Page 36 | September savers/frugaleers continue into October

Lovetoknit · 03/10/2015 23:21

NSD today
another busy Saturday, managed to get 3 loads of laundry done plus handwashed all the ballet clothes. Not looking forward to do all the ironing tomorrow. Heating is still off but we have used the woodburner in the living room.
Went to the tip today and couldn't believe it when I saw somebody throwing away what looked like nearly new draught excluder. Am I daft to think people should take stuff like that to the charity shop or put it on freecycle etc.
Lasagne with garlic bread tonight and sticky toffee pudding (dd choice) :-)

Pointlessfan · 04/10/2015 06:37

Oh my goodness, the mobile site is working again on my phone - hooray!
Will catch up on the thread in a minute.
We had a day out yesterday, took a picnic but decided to buy hot drinks and a cake. There was a minimum £10 spend to pay by card. Is it just me or does that seem a bit steep? We had to cobble together the cash in loose change. Also spent £20 in the gift shop but £10 of that was on a Xmas present so I can finally say I've started my Xmas shopping.

Pointlessfan · 04/10/2015 06:53

I meant to share the recipe I made last night, I saw it on Buzzfeed but improvised a bit as I didn't want to buy ingredients specially.
Fajita-stuffed baked sweet potatoes:
Scrub sweet potatoes, rub with oil and bake for about 45-60 mins.
Slice veg I used half an onion, and half each of two different peppers and finally chop a chilli - stir fry the veg with a generous sprinkling of smoked paprika and a good squeeze of lime juice.
Dice some feta and mix with natural yoghurt (I think the recipe said soured cream). I also made a tomato salsa with lots of garlic. Then you cut the baked potatoes and pile on the fillings - delicious! Using the rest of the salsa to make bruschetta today.

Pointlessfan · 04/10/2015 06:54

Finely chop the chilli, not finally!

Unescorted · 04/10/2015 08:30

Pointless that sounds lush.... guess what we are going to have for tea tonight.

Kingspan is one of the companies that makes the insulation board - I think it is called silver backed insulation board. Very prosaic in the building world. It is about ?25 per sheet but they are 1.2m by 2.4m each. It might be worth going to a building site & skip diving because they will have lots of window shaped offcuts.

I am jealous of the people who are able to get their washing dry outside at the moment- it is so foggy here my washing has now been out for 3 days.

Ursulatodd · 04/10/2015 08:41

love I love a trip to the tip - fascinating and mind boggling what people throw out. I console myself by believing that the tip workers are so good at spotting anything worth salvaging that not too much goes to waste.
pointless that does sound amazing!
unescorted foggy for us too. It didn't brighten up at all yesterday.
Not too spendy yesterday considering we were at a huge shopping centre. ?20 lunch in Pret for the three of us (ok! v expensive but cheaper than a restaurant !) ?2.95 on a Christmas bath-bomb as part of advent treats. ?8 in H&M on leggings and haieclips for dd and a Halloween hairpiece for me.

Unescorted · 04/10/2015 08:47

ursula my tip trips have been ruined by the council brining in a rule that says if it goes in the gates it must be treated as waste. I saw a lovely old bicycle once and the lads said that they would be sacked if they took it home or let someone else take it. The tip had CCTV so we couldn't even risk it. It is crazy.

Pointlessfan · 04/10/2015 08:57

Hope you enjoy it unescorted.
I tend to put things on Freecycle rather than taking them to the tip for that very reason, whatever is being chucked out someone usually wants it. It also saves the effort of going to the tip. I've got some really good stuff off there for free too, mostly furniture.

annatha · 04/10/2015 09:24

pointless that recipe sounds delicious, I've got a bag of sweet potatoes that need using so its perfect timing!

northender · 04/10/2015 09:29

Dh is the tip monitor in our house, but stuff only ends up at the tip if every other possibility for reusing or recycling has been exhausted. Dh drives me mad with his efforts sometimes, I'm very much pro recycling etc but sometimes want to scream "just take it to the tip"

My day was not v spendy yesterday, £15 on flowers for my cousin as we went to see their new house. I fear dh will have spent quite a bit though, Ashe texted me from the pub at 6.30 last night. Sounded like he was having a good time though. I saw some friends who invited dd & I round to a bbq so that was a free tea . I made up a salad and took that with us.

Today we're going to church and then dd has a cricket trial. Going to do HM pizzas for tea

SpottyTeacakes · 04/10/2015 09:33

Argh I can't do my October expenditure as I switched accounts and now can't access my last statement

PeoniesforMissAnnersley · 04/10/2015 09:55

Going to sell my ipad today at CEX in town I think. I need to find the charger first. DH is still in bed, I have been up for two hours +, its so annoying as we only get Sundays together and he wastes most of it in bed.

SpottyTeacakes · 04/10/2015 09:58

That would annoy me too MissA I've never been one for lie ins though as I get hungry and need a wee

fuzzpig · 04/10/2015 11:14

:o at MrFluffy being cold wearing his undies. That's cheered me up!

DH has put the new lock thing on, thankfully hasn't changed the actual outside bit (have put it away in case we need it though) but the casing bit doesn't match so now there's a hole in the door frame that needs filling

Mum insisted on buying our new storage, an 8 drawer thingy from Wilkos that will house all the DCs' craft bits currently scattered all over the house so that's £36 saved, and it should make a HUGE difference to the mess! :)

fuzzpig · 04/10/2015 11:15

Er... I don't mean that the thought of MrFluffy in his undies is what's cheered me up, by the way...

ipsos · 04/10/2015 11:36

Good idea to visit the dump for that silver stuff. Ours is quite good. It's like a department store, with sections for white goods and vacuum cleaners and garden power tools all that stuff. I'll try it.

We got our first (and only) dyson there. It was totally broken and shot fine dust out in huge clouds all over the house. Very exciting to own a dyson though. Whooomph!

Ememem84 · 04/10/2015 11:59

Nsd today. And only £25 spent on riding lesson yesterday. Scared myself though as just as I asked pony to canter, and gave her a tap with my stick a tractor shot past. Pony went a bit nuts and I think we had a bit of a gallop. Stayed on though.

Went to town with dh yesterday but although I saw nice things there was nothing I deemed good enough to buy. Also it was crowded. So will have another look during the week.

Off to Sunday lunch at v posh hotel today. Dms treat. Cannot wait. They fuss you just enough. You always leave completely stuffed. And it's actually not bad value. £40 a head for Sunday lunch. 5 courses. And a chariot of cheese. Yippee!!! must join weight loss thread tomorrow

Ememem84 · 04/10/2015 12:00

ipsos I secretly love going to the dump. We went last week and o got to throw thinks into the giant hole for "other" ( things are separated out mostly the hole is for things which don't quite fit)

Very exciting!

HairsprayQueen · 04/10/2015 12:32

I've really messed this month up. And through stupidity. I'm so cross at myself. I suppose as long as I learn from this months mistakes that'll be a good thing.

We have food for this week but I've said to DH that next week I'll just make a vat of chilli/ curry and we'll just have the same thing in a row for a few days to save buying loads.

Should be low spends til the end of the month too as I start back studying tomorrow and we'll just have to take the boys out on their scooters for entertainment!

Girlfriend36 · 04/10/2015 13:35

Hi all just catching up, the dump near us has this brilliant re use shop its one of mine and dds favourite places you can pretty much get anything you want there for next to nothing! Dd once found about 50 Moshi monsters for £2 and she also got a china doll in beautiful clothes for £1 I like it for plant pots and picture frames. My friend bought three old fashioned looking retro suitcases and has used one for each child to keep their keepsakes in, really nice idea.

Been to kids club at the cinema this morning to see Minions £5, dd liked it I was a bit underwhelmed tbh.

£48 in Asda, more than £40 budget but got tons for that, completely restocked the fridge and got lots of tins as well. That also included some stuff for Halloween.

No other spends planned this afternoon, going to cycle to a friends house and get her husband to have a look at dds bike as the gears don't seem to be working very well. He is a bike expert and will save me taking it to the bike shop!

blueteapot · 04/10/2015 13:46

Theres always loads of bits and pieces of furniture / kids toys etc left by the skip here, I wouldnt have the balls to take it though Im sure the skip guys wouldnt give a monkeys.

A NSD, vege chilli for tea to use bits up / avoid shopping.

I am knackered and cold even though its sunny today. DS is refusing his nap and DD is mega clingy - I need chocolate!!

PeoniesforMissAnnersley · 04/10/2015 14:42

I love the tip - DH suggests it as a day out to me sometimes because I get so excited
There's a re-use area in ours and we've bought loads there - water butt, compost bin and paving slabs, plant pots, a wooden chair, vases.

CremeEggThief · 04/10/2015 14:50

£7 on electricity for the week, £5 on gas (still had £1.67 on my meter from when I topped up a fiver last Wednesday) and £11.47 on a top up shop in our village Costcutter. Quite pleased with what I got for that, actually- a litre of milk; 2 litres of juice; a loaf of Warburtons wholemeal bread; 2 pears; 2 peaches; 6 bananas; Double Gloucester cheese; a packet of Hobnobs; a 6 pack of Walkers crisps; Scampi fries and a Crunchie. I don't need to do a full shop until Thursday night, so my Sainsburys delivery last Sunday has lasted well!

Meal Plan for this week:
Today - curry (homemade from the freezer). Veggie hot dogs for supper.
Monday- gnocchi, sweetcorn, peas and pesto.
Tuesday- veggie cottage pie (homemade from the freezer)
Wednesday- lentil Bolognese (homemade from the freezer) with spaghetti.

Lunches: kale and rocket soup twice and cheesy beans on toast.

AdoraBell · 04/10/2015 15:16

unescorted that's outrageous about the típ. In Chile almost everything gets either re-used, recycled or donated. We used To see people leaving office furniture, toys, books for donación and the only things that were rubbish were plástico bottles form cooking oil and certain types of yoghurt pots because of the glue on the lables. They have seperate bins for bottle tops too.

Great idea re buying cheap sweaters for the wool, I'll tell DD2, she was shocked at the price of wool here.

I have a delivery coming soon, after money off vouchers it £66 with free delivery. Spending has been out of control since the move and I really need To reign it in.

ipsos · 04/10/2015 15:38

I know what you mean about wool Adora. I had a notion to try knitting when ds was on the way but then I found out that a ball of chunky wool cost a fiver and only made a small square. I gave that idea up pretty smartly.

I had always fancied trying a knitting machine, or one of these:

www.knitandsew.co.uk/Prym+Knitting+Mill+Maxi+624+170/0_CAHA108_CAHA814/PRPL367.htm?gclid=Cj0KEQjwnMOwBRCAhp-ysqCwypkBEiQAeSy1-RGdoVrzBE1BhoeOExMw8kOWh8Xdf-0-YbdxpWpkSgEaAjMr8P8HAQ

but the wool is prohibitively expensive.