October continuing into Novemeber frugaleers part trois

[Lovetoknit]

Hope it's okay to start the new thread since the other one is already full
£1 at Cornwall Ambulance shop for 3 books for dc after I dropped off my old slow cooker and some books and £1 at Prospect hospice for some wool and fabric
Just made cauliflower cheese with some bacon and cavolo nero for dh who had it for lunch and there is enough for his dinner too, the rest of us are having homemade burgers, buns and wedges

missA Yay! Welcome back. That's fab that you can go present free with some adults for Christmas. We've been in that situation car wise many times. It's hard work and such a worry. Public transport is quite shite here too.

I somehow forgot to drink anything last night and now I'm feeling groggy. Hopefully it'll pass as I rehydrate myself.

That's really interesting about all the vit D and magnesium effects. I also swear by vit D and Mg. If I don't take Vit D every day in winter I get cold sores on my lips within about 10 hours of a missed dose. I also get all sorts of other more general things going wrong. If I take too much Vit D without also taking magnesium then I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. However if I then immediately take Mg then I fall fast asleep 15 minutes later. Human physiology is very weird.

Tinned herring or salmon and spring green leaves seem to be the best natural sources and also quite tasty which is good.

Hi MissA :) agree about cinema tickets, it's getting ridiculous. Had to google Ai Weiwei, looked really interesting!

You've reminded me I still need to pick up my prescription - I was told my vit D was a bit low, and was prescribed the strong soft gel ones.

MissA Have you thought of a cheap lease car? there's less faults and fuel costs with new cars. I lease my car.

If you do a cheap one day travel insurance policy with compare the market you get 2 for 1 cinema tickets mid week for a year. The policy should be £2ish and if topcashback or quidco are offering cashback then it might work out free.

No tesco coupons for me either but I have £16 saved for our trip to Alnwick next year, I need another £60 or so for two nights in a MacDonald hotel.

Morning all, dd has an inset day today and I am off as well so planning on going fossil hunting Charmouth will take food and drinks so should be a fairly cheap day.

Am going to look into the vitamins, interesting what you said about the form they take fluffy I wonder if taking a --cheap- multivitamin is a bit pointless as not sure my body is absorbing much! I had my gall bladder out years ago and apparently that can affect the absorption of some vitamins and minerals as well.

Welcome back MissA agree re cinema tickets, went to see the Suffragettes recently and nearly fainted at the cost!! Odeon have annoyed me as don't seem to do any good deals now like they used to. Will have a look at the insurance deal Fluffy

Hi everyone. One appt down one to go but I'm feeling positive. I have just made this chicken soup but added celery. It's so nice, I was going to freeze it for lunches but actually I think I'm going to do it for dinner with cheese toasties

Nice to have you back MissA!

Spent £1 on some tights for dd this morning. They're new but I bought them off selling site from someone at school.

Not sure how much the dentist will be dh has left me his credit card.

Forgot that dd's swimming lesson money also comes out today so have borrowed £40 from ds so dh can get fuel.

It's very foggy here.

Wish we had a cinema. missing city life. (Or at least a decent town with usable amenities)

My mum took the kids to the cinema last week and couldn't believe the prices.

It's a shame as it's the perfect thing to do on rainy days off but in the past we've ended up spending nearly £50 for the 4 of us to watch a film and have a drink. If you ever told me to spend £50 to watch a film I'd say you were crazy but it just adds up so quickly!

Got to go to town to buy gloves for both boys as they are going to bonfires this week. It doesn't feel cold enough to be thinking about it at all.

I'm supposed to be writing 500 words comparing 2 Cezanne paintings so of course I'm doing everything else under the sun instead of just getting on with it .

The dentist didn't charge me FRUGAL WIN! And gave me free toothpaste! He thinks it's my tongue bar so I've taken it out. I'm too old for it anyway

LOL! Spotty !

Can someone help me decide what to do re our phone and broadband. I've got two to choose from:

Bt unlimited broadband and weekend calls. £25.49/month on a 12 month contract £50 sainsburys gift card and £90 topcashback.

Southern electric unlimited broadband and weekend calls. Free for the first six months then £21.49 on an 18 month contract.

Just trying to catch up after a busy weekend doing DIY - mainly trying to fix the free wendy house which is now a bigger job then dh expected.
£30 at Asda on Saturday, £30 for fabric to make curtains for the bathroom and a camouflage remnant to fix ds trousers at Trago on Sunday plus £30 for couple other bits.
£8 at Aldi this morning. If we stick to the meal plan we should only need little top up shops this week for fruit and veg.
Mo - Chicken in a bag with crispy potatoes and veg
Tue - Spag bol
Wed - Pork chops/sausages, pots and veg
Thu - Tacos or chilli and rice
Fri - Fish and chips
Sat - Pizza and garlic bread
Sun - Roast dinner

spotty the BT one works out at a total of £165.88 for the 12 months and then you'd need to switch again. So that's £13.82 per month for 12 months.

SE works out at a total of £257.88 for the whole 18 months which is £14.32 per month for 18 months.

Did I get that right? Do I win a pork chop?

Just be careful with BT. They've added a few extras and the prices have gone up already. But we are stuck in a contract (EE aren't interested in buying us out) so we have to accept the price increase. They've auto enrolled us with various services without asking first - like 1571 which is an extra £2 a month.
And the customer service is poo. When the internet went down they couldn't understand how I wasn't able to do "online chat"

So I should go with BT? My brain hurts I'm happy to switch every year. Do you remember the days of setting up new 'internet' when it took hours and a gazillion different passwords/sets ups?!

Sounds to me as if SE would be less hassle (less dealing with cashback company and gift cards and you wouldn't need to switch for 18 months. I have SSE gas an electricity and their customer service on the phone is really good and so is their web interface.

collie that's hilarious about the online chat.

I'm with SSE for all of it already ipsos. I think the thing is if I stay with them I won't end up saving £90 or £50 on food shopping it'll just disappear, if that makes sense?!

Welcome back MissA good result going present free for adults.

So Saturday spendy as Halloween party £8 for taxis and £4.60 for a round of coffees for 3 of us. But happy, tired kids at least. Sunday NSD, today will be LSD as just milk and bread to buy. Shouldn't be too spendy this week and additional work has come in so all good. Trying to save towards Christmas and get some stocking fillers for DS. Luckily all he seems set on is completing his set of Avengers toys...

Ooo! In that case you will have gone of the end of the SSE contract onto their standard rate and you need to either change to a different provider or phone up and ask for a new good rate. Am I understanding correctly?

With Vodafone mobile phone contracts I have this a lot and the thing to do there is to phone up and say you've come off the end of your contract and you'd like to renegotiate a price that is better than the one you're being offered by BT. You can tell them all the details you posted here as well as the monthly cost that I calculated, and say you want something that works out less than £14 a month and see what they come up with.

I'm I getting the right end of the stick?

Yes. The deal I was looking at is a new customer deal they're trying to put it up to £35 a month.

spotty my only contribution to your dilemma is that I found, many many times (new build house) that BT customer service was beyond SHIT. It was so appallingly bad that words cannot describe to you how bad it was. All that Collie said and more. Did I mention it was SHIT Not under any circumstances or how amazing a deal I got would I ever go back to BT.

Happy days for me!!

Spends - £50 pony re-shod. I left his rug off so he could have a nice muddy roll and be like a swamp monster for DD

However -

Water bill - DD has gone down by £30 pcm. This was a debit we had run up two years ago, based on their initial assessment of our water usage being way off.

Bid already on Ebay for £90 for DDs old flute, day 1.

I used to be with BT and never had a problem with them although SSE customer services is second to none. Hmm

Can your dh do a new customer deal with sse and get the cashback spotty?.