July Frugal thread, Just chatting and saving.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everyone welcome.

Just downgraded to sim only £9.50- month. Last months bill was £38 so should save.

Elastics day before we go away (hooray) DS's last day at primary school.

Yesterday £16 buying lunch plus some packed lunch buts to take to the airport today.

Our gas and electric is horrific, £260 per month. Large 5 bed detached house, husband who likes it at a tropical temp all year round. 5 fridges/freezers.

We tried to swap to LED lights, but the light kept cycling up and down, due to the transformers not being compatible. We have 100 spotlights. We asked for LED ones when they were fitted, but were told it wasn't the thing to do (8 years ago) I think it was just that the fittings then were so much more expensive. I think that swapping over us on the list of works to be done this year. We've been quoted £1,500 to swap all 100 fittings.

Spendy day yesterday £80 on swimming, £16 in sainsbury was 32 but tool some stuff back, £26.50 in pizza Hut. We are all shattered and the swimming lessons took ages to sort out so though stuff it, which is extremely dangerous for my bank account.

Have to collect some clothes for dd today but just sale pants from asda and beavers subs. That will be it

I have changed my lights to leds in the kitchen but still need to do the other half of the room. I will do it when we decorate

Dinner out with class parents. £20 food and £4 drink. Food wasn't great. Not going there again. £12 later for nursery teachers presents. £10 for class collection. This month we are really skint. I think we have £100 to last us the month but that's not dipping into savings (which isn't a lot).

What's the deal with LEDs then? Cheaper to run, but not always straight forward to swap? I think -our-- my downstairs light fittings from IKEA are all LED.

My other question is what is TopCashBack all about. I can't find an explanation on their website (which I appear to have joined).

Fuzzpig... We're also with Plusnet and made big mistake of switching to TalkTalk last year for what seemed a much cheaper deal.

Weeeelllll.... After 3 months of no internet, literally many dozens of calls to a Philippine call centre, fielding demands for £600 if we cut out contract early, we are now back with Plusnet! Yes they are more expensive, but customer service is much better and at least it's BB is reliable!

I would ring them threatening to leave and see what they'll offer. Often that does the trick!

Spotty £122 pm sounds ridiculous! Is that just electricity?

Not a stealth boast but we have a 5 bed house with big rooms and only pay £70 pm! Just wanted you to see the comparison.

Not switching Ipsos, although will look into. Our house is insulated within an inch of its life and we have triple glazed windows (DH in the business).

But the biggest difference (so DH tells me ) is swapping over all our lights to LED GU10s. He reckons this has shaved about £500 off of our annual electricity bill. They cost from about £4 upwards depending on where you get them and we have about 100 individual down lights but has been well worth the investment.

Apparently Tesco sells them

My gas and electric DD is £94 a month which also seems expensive compared to you lot, thats with Scottish Power who I have always found to be quite good customer service wise. I think i will look to changing at the end of the summer when I will hopefully be back in credit.

Weather is so annoying, my washing that I thought was safe to leave out from ystd is now completely soaked on the line frugal fail as I will need to wash/rinse again. Its July for goodness sake!!

I am sorry probably being really thick but are LED bulbs different to the long life bulbs I currently have?

Am watching this On the Money programme! Some quite good tips, this one woman is a professional competition winner and has won some amazing things! Maybe I should enter a few more competitions now I have won some lego on mn

Girlie according to DH, long life bulbs are about 80% more energy efficient than the old incandescent bulbs, whereas LED are at least 90% more efficient. Also LED are brighter/clearer than long life but don't get as hot.

HTH

Peppa ugh TalkTalk - they are rubbish!

We need to look at our TV/phone/internet... Which means I need to ring Sky (blurgh) and cancel as our contract is at an end now. We're not fussed for the TV element so that can save us money right away. Trying to work out whether to go with someone like BT and get cashback. Anyone any experience of BT internet?

Need to nip to the Post Office today too to post a couple of eBay bits... Trying to use the car less so might walk to the big one in town for something to do. Walking with 7 week old DD strapped to my front is a great (and cheap!) workout

Am intrigued by those of you who have spin dryers (I'd never heard of them).

We have a1600 spin Bosch washing machine but am now wondering if it would make sense to also get a spin dryer???

When I bought our washing machine (Bosch logixx) it was cheaper to buy a 1200rpm spin plus a spin dryer than a 1600rpm machine. I get about a pint and a bit of water out of 9kg of washing. Ours is a basic white knight one.

Peppa I am very jealous of your triple glazing. I always thought we'd buy an older house and triple glaze was on my list.

£36 a month gas and electric.

I reckon most bulbs can be retro fitted easily, it's only 12v you might struggle with.

I don't find drying clothes too much of a problem, also have Bosch washing machine with only a 1200 spin on it. I do love a hot day though to hang it all outside though!! Otherwise find most things dry on the airer within 24hours. I would like to cut down on how much washing we do though, dd is awful for wearing something once and sticking it straight in the wash basket!!

Been to see the Dr and had bloods done, asked to check vitamin D levels as well so we will see!

Spent £56 in Morrisons which was a lot more than I wanted to spend however did get lots for that and I reckon that we have enough food to more or less see us through to the end of the month now...

Have had some vouchers through from Sainsburys, one is for £8 off a £40 shop which is good, thought I would use that to get dds school uniform with. Am slightly annoyed with her school as they have sent a letter home saying that kids now have to wear logo'ed sweatshirts which cost £££ compared to the non logo'ed ones might rebel and get some non logo'ed ones anyway

The lego set I won on here has turned up and its massive can't believe i won it!! Seriously should not have mentioned it to dd as would have been a main Christmas present

OMG just checked on Amazon and it sells for £40!!!

I love mn so much right now

its this one blue jet

Today has been a low spend day so far, £2 in Sainsbury's - £1 for 4 nectarines and £1 for a bag of Haribo for dd1s friend who is leaving to go to senior school (she's in a mixed class, so not quite ready to move on herself yet) also spent £20 on stuff for work but will claim that back so only £2 today.

Ds will not be happy when he get's home, he has been chosen to attend Summer School over the holidays, they offer it to the children that maybe struggling a bit, I think he should go, dh will certainly agree with me but I know ds won't.

I've dug out the Organised Mum Budget Book that I purchased but never used and have started adding all our income, outgoings, daily spends, direct debits and savings and repayments. I know it's a pretty old fashioned way of doing things and i only started on Monday so won't get a true picture for July, but if i can keep it up it should give a good idea of where our money is going each month.

Does anyone else use any of the Organised Mum stuff, I like the look of the Family Life book diary - might put that on my birthday list :)

Oh yes. I keep the recipet for everything apart from food now.

The copper finish salt and pepper grinders will go back eventually, the finish is tarnishing where you hold them. It makes them look dirty.

Plus my colour scheme changed and it's all about stainless steel now.

girlie You'll have a very happy dd when you give it to her.