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

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread hopefully someone can add some old links?

I'm piggin' fed up - you take one step forward and two steps back - GRR. I'll try keep it quick

DH's car insurance is due next week. Current insurers sent a renewal price for £800+ (it was just short of £500 last year). I rang them to cancel it. Went online and did a quotation, and existing insurers came through cheapest at £471.

So I went to purchase it and got right to the end and it said that it could not be completed and I needed to ring an advisor.

Rang their customer services and was told I had failed the validation underwriting check which meant I had not declared something. I was shocked as I had declared my car fire, and DH's bump in December. Customer advisor said the database was showing I had a claim in August that I had not declared.

I said it wasn't me, it was my son and he wasn't to be insured on DH's car therefore I didn't think I had to declare it.

Advisor said as I was the policyholder unfortunately I had to declare it so he adjusted the quote and it added on an extra £156!

Just recap - a driver who will not be driving DH's car had a claim that was not his fault and was settled in full by the other party - makes ME £156 a year more to insure.

I'm so bloody angry.

SO what is it going to be like when it comes to my insurance renewal in April? I bet we're priced off the bloody road.

As I am still insured with the same company they can do us a multi-car and it goes down from £627 to £586 but for God's sake, we are over 40 years old driving a 1.4 litre car.

Bantam that's insane!! I pay about £300 a year to insure dh and me on my 1.6 car with one claim which went 50/50. How can it vary so much?! I'm really angry on your behalf it just doesn't make sense.

Bantam that seems crazy, have you gone through cashback? I did this last year for my car insurance and saved a bit.

Fwiw my insurance for me as a single person in a 1.2 car plus business cover was £240!!

Spent £40 on groceries today, but that should get us through to the end of the week I hope.

My new lunch box arrived today and it is gorgeous! I was so excited I have made tomorrow's lunch already

We are the same with savings spotty. That is my aim for the year. I want to get at least £1000 in an account for emergencies. More if possible. I am fed up with panicking every time something breaks.

My insurance is 400£ per year and covers the car, so everybody can drive it

I'm still seething. I have found the CEO's e-mail address and sent off an e-mail just now. I won't hold my breath at getting a reply but it helped me a couple of years ago when EDF were being @rsey.

We live in crash-for-cash capital of England where lots of drivers are uninsured so sadly I pay for the majority of the scrotes who dont. The only other thing I can think of is getting rid of DH's protected no-claims which will knock some of the premium off. You're only protected for one accident per year and he had it in December.

I'll see what the CEO has to say. To be honest I will quite happily take it further.

NSD again today - a good start to the week! We made a big vat of pasta salad so that's lunches for me and dh sorted for the week.

We've run out of or are running out of lots of things but I'm trying to hold out til shopping on Friday.

Spotty do you have a savings account? Even if you just set a direct debit for £10 a month to go in would still be a bit for emergencies?

I save £50 a month for the car, this covers a yearly service, insurance and MOT.

Also save £100 a month which is for any 'extras' which there seem to be lots of! Things like Christmas, a holiday, birthdays and any sudden emergencies or breakdowns. I have a small amount now saved up which is reassuring, one of the things that scares me if we ever manage to buy our own home that all my savings would be gone in one flash!

That's ridiculous bantam, could you contact the ombudsman?
I've enjoyed looking at the free books for kindle, some of the "romantic" fiction is a bit dubious, DH and I have had a good laugh at some of the titles.
Just went on internet banking and realised that I missed the tv licence monthly dd off my budget and that we only have £525 to last until the end of the month, that would be ok but we still have dds to go out including the car repayment and insurance. Think I'm going to be borrowing from my ISA at some point.
Good news though, my water saving has paid off, the monthly bill has gone down from £48 to £36, am pleased with that after all my efforts.

What was the story with the other two incidents Bantam? You said your dh had a crash and you had a car fire. It sounds as if those things may be driving your premium up too. Do you live in a very dangerous place?

My car insurance got bumped up by £150 last year just because I went through a speed camera at 35mph in a 30 zone. I thought it was a 40mph zone because the road itself looked like a dual carriage way. I went on a speed awareness course, which was brilliant and now I understand why speed matters so much and I never go above 25mph in a 30 zone. I still had to pay a lot more for insurance, and tbh I don't mind because it was my own mistake that brought it on. In future I hope the premium will come down because of my good, careful driving.

Spent €85 in Aldi. Gave DS1&2 their pocket money and lunch money €15. Had to order printer paper and photo ink cartridges for €46 delivered!

Going to keep all my grocery receipts together for the next 2 months to get an average. Hopefully this will help!

Back to work 2m too Lilac! I only work mornings so not too bad😔

Hello all, can I join?

I'm trying to save money, already dropped my phone contract by £10pm, have cancelled Netflix as I wasn't using it, so that's another £6pm. My problem is, I'm a fritter-er when out and about. Already gained some tips from other threads, so:

Will be taking a drink and snack out with me when I go to town, but will avoid going to town unless it's for specific things as that's when I get spend-y.
Will also be leaving my purse at home on days when I know I don't need money.
Planning on selling a few old things to get a bit of extra cash in.
Plan to throw every penny I can afford to, at the credit card to bring the balance down before the interest kicks in. Should be completely clear in about 6 months.

Evening all. Yesterday £6 parking, £2 to drop DD1 off at Panto at lunchtime, then again in the evening £4. If I had thought about it (and there had been spaces) I probably could have parked in the station at lunchtime, paid god the sy, remarking there for the evening. Perhaps next time.

£7.92 in M&S for lunches for 2 days.

Today £60.90 for DD1 school lunches. I think they owe me money, but the account is really confusing. School tod me I was £14.70 in credit (which made sense as DD1 missed some days/afternoons before Christmas due to Panto) , but when I logged the balance had gone from £14.70 to £16.80, suggesting I owe them? So I paid for the full half term and will check the valance over next few days.
£3.90 on Slimming world cereal bars. I managed to stay the same weight since before Christmas, really please with that.

Tomorrow I need to fill the car and buy screen wash, all claimable from work.

Also need to order DD1 an Oyster card, show rehearsals in 2 weeks, plus renew DD2's passport. I begrudge the cost of a passport.

Welcome Lollypop it sounds as if you're doing brilliantly already.

I spent about £10 yesterday on groceries but they should see me through to Friday (pay day). £14 M&S, new school cardigan, £8, for dd as she's lost hers I could have got it cheaper from Tesco or similar but I would have needed to pay for delivery so it's about the same. I also got a dragon dress up outfit for ds for £6. He doesn't really do dressing up but World Book Day will come round in no time so he can not wear this instead of not wearing a £20 outfit. Plus it's big enough to not wear next year and if I can get his brother to wear it twice that's only £1.50 a time which is great.

I have £13.50 in my purse. We need £10 of petrol. We have no need for anything else so I'm going to try to not with draw anymore money.

Glad you're happy with your lunchbox Jeepers It made me smile because that's what I'd do!

Girlie we actually have a standing order for £50 each month. However we emptied it for Disney in May and then we just ended up taking it back out for things we needed like Christmas food, pre school fees etc. Will start again as of now not touching it as we won't need to.

Hello all! Happy new year! Sorry abit late but we just got back from Asia yesterday. 1 bag unpacked, 3 still packed brim. One load of washing done but thankfully that's it as we washed most days at dad's.

Re job in Oz, I can't remember what I said the last time I posted on the old thread, but I was going to have a Skype interview...well, they rang me about 30 min after we hung up and invited me over to Oz! So, I was flown over there for a day and met the boss and the staff. Now to see if they'll offer I guess, and at what rate. They did say I was the preferred candidate... Dad and all the family were most pleased about this as it means I'll be much closer to them than currently. I guess this is what happens when the elderly folk get older.....

Will keep you all up to date. Won't report on anything frugalling... Just coz it's going to be most depressing!

Hoping for nsd today. Leaving purse at home.

Atter my slip up at monsoon yesterday I've deleted my card details from all websites all knew I can remember anyway

Well done nk, hope you get a good offer

Stupid phone! I keep losing posts.
Welcome lollipop and welcome back NK, I hope you get a good offer.
I'm feeling motivated by my success with reducing the water bill so trying to do the same with the electric. I've just filled the flask with boiling water for my hot drinks today to save boiling the kettle.

Thanks for the welcome, I'm hoping I'll see the benefits next month when everything's settled in place with new direct debits and Netflix goes. Is NSD a no-spend day? I'm going to try and have one today - need to go and see a recruitment agency, and someone about work experience (thanks job centre!)

I've got debt on a CC from when I was working and travelling in the US this summer, and can easily make my minimum payment, so I'm not overly worried. That's the reason I'm saving, I intend to hammer the CC amount down over the next 6 months or so Fortunately(!) I'm disabled so get higher JSA every fortnight, and live at home so I will be able to throw a lot of money at it in a short amount of time. I aim to get it to the point where a couple of chunks of a salary will clear it. Then I'm never using it again, unless it's an amount I can clear instantly.

Cutting down the frittering will help, and is just A Good Thing in general.

Frittering is my big problem too. I'm trying to have a no spend January, food and fuel only. I keep thinking of things I'd like to buy and then thinking nope, not this month. I am using money dashboard to categorise all my spends to see where my money goes and I'm starting to put my buggers into the trackers to see how that goes. I think it'll take a few months to get tong trips with it.

Well, that's a development. Just got a call from a place I interviewed at on Monday.

I have a job! 16 hours a week, in a retail store I'm over the moon! Now I can start to get my finances sorted, properly :)

Brilliant LV! Congratulations