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

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread hopefully someone can add some old links?

I'm going to nick a paper book today at work and start organizing a new budget for household spending and saving
Our budget account is up to date
So we know how much we have per month for spending just need to allocate it

Wish I could help ppl with their tax question (work for the tax in Denmark) but think the countries have to much difference in their system

italian, that's amazing, you work for the tax in the country with the highest tax in the world! I read 'the nearly perfect people', it's a book by a British guy married to a Dane, very interesting country, Danemark!

I'm doing that too, rafa recording every single pint of milk etc bought from convenience store plus I'm only taking the correct change so I can't buy anything else.
Really hoping for NSD today.

Yesterday was an nsd. Today might be too.

We need fruit. But the shops are empty as the boat hasn't come in for the past few days due to bad weather. People are going crazy on local "bad/good business" fb page. They don't seem to realise that waitrose, m&s and coop can't do anything about it and are probably just as annoyed as they are.

I'll pop in to the market at lunchtime but am not holding out hope that I'll get what I want.

Creme have you got a supply job? I just have missed that hope it goes well

Super hope you feel better soon. I suffer with anxiety but nowhere near to that extent so I really feel for you

Dc not back at school until tomorrow so today I'm going to have a big sort out of all the stuff I can eBay. Even if I make £10 that's better than nothing.

Fuzz it's the odds and sods which really add up. I've just checked out bank account and we're £12 over our overdraft have borrowed £15 from ds. Dh gets paid tomorrow but probably not until the evening and our rent is due to come out tomorrow and won't be able to. Luckily it's HA so they're fine if I just ring and pay it the next day.

Dh & I have written a list of things we would like to get for the house/garden. We've then prioritised it into what we really need, what I could look out for used on FB pages, ebay etc & what is a nice to have and will have to wait until we have the other stuff. We'll see how we get on ......

Dh & ds are back to work & school today, but dd not back until tomorrow. I've got a list of things for dd & I to do today so we'll be busy. Today will be spendy as the cupboards need stocking up. Spent £20 on groceries at Booths yesterday. Then £60 on a meal out for the 4 of us. Unnecessary but it was a lovely treat to end to the holiday especially as I've been ill throughout. Still, better now & back to work tomorrow.

Dh back today and dc and I tomorrow but DD is poorly so we will see. Was going to aldi and see DM today but think that's out.
Take care super.

Fuzz My humungous credit card bill tells me this every month, but somehow I never can get it to be any smaller. Somehow the things just seem so critically important, all of them. How on earth do we solve this problem? Do we have to become Buddhist?

I think a large part of it is that when I was in an office job I was effectively paid to be entertained by my job, and now I'm at home all the time, my entertainment is running the house and improving the house and all that stuff, but I'm not getting an external salary to run our house.

Admittedly our house is now much nicer because I clean it and tidy it. When I was working and it was a shared student house we pretty much despaired of the state of the place.

Place marking you guys are really busy posting!
Luxy hope you feel better soon
Ipsos how long would it take to save the £80 needed for the different pieces?

Didn't get the diary I wanted yesterday. Got a set of 31 school Christmas cards including teachers one for €1.50 in easons. I got away with no letting dd send cards at Christmas for past 3 years but I wil relent next year.

I'm now overdrawn as my standing orders which normally come out on Thursday when I get paid have come out today.

Yesterday was a lovely family day out to finish off Christmas hols cinema kids club I paid earlier in week €12 dh got the popcorn exchanging presents got dd a lovely canvas for the kids new room but that is money we've set aside from their Christmas gifts money ate out using vouchers balance was €15 which I paid

Fuzz The other thing that I thought was that I could get a nice cheap hobby like photography - because it's basically free with a digital camera, right? Well it seems to just turn into a money sink, which is really frustrating. This is my dilemma exactly. How do we manage to get into a sort of life-rhythm that doesn't involve constantly spending money on stuff that we don't really need? And how do we learn to judge what we do really need?

allgun lol your right although taking in consideration what we then get paid by tax then I think we'll probably pay the same in the end as other countries or is it the tax lady in me speaking

What washing powder does everyone use? I've been using lidls two in one for ages because it's cheap, however I've just used some fairy liquitab samples and I had forgotten how lovely it smells! I'm fed up of my washing not smelling nice. What's the frugal answer?

Marking my place on the thread for some frugal support. Need to buckle down this January and then continue it through the rest of the year.

We use arial colour but stock up when on offer as it's the only one we all can use.

spotty we use Ariel gel but I only buy it when it's half price or less, same with dishwasher tablets, they have to be on offer or I won't buy them.

Downloaded the money dashboard app last night, I think I like it, you can link your bank account to it and then tag spends to different categories so it produces pie charts of your spending and tracked monthly spends against budgets you set and also previous monthly spends.

Booked ds's summer camp to take advantage of the early booking discount and paid a contribution to his school trip next September

First time using app, do you need to scroll down every time to end?

Just checked my google spreadsheet in 20months I've taken my debt from €12768 to €6340, I started it when I returned to work after mat leave with ds.

I had hoped to be debt free by end June but that would be €245 weekly this won't be possible so my aim is as quickly as I can before next Christmas.

Been planning my new year financial goals
Build my self employed income & put straight into bank account rather than spending some-keep some for tax return&rest for debt repayment

No use of catalog account or credit cards unless can be repaid within that calendar month

I have kept vouchers for when I feel the need to spend. This should help.
I'm also doing penny saving challenge - this money will fund a shopping trip when I'm debt free.

wolfcub is app uk only or could use in roi use it?
Or should I just get to grips with ynab? laska's results last year would point to this being a good idea

Our lovely healthy bank balance has disappeared. I'm so stupid, I forgot that all the direct debits are delayed and then hit your account. So from £1700 to £100 over night. That does include all my regular payments going into their pots but still, a shock. We still have £2-250 of debits to come out before we are paid again. Food and fuel I'm hoping will be £150 or less. So £400 to spend and £100 in the bank. We have savings I can move into the account and £900 in the Christmas account that I haven't moved but I'm a bit gutted. I do have Christmas cheques to pay in and cash in my purse so we are ok. Just need to be so much more careful. I've just paid this half term of preschool fees. That was £176 and was in savings. Next bill will be end of February. I feel really shaken by it, just shows how I need to know how much is in my account that's for "spending" and not going to go up in smoke when the bills hit.

Lila no, press the up and down arrow in the top right hand corner.

Hmm think I'll start buying branded washing powder then when it's on offer.

£8 on tickets for us all to the village kids 'after' Christmas party.

55p on a lined note pad as we're all out.

Free entertainment courtesy of puddles and sheep.

Photo is very blurry but they were moving really fast! I'm standing by our village shop and the sheep are in front of the pub, they were moving into the barn as they're a bit soggy.

Spotty I use Aldi colour washing liquid and always use a bit of conditioner. I tend to water it down but it still smells nice.

Can I join?

I'm pregnant with #3 so it's going to be an expensive year with replacing baby stuff that we got rid of 7yrs ago (we have moses basket and cot thankfully) and me going on maternity leave at the start of June.

We have quite a lot on credit which annoys me no end but no savings! Currently owe Littlewoods £40 and Next £130 which I want to clear asap - won't be buying from either anytime soon.

We have about £250 to do us until payday in the middle of the month. Shop at aldi/lidl already but both of ours are small and I can never get everything so have to do a top up shop at morrisons each week.

Iam congratulations we had ds2 13mths ago and had got rid of everything from ds1 we brought everything secondhand apart from car seat and a cot mattress we borrowed a crib and baby swing and a friend Gabe us a bouncer and playmat. Clothes I brought in second hand bundles or in sales also he was born 5weeks before Xmas so asked for clothes or bits we would need in the coming year as presents.

If you are having a boy I have a load of 3-6,6-9+9-12 bits you are welcome to for cost of poistage

Thanks to this thread I took a deep breath and logged on to check my bank balance today. I usually check every day but hadn't been doing it with the holidays. So glad I did as M&S had taken two direct debits out of my bills account for my pet insurance policy. That account is purely for paying bills so only ever has enough in it to cover what goes out every month so I would have gone overdrawn in a couple of days.
Quick call to the bank and they've reversed it out so panic over.
Sorry if it's been mentioned further back in the thread but is anyone else doing the penny challenge thing that's been circulating on Facebook? 1p on January 1st, 2p on 2nd etc. I am rubbish at saving so thought I would give this a go although it almost seems too easy. If I can stick with it it will cover Christmas this year.

I buy the neutral in lidl, cost around 2£ so not bad I think

I only have one saving account which is saving for normal, Christmas, car and dd's non child saving account
The reason is that we get 6% in interest rate and the other accounts we get 0. So I have a spreadsheet where I update what money is saved for what and especially what money belongs to dd