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

Typed a post earlier and lost it!
360 love the sound of your holiday, we went to France two years ago & brought things like toilet roll salt washing up liquid tea towels ketchup mayonnaise etc with us rather than paying exorbitant prices for them while we were there. Order the bread evening before from campsite shop because they don't order in many and you'll miss out.

bantam I love reading your post about your month I hope to do that for joint account soon even though we're paid weekly lots of bills are monthly so it would give a clearer picture to break it down monthly.

We've decided to stay putting same amount away towards mortGage and the excess will help pay for attending weddings etc

Gah just when I thought I was was sorted this month noticed something wrong with one of my cats mouth!! Why does that always happen?? A vets appointment is £35 before any treatment.

Anyone else watching eat well for less?

A bit more Spendy today than I planned. Top up shop £19 plus an impromptu trip to Tesco which was £12 but got 3 bottles of wine for £9.50, they were marked down to £3.65 and then I got the 10% for 3, so a frugal win.

Meeting about some freelance work on Monday so all good.

Liked the family a lot more on EWFL this week, they must have been to hell and back with their little girl being so poorly

Mind you they were still spending crazy amounts on food, all the suggestions seem really obvious to me!! Also do we always stick to best before dates on fruit and veg surely if you haven't eaten it you only chuck it out when it starts looking manky?

I watched EWFL. I really liked the family. They were not at all middle classed snobs liked last week and were really lovely. I don't blame them for being soft with their DD after having been so ill. They still spent a shocking amount on food though

Aloo gobi for tea, with rice. Also had 2 naan bread frozen from a previous curry and bought some indian nibbles for 80p in the 'flash sale' delivery part of my Morrisons order. I have half the gobi left. Amazing how far one large potato and half a cauliflower will stretch eh?

bantam I don't know what to suggest re your husband, I really don't. Other than to not cave in at all. So he has his money at the start of the month and you DO NOT give in to him.

DH has taken a tenner to the pub quiz, his one night out a week (if he's around anyway). I also have been notified that DD is staying on a sleepover tomorrow for a birthday, so will have to spend £10/15, it's a very close friend though. Now they are teens, birthday 'parties' are very much rarer, so we do spend a bit more, unless it's a disco, then most stick a fiver in a card.

That's really tough bantam. I would find that really hard to deal with.

I cooked pasta with a cheese sauce with peas and onions. It was fine, but none of the children, even the baby, would eat it!!
They are clearly not on board with being frugal. So frustrating having fussy children (and no I don't offer them anything else and never have, they'd just rather eat nothing then try anything!)

This thread has moved so fast! I've been MIA for a few days as have had 3 ill DC's. Have spent most if my time administering Calpol and changing sheets. All on the mend now tho. And we have had a bit of s breakthrough with the bullying situation. DD1 broke down sobbing in school over it, I was called in, school now taking it all more seriously. Sad it took such a dramatic reaction from her, but relieved something is now being done.

Been a bit spendy:
Sat - £27 in Aldi, £20 on sewing stuff with DD1.
Sun - NSD
Mon - 89p for milk.
Tues - £9.99 in co-op on fruit, bread etc.
Wed - £4 on coffee out, weekly treat, normally £2.50 but had a scone too. Still breast feeding, that's my excuse!
Thurs -NSD

Going to catch up with the thread now, so much to catch up on. Finding this thread really motivating and have been more aware of my spending. Feeling very motivated to keep going.

Blue, huge congrats to you! I'm snuggling my 4 week old DD as I type. It's the best feeling in the world!

Last two days:

11/2
£5.59 DH lunch stuff

12/2
NSD! :o

I liked the family too but I still don't understand how they spent so much!

Tewi mine are fussy too. Some meals I've resorted to hardly giving them anything. Ds spits any vegetables out but dd is getting better if she doesn't want to eat she leaves the table I've got so fed up with her trying to say 'I'll eat this and leave this etc' I don't want a discussion just eat or get down!

£2 for dd to dress up as an alien
50p for her to take to cake sale

Food shopping coming later will be about £70.

Having my bargain microwave pasta for dinner tonight.

£58 on food shopping for our weekend guests. Haven't seen them in ages so really don't mind. I loved the family on EWFL this week, they seemed so genuine and their girls were adorable.

Congrats Blue!

Morning! Yesterday was quite spendy, I popped into Sainsbury's and spent nearly £20, mainly on clothes for DD but not the right time of the month for that!
I am out for a curry with the girls tonight but I will not be drinking, plus I'm on a diet so it will be tandoori and salad all the way.
I only have £50 left til payday (2 weeks!!!) of personal spends but we are reasonably flush in the joint acct. Nevertheless i will need to dip into savings to get to the end of the month I reckon. It'll be a big payday too, cos it will be for Jan and Feb.

Morning!! Nsd here yesterday!

Today will be a different matter. We've run out of "lunch" things so for the first time in 2015 I'm going to leave the office at 1. And buy a sandwich!!! A bit excited actually. I love a lovely freshly made sandwich.

Spendy day yesterday - met an old friend for lunch as she happened to be in London. It's difficult striking the balance between being frugal and being sociable: I reckoned I could justify this one as I see her very seldom. I also paid our electricity bill - £231 (we need an emoticon for "ouch"). Hoping for NSD today.

Still waiting to see if I've got a pay rise for 2015 - negotiations started back in August and the last I'd heard was that we were likely to be offered 1.75%, but we still haven't heard anything.

Should be LSD today as just need something for tea and milk. Do need to get a birthday gift for DS friend whose party it is on Sunday but will get something from Asda as they have got good offers.

Will go to park with DS and take his new scooter so free. There are some Chinese New Year activities at the libraries which are free in half term so will do some if those but I will have to do work as well so will have to find him some stuff he can do whilst I work.

Congratulations Blue that's lovely news!

Well yesterday was a bit spendy - 61 euros on food and 40 euros on adhesive for the tiler who is tiling my garage renovation. The adhesive ended up being a bit of a bargain, when I was buying it the lady in the shop took me to the promotion at the end of the aisle which I'd missed. The bags there had an extra 5kg in so I only needed to buy two bags and not three, so saved money.

Then I sold a couple of pictures that I wasn't going to use in the house for 25 euros and somebody on Facebook was looking for a cheap woodburner. I took one out of my house this year because insurance company had replaced it after the floods - have ended up with two people interested so that's an extra 50 euros.

I've decided that rather than putting any of this extra cash in my purse and spending it I'll put it in the savings jar and it can go towards spending money for summer holidays or Christmas.

Should be a NSD today, got lovely friends coming for dinner tonight but got the stuff yesterday.

Disaster ohhelp! Not sure there is a fix for that... Hope new shirt isn't too pricey.

Spotty, the fussiness is so annoying! I'm glad it's not just us. Might try a rewArd chart ala ewfl but not convinced (I have an amazingly stubborn bunch!)

Will be NSD today, feeling to ill to even venture out at all, will survive with what we have. DS watching Big Hero 6 and Despicable Me so he's happy.

Hope I'm not too ill over weekend as have to take him to his friends party Sunday!

79p on milk.

Batch cooking fail - didn't get around to making bolognese etc so DH put the mince in the freezer. Making a huge tomato sauce now and going to do other stuff later.

DCs have now decided they like mash (DS loves sweet potato but DD prefers normal) - it's a PITA to make in small doses, do you think it would freeze well if I made a batch? With butter/milk etc added?

Mash freezes really well and you can cook it from frozen in the microwave.

Tewi I've given up. I offer them healthy food (most of the time!) if they don't want it I shrug whilst crying inside and they leave the table. They love home made soup and pasta so I make sure there's lots of veg in that!

Thanks spotty I'll do that then. Got loads of sweet potato in. Oddly despite DS being generally picky, he really loves it (whereas easygoing DD hates it).

I'm blending my tomato sauce when I get home from the school run - he wouldn't eat onion, courgette, celery or pepper otherwise :o pasta is a great canvas for hidden veg!

Fuzz I always said I would never hide vegetables. So naive

There's a brill tomato sauce recipe in the MN cookbook with lots of veggies and beans that you blend. And very easy to batch cook. I just stir in mascapone cheese at the end, which diverts from the book but is yummy.

Oh help - AAAARRGGGHH, I hate shit things happening like that. I have no idea how to fix though.

If it's any help my two DC, now teens, were both at times fussy with food. They eat pretty much anything now, although DS prefers meat and two veg and pie type meals, DD pasta and that kind of thing. The hours I spent worrying, I wish I knew now they would eat curry and chilli and pulses and soup and salad ect.

Hope you feel better soon sporting

Em I rarely buy sandwiches too, and also get excited

Spent £20 in Boots today, however £10 was a New Look voucher for a birthday present, then there's a 3 for 2 on Soap and Glory, so got a little set thing for the present and shampoo and conditioner for DD, both for a fiver, because of the offer.

£10 on conditioning cubes for the pony.