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

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread hopefully someone can add some old links?

Oh and figure I have some premium bonds already (although I have no idea how to find out if they ever won anything? They were ones my nan bought when I was tiny) :)

fuzz that's a great idea. Might try that.

new years financial resolutions - spend less, save more.

Am starting New Years by having an eBay sort out.

I need to do an eBay clear out. Is January a good time to do it though? Are people buying? Hmm...

I think I might have an eBay clear out where I work out what I want to get rid of and put a note in my diary when to list it. Weight loss and money management books will be good now!

No idea but I think it's free listings until 31/1. So....worth a try. I bought postage bags from Amazon (never done this before usually just buy as I need them £3.50 for 100 bags. Instead of 57p minimum each).

I was wondering that too Spotty - I'd have thought it won't be as lucrative, but then it depends what's more valuable - the extra money or the space. Mind you I'm a bit nervous of eBaying because I've heard so many stories of awful, lying buyers. I'd like to list most stuff on Facebook but the local group has been very quiet.

Can I join please? I'm aiming to save as much as I can for 2016. Sick of wasting money!!

Cupboards are still full and so is fridge and freezer so aiming to spend £10 per week for January on fresh stuff like milk and fruit n veg. I did this once during last summer saved a fortune!

Hi Moopy :) with you there on the wasting money. It's frustrating isn't it!

I still need to think about resolutions for 2016.

Annoyingly our little heater (the only one we have for downstairs as the storage heaters don't work) broke this morning, it's just blowing out cold air. Only about £15 to replace but still annoying!

Happy New Year I had a lovely night last night... very frugal as well. It was heaving in our local so I offered to collect the glasses so the bar staff could serve drinks & therefore I would get served quicker. My drinks for the rest of the night were free. Never thought I would have a NSD on NYE.

Thanks for all the well wishes for DS. He is back out on a borrowed bike today - people have been really kind with offers. Hopefully the insurance can be sorted out soon.

Welcome Moopy

Fuzz we had al boiler that worked through the summer but broke every winter. You have brought back memories of us all huddled around one little fan heater. Hope it stays mild for you this winter.

I'll do some research into Premium Bonds as one of my resolutions - my nan also bought me and my brother some years ago.

I love the penny challenge - I'm going to start with £3.66 today too!

Happy New Year everyone!

spotty loving your DDs work. Cute!

fuzz loving that challenge! Just going to ask DH if he thinks we can do it too.

Brilliant! Will be great if a few of us do it. It adds up to well over £600. I need to get out our 2016 diary today, and I'm going to write on each Monday how much needs to be put in that day, so if I ever lose track (very likely!) I can figure it out from there.

There was another challenge mentioned where you save weekly, £1 on week 1 up to £52 on the final week (or again, vice versa) but that would be too much for us at the moment. So we will see how we get on with the penny challenge. :)

Unescorted that's so lovely that you got free drinks in exchange for helping the staff out. Must be a lovely pub. :)

We've been surviving with these little heaters for a few winters now. It's a tiny house anyway so only really one room that needs heating (the heating upstairs is fine).

The penny challenge sounds interesting, I'm wondering if i could do it with my online banking. It would force me to check it every day and I could move it into an e-saver.

Welcome moop!

Ursula thet sounds like a very frugal new year! I sat in on my own and DH went to the neighbour's but took beer we already had so frugal here too.

How annoying about the heater! Just as it turns colder as well.

Sorry unescorted not ursula. Ursula you've reminded me to go and look for my premium bonds!

Gosh fuzz, I am also having flashbacks of a childhood with no heating. Lots of blankets and hot water bottles on the sofa

Planning a nsd today mainly because the shops are closed so having to magic up dinner from whatever we have about. Think I might manage a nut roast.

I have a question for you all. We got a new boiler this year and I am thinking about getting cover in case it breaks down. Is it worth it? Is it also worth getting electrics and plumbing as well? dh and I are crap at any sort of diy so I am very tempted to get covered for the whole lot. We rented until a couple of years ago and our old boiler was so ancient no one would cover it anyway so I'm not really sure about this stuff. Being a grown up is complicated!

Ha, I never thought of doing the penny challenge electronically. That's a really good idea!

jeepers we used to have cover with British Gas, it was v expensive. You might be better off just putting the same amount it costs per month in an account so you have it for emergencies.

Jeepers we got BG cover once the warranty finished and it had started dumping all its water every night. It it their £20pm one So far it has had a call out and a service, so it appears to be good value.

I guess its a gamble isn't it. If you end up needing it it's good value. If you don't use it it's crap. Decisions, decisions!

Thought I would join back in had a busy year I had another baby in Nov 2014 and have had our ups and downs went back to work in sept 2.5days a week using annual leave to shorten week but am back to 4days after Xmas working 3 longer days and 1 short day so baby in nursery and ds1 with childminders after school dh takes him to school and ds2 to nursery so reduces childcare cost a little but its still near on £1000 a mth.

As the baby is bf and for one reason and another he doesn't sleep all night so I haven't got back to night nanny work which was always an added extra for luxuries but also I love doing it and really miss it.

Well I've just counted the stuff in our coin box and we've got less than £4 in there (since we paid the contents in earlier this year). So doing the penny challenge with actual pennies is not going to get off to a great start! We've decided to take the very good idea of doing it via coin-sweeping.

Happy new year everyone! Had lovely low key night with friends last night. Yesterday we went out for a long walk - I'm really keen on trying to get fit for free this year. DH & I are both doing dry Jan so am hoping that will cut our food bill down this month too.

I've just set up an instant saver account because I wanted to keep the challenge money separate from my ISA (since we sometimes need to withdraw from the latter). Well I thought I'd set one up - misunderstood the word 'instant' as I thought that meant it'd be ready immediately! But I have to wait for the paperwork etc. Shouldn't be too long, and until it's all set up I'm going to transfer it into the ISA instead and then move it over to the new one.

Feel like I'm getting the new year off to a decent start, anyway. :)