We are Resolutely Frugal! Frugaleers continuing their new frugal year. All welcome!

[fuzzpig]

Hello! I hope nobody minds me starting the new thread :o

ipsos It's easy to listen to DD, she never stops talking so you don't get a word in edgeways. With DS, the silence would be deafening

I've also booked out theme park tickets for August, for a deposit of £40, balance due 5 week before travel, but deals available now still applicable. I've searched and searched for deals, but the Florida parks just don't have any, ever. Even according to MSE.

We don't have a specific entertainment budget either. We spend £14 ish a month on tv. And tend not to go out much! Haha!

I have my riding lessons and we go to the cinema every now and then. And out for dinner.

But no specific budget per se.

Maybe we should think about one.

£5.19 for my lunch, £4 for parking. Annoyingly when I got into the station car park there were paces and it would only have cost £2. Will leave more time to check there next time. £5.40 in train fares to go to London to help bring 16 children home from rehearsal.

Last night I put £10 on DS's Oyster card. I let the ladies taking him to London know that it wouldn't show on the ticket machine, but would add at the entry barrier; unfortunately this message was either not read, or not understood so DS put £5 more onto his Oyster (he had £10 which I am convinced is my money, he claims it is his!). That is fine as it will be used, he paid £1.59 for his fare today from the Oyster.

More frustrating is the fact that another parent thought DD1, who is 8 needed her Oyster loading, she had no money, so the dad put £10 on her card. This was really sweet of him, but DD1 travels for free (as long as she has an Oyster card). I gave his daughter back the £10, but now I need to call TFL and get them to either transfer the £10 to my bank, my Oyster or DS's Oyster (most likely). I asked DS why he didn't put his money onto her card, and he said he knew she didn't need it, and hadn't realised what the dad was doing.

I will send a message thanking them, as they meant well.

Need That's hilarious, I hadn't thought of that. I only have ds and he doesn't even show any sign of knowing I'm in the room, even when I'm talking to him (unless I mention jam).

I am so flipping tired! DD is teething and up and down all night at the min - shes been awake for the day since 6.30 this past week also. Was working yesterday so today is my only day off. What age do they start to lie in?? :(

Just a birthday card and some sweets for the kids yesterday. Need to get DS a few things today eg new pants etc

We are well into the OD but I am not transferring any money from savings i end up doing that every month so obviously I am not leaving enough for spends. Going to see how much it comes to and up the budget accordingly. Payday wed.

Blue my ds still gets up at 6.30am but I go to sleep at 8pm now and it helps a lot.

Blue mine were up at six, dd is 5.5. Sorry!

Going out for a walk and pub lunch with work this morning so will be a bit spendy. I'm taking the dc but dd is being so grumpy and rude this morning I'm wishing I wasn't! Also I bought an ikea table and three chairs from a selling site for £5 which dh is collecting later.

Lie in sorry blue DD is 8 and always 6 am ish , sometimes 630.
Church, skate park, swimming and halfords today.

I don't have an entertainer budget as right now I don't have a budget. Not as good as it sounds I just am rubbish at it

Blue ds is 2 up at 6.10 this morning normally between 5.20 & 6.30. This is the reason I was in bed at 9pm last night, sat night!!

Finding the talk about entertainment budgets interesting. I don't factor it in but it does happen!

Pavonia I'm trying with ynab but how do you learn to trust it & ignore your bank balance? I'm failing there.

My aim this year was to have something to look forward to each month like a meal or event or something, diary is filling up nicely

Yesterday I spent loads in Dunnes Stores but only €23 was over the vouchers I had so I'm good with that. Which also came from joint account as €16 was for a birthday present & I bought two carry on cases for myself & dh. Had one for dd so only one more to buy for ds, ours were banjaxed

We had a small miracle this morning! DD who is usually up at 6.30 slept until 7.45!
Should be a cheap day today, going to use my 2 for 1 drinks voucher at the garden centre but will probably end up getting cake to go with it!

Bought a winter coat reduced to half price, suit jacket reduced from €40 to €12, a cowl neck jumper I've been admiring since before Christmas & a thin knit jumper too. A lumbar support for car & office chair €3 each my last one did 2 years. Two cases & present brought total to €208.

Just bought ink cartridges this morning €71 this is a business expense though

My frugal shopping has resulted in me not having tinned tomatoes for making lasagne or veg for soup. Well I've 3 carrots! May need to go to the shop

Ah I am the other end of this I am up early and trying to prise ds 8 and sd 13 out of bed so we can go out. They would laze about till lunchtime given the opportunity. This week is going to hit my bank balance hard TV license,sky, engagement gift, ds friend birthday present, ds new shoes. I've got a therapist call tomorrow and I really want to cancel I don't feel comfortable doing it at all but know I need help before things get as bad as beginning of month again, going to head out to shops if I feel alright after try to brighten myself up a bit.

Blue it does get easier when they are at an age that you can put them in front of cbeebies and go back to bed for a bit! With dd I think she was around 5-6yo when I started doing that. Now she is 9yo she gets herself up, puts on the TV and gets her own breakfast. I fell out of bed at 9.30 this morning - bliss

Over the Christmas holidays she started laying in till nearly 9am as well which was a first. I imagine when we hit the teenage years I will have to prise her out of bed before lunch

Thanks for that Needa I do feel quite out of my depth with it all, spoke to my friend last night who has recommended a solicitor so will ring them tomorrow and also some banks re the mortgage. Will have a chat with my mum about it all later today as well. I want to go and have a second viewing of the house on Monday as well, thinking much more specifically about a few things.

blue, at about 11-12. Nearly there!

Spent £100 in Lidl, but that includes the £9.99 steamer thingy that I have coveted for yonks (I wear lots of cocoon dresses with funny folds impossible to iron) and some socks. I have a blister on my right sole, where the ancient and elasticless sock has crumpled underneath and after a 12 h shift...
It was italian week, which I love, so...and I think I bought about 8 kilos of fruit. I love fruit. And the blood oranges are in season.
Menu for this week:
Omelete, soup, stirfry. And...not sure what else.

girlfriend, there are independent mortgage brokers who get their comission from the bank. Let them do the leg work! Good luck with the house!

I have a small number of quite general budgets. So entertainment would be included across a couple. Things like Netflix come out of the bills budget (we don't have a tv but i consider netflix and love film essentials) and then we have a 'going out' budget that covers everything from public transport costs to coffee at work and tickets for a show.

We have a friend of dd's round today so spending this morning trying to make the house look vaguely presentable. Need to buy some bread but should be a low spend day.

super , sounds like you know the theripist will help even though you are worried about going now.

I am always the same before a therapist appointment. There are an increasing number of counsellors I can never go back to after just not turning up to appointments. The stupid thing is I know they are all lovely people and it always helps when I go, even if it is really hard sometimes.

Guys could you not have said 3-4 to keep my hopes up - they are 1 and 3 so a while to go then!! I already go early to bed - hopefully this next tooth will be out soon and we can go back to the status quo!

At least I get a lot done on a morning off lol - both kids fed and bathed, dishwasher emptied, bottles sterilised and 2x laundry loads so far. Have also sorted through the cupboard as DH brought up during that we ought to plan, shop and advance cook on a sunday to save us during the week - that's todays plan. We generally freeze curry / chilli / shepherds pie / fish pie so need some new freezable meal ideas really.

Girlie the house sounds awesome, we took (and regretted!) a 4 yr fix as prices promptly dropped - have you looked at offset mortgages? Slowly overpaying here and cant wait to remortgage in about 18 months!

Blue we freeze risotto, shepherds pie, bolognese, chilli, soup, portions of mash, lasagne (chicken and minced beef), curried lamb mince which is really nice with jacket potato! Ummm can't think of anymore. Oh creamy chicken and leeks which you can use as a pie filling or serve with pasta or topped with mash. Really must start doing more of that again.

Blue, XDH and I are both night owls, so we were blessed with DS, who rarely woke up before 8-9 am. In fact, until he was 3.5, he would sleep 12 hours from whenever he went to bed, which most kids won't do. So we often had him out with us until midnight on holiday, knowing he would sleep until 11 or mid day next day. I have just had breakfast; he is still in bed, playing on his laptop!

I don't freeze that much. All types of bought bread products, leftover pasta bake; leftover chilli/ lentil Bolognese/curry/casserole etc.; leftover veggie shepherds pie and occasionally, leftover mash and homemade soup.

I've just run a load of stuff through ziffit and most of it is 20p each or thereabouts. Will try that as a last resort. Wish it was car boot season the clutter and effort to get rid is doing my head in.

Babs, try it on music magpie and webuybooks.com to compare. Even though it's not much, it's still money, and you'll get your space back.

Girlfriend as a dedicated frugaleer you might also like to keep an eye out for a mortgage that allows overpayment without penalty. That means that if you have a bunch of spare money then instead of putting it in savings you can pay of a bit of your mortgage. "without penalty" means that the bank won't then charge you extra fees for over payment. We looked out for one of those and as we were expecting a bit of luck money-wise, and when it came, we put all of the money straight into the mortgage. Mortgage interest really mounts up over 25 years so it's well worth overpaying if you get the chance. Obviously it's a balance between pension saving, actual saving and mortgage payment that you need to judge to suit yourself.

I will try music mappie. Thanks crème. I guess the question is will I get round to a boot sale as i will have to get the kids minded abd do it myself or do I just cut my losses.