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.

Just set up DD for car tax, was surprisingly easy!

Need to convince dd to get dressed as going to Lidls, need a few bits but aiming to spend £30 or less....

Just had a delicious lunch of chorizo and cheese quesadillas with salad mmmm. Just found out there's going to be another birthday party of 40 children this afternoon. I'm really not looking forward to it!

Just had breakfast here, Spotty.

We finally bought a slow cooker today - £14 from Asda. It's much bigger than the one we'd from my mum so I think we'll use it more. DH's beef is roasting in it as I speak/type!

Googluck at the party spotty sounds like hell

Went to Morrisons in the end and predictably ended up spending more than I wanted to! In my defence I did only spend £35 on food but also got 16 loo rolls (for £5 on offer) and fabric softener (£2 on offer) had a £5 off voucher which bought it down a bit but still £37 in total. That is all meals for me and dd for a week though so not terrible right?!

Checked my account online which is looking surprisingly better than I thought it would however I noticed a few cheques still haven't gone out. All in all though think i have done fairly at not spending much this month.

Read so many comments I was to reply to but I'm feeling lazy!

My frugal win today is I brought dd & ds to playground & brought bottles of water with us & timed it so we'd be home for lunch so nsd for me.

pointless I've a 1.5l, 3.5 & a 4.5/5 l slow cooker the little one only has high setting so can't be left on all day I use that for dishes like curry that you've to simmer for ages & just throw stuff in there after cooking in frying pan. The bigger one seems to cook at a higher temp than the 3.5 so not ideal for all day either so the mid sized one is one I use most.

Yesterday I finished off chicken curry in small, and cooked pork joint in med, today I did taco mince in big one. Love my slow cooker!

Going to make sweet potato cubes in my halo now followed by homemade fries for the taco mince as I've my brother & sis in law visiting for afternoon

Haven't posted for a few days so had better catch up.
Adora I'm so pleased for you, at last
I have a Kenwood Chef from the 1960s and it's still going strong so yes, I would recommend.

The last few days have been okay, not to spendy. I've watched lots of cricket and both ds and dd have done well. Having to renew the dc's passports before we go away in the summer and need to get some quotes for having the driveway done. Not much exciting happening really.

yesterday was v spendy...
train £7
cinema £5
sports direct £11 sandals and 2 pairs plimsolls for dd2 but had a £5 voucher
Wilkinson £20 party bits and home ware
pound land £21 more party stuff, art supplies, and some random stuff...
card factory £9 fathers day cards and various bday cards
lunch and tea in cafe £6.50
Iceland £6 fruit and salad

today ordered party food for dd2 party next weekend and stocked up on cat litter, food, tins and heavy drinks. £52

on a good note I sorted my bags (filled with crap I don't move when I change bags) and found £40

Who asked about the Kenwood Chef? I forget! I have just bought a Kenwood mixer from Amazon for £45 and it's brilliant. My old one was huge, had massive cracks in the bowl and was about 20 years old, so did good service, but I do like the new. I haven't used all the attachments though yet but baked a few times.

Not spendy today. Weather is foul. I picked up an order from Next of white bed linen, just the value stuff. I prefer white linen then cushions and throws.

DD has £20 of my money to go to the horse trials, I have asked for the change but won't get any....

Made a cake and menu planned.

Really tired as this is the first weekend in ages we haven't done anything.

Thanks for the slow cooker advice. We were joking earlier that we've spent months deciding whether to get one but we chose our car in about 30 minutes!
I'm a bit worried about leaving it on while I'm out all day incase it overheats or something. I like the idea of coming home to my dinner though!

Another month done! Tomorrow is pay-day for me, and I got through a five weekend month.

Just totted everything up and am carrying £53.80 over to my £1000 savings target which I am currently £258.01 away from. I started doing the coin sweep daily from the current account so that my current account is a nice round figure every day and it soon builds up. I'm looking forward to having £1000 stashed away and then I can start chipping away at the credit cards...although saying that Xmas is on the horizon.....

I was under budget for petrol and food but the "everything else" budget was overspent. I spent £247 on groceries this month although this was due to DH having a few football bet wins and treating us to takeaways. Petrol was under budget because DH got some work mileage which more or less paid for my car filling up all month (woo) so effectively I didn't pay for petrol this month. Should be the same next month too.

Did think I had to pay out for DH's road tax as I had forgotten it was due however I then remembered you can now pay by direct debit, so I've set up a monthly payment which is £18 per month.

Highest spends category was the house at £194 - drains were blocked, had to reimburse neighbour for 2 fence panels, had a new shower fit and hedges massacred.

Next highest spend was myself at £118 which was really low for me and spent on the usual kindle books, food at work, clothes and one meal out with friends.

Third category was entertainment at £51 which was footy presentation night, a trip to a trampoline park and some tickets to football.

bantam Edging ever closer to the magic £1000.00. Well done.

You can put cold stuff in the SC, just increase the cooking time. I sometimes stick a whole chicken in, no juice, just some seasoning. The juices produced by having the lid on mean you are unlikely to burn anything. Have a look on the Facebook SC pages, or search one of the threads on here. MN food section also has some great recipes. I really couldn't be bothered heating stuff up, that would defeat the object for me. I might soften onions for soup to give a depth of flavour, or if I really hadn't left myself enough time, but that would be it.

You can bake and make omelettes, lasagne from the SC. Curries are especially lovely.

It was me about the kenwood needa. Please can you do me a link?
£15 in lidl today.

I have a separate food processor at the moment but was going to get the attachment for the chef rather than have 2 gadget in my cupboards. Just need to decide which one now. And save up.

The secret with sc is no extra water. I even drain tinned tomatoes and drink the juice with Worcestershire sauce. I put it all in cold too.

I think older ones were less powerful and that's where the adding things hot came from. A relatives been using one for years but was really surprised you could do joints in there. The Aldi beef roasting joints cook nicely in there. The mod for sc wonders on fb is a mumsnetter.

£6.50 on nip and fab glycolic pads. Made the mistake of going on the s&b pages. Always costly. I will make them last 4 months though.
£5 stickers for the bin with our house number and road on them.

£5 entry to a nearby hall and gardens
£12.50 on a robe hook for the bathroom. He won't be able to complain about me leaving my dressing gown on the floor now.

£37.80 cash backs come through for switching energy suppliers. I haven't rung them but I will. I can't possibly be £97 in debit.

I'm sure I've seen Kenwood prospero mixers in Sainsburys half price. I didn't look at the price ticket though.

Girlie I'm so sorry your mums little prince has calcivirus, I was hoping it would be something minor. There's a thread about it on the litter tray and Lone has contributed. Does your mum have insurance?.

Audit Best keep your dh away from Harrogate then. www.woodsfinelinens.com.

Tassimo are on at £35 delivered if anyone wants one. Really good Christmas present.

Thanks for all the SC advice, DH said that they use the same power as a light bulb too, think I'm just a bit neurotic - I even unplug the microwave when not in use although it saves the electricity used to power the clock too!!

Nsd.

Survived the party need wine

NSD hazaah!

Omelettes in SC needastrongone??

babsmam - This daft Chromebook struggles to link but the processor is the Kenwood FPP225, £46 on Amazon. Great reviews. Seems to have all the attachments you would expect, but, as yet, I haven't tested all of them.

Yep, pretty much anything can be done in the SC

Oh- It's now £39.99 I see.