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

[SpottyTeacakes]

New thread hopefully someone can add some old links?

Just got asked to go into work so I'm going to go. Extra money!

Some great ideas to help us budget, thank you. I like the idea of a new account just for dds. Will discuss with DH later and see what he thinks.

Pointless my biggest financial achievement in 2015 was that I arranged all our Direct Debits to come out on the 1st. It took ages but it was so worth it.
We do what Em does.

Also, I have started to buy everything (makeup, dental stuff, baby stuff, medicines) in Boots and use my Boots card. I find every few months I have about £6+ to spend which coincides with various make up running out. If you download the app you may find you get extra points for buying something you needed anyway. I never realised the points added up so quickly.

Frugal discombobulated win: Tesco have deregistered my account. No idea why & they apologised. When we reregister - we'll get £20 off a shop! Very helpful in January.

We've decided to have a veggie frugal month. DHs idea.

should be nsd today. At work. Have a lot to do and the weather is awful. Super windy and wet. Ick. So no bumbling round the shops at lunchtime for me.

Will spend my hour researching bank accounts or reading the daily fail and making frugal lists for 2016.

Ursulatodd I do like a good cup of coffee but I'm not sure I'm who you are thinking of. I think you've had a name change since I was last here, it's been a while.

Adora There's a picture on cosmetics of a little pot with an open lid and a number next to it. The number is how many months it'll last once it's open.

I have bought 3 non descript toiletries sets in the sale. They are all for mil, stuck for fil as I usually buy a bottle of wine but he's just quit alcohol. Dn's all get Amazon vouchers which I'll get when I have some cashback. Dm and Df only get something if I find something I actually think they'll want and it's too early to shop for dc so that's all my bargain shopping done. I feel I should do more but have nothing to buy.

Using annual passes today for a cheap day out.

Place marking
collie I too feel that setting up a joint account for bills really saved me this year.

I think I'll try and get all the dds to go out on the first. The worst one is my car repayment, over £200 that goes out at the end of the month. collie do you just phone up the companies and ask to change the date?

ipsos we have the same issue with our credit card timings. We use CC for lots of spending as we get M&S points which convert to vouchers every few months. What I do now when I'm calculating our balances is just always use the up to date balances. This gives me a correct overall figure but doesn't correlate with actual bank balances iykwim. I've got used to that as i don't think there's any way round it if you do spend using CCs.

Nationwide also have a 5% (12 months) regular saver account (£500 limit monthly, withdrawals allowed). It's for their current account customers & they currently offer £200 for recommended account switch ie if I recommended it to someone, we'd get £200 between us.

If you have an account just for DDs then it doesn't matter when in the month they are paid, so if it's an interest paying account, you would benefit from payments later in the month.

I've just had a realisation that is actually very obvious - when nipping to the local shop for a pint of milk, if I only take 50p with me instead of my whole purse then I can't be tempted to buy any other crap while I'm there. This will save me money as I'm a sucked for their special deals!

£9 on a cafe brunch as soft play was closed - I need to go back to work to stop spending!! Oh well, soft play would probably have cost more overall and we're going to go for a rainy walk instead. The builders are at the 'putting everything back together again stage' so we shouldn't need to escape for too many more days!

We made a delicious lentil and bacon soup which I costed up as 40p per generous portion with bread and some cheese on top

Nsd. So far.

Blimey, it's a quiet day on here so far. Ursula soup is great, especially at this time of year. I've got the last portion of my turkey & veg soup to have later on.
pointless that is so true and a good idea. It's often difficult though when most people have a card on them most of the time. More & more places accept card payments and then there's contactless payments which I'm trying to avoid altogether. Ds (14) wanted a debit/cash card as a few of his friends have them, but the one attached to his account also has contactless payments. When I explained to him how it works he decided he isn't ready for that yet. Not even having to tap in a PIN makes the payment so much more remote from you and so easier to ignore if you're a spending ostrich

£18 on breakfast in John lewis. Id rather have not but it was a special treat. Ds1 and DH went into town on the bus and ds2 and j met them there. Bus was £2.30 and I managed to get a free parking space. The bus driver let them off the fare on the way into town. I spent £30 in Lakeland, birthday presents for my sister and a Christmas present for me. I used my Christmas money. Took the balaclava my husband didn't want back to John lewis and got a refund into a gift card. PayPal makes it tricky. £3.25 in Iceland on two pizzas and a pint of milk. No morone spending planned. Still fairly annoyed at the breakfast.

Hi all, weather here is awful blowing a gail and chucking it down with rain reckon we might get some localised flooding.

Spends today

£17 in pets at home, got big bag of iams for £10 some hamster sticks (3 for 2) and Dreamies.

£16 in Dun Elm on 2 gifts.

£33 in Morrisons weekly shop - got loads for this without really trying to!

Bit worried about my freezer, when I opened it earlier it was really frosted up - never looked like that before. Will cry if its broken!

Girlie it might just not have been shut properly, mine used to do that if the kids hadn't pushed the door fully to.
Fence blown down but dbro fixed it for free. Gp appointment then x ray for DD , sprained ankle. Please can I stop spending my nwd in an NHS facility.
£17 in the co op on shite. Thinking about bobbing into town only to tk maxx and binns as I have magic beans for both.

NSD today
I get our veg box from Riverford and last Monday we got 6 carrots, 4 parsnips, bag of sprouts, cauliflower, red cabbage, 5 red onions and butternut squash for £14.45. You can check what's coming every week on line and cancel or change the box if you don't want it. Hope I can make my garden more productive so I won't have to buy veg in the summer.
girlie where do you keep your freezer? I have an old chest freezer we keep in dh workshop and it gets lot of frost and ice depending on the weather.
Last night's storm luckily only broke 2 old sash windows we have kept to make cold frames for the garden. Wet and super windy down here, hope you are all safe especially up North
Dss picked dinner tonight so it's bratwursts in tomato and pepper sauce with wedges. Luckily he managed to get home on his bike from Devonport before they closed Tamar bridge.

Nsd. Just got home from work did 8:15-4:15 without a break so I'm starving! Wired on coffee though

Today was not the nsd I planned l met my bff in a cafe for breakfast. €25.65 for me her & my two dc. A lot saucier than the ones near me I think. Meeting school friends tonight but I will drive there so €10 should cover it.

Yay! I am back from London. I am shocked by how expensive it is just to be. There are only little metro type supermarkets that charged twice as much as the big supermarkets. And don't get me started on travel and tea shops..... I can safely say I won't be rushing back.

It was all coloured by ds being knocked off his bike by a drunk driver ( he and dh rode down and were 10 miles from the end). Ds is Ok but we will have to replace his bike and helmet. The police & ambulance people were fantastic and a passing motorist witnessed it & managed to force the drunk to a stop so he could be caught.

I'm glad your ds is okay unescorted. Quite a holiday you had there. I also find London expensive. I went there for a daytrip once and accidentally spent £95 just on trains, snacks and trip to the cinema. Yikes!

How awful unescorted! Glad he is ok, shocking for all though.

Oh gosh unescorted, that's awful, I hope your DS is ok. I am glad they caught the driver though, especially since the shit bag was trying to leave the scene.

I get my fruit and veg from Abel and Cole. I considered Riverford, but I like the fact you can change stuff around with A&C to suit. I did also buy their meat too, and it's lovely quality, but expensive. I'm back to the farm shop for that. Having said that, I bought an organic cheese selection for Christmas as a treat and both DH and myself said the Stilton was the best we have ever tasted. Not the cheapest option at all, but lovely quality.

Spends today were £50 diesel for the car. Tesco and Morrisons delivery of party stuff, but the refund on gas/electric will cover this, bar £10. Also £90 in Aldi on booze, it will all keep if not used. So, as long as it's short, spending-wise, will even out.

I've had quite a cheap day trying to get my photography setup working. I'm having a good time playing with my camera while on holiday and ignoring the housework. :-) NSD except that I now need to do a Tesco order.

Unescorted that's awful! Glad he is ok and the twat drink driver was caught.