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

Audit - hope the funeral went as well as it could and I'm sorry for your loss.

MissA - hope the meds work, looks really painful.

NSD, DD1 was ill so day at home helps with not spending!

Thanks everyone for the flowers, hugs and kind thoughts.

Yes, there were good moments yesterday including meeting with my niece and nephew who I hadn't seen for about 7 and 10 years respectively.

I had planned on working from home today, but had sore eyes, headache, backache etc. so checked the emails and left boss a message to say I was taking the rest of the day as a sick day.

Spent £11ish on McDonalds lunch fir me, mum and DD2.

Not sure who asked, but yes my mum is still staying with me. She is normally here 3 nights a week helping out with childcare/school pick ups etc. I find her an easy house guest, she is going to stay until the end of the month, then may go to my aunt's for a week or two. I expect she will come back for a bit longer, but yesterday she was obviously feeling that we are making all the decisions and pushing her around, so we need to let her have a bit of autonomy (whilst still keeping an eye on her, if course )

Sorted out what I think are the last of DD1's show costumes, £65 to pay on Sunday.

Audit , it's not unheard of to feel ill after a stressful situation like that.

£5 on upgrading a DPD delivery.

So sorry for your loss audit

Major soup crisis! As there was too much liquid I chucked in a load of lentils to thicken it. Then is was too thick and sticking to the pan so I added a bit more water. Now we have about 2 litres of very stodgy soup and no space in the freezer! It reminded me of the sorcerer's apprentice a bit. I'm hoping to palm some off on my mum tomorrow. At least the ingredients were cheap and we should get a lot of meals out of it!

Yes Point divide it up and give your mum some, then what you have left should keep a few days in the fridge. Add spices to change the taste if you don't want the same soup two days running.

Audit not surprised you feel rough, try to take care of yourself.

I popped into the supermarket today, loo roll, fruit juice, yoghurts and choc, £9.21.

Pointless add some spices and chillies and it sounds like you'd have a dhansak?!

Hoping for my third nsd today. Not going anywhere, I've got to try and plan dds alien costume for Friday ds had me up at five

, Audit. Take care of yourself.

NSD yesterday - a client unexpectedly provided sandwiches for lunch, so I didn't have to buy anything. Don't know how today will go. I'm just working all the time at the moment - desperately need a break.

NSD yesterday apart from usual fee for Alex Tech class.

Hoping for another one today and tomorrow. Made a squash, red pepper butter bean and tomato stew in slow cooker yesterday, it smells delicious, for dinner tonight and prob tomorrow. We are doing really well on using stuff up, shouldn't need to buy anything this week either. Off to Rome on Sunday for mini break, booked it I'm hospital as something to look forwards to. Not frugal but a much needed boost.

DD is of course bouncing off the ceiling this morning . I'm pretty sure it wasn't a bug, thankfully (am something of an emetophobe so really struggle with this!) - but DH is worried it might be migraines :( the symptoms/timings etc match how his started when he was a child, and match DSD's too :(

Yesterday ended up quite spendy.

10/2
£6 breakfast club for both DCs... Annoyingly I was awake before they even left but still worth it for a rest!
£1.50 bus down to school to hurriedly collect sick DD :(
£4.30 taxi home
£3.99 ancient Egypt top trumps for the DCs (they are fascinated by Egypt thanks to their playmobil pyramid :o and it'll probably be the first topic if we start home ed)
£1 fabric for DD to make doll clothes
£1.40 tea
£2.59 DH lunch on training
£1.14 DH chips while waiting for bus

I seem to have even more messages from potential childminders so I'm going to spend some time responding this morning!

Oh and I messed up soup yesterday too! We don't have any huge pots (should really learn to use the slow cooker as that's massive) so I couldn't do that much leek and potato. I put some spinach in to top it up as I've done before, but too much this time so I found it too bitter. Thankfully DD liked it so wasn't a waste!

peonies that stew sounds fab, my mother has offloaded about 15 different canned goods on me including beans tinned tomatoes coconut milk I'm delighted because i use all these things just hope she didn't do it because she thinks we can't afford food!!

We went out for dinner last night to a fancy restaurant with dhs brother & fiance our Christmas present to each other, using vouchers & including wine & coffees it came to €115 for 4 of us, it was a fab evening & this morning I checked our online banking to discover our mortgage has come down by almost same amount dinner cost us last night

Damn. Got all excited when I realised Brick 2015 tickets went on sale this morning (and it's near my birthday too so even better) - but it'd cost over £90 for the four of us! We are hoping to go to legoland this year anyway so maybe next year we will save up for it.

Lunch disaster put my frozen soup in some warm water to defrost and the bag must have had a hole in it. Have had to throw it away and it was my last bag!

to Audit take care and hope you feel better soon.

There seems to be a bit of lurgy going round at the moment. I woke up feeling yuk so it seems it may be the start of something. LSD as maybe just cheese and cream to buy as making a potato bake for tea. Tried to do some work and continue with coding but I feel horrible so I think I finally give up and will hole up with ipad on the bed and wait till tomorrow.

Being put in for 2 permanent jobs both have lots of good points and I would be happy to take either for different reasons.

Spotty I seem to have those sort of disasters all the time, last time was using blender and it spattered all over newly done washing. It does seem like the end of the world when you're in a certain mood.

£17.50 facial & manicure at the college.

Free valentines card from wh smiths using the O2 priority app. I think if you order a payg one via topcashback you can register for them & use it when an offer comes up that you want.

Dinner will make up for my lost lunch. Sausages, boulangere potatoes (sp?) and veg.

Bank: £116.04 (was £166.04)
Purse: £14.79 (was £3.52)
Jar: £17.80 (was £22.05)
Grand Total: £148.63
reduced by by: £42.98
Days to payday: 2

Spends:

£10.00 – DH*
£18.00 – Scarf*
£0.64 – stamp
£1.19 – the kids scammed me for some sweets in the shop
£8.90 – lunch
£4.25 – bus fares, activities etc

*I'm absolutely livid with DH – he took the debit card today as car needed petrol and took it upon himself to withdraw £10 for himself so I am fuming. Well he'll get a shock because I'll be taking it out of his pocket money when I give him it on Friday. Right now £10 is a lot of money to me, and I'm not eating sodding value custard creams and sending DS1 with dilute pop to school and scrimping and saving on groceries just for him to take an extra tenner willy nilly because he has spent all his money. It is not MY fault he spent his £190 within two weeks of getting it, then went and blew £70 birthday money the same weekend he got it AND I had already given him £10 extra on the day of his gran's funeral. It isn't the amount, it is the fact he has done it when he promised me he would make his money last knowing full well that I was to be £90 down on my monthly money so HE could have an “okay” car. In his head I am “punishing” him, by keeping him short of money, when in reality I do not have much more than his “frittering” money to run the whole house. What an utter twat he can be. I am so angry!

*The scarf – bloody hell. I have a workfriend on FB (we work in same building but not the same office) and she put on FB a few weeks ago that she was thinking of knitting football colour scarves for charity and would anyone be interested. I answered her saying “yeah I'd be interested, let me know how much it would be” - promptly forgot, but she'd obviously read it as “this is an order for one” so turned up at work with it today asking for £18! I know wool is expensive but bloody hell, £18 for a scarf!!! I didn't have the heart to say that it was a bit more than I had hoped to pay and promptly coughed up.

But I went out for lunch with my own team and we went to the cheaper Chinese Buffet, so that saved me probably £3.

I had hoped to have had more money left though – it has been a very expensive month! Hope the next month is cheaper, roll on payday!

Oh dear Bantam your dh does sound like a nightmare with money, that would drive me batty I would have said no to the scarf - £18 is ridiculous

£23 today on petrol and a bottle of water.

Really wanted chip shop chips on the way home as another hideously busy day at work but I resisted and will put some oven chips on in a min.

Recipe for the potato dish please Spotty, any spud related inspiration welcome! Nsd here.

Bantam Your DH is SO like my DH, possibly for different reasons, but 'programmed' the same. He's already been in the Timberland shop at the airport (away on business nearly every week), getting some 'bargains' as she 'has no shirts'. They are not bargains as the are Timberland, and he has plenty of shirts. It really pisses me off as I had put that money aside for this years holiday.

I would have been soft and paid for the scarf though, I am useless at saying no, big softie.

NSD today. Cash in a policy that matured and paid into the bank, which will give us a cash buffer.

Noticed the window cleaner had been, so that will be £10 when he calls later in the week. And two rugs for the pony were collected to be washed and re-proofed, which will be £28 (£14 each)

Good luck for the jobs sporting.

Tea is baked pasta, with cheese sauce, bacon, broccoli and leek, home cooked. Tomorrow will be potato and cauliflower curry.

Nsd.

Bantam that would infuriate me.

Clippity here is a recipe I add garlic to the onions, dot the top with butter and grate parmesan on halfway through.

bantam he is behaving like a child! No wonder you're pissed off.

Oh dear, it has been a soup disaster week all round! Gave some to mum and DD had a little bit for her tea.
About to reheat more for tea - adding chillies is a brilliant idea!
NSD but noticed the supermarket overcharged us for something yesterday by a whole 68p, going into complain tomorrow and try to get the money back. I wouldn't bother making a special journey but I pass it on my way to work.

clippity potato dish for you - tarteflette. Yummy. Warmy. Yummy.

Nsd today. Woop.