October Frugaleers part deux

[CremeEggThief]

HI all, took the liberty of starting a new thread.

Yes good luck!!! ??

Me too badders re the phone. I'm cross that I got in to the contract I'm on, it's so expensive and I use about 6 mins of call time a month and 98% of my texts are on iMessage and through the wifi. I've got to wait til July though.

How exciting breathless! Can't wait for an update!

Exciting breathless!

Well £8.83 on a top up shop which included loads of daffodil bulbs which I wanted anyway.

£?? On parking. The machine ate my money £1.75 then a nice man gave me £2 coin and I gave him 70p as that was all I had left then the machine spat out 55p so no idea where that's left me

Going to make a banana cake to take into work tomorrow. Dd has swimming later so I've got a shepherds pie out the freezer for dinner.

Oh gosh I've really fallen off this thread! Not sure I can catch up at this stage, so waving hello and hoping every one is well.

Have had a mostly no spend week, except for 80c on a birthday card for my mum. Had 2 bottles of wine in the cupboard, dh won from social committee functions at work, but we don't drink, so gave them to her. No idea if they are any good, and felt embarrassed not being able to buy her something nice. But we are down to our last few Euro for the month and that's so dh can get to work and so we can get groceries on Monday. 8 days to go to payday.

Freezing here today!

Met Mum in town for more of a social thing than spending - bus fare £3.60, M&S café £3.10, £11.03 combined purchases in Wilko, Poundland and Savers on things like washing up liquid, air freshener, crisps, folder dividers for DD school files - all of which were cheaper than buying elsewhere.

I've been extra careful recently with food and other spending, so can start looking for new bedroom curtains at the weekend - DH wants blue, but I prefer something like mauve or aubergine, but to the honest I don't really care if as long as we can get some curtains that cover the window.

Good luck breathless!

Payday today so withdrew £250 for a month's food shopping. Gives us £50 a week to feed me, dh, dd, a dog and a cat and £10-12 for top ups. should be doable, except this month we've got dd's birthday party on the 3rd and are doing a buffet tea for about 10 and from the 28th MIL is staying with us until further notice (I'm due on 16th Nov so she's here on standby for dd and until I get my head around 2 under 2 bless her) so that's another person to feed. Ebaying as much as we can in preparation for Xmas/birthday spends and dh has decided to sell his Xbox, so today's £40 tesco shop included £25 on a NowTV box as we only watch catch up TV. Hopefully eBay items will sell! Also in the process of scrapping/selling my complete wreck of a car so that should bring a tiny bit of money in and a refund on the insurance.

Ds went to a party recently where they had hot dogs. Nice, but small, sausages in rolls the just different crisps and a few bits of cucumber and carrot. Went down really well. Or others have had a 'lunch box ' for each child so a sandwich, drink, packet of crisps and mini party rings or something. Seems a good way of doing it.

An actual nsd today, yippee! Also had a flu jab at docs for free....

Spent £12.50 on fish n chips last night as dd had a docs appointment that run late, no time to cook/eat/hw after.

Thoughts are turning to xmas, might be insane but I'm wondering whether to get an ipad for each dc? Ds had a Samsung that was rubbish and has died. I want to load lots of apps that'll help with school work, I have an ipad but dp won't let the kids have it (addict)

annatha, good ideas from Spotty I reckon! If you did hot dogs and wanted something sweet on the table, a basics or value selection pack for about £1 would cover that.

Pass, my DD was lucky enough to win an ipad and spends ages on it chatting to friends and doing her homework. Had her three years and she's still really happy with it.

Bit of a mixed day, spending wise, but the good news is I received my warm home voucher today, so delighted that came through quickly enought, as I aplied about 6 weeks ago. £140 worth of free electricity (for some reason, Eon only do them for electric), so that will cover us for 14-17 weeks.

Has anyone else applied/received theirs yet? If not and you think you might be entitled, do it now!

Pass how many children have you got? That does sound insane to me I bought my dd a hudl 2 last night from Tescos plus a cover and protective shield thingy came to £120. Thats her main Christmas present and actually she is now pretty much sorted for christmas now. I could not justify getting her an iPad, they are too expensive imo.

Been at work and managed to avoid any spends other than the after school club, have taken £20 out to pay towards dds school trip as well.

Who is entitled Creme?

Bugger about the ticket girle, chalk it up to experience.

Ooh a frugal baby, best wishes.
Hi newbies whose name I can't get as on phone. Welcome back returners. (sorry if that seems rude, phone is stupid and my memory is shite)
Nsd

Hotdogs are a great idea, thanks spotty. We've already got sauces, onions and things in so would only really need sausages and rolls.

Anyone who claims child tax credits and earns/gas an income of under £16,100 a year in general, but there might be other criteria relating to your energy provider. Have a look on their websites on the warm home discount scheme section. I think anyone on JSA/Income Support should get it automatically, but otherwise, you'll need to claim it, like I did.

Thanks Electrolux for the link. When I first received my letter stating that I would get it, they said they'd send it between October and March, so maybe you will get yours soon too.

Just accidentally made banana & choc brownies. it was supposed to be a cake thing. Used up 3 bananas which were almost off. Frugal win!

Good luck breathless!
Lovely to see ohhelp back.
I thought today was going to be a NSD but had to buy petrol, at least I got a load of Nectar points with the offer at Sainsbury's at the moment.
Have realised that in the next 3 weeks we need to take Pointlesscat to the vet for his annual check up/jabs, pay the car tax and renew the car insurance. Not quite sure how we're going to manage that. I'm also going out for dinner with a friend next week and different friends at half term. Think I'm going to be designated driver to avoid spending on alcohol!

I seem to be coming down With a nasty cold :(
So £££ on day nurse and paracetamol
My mum is giving my ds1 her iphone4 so I will get him the cheapest SIM (I think it's £5?) Per month.
Grocery shopping tomorrow - think I will have to send dh. Aldi and asda.

Good luck breathless & how exciting.
I had a frugal win today. Mortgage company has cocked up and not been accounting for the overpayment of £50 we make. They tried to compensate me £30 but I asked for the amount they have not taken in to account (about £200 since they made their error) and we have settled on £150. As we are not out of pocket and have just lost faith in them, £150 is a frugal gain!! I am trying to live out of the stores as we are changing the fridge freezer in couple of weeks and having a fair bit of work done on the house. We are down to some weird combinations now. I think I will have to go shopping for a few staples at least. I MIGHT get another day out of it. Maybe 2!

On train back from London now. £10 car park, £20 on pizza for tea, £10 in m&s for journey back. Great news from clinic is that ds' braces are working extremely well woohoo!

pointlessfan it's incredible how a couple of meals out like that can completely blow the budget. My friend suggested this place - a naice indian. Same food, nicer service and setting but £45 for pops and pickles, a main and naan, 2 diet cokes and a coffee. Whooaaa.