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

£1.99 on birthday card for DH. This thread is so busy these last couple of months, but I actually look forward to reading it when I get home.

Sorry about your DC Fuzzpig, not an easy decision.

Jack Monroe 'Spring Piggy' for dinner tonight. Cheap as chips, easy as pie and delicious. We had it with rice, but chunky bread would work to mop up!! I have Morrisons delivering in the morning, they had a flash sale on white 'bloomer' loafs, so tomorrow will be chunky vegetable soup as 50p spent on a huge white loaf will work well with the veg I have left.

Fuzz , what about moving them both to a primary school? Do you think your DS is struggling now your DD has left?

Welcome to all newbies!

Day out today, which I really needed. £7.70 on travel, £8.45 on lunch at Cafe Nero, 45p water and £6.50 cinema ticket. I also bought myself two birthday presents from the gifts budget (£28, so £3 over!) and some bits and bobs from Primark from the clothing budget, mostly for DS (£29.50). Oh and I made DS spend £16 of his Christmas money on a winter coat to replace the one I bought for him in November. It should have been £20, but the shop were doing a 20% discount for Scouts who brought their neckerchiefs along. He has lost lots of stuff since he started secondary school.

Sorry to hear fuzz about your children's school issues. Could you hold on till the end of school year? Is it a case of the school, learning issues or...?

NSD.

Received an email from a head hunters today...! Interesting job, not sure if I can be bothered to move, but when the email pinged in whilst I was in the midst of a rather boring meeting where people were pontificating, let's just say I got seriously distracted!

Thanks everyone

I unfortunately wouldn't be able to change my hours without applying for a new (very unlikely) vacancy - they did gradually let me reduce my hours when I got sick but that was with a lot of umming and ahhing with occ health because it was that or medical retirement basically! I have some hope though that as a manager DH can rearrange things a bit (he already did when our CM quit), things are a little uncertain ATM as he's doing this training which may get him a better job elsewhere anyway. We may get a little help from family although wouldn't assume it obviously.

Other school isn't an option at the moment due to location and in any case I think with DS at least it's 'school' that he's struggling with rather than 'this particular school' IYSWIM? Although I agree it isn't helped by the fact that DD has moved on - they are very close, so could look into moving him to DD's school - basically here there is a separate infant school, where both my DCs started because it's our nearest, and a huge primary where the junior (where DD is now) takes from its own infant school, our infant school and one more further away (600 DCs just in junior!). Anyway we will definitely look at local schools when (if ) we get housing too so even if we do HE it's not necessarily long term.

I hate seeing them so sad. :(

LSD- would have been NSD, but I've just spent £3.49 on a book from Amazon. Hoping to get back on track with a NSD tomorrow, and another on Friday. I'm doing quite well this week so far.

My expensive trousers arrived today, they only bloody fit! I don't know what to do now as they are the only pair I've found anywhere that fit but they were £60. I will wear them a lot at work so I should get my money's worth from them but the cost seems a bit extravagant. I'd ordered them assuming they'd be returned!
Also spent £84 on a massive food shop. Much more than I usually spend but I want to get some meals cooked and in the freezer before I go back to work.

I think we will be holding on longer yes, although in my heart I frankly want to just get them out ASAP I know we need to be really careful about this decision and it is absolutely not being taken lightly.

I have to say, even though money is the biggest worry, just the fact I've been on these threads for a few months now and am gradually learning more about frugality and benefiting from the mutual support here, has made this a lot less scary and I know if we do have to HE we will manage much better because of that. You guys rock :)

Pointless keep them, youve been talking about how youve not been able to find any .. If they fit and look good and you wil wear them lots , thats more frugal than buying cheaper which you hate and will only wear a couple of times then discard.

Where did you get them from?

Second NSD in a row!

Yes, keep them! You've been looking for ages and have found the holy grail! You'll get plenty of use out of them and it's better than paying out for tailoring etc :)

pointless Why spend lots of £20 on pairs that don't really fit but are ok, then you don't really feel great in and you feel a bit uncomfortable, then you put in the cupboard, then in the charity bag etc. When one spend will negate that? Frugality works both ways

I would keep them too. Think of it like Pratchett's rule of boots - having the money to buy a more expensive pair that do the job we'll now will cost you less than the several pairs of cheap not right ones over the same time period.

Keep the trousers!! Totally agree with everyone else. Work it out per use. I'm sure it'll be worth it. Plus if it's good material it will last.

Where is it from?!!

Fuzz pig if it helps any I ve had to reduce my hours over the years for the sake of the kids & with careful planning it can work out.

Keep the trousers! You ll wear them forever!

Thanks :) I think we will need to become mega organised! And it was an aim of mine anyway but might have even more incentive now.

4/2
£14 school trip for DD
£4 disco for DS
£2 bus
£1.60 juice before work (will take a lunchbox carton from home next time I need the sugar hit! Irony is I left most of it in the fridge at work )
£1.49 DH gluten free biscuits

I'm keeping a running total of the remaining food budget which is making me feel in control!

Christmas leftovers from the freezer for us tonight too turkey for stir fry wraps and home made wedges. Sausage and mash tomorrow. Nsd. Made pavlova as a present for a friend, but now left with four egg yolks in the fridge. Any ideas please?!

PS keep the trousers Pointless, and order another pair as soon as you can afford to!

Thanks for the recipe baby. I made 30 minute rolls this evening. I was about to go to bed but then realised I didn't have any rolls for dh's lunch tomorrow. They took me 36 minutes but not bad for my first attempt. The rolls I usually make take 2 hours

Tiwi would you mind posting Sarah and Duck pattern. My friend is expecting and I don't have a lot of time so that sounds ideal.

I'm struggling to keep up with this thread. I read it and think 'oh I must post xx xx xx in response to xxxx' but by the time I've finished catching up I've forgotten. Maybe I need a notepad

Just under £3 in Aldi on fruit. I've picked up a mystery shopping job this week in asda so I've ordered £25.04 of groceries from them. I hate their website, I find it really hard to shop. My grocery budget for this month has £27.56 remaining so I hope the picker doesn't pick large veg or I'll go over

£5 for DD1's karate lesson. £139.94 on winter car check up after it didn't start one morning a couple of weeks ago, plus a new battery that was the problem. Can claim this back from work.

Have to pay the Dancing fees tomorrow £110, plus some costumes, will be about £70

Also need diesel, but can reclaim.

OMG just spent half of next month's mortgage on a forgotten bill hmmph. But am enjoying the hope that everything will be ok if I don't spend on food or electricity.. or anything else! Luckily food and electricity should last till end of Feb. Mind you I blew two days of my bread ration today which was supposed to be two slices a day, but it is an average so I don't feel too bad.

Does anyone know how long chapatti flour lasts? I haven't included this in my calculations but have some that I think is 8 months old.. perhaps more (its in airtight container) if its still ok I could have that instead. Would it be ok do you think?

Thanks fluffy will look into tesco orchard and m&s banking tomorrow. .

vinegar I reckon it'll be fine. We used to keep flour for ages with no ill effects. Nowadays we get through flour of all kinds so much quicker. We've used a huge bag of chapati flour in about 2 months recently. DP is very good at making them!
We will need to buy easy crap food for a quick meal tomorrow - thinking pizzas. We're off out to watch the rugby and we have a sitter so I'll need to get her some pop and snacks too. Hoping to pick it all up in Farm Foods.