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.

Love the boots laska

Nsd today. Yippee.

Returned skirt. And posted eBay things

Still feeling awful. Am snuggled in the couch waiting for my roast chicken.

what I didn't know about kindle books!! Off to investigate

allguns I've started a bullet journal.

Lush boots, Laska.

I managed to make it to Pilates, so pleased about that. I had to buy milk and salad for later in the week, and washing powder, as we ran out, so spends were £4.48 in the Co-op and £1.80 on my bus fare home.

We do all like our boots dont we ? I hope they are as nice as they look when they arrive

Oh yes, did spend £8 today . in pets at home , on some tablets and hairball stuff for the poorly pusscat.

Don't know what you mean laska, I only have seven pairs (including my wellies)

£22 cleaner and £22.10 on weekly shop in Aldi.

Frugal things: have started a veg-chop pot in the freezer for soup at some time (so far asparagus and broccoli stalks!). Am making a bolognaise to freeze for when we get back from hols next Friday (and have also frozen some bread and milk). Bought dh a valentines card from Aldi and am off to find a lovely family photo to frame!

Hi everyone, I've been lurking for the past few threads & thought I'd de-lurk & say hello!

I've been inspired to meal plan this month, but I shopped for the full month & now realise I should have just shopped weekly instead.

Anyway my plan is to pay down debt & save for holidays by reducing my outgoings, mainly in the food shop. All advice greatly received!

£37.99 on a hooded jacket for DH for his birthday. Massively reduced in the Scott and Lyle sale and budgeted for. No other spends so I'm happy!

welcome leboob. Meal planning and creative use of what you already have saves money. Also thinking outside the box, like making cheap things like pitta breads.

Swapping to Aldi or lidl if you have one. Mysupermarket is a good app as it tells you the cheapest place to buy things.

Staples like rice you can buy in big bags much cheaper, I always scoffed at Tilda rice but ipsos proved me wrong, it's much better rice. Farm shops or morrisons do big bags of spuds cheaply if that's your staple starch. Huge bags of pasta in asda are really good value.

Shops like b&m do big bags of teabags cheap, or sainsburys smartprice tea is really nice.

Shopping apps like shopitize, checkoutsmart & quidco clicksnap or topcashback give cashback on certain items or free things. Topcashback pays in Tesco points so you can boost to 3-4 times the original value. Eg I claimed £2.99 recently that is £9 in hotel vouchers.

East end spices are much cheaper online than the supermarkets.

I'm going to do a musclefood order in the week rather than buy meat in the supermarkets.

Hi leboob we are trying to reduce food bills too. I do find that shopping weekly makes it easier to plan and cut down on waste. Food and random stuff for the house is probably where we have the most scope to reduce outgoings.
LSD today for me. I hate Monday's as I have dd2 pick up at 6 and then dd1 pick up from the same place at 6.45. So to kill some time we go to the supermarket - got a few bits required and birthday card for DH. Managed to ignore requests from 5 year old for another crappy magazine that she'd look at for 5 minutes. Said 5 year old is now getting her own back by refusing to stay in bed, as per usual. Man I am looking forward to the end of this stage!

Mondays, not Monday's. If there's one thing I hate more than the first day of the week, it's an apostrophe in the wrong place. 😀

I forgot vegan brownies. Lots of recipes online & very cheap to make when pmt strikes. Or slow cooker fudge.

Feed your family for £20 a week is a good website.

Pointless yes I agree that there are probably huge numbers of undiagnosed adults on the spectrum. Especially women. I'm lucky, there is a lady in our area (NHS not private) who specialises in adult autism and diagnosing people like me is a huge part of her job.

Ipsos now you've asked I have no idea how to explain it! I've finally finished a big book about it by Tony Attwood. I'll have a think. :)

Fluffy sadly optimism won't change anything. In all honesty, I have made myself more ill through my refusal to accept that my job is not suitable for my condition. Even when I'm not in relapse it causes a lot of pain. They (management) were really shocked when I finally admitted that even on a good day, I'm still so sore/dizzy/exhausted by the end of a 4hr shift that I'm ready to cry. I'd been hiding it for far too long TBH. The last doctor I saw talked about grieving for the life I want but can't have. Doesn't mean I'll never be employed again - my conditions are not curable but they might improve - but really unless they were able to keep me employed indefinitely, I won't be going back there. It sucks. My job is awesome. I just can't do it when I'm this unwell, and I'll be this unwell for the foreseeable future. That's the black and white of it and although it makes me sad (sorry for the ridiculously negative post) I am coming to terms with it - and being factual about it is quite literally what the doctor ordered :)

Fuzz, .

Fuzz glad your appointment went well, how much longer do you have before you have to make a final decision re work? I wonder if a less demanding job might be an option at some point?

Laska those boots are such I need more boots!!

With regards to the shared house, its been a bit of a roller coaster tbh! I found out today that the house is still available so have been gathering all the paperwork I need as they require quite a lot of evidence. Should get the last of it sorted tomos and be able to submit the application - eek! You all need to cross you frugal fingers for me

Today I gave £12 to dd for a school trip and £5 to a colleague towards another colleagues leaving gift.

Finally got my enhancements from work!

that should read 'are lush' Laska!

Im climbing back on the frugaleeing wagon.....have been hanging on by my finger nails for many many months

Have had a few big home changes and about to use my painstakingly saved house deposit money to buy a car to start a better paid job

Hope your all well!! is the mobile app up and running again?

Yay Ipsos

Everything crossed for DH fuzz and great that you feel positive about your appointment. I suspect my DH may either be on the spectrum or something. His DS was diagnosed with ADD last year and so much of his behaviour suddenly makes sense, but he can't see any point in getting assessed. His son has dyspraxia and MIL's behaviour is best described as erratic.

Fluffy I am going to get a spin dryer, have been looking but I don't understand do they need to be plumbed in, and if not how do you empty the water out?

So had a nice surprise, the repair to the ceiling isn't going to be as much as I thought so the insurance money will cover most of it, so a bit of a win there.

Work is rolling in which is good.

Had a bit of frugal fail as had to buy cat litter from Tesco across road and they only had the expensive catsan stuff so 5.75 . So will get some from Wilko in town pronto.

laska love the boots, I got some boots for Christmas and they are my pride and joy, silver and black new rocks. I tend to live in boots unless I have meetings and even then...

Trying to switch back into soup making today as it brings the food bills down and is great comfort food.

Aiming to try and get to gym this week.

fuzz have you thought about doing something on self employed basis? It might suit you better as you can take work when you're feeling better and have more control over when you work?

That's great girlie!

I've got three days of driving about now. Today I have work then need to pick the dc up from school/pre school. Once I get home I'll have twenty minutes before I have to go to a hospital appt (20 miles away) luckily dh is finishing work early so I don't have to take the Dc. So will be whatever spends on parking. Slight frugal fail is that tonight's planned dinner was chicken soup but I know dh will be unable to make it so I've got bolognese out the freezer and on the side in the hope it defeats without going off

Happy Tuesday everyone

Adora I tHink you can plumb in spinners but from memory of my mum having one on the twin tub, you can also wheel them out to near sink and put the out feed into the sink directly so no desperate need for plumbing. This was a good while ago but I imagine they still work broadly the same.

It's annoying that a lot of washers only do a low speed spin with the low temp quick wash. I was really disappointed when I found that out, makes drying really hard this weather!

Oh also got £49 something from music magpie so today I'll book our ferry to the IOW which should be £40.

Lovely boots laska, you live far enough away from me so I could get some too.
Everything crossed girlie.

Welcome back wheely

Ns3ds planned as at work and we are fully stocked