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.

fuzz what model sewing machine did you go for? My DD would love one and her 9th bday is coming up too.

Has anyone use the new app Olio? It's a food sharing app where people list food they don't want and you can go and collect it from then for free. It;s only been going for a few weeks so there are limited items in each town but in London it's pretty established.

I picked up my first freebie today and it was awesome, a brand new set of Starbucks coffee sprinkles! You can mainly get fruit, veg and teabags on here but it changes every day. Here's a review and summary of my experience with the app if anyone is interested: bit.ly/1PT1ybN

You can download the app on android and apple :)

I haven't read the updates. So apologies for anything I've missed

Today's spends £1.50 on duffin and Diet Coke (delicious)

£50 on a bottle of champagne in the pub after work excessive but necessary

Once I told work we sent out for cake and bubbly. So nice. They've put my qualifying in our newsletter email and on the website. embarrassed

Thank you for all your congrats. Xxxx

Welcome newbies and returners.

Yesterday £2 parking and £9 train fare to rake DC to rehearsal (that may be cheaper as managed to get a lift home, but check Oyster, thus will be the max) plus £1.59 for DS's train fare.

Today £1.50 parking to drop off DC, plus DS's fare will be £1.50. Fortunately DD1 travels for free with her Oyster card.

Hi all Fuzz my dd would love a coin album, she collects coins for all sorts of reasons, some foreign ones but some just because they have a certain date on them! Where did you get it from?

Her bday is next Tuesday, her main present is her horse riding party but she has also got lego, some play mobil and some sylvanian family bits. Which reminds me I must start wrapping it up!! For Christmas I got her some gem stone kits that she loved link this one looks like a bargain.

So have managed a successful NSD today and have submitted my house application - eek!

Going to see a show tomorrow in Bristol with my mum, it was booked ages ago and am looking forward to it. May even drive on the motorway which I have been avoiding for ages due to anxiety about it but think its good to challenge yourself sometimes.

Ipsos I wonder if you have got something like CFS, you do seem to get poorly and tired a lot. I don't think your Dr is being very helpful to keep putting it down to stress all the time!

fluff sadly I can't tolerate soya beans, which rules out most dairy free ice-cream. I've tried the coconut stuff in the past but didn't like it. I figure I could just use the lactofree cream and make my own as it's actually pretty easy.

It's her 4th birthday and we have got a kindle fire. I'll lock it right down so she can just have her own apps, some videos and music on it. we never let her play on our phones or tablets so I think she will be super excited to have her own. It feels like about the right age for her to start learning to use tech more. Mini sewing machine sounds awesome Fuzz

fuzz I have some foreign coins if your dd would like them for her collection. Mexican pesos, Croatian kuna & Thai baht I think.

Thanks for the advice of the budgeting, I'm still annoyed with myself for the month shop approach to the meal plan, live and learn eh?!

Also has anyone else seen that tesco are recalling own brand slow cookers? I only got mine on Friday so I'm sufficiently miffed.

Back again and I shall read the missed pages later
jeepers you can make dairy free ice cream out of frozen bananas
Mini sewing machine sound great fuzz I have an old Winfield which my dds wants to learn to use which is great but very heavy
girlfriend my dd would love a horse riding party, she loves horses but has never ridden before. She is saving her pocket money after we told her that keeping horses was rather expensive.
NSD yesterday
Nearly £50 at Tesco today which included a bottle of my favourite zinfandel wine for my birthday which was on offer and I made myself a chocolate cake with coffee and dark rum too after dc insisted I needed a cake They made me birthday cards and dh got me lovely bunch of flowers - not very frugal but they smell lovely

pointless I had gastritis a couple of years ago. The Omeprazole should sort it out fairly quickly. Or at least make it more manageable. Avoiding citrus fruits, tomatoes, spicy foods and alcohol is usually advised. Also avoiding large meals.

NSD today.

Something weird is happening at work. There might be the possibility of getting the extra hours at work that I was looking for in Nov if I'm lucky... or a slim long term possibility of losing my job altogether.

Happy birthday love.
Nsd yesterday and planned today

I need to get petrol today but that's it. Have to take the dc to school/pre school then pick dd up for her hospital appt, take her back to school in time to get ds from pre school before lunch then pick dd up from after school club.

Going to make chicken soup for dinner and have it with cheese toasties I usually put some potato in my soup but fancy something more pulse like I've got yellow split peas would those go do you think?

Ds slept 12.5 hours last night and he's still pretty sleepy!

Creme I'm starting to think that that may be what's going on, yes. I think really the GP just doesn't know and has very little chance of working it out in the 5 second long appointments that we get. I must read more about it. The good thing at least is that I'm improving steadily all the time, so whatever it is, it should mostly go away at some point.

That's lovely that they made a big fuss of you at work em.
I'm in bed again, slept much better but doubled over as soon as I got up. Gaviscon is helping, can I still take it with the omeprazole does anyone know?

Yes that's fine pointless.

The other thing that works really well is getting really relaxed, if you can manage that. Long bath, soothing music, that sort of thing. I think maybe it slows down the acid or something.

Thanks ipsos, I've been having baths and also camomile tea has helped.
Think I'm going to try and get food delivery though, DH and DD still need to eat!

Good plan

Ipsos Do you think your restricted dietary requirements give a greater propensity to suffer with illness and fatigue? Not at all a criticism, but it's hard enough from my pov to eat a a varied diet and we eat everything going I would imagine it's tricky for you in this regard.

Happy birthday love.

Congratulations Em

Sorry for the very poorly folk. There seems to be a lot at the minute.

I've missed quite a lot as we have had a busy few days.

Hi need, yes that's definitely true. I can't even take vitamin supplements at the moment which is a real nuisance. It's just a temporary situation though. I read that this happens to people sometimes if they get a particular form of PND. I'm perfectly cheerful but my digestion and sense of taste has gone all wonky. However, it's steadily improving day by day and I have recently found that I can eat more things, so I just need to stick with it until all comes right again. Ploddy plod plod.

my voice is awful, cant say a sentence without it going to screechy levels, its all high pitched. the bad throat seems to have eased though just left me with the voice of a 7 year old girl!

Has anyone got cereal dispensers and find they work. All of our cereals are going stale because the kids dont seal them properly or rip the tab and we are wasting a tonne, ive got an amazon voucher and thinking of buying one of these and saying its one of the two in there or nothing!

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0134G303U?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A242O7GSJ6CC37

Wow! Would a tupperware box not do?

That's really cool super! We just have standard cereal containers though. Like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003VYAK0C/ref=cmswwrcppawd_vtDSwb8FT509W

They don't look sealed so won't they still go stale? We just peg the top of the bag and weetabix goes into a big zip lock bag.

We have tried tupperware box but both boys spilt everywhere there, ss has sn and struggles with coordination, ds just clumsy as always day dreaming. The cereal containers look good do the lids hold the last one of those I bought the whole lid came off and it went all went flying. They do things so roughly I wondered if these would help and with the voucher would only cost me 4 or so pounds. Off to cookery course today banana bread making

Ah! Yes that does sound sensible then.