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

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread hopefully someone can add some old links?

Hi all joining in this year in a desperate attempt to waste less money and see more from the cash we are spending. Family of five, christmas has made me wonder what on earth i spend the money we have spent on gifts for throughout the rest of the year as i know i dont have that much spare usually!

January 1st - £1 sugar, £10 electric £5 gas ( still waiting on warm home discount so this should help)

January 2nd - No spend day, too cold and wet to leave the house!

I've just gone through my Christmas cards, picked out the nicer ones then cut them up into present tags for next year. I've probably only saved a couple of quid but I don't care as they look really pretty. The best ones using cards from places like Paperchase look very expensive.

Girlie that's crap def go to the Drs. Migraines are horrendous and I hate it when people with a bad headache say they have a migraine! (Sorry slight rant )

£40 petrol
£5 popcorn drinks and sweets
£4.70 ish cinema

Dd wanted macdonalds but I said no we came home and had homemade soup with part baked rolls which they decided was nicer than md anyway now I'm doing some housework which I've really let slip! Then I'll do my end of month expenditure

Happy new year all! I managed to go out on NYE but managed to spend very little as I didn't drink (still not feeling well). Had a family day in yesterday, today is football. Dh & dd have gone to see his team play (tickets already bought). Ds & I are going to football too but have season tickets so already paid for. Usually I would meet friends at the pub beforehand, but due to how I'm feeling, will be going straight there so no extra spends.
Need to do a small food shop later on, want to return some alcohol but can't find the receipt, will have another look later.

Hello, I'd love to join in please.
We moved into our own house just before Christmas so now have a mortgage and I'd love to overpay a little. We're also going to ttc later in the year and would like to put something into an ISA (or other savings pot) so that there's a bit of a cushion put aside as after we used the deposit for the house and paid for a kitchen our bank account is close to empty.
I spend too much mooching around Tesco chucking anything in the trolley (lots of junk or convenience food) and there's quite a bit that just seems to evaporate. So will try and do a proper budget or envelope system to stay on track.
DH is poorly and I'm pottering today so yesterday and today have been spend free,however I'm twitching over some online baskets filled with sale things I 'need'.

Welcome newbies!

Badger - write down everything you spend for the next month and categorise it. This can help you see where the evaporation is! You can also go through the bank statement with a highlighter or export to excel to do similar. I now do online grocery shopping as I spend a lot less. I have a bugger and I take things out or change them to get to it / not go over it.

Congratulations on the new house! Very exciting :-)

Jeepers and Rafa Yes it's an odd business. I noticed, by the way, that if you join CoeliacUK then one of the benefits is free access to a dietician. I've no idea how it works because they only told me about in on the letter that they sent when I discontinued my membership, but that may be a cheaper option for getting more time with a dietician.

I definitely think it's well worth getting to know how to measure your own nutritional intake though and how to work recognise deficiencies. One of the things that really caught me out last year was that sardines contain a lot of thiaminase which dissolves thiamine, which is one of the essential B vitamins. I was cheerfully shoveling in the sardines to try to get plenty of vitamin D and calcium and all the time my B vitamin levels were going into the ground like a dart. Fortunately I realised with the help of Dr Google and corrected the situation. Two GPs helpfully chipped in with the words "That doesn't seem very likely."

Sorry, I know this is not very frugalleering chat.

NSD.

I'm in ££££ credit with my electricity

Fabulous typo What. You just made my day.

Actually, just to qualify the above, I really do think that this discussion of food intolerance is frugaleering chat, because living on a restricted diet and visiting dieticians is really quite expensive. I think that if those of us on restricted diets can help each other then that is really going to help save money.

If anybody has tips on how to live on a restricted diet and keep costs down I'd be pleased to hear them.

It's perhaps worth paying for a really high quality dietician? The only time I have had my diet analysed (long story) was by the nutritionist for the Olympic athletic team. I had to do a food diary for a week, and weigh/record every thing I used/ate. Everything. Record my energy levels and send in my daily training records so she could correlate the data. It was a PITA for a week to be fair. I was then sent a massive amount of analysis and advice. Obviously, this had a training/endurance slant, but I don't see why it couldn't have an allergies slant or whatever? Thinking that if your diet is making such a massive impact on folks lives, that it's worth paying the money if possible?

Poor you girlie, I think it's worth seeing the GP too at this stage. Lovely that your DD helped out though.

Hi Badger, house buying is such an expensive time isn't it? Really dents any financial resources you have for sure.

Pirate, I used to use the DC's birthday cards and turn them into their thank you cards by writing on the back of the picture part, cutting off the written part and sending. Worked a treat and reused the cards too.

Em, why the hell were you nearly kicked out of the shop?

I have a game and hot potato pot in the SC, will need to layer on some potatoes soon. I've used the last of the cranberry sauce and Christmas veg frugally.

ive been really interested reading the issues you have all talked about, i was prescribed mebeverine a while ago but didnt find it was making me feel any better or worse the main thing ive found to make a difference to me is seriously limiting cows milk and anything fizzy and also coated things like battered chicken. Its strange what kicks it off and im still learning!

Afternoon Everyone!

What's Kidstart? I'm intrigued as I used to be really good at cash backing but I have let it slip. Life with small children has been the main cause as no time to think so end up "doing" rather than planning.

Today I have spent zero. Husband did the food shop. I'm determined we are not going to waste it. Yesterday I chucked out so much food that had gone out of date. Wasteful and scandalous.

Sold a bundle of baby clothes yesterday for £10 which was good. I've got a load more to sell so will give it one shot of selling on ebay/FB then gift it to the local Women's refuge. I am determined to declutter.

Also paid the self assessment tax due for myself and DH. Mine is fine at £800, DH's was a bit 'ouch'.

NSD, other than said tax, which isn't a 'spend'.

I also brought the finances up to date with the internet banking.

Going for run now, then will look to open DS a help to buy ISA.

Bingo. We had a NYE party, so had a real clear out and clean up. The house looks immaculate, which is why I am sat on my laptop rather than 'doing', I am not good at not doing, but neither is DH, so we make a pair!! I really does make you feel better mentally to de-clutter. Although, all this is fine, until I go back to work Monday, then I am, as you say, too busy doing too

Just to qualify, not trying to be frivolous re spending money on a dietician, but if it were me, I think I might consider saving/finding the money. Seems such an important aspect of our lives, our diet.

FWIW my diet was pretty spot on, with a tweak or two, and not enough volume for the training I did at the time, so pretty reassuring actually. I wouldn't have thought that was the case.

£54.94 tesco delivery. Meal plan as follows:

Beef casserole
Mixed bean cannelloni or something else with mixed beans, not sure yet.
Couscous and feta stuffed peppers
Beef stir fry
Lamb grills with potato gratin
Chicken nuggets and potato croquettes

need I think the problem is that intolerances can't be diagnosed by an expensive expert. Only the person can figure them out themselves, so in that respect it's very different from a physical training consultation. There's a guy called Professor John Hunter who is retired now but was one of the biggest experts in the field. I was lucky enough to be able consult him as he worked at my nearest hospital. All he did was check me for any really serious complaints (which he didn't detect) and then tell me to go home and read his books and do an exclusion diet. The nice thing of course is that anybody can buy his books and do that exclusion diet themselves, so in that respect we really hold a lot of power in our own hands.

I also went for CBT and learned that controlling my stress (or ambition) levels is hugely beneficial, although it is taking me a really long time to change my ways in that as they were very entrenched. I think that the knowledge that that is what needs done is very helpful, and doesn't involve paying anyone anything, fortunately.

£7.50 in Waitrose and £8 in pharmacy.

Menu plan for this week
Pizza
Curry
Omelette
Macaroni cheese
Root vegetable soup
Beans on toast

Jeepers Didn't you say when you came into the group the other day that you'd had a difficult year stress-wise and then IBS had come along? If I've remembered that right, then I'd be inclined, in your shoes, just to find a diet that you can live with and then take it really easy on yourself until the stress dissipates and then hopefully things come back to normal.

I'm in the same boat, with having had 4 very stressful years, but things are gradually improving as the stressful years recede into the background.

Carrying on from above - I think that if stress is part of the cause of all these digestive troubles then frugaleering is definitely part of the cure, because nothing alleviates stress like being in full control financially.

Today has been a sorting out day the boys have too many toys so have popped on Facebook selling pages although feel Jan is bad time to try n sell toys.

Tonight we have left over gammon and pork rack (pork was brought reduced in may from waitrose £20 to £6 and had saved for over Xmas so had new year day), will have with maash n veg plan to do xtra mash to use up so e potato as brought loads at 29-39p a bag and will use mash to make mackerel fish cakes with my 5yr old tommorow one tin mackerel makes about 20mini fishcakes.

I'm interested in the FODMAP diet chat, DH is really struggling with his IBS atm. Does anyone have any good links or info on how to go about it?
Spent £9.00 on a top up shop today, mostly milk/fruit/veg. Really need to not spend much money this week until DH gets paid on Fri.
What your microwave problem has made me wonder if I could take my microwave back as faulty rather than just chucking it out as we really can't afford a new one. It gets really wet inside with even the slightest bit of use and its started to go rusty because of it! I don't have the receipt though, no harm in trying I suppose!

Hello and Happy new year to all my old Frugaleer friends, its me again. And Hi to all who dont know me, Ive been AWOL a lot reacently .. I hope you are all well and ended2015, in good cheer , wher there , frugalling or not..

My New Years resolution is to come back and post regularly to the Frugaleers!
2015 was a good year for me , i started in £3000 debt, bought YNAB, started seriously budgetting and posting here and never looked back ..and from several ongoing years of debt I ended 2015 in credit with £2000 savings! ( my first ever significant savings!!) And we paid off our mortgage...

Christmas was a bit ( well a lot) spendy but loads of fun .. but theres (only) £650 on credit card which i'm just off to pay up..

We are still celebrating a bit here today, but I thought i'd pop in having seen the new thread .. But ill be back tomorrow to say Hi again properly , and plan my next months spending / saving.

DH is about to retire,(in a couple of months) and so things are going to be a bit different chez Laska next year , I cannot afford to let my eye off the ball ..

see you all soon
xx
,

Kidstart is a cash back site like quidco etc but money goes to your children you add children details and can link their savings account I have only started using recently and have the money split between my two all 48p of it at the moment!!

This is my referral link and I will get credit if you sign up via it so feel free to use it or not use it :)

www.kidstart.co.uk/r1/1742084