Frugaleers Flying into the New Year All Welcome on the January Thread

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread hopefully someone can add some old links?

[CremeEggThief]

Thanks Fuzz.

[fuzzpig]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/2545710-We-are-Resolutely-Frugal-Frugaleers-continuing-their-new-frugal-year-All-welcome?watched=1

Hope nobody minds

Well done MiniSpotty it's lovely to see a child grow in confidence!

[SpottyTeacakes]

Just got back from the village after Christmas children's party. The entertainer was brilliant and there was food and cake for all. Only cost us £2 each. Plus the dc have eaten so dh and I will just find something in the freezer or have toast meaning one extra meal for the week. Dd got up on the stage, so proud of her she would never have done that a year ago

[fuzzpig]

Sorry and thank you re: masking tape as well, and for ideas re: gift card budgeting. Probably won't be an issue now as we are unlikely to get more, other than the £15 Tesco one already in my wallet :o

[fuzzpig]

All useful advice thank you, sadly we don't have a Lakeland :( glad you mentioned the 400ml as well, because that's the size I went for. I was going to get a pack of various sizes, but then found I could get all the same for the same price, and that makes more sense for our needs I think.

Great idea for the scotch tape! We have those tape strip things so I can just use one of them and write on it. Fab :)

[CremeEggThief]

Wow, I didn't realise we were almost full!

[needastrongone]

I wouldn't count gift cards personally, as it's not money that has to come out of the budget iyswim?

DH has bought me flowers... he must know I'm a bit cheesed off

[Pointlessfan]

fuzz I wouldn't include gift cards in my budget as you couldn't use real money instead so it doesn't impact on how much money you still have.
*eastmids" what are veg curry pinwheels? They sound delish!

[Whataboutnodetox]

I use scotch tape and a sharpie for labelling boxes but I tend to pop things out of the box and into a ziplock bag as soon as frozen.


NSD. Doing pretty well this month so far!

Yay on tax back and good days.

[babsmam]

Oh absolutely Rafa. I love yellow label shopping. Sorry didn't realise you didn't have a freezer.
Is anyone able to do the new thread?

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I don't have a freezer which is an issue in more ways than one.

I'm fine with using them after the bb date. Between toasting them for breakfast and using them for lunch I'm sure most of them will get used before they become unusable though. The price was reduced so much that even if I only use 1 I've still saved money.

[eastmidswarwicknightnanny]

Oh n made veg curry pinwheels they are yum

I am dairy free due to bf ds2 who has a cows milk intolerance so if anyone wants any tips or advice happy to share our cheats/tips/frugal finds

[eastmidswarwicknightnanny]

V pleased got ds2 glow in dark PJs in 18-24 + 2yrs for £3 a pair in gap last 2 pairs our gap is closing down no other bargains sadly.

We had a chicken balti last night some mashed up for ds2 from left overseas and one portion left so will pop in freezer and when we have another portion at some point will do dh n I after work one eve.

We get out chicken breast from butcher near work 5kg for £25 and you get 22-25 breasts for that and we use 2 in a meal like curry.

Tonight we have pork belly dh got a 700gm bit reduced to £2.70 it's plenty for 4 of us with veggies

[babsmam]

Ah sorry seen now you have some fuzz. Should read to the end before posting. You can get freezer labels but masking tape and a market work well too.

Rafa freeze them or use after bb date

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Good question. I'd lean towards the former too. I've budgeted the giftcards now so it would make sense.

The how much disposable income do you have left at the end of the month is depressing. Not sure why I clicked on it really.

[babsmam]

Fuzz are you near Lakeland their stackable boxes are good for freezer and microwave. Various sizes too. I will find a product number . I have the 400ml size which is about right for a portion for us. I have a couple of seistema but I take the lid off as I have a microwave splatter guard

[needastrongone]

Glad you all agree and the DH is being U. He will be told. I've been quite lenient given he had a rough few weeks, I usually am tougher than this!

Spends today

£20 Hay (paid in advance as I had money on me)
£7 training for DD and pony.

Having shepherds pie for tea, the meat part has been in the SC all day, so just mash and veg to do.

Menu plan.

Sausage tray bake.
Pasta bake.
Thai fish curry.
Soup (of some description)
Veggie dish (of some description)

oh2 What a boost for you guys! Brilliant stuff.

[LollipopViolet]

Right, have downloaded the YNAB desktop trial. Really like it so far, so hoping it'll keep me on track.

Things due to come out of the bank in the next few days are:
£23.50 CC payment
£21.50 phone bill - smaller as I changed phone earlier this month, and will not have to pay this month's device plan (o2 Refresh) Will keep an eye on the bank and have budgeted for the device plan as well.

Hopefully my JSA final payment goes in tomorrow, that'll get me through till the end of January - stupid 5 week months...

[fuzzpig]

This is the first Frugaleer thread for months that I've actually managed to keep up with! :)

I've spent the last of my Christmas money. Very pleased with what I've got - lots of little things that make me happy! :)

I've also got a few household bits which we needed (including the tupperware - looking forward to a neatly stacked freezer! Although wondering how I'll label them?) which was mostly covered by an Amazon giftcard. This leads me to wonder - when you record your spends, do you write down the full amount, or the amount after the giftcard? I'm leaning towards the former, because it still feels like money even though it's on a giftcard IYSWIM? And in this case they were things we would've bought anyway. I'm confusing myself!

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Frugal win in Tesco 6 sandwich thins for 10p and 2 naan breads for 18p. Their best before date is today but if I have to chuck the last couple out it's still cheaper than the original price.

£7.47 in Lidl, mostly on fruit and veg but with a few extra bits chucked in. Was much less than I thought it was going to come to.

[Girlfriend36]

Page 40 already?!

Had a quiet morning and cycled into town this afternoon, got caught in a down pour so popped into a coffee shop to get warm £7.70 on 2 hot chocs and slice of cake for dd. Popped into a bike shop who pumped dds tyres up and adjusted her seat for free spent £1.60 on some more half price gloves in Poundstretchers!!

Cozied up watching Aladdin on dvd this arvo, planning on cooking a mini roast bit later on.

Back to work tomorrow

[fuzzpig]

Going to get some boxes for the freezer as I'm not finding that freezing in bags is working for us!

The Sistema ones say they are microwave safe without lid, does that mean you just don't close the lid or can they not go in at all? What I normally do is open the box and rest it on top so there's a gap. If anyone uses this brand I'd be grateful for the info :)

Motivation for doing everything else has somewhat waned. Skies have opened, it's horribly dismal. DH and DCs are still out.

[Ipsos]

Thanks for the link NK5. I have looked into those grants but they are for people who want to go back part time, usually with a view to becoming group leaders at some point. I don't really want either of those things. I'm just looking for an equipment grant so I can do really good voluntary work on my own choice of hours. It seems as though there may be options though.

I have sent those books off and am just waiting to hear back now.

I've got behind on the thread but wondered if you'd seen this?
blog.grasslandbeef.com/bid/89368/The-Hidden-Danger-in-Your-Slow-Cooker
Seems like it would be good to check that our slow cookers conform to that safety mark.

[fuzzpig]

Yep ditto on the CC bill too Rafa! I paid off a chunk with some savings, I felt that was a decent compromise, still have a way to go. Since we don't have any childcare to pay at the moment (that's when things started going pear shaped last year) we should be able to not use it, other than perhaps DSD's next quarterly bus pass for college (£152), so we can just chip away at it.

Oh that's a great way of doing the penny challenge. It's important to find something that works for us all individually!

Right, I've got a reasonable amount of my to do list done, going to have a frugal lunch (jacket spud with the rest of the tuna can I used in pasta yesterday) and then carry on hopefully, but need a rest too as the next week is insanely busy.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

It was adding the total up for January last night that made me realise that in my situation it was not going to work. I don't have £108 at the end of the month to save.

It makes more sense to pay of the CC first really.