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.

And thanks all for the welcome.

digger can you chase the cheque, at least find out when it was/will be sent?

Another vote for giving the laptop for Christmas.

I'm off to Lidl in a mo, want to see if they have any those warm sheets. Then into town for errands.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/a2317797-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-7-Spring-is-coming-let-the-sun-shine-into-your-finances-and-your-life?msgid=56468245#56468245

Digger this thread is good for proper debt advice. The op is really good at debt related things.

Oh digger lots of sympathy I hope you get it sorted.

I agree give him the laptop

I locked myself out of the house this morning. Luckily dh is working down the road, sometimes he can be forty minutes away!

Hi Lollypop - We actually did the same transition from virgin to sky so I can tell you what it was like. With Virgin we had good tv and the user interface was o.k. It was a bit slow but we could find stuff when we wanted it.

We switched to sky and the picture was sharper, which was good, and the tv choices were the same. The user interface was not quite as easy to use, which was kind of disappointing as we couldn't find shows we wanted to watch, and would gladly have moved back to virgin for the user interface. In that respect it was a significant downgrade from virgin.

The other thing that was weird with sky was that they had all sorts of ruses to fleece us for our cash. For example they offered us a free £50 M&S voucher to sign up to sky, but even though I phoned up three times and each time they said they would post it, the voucher never came (ever).

Also once we signed up we could log in to the website and check a box to add extra channels to our package (sports or whatever) but to remove channels from our package we had to actually phone up and stay on hold for eons, and then go through millions of questions and things. So deleting a package to save money was a major chore. We also tended to be on hold much longer with sky than with virgin, which again costs money.

So in summary, although virgin was a bit annoying and slow, virgin did seem quite virtuous compared to sky. Sky, by comparison very clearly using weird ruses to fleece us for money.

I've since read an article in the newspaper that says that sky actually have an internal policy of putting people on hold for longer if they pay a lot for their packages as they know that people who have a lot of money are unlikely to have much time to stay on hold. By putting these people on hold for long periods they can prevent them from cancelling.

In the end we cancelled sky and now just have freesat, but in your position, if you use your pay tv a lot, I'd be inclined to stick with virgin and just buy ds a laptop. Just my two cents worth of course and please feel free to ignore me if you just fancy a change.

fluffy do you happen to know if there's a good thread for learning about investing savings? That's meant to be my job in our family but it's quite hard to get decent interest at the moment.

Right, new start (we are starting our new 'school term' today as well) - just going to write down my spends whenever I can as I really need to be more mindful.

So far
£22 to friend (she's taking DD on a home ed group trip as I'm working later - already paid for the actual event, this was train fare etc... don't think we could've managed it if I'd had to pay for myself and DS as well!)
55p Greggs treat for DS... should've paid 70p for mine but they couldn't work out what it went on the till as so they said I could have it for free :o
£8.25 bus fares

We had Virgin Media for 7 years when we lived beyond the Tamar Bridge and it was wonderful. We don't get it down here...

Just received my first Scottish Power response after I complained about them refusing / ignoring our request to set an account up (been trying since April). We own a new build and the developers automatically have Scottish Power set up as suppliers.

So their response was basically "our systems are down so we can't complete the process, we are sorry and when it's sorted we'll back date the bill on the cheapest tarriff we have. And you may be eligible for compensation. It will take another 4-6 weeks to update you"
obviously they had worded it much more professionally. I suppose it's progress ...

Computer says no.

Made £43 on eBay! Frugal win

DS has got to have a blood test tomorrow. The gps receptionist said to buy some numbing Emla cream. In my frugal mind, would it be cheeky to ask for it on prescription??

pass we got my Ds private swimming lessons too, I rate them very highly. He has some special needs and had private lessons for about a year. He's a really strong swimmer now. I really found them invaluable. Definitely worth the money imo.

digger sorry to hear things are so bad atm

Welcome o all the newbies!

Feeling very skint atm, but think it's mostly because I know how much money we have and what we need to do with it before payday. I'm not used to being aware! Usually so head in the sand.
Will be a nsd apart from my tesco delivery later for €104.

A very last minute eBay bidder came in and bidded an extra £10! So I immediately purchased the preloved Venetian blinds that were advertised for £10. feeling wonderful.

Woohoo.

Peppa our doctors always do a script for that cream.

Well I went shopping for ds' winter clothes and spent £80 but that included a coat, two pairs of trousers, two long sleeved tops, three jumpers, some socks and a pair of flip flops (don't ask!) I remembered boots do clothes and I get 10% discount so his coat was only £18. He just needs a few more pairs of trousers and some vests now.

Peppa you should get a script for it if your treatment room dont stock it. Normally get 4x large plasters to put over to keep it on (4 sites) too for the 30 mins or so

We need baby milk, nappies, fruit... I have a 12 off 60 sainsburys voucher and 5 in nectar points so might go there and get a few milks etc to use the voucher. Once these 12 off vouchers are used up im trying the local lidl for a full shop

Sorry posted too soon!

Going for lidl for a full shop to see if it beata sainburys with a good voucher!

Does that cream help when babies have vaccinations? My ds screamed like the world's end when he had his. I didn't know there was numbing cream.

I doubt it ipsos. It's only topical as a b/t needle doesn't go very deep, vaccination injections go in a good inch and I find it's the pressure and them being cold that hurts most.

Oh I see. Good to know then.

Ipsos There is an investment section on here under money and legal. I've never used it though. Money saving expert is good on savings too. Some of our relatives use a wealth management service which sounds swanky but is basically a chap who tells them where to invest and sorts mortgages for them.

Adora Spin dryers are worth having. It's old fashioned tech though and new shiny tech is always more desirable. Other mumsnetters on the housekeeping threads have them too so it's not just me and North.

£1 boots meal deal using the O2 priority app.
£6 cat litter
£32 vet bill
£1.99 in tescos, £1.50 was a pizza ristorante that had a code on it for another free pizza.
£7 on a reed diffuser refil and new reeds. Wax Lyrical refills are really cheap in dunelm and last ages.

£35 on petrol. That will last me 400 miles which I'm over the moon about because I was always filling up the Fords.

So car didn't pass NCT but only 2 things to be fixed & retest €38. This month should be profitable in my self employed work so that should cover it.

All this talk of foraging sounds great! However, I have two preschoolers, and don't really have the patience to rally them up to search for blackberries.. What are the likely spots? I've been keeping an eye out recently but can't see any bushes?

People at church have now started giving out (for free) apples off of their trees, but is there any way I can make the base of a crumble by stewing the apples then freezing it?

Welcome all the newbies
Dc back to school today, one reading folder is already missing and ds can't find the math set either and of course it's my fault because I should know where everything is
£8 on school trip plus £18 for the whole term of swimming - you save £1.50 if you pay it all at once.
£30 at Asda for pair of jeans for me and a top, plus couple bits in sale.
I also had to order 2 tyres I found on ebay for £200 but will get nectar points and cashback too. Thank you collie for the info about nectar surveys.
Shopping delivered with only 1 substitution and 1 item unavailable so hopefully apart from diesel it should be nsd/lsd for the rest of the week.

No ipsos undortunately most vaccinations are in the muscle so no cream :( would be fab though!

Ashamedly I spent 80 quid at sainburys after my vouchers were taken off :( should have kept a better count. Got a lote for the money (lots of reductions etc) but I didnt need a lot of it. I think I have a food hoarding problem :/

welcome digger! Have you spoken to CAB at all about your situation? Sounds rough but you'll get plenty of support here. Where abouts are you if you dont mind putting it?

You can freeze stewed apples, you can also dry apple slices or use the apple puree as a base for fruit leather like this one

You can just peel and slice the apples and freeze them. I've got a bag to do tonight from my mum.

Fell of the thread a bit! Yesterday we had s lovely afternoon at a rest home for horses, my son is horse mad so he adored stroking the horses and talking about them. He was entranced!

Sainsbury order coming today, had to spend £5 on hospital parking and then went to Costco for coffee capsules and a very late lunch.

DH has taken my eBay sale to the post office, I'm hoping I prices the postage right! I need to pop out and buy myself some slippers this evening. Need them for hospital and don't own any! Baby should be here tomorrow as long as I don't get bumped!

Hi all and welcome newbies

Peppa my dd was meant to have a blood test last week, we had the cream and a dressing to go over the cream on prescription (how ever it made no difference as dd still point blank refused to let the Dr anywhere near her with a needle she has some sensory issues though so am sure your son will be fine!)

Goodluck Whata how exciting! We haven't had a baby born on the thread for ages - hope it all goes well

Agree with comments about swimming being non negotiable but this month it will mean going totally over drawn, dd had a complete melt down at the pool ystd as her friend got the swimming badge above the one she has she is ridiculously competitive!!

Today was a NSD, may go for a NSW actually as there isn't much I need to get.....