The super savvy savers continue steering their way through September

[northender]

Thought I'd start a shiny new thread as we've filled the other one so quickly.

Hello, welcome new frugallers.

Baked up a huge amount yesterday for today's bake sale (better be bloody worth it). Got a £2.50 refund in sainsbury but then spent £20 odd on top up £1.40 for a kg of caster sugar!!!!!!
Had to do running about with dd as the school called and wanted her checked out. Twas nothing though.
Nsd today. Too knackered.

Am going to try the fruit leather as my two love winders.

Hope everyone is feeling better today.

No heating here but may put the winter duvet on.
Re Christmas I used to get loads but now I set a stocking up for them and wait to see what they ask for. Then try and get the best price. This is usually early December after we see santa. I do a wish list of everything else for family and friends to pick from.

wtfmummy we felt a bit like that about our meal planning and we have loads of recipe books so we have started to choose something new to make from a recipe book at the weekend when we have a bit more time. If we like it and it's not too complicated it can be added to the things we have during the week.
It's livened things up a bit!
Weekly shopping today and I'm going to see if Asda has a soap dish as I have several lovely bars of soap I've been given but never use because they keep falling in the sink! It's a shame not to use them.
DH gets paid today - hooray!

Morning all

Should be a NSD here today, I'm waiting in for a new mattress (a necessity purchase rather than a want, ours has been stopping us sleeping which goes against the point of mattresses!) which I don't mind at all in this weather. The loudest clap of thunder I've ever heard at 1am, scared the life out of me!

No heating on yet but was chilly when I got up this morning, I find the heating so stuffy though, even on low so I'll avoid it as long as the kids are ok.

Hope all those feeling poorly feel better soon

Can anyone tell me if there's a decent alternative to Yankee candles? Really cheap scented candles give me headaches but I want some gooduns for Winter evenings for a treat.

NSD

Pass sorry about your DS. It's worth having a word with his teacher if you haven't already - had something similar with mine years ago and I wish I had said something earlier.

collie have you tried their cheaper supermarkety range? I haven't so I'm not sure how the quality is. We have an outlet store not too far away so they are a bit cheaper there which might be worth a try or otherwise how about their wax tart things if you can find a cheap burner thing.

Have you Homestore & Store in the UK collie? Yankee candles sell quite cheaply there, always a different offer on. I'm not really into candles anymore but people buy me Yankee every Christmas. Have the melts & the burner like an oil burner sitting in the kitchen. Even the smell without it lighting is enough for me.

Hope everyone that's feeling poorly is feeling a bit better this morning.
Our heating is on every day of the year as it heats the water too just for an hour though. Yesterday I did put it on for an extra 30 mins in the evening.

This thread moves so quickly I'm struggling to keep up!

I've started taking money out of the bank to spend as cash- it's making me see the money physically go down which seems to be helping!
I've got a bit of credit card debt I need to pay off, now starting on Christmas shopping and dds and dps birthdays in January! I'm a sahm, so get a set amount of money from dp.. I need to budget better as he keeps having to bail me out!

Collie Have you got a tk maxx or home sense? they do parks candles for £10.

ugh how do you frugally feed a family when you're too ill to stand up cook? Don't have any bread or microwaveable stuff etc. No way of getting to shops or anything. DH not home til 6.30 if we're lucky.

Needless to say I had to cancel my pupil this morning, and think I will for the other two (one Wed one Thurs) in case I'm not better, so that's £20 down :( I manage fine if it's just regular CFS/POTS symptoms as TBH they are so constant it's like background noise, but adding a virus to the mix has knocked me out and it won't look good sneezing all over the piano :o

Also just got the email about the plastic bag charge, Tesco will be charging 40p per order for bags so I'm going to start choosing bagless delivery again...

£10 paid for a school trip today, shouldn't be much else as we're both at work so no chance to spend. I'm on a late so am trying to motivate myself to get stuff done before I go in.

Came back from mum's laden with fruit & veg . So I went into preserving overdrive and so far I've sliced, blanched & frozen runner beans, made plum jam, oven dried tomatoes and started damson gin with last years frozen damsons. Tonight I'll start piccalilli & maybe some puddings for the freezer with plums.

Rang Swinton yesterday as we haven't had the £50 they owe us. Apparently it is now on its way.

No sign yet of the £35 cash back from M&S car insurance via topcashback, fluffy I've lodged a query about it but it says I can't do anything more until the end of Oct (3 months from purchase), is that right? It doesn't even show on my account at all although I went through it all correctly.

Have a good day everyone

Hi everyone!
Holding out on the heating here for as long as possible. Would have liked it yesterday evening, but just popped another jumper on, the kids weren't cold at all. Going to hold out until October if I can.

Nsd today, not doing much. The kids being back at school saves a fortune!!

Birthday Parties! First invite for dd and another one on the way. There's 20 in her class I had expected it would fall to all the girls to girls parties and likewise with the boys however first one is a boys party. Of course dd wants to go & we've never had parties with friends before really so I've saved on 4 years of parties so far!!
It's on in play centre costing the childs parents ??11 per child! I know the mother to say hello to. Don't want to make a social faux pas by getting this wrong! But at the same time conscious there will be lots more birthday parties too.

I know most of you not in UK theonlypink? ??10 giftcard for smyths, a toy from 2 for ??20 in Smyths. 2 for ??15/??20 in argos are too babyish.

I don't know the child so have no idea what he's into at all!

northender I think I want to visit your mam loads of goodies there

North The insurance ones can take ages to track, they have really long vallidation periods for some reason. Keep nudging the complaint after oct.

lilac and fluffy we don't have those stores down here in the SW. We do have a TK Maxx though! Albeit a small one. I could always check online.

hairspray I once tried a Primark scented candle and it was so black and smokey. And the flame was fierce and crackling. It scared me so I blew it out and never used it again.

We have so many birthdays coming up. 6 close relatives inc a child. We also have a wedding coming up too! I need to crack on.

Just back from swimming with DD and a small top up shop, about £15 including 5 light bulbs! The previous owners of our house apparently loved light fittings with about 5 bulbs each (lounge, kitchen, dining room, main bedroom all like this) and they seem to blow all the time . Have actually suggested to DH we ask for some new smaller fittings for Christmas from his Dad as I'm sure it's costing us a small fortune in bulbs!

lilac I'm already dreading the birthday parties! DD is only 2.5 so hasn't really been an issue so far, but I can see it getting really expensive!

lilac I'd say buy the 2 for ??20 from smyths, but only give one present, keep the other for another invite. But definitely send a present, the kids who give money in cards always feel a bit awkward when they see the others with their packages. And the young kids don't understand about vouchers/money. In my experience tho, it's always a small enough gift, nothing too expensive. My son got gifts of jigsaw, crayola twistables, books, things like that, when he was in junior infants. The parents are all in the same boat with lots of invites iykwim. Hope that helps a bit, but might be worth asking people you know in your own area with school kids, it seems to vary by school!

Electrolux my heart goes out to you. I wish I had some advice, but I know that when you literally have nothing left over, a £2 pair of tights or £3 for fluffy socks is still too much. Wrt the kettle, have you got a flask, so you can boil the kettle once and keep the hot water for later? I hope someone much more practical than me can help out.

Just spent ??5 on a stocking filler for ds 1. It's coming from China so wanted to get it soon in case it's not suitable, I'll have time to order from somewhere else.

Electrolux - have you anything you could sell on facebook to make a few £ to take to the charity shop? local ones here often have large lined curtains for around the £4-5 mark which might help your draughts? Anything to make a few draught excluder sausage dog type things with (old socks etc?) or rag rugs for your floors? Hot water bottles? Would you be eligible for any of the energy grants the companies run? Do you have a fire or anything you could light if you could scramble together some free fuel? Lots of people locally putting old palettes / wood for chopping on gumtree / facebook. YY to boiling the kettle then putting it into a flask.

(failing that where are you? I have a few rugs / blankets / curtains / flasks and things I'd be happy to pass on?) In fact PM me I can send you a box of cosy socks etc if it would help?

Collie I have a glut of yankee candle wax tarts which I am working my way through from xmas, have only just worked out how to get the old one out of the burner (hot water! duh me!) so I now see the point of them lol. Get the same smell with one of those and an ikea tea light as a full yankee candle and they seem to be around the £1 mark locally.

£10.89 at the local shop, £3.50 softplay but that got both kids in, unlimited coffee and juice / crisps for DS which I think is good value for money. Sausage casserole tonight. Mum has kids again this afternoon so I can study and once again I am on mumsnet lol.

That's rubbish Electrolux. I remember the same problem when I lived in a ground floor flat with concrete floors and rubbish storage heaters. I found the only way to keep warm was to get under a blanket (or go to bed!) with my hot water bottle but then that's boiling the kettle again. You might be able to find curtains in a charity shop or even on Freecycle, I've seen people giving them away on there. I pegged blankets across the windows when I didn't have any curtains, not pretty but kept the place a it warmer!

My weekly shopping was really expensive this week - £79! It's normally around £50. I did get a few things we'd run out of like Marmite, honey and brown sauce but I can't believe those items would make so much difference.

Anyway, here's my meal plan:
Tonight - cauliflower cheese and nice bread (in machine now!)
Wed - spinach & ricotta pasta with tomato sauce and garlic bread (Actually those are things I don't normally buy too but we need a quick tea for tomorrow)
Thurs - jacket potatoes with something out of the freezer eg chilli
Fri - sweet and sour veggies with egg fried rice
Sat - tapas type things. Going to make tortilla, patatas bravas and something auberginey with enough for leftovers for Sunday lunchtime.
Sun - DH is making beef stroganoff, I'm doing paprika Quorn for me. DD can choose or have both with mash or rice.
Mon - left overs from Sunday.

Hope poorly people are better soon. Fuzz could you just do some pasta with some grated cheese? I gave DD that in an emergency recently and she loved it!

need I come from the west coast , near to Glasgow.

Ds's latest success was a chocolate brownie made from almond flour. He was very pleased indeed and I have written and asked for the recipe. :-)

blue haha! I'm so glad you said about the hot water. I wouldn't have figured it out and I was wondering about it last night when browsing the internet.

Electrolux we had that problem with the cold last year . And we made flasks, relied on blankets and layered up. It was truly miserable. We ached from shivering so much! We searched "nearest first" on eBay and found some thick curtains for 99p and also a rug for £5! Have you got Freecycle near you?