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

Hope it's nothing serious missa

Spent £35 on petrol this morning but no other spends for today planned. Not sure what to do for dinner but have stuff in the freezer so will raid that.

booty we must be able to help you get that down. There's 4 here, dp and I, ds (6) and dd (5). I'm not as frugal with food and household stuff as some but average spend is £80 I think?

Planning a NSD. Toad in the hole for dinner....yummmmmm

Mmm I haven't had toad in the hole for ages. We're having lamb casserole with about three cubes of lamb each

hope you get sorted soon MissA - does sound like it definitely needs checking out.

I'm batch cooking spagbol today, and having a go at knitting baby a new hat - found some dark green wool in my box and a sarah and duck pattern online!

LSD yesterday. £10 on wool and a book of patterns to knit a scarf for DP (practicing my new found knitting skills on him) and a hat for DS and hoping I can make gifts for people rather than buy them in the future. Had a brainwave the other night about getting cheap wool, by looking out for cheap hand-knitted adult clothes from charity shops/jumble sales and re-using the wool...

Knitting is my wind-down activity for my brain after working late on the computer (finished at 11pm last night) so it'd be good if I can save money on gifts too.

Here's the link to the sugar-free carrot, apple, sultana and date cake
mamacook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/sugar-free-carrot-sultana-and-apple.html I put in two small loaf tins and freeze one, rather than one large round tin as I think it cooks better and quicker that way. I cook it on 180C (of 160C fan) for about 25 mins and then check it with a skewer.

lol spotty, my dp often gets to the end of his dinner and goes "oh, we're not vegetarian today!" as he finds 2 bites of chicken!

Dh was most disappointed when he had a big mouthful of chicken korma only to realise it was cauliflower I'm glad I'm not the only one who does it!

booty Do you meal plan? Are there pets included in this grocery bill? Do you buy meat in aldi/butchers?

I manage my shopping most weeks for €140 between aldi/butchers for 3 adults, 2 children, 2 dogs and 3 cats.

Looks fab mymysticfalls this will be more expensive than the current custard creams that my dh favours but far better for everyone.

I must buy a can of coke for demonstration at my class tonight, this is going to reside in my box of tricks for class though and not be consumed so one off expense. 10 tsp of sugar per can!

Lilac. It's very ad hoc meal planning ie i ll have an idea what we will have but not set in stone.
DS is eating adult portion really other DS is hit & miss, he is on meds that suppress appetite so I have to buy what ever he ll eat to try to keep his weight up. This leads to more expensive stuff in tesco.
Thing is until recently I was averaging €150. Dh has said to stop buying all treats! Got fish in shop last week four large salmon fillets for five people came to €14!!!
I have started trying to add in economic healthy mid week meals this week!
I also need to cut meat and fish portions a bit. Also find Sunday roast bit pricy might cut it to every other weekend.
Do others find teenagers like hoovers when it comes to food!?

We sometimes have all the trimmings of a roast but with sausages instead. We also try to have one cheap meal a week ie jacket potatoes or beans on toast.

£2 parking
£1 squash
Also gave my friend £5 I owed her

Free hot choc though! Am finding it much more difficult to have not when not at work!!

No other spends today though.

Yesterday I booked myself on a sort your life out course for £25 - will be money well spent if it works

not - nsd!

booty Meal planning helps. My top tip is buying all my fruit and vegetables via a delivery from the local market. You get SO much stuff, it lasts for ages and ages (I have had some carrots in the fridge for 2 weeks and they are rock hard and not at all bendy or soft). I also hate wasting it, so plan my menus based on the fruit and veg that is in.

That being said, I am basically feeding 4 adults so my food budget is higher than some on here. I could easily get it lower though, but at the minute I choose not to.

mystic more recipes that look fab!

My spends today have been based on fugality. I have ordered a lot of storage containers from Amazon for £7 Mine always seem to disappear (look at you, DH). I can batch cook properly then.

Freezer is full so I will now start running it down. Will have enough stuff to just order basics from Morrisons for the rest of the month.

Hope the finger is ok MissA

Re cars. We bubble lease and we buy, depending on the circumstances and we run one through the company. It's really not as simple at 'owning' your own asset. There's APR on bubble leases to consider, compared with an outright loan (they are skewed), running costs. Mileage is a very important factor, DH does mega miles for work, but he (imo) stupidly decided to buy the last car. Now that he is looking to get rid of it, no one wants to know and will give him rock bottom prices for a very good quality, high end car, due to mileage. Mine was bought outright by the company, but is a company asset and has kept it's value very well, but really, we should have swapped deals. I once had an X3 which only needed servicing once in 3 years, for £150 on a bubble lease. Changed after 3 years for a Lexus that we bought, that dropped like a brick. They load final payments on bubble leases, you don't win either way, a car is a depreciating asset.

What I am saying (I do buy a lot of cars/vans at work), it VERY much depends on the individual circumstances as to whether buying or leasing works best. Personally, a car is a depreciating asset, so why would I want to pay to own a depreciating asset? Happy to pay to own a house, not so much a car. It's very very personal.

Haven't been updating of late as been busy with job hunt/self employed start up stuff but at least it's mostly been LSDs and NSDs. Saturday was LSD, Sunday and Monday NSD, Yesterday was LSD as only money I spent was DH's. Today will be LSD as only need a couple of bits from Tesco. Frugal win was going on Kid Start and I get £65 cashback for switching to Sky broadband plus £50 M&S vouchers from them and free broadband for 12 months which will cut our bills for a while, it saves around £10 per month which is better in my pocket at the moment. Seems like I may be able to pick up some local government work which while boring will at least give us breathing space and I'll be able to keep on with setting up on my own.

Need to post in the frugal food thread as have some really good recipes to pass on. I've found the supermarket free magazines to good sources of these, especially the asda magazine, have got some brill recipes from there.

Really encouraging to see everyone saving loads of money on the thread, I need to keep myself on the straight and narrow going forward!

'frugality'

Hello all, newbie joining here

We don't have debt at the moment, other than a credit card with a low limit that we pay off each month. We did have debt, and a bad credit rating (hence using a credit card to try and boost it) but we've been living frugally for a couple of years now but we could probably do more.

We'd like to start saving for a house, we're up north so can get more for our money and don't need a huge deposit, so would like to do that as quick as possible. The hard bit is not dipping into our savings!

I've started well, as DD has been off school Monday and Tuesday this week so haven't spent anything those days, I need to go to the shop today but can't remember where I put my purse! Could be another cheap day after all

As well as 4 yr old DD, I have a 10 month old son, who has been a cause in me getting out of the habit of meal planning over the last 12 months or so, but I'd like to get back into it.

Hopefully being here will help keep me on track!

Thank you to all that have said use gravy, no idea why I didn't think of that in the first place I can still blame baby brain if he's 10 months can't I?
I remembered that I have 6l of uht milk in the cupboard, so nsd yesterday after all.
Spent £20 in the local shop as we got up at 8am and had to be at school for 8.45. Thank goodness it's only around the corner. Ds1 and ds2 are both teething and dd1 missed her dad so I was up half the night with them. I needed an energy drink to get going this morning, I'm tempted to bulk buy them so I've got them in if I need one. I don't drink tea or coffee so I think that I can justify the expense.
We are going to be down money this month as dh had to pay for £50 for a hotel room because someone had messed up the booking and booked a room with a double instead of two singles! He's got to claim it back with the rest of his expenses. So we'll be money down until next month, but I'm planning on putting it into savings when we get it back.
I need to count my coin jar too, at last count there was over £50 in there. Its a huge jar and its not even half full yet!

Kat, I've had baby brain for 8 years now!

LSD here, £2.50 on coffee and £4 for nappies.

Our coin jar contains 99% 2p and 1p coins, and the rest are 5p coins and euro cents. I CBA to count them all up so I chuck a handful in my purse when I go to the supermarket and use them in the self checkout before using my card on the rest.

Saves a bit of money on my shopping and eventually I'll be rid of my coin jar.

I do a big pay day shop each month, delivered. I make sure it's over £100 so I get free delivery and buy all dried food, household stuff, frozen food etc. It also comes from a larger store than my local one so has a greater range of value products. I then only have to buy fresh stuff each week, and if we are running low on money before pay day there's generally enough food in stock to invent something.

Spotty that is a good idea! Might have chops or something instead of full roast can do a bit of baking when doing roast spuds so not to waste the oven!

Buy a fair bit of frozen veg to reduce waste and have decided to only buy apples bananas & oranges rather than grapes or berries (that go off on me). Buy frozen berries in aldi for DS smoothie!

LSD today gave DH letter that has to go registered post & will get him to pick up few bits in shop that I need! About €14.

Teenage DS keeps losing school stuff. Have to go into town tomorrow to buy his third compass! Honestly! Also have two birthday presents to get....

My cheese scones are going down very well with the dc. So cheap and easy. Lamb casserole smells good and I've got red cabbage in the freezer to have with it.

Should be a nsd but going out later. Reckon I can get enough change out of the pot for a still water though not sure how much it'll be.

booty my local butcher does a family deal which includes a roast of beef and a roast chicken others include a bacon joint, take a look around you might find some near you. Most deals are €20/€25 that's dinners sorted for the week just to get accompaniments - potatoes, rice, pasta, cous cous etc.

I've cut out buying oven chips and we now make them from scratch, which are nicer and we just cook what's needed dh had habit of cooking full bag of oven chips no matter how many were for dinner.

Eggs are a great filling food, and can lead to numerous dishes also.

How's everyone going with the coin sweeping? I haven't done it much as I've been trying to bring down debt and don't want to get overdrawn for sake of a few € either.

My lovely DM took DS to toddlers for me this morning to give me a break - so I nipped up to MrT to collect my F&F 'presents til May' order, all of which was honoured despite being a glitch. Wasnt planning any spends but DS has a last min birthday party to go to tomorrow, so got a present for that, got some chocs and a card for OH for valentines in case I cant get out round the time, and needed teabags and a few other bits... £32! Not doing too well at all!

Car insurance due end of the month, renewals landed today - £707 for both of us in the 2 cars (OH only driving 7 years and me 4) - thought it seemed a bit much but I ran off a few comparisons and its turns out those are about right! Will spend more time on it over the next few days, check quidco etc

On a positive note DSs wednesday toddler group sang him happy birthday today and gave him a card and a bag of jelly sweets and as he doesnt eat jelly sweets I'm helping him out with that one ;)

Bloody hell this thread is speedy!

I've not been keeping up properly - been rather preoccupied as both DCs are miserable at school. Really getting closer to the conclusion that the best thing to do is HE but VERY freaked out about finances