September savers/frugaleers continue into October

[574ejones]

All welcome!

I do have a points card and intend on stacking vouchers to get it. No rush though.

Morning all

I am managing with only the living room storage heater on at the moment and that is turned right down, this is good for me as I hate feeling cold and usually by this point in the year all the heaters are on!! Have found sticking on my hoodie in the evenings makes a big difference, am a bit that have only just realised!!

Also planning on getting two lots of washing out today - love sunny Autumn days!

Need to get my bum out of bed in a min and go into town, meeting my mum for a coffee. Remembered two other October bdays I had forgotten about so will have a look for some frugal gifts, also need to pop to Lidls for a shop and pick up some cat biscuits.

It was just lucky the door still opened! :o Shame it wasn't a door to door sales git person really.

Morning all.
Ipsos, hope your better soon
Pass, I have just installed an app called Spending Tracker (mh Riley) and I'm loving it. Really simple. Just add income then expense,,which you can categorise eg petrol, food etc and it keeps track of your amount left and displays your spending as a pie chart or bar chart according to category. I am possibly a little bit addicted to it and update it several times a day! I'm using this for the spending account and have a separate spread sheet to,keep track of direct debit account.

Well I am shattered having been on call last night, about to go back to bed for a nap! Dh has gone to aldi for big food shop, other than that hoping for no other spending today. Will report back,on aldi total!

fuzz keeping fingers crossed for dh with the job search!

spotty that's a lovely bedtime! Ds2 goes at 7.30, any earlier and he's up half the night. Ds 1 is 8, he heads up at 8, and lights out by 8.30, 9.30 at weekends.

I turned my heating on for an hour yesterday, dh was working from home and the kids were freezing. They had jumpers and blankets, but we're still cold, so thought it needed doing! It's off again though, today seems warmer. Not going to put it on the timer for another while.

Heading to town today, dh told ds 2 we could go on the bus, so lots of excitement. Will be €5 for the bus, and probably €10 for cake in the cafe. We go to one where they do cake and a hot drink for €4, so the kids have the cake, me and dh have the coffees, and another €2 on 2 babyccinos. So it's pretty reasonable!

Have a lovely Saturday everyone!

Heating still off here and I'm hoping to last the month that way. Just wanted to say that thanks to this thread and better spending habits we have reduced the amount we go overdrawn each month so much - was about £500 this time last year, now £50, so thanks everyone .

£5.74 in Aldi this morning bringing my week's grocery budget to £9.18!

I think an alternative programme to EWFL could be Gregg and his buddy going into people's homes and showing them what meals they could cook out of their stores. This week I've discovered sweet corn fritters, pesto risotto and used soured cream for tuna sandwiches rather than mayo! I don't consider myself as someone who keeps loads in their cupboards but I obviously keep more than I think. I did have lunch out yesterday and we'll probably have something while we're out today but still, I'm pretty chuffed with that!

kazza, I had to cut my hours down 3 years ago due to my health add to avoid capability proceedings. There are good reasons they might refuse. It's also public services so finance would have to approve the increase in budget which may not happen in this climate.

I wasn't going to ask yet, but the topic of capacity and why we can't cope with the work we have came up so it seemed too good an opportunity to miss. The fact that they might consider it and didn't say no immediately is good, I think. It means their first thought wasn't that I won't be able to manage. Not holding my breath though.

There used to be a website where you could enter what ingredients you have and it would come up with recipes.

I'm sure I discovered it through Mn but can't remember what it was. Really annoying because I could have done with it last week.

Fantastic going 574
I've finally caught up on the thread. I have to be at work this morning but due to a new update on the phone voicemail system no calls are coming through to me so I've only to deal with the customers I'd prior arrangements with to deal with

I had a nsw on personal spends, on joint spends monday, wed and thurs were nsd. Quite pleased with that, although I do find, I can spend nothing all week because of work and then Sat it all comes together and can spend €€€'s

Today I plan on going to HomeStore and More for a mat for inside the back door as bought one a few weeks as a test and it's super so I'll go back for a second one. Also their pillows are half price for Oct and dd spread 4 of ours with Vicks Vaporub on Sun night as she was upset that me and dh went out for a meal (Groupon voucher €30 food for €15 which dh had bought and I paid the balance of €15 2 course each and a glass of wine for me ) so think I'll replace all the pillows with that deal.

Au pair has suggested playdoh and colouring books for ds and I'm going to go to Mr Price for these I think, have reserved the playdoh on 2 for €20 in argos as a fallback plan. Ds is coming on in leaps and bounds with her so I'm all for it.

Lunch out with dd, her friend and ds - that's joint spends right, I'm feeding the family!
Then tonight I'm going for drinks for a friends birthday, so bus to pay for and drinks.

Hope ipsos is feeling better
Pink your trip out sounds fab my kids would love it, we're in the sticks too much for it though. Dd is loving school, they'd a zumba class the other day she loved it and was wrecked that evening.

Fluffy I must google my dishwasher to see the most efficient cycle, we're not paying for water yet so I will purely focus on leccy
spotty I love those bedtimes, do you have early risers? Ds suits 7pm bedtime and dd 8/8.30. They've both been later this week and ds has been up two mornings at 4.30am plus dd has been coming in to me at night - Back to Basics this week again!
Girlfriend I must try your rice method, I always put on with boiling water to make it faster.

Sorry to anyone I've left out! I've missed ye all due to reading and not posting all week!

We'd a frugal evening out on Tues eve, took children to the library they had a ball and went to Aldi after, they loved helping to choose a few bits and signs on ate more as a result this week.

Our heating is just on for an hour per day and house is warm, as is water with the solar panels so I'm not going to increase this until we have to. Shed is stocked full of turf since last year & with au pair at home she can put on a fire rather than heating. Frugal win.

Extra work this week meant au pair needed paying 1.5 times her usual amount, but everyone was happy and looked after, and it was stress free as opposed to when we had a cm and I'd to jump through hoops to get them looked after and collected and babysat etc.

ipsos hope you feel better soon.

Heating still off here, hopefully til November. It's been a lovely week here but is much cooler & cloudy today. Dh has gone to his parents in Devon for the weekend and taken DS with him. There's a football match this afternoon and it's one of his friends last matches before his move to Saudi so he'll get to catch up with friends he doesn't see very often. The main costs will be fuel & night out tonight. The football is paid for as he has a season ticket and there will be a bit of money for him as other people use the ticket when he's not there (most of the time).

Dd has a county cricket trial tomorrow & so is going to do some practice with a friend this afternoon. I need to meal plan & start preparing a talk I've been asked to deliver in a couple of weeks time. Have a lovely weekend everyone

Thanks Lilac I love those almond-based recipes. They go down a storm here. Brilliant find!

Well done 574eJones That's great news.

Thanks for all the encouragement on the flu. I do feel a fair bit better except that I read the NHS website about chest pain and wish I hadn't. Ooops. I have been called for a cardiac health check at the GP soon though so that's good. Sitting under a duvet watching ds draw all over my newspaper and build castles out of my 2-for-1 kleenex boxes.

They tend to get up about half six which is when I need them to in the week as we need to leave at eight (although I leave at 6 on a Tuesday and 7 on a Friday!)

Bacon Brocolli Quiche with Sweet Potato Crust looks amazing too I've had lots of inspiration this morning.

Found a soda bread in Aldi that's wheatfree it's €2.99 per small loaf which is lovely but not frugal, went online to see if I could get a recipe for it. Didn't but got some other nice recipes

Lilac, not sure how old your ds is, but it might be cheaper to make playdough in the future. You or the au pair could make it with him if you are brave enough.

you might not feel so bad when you have to start chucking it away because it's gone grey and mankey then.

Spent £5 in boots on shampoo and bits.

Hi rafa last au pair made some playdough with dd, I just threw it out of fridge yesterday, it was gone very sticky. He's almost 2.

I still haven't braved buying paints so today might be big spends on crafts!

I hate playdoh dss's last girlfriend bought dd it two christmases ago, I was delighted to throw it out

spotty you reminded me I need shampoo & conditioner for my coloured blonde hair too, last bottles I bought in Sept as I hide it in the press so no one else uses it dh has 5mm hair and would slather on the conditioner if it was there

bought in June that should say and lasted until end of September!

Just done my sainsvury order for Monday. I've included some Christmas bits again and it's come in at £45. Not much meat in there as we have lots in the freezer. I am not writing meal plans but I have a rough idea what we will be eating. I've bought eggs, broccoli and salmon to make frittata one evening. I've also orders frozen microwave rice as its a lot cheaper than the pouches, I'll report back on how that goes!

DH has taken DS1 to swimming and they are getting McDonald's on the way home. We haven't eaten out or hand take away or spent any money at the hospital car park this week so there is a bit of money there.

rafa I think you can search on the BBC Good Food website by ingredients for recipes?

Busy morning here, DH went in to get DD up this morning and she'd thrown up all over her bed Not sure what brought that on, and she's been fine all morning fortunately. In the middle of washing all the duvet/soft toys etc, discovered I'd left a biro in the pocket of my work tunic in the whites wash last night So our poor washing machine is on its 6th load in 2 days! Sigh.

Nsd though! until we get the water and electricity bill

That's an epic start to the morning orange. The biro is a real classic touch. You'll be able to dine out on that for years.

WoooooHoooooo - I can get back on. For 3 weeks I have been having issues with a long running script.

Hope all is well in Frugalworld.

In my absence I have put a new loo seat on, cooked the best ever sweet and sour pork ( according to my dd & her friends), and sat for a week in hospital keeping my mum company.

WoooooHoooooo - I can get back on. For 3 weeks I have been having issues with a long running script.

Hope all is well in Frugalworld.

In my absence I have put a new loo seat on, cooked the best ever sweet and sour pork ( according to my dd & her friends), and sat for a week in hospital keeping my mum company.

DD also had 2 baths before breakfast as she was covered in sick I don’t know how she does it. She doesn't vom very often at all, but when she does, it's always in the middle of the night and she just sleeps through it!

I thought the biro would just add that little extra touch of excitement to the proceedings.......