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

Fuzz I think as long as the care provider accepts your vouchers, there aren't rules fixed relating to timings. I get £50 each month, use £14.88 fir the meals at DD2's private nursery, that she attends for 10 hours free one day per week term time, then save the rest which I then use for holiday club fir the older children.

Yesterday paid £5 for part of one costume for DD1, but got back 2 lots of £3.50 for tops I had bought for other mums, so net increase £2!

We're having chicken pilaf for dinner. It's one of my favourite on pot meals. I don't have any onion though so it'll just have to do without, it'll be ok though won't it? Going for my blood test then to a friends for coffee no need to spend anything.

Just trying to catch up. MissA it definitely sounds more like some kind of infection than Raynauds. Hope you get it sorted soon.
cremeegg couldn't agree more about the benefit of walking in the sun. Dh and I went out last weekend on the coast (Morecambe bay). It was glorious and there was the backdrop of snow covered Lakeland hills, breathtaking. I'd been unwell for weeks and although I was definitely on the mend, I'm certain it accelerated my recovery. Yesterday was cloudy here though.
Had sil and her dh staying at the weekend which was lovely and not too spendy as we ate in and managed to use stuff we already had in. I'm off work now until Friday, today have dd off school with what I think is an ear infection . Should be a low spend week, using food we already have and going for walks if the weathers good.
Have a good week everyone

Good morning all, NSD yesterday and am hoping for the same today. If I don't leave the house then all will be well.

Half term here, but I have a builder in finishing off a garage renovation - if you see another thread I have running I won't be leaving this one unattended so there will be lots of days at home. I may take on some extra work some of the days to earn some extra cash (I work part time from home for one of my jobs). My DS' are big enough not to want to go out and be entertained at half term and they are happy staying at home playing on the X-box, in the garden or drawing. They're working hard at school so they need a rest before next term.

Good morning, dd liked all her presents and was most put out that she had to go to school I now have to make her a chocolate cake for her bday tea!!

I am back to work tomos (have had 3 weeks off for anxiety and a bad reaction to the meds the dr gave me) will be glad to get back to normal.

Glad things seem to be improving for you girlie, and hope your DD enjoys school as the birthday girl :o

Robin, sorry you were ill and had a crap weekend. Horrible when you are too ill to enjoy yourself AND you know you're paying shitloads for the privilege

Thanks folks for the responses re: childcare vouchers. That's very reassuring, and the amount we could get would certainly help! I'm going to go back to a childcare site (one of those ones where you have a free basic membership, if you don't want to pay for premium) and update my info to see if I can get anywhere. If I can remember my login info that is

I'm going to start a thread about work I could do from home too. We are really serious about wanting to be able to HE, so I need to get serious about earning some extra money! :)

To my surprise I was able to book breakfast club for tomorrow - I think it's £8 but worth it as DH can take them before going on to his training. Which means I get a lie-in! Hell yeah! :o

Woohoo! Profile updated on childcare.co.uk. I ticked a load of different childcare options, so hopefully I'll get a few responses once it's been moderated and approved :)

Low spends few days here. DP has had nasty cold so has needed cold relief tablets and cough syrup, and I got him some special drinks, naked juice and Capri sun squash things. I got myself some special drink too, cava! And we had a duvet weekend.

I have the next two weekends coming up in which I have my best friend staying one weekend and family the next. Normally I go overboard with shopping when I have company expected, lots of wine, kettle chips, biscuits and chocs, as well as meals out and activities. But this time I will cook dinners such as shepherds pie and apple crumble rather than eating out,and see what Aldi can do in the way of modest wine and nibbles. Any recomendations?

Re activities, I shall take friend on an antique shop trail and then for a swim at the local baths rather than the spa stuff we usually do, and there are always NT places to walk in. I have threatened her with a Pound shop challenge too, which could be fun. Family are easy to entertain too, nice walk, pile of newspapers, coffee, a drink or two and a roast dinner does them champion.

What do you chaps do to entertain frugally yet hospitably?

hello all, I've been lurking over the weekend, and reading this thread does keep me focused to stop frittering away our cash...
That said; yesterday was quite spendy. I took the teens out for lunch, (M and S cafe) on to the cinema, and then bought ds some jeans in primark. All of this came out of budgeted for cash though, so no credit card debt, unlike the old days!
He refused to try them on in the shop, put them on at home and instantly declared that they didn't fit, with a tone of voice that implied it was all my fault! Grrrr!!!

They are not going back, as soon as I looked at him, I realised that a) he hadn't done the flies up, and b) hadn't pulled them up over his feet. ffs.
He received a lecture on why trying clothes on is a necessary part of clothes shopping.
He got that information for free!
Then, I had to buy train tickets for our trip to MIL's in the Easter holidays.
I managed to save over £100 by splitting the journey up and buying separate tickets for each leg, and not going via London. So, I'm quite chuffed with that!

Opal if I have a friend to stay I tend to cook something like spam bol or lasgnaue, with a nice salad and garlic bread. Will buy in a nice dessert as well. We tend to do nice walks, parks or popping into town to a nice coffee shop.

I don't drink so don't normally get wine in, normally guests bring their own if they want to drink!!

Sometimes will pick up a new dvd or something to watch.

£15 in Tescos on fruit and veg
£3.80 on posting out a eBay parcel

Should be it for today. So tired as DS2 is up all night feeding at the moment. My mum bless her is picking DS1 up from nursery so I can try and sleep this afternoon.

Sending healthy thoughts to those feeling under the weather at the moment. Colds are awful and everyone I know has been struck down in the last few months

Thanks all - I am seeing the dr at 3pm, so hopefully he will help me out. We decided to take the house - we will need to save moving costs plus for things like new curtains and paint to freshen place up so will need to cut right back on eating out, treats etc. My idea is to try and save most of that by cutting back so we can continue to save as planned.
The new house has an extra room downstairs and a gorgeous open fire and a utlity room off the kitchen which is big enough for a washing machine and a tumble dryer. In some ways it is smaller than where we are now (living room is smaller as is kitchen) but bedrooms are bigger and the location is beautiful. We'll be moving in July so plenty of time to save

haha spam bol should read spag bol spam bol would not be nice!!

I wondered what spam bol was

MissA how exciting hope the Dr can help

I may be frugaleering but I draw the line at spam Bol! Nice salad and garlic bread sounds yum though.

Spam Bol :o :o

£49 in sainsburys just on fresh stuff for the week.
£11 on fitness card but will get that back as determined not to each chocolate.
£1.75 for glue for WBD costume. The instructions say wire coat hangers but they are impossible to get, trip to a DIY shop tomorrow on my lunch break for some wire.

Have batch cooked bolognaise for tea and freezer. Have done a load of veg to eek out the lasagne and hopefully it will last 2 meals but i doubt it with the gannets in this house.

£52 for DDog regular meds and more for flea treatment but not sure how much yet. Insurance company wont pay as we started with them in July as previous company on renewal wanted over a thousand pounds. DDog started needing meds before we went with this company so they wont cover him. We were just paying before but he needs more now. Bloody insurance companies get you coming and going.

If i could turn back the clock 15 years ago i would have just set up a savings account. Nearly 15 years of insurance and no claims. Dare not cancel it now as he is 16 this year and it would be just my luck i cancel and something big happens.

Ah well its a sunny day and we (DDog and I) had a walk to the shop to post ebay parcels.

Babs it's difficult to know what to do with insurance isn't it? We've had 3 cats, 1 we never claimed for, 1 we probably broke even with insurers and the other cost thousands. There's no way we could have treated her if it wasn't for insurance. I think the same about our life insurance. Dh and I are in our 30's and in good health so we'll probably never claim but then is something did happen to one of us it's good to know money wouldn't be something else to worry about.

Nk did you enjoy Big Hero 6. Dd did and wants to 'fist bump' at every opportunity! I had some vouchers and loyalty points so tickets for us both and drink, smarties, popcorn for her came to £9.65 which was okay.

£1 on playgroup. Not going into shops at all as I have 30p left in my grocery budget and plenty of food at home. Can't wait for Friday, payday, new month trying to forget it's also start of half term

I know ima I would hate to think of what if if we couldn't afford to treat hiM.

NSD so far today.

Spam bol made me smile! I used to know a guy from Hong Kong who liked to cook spam and noodle meals... Quite nice apparently, but I was not tempted to try!

Sorry I forget who it was but somebody mentioned a chicken pilaf... any chance of a rough recipe pretty please? :)

It was me

I use this as a rough guide. Note the recipe is for one person. I use a whole jar of korma paste, more stock than the ratio advised and use peppers, peas, cauliflower and spinach. Yum.

I also chucked in a load of coriander because I love it. Dh hates it so I'm going to tell him it's just spinach

Nsd today. Yay!!

Have been adding things to my amazon wish list.

Work today - week 2 in new job. So happy. So far so good.

Spag Bol for dinner - made ages ago from freezer. Yay!

Have loads of "housekeeping" things to do this evening. Sigh.