Marvelous Frugaleers - May the Money Magic Continue into June

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Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from January

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Well done to pointless on clearing your card!

Last two days we have ended up having cafe cake in the monring (while waiting to go on to next thing) actually not that expensive - but I must resist slipping into making it a habit!

Oh sorry Audit misunderstood .. i now only use my cc as working card and pay it off

Since i paid my old debt off my off its been a real weight off my mind. I used to run a balance of about £2000 and rely on the money DH gave me from his bonus each year to pay.. but this is one of the reasons I started frugalleering, as I realised I couldnt just keep putting my head in the sand about spending over my income every year. Also Dh is retiring (early) this year and so i simply had to change my ways ... I do still use it , but now its all in the budget..

Oh, I had two nice surpises today... £36 reward vouchers from the Co op and Macafee (having refused to honour their discount deal as they said i was a returing customer) finally paid out my £9 on Quidco after i complained.
..

Im going to look at the co op reward credit card as i shop there more than anywhere else it seems.. and i should be able to bump up my vouchers by using that ther and paying it every month. Also Halifax have just written to me to say they are closing their reward points scheme on their credit card from July ( i used to get sainsburys vouchers from that) and my 0% deal on that card runs out then also so i must look for another 0% card , .

Audit, who is your credit card with? I also want to pay my balance with cash but because it's a Tesco card I don't know if I can pay with cash anymore.

Sorry that doesn't really make any sense! Question, can I pay off card with cash if it's not with a high street bank?

Morning all! Waiting in for the gardener... He didn't come yesterday (messaged me yesterday last min!) so he may be too good to be true :(

Other than paying him hopefully a NSD. My garage window / door painting went well but it definitely needs another coat, will do that tomorrow.

Having a think about long term plans today. Need to think of ways to minimise outgoings so that when I'm self employed in a year's time there's a bit less pressure :/ I may sack the new kitchen idea and just learn to live with the old one we have... through too much parenting via cbeebies I have discovered its identical to topsy and tims mums so feeling less bad about it ;)

thanks Laska - she's no better and I think it seems to be a case of 'that's it' - according to dad. He's now trying to sort out all the finances etc (we don't have an NHS system there) and paying out for nursing home etc. There are the funds, but they need to have the power of attorney now. damn. I feel bad that he has to do all that. I still don't know if I should fly out there and see how he is... but we hope to be there for christmas anyway.

NSD yesterday and should be also for today.

I finally got my tax credits renewal. Seems like it's all been done automatically for once so they have all the correct information already

Spent too much this morning

John Lewis £12.25 on a toy lawn mower and ginger bread man
£35 sainsburys on dinner for tonight, dds birthday cake and a big cake plus 12 doughnuts to take into work tomorrow as its my birthday Monday.

Thanks girlie everyone was a bit sad yesterday but they have booked it again for last week in term so hopefully the weather will be very good and it will make a lovely end to their school year. DS just kept saying " I hate the council this morning" but otherwise he's got lots to look forward to in the next month so he'll be well distracted.

Not an NSD as a few bits of shopping to get and spent £3 on a book for DS from the book fair. Tomorrow will do barbecue and then probably have a quiet weekend as will be pouring with rain.

ipsos It has been really brilliant growing weather, our strawberries are coming on treat and the peas are starting to flower, courgettes coming on too and tomatos are growing on nice and quick. DS is going to start off a pumpkin soon.

Afternoon.

I have strawberries coming on nicely, loads of flowers on my mange tout, courgettes in flower, small tomatoes already. And of course lots of eggs

June seems to be an expensive month and I can't really fathom why. Going to start recording my cash spends too, as I think DH is stealing from my bag. Going through cash like there's no tomorrow.

£15 shellac, to cover all the crap that dogs, ponies and chickens cause.
£20 for haircuts for the DC
£20 for DH quiz night.

That's £45 gone just today

audit We had the thai curry last night and it was delicious. I just swapped in some asparagus as I had that in.

Can keep up with the thread for a few days now as I don't work Fridays.

19p Lidl baguette.

pav - Primark is very good value for underwear for teen DCs.

MissA - I have two dogs. Spaniels. Aged 2.5 and 1.5, so the puppy stage is etched in my brain

Hello I'm new on this thread - I was invited by Pointlessfan, although am a bit late (was told about it a couple of weeks ago). I've only just had time to come over. Seems I have a lot of reading to catch up

Margaritte hello and welcome

NSD for me.

Its ridiculously baking hot all of a sudden here, dd had tennis after school and she looks like she has caught the sun quite a lot didn't put any sun cream in the bag as looked like rain this morning

Spoke to work about a permit they owe me money for only £10 but still! Should get it back next month. I have to email someone about increasing my hours so we will see....

Hiya margaritte and welcome :)

gardener didn't come and no message so that's that :( will have to crack on ourselves over the weekend. Gutted! At least the money I had set aside to pay him is still ours I guess.

14 spent at butchers by Dh, got a great meat pack.

Shepherds pie from the freezer and HM chips tonight.

Beautiful weather for NI today it's a stunner! How is the weather everywhere else?

It's been gorgeous here all day at least 25. Going to be hotter tomorrow but stormy. Have had a lovely day

thats not good blueteapot. are u able to do the garden yourself or will u look for another gardener?

my mum desperately needs a new kitchen but as she can't afford one at the moment she bought special paint for cupboards, new door knobs, vinyl for work surface and tile stickers off amazon and it looks amazing now. looks like a completely different kitchen and she spent under £100 (most of that was the cupboard paint as it was about £18 per tin)

today I spent £1.80 bus and £7 on lunch out for us and ice cream for dd. we spent the afternoon at the beach

hoping for nsd tomorrow as sat is going to be a spendy one. going to sat morning cinema and need to buy party stuff and new shoes for dd2.

Hi Margaritte, pleased you've come to join us. This is such a lovely, supportive thread with heaps of great ideas for saving money.
I've had a lovely day walking in the countryside on a school trip. Beautiful sunny day. Spent £3.30 on an ice cream and a drink. I have the feeling we're going to end up with a take away tonight though as I've come home with a banging headache and really can't be bothered to cook and DH is just putting DD to bed so I don't expect he'll want to either.

NSD!

Need to get eyebrows threaded tomorrow.

It's been gorgeous here, I'm running out of ways to make suits hot weather appropriate for work.

Welcome Margaritte

£1.79 honeysuckle plant
19p honeysuckle plant marked down (basically two twigs in a pot)
14p sanitary towels
£1 ready meal

Took microwave back, £44 up but now need a new one. Not a russel hobbs.

Blue that's very rude of him. Obviously he doesn't need the money. I would spend it on nice plants.

Hi margaritte!

NSD again today slightly tempered by the huge expense of the asda delivery I got yesterday. I really have no idea why I always spend so much there. Even being online didn't seem to temper it!

Been using the slow cooker a lot lately - had an absolutely delicious chicken madras tonight, was chicken thighs, a super cheap reduced curry paste packet, tin of chopped toms and an onion. the slowcooker wonders group on facebook has inspired me to make better use of the sc! Just little tips like leaving the lid off to thicken up the sauce at the end, and that it's okay not to put loads of liquid in.

Just worked it out, 140 at asda not including bits for DSs party. About half was cat food as did a huge bulk buy and does include bits for more than a week of dinners, which makes it less bad. The next few weeks shopping should be cheap now. Hopefully.