The friendly frugaleers natter on through November...

[blueteapot]

Hope you dont mind me starting a shiny new thread

Collie, how the bloody hell do you do 3 washes per week? I do at least 2 a day!

Spent a bit today.

£18 nails.
£40 Tesco (new duvet, pillows and some Christmas pressies)#
£37 Boots (some moisturiser and birthday presents)
£6 spray for the dogs and pony treats

Gosh, soon adds up!

Glad you got it sorted, Collie. I'm still averaging about £1 on the pre-ay electric meter, which I'm pleased about. Fairy lights and candles help!

Glad your DD is feeling better, Spotty. Have you got anything in that's light or doesn't require much cooking? We're having veggie burgers and oven chips, maybe with salad.

NSD. We were predicted snow from 4 p.m., but none yet. Although it certainly feels cold enough for it.

Home from holidays. Gabriel had his first swim today, I think he enjoyed it!

We went out for lunch with our friends, we had £25 of vouchers so we paid £28 for lunch for three of us. I did have a blow out dessert, but as that was the only meal out all week and only food we consumed outside our lodge all week I think that's ok.

I am very pleased with how we have done. I don't feel deprived for not having lots of meals out. We have eaten a lot healthier and been less stressed for it too. I'll ask DH what he has left of the £40 he took out earlier in the week, but I think we spent £100 exactly or near enough. DS1 has had turns on the rides in the arcades, DH has had coffee out every day and we had a lunch today and drinks out one night. We could have done better, but we have not gone over budget and we've had a lovely five days.

DH has now gone to buy bread, formula and nappies so £20 spending. I'll do a meal plan later and do an online shop to come on Monday.

Our frugal aim is to have £500 left in the bank at the end of each month but maintain our savings. If we can do that then I can stop working. I might do another degree or train to be a mammographer but i find working very stressful with the work I do.

Regarding heating - I turned ours off on Sunday, house was 15 degrees when we got home! It's warm again now so I'm glad I switched it off. I am considering switching the thermostat to 16 and leaving it on permenantly for the winter. I normally just have it on for three hours a day but people tell me it's more frugal to have it always on and use the stat.

I had micro rice and chicken burgers

Spotty did you know you can buy frozen rice you cook in the microwave? Works out cheaper :-)

That's what it was it was the rice fusions

Pleased you had a goof holiday what.
NSD here and my veg stock experiment has worked a treat - I've been collecting things like broccoli/cauliflower stalks, stems from fresh herbs, carrot tops etc in a bag in the freezer. Today I put the whole lot in the sc with some water and a quartered onion and left it and I now have delicious stock for making soup!

What I tried this experiment recently with the heating. First I tried having it on for three separate hours a day for a week, then all the time with thermostat controlling it. The cost didn't seem to vary at all, but the house was noticeably more comfortable with the heating on low all the time. We have it set to about 16 at the moment.

Hi all, today had been ludicrously busy at work! Back to back visits all day for 8 hours straight and still have work to do tonight Going to claim over time for it though and for not getting a lunch break.

Ipsos thats so annoying re the fine, as if we don't pay enough road tax as it is

Spotty hope your dd feels better soon, so many bugs about this time of year.

Collie i am impressed at 3 washes a week as well. I seem to wash every day and there is only me and dd even if its not clothes there are towels, bedding and other things that need washing periodically like the sofa covers!

I have managed a NSD which is good, spent £47 on Morrisons online last night which will get delivered next week. Checked my account and for this point in the month it is looking reasonable for a change!

Collie Excellent energy use reduction.

MSE Always have a thread during the winter saying DONT put it on low all day, I'm putting ours on for half an hour, then off for half an hour and so far the autumn gas has been £20 a month with no being cold.

Ipsos You do indeed have the decorator from hell there. What is he thinking?.

What Brilliant frugal holiday and I bet you didn't feel deprived either.

Luxy I am absolutely chuffed that you have a slow cooker. Keep an eye on quidco clicksnap for offers on free spices etc, they really jazz up a load of cheap chicken from Aldi et al. I do pies, meat, soups etc in mine. It's so much cheaper than a main oven. If it's a round one you can put the plates on top and warm them at the same time.

quidco Clicksnap Have an offer on for free coke zero 1.75l, it's 2 for £2 in asda so essentially 15p for two bottles of coke. Or 4 if your OH has an account too. As always, signing the cat up to quidco is fraud.

Tuesday £3 lunch
Wed NSD
Thurs £31 two cleansers, £3 squash and basics bio liquid.
Fri £49 on food shop and a bottle of aldi cream sherry, and a baking tray for the mince pies. At 99p I'm not expecting too much of it but I kill all bakeware anyway.

Christmas stash is now

35cl jamesons whisky free off amazon
2 packs naice aldi crackers to go with my free tesco stilton when the coupons arrive.
2 packs aldi smartprice nuts
1 pack sugared dates from B&M for 39p

We're going away to a hotel for christmas so I've already paid for chistmas dinner. Tomorrow I will go into lidl and buy 6 big bags of their crisps because they are half price over the weekend.

Oops just spent £39 on Boden clothes for dd this is my weakness! However it was 20% off and I had a £10 off voucher as well and it was free p&p so still sort of frugal. Plus can always sell Boden stuff on once dd out grows it

One of the hoodies i have got her has horses on which she will love so may try and keep that back as a Christmas present as well.

ipsos I was wondering if it would be more expensive to have the heating on low all day instead of on the timer as I think it would help reduce our condensation problem, going to try it in light of your experiment.
My stock making became even more frugal as I fished out the onions and had them with my sausage and mash, they were delicious after cooking all day.

My washing machine is 9kg and A+++. I wonder if that makes a big difference. I strategically bought (gradually over the years) all white towels, tea towels, bedding and cot sheets so they could all be washed together. Previously our white wash was pathetic and only consisted of sleepsuits, vests and a few bras & pants! So I wanted to bulk it up.

Also my TV has an energy reduction option. It's currently reduced by 50% and suits us fine. Our thermostat is set at 18c.

I think having a huge eco washing machine is our saviour. Hail to the washing machine

Having said all that - I'm sure as a sure thing that our car is going to pack up soon. paranoid or what! DH drives the car too hard

Collie I have pathetic white washes

It's dh's and my first wedding anniversary tomorrow. We're gong to Lapland UK. We just opened our cards from family as wanted to do it without the dd. My grandparents have given us £20 and my parents £10. I want to give it back to them but at the same time could really do with it

Oh spotty! I remember you getting married! have a great day. xx

£120 ish to kennel, 11 nights for 2 dogs. Still need to pay for taxi from the airport but my card seems to be blocked. Too tired, still, for catching up.

Have a lovely time and happy anniversary Spotty, I also get the feeling of wanting to return money, especially to my mum as they could use it more than me. I used my birthday money to buy clothes for myself I really needed and that felt good.

I don't do white washes, I do washes. I put stuff in until the washing machine is pretty full and put it on. Today I attempted to clean the drawer. Yuck. I have started using the Eco programme though. Takes longer and I feel like things come out wetter so sometimes i do an extra spin.

DH tells me he still has £25 of the £40 he took out so looks like we spend £75 during the week. I had already booked and paid for the activities little by little since booking so we did lots with the children that was pre paid. I am very pleased how we did.

£64 in sainsbury and £4 in beavers.

Welcome back collie,

Pleased you had a good holiday what.
Overtime tomorrow as spending money like water.

Happy anniversary spotty

Happy anniversary Spotty and MrSpotty

Ha I wash the same way as What I have dark clothes i.e. jeans and dark coloured jumpers and then everything else!

Had to do an emergency run to the 24hour chemist as dd has bloody worms again so annoying, so my washing machine will probably be on all day tomos!!

Actually its my birthday tomos so am hoping the whole day won't be spent washing have got a friend coming down and going out for dinner so should be good.

Happy birthday for tomorrow girlie and happy anniversary spotty!