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

Hello! Please can I join? I have been lurking - blimey this thread moves quickly!

I live with DH, DS1 (4) and DS2 (babber). We've made the decision that I'm not going to return to work after maternity leave as childcare costs out way what I'd earn, so I'm going to try picking up bits of freelance when I can (mainly so my CV doesn't have a big gap). So I get my final pay check in Feb (accrued holiday) and then that's it, argh!

We can manage ok on just DH's salary but want to create some emergency savings just in case plus pay my dad back some money he lent us for a new car, and DH needs to pay off an old credit card. We've got a good google docs budget we've used for years so we can keep tabs on things.

This month I've opened an m&s bank account and used their switching service, so I should get a £100 voucher for that which I plan to use on birthday presents.

Also being super tight on all food bills after a spendy Christmas. Today I went to the farm shop and got loads of meat for £20 which should last a few weeks in freezer, then spent £53 in lidl for main weekly shop.

And also received some bits from Mumsnet for product testing . A teether, cup and wipes for DS2 which will be handy.

Less frugally we need to have some work done on our roof so I'm getting quotes for that (gulp).

Nice to meet you all and learn from your wisdom.

How many lurkers have come on board now?

fuzzpig what is the solution to your ds's being miserable at school? Is it the school, teacher or other children causing the problem?

Got my payslip ahead of tomorrow's wages going into my account. I've budgeted for €150 more than I've earned so hopefully my self employed class tonight will be a profitable one. Some of the stuff I've budgeted for is for clearing debt so will be available to me in an emergency. I'm out for dinner this Fri night but that's paid for as one of the women owes me money and we're going for an early bird, getting my hair done which is spendy, and going on a long car journey to visit my parents also. This budgeted spends does not allow for any meals on the journey up or down so I'll have to work around that with travel times. Will bring fruit and water in the car and might get parbaked rolls in tomorrows tesco delivery in order to bring lunch with us on Saturday.

Bloody hell blue that's a lot of money!

Hello yertiz. Good luck for being a SAHM. Childcare costs are a nightmare aren't they? We use M&S current account, and have done for a good couple of years now. I don't have a bad word to say about them, their customer service is excellent. I know their 'branches' are in their shops, but I have never needed to use one. The points you get for using the cards are useful, I get about £60-70 per quarter in vouchers, as DH puts his expenses on the card. Useful for presents or posh food.

fuzz Sorry to hear your DC are not happy. Have the school been at all proactive?

Just agreed to the carpets being cleaned. £180 to find next week, but they are so ready for doing. DH's £200 cash back will help.

Lots of factors TBH Lilac, there's a bullying issue with DD that the school are barely acknowledging, and they are both really overwhelmed. I'm getting lots of advice on the HE board but obviously it's a very big scary decision (even though we are very positive about HE and nearly did it from the start before circumstances changed)

Hmm need to go into town tomorrow, didn't realise DH's training starts next week so need to sort out childcare or take leave. So definitely not a NSD.

Xpost - DS' school is generally brilliant (DD loved her 3 years there) but they are floundering with this school refusal issue - keep talking about how it's an attachment issue. We are trying all their suggestions but it just won't work on the days he is too upset to go!

What was intended to be a trip to the supermarket for dishwasher tablets and dog food and I ended up 33 euros lighter. I did buy a maxi pack of dishwasher tablets so hopefully save some cash there, the dog food will last the month and was only 10 euros. DS1 is addicted to apples so went and grabbed himself a 2k back, 3.37 euros. I've never checked how much his apples cost, he could eat a 2k bag a day. I got some cat litter, 6pk milk and some coffee. I'm staggered how much it all cost, it was a bit of a shock really.

That was just a top up shop - I bought a dozen eggs so hopefully I can save some money just having eggy bread or something like that for tea during the week.

Lilac. Our local butchers deals not as good although I ll look again two local ones. Normally pay €11 for free range chicken that does two dinners and sandwiches for next day.

We make our own wedges! Yeah dh says my speciality is egg beans & mash!

Fuzz pig are they primary or secondary?

Please don't anyone shoot me but is there a private school that might take day pupils? Instead of HE it may work out financially more doable? Just a suggestion it may not suit at all but in case its an option I thought I would mention it.

Mine spotty??

Have you looked at any of the online butchers bootygirl depending on how you are paid maybe you could get a months meat delivered?

fuzz I'm too undisciplined to HE but it seems to work for some

Huh?

Private school would definitely be more expensive :o (I won't shoot you though ) DS is yr1 and DD is yr3, separate schools.

Basically the issue is that I would probably need to give up my PT job (12hrs over 3 days) unless we could cobble together childcare/swapped shifts etc.

I am totally, enthusiastically up for HE but it's just finance that is the sticking point ATM! We've not even mentioned it to the DCs and of course we are persevering with school for now but the sad fact is they are getting more worn down and we may need to act on it. Eeeeek!

It may be temporary anyway - if we do get council housing we will almost certainly be moving to a different area of town, so they'd have to move school then anyway.

Evening all :-)

Bank: £346.47 (was £331.47)
Purse: £96.38 (was £15.38)
Jar: £32.60 (was £33.80)
Grand Total: £475.45
Increased by: £94.80
Days to payday: 8

I have broken into the scrapped car money and paid the cheque into the bank today hence my money looking a bit healthier.

Spends:

£35.00 – Ticket for DS2 for darts
£4.00 – my snack stash at work (cereal bars, pop and chocolate)
£1.20 – bus fares

I have also bought the tickets to our 5th round FA Cup game which were £52 – not that bad really for five tickets.

DH also made a trip for work today so we'll have to put some petrol in the car later today

And we're also off out for tea for DS2's birthday. We're not going until 8pm though as main courses are BOGOF so that will save a few pounds at least, the food is very reasonable anyway but drinks are quite expensive.

I also got a code for £8 off a £70 spend from Morrisons online (nice of them) which I will spend not next week, but the week after. It was valid for the whole of Feb.

Bad day today- £38 in Tesco on rubbish and £5 on ebay (neither of which was needed).

Disappointed in myself!!

£10 budget for the rest of the week

NSD again but will have to do a top up tomorrow for milk, bread, fruit and pizza for DD1s friends coming over.

Fuzz, that sounds tricky! I'm sure the HE board have suggested this but could you tactically sign the children up for a club or HE group at those times? Or do HE group generally asume a parent will be there?
I find HE very appealing but don't have the confidence wrt phonics teaching etc. Not sure why really.

Blimey Fuzz that is a big decision, I personally am not sure about HE in general, I just would worry too much about the socialisation side of things I think. When I look at some of the complex friendship issues dd has had over the years (now in yr 4) I know that couldn't be replicated in a HE scenario and i do think its an important part of growing up. Plus I would worry that my knowledge of what kids should know and be learning would be way out!!

Plus as a single parent working 3 days a week wouldn't really be feasible anyway. I guess you have to do what you feel is right for your family.

Fuzz to ofer a different perspective my DM HE me for a year when I was struggling before going back into mainstream education. It was definitely the right thing as it got me out of a bad situation at the school, I got confidence back as I went to lots of different groups and activities meeting different people and when j went back to school I was able to deal with all issues that arose with the knowledge that life at the school wasn't the be all and end all. I also have a great relationship with my mum which I think started from HE. If you can make it work then go for it. I didn't suffer academically either. I was in year 5.

Money wise it ended up being a NSD today apart from petrol which is budgeted for. Hoping for another NSD tomorrow. Eldest DS is not at nursery so just a trip to the park planned and that's it. Online shopping arriving on Friday.

Nsd today...I'm aiming for tomorrow and Friday too.

Fuzz really sorry to hear about your little ones' school problems. Are they at different schools due to infants/juniors? Must make mornings a bit hectic taking them to two different places. I'm also a bit unsure about HE but probably because I work in a school so look forward to the bell signalling the end of the day!

2 more NSDs for me, DH bought groceries and I sneaked a scarf into the trolley so I'm reporting £8. I did bring a wooly scarf with me but am finding even inside I'm cold so I've bought a thinner one to use indoors.

£2.50 on cat food.

Vinegar are you registered with tesco orchard? You get vouchers for foods they want you to trial & write reports on their website. I thought today that if you switched your bank account to M&S you'd get a voucher for £100 that you could buy food with because its a plastic gift card.

Blimey I've given up keeping up with this thread!
NSD - hurrah! Also DP used a freebie voucher to take DD to soft play so a frugal win to boot
Fuzz I'm really sorry to hear about your poor DCs' troubles. It must be heart wrenching to have to send them off, knowing how hard it is for them. I'm sure you'll get there eventually though

I was a bout to report a Nsd but then a friend emailed me to say that lots on my kindle book list have come down (all recent publications still in HB , Booker liststuff etc.) so have spent £8.30.. Thats ok I did this when lots came down last year and save books up for my holiday reading list

.. Every year I get through about 8 books on holiday .. (and we goto the same place.. its just me and him in an idyllic - rented - house by a beach in Greece

having said that I have 4 days in Spain coming up next week, (but thats paid for .. .)

And how frugal was my dinner?. Boxing Day left over stuffed portk from the freezer!

welcome new people!

oh and how frugal was my Amazon kindle order ? .ive just realised its gone off DHs credit card not mine ( we have a joint kindle account).. Oops ( but a genuine mistake.., The embarrassing thing is that one of the books (H is for Hawk) . was sent to his kindle as an early birthday surprise! ( and now one he'll have to pay for himself..! Ah well at least it was only £8.30...

Doh!

(I was going to buy another thing as well ...hmm I wonder if he'd notice..) NO thats NOT frugal.. ( or good)

LSD today.

went out at lunchtime (in the sunshine!! although it was blardy freezing) and ended up buying a six pack of diet coke (from pound shop), and a new baby card for my friend who is a week overdue now.

Fuzz could you spread your hours around so that you can do both? Hope you get housing soon.

Well I made mince balls with onion gravy. Made enough for 4 of us and enough for freezer for me & ds' when dh is working over weekend!