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

No cash back with SSE!

I think if you call up SSE and say that you would like to renegotiate so that you don't have to leave then they will probably do that.

Spotty, I would go for the BT one, as there are more incentives work out about the same as the free 6 months on the other one and the contract is shorter.

NSD so far, but I need to pay for my bus fare back from Pilates later, so should only be £1.80 today.

Meal plan:
Today (also yesterday and Saturday): Lentil Bolognese. I might need to have mine with fusilli, as I don't think we have enough spaghetti for 2.
Tuesday: Quorn chilli, rice, tortilla chips and sour cream.
Wednesday: same.
Thursday: jacket potatoes with cheese and beans for me and cheese and pesto for DS. He doesn't like baked beans!
Friday: Quorn burgers in baps with cheese slices and ketchup, wedges and salad.
Saturday: Pizza.
Sunday: Linda McCartney leek and cheese plaits, with new potatoes and (frozen) roasted med veg.

My Sainsburys order is coming tomorrow and estimated at £40.33. I had all the ingredients for the Bolognese, the chilli and the Linda McCartney plaits and frozen roast veg already, so this includes some packed lunch stuff and cleaning products and toiletries.

It's been a second successful NSD in a row! Hooooray.

Going to have roast chicken traybake for tea. If I remember.

I want to marry Mr Tumble

collie, why Mr Tumble? I'd happily have him round to entertain DD, she adores him!
NSD today! Curry out of freezer for tea and I'm making soup for lunches.
Welcome back missA, how's your PGCE going? Bloody hard work isn't it?! Take care, it's a long run until Xmas.

Hi all, would never go back to BT there customer service is abysmal ime!

We had a lovely day in Charmouth, never been before but really liked it. Very nice beach and great for fossil hunting although we didn't find much today!

LSD £3 parking and 70p sweets (needed to break into a tenner to get change for car park!)

Back to work tomos

Today's spends:

£10 ish on birthday present card and bottle bag for friend.

£34 on parking tickets for the week or so

£4 on digestives and twiglets.

Ok maybe I'll go with SSE and make sure I transfer the equivalent saving into our savings account each month. Thanks for all your input I also love that they all say 'up to 17mb speed (or something' yet in our area the speed is estimated 1-2 mb

I agree with girlie re- BT, we stopped using them 5 years ago and they still piss me off with phone calls.

Today £28.50 in Tesco, that was a £20 gift card for birthday present, plus batteries for my online banking gizmo and my lunch. Going out for dinner, should be free (wine supplier invited us) but train/taxi to pay

Tesco boost started today.

Went to aldi with the intention of pushing my friends trolley and spent £21.
Redeemed some reward points from when I worked in India 9 years ago for a pie dish as I don't have a suitable one.

£8 in tesco, dh is home so the food has run out.

I'm hiding away under a fleecy blanket. I'm so chilly!

Just filled out this survey "where can I afford to live?". Very interesting. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23234033

pointless I think he's charming and looks like a cuddler haha!

Asda tomorrow and I have a hospital appointment so will have to pay to park. Other than that hoping not to spend any more money until the weekend unless I get round to some Xmas shopping but I've saved for that in a separate account so that's ok.

I just did that quiz collie - interesting but how come it didn't list where I live now?! Clearly I can afford to live here as I have done so for several years. Am now hoping that means that house prices have gone up so much round here that I could sell my house and make a killing!

Strange isn't it. The results didn't show the area that we are hoping to move to. And we can 100% afford to buy a house there with plenty of disposable income left.

Listen up people with cold unused chimneys. I found something called a chimney balloon... It helps keep the heat in the house. www.chimneyballoon.co.uk I found an online store that stocks them & its only £20 for my Mums chimney.

I usually make a loaf cake or traybake to have as a pudding for dc but since I already made chocolate and cherry buns after dinner for lunchboxes we have tried a new recipe today - microwave lemon sponge pudding with lemon curd at the bottom. Ds enjoyed making it with me and it took only 8 minutes to cook. The texture is not as good as proper steamed pudding but it was nice and dc scoffed the lot. And I did end up with not only with the usual fuel dishwasher but also with a sink full of extra bowls to wash up too

Easy and healthy tea tonight.

Make a marinade. Oil, fresh tarragon, slices of garlic, juice of an orange and lemon (or whatever citrus fruit is wilting in the fruit bowl).

Marinate chicken breasts, or (cheaper) thighs that I used, or even fish I reckon.

Chop into big chunky slices lots of veg. I used - carrot, sweet potato, baby new spuds, butternut squash, pepper and beetroot and a nearly mouldy parsnip. Season liberally, add a touch of oil. Bung in oven.

Half an hour before serving, add chicken/fish (less cooking for fish). Reserve half of marinade.

If you like, make extra stock with chicken stock, corn flour and rest of marinade. I bunged in some more fresh tarragon and a dash of soy sauce.

Serve.

Lemon sponge sounds lovely :) have you tried the microwave chocolate mug cake? Some of the recipes are a bit rubbery but this one is amazing and handy for a chocolate fix as it cooks in 90s!

www.tablefortwoblog.com/the-moistest-chocolate-mug-cake/

£1 for toddlers today and £2 on bribes for DS to get his haircut - wasted as he was overtired and wouldnt even get in the chair

God awful day at work = not very frugal. Treated myself with takeaway I think I can still get the food shop in under budget though. Although that's not really the point.

Have downloaded ynab and had a look. I'm not sure it's going to do what I need it to do without me spending a lot of time shuffling money between categories.

Agree with what everyone else said about BT. One of my bosses had the same issue as collie when her internet went down. Go with SSE.

£9.40 on the takeaway

We had a chimney balloon in a previous super drafty house collie - I think it did work. Main thing is that you have to make sure the vent-y bit works apparently.

We had salmon, veg, potatoes and HM cheese sauce for tea, both kids scoffed it, they really do seem to like fish which Im pleased about :) cheese sauce seems to help with the veg lol.

I need to decide do I quickly redecorate the spare room before friends come on Fri. I have all the materials so it wouldnt be an expensive exercise, and I have the time as Im still on mat leave til the end of this month. I know Id be happy with it done as its the last room in the house to do and would be good to go back to work with no DIY left... just need to summon some energy from somewhere, after doing the kitchen then straight into my exam with the kids Im shattered. Need a magic wand ideally if anyone has one!

BT was terrible for us, I would never go there again!

YY to chimney balloon, the flat we rented before we bought had the chimney all blocked (with a gross old pillow it turned out, but thats another long story) and it was definitely cosier before we removed it

I'm watching Hugh's food waste programme - so depressing all those parsnips :(

£53.10 on food shop yesterday. I sent DH with DD so I could catch up on tv so more expensive than if I went on my own but well worth it!

NSD today and I sent back some trousers to Boden (expensive does not equal flattering!) but got a parking ticket