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.

Gosh, they must be different people from the kind I hang out with. All my friends are scientists and if I said I was on antibiotics we'd end up in a massive factual conversation about which antibiotic it was and why and blah blah blah. Em's world is very very different from mine in all sorts of ways.

And fuzzpig again we are lucky that where we live we have a ice rink a ten minute walk away or another that's 15-20 min drive away. I choose the first because even though I sometimes drive due to time constraint or bad weather, I also have the option to walk on better weathered days.

Sounds like a lovely day don't, DS will be tired with all the activity.

Meal plan for the week, I've kept it simple.

Sun - Roast chicken dinner.
Mon - Chicken risotto.
Tuesday - wraps.
Wednesday - Citrus and honey salmon with veggies.
Thursday - Lasagne and salad.
Friday - Fish pie and veggies.
Saturday - Sauage, egg and chips or similar.

Good to hear it, Ipsos. Keep it up!

Glad most of the poorly folk seem to be on the mend now, and hope we all feel well for a while.
Spends: £6.50 bus fare, £4.50 entry to an exhibition and £5.60 coffee and cake afterwards. My friend and I shared our cakes, as she had chocolate and I chose lemon. Yum! I also bought a new bag for £20, on my Next card, as my previous bag fell apart yesterday.

Excellent mothers instinct there Spotty.

I hate the "ooh are you pregnant?" If you don't drink. We can't have kids so I say I don't want them if asked but some people dig away until I want to cry.

Welcome Frazzled & Soap.

Yesterday £2.90 in wilkos on sugar soap for cleaning the kitchen & caustic soda for the waste traps. The homeware in there is brilliant. When I have some cash I can see me ordering some lanterns in there and cocktail glasses. Similar prices to ikea but without the long car journey and argument in the lighting department.

£1.25 on a bottle of beer.

Today NSD.

Been researching laminate for the stairs and landing, some of it is more expensive than the polished porcelain tiles I bought for the kitchen .

My £50 M&S voucher arrived from Sky broadband so I've tucked it away for their sale, hopefully I'll pick up two bedside lamps for the cat to knock over.

Eurgh, I'm still full of lurgy but it's meant a nsd! I'm Finding I don't spend very much real cash, it's the Paypal payment here & there that trips me up!

I stopped drinking a couple of years ago and it saves all of those comments and also saves a huge amount of money! I don't miss it all

So today has been rather stressful as it has rained non stop and looked some what like the end of the world had come when looking out of the window! All the country roads leading to dds riding lesson were flooded, we gave it a good go trying to get there but in the end just wasn't confident enough to risk my car. May have to cancel/ postpone dds party tomos

My mum bless her is going to get up early tomorrow and try the roads and we will make a decision by 9am. Will be so disappointed to cancel as have put a fair amount of work into organising it and obviously dd will be heart broken.

Oh no girlie I'm hopeful that your roads will be clear by tomorrow [positive thinking]

We had chocolate pizza for dessert was delicious.

Dh really annoys me by having the tv so loud there's just no need

Oh that's such a shame about dd's party girl. I do hope the roads improve for tomorrow!

I have done it! Full meal plan for the whole of next week covering breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have added reminders to me phone when I need to do things the night before, defrost stuff or put on the slow cooker in the morning. I have also cooked 2 meals of beef stew and made loads of gnocchi. All has gone in the freezer for next week.

Phew!

Well overspent at Aldi by £7 but didn't stick to my meal plan and bought 2 bottles of wine. I was impressed with the amount I got for £57.
Meal plan is now-
Sausage mash and veg
Chicken stew
Lasagne
Gammon roast dinner
Spaghetti carbonara
Beans on toast or similar
Home made Chinese .
I also bought cheese, ham, crisps , part baked rolls , hopefully I won't need to go shopping again until next Sunday .
Chocolate pizza sounds lovely!

Fingers crossed for tomorrow, Girlie.

Hope the roads clear up girlie

ipsos it's a nightmare - the nod nod wink wink oh yeah "anti-biotics" thing. We've been married for 5 years and pretty much ever since day one it's been like that. I've been caught in mother are before (buying presents for friends babies) and have seen family/family friends. Apparently the only reason I could possibly be there is because I'm pregnant.

Saying that, it'll be total strangers I'm with (apart from my boss) so in all reality they won't care.

The antibiotics I'm on (doxycycline if anyone's interested) do say no drinking on the label. But after speaking to gp and a quick google a glass of wine won't hurt. It'll be the last day of the course anyway. But as I'm away from home and have to travel the next day it seems sensible to avoid any adverse side effects. Just in case.

They do also help acne, and a multitude of stds. So as an added bonus my skin should hopefully become more beautiful.

Other Spends today £6.99 on a new mug for work. This was my proper post exam treat. It is huge. And has puffins on it. Happy.

We are having celebratory exam pass pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. I am excited!

girlie I hope the roads clear up for dd!

jeepers wow! Well done. I've never managed a three meal a day meal plan. Seems sensible. But i just tend to focus on dinners. And flap about the rest.

Next weekend (as am away/eating out a lot next week) will give it a try.

Girlie you've out so much effort into that party. Let's hope it clears overnight for her.

There's a really good Waitrose offer on. Spend £100, get £30 off & £10 from topcashback And 10% cashback if you have a Halifax reward account which ends tomorrow.

If you have a MyWaitrose card some of the 3 for £10 offers are on there, they honour the 20% discount on them so you can get 3 whole chickens for £7.80.

Sorry to hear that Fluffy. I'm so glad you made it on to mumsnet anyway. It wouldn't be the same at all without you here. I've been so glad to find that there are mums on here who don't have kids (if you see what I mean) as it means I've been able to invited other friends in the same boat to join.

Your friends sound pretty unfortunate Em. Sorry to hear that. I'm glad I don't live that life, though I do think I would enjoy the salary a lot.

fluffy I had a lovely science teacher at school who taught us never to keep asking people if they are going to have children because it can be so upsetting, I honestly never have and I cringe when others do. You never know what is going on in someone else's life. Agree that it's great you are with us on MN.
Girlie I really hope the party goes ahead tomorrow - sending dry weather vibes!
Just spent 75p today on a can of coke for DH to do his favourite slow cooker cola ham.

Only reason I do it ipsos. Not ashamed to say I'm only in it for the money.

I'm another one who hasn't drunk alcohol for a while now. About 5 years in fact. It does anoy me how some people find it so inconceivable that someone might just not want to drink all the time.

I also think mentioning pregnancy to someone when they haven't is the height of rude thoughtlessness. It doesn't matter how sure you are, if they haven't mentioned it they aren't ready to tell.

I remember being quizzed on when I was going to have a kid by my exbil once. He just wouldn't let it go. What he didn't know was that I had miscarried a couple of months earlier after trying for almost a year. I was a little short with him I confess.

This might be a stupid question but we never have any change and we always need it for parking or, more importantly, fallen teeth anyway I was thinking of getting £10 in change. Can I go to the bank and request this? Or could I take £10 into the post office and change it? I would probably get a mixture of pounds fifties twenties and tens then make sure we kept it topped up...

Of course you can, spotty, go to any bank :)
Spendy day,£100 on a bike but well worth it, planned and budgeted for, so that's ok.
I am having afternoon tea with a friend tomorrow, so I expect I'll spend something :)

£145 on car tax, straight out of the car saving fund.

£4 on two dribble bibs. Hoping they'll be good.

Sorry, not managing to keep up much!

Can I join please?
I'm currently unemployed for the first time in my working life which is terrifying! Went back to work after mat leave (new job, terrible company, very bad decision!) and it just wasn't working out for us as a family so after DH was offered a new job, I quit mine.
We have a 10 month old DD and we are going to attempt to live off DH's wage until I find a more suitable job, so I'll be checking this thread regularly for tips!
The worst times for mindless spending are weekends when DH is home with us (I blame him for being a bad influence!) so I'm hoping once the weather gets better we can go for more walks with picnics instead of spending money on soft play centres or meals out.

Fluffy .