Friendly Frugaleers chat their way into February...

[Ipsos]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from last year

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

ipsos the most valuable legal crop.

Good point. :-)

There's a woman at work who got caught growing weed in her shed. She moved on to diazepam now.

My veg refusing ds ate cauliflower cheese and a green bean!

Unescorted
great to hear your mums news you all must be so relieved ,

well YNAB tells me that I am £120 over fot last month , butthats because I had to pay an unexpected coupl of things on friday (DS monthly bus pass, though Im happy to do that for him , and a couple of other things) but im fact its not over in the bank as the house insurance hasnt gone out yet , so those extras are in next months budget now , I got paid last friday anyway

I had a NS weekend , and DH only bought the papers and some eggs , and Im thinking that the food situation is fine for next week as its only me here..

Have just made two more 'Christmas' cakes as DH requested another .. it wasnt meant to be two , but I ended up using up stuff and will give some to DS, DPs and DMIL as they all like fruitcake (I cant eat it on my diet though!) . Sadly ones got a little burnt on top...

Well done spotty junior! Pleased to hear your good news too, unescorted
That carrot cake looks lovely and I'm loving the new abbreviation fruflu. My throat is still sore and I've run out of paracetamol, DH may well be sent out to the shop in a bit! Going to soak my aching muscles in a hot bath.
Doing my Feb budget today has made me realise we've had hardly any treats for the last few months and I think it would do us good to have a few more. I've slightly increased the treat budget for this month.

Oh and I meant to ask, has anyone frozen cooked pasta or cous cous? I keep cooking too much of stuff!

That's great news unescorted.

Yay for veg refusers eating veg too.

Returned an item I got for Christmas, so now have £15 on a gift card to spend.

£2.55 in Tesco and £22 in Boots. Stupidly realised I could have got a 10% discount on that after I walked out the shop. Lesson learned there.

fuzzpig do you know what happened with the primary school thread? Got off the bus just after I last posted and it had been deleted by the time I got home.

Good news unescorted

Yay unescorted glad to hear your news.

Slightly that bake sounds lovely!

Internet being INSANELY SLOW this afternoon, makes me want to hit things :o

Spendy day:
£12.50 bus pass for the day
£85.85 Tesco delivery - more than I'd planned, but hopefully got enough to genuinely get through the week with NO top ups. Fingers crossed.
£6.64 coffee shop
£6.10 various bits in Poundland
£7.99 charity shop - bag wasn't quite as big as I'd imagined but still a lot for a fiver. Also got a new (as in sealed) Brainbox game
£51 Hobbycraft order - got DD's main birthday present (not til June but it was on sale) - a sewing machine - and the wrapping paper storage box I was after, which I'll now put on my Christmas spreadsheet :o

AND that order was my first ever Quidco purchase! Already got an email saying it tracked. Woohoo.

Getting a tenner refunded on my PayPal as there's a week the DCs' trampolining class can't run. Will be nice to have a lie in on that week! Have also heard that the teacher has done more qualifications meaning DCs can work to higher levels... and use the harness thingy to learn flips etc. So exciting! :o Need to find my diary though to update everything.

Hello quiet weekend did an aldi shop yesterday its our closest supermarket so our main food shop is done there.

Today we went in a "food superstore" it seemed to be a giant Iceland but we got fresh outdoor bred pork sausages 6pk and chiploatas 12pk both 90%meat for £1.50/pk.

Amazon have approved my postage refund!!!

tonights dinner was truly lemon meatballs and tagliatelle And a glass of wine.

I would love a bath to soothe my aches and pains but unfortunately we STILL haven't started getting ours fixed. It's almost been a year. (Should point out were a two bathroom house. And only bath is broken in the main bathroom)

I really don't like reheated pasta, so haven't tried freezing it. Intrigued about couscous though, I am the only one who eats it so my beloved Mediterranean veg/halloumi mix is really rather labour intensive for only one meal. I'd love to be able to make a big batch.

Rafa I don't know what happened with that batshit crazy thread! Just says on TIO that it was started to be inflammatory so guess it was made up anyhow.

My SIL who is Italian reheats pasta by frying in a little olive oil and it tastes so much better than trying to.microwave.

you can make a frittata with leftover pasta. Anna del Conte has one in one of her books I think, and smitten kitchen posted a pasta pie (sort of the same idea but cooked in a cake tin) a few days ago.

Unescorted I'm very pleased your mums treatment has worked. The worry must have been awful for you all. I will look at that coffee now, thank you.

Slightlytired You need the big blue ikea bags off amazon, you open them up in the big trollies and sweep everything straight into them. Heavy stuff first, eggs and bread last. I never pack at the shelf now.

£10 last night on booze as dn and his gf came round for a takeaway at short notice.
£9 today on my share of last nights takeaway.
£2 on soya milk and soya custard.

That's a great idea, I was going to do a frittata this week anyway.
I might freeze a small amount of the cous cous as an experiment.

Thanks All - sorry I did a post and run.

sand I am going give the olive oil reheat a try - is it long & slow or is it quick and fast?

I do a reheat on couscous in the microwave but it normally is part of a tagine or mix vege thing at lunch time.

Unescorted that's great news we recently had someone at work given a terminal diagnosis but they're now saying all the cancer has gone at the moment.

Nice job on the veg spotty!

Lovely cakes Laska. Your worktop is beautiful too.

My ds is eating a lot better since his bug now. He has got as far as an egg and I have got as far as a potato. Woohoo! Ratso to these viruses.

Just sitting down myself and catching up.

Thanks for the belated birthday wishes, and the Chinese was lovely. Spent £30 in total, including a taxi home.

Carrot cake looks yummy.

Today, spends were £6 training and £50 Morrisons delivery.

£900 is a lot on food Ipsos, is that to cover the special diet requirements that you have?

thanks Ipsos, the worktops are not real wood just B&Q specials I imagine, were here before us , but yes the kitchen is nice and light

Pointless, I freeze leftover pasta bake sometimes. In fact, it's on the menu this week, along with some garlic bread. I let it defrost naturally and sprinkle a tiny bit of water on it, before microwaving.

Damn. Why did DH have to mention a themed concert he'd heard about on the radio?! We looked it up, were very excited to see it had one of my favourite film pieces (got goosebumps just reading that it was incuded!) but the cheapest it'd be would be £43, which isn't bad for 4 of us, but when you add on travel and stuff it's too much. Shame! Still, it's a common theme for concerts these days (sci fi type stuff) so hopefully it won't be the only opportunity.

I was pondering doing all other stuff that needs booking (trip up to Birmingham etc) and switching utilities etc tonight especially now that I've remembered cashback, but I need to give the DCs the laptop for an audiobook. I was wondering about putting the files on the old iPad (the screen is dodgy but audio etc are fine) but does anyone know if I can do that without using iTunes? Like in a file explorer drag and drop type way as if it was a USB stick? We don't have any other need to put iTunes on this computer so I don't really want to bother .

fuzz if you bought the audiobooks on iTunes you will only be able to use them on the device you purchased them on. It is so so annoying and I didn't realise until I tried to play them using same iTunes account on a different device. Something to do with the digital rights.