like an overdraft but not an officially sanctioned one. DH pointed out that we've just finished paying back a loan which was substantially bigger than the loan we're looking for and have never missed a payment or been late with a payment. Same goes for our mortgage. The bank employee said that he/she wasn't aware that we previously had a loan as it didn't show up on our account. They'll look into it and phone us back.

DH was very disappointed and annoyed as he's been drooling over looking up cars on the internet and has fallen in love with a few. I had warned him that the banks have tightened up on their lending criteria and are a lot less likely to lend money now than they were in the crazy days of the Celtic tiger. Anyway, we'll see what they say when they phone back.

As for introductions, I live in Ireland and am married to DH and we've one daughter. I'm in my early 40s. We have a mortgage and are hoping to acquire a car loan. We both work but our disposable income has been significantly reduced by all the extra taxes and charges introduced by our government following the banks bailout.

Tayto I don't know if it's different where you are but I've never got a loan by going into a bank. Always do a comparison online and go with whoever's cheapest.

Afternoon all....

Bank: £331.47 (was £438.18)
Purse: £15.38 (was £25.38)
Jar: £33.80 (was £36.70)
Grand Total: £380.65 + £120 + £15
Reduced by: £119.61
Days to payday: 9

Wow, the money is really going down now.

Spends:

£10.00 – one of our exhaust brackets snapped (yes, already) but our mechanic friend fixed it for a nominal charge.
£ 24.00 – Theatre tickets – I am going to see a play called The 56 which was on at the Edinburgh fringe and is making its way down to Bradford.
£44.81 – last week's grocery shop
£13.01 – credit card
£19.99 – iron
£5.50 – on an energy saving halogen bulb (god it's bright!)
£2.30 – bus fare

Budget looks like this...
Account interest to debit £16.08
Sports & bus fares £24.80
Petrol: £78.28 (confident I won't need to spend this much)
Groceries: £123.15 (confident I won't need to spend this much)
Leaves £138.34 + £120 + £15 for incidental spends

I've also just agreed to spend £35 on a ticket for DS2 to go and see darts with DS1 & DH.

Surprisingly the top 3 spends categories so far are myself, entertainment & household items which has come as a shock because I would tell you I never spend money on myself and we never go out!

tayto are you a member of the credit union? They would be a good place to go for a loan.

Referral fees are what's stopping me from doing a balance transfer to a 0% credit card all because I went overdrawn by a €1 or so once or twice!

encyclo how's retirement suiting you?

mystic I meant was it necessary! Because you'd oj in it as well or was that something else I was reading today? Have been reading the no sugar thread too - and reading about making chocolate from cacao powder and coconut oil I don't know if I'm ready for that!

Why doesn't he get a car on finance? Dh is motor trade & can never believe how many people want to own the car outright.

Who wants the joy of selling it for 75% less than you paid for it?.

lila I'm a member of a credit union but we've only a small amount of savings. I think they'll only lend a multiple of your savings? But we'll try them if all else fails. They can only say no. Our referral fees were only incurred because we were overdrawn by small amounts - usually because DH wasn't thinking and paid for things on the debit card instead of using the money we'd withdrawn to cover our spending.

Really fluffy? Like on lease where you pay over three years then have to option to buy or get a new one? We always get loans for our cars (current one 2006). I'd be too scared to get one on lease as a) I always have to drive into the hedge when people come the other way and b) I would hate to pay £xxx every month and not have anything at the end of it.

lila I'd put apple juice in it. I think the orange extract gives it a kick which makes up for the lack of sugar.

I also have a great sugar free fruit cake recipe which I'll post when I have more time although I got it from Mamacooks so you could take a look on her blog for it? It's dates, apples, carrot and sultanas that make it taste so sweet. Honestly, people I give it to are surprised when I tell them there's no sugar in it.

We always have lease/hire cars etc because they have warranty, no MOT worries, cost less to run/tax/insure & we don't get stuck with a car that's too expensive to fix so gets scrapped.

Eg a family member of ours traded a lovely car on a lease for a car on a loan. It's more expensive on fuel, eye wateringly expensive on tax & has no warranty.

It's making a funny noise & they've got to pay to get it fixed.

Whereas mines cheap to run (my accountant says a £1000 a year cheaper than my bigger car was), has £30 road tax & low insurance. If anything goes wrong barring consumables like batteries or tyres the dealership will sort it & it costs me nothing.

Interest rates are lower for new cars in dealerships than used cars too. Febs a good month to buy one because they want to get them "on the board" for March (the month where I don't see my dh ).

That's interesting fluffy thanks. Something to consider

Hmm both of our cars are paid for by loans at 4.9%, finance was scary percentages to it back and loads of added fees like application fees and things. Would have ended up paying back a fortune :-( 2 no spend days and a refund from river island but will need fuel tomorrow :-( got a trip to Amsterdam Friday and come home Sunday - already budgeted for well before Xmas so all paid for and spends covered so quite looking forward to it - and will stop me spending from my bank account over the weekend I hope!! Fish and chip lunch at work today as a treat from big bosses for an amazing audit result so not too Hungry for tea - bagel with cream cheese and smiked salmon hit the spot :-)

Aww I grew up with hens and think it was the cats which kept the rats at bay, we would find the cats curled up in the coop - they got on far too well with the hens !!

NSD here. Was planning to go out for coffee but stayed in the village due to snow instead. Took DS and DD3 to a friends house so got coffee fix, chat and kids entertained for free. She's bringing her DS to us next week so I can return the favour.

Lila, v jealous of the chickens. Would love chickens. Keep telling DH they would save us money in the long run and teach the DC's about caring for animals but do far he's not biting.

Woo, another NSD here!

NSD!!! although spent £30 at the coop on bottled water for everyone in the office because the plumbing broke and all water from taps went brown. Ick.

But it isn't my money. So it doesn't count! ha ha ha!

trying for NSD tomorrow too but have just discovered that "D"H has broken my lunchbox. (lovely but pensive red bento box.) I am really annoyed. I ;over that lunchbox. We had some great times together.

I am always tempted by hens.

We look into leases periodically, but always find its cheaper to either buy a good condition cheapie (£300 the last one!) now we need a bigger 7 seater a loan was the cheapest option because we could spread it longer. It does make me a bit nervous the car won't survive as long as the loan does though.

Thinking about it, once we are debt free one of our saving pots should be 'new Car fund' I suppose!