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

Awesome ! I have started well with a £5 chicken from a work m&s christmas voucher in the slow cooker from 4am on a timer! Ready for lunch and half cooked at low electric rates! That will be padded out/souped to cover 4 meals at least, so that's week 1 evenings half out the way. Savings will go into the electricity meter as I'm aiming to credit electricity and mortgage one -two months into the future. I am aiming for keeping food spend to less than £3 per week, which will be natural yoghurt and bread, ideally reduced bread. Any surplus over month into electric and mortgage accounts! Will be continuing dry better sleep clearer thinking fewer colds January into Feb, which will help, and even.. gulp .. going all tea from the end of the current coffee packet.. I Don't compromise on real coffee but rarely drink tea and have easily enough for the month. . what do you think?

ilovepicnmix !! Welcome back! How are you and your ds?

I love a shiny new thread, thanks north!

Hello blueteapot - congratulations on dc2, hope you're enjoying your maternity leave so far! I loved your introduction because I'm nosy a bit like going round the table at the start of a meeting! I'm going to put mine in in the hopes that other people share and I can spend the day being nosy

I'm Six. At home is me, DH and DD who is nearly 3. We have no debt apart from our mortgage and we have nearly 50% equity in it. DH would love to move somewhere bigger but I'd rather stay and make changes here as I'm wary of moving costs and an element of 'better the devil you know'! I joined this thread after a few big utility bills left us really struggling about 18 months ago as we had zero savings. We now have £1400 in savings but I'm too scared to spend it on anything - should we do work on the house? Should we save it for when dc2 (hopefully) comes along? Should we overpay on the mortgage? Should we keep adding to it and leave it be? We're lucky; I don't feel like we struggle but at the same time we can't just say 'let's buy it/book it/do it'. Our joint income is around 50k (before tax) and we pay full time childcare (term time only).

My mini-goals for February - transfer money into savings pots at the beginning of the month - have a no-spend week at some point - supplement weekly food shop to a large extent by decluttering/selling.

vinegar your food budget really worries me.

six have you looked into re-mortgaging, possibly to an offset mortgage?. That way you would have savings & a reduced term. With 50% ltv, possibly more if you haven't been revalued recently you could be much better off.

Today should be a nsd for me. No plans to do anything but sit and catch up with series 1 of bones which I've just discovered.

Am trying out Facebook selling so have put a couple of DVDs on to see how they go.

Saving for a new house so every penny counts.

:) thanks, but during Jan I spent about £10 on lunches, and £20 on meals, partly due to working through dried foods but also due to cooking a lot...in fact everything that wasn't lunches which are baked beans on toast/ cheap noodles etc.
I have about 40 meals in freezer/dried foods from Jan batch cooking/end of xmas leftovers and ends of large packs of lentils, onions, potatoes that I bought in Dec. I also got some mulit vitamins and minerals on sale in case!

Noooo I wrote a whole post and lost it! Essentially it was thank you for the welcome and that we are trying to build up an emergency fund rather than spend savings as we had a scare that OHs temporary 18 mth contract was up in March and his whole office not being renewed, found out in Dec which started the frugality as we wouldnt have lasted long on my maternity pay! Luckily great timing hes been offered a permanent job with another company (at a 5k pa pay cut but quite happy to swallow that as permanent roles in his field are like hens teeth!) - has hit home the importance of an emergency fund for rainy days here xx

Ps vinegar even with that level of stockpiled meals we could never manage £3 a week for fresh stuff :( I hope this is only a temporary plan!?

And pps six, I love a good introduction and back story lol! :)

Hi All.

Welcome to the new folk.

It's been a busy weekend so I keep up from now on.

Low spending weekend.

£4 sturdy freezer bags from Amazon to free slow cooker meals, soup, vegetables etc.
£12 haynets x 3 for pony.
£20 anti rub vest for pony.
£100 cash withdrawal for two weeks spending.
£10 for two weeks training fees for Pony Club.

Only frivolous spend was getting pizza in last night. Didn't get in until 8pm after friends horse box got stuck in some mud. Was tired and fed up and needed wine and pizza.

Done some meal planning

Tonight - shepherds pie and vegetables.
Monday - cheesy pasta bake.
Wednesday - omelette or fritatta with salad.
Thursday - fish tagine
Friday - chorizo and leek risotto.
Saturday - possibly take away
Sunday - roast chicken dinner.

I have everything in for all of these meals.

Waaahhhhhhhh! I just got a speeding ticket

fluffy I've heard of these - great idea! Thank you

We've been adding up all our food spends and good grief it's HORRIFIC seeing how much of our money is going to tesco and the co-op. What a kick up the arse!

We have now set a budget of £400 this month for food shopping which should certainly be doable now that we are being more careful and planning for work lunches etc.

I'm talking myself round in circles though - I'm not sure about including things like trips to the cafe/snacks when out/the odd macdonalds/takeaway etc. I guess that should be a separate budget or something?! Argh, I'm so confused.

Oh I forgot to say the £400 includes household stuff - that's why we decided on monthly rather than weekly, as stuff like laundry/loo roll packs etc bump up the cost.

Fuzz - I have a large budget for food £600, I that does absolutely include spends on ALL food, including meals out, coffees, take-out food, ALL cleaning products, all washing products and all 'personal hygiene' products. That's for two adults and two teen DC's, so actually 4 adults.

re speeding ticket six

Temporary in the sense that its an accelerated version of last year. I don't want to live like this because I have to.. but I do have to at the moment. Not much fresh stuff I agree but frozen veg still around which is as good as fresh and will probably relent on broccoli and occasional clemantines. I use a lot of onion garlic and tinned tomatoes and plenty of pulses. I think I am eating better than ever in lots of ways. ..

Oops in the speeding ticket

Our food budget is £300 a month this includes all cleaning stuff, toiletries, nappies. If I know I'm in budget I might also use it for a cheeky costa

We've been swimming and to frankie and bennys for breakfast. It was horrible and the service was crap but I already have one complaint with them pending so don't feel I can complain again dh paid anyway.

I wish I could go back to bed. Pesky children.

oh new thread ( aand already 3 pages in before i noticed!) .

I spent £30 on friday but got loads of reduced stuff..£20 on food and a almost new chicco fold up buggy with all the extras from someone at work for £10! (a 'grandmas house' buggy , we have DGCs who visit )

NSD yesterday after all my expected visitor didnt come as she hurt her back and ive been slayed by foul cold all weekend , so its been a quiet weekend indoors.

So a lot of what i bought Friday is still uneaten, including the chicken .. Today i only need carrots (as im going to make some 'doctor' chicken soup for myself later if i can manage the kitchen) and milk.. ! I have to go out to take Dh to ferry later so will pop into shop then.

Last night we had a fab frugal stuffed mushroom and brown rice thing with h/m tomato sauce (was v frugal as the pack of 6 huge mushrooms only cost me 59p!)

we seem to average about £350 on groceries a month (that includes all toiletries , household stuff cleaning stuff, wine cat food etc) but most of the time theres only two of us.. I'm sure i can cut this down. i do alwayd take my own lunches in and dont buy coffees out..

Tbf laska I haven't really increased the amount of food I buy for evening meals since we had dc, dh and I just eat less

NSD yesterday and today although DH is doing our weekly shop later. I'm a bit wary about this as I'm still shocked that he managed to spend €300 in Tesco doing the Christmas shop. But he'll be out all day and I've no car so I'll just have to trust him. I've given him a list. Anyway, he was very shocked himself at what he spent that night so he'll avoid Tesco. Also, he knows I'll be scrutinizing the receipt.

lila, well done on clearing so much debt. That's a great achievement! Hope everything continues to go according to plan.

fuzzpig, well done also for clearing your credit cards.

dipping, I'd take out your savings first, at the start of the month. Then you'll have to manage on what you have left.

Happy, congrats on your 10th wedding anniversary. Are you going somewhere nice to celebrate?

blueteapot, hope all goes well with Baby No. 2 and you have a safe delivery. Make sure you come back and let us know if it's a boy or girl.

Kiaora, you sound very organized. Knowing your expenditure is a big help. Every so often DH and I go through all our bills and direct debits so we're clear about what our monthly expenditure is and what our disposable income is. Makes us feel more in control.

Vinegar, £3 per week sounds very little. I know you have lots of dinners in the freezer but what about fresh stuff like milk, cheese, yoghurt, fruit etc.? Do you have kids or do you live on your own? I'm sorry things are so tight for you.

Oh six - sorry to hear about the speeding fine. How fast were you going?

So far NSD. But will shortly be paying for ds' birthday party at bowling place. Possibly will pop into the big tesco near there to check out the reduced corner. I've been following the 'feed your family for £20 a week' and they seem to pick up a lot of good bargains at their supermarkets! I've never ever done that. Probably coz I don't shop at those times... But hey we shall see. I promise not to get anything beyond my shopping list. I'm not the person who will pick up 20 packs of tomatoes just coz.... I don't have the space (or maybe I should find the space?!).

Thanks everyone for your input on the monthly food budget. I'll discuss further with DH later about how we will manage takeaways etc in terms of keeping that spending under control, whether we will add that to the main budget or do something separate. In the main I'm hoping that the little spends like me getting lunch from Boots on the way to work etc will reduce anyway now that we are starting to be more organised.

Just opened the washing machine and loads of water came pouring out then found dc upstairs having fun with my benefit make up

I like the idea of doing a proper, round-the-table type introduction too! Welcome to all newbies

I'm fuzzpig (but y'all can call me fuzz if you prefer :o), I live with DH and our two DCs, 7 and 5. We also have 3 DSCs, 16/16/22. I have a chronic illness/disability which varies a lot in severity, and can only work very part time now. DH works full time (more like 6 days a week at the moment) in a managerial but crappily paid job, although he's got some training coming up with will gradually increase his wage and prospects. We don't run a car but pay a lot on our private rented hovel house, and we are on Band B (we are overcrowded) waiting what seems like forever for council housing. Our aim is to be as frugal as we can while we wait for housing, and then when we get housed and our rent decreases we can save even more in the hope that when our council tenancy runs out (they reassess every 5 years) we can get a mortgage or, more likely, a part rent part buy council/HA thingy. My parents have generously said they would like to help with this in the future although I'm not really planning anything yet as it's a long way off - just want to save as much as we can really. Anyway, we've basically no debt as in no CC/loans etc, just the overdrafts which we are both in and out of every month, so that is our biggest challenge at the moment - I'd love to be in the black all month!

Oh no spotty! :(

Why did the washing machine let you open the door when it was still full? Is the pipe blocked or something? Hope it's not broken