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Cost of living

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September savers/frugaleers continue into October

999 replies

574ejones · 20/09/2015 17:43

All welcome!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
lilacclery · 21/09/2015 14:20

I've never picked up the Lidl News, didn't think of the fact they're might be a voucher in it.

That's great going Pink and there's only one more day to get through to paydayGrin

My doing a big shop last week to avoid doing this week was a disaster. Even though I spent quite a bit over our budget last week and our presses & fridge is fairly full we were still out of a lot of the necessities such as milk, coffee, toilet roll etc. Maybe next week this stuff will roll over and get us through without a shopHmm Will do a list of possible meals at the weekend out of what's left.

I'm gone wheatfree as of today, and our new-ish au pair is vegetarian, dh was home last week and I suppose we haven't gotten into a routine of meals yetHmm I realised last fri morn that dh was putting a full sandwich as in two slices of bread rather than one into dd's lunchbox along with fruit, an aldi actimel, a yogurt and then making her a lunch at home that she wasn't eating. So this week, she will have her lunch at school and then an earlier dinner. This will facilitate doing her homework when I get in from work as she'll have eaten already.

ipsos · 21/09/2015 14:46

Good luck with the wheat-free experiment Lilac. Smile

Girlfriend36 · 21/09/2015 14:53

So popped into town with the idea to get myself a new jumper as currently have only have one jumper that isn't falling to bits!

Found a Fat Face one in TKMax that was £50 originally but they were selling it for £24.99 so was pretty pleased with that and also got some jeggings in New Look that with some money from a gift card off came to £8.99. Feeling quite pleased with both purchases!

The TU sale 25% off apparently starts tomos and I noticed that the Next sale starts on the 26th Sept.

Need to give some money to the school for raffle tickets £5 (although getting £2 of that back from my mum!)

Also £1.20 on parking.

ipsos · 21/09/2015 14:56

Well done Girlie That was a great find on the jumper. I'm increasingly finding that TKMaxx is the place to go. I'd never looked there before I started in this group.

lilacclery · 21/09/2015 15:02

I have not got the patience for TKMaxx, it used to be sort of random whether you'd find something you wanted there on the day you wanted, is that still the case?

ipsos I'm actually not hungry at all I can't believe it.

Fluffycloudland77 · 21/09/2015 15:25

TK Maxx is very random, I mainly use it for pans and candles/reed diffusers. They are online now though.

£4 to send a parcel, will only get £4 refund after paying that too. Still it's better than a poke in the eye.
74p sending another small parcel.
£30 on fuel. Sainsbos have an extra 200 points if you fill up with them on the nectar site.
£8 on loads of sainsburys smartprice tea. Think I have about 6 months supply now.

SpottyTeacakes · 22/09/2015 05:39

We're back! Should be a nsd here.

babsmam · 22/09/2015 06:13

Hi. Will catch up later. Off to spend a small fortune on clothes in sainsbury 25%off. Going in store rather than on line.
Ds seems fine, didn't want his crutches last night and is walking much better. Outpatients appointment today.
Spendy couple of days, will confess later.

babsmam · 22/09/2015 06:14

Missed you guys [soppy]

Ememem84 · 22/09/2015 06:18

Yesterday was an expensive one but am back on money saving from today

£35 on taxi from hotel to London Bridge station (would have used the tube but my hangover couldn't handle the heat/smell/motion/crowd) Hmm;
£20 for train from lb to gatwick;
£25 for airport dinner.

Flight delayed so home at 11 instead of 8.30. Will be writing a sternly worded " you made me late, refund me per EU directive" to BA.

NK5BM3 · 22/09/2015 07:13

It's Dd's 5th birthday today! Can't believe it... After so many years of crippling nursery fees, we are done!

babs what's wrong with your son? I've seen several posts but must have missed the one that said what might be wrong and now I see he's on crutches. How old is he? What are his symptoms? My son had issues which eventually after bugging the doctors many many times, got diagnosed at great ormond St. And it was also related to his legs/joints. Hope it's not the same.

Off to wake dd now...!

Collieputthekettleon · 22/09/2015 07:24

Missed you all Blush

Yesterday we spent £1.99 on coffee because I was extremely sleep deprived & needed it.

TU 25% off is here! Yay! Online and selected stores only. I have £12 left on my gift card. We need socks and pants. Grin

lilacclery · 22/09/2015 07:25

Yesterday was a nsd. This morning will get myself & dh €100 each, found my Irish water numbers to claim our water conservation grants.

Had to rejig my leftover money on Sunday hiking gear came up in lidl & I'm going for my first hike in a months time so bought boots & trousers for it. €33 but will save my runners for dry weather so not too bad.

ipsos · 22/09/2015 07:28

That's great news lilac. It sounds as if you're onto a winner there. Keep me posted. I can't wait to hear how it goes. Smile

lilacclery · 22/09/2015 08:34

Looks like I don't have the right numbers. I registered once, but they called for people for register since and I didn't as I figured once was enough. Guess I'm not eligible this year, have emailed so will wait and see Hmm

fluffy changed my couple of bulbs, old ones were 50w, new ones are 5w, don't think I'll be waiting for them to go!!

ipsos I'm amazed with wheatfree. I wasn't hungry at all yesterday, even when I got home and it was past dinner time I sat down to do dd's homework with her and play with ds before I had my dinner, normally I'd be starving. Only one day yet though so will see how it goes.

lilacclery · 22/09/2015 09:17

nk Happy birthday to your dd!

ipsos · 22/09/2015 10:06

That's brilliant lilac. That was just what I found too. It's so counter-intuitive after all those years of being told to fill up with healthy wholegrain wheat isn't it? I hope the new scheme continues to work for you.

btw, you may find that a bunch of weight drops off at some point rather suddenly (it may happen in a few weeks time over a period of about three days). Apparently wheat causes water retention in some people. It's something to do with butyl salts or something, that cause the body to suck in a bunch of water. Once the wheat goes away, the salts go away too and then the body gets rid of all the water. When I went off wheat for a month I lost a lot of weight, but then I tried wheat again and I gained almost a stone in two days. About 4 or 5 weeks later it all suddenly vanished again. Metabolism is very mysterious!

Enjoy the experimentation!

ipsos · 22/09/2015 10:09

Does anybody here have a 1600rpm washing machine and a spin dryer? I've been trying to find out how much water would come out in the 2800rpm spin dryer after spinning at 1600 rpm washing machine, but apparently there are too many variables to figure it out just from the physics.

lilacclery · 22/09/2015 10:50

That's very interesting ipsos a few weeks ago I lost 4lbs and regained it the following week with no reasonable explanation for either the loss or gain Hmm If this is successful and the weight comes off I don't think I'll be reintroducing wheat at all!Grin

Just heard there may be an Iceland store being built in our local big town. I know they sell a lot of convenience meals but do they sell the likes of frozen chopped onions, peppers etc or will it be of any benefit to me at all?

TheOnlyPink · 22/09/2015 10:56

lilac got my water grant letter too. I only ever registered once, and did it at the very start of the whole Irish water fiasco. And they said that only people eligible for the grant would get a letter. Hope they can sort it for you. I have mine earmarked to service the boiler, so hoping it comes through soon, before the heating goes on!
I think your local tk maxx is the same as mine, it's still a bit random, and I don't like the clothes at all, but their homewares, bags, toys and kids stuff is brilliant.

I'm joining you on a wheat free diet, doctor has advised I try a low-FODMAP diet. I'm having ferocious stomach pains, but seems to be very much related to what I eat. Nothing showing in bloods etc. So I'm going lactose free and wheat free, and not eating a whole list of fruit and veg items for a few weeks, then adding back in one at a time. Dh and ds 2 are coeliac anyway, so not much difference. Is that diet similar to the one you are on ipsos?

Nsd today, Vodafone are a shower of pricks. They made a mistake in our billing, so this month's bill was double what it should have been. Rang to resolve, all was fine, they said they would reissue bill. No sign of it, so phoned again, all apologies, promised that only the right amount would come out of our bank account. Bill went out today, for double the amount it was supposed to be. They have credited our Vodafone account, so next bill will only be €15, but they haven't credited it enough, it's €8 short, and we went into overdraft and will have to pay a €5 charge on it. (Which I know they can't do anything about!)
If they told us in the first place that they would just credit the bill account, it would be fine! I could have planned for it, no hassle, reasonable resolution. Going to complain. See where it gets me.

lilacclery · 22/09/2015 12:57

Pink you've given me hope again! I was at the very start too when we got a 4 page letter to fill out. I emailed them - 5 working days for a reply so I might just ring them.

Are you pretty much eating as a coeliac as it is anyhow?

Ipsos recommended the book wheatbelly to me and it makes a lot of sense. I did gloss over about 50 pages of sciency stuff though!

Vodafone should credit your bill with the extra €5 as a goodwill gesture. Emobile did for me when I had issues with billing before.
I heard nothing from my complaint letter to aib yet but it was only a week ago I dropped it in their letterbox.

I've gotten a few nice things from tkmaxx over the years but not really a shop you can go into with intention of buying a particular item I think, unless it's a handbag, seem to have loads of them or maybe it's because I don't have interest in them!

Would you guys travel to Turkey these days? Have a holiday booked for Jan but only deposit paid I'm on the fence, dh doesn't know about holiday yet so will see what he thinks when I surprise him with it. Could always use the money saved and go somewhere else

Pointlessfan · 22/09/2015 12:59

Thank goodness we're back, I had to look at different websites last night! Although that led me to some interesting recipes so not all bad.
NSD yesterday - hooray! Not today, spent £70 in Asda, we seem to have run out of a lot of things all at once. Came home and made a big pot of curried parsnip soup for lunches for the next couple of days but then DD loved it so much she had seconds, thirds and fourths so there isn't as much left as I'd hoped. Have also put veggie spag bol in slow cooker for dinner.
Meal plan:
Tonight - spag bol
Tomorrow - root veg and coconut curry
Thurs - left overs involving spag bol, probably with jacket potatoes
Fri - pasta with spicy tomato sauce and garlic bread
Sat - quinoa* burgers/homemade beef burgers for DH with frozen chips from the Chinese takeaway!
Sun - I'm making a big bean and veg bake with a herby breadcrumb topping, DH is boiling a ham. We are having those for Sunday roast type meal. DH will use the ham in the sandwiches next week and we'll have the rest of mine for tea on Monday.

*Have never cooked quinoa before - is there anything I should know?

Next week is going to be a freezer week with a top up shop as I cannot afford another big shop this month and I want to defrost the freezer.

Going into town later to get some foundation but I have John Lewis vouchers that will cover that - I earn them doing online surveys and use them to buy all my make up!

TheOnlyPink · 22/09/2015 13:31

lilac definitely phone them, 5 working days for a reply email? That's crazy. Us, eat mostly as a coeliac anyway, things like snacks and breakfasts are gluten though, so minor changes. It's just easier when I'm doing it for the two of them.
Wrt Turkey, when do you have to decide?

pointless when coking quinoa, rinse it thoroughly before you start, and keep cooking it until the little tails appear. The first time I made it I thought it was vile, until I had it in a cafe. And realised mine looked nothing like that. Now I love it!

I take back what I said about Vodafone. Complained, and they fixed the credit amount and they are dropping my bill by €5 for 12 months. Very happy with that! They agreed that they should have just told me they would credit the account.

Pointlessfan · 22/09/2015 13:42

Thanks Pink. I've only had it once before, in a café. I wouldn't have known about the tails though, pleased you told me that!

Lovetoknit · 22/09/2015 13:44

hairspray the leaflet was in store on stand at the door, I wasn't going to get it but my ds brought it to the till and when I tried to send him back with it the operator told me about the voucher so I took it home Smile
£14 at Aldi today for top up shop - 3 boxes of cereals, now dc are back at school they usually have them for breakfast and luckily are not bothered about having certain brand
Dinner already in the slow cooker, spag bol tonight since dd has ballet so won't be home till after 6pm
I haven't done a proper meal plan yet this week because I have a veg box coming tomorrow so I hope it will inspire me to make some other meals especially now dh is at home at lunchtime and needs a hot meal before he goes back to work, today it's roasted butternut squash soup