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.

Thanks I think it was TSB, I read about it in the Guardian..

naw ... thats the problem... Perhaps I need new specs?

I have written a letter to the bank after watching Martin Lewis on tv to try and claim back miss sold monthly fees. I typed the letter 2 weeks ago but our printer doesn't work, all this talk of monthly fees has reminded me to print it at work!
em that sounds horrible, you poor thing. Stay warm and rest.

£6 in Iceland.

Investigating train tickets to see my sister. Cost on Trainline is £89 return. Just put the same thing into a ticket splitting site - £85. Fair enough. But it reckons this is a £141 saving on what I would have paid and wanted to charge 10% of that, bringing the cost to £99.

Putting it into Tickety Split gives the single ticket as £113, It thinks it can save me £30 by charging me £83 and presumably I have to pay another £83 for the return journey.

rafals sometimes I am amazed by how much research you have to do in order to just not be ripped off. And also I think a lot of your ability to save money comes down to whether you have access to and the skills to use technology. It is pretty disgraceful really.

Spent around £49 today on DH's birthday present - two lovely casual shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt. I'd never pay full price there but even for a shop that always seems to have deals on, that is good value. (Was a Sunday times code which I can dig out if anyone wants it.) he needs shirts so I think that's a good present. And easier than the much more frugal family photo I planned to frame . Other than that no spends. Nothing planned for tomorrow either.

The Megatrain might just save me. £24 return for the London onwards part of the journey. Would be cheaper on the megabus, but they all leave at stupid o'clock in the am.

£13 return for the coach into London. It'll involve some faffing on the tube or a bus though, but should be OK.

I've not been on the thread since last week so haven't caught up properly. Need we've got an account like that with Nationwide. You can put in up to £500 a month for a year at 5%. We pay £10 a month for our current account with them as it gives us our breakdown cover, travel insurance, mobile phone insurance etc. It is also an interest paying account and we seem to be making £2 back in interest (sfter tax).

Had a lovely weekend with my mum & dd in York. Managed to be pretty frugal but still had a good time.

I'm working almost full time during Feb (I usually do 20 hours) except for half term week. It's been okay so far, I just keep thinking of the extra money there will be at the end of March. From March 1st I'll be increasing my hours to 22.5, not a massive increase but every little helps.

No spends so far this week as we've been surviving on what we already had in the cupboards and freezer. I've been madly sewing, trying to get the quilt finished to take down to Devon for our nephew next weekend. I'll post a pic when it's finished.

Pointless I forgot to mention but I find this stuff:

Wrigleys Extra White Gum

www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=268044641&gclid=CjwKEAiA58a1BRDw6Jan_PLapw8SJABJz-ZWVhJZO630R9PJI2XgWShxIPSn_YQBUDwjDqwcyC8pWhoCu1Tw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

is fantastically helpful when the inards are on the fritz. I think it's the mint that does the job. I prefer the this one because the sweetner is mostly sorbitol, while I believe some other people get on better with the xylitol on which comes in the blue packets.

It might help a bit while you are recovering from this current difficulty?

I thought gum was bad for stomach problems as your stomach produces acid assuming you're eating but then you dot swallow anything?

Hospital again today need to try and find some change for parking we have no money and are 100% over drawn even after moving our measly £50 from savings. I've obviously messed up somewhere on the budget because we haven't even paid council tax so should be fine.

Well done on motorway driving. Face the fear!.
Some good saving products out there. All our savings offset the mortgage which saves loads in interest and involves no thinking.
Nsd planned today but need a few bits tomorrow for the weekend

Should be nsd today as I'm not leaving the house.

I went to bed at 8.30 last night. And slept until just now. The dr was right. The tablets have made me feel wierd. One benefit though is they're also used to treat acne. So hopefully my spots should also clear up!!

i need to look at my bank accounts and see if I can get a better deal and have to check my electricity bill. I can't switch providers as there is only one here. But could potentially switch tarrif. So might look at that today. If I see my downstairs neighbour I might ask how much she pays (their flat is the same size and layout as ours).

I also thought gum was bad if you had stomach problems? but mint does help.

pointless have you tried sipping mint tea? Or green tea. Settles the stomach.

I do drink quite a lot of peppermint tea actually but thanks. I'm finding camomile helpful at the moment too.
Still off work as off food and feel very weak/tired and have headache. Feel so guilty about my year 11s, it's an important time for them.
Being poorly also means we've spent more than usual as I didn't go shopping so DH picked something up on the way home on Tuesday and has also been out to get me Gaviscon and rich tea biscuits. Not a ghost start to Feb.

Well I have just ordered a phone on contract first time ever always had payg this is £7.50 a mth and a 2yr contract I only ever changed my phones when they died had current one over 3yrs n its rubbish now barely works. So feel v grown up having contract!!

Poor ds2 cut his mouth open at nursery on Tue severed his own lip tie so trip to doc who took advice from hospital and we all agreed to just monityit he seems fine and saves a potential procedure to have it done medically later on. That eve he managed to eat 3 chiploata sausages out of a sausage bake for dinner.

Hope you're all feeling better today! I woke up in the night with the most horrendous sore throat.
Should be NSD today and tomorrow. Saturday too, hopefully, but I am at work and we normally share lunches if it's antisocial shift, makes it easier to bear and brings us all together a bit more.

East. You can trade in your old phone & get cashback from topcashback. Even if it's only worth 2p the cashback is payable in club card points so worth way more.

Hopefully a NSD today, yesterday Aldi £54 Tesco £32 budget was £60 !!
Haircut yesterday £30 ~ desperately needed as had to cancel last appointment due to the dogs dental bill What do you tip your hairdresser? I gave her £5 but not sure what the going rate is.

Meal plan
Meat and potato pie
Singapore noodles with pork
Spinach and ricotta canalloni
Fish cakes chips & salad
Homemade pizza
Samosa pie and salad
Chicken and rice one dish

Ouch!,eastmids hope he is ok.

If you've got reflux/gastritis, it might be a good idea to cut down on the mint tea. It's a trigger. It's good for other digestive issues though.

Hi, hope you don't mind if I join in!

I'm new to mumsnet but have occasionally scrolled through a couple of threads but have finally decided I really need to crack down on my spends.

I'm a single mum to a five year old and work full time, still live at home with my mum which reduces my outgoings massively but also allows me to save for a deposit for a house.

I need some motivation regarding budgeting even though I've always been quite careful with money.

I have a question though, what apps do people use for budgeting? Had a look back through this thread but apart from YNAB, are there any other options and what works best for you? Any tips will help.

Thank you

Rafa I haven't had any since Tuesday morning when it made my insides burn!
Welcome don'tlet. I use a free app on my kindle called "simple budget". Only started it this year, so far so good.

Welcome DontLetMeLetYouGo
I have YNAB but don't use it, I'm not able to embrace the mentality of letting go, working on it though. I need to do one of the webinars and give it 100%

I use an excel sheet and have different tabs for savings, debt reduction, financial plans etc and have it saved on google drive so can access it anywhere

Can't catch up with this thread at all, will make some bedtime reading sometime I guess

Dh did the grocery shopping last week without asking what we needed so now we're scraping the bottom of the barrel with things that the rest of us eat regularly and we've lots of bread, cheese and milk dh's priority foods!

Starting off with a small to do list of things I want to tackle- first thing is phone insurance. Currently paying 6.49 a month for a Samsung S6.

I know a lot of people have insurance through their bank but I don't. I'm not quite sure where to find best deal so will have a search.

Welcome I don't have phone insurance. I use an excel sheet for budgeting

£1.60 parking. That'll be it for today

Oops forgot to write down Beavers subs £12 on Monday. Have added it to the spreadsheet.

Meal plan is a bit messed up, was supposed to be doing spag bol but am so not up to it (DH is out with DCs) and can't even contemplate lifting the slow cooker. Might do it in a regular pot instead this afternoon, won't be able to make quite as much though so I might freeze the rest of the mince.