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

Today will be nsd. I have approx £2 in change in my purse. Not planning on buying anything today.

My eBay sales should finish this evening and if unsold will resist

More sorting/tidying/throwing away/ebaying to be done.

Need to take recycling to the recycle place as its just adding to the clutter.

Bank ac balance £233. Credit card £240. General savings £300 (I know I could pay off cc with savings but I have to make a pension payment in November....)

Need to also start thinking about Christmas gifts. I know who were buying for. And have started gathering things. Have set a budget - no more than £30 per person. Should be doable.

Dh has taken lots to a car boot today so hopefully he'll sell some things. Should be a nsd aside from a buttie or something at the car boot as we've got to sort the house out ready for mil who is coming to stay with us from tomorrow until after the baby is here.

Bought what is hopefully my last tin of formula today, dd is moving onto cow's milk next week (working out how much we'll save if she drinks the same volume made me v happy) and I'm really hoping to bf the new baby. Managed 3 months with dd but no end of problems with latch, tt, reflux and v little support/information, so hopefully I'm wiser and will be more assertive if support is needed.

DH started to feel ill half way through our meal and couldn't finish his. He barely spoke all evening either. Everyone else there probably thought we'd had a row! Not his fault but it was the first time we'd been out for a meal together like that for months and I don't expect we'll get the chance again for ages. Just really disappointed.
The bloody cat woke us all up at 5.30 to complain he hadn't been fed yet, stupid clocks! We are all now tired and fed up and I suspect that our precious week off we've been looking forward to is going to be hijacked by the lurgy.
Sorry, rant over. Today should be NSD.

Had to have a new door and seal put on washing machine as teen DS broke it having an illicit gathering of Friends while I was away
However he has had to pay the £170 it cost so that made me feel better.

Thanks jones !

Morning all, NSD yesterday. I have sat down and done a provisional budget until Xmas, it's all quite depressing really, I just hope DH and I will be able to do some extra hours at work this month to make things a little easier.

I've done a full food inventory, and we are currently meal planning for the next week, and will do an online shop this afternoon.

Bloody gas bottle ran out last night, nowhere is open until tomorrow, luckily the oven is electric, but par boiling the potatoes for lunch is going to be tricky!

Need , DH did the same for his walking boots, I almost fainted when he told me the price, but he said they should last for ages. Less then a year later they were completely trashed, so I got him to return them, the shop immediately exchanged them for a brand new pair, which have been fine (almost a year on), so even if they fall apart now he'll have had two years of good use out of them.

Audit £54 a month for gymnastics crikey! DD chose to not do dance this year (teacher was a bit of a bitch tbh) and has taken up pottery instead, which works out at €85 a term and that includes everything. DH has started karate twice a week, but it's only €25 a month, and DS has signed up for extra curricular sports at school which costs a whopping €20 for the whole year, he'll get to do archery, mountain biking, cross country orientation and rock climbing! I'm the only one who doesn't have any activities, so I adopted three more cats from the animal rescue centre instead

Major crisis about to unfold here, we are almost out of Marmite and Yorkshire tea (we live in France). I'm going to have to place an order online within the next week or so, and shoehorn it into the budget somehow.

3 days to payday.

I would like to join, as I have recently started a new job on less money!

Plus have been made to switch over to Universal Credits, so I feel I am being very much screwed over, so to speak!

I've got £1243 in Savings for a car - I can apply for my licence again in January! (I did have around £2500) but I've been paying nursery fee's!

My new job is right in the town centre, so have been buying my dinner everyday! Which needs to stop! Any healthy lunch suggestions?

Also need to loose 5stone!
So won't be buying rubbish either!

I'm hoping this will help me sort my life out!

Welcome Kate.
Do you have a microwave at work? I take a lot of homemade soup to reheat or leftovers from the night before. Otherwise things like falafels are good.

Trying to get back on track with the thread as need to be frugal towards Christmas. Waves to all new and familiar faces!

Pointless I thought I'd had a nice lie in till 8 when our cat decided to go bonkers and ask for breakfast, but it was 7 and nearer her usual time. Only just realised and checked on google. DH doesn't realise though, I think it's going to be a tough week for him!

Trying to start getting food items and other stuff before Christmas now so that we are ahead with things. Does anyone else do this and have any good tips on bargains?

On the bright side my business is going well and we were able to buy our flights for holiday for next year and are going for first time in 3 years. I am beyond excited as it has taken a long while to get there.

LaChatte have you got an electric steamer or even microwave, I've done par boiling that way before, you just have to be a bit cautious with the timing as a bit too much can end up with disintegration but it's fine and depending on size of potatoes should be around 8-10 mins in steamer and around 5 on high in microwave.

audit I'm looking at activities for DS currently and it's not cheap. He goes swimming at £17 per month and I looked at Beavers which is £30 per term, but there are long waiting lists so no guarantees he'll be able to do it. Many of the activities are oversubscibed here.

Expense this week will be kittens first injections at £29.95 and some coffees etc at the the softplay halloween party, DS ticket and costume already paid for. Oh and we have to buy a ball cock for the cold water tank and get that fixed which is going to cost around £70, but we can't let it drip as it's causing damp!

Hi Kate! (waves)

Have you thought of one of those thermos pots which keep things hot? We're getting one for DH as his work microwave is grim and there's always a huge queue. You could do pasta, stew, curry and all sorts of left overs. One of DH's colleagues takes a kind of Jamaican soup and it stays hot until it's needed.

Welcome Kate. It's soup season, cheap and healthy. Get one of those seistema cups for about a fiver or less or a thermos if work don't have a microwave. Not a food flask a regular tea flask will be fine.

Oops x post

Welcome Kate :)

Pointless sorry your night out didn't go well. Such a shame especially when it's a rarity!

Welcome Kate. I'd for a flask and then something cheap to make like falafels in pitta for days when you want a change.

Sporting You can buy christmas puddings half price in the sale and they will still in be date next year. They're so high in sugar and booze they would probably still be edible christmas 2017.

Thanks fuzz. Poor DH feels terrible about it and he's still poorly today.

Thanks Fluffy unfortunately there is only me in the house that will Christmas pudding (DH being a furriner, thinks it's the work of the devil along with marmite).

I have got a lot of cards and wrap as over bought a few years ago, we'll probably still be using it up in 2020!

Will be an NSD as not going out and having lazy day with books movies and lots of colouring etc for DS.

Kate just had a thought, a client of mine is a diet coach and on her website are some really nice recipes which are all lowfat etc which would probably help with your other goal ( I need to do this too!), PM me for her details as I don't want to be seen to advertise etc. She's pricey for personal coaching but does a lot of free advice online. Plus the soup ones would be great for lunches!

Agree Kate, the sistema soup cups are your best friend. Best thing I've ever bought.

I take soup/pasta etc in them and microwave.

I've found though that I can make a "pot noodle" too. Dry skinny noodles, veggies cut thin, maybe some shredded chicken (leftovers from roast) and chilli ginger and a bit of stock cube. Then when it's lunchtime I just add hot water.

Have a look on Pinterest for lunch ideas.

if you have a slow cooker you could get things going while at work - set it up and bang it on before you leave (this does take some organisation) and tada! Dinner is ready when you get home.

Hi Fluffy This is exactly my dilemma. :-) I do cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner because of our funny diets so I am dealing with about 6 - 9 pots a day, which makes up to 2 - 3 dishwasher runs a day. If I dump the pots in the sink then dry upside down on the worktop it would be 1 dishwasher run. (And it would save me cleaning the sink.)

My machine is the cheapest bosch built-in model. The real problem is rice, which tends to leave a ring of cooked-on scum round the pot. The dishwasher can't get it off so I have to handwash anyway.

Of course, by the magic of my energy monitor, I now can figure it out for myself by just trying it for three days! Woohoo!

Audit - About the solar panels - I'm a bit puzzled about the maintenance costs and things. I mean like what happens if I need to fix them further down the line, and the cost of getting scaffolding for access and even having to take the panels off to get access to the roof tiles. Did you manage to work all that out?

I'm only looking into it all because we got expensive wind damage on our roof recently and I suddenly started to think - what if we attached solar panels and they get wind damage too? (£shudder£)

Welcome Kate. Another vote for soup. Also we like pitta and houmous with veg sticks too.

I made a mistake with my Sainsbo's cost, t'is £40.81, not £50. And I used my £10 voucher on 2 bottles of on offer

Kate if you want a soup recipe to get you started I just made this and it's delicious:
Curried parsnip & apple soup.
Chop 2 onions and soften in oil.
Peel and chop parsnips, I used 6 but they were v small, 3 larger ones would do.
Add these to the pan with a teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, turmeric and ginger powder and stir to coat.
Add 800ml veg stock, bring to boil and simmer for 15-20 mins.
Peel, core and chop an apple and chuck it in towards the end.
Blitz with a stick blender/food processor until smooth.

Hi all, I was Houseworkfairy yesterday and I'm back to my old username today thanks to finally being able to get a password reset

Purse: £5.79
Jar: £18.05
Bank: £765.07
Grand Total: £789.91
Reduction since yesterday: £33.17
Days to pay day:18
Savings £968.10

Yesterday's spends:

• £8.33 cheque to pay into bank for refund of road tax from written off car

• £15.99 meal; £5.20 drinks, £5.00 train (night out for me)
• £15.70 – Chinese takeaway for DH and kids

Budget looks like this
Petrol - £200 / £144 remaining
Food: £300 / £211.42 remaining
Credit card : £39.01
Gyms: £43.99
Football: £15.00
DS2 bus fares; £10.8
Everything else; £325.69

I went grocery shopping yesterday to Lidl but paid on card and DH is getting petrol today.

My car (which I have had for only two weeks!) needs to go to garage tomorrow as a warning light came on on Friday so I hope that the car salesroom will foot the bill for whatever is wrong with it. DH's car was only in the garage this week too having had £200 spent on it to repair. I'm heartily sick to death of cars now.

DS1 will get paid on Friday so I'll be getting some board money so will top my savings back up.

Has anyone used the everythingafiver website? I placed an order through the week for two top and two pairs of boots and I'm so pleased with my purchases!

Today and tomorrow should be no-spend days - get paid a couple of days earlier too this month with the 15th falling on a Sunday so there was only 29 days between pay-days.

I've gone back to using my credit card for cheeky little purchases once again too, so I want to try and knock that on the head. I'm in quite a bit of credit card debt but can't afford to make any great inroads into it until a loan we have got finishes in January 2018 so my aim needs to be to not increase it by any more! I do not need any more stuff!

Welcome Kate.

Soup / sandwiches / leftovers are the lunch boxes in this house! DH is away today with a tupperware of spag bol so he's happy (his favourite!)

So DS is all viral, he even refused to go to the park with my folks this morning when they came to get him and hes taken himself in for an unsolicited nap :( We are going up to theirs for lunch so I'm going to have to lift him out of bed soon poor chicken

Hi all, do you mind if I join you? Trying to save as much money as possible at the moment, I'm going to Peru and Bolivia at the end of November and then with christmas after that every penny counts right now!

Need I'm the same. Even plastic toys go in our dishwasher. Anything that's not dishwasher proof goes in the bin.

Sorry to hear about the evening out pointless. Same happened to me two days ago. We were out for a nice lunch and I wasn't quite right and now am in bed with the lurgy. Rubbish way to spend a holiday.

Chatte Know the tea problem. When we lived in Paris our cat would only eat British Whiskas.

Welcome Emz