October Frugaleers part deux

[CremeEggThief]

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

Ifonly thanks I still have a headache but didn't so much this morning so didn't see Dr. I've come home and take two co codamol so now I feel whoozy and happy but headache still there right now...

Ipsos sorry you're suffering with anxiety

Pink hope the meds work quickly it must be so hard having to pay.

Nsd here dh gets paid today good job as we have £1.24 left of our overdraft but at least we haven't gone over!

Someone was so rude to me at work today and instead of crying I stood up for myself. I asked her if she was that rude to everyone.

Forgive me frugaleers, for I have sinned. There is a new TV in our sitting room. DH and I decided we weren't buying each other any little things for xmas a while ago and we would buy one bigger thing to share that we both wanted. He suggested a larger TV, and there's nothing I particularly want. Was keeping an eye out and there was a great 50 inch one came up on HUKD at Argos, £249 with a £10 voucher back on top - I'd rather have waited until nearer xmas but it was too good a deal to pass up so I reserved one (they went out of stock in all the stores nearby as I did so!) and we collected it today. The unexpected tax rebate pretty much covers it bar £20. I still feel guilty though! At least that's one major xmas present sorted and I don't have to think of anything for DH and vice versa!

I have reserved a crayola twistables set and a set of playdoh for santa stocking fillers with the £10 voucher which I will collect later.

Boots are doing free coke / slice of cake in priority moments app today if anyone passing. Theres also free halloween lollipops in WHS which might do for some of the mainland frugaleers (but we dont have WHS here).

Haven't read back through properly but ipsos chin up, spotty well done for standing up for yourself, binglet I am really enjoying frugal DIYing this year too and pointless I haven't a clue about acorns sorry!

That's great, Binglet. Frugaleering at its finest.

Spotty, go you! I love it!

Pink, hope you feel better soon and ipsos, I bet the quiet day has served you well.

Blueteapot, a bargain is a bargain and you have the money to pay for it. I doubt you could have found it as cheap closer to Christmas.

£20 gas and £7.48 at the post office.

Oh our water bill has gone up to £29. It was down to £14 as we were so in credit but they've adjusted it to our usage now. I need to do a new budget I think as things have changed a bit since our last one. I assume we used more water in the last few months as it was summer and we had the paddling pool etc it wasn't loads more so it's ok.

binglet Now that's frugal at it's best.

Blue I bet the tv costs less to run and the tax rebate paid for it so really it's frugal.

NK T.I.P on the debt thread would say overpay the mortgage. She did work on her house but they did it frugally.

ifonly They have to install smart meters eventually because the govt has told them too. I wouldnt pay for one either.

Thanks everyone, me and my OH are both around 6ft so she's bound to be a big baby! They couldn't scan me today too busy so will be tomorrow or Wednesday, will update! Had a NSD bar the £4!!! Parking charge at the hospital. Why I didn't take my staff ID and park in the staff car park I'll never know. Madness

Hoping anyone else going through medical bits and bobs gets well soon just can't keep up!

Well done Spotty. Nice work speaking back to her.

I just did my hair, had a day off, and then went and had a cracking game of football in the school playground. Excellent fun. :-)

Hey there you lot, we are near our overdraft. The two things we have to pay for is food for a week and fuel for commuting.

Can you guys tell me your favourite cheap-as-chips meals? I'm going to do the weekly shop tonight online so I'm going to be meal planning very carefully. Quite excited about this frugal challenge! we have made a bit on eBay so can always use those funds if needed. So I'm not worried at all.

Spotty good for you!! Ipsos your day sounds fab.

Will Catch up properly later

I phoned up again and asked the solar panel people for for another quote for slightly more panels. They had kind of forgotten about us and the generation feed in tariff goes away at the end of December. I'm hoping that we can get it done and then I won't need to plant 634 trees after all.

collie Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans. Anything with eggs - omelette, frittata, egg and chips. Pasta bakes. Soup using any random veg that you have lurking in the bottom of your fridge.

The Jack Monroe book (if you have it) and blog are excellent resources for cheap meal ideas.

Red thai and sweet potato curry was amazing -

Chop 2/3 (size dependant) sweet potatoes, chop one red onion, 3 whole garlic cloves. Drizzle with oil, season liberally and roast in the oven until caramelised.
Use one tin of coconut milk, 150ml water and a teaspoon of red thai curry paste.
When the veg is roasted, stir into the milk mix and whizz up into soup.
You can heat before or after.

Serve with crusty bread.

There was supposed to be enough for DD's tea but my friend had two bowls

Good for you for sticking up for yourself spotty. That's hard if you are not that kind of person.

My meal plan this week:
Today - veggie burger in a bap with ketchup and a cheese slice, wedges and salad leaves.
Wednesday- jacket potato with cheese and beans. This is one of my all-time favourites, but for some reason, I haven't had it for a good few weeks!
Thursday- omelette and salad leaves or leek and potato soup with tiger/giraffe bread.
Friday- veggie chilli with Quorn mince, and rice, sour cream, tortilla chips. One portion tonight and the rest for the freezer.
Saturday - pizza.
Sunday - nut cutlets with roast potatoes, parsnip, carrots, broccoli, gravy and Yorkshire puddings.
Monday- pasta with pesto, avocado, olives and chopped up hard boiled eggs.
Tuesday- chilli.
Wednesday- chilli.

This is all from this week's shop (£44.71) and a few things I had in store cupboards and the freezer already. The only thing I need to get is broccoli, closer to Sunday, and possibly eggs.

Dh is on board with mortgage repayment. So we're going for it. Eeek!

Today's spends -£3 on postage for eBay.

Payday tomorrow and I've finished my month with £24 in my account.

31weeks Are you allowed to use your parking pass for non-work visits? you know how funny they can get about minor things if they choose to.

Ememe That's brilliant. You've just tripled the amount you've saved really haven't you?.

£33 work bag. The podiatry sites want £230 for bags that are admittedly bigger but also weigh 6lbs empty.

£9 deep conditioner for mature hair. It was £14 everywhere else. I have my first white hair coming through and I'm determined not to dye it but have long white hair that looks fab.

£5 cheescake and a sachet of hair conditioner while I wait for the other one to arrive.

Got cashback on both from kidstart.

Red lentils pad food like soup and stews out really well. A cheap stew pack and some lentils will do a really filling meal.

collie beans and omlette on toast, corned beef hash and jacket potatoes are our staple cheap eats. Or a pack of mince stretched out with frozen veg and lentils to make cottage pie, chilli, spag bol etc. I use less than half the amount of mince that I used to since discovering lentils.

We've given up on the car buyer. I wanted to send an arsey message about wasting our time but dh is more grown up than me and found someone to buy it for £100 less to break for parts. Not ideal but better than it sitting on the drive taxed and insured. Got a quote for £500+ to get it fixed so just need to get rid really. However, car buyer #2 was supposed to be here ten minutes ago so I'm not holding my breath.

Annatha can you claim the tax and insurance back?

Go spotty,

31 weeks, that's annoying.

Your day sounds fab ipsos
Collie I'm going to get some frugal meal tips from you. We have slipped back into the lots of meat habit and it's pricey.

Nsd

Well done Spotty!
Collie my best cheap meals are:
Lentil dahl - just onion, garlic, lentils and spices plus water
Soup to use random bits.
Pasta with cheese sauce.
Jacket potatoes with cheese and/or any odd bits of chilli, Bolognese etc that might be lurking in the freezer.
Veg and chick pea casserole or curry with whatever veg we have - those cheap stew packs are in the shops now too.
Last resort is pasta with tinned tomatoes and grated cheese.
DD seems ok after the acorn!

Babs we'll get a refund on the insurance that'all be poured straight back onto the cc we paid for it on and pay tax monthly, just with the end of the month coming up we'll be paying for another month of tax and losing a month's worth of insurance refund so could do with it going asap. I didn't want to declare it sorn in case someone bought it while the paperwork was going through but it looks like that's the route I'll be going down at this rate.

Babs we pay tax monthly and will get a refund on the insurance but with the end of the month coming it'll be another month's refund lost and a month's tax to fork out for if it doesn't go. I didn't want to declare it sorn in case it sold while the paperwork was going through but might have to look into it at this rate.

Gah so my post did work, sorry!

That's annoying it's going to cost you another month.

That's annoying it's going to cost you another month.

Hi all, just catching up.

Collie pesto and pasta is a cheap staple here, or make a vat of Bolognese using soya mince, can beef it up with stock, tins of value toms etc

Blue new telly sounds lush, I would like to get a new one at some point and was surprised at how reasonable they are these days.

Ipsos hope you are o.kay, go easy on yourself, are you still bringing your ds home every day for lunch? Am guessing the actual time you have to yourself is fairly limited by the time you have done all the school runs and cooking etc.

Have managed a NSD today the first in a while!

Our cheap eats:

Pasta and sauce
Beans on toast
Homemade soup
Shepherds pie (you're veggie aren't you collie? Green lentils are a great substitute in this I think)
Jacket potatoes
Pitta pizzas

Fluffy I would normally use my staff parking pass, but I expect whilst on maternity leave it's not on so no I wouldn't do it

£27 in sewing shop. Bought 12 fat beautiful fat quarters, a pattern for a chicken toaster cosy and a sandbag to finish off my doorstop.

Chicken will be Christmas present for parents.