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.

Hi all, so saw mortgage lady this morning. She was really nice but the reality is I need either £5000 more as a deposit or to increase my hours at work or preferably both

So not looking like a possibility at the moment but my mum has said when she gets her pension money next year she may be able to loan me some money and I am going to seriously think about increasing my hours at work (if any come up.)

Other spends
£2 parking
£7.50 on a toy for dns bday this week.
£2.80 on drinks for me and dd
£15 horse riding lesson
£17 Lidl - pleased with this as came in £3 under budget and got enough food for the week (as long as we are careful)

Aiming for NSD tomos and Monday.

That still sounds promising girlie

Meal plan for the week:

Sausage and bean casserole
Fish cakes with cauli rice and veg
Cajun chicken quinoa and lentils
Couscous stuffed peppers with goats cheese
Veggie and lentil casserole
Jackets and beans
Bacon risotto

I've been busy today & only spent €3 on newspaper & Pringles for the children.
Did a shopping list - Tesco will bring €70 worth of stuff tomorrow as I had a code for free delivery. Bringing dd to a frozen sing a long at a literary festival & going to stop in aldi for about €25 worth of stuff then tues will go to butchers for chicken fillets & steal mince so shopping will come to €115 from a €140 budget. This is it though for the week I don't enter a grocery shop for the week.
For any newbies I find this has been the best money saver - I freeze the milk & bread for the week out of big shop & there's no excuse to enter shops again then.

Just had a lovely dinner of pitta breads with peppers, humous, salad and bacon.

Tomorrow will be salmon with pesto, rice and carrots.
Monday Jackets with tuna, cheese and salad.
Tuesday Similar to tonights dinner.
Wed fish, chips, peas and carrots

Thursday Brinner
Friday pesto pasta maybe with grated carrot (have lots of carrots to get through!)

We have worked out that if we take a loan and get a really fuel efficient car with low tax it will pay for itself as OH spends so much on petrol in a 40 miles to the gallon car for his commute (not able to claim it back). So although I am loathed to do it I think that's the plan and it should work out cost neutral. Hopefully less repair bills too ;) Sort of in the same situation that with house renovation etc we could really just do without this at the min!

I have applied for a new job today. Would be a big sideways step and kissing my current career goodbye if I got it so a lot to think about.

NsD so far, mainly because OH is at work with the car so the kids and I are hanging out at home ;)

£52 at Aldi but got loads. Having said that realised when we got home that I didn't have cheese etc so will have to get that sometime soon. Yesterday bought a present on amazon for ds' good friend £5.90. Original price £10 so quite happy with that. Got it on free delivery from amazon prime. Just need to remember to cancel it in a month!

Got my pay rise finally. Don't know if you guys remember but I got headhunted and was going to leave and my boss counter offered? Well, the pay rise came through on May's paycheck so yay! Although having said that, with the taxes, I don't get a lot. But money is money. So I shall be happy.

£50.26 online shopping from Tesco, although it won't come out until Monday, so an NSD, technically.

Meal plan for this week, although I will probably swap some days:
Sunday- Quorn roast, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, broccoli, carrots and gravy.
Monday- pasta and pesto, with black eyed beans and olives.
Tuesday- falafel, houmous and olives in pitta, with cous-cous.
Wednesday- veggie toad-in-the-hole with peas, broccoli and gravy.
Thursday- see Wednesday.
Friday- veggie burgers and wedges.
Saturday- pizza.

Good work NK - mine took 18 months to come through.

Blue I have gone for a fuel efficient car on work subsidised lease (75% paid by work 25% + tax me)- 87mpg from the advertising 70mpg form the people I know who have one. It is costing me 145 pm inc tax pm. I get 18p per business mile, but don't have to pay for servicing, breakdowns, insurance, MOT, tyres, windscreens and can be driven by me, dh kids once they have passed their tests & my mum, dad & brothers.

£5 cinema, £19 primark for ds, £23 asda. ...I seem to be spending way too much on food lately! I need to do a proper food plan but I find spring/summer so hard as salad and fruit vanishes faster.
Returned a top from next as it had hung in my wardrobe for 6-8wks, unworn, £30 back, I should do that more often.

Reckon we spent about 50 quid yesterday on food, beer, train etc. That would have been a normal Saturday for us once but feels very extravagant now. At least we left a curry in the slow cooker for when we got home so we weren't tempted to get a takeaway. It was delicious too - butternut squash, chick peas, onion, garlic, teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli powder and a tin of coconut milk. Just chucked everything in and left it cooking.
The oven randomly started working again - DH forgot it didn't work and turned it on then 5 minutes later realised it was working! Not sure what happened there but pleased we don't have to get it fixed.
Meal plan:
Roasted veg lasagne & sweet potato wedges.
Mon - veg chilli from freezer and rice.
Tue - pasta with peppers, tomato and cream cheese.
Wed - same as Tues.
Thurs - quiche and salad.

BTW cat owners - Asda have some good offers on cat food at the moment. Whiskas works out the same price as their own brand stuff.

Should be nsd today. Weather is yuck! Yesterday spent £70 on tickets to poultons park for tomorrow.

electrolux I really hope you're successful.

Nk Think of all the money you saved them by staying though. They might have had to offer relocating costs to someone else.

Im in the lease don't buy camp with cars. Dh is motor trade though and is determined we won't get lumbered with repair bills. He's seen people crying because the repair cost is more than the cars worth.

Everyone else in our family buys outright (even with really high end cars!) but they get lumbered with MOT, repair bills and high road tax charges.

Then they either can't sell them because they bought a car no one else wants or they repair it several times and then scrap it.

Then they start over with another one

They probably think I'm mad for leasing small cars but I never get repair bills or mot costs and they are very cheap to run and insure.

We collected my new car yesterday and I love it. I have a phone kit! I made dh ring me on it. I have never had a phone kit before, dh does but he has company cars and they come as standard.

yesterday was £35 on food.
£2 on cloths to clean the display on the car. Dh bought me a sponge to clean it.

£2 on lidl night cream for my neck and chest.
£15 new bath plug and waste pipe.
£8 on pliers to fix new bath plug and waste pipe.

Bath has turned into a total disaster, the builders bodged the original fitting so dh can't fit a new one and the bath is now out of Order. Honestly do not know how the bath hasn't been leaking.

I think we'll end up in the buy camp, but still looking into leases too. Added it up and last month OH spent £382 on diesel for his commute. Was driving a 1999 scenic getting approx 40 to the gallon. Tax is 20 a month. We were looking at a tax free car advertised as 74 mpg but even if it got 60 we'd be saving a third which would cover the cost of the loan. Not done thinking about it yet though as I've never had a loan for anything other than mortgage and studemt loans, which is putting me off somewhat. Is there a deposit to pay on lease cars? X

I think we'll end up in the buy camp, but still looking into leases too. Added it up and last month OH spent £382 on diesel for his commute. Was driving a 1999 scenic getting approx 40 to the gallon. Tax is 20 a month. We were looking at a tax free car advertised as 74 mpg but even if it got 60 we'd be saving a third which would cover the cost of the loan. Not done thinking about it yet though as I've never had a loan for anything other than mortgage and studemt loans, which is putting me off somewhat. Is there a deposit to pay on lease cars? X

I think we'll end up in the buy camp, but still looking into leases too. Added it up and last month OH spent £382 on diesel for his commute. Was driving a 1999 scenic getting approx 40 to the gallon. Tax is 20 a month. We were looking at a tax free car advertised as 74 mpg but even if it got 60 we'd be saving a third which would cover the cost of the loan. Not done thinking about it yet though as I've never had a loan for anything other than mortgage and studemt loans, which is putting me off somewhat. Is there a deposit to pay on lease cars? X

Ah no why does it do that multiple post thing!

Fingers crossed Electrolux and well done NK :)

Forgot there's a MrT delivery coming later, £34 or so. Have signed up to the delivery saver as finding it very hard to get to the shops with the baby and toddler so have been doing lots of online shops - this is much cheaper and can be cancelled (justifying it to myself!).

Poorly baby has the snuffles today and was unsettled all night, her big brother ended up in bed with me too kicking me in the back all night... I make that coffee O'clock :) also daring myself to sign into the nationwide app and check my balance. Might spend a little more time on pinterest instead ;) x

There is a deposit yes. I'm paying £127 a month for a small car with £127 deposit. No road tax EVER as it's low emissions and should do over 60mpg with a petrol engine.

What you don't want to do is pay more that a few hundred deposit. You don't want to pay gap insurance and you don't want to pay over 5% apr. Used cars where dh works are on 9%, new are 4%.

The only thing that matters with cars is how much it costs to run over the term of the agreement with fuel, insurance, repairs, MOT and tax added up.

Well we made the show with minimal spends. Just a programme and raffles.

Not sure about today need to see how tired dd is. Maybe a Sunday lunch at the local we have not been to since it was refurbished

girlie roasted carrots (gas 6,
in batons in a tinfoil "bag" or covered dish for 30 mins, then open tinfoil/uncover for last 10 mins to caramelise, are lush with pasta and pesto

I've just put a delicious sausage casserole in the slow cooker. Is the right kind of weather for it!

NK I'm glad you finally got your pay rise