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

Long and slow for jacket spuds I reckon. Low heat.

Good luck NK

Spent £15 today at the farm shop. 2lbs of bacon. 2kg mince. Tray of 36 eggs. 1lb of sausages.

Out all day tomorrow at a jockey training day for DD.

Made tea using a slow cooked joint of gammon (some of) and two packets of Old El Paso rice, peppers, leeks and onion. Made enough for lunches tomorrow.

Will be chicken broth tomorrow, I know its Pancake Day but we won't get until until gone 7pm after a long day, so would rather stick it in the slow cooker early morning and leave.

Thanks

I cook jackets for a good hour and a half at 200 for half an hour then 160 for an hour (sorry we don't have gas)

Evening all

Bank: £1105.93 (was £1106.38)
Purse: £8.36 (was £8.36)
Jar: £11.20 (was £11.20)
Grand Total: £1125.94
Reduced by £0.45
Days to payday: 26

Spends:

£0.45 – Kindle Book. (It was £3.99 but I did have some credit left on my amazon account but not enough).

Got a home tie for the FA Cup Quarter Final so that saves on travel - all the more money for me to put towards a Wembley Semi Final should we win.

Got DS2 a pair of nice, tidy looking high tops on e-bay for £6.50 inc P+P. These were the same as the pair I was outbid on yesterday when I had put my maximum bid in at £12! I'm pleased about this as his good trainers were too small for him, and his every day trainers are an embarrassment if we have to go anywhere nice. Unfortunately I also discovered Yours Clothing have an outlet on there, so I bought some more jeggings at £13 inc P+P. It is lethal for me to be off work!!!

ohhelp what app is that? Sounds interesting

Not quite the glamour tie though is it Bantam, but a decent chance of going further! Thought there was going to be ANOTHER upset tonight, but don't think so now.

HI all.. wow this thread moves fast!

Sorry have been Awol ... been on holiday in Spain where it was actually hot this last weekend .. (she says rubbing it in a bit ) but have got back to cold and damp Blighty this evening , and have spent some time updating my YNAB ( I am so addicted to this now) and yes we've had a great time but the money is still looking ok . Will have to be careful for therest of the month , but at least its a short one..

BUT..

Its DH, DF and DD' s birthdays this week though ( all the same weekend so thats looking really spendy !) ..

Ill update more tomorrow as off to bed now ..am totally knacked from all the travelling.. 2 buses , 3 trains , a boat , and a plane!)...

I'm interested in the app too, ohhelp. I usually eat well I think but I haven't really had a proper meal today and I ended up eating a load of biscuits this evening but I'm still hungry. Looking forward to pancakes tomorrow and cursing the Nutella ad for putting that idea in my head!

Thanks for advice re jacket spuds, will try an hr and a half on gas mark 6 and see if that helps!!

Our internet usage at work has been curtailed so not on here as much.

laska so unfair to be rubbing it in!! Glad you enjoyed yourself. I'm actually thinking of booking two weeks in Turkey for next January there was a special in the newspaper at weekend, two weeks including tours & dinner for 2 for €556. I would have it paid by November plus €300 spending money just by continuing my savings as I am doing for my girls weekend away in April. It'll be our 10 year anniversary and a celebration of almost conquering the debt. I'll get my mother down for some of the time to help mind the kids.

Frugal win yesterday Tesco never charged me the delivery charge despite me cancelling delivery saver over a month ago plus had €10 off €60 spend plus they gave a free tub of flora gold and a chicken curry stock pot as a valentines present!

Just noticed this will be a double thread month again!

Tesco shop arrived on Sunday £188, I gave back a voucher for £4.80 as it would have been cheaper elsewhere! No kidding. My plan for this is to do an Aldi trip for snacks etc (which DH doesn't really eat) then Tesco for the main stuff. I will plan to do the Internet Tesco shop when I have done time to scope out alternatives, rather than just running down the favourites. On the plus side my sister and her fiancé have gone home o I am feeding 2 adults less, and my mum gave me £50 towards food as she is still staying (and has been since 18 January, and will be for a bit longer too)

Yesterday £67 for last of DD1's costumes, I think all i need to buy now for her is long black socks, which can be used for school afterwards.

DD2 needs one more costume, only 2 little girls need them and the other girl's nan has offered to make them for us.

DSL still needs a few things. Ordered one costume yesterday, black chef jacket (£25.98)and orange trousers (£15.88), also ordered for his pal which Is included in the costs so I'll get half back.

Ordered 2 t-shirts £4 and a waistcoat and bow tie £15. Now he just needs one jacket (has to be made eeeek) and a whole outfit, I wish the bigger boys mums were more organised and would try their sobs old stuff on to see what they have grown out of!

Good news is DS uses a white shirt for 4 different costumes. As we have loads (and the show is in the holidays, although not the rehearsals) I will put one with each outfit yo assist my mental health!

Today I need to collect a birthday present for DD1 party on Friday and some jeggings from Sainsburys for DS to wear under a pair of cowboy chaps (easier/quicker to get on and off than jeans)

Can anyone tell me if dried chickpeas need to be soaked? I usually use tinned but just found a slow cooker recipe that uses dried and it doesn't mention soaking. I could just use tinned but expect they cook much quicker.
I am finding meal planning really hard at the moment because DD is suddenly eating loads! She usually has what we have but that means we eat really early and I'm finding it hard to think of things that are quick, cheap, filling and healthy.
When she is at nursery she will have a cooked lunch and then a sandwich or something at about 3pm. Obviously she will need something else at tea time but can I just give her something light? I think it's hard because she loves meat and will eat loads of it but I am veggie. DH usually has veggie with me in the week and does a roast at the weekend. I can't face doing 2 meals every evening. Sorry I'm rambling, bit stressed about it!

needa re: chewy bars, I'm not surprised the teens were a bit Meh! about them but my DS is three and still thinks anything with dried fruit in it is a treat

[fanfare] AN INVOICE HAS BEEN PAID!! Not even the one I thought would be paid first either. I feel like the end of our financial winter is in sight. But, got to watch out for those frosty spells as we go into Spring (not sure this metaphor is working).

Anyway, it's a relief to have a plus sign on one of our accounts for a change.

We're thinking of switching from HSBC (zero interest, and turns out, not a very nice bank!) to Santander 1-2-3 for our joint account. I think we should make about £6 a month from it but anyone had any problems with it?

Going back a few pages again (still finding it hard to keep up! :o) about the budget for 'random cheap' - that's what we do. We call it our pocket money, £20 a month each. That's for stuff like DVDs, games etc as we have very different tastes. It doesn't include food treats though, and clothes we just buy when we need them as neither of us like that kind of shopping so it doesn't need to be controlled IYSWIM. Anyway, we even record our pocket money spends in a cash book we also combine it if there's something like a box set that we both want. It works so well for us, I managed to get an iPod that way - could never have justified it as a random purchase so I saved up my budget for 10 months and therefore knew I could afford it.

Errr that was supposed to be random crap not random cheap! :o

Also can I ask those of you who have childminders (especially in South East) what do you pay per hour? Our previous one charged £5.50 (or £5 if more than one child) which others (both on MN and IRL) have said was expensive, but then the lady we met yesterday also said £5. That does include all food and any outings etc though.

Gosh NK it sounds really exciting to be headhunted! Best of luck. I am quite really would love to be headhunted!

So wasn't quite NSD yesterday but LSD as had to get some bits from Tesco. Today just milk and bananas so around £2.48. Still feel quite ill as does Dh but DS seems to have lost his cough and is quite perky having had a good lie in. Hopefully will feel ok for meeting tomorrow.

Feel guilty about wasting the half term being ill and not doing much with DS but hopefully will do something like take him to farm later in week...

ConfessionSpends since Saturday -

£95 on Duty Free skin care and máscara
£35 on a cologne for DH which I bought on the plane.

Sunday DH spent around £46 on groceries

Monday another £60 on groceries and about £240 on school materials and books.

Still need To buy a few moré books, no one shop has all the books, and uniform.

Came home To the freezer's contents rotting due to lengthy and múltiple power cuts while we where away. On the plus side, a case that didn't arrive with our flight turned up yesterday. This means all DD2's clothes do not need to be replaced.

Vet Bill To come and we need to get the house fumigated.

audit I am at what your children's hobby costs and in dread of what my lot will get involved in down the line! Dd is definitely leaning towards drama and expression.

adora did you lose a lot of food? You needed that hassle like a hole in the head after your holiday.

I'm currently trying to establish how many clothes I actually need, want to invest in a new wardrobe. My clothes are tired, out of fashion & ill fitting. I'm working on losing weight to get into my dressier clothes but day to day stuff needs updating. My birthday is in two weeks so looking for vouchers for it and saving them until April when I go to the big smoke.

I'm thinking dressy jeans, casual jeans, black trousers, blazer, tops to go under blazer, socks, underwear. My office is casual but I need to be dressy one night per week for giving a class.

So been into town again, £4.50 in coffee 1 and thats it I think, collected the clothes I ordered in Next ystd and am pleased with them, the fleece jacket for £13 seems a bargain as is really cuddly, warm and hopefully big enough to last dd a couple of years...

Oh and £2 parking as well.

Yep Lilla both freezers were full, which was foolish on my part because I know we can get long term power cuts.

What type of "dressy" for the classes? Can you use the trousers and alternate tops under the blazer to give a different look so you don't get bored? I was half reading a blog by an American woman who works on the principle of 33 items, be it the kitchen cupboards or the wardrobe. Can't remember her name now but I found it via a piece on BBC about decluttering, it's in the Magazine section on their web site.

We need to collect new ID cards today, there shouldn't be anything to pay as it's paid at the time of processing.

I usually wear dresses and heels but was thinking along similar lines as you vary to tops & rest of the look can be the same.

Are your freezers covered under house insurance?

Thanks for the heads up about the Yours eBay outlet! I'm determined to eke out my wardrobe a while longer but I'll definitely bear that in mind.

Ohhelpohnoitsa - slightly off topic but what is the name of the nutrition app you mention, I'm intrigued!

NK how exciting! Nsd here.