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

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread hopefully someone can add some old links?

NSD yesterday although I may win the prize for largest purchase on the thread so far in 2016 - I've just bought flights for our summer holiday £550 for the 3 of us to Spain! My mum has an apartment there so no accommodation costs and I think these are the cheapest il get for summer holidays.

Fab idea about the penny challenge!!!! Thank you. I'm going to do it in reverse and via my bank account so it won't feel like I'm rooting abut for change each day!!!
I will have to keep an eye on the day numbers so I don't lose track ; )

Hello all, had another hideous migraine yesterday was one of the worst I've had, off to the Dr next week I think. I was also looking after my 2yo niece in the afternoon and dd was fantastic at entertaining her while I lay on the sofa feeling like crap!

Feel bit spaced out today but the head pain is better thank God.

Ystd was a NSD, NYE was not too bad £15 to the babysitter and £8 is on drinks.

Tree is coming down today and tidy up operation will be under took! Need to pop into town for a few bits, still not checked out the sales yet!

Spotty that's a shame they didn't let you keep the item they sent you by mistake. I guess it's a bit hit and miss - I got to keep a CD that was delivered by mistake (in a big box of other ordered stuff). Maybe it depends on the amount it's worth.

I've done my coin sweeping of £3.65 today. It's going to be helpful in that it will make me actually check my banking every day - I am a total ostrich about it normally. That's why I suggested that I do it rather than DH, as he checks his every day anyway.

I must text DH and ask him to take note of all spends, so we get off to a good start this year. He is much worse at remembering though, I always write it down straight away whereas he just tries to remember so I'm going to suggest actually keeping receipts (it's so easy to just say no thanks when it's in the co-op, even more so when it's contactless payment.

I think I'm going to follow in the footsteps of several Frugaleers and actually try to do a spreadsheet for all spends. I've had a practice with my Christmas one so it's not quite so daunting.

I hadn't thought of amazon. Thanks for the tip ipso

Waterproof trousers are the best em. We all have them so we can go down the park on a wet day with a flask of coffee and no soggy bottoms.

Just spent £25 on tickets for a show in Feb. We owe a trip out to one of dd's friends and it is good value for 4 tickets.

Think either TCB or Quidco are doing some cashback for groceries on Amazon, so might be worth checking if you're buying rice.

I've not actually used either yet - missed out as one of my Christmas money purchases on eBay, and hadn't realised you could get cashback on there. Oops. Must do better!

Sorry about the migraine Girlfriend take it as easy as you can today!

Just paid the last of the council tax for the year. No more til April now.

Will get my arse into gear to get it paid by DD when the new bill comes out though.

Go for it fuzzpig. Online banking and spreadsheets have totally changed the way I look at my money over the last couple of months.

I had a batch cooking extravaganza yesterday and now my energy monitor is sending me snippy emails about using too much energy. Nuts to it.

jeepers I keep thinking about buying them. then think "ah I only ride once a week for an hour or so I'll be fine. It's a waste of money...." Then days like this happen. Between 12 and 1 there is a 100% chance of heavy rain. What time am I riding....?!

One load of washing on. Dh has changed bedding. And is making eggs and tidying up. The blazing row we had the other day seems to have sunk in. I'm also picking things up and trying to be neater.

Need to get eggs milk and cheese on way home. Hoping I can use up some change in the shop and feed the self service machine. Purse is too heavy and none of its useful for my coin jar!

A NSD day here. Just popped into M&S and bought quite a few handy bits with my vouchers from last October. We were given £70 vouchers for renewing an insurance policy and they have been SO useful. Still have £20ish left!

The weather is rather shit.

£30 on ssinsbury anytime delivery pass. I had to open a new email account to get it half price! Mine runs out in two weeks but after the offer runs out. Annoyed at the faff but worth it for £30. I have a delivery every week so that's cheaper than driving to the store and buying something unplanned!

My microwave door is melting internally. I e sent them a message on Facebook with pictures. It is still selling for £170 so I'm hoping they'll tell me it's safe to use or do something about it. I cannot understand how it has happened.

What I am normally really gung ho with using things that are falling apart - but even I wouldn't use a melting microwave. If it is less than 2 years old they will need to replace it or fix it. If they try to tell you that it is out of warranty explain to them that EU consumer law requires them to replace the faulty item & this was tested and upheld in UK courts in 2011 so they can do one.

Another NSD - the rain is useful for something at least.

Decathlon do cheap waterproof trousers - but set aside a lot of time for their website as it is really awful.

Girlie I hate the day after migraine spacey feeling. Hope you feel better soon.

Ipsos - it may be that the bulk rice hasn't been washed. Btw - I haven't forgotten the gluten free recipes. I will get them done when I have a mo.

Hope you feel better soon girlie. We've been doing some spring cleaning. Have a bag for the charity shop, nothing worth selling, sadly.

I made a delicious nut roast yesterday that I was going to then take for lunches in the week. However, I had awful stomach pain after eating dinner. I was hoping it was the potatoes that I roasted in lard causing the issue (i usually just use oil) but just had a nibble of the nut roast to test and now feeling distinctly unpleasant.

I can't for the life of me think what could be in it that is upsetting my insides as I was careful only to use low FODMAP ingredients. It's not fair! It's soooo yummy and I was really looking forward to taking it to work.

£1.10 on parking. Used vouchers to buy some exercise clothes in TKMaxx and other vouchers to buy some fish and healthy food in M&S.

Day 1 of Dry Jan in the bag and have been for my third walk this week this morning.

Jeepers maybe the nuts were rancid?

I've just realised I put in most of a jar of roasted peppers that had garlic in the ingredients. I think that probably accounts for the worst of it. Not as careful as I thought obviously!

Jeepers I would go by what your insides actually tell you they like, rather than just following FODMAP. In my experience, different people's insides can have very different ideas about what is okay and what is not.

You are right ipsos it can vary but so far the high FODMAP list seems to coincide almost exactly with what my insides dislike.

I have my first appointment with a dietician in Feb (after waiting months and months for a referral) so am hopeful they can help me work it all out and reintroduce some foods.

Unescorted sadly we bought it just over four years ago so I'm guessing they'll get away with telling me to go away. Enclosed a picture so you can see what I mean!

Leftover lamb for lunch. It was yummy.

Hi Jeepers That's good that you have an appointment. just in case it helps get you ahead of the game a bit - I've had 6 appointments with 3 different dieticians and their advice is always:

• do the exclusion diet (either taking everything away and adding back, or removing things one at a time until the problems is gone.)

• Don't eat things that disagree with you.

• Regularly check nutrition tables to be sure that you are getting enough of everything.

I always think the dietitican is going to really help, but the reality is that their time is very expensive (privately they are about £80 an hour) and so they always end up giving very general advice and leaving the person to do the work.

One thing that good dieticians can do is to analyse your diet and say if anything is missing (specific vitamins for example) and they then give out a sheet that lists good dietary sources of that vitamin, however after the analysis is done most of that is available on the internet and you can also find out the level of specific nutrients in specific foods from looking at SelfNutritionData online:

nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2770/2

If it was me, I'd be finding all the ingredients of that nut roast and testing them individually to identify the culprit. Good luck there!

What if you have the receipt email the CEO of the company, ours melted like that and I took it back but it was younger.

I'm not expecting our mw to break down anytime in the next 10 years because by the nature of the product you don't use it for very long.

£5 on cards incl a birthday card for dn. That's next years Xmas cards sorted.

Don't forget Kidstart for cashback too. They routinely give CB on Amazon and John Lewis.

Nsd yesterday.

Your post made me laugh ipsos as despite my hopefulness I suspect your prediction of my appointment will prove accurate.

I have been doing low FODMAP since September and pretty much nailed the exclusion bit of the diet. As long as I stick to it I feel great, but have failed every attempt to reintroduce anything back in!

I have a few things in particular I want to discuss so am going to go armed with a list and do my best to refuse to be told stuff I already know.

Anyway, must stop moaning about my troublesome insides on this lovely thread (though it is nice to talk to someone else about it!)

That's interesting Ipsos. Despite most of the stuff I've read saying it should only be carried out under the supervision of a dietician, the advice you've been given doesn't seem to add much at all to the information on the official low-FODMAP app.

I always presumed that they would give much more specific information about nutrient balance on the diet or re-introduction.

£4.88 on milk. Cheese and eggs. Almost got kicked out of the shop. Completely dripping wet soaked through to my pants.

Really must buy waterproofs. Will look on eBay this afternoon.