Fearless Frugaleers Finding Their Feet in February

[SpottyTeacakes]

I've got fruflu

Em that made me laugh out loud!

Today is so weird. I think the weather makes it all feel dull & quiet.

Found some techie stuff to sell on eBay and should make £70! At least.

38 for a much needed haircut this morning, including tip then 26 in sainsbury for top up bits. Working yesterday seems to have killed my half term mojo. I can't get motivated to plan or do anything because I'm completely out of ideas.

The weather is utterly horrible here too. Two wet and muddy dog walks done.

£2.60 on rubber gloves and 'scrubbies'

Lacking a bit of motivation here too!

Audit I am laughing at you 'getting yourself in hand', haven't heard that phrase in years How are you planning to do so, may I ask?

Been to see my friend with cancer and had a lovely but emotional few hours. It was good to talk, well she talked, a lot and I listened. I was wondering how she would be in herself but she clearly needed to get stuff out there. She liked her cook book, loads of folk have taken food. I'll wait until the chemo starts.

I loooove playing Christmas carols on the piano Ipsos :) I have a few different books and get them out around October 1st each year (you know... to practise :)). DD is very proud to have learnt the right hand of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen this year (I put it in an easier key).

I watched Populaire last night and ended up looking up the piece used throughout, I'm going to try it.

Hmmph can't see if my link worked as my browser is going silly.

Need I'm glad you had a long talk/listen with your friend.

Did the shop for £45 from Tesco. Not too bad as it included hair stuff. Shower gel and handwash. And foodie treats!

Meal plan is

Fritatta with mushrooms, red pepper & courgette
Jacket spuds & stuff
Beef pie, new potato & veg
Veggie burgers & chips
Sausage roast
Lamb hot pot
Homemade pizza

Hi all wet and murky day here today but we made it to Bristol and back, had a nice day.

Spends
£20 train
£4 bus fares
£5.30 sandwich and drink (so should have taken our own!)
£40 in Build a frigging Bear however £30 of that was dds money and she now owes me a tenner.
£10 in Costa on a toastie, cake and hot drinks.

So not too bad for a nice day out, dd very happy with her new addition and also got a load of clothes and accessories.

When I am in Bristol I always think we should go more often really, lots to do and explore will go again when the weather is better and the days are longer!

Tomos dd has a horse riding fun day which is £35, plan for her friend to come back for a sleepover so that should be nice.

Laska I hope your granddaughter gets well soon.

And lots of and to those with one of the many nasty bugs going around. And fingers & toes crossed for those waiting to hear about jobs.

Monday was our big day out of the holidays. We went to kids cinema in the morning to see hotel transelvannia 2 £7.50 was really funny. Went into old fashioned penny arcade spent £1.20 for 10 goes on the old machines. Then went to the pier got the girls the ride wrist bands for £7 each but they paid half with their pocket money. Definitely worth it as we were there 4.5 hours and they went on loads (and me as dd2 was too small to go alone - bloody dragon ride was horrible felt like my stomach dropped each time and was highly uncomfortable she went on it 5 times!) Then bought doughnuts and tea £6.80 - will defo check prices before I promise something next time! Then about £6 on the arcade - dp was determined to win on the grabbers. Would have stayed longer but it was freezing! And mcdonalds for tea £9.80 but got free mcflurry when I showed my nus card
Then £10.50 in £land on various bits and pieces. And a takeaway for me and dp £15 as we were knackered and couldn't be arsed to cook! and train fare £5.80.

Yesterday £3.80 in co op on pizza, grapes and loads of longlife beetroot (only 39p) we went to park and library so took a picnic.

Today froze at the park again but went after lunch and took a flask of tea. Then £52 tesco delivery would have been cheaper at lidl but tbh I haven't had chance to get there and I had lots of heavy stuff to get that would be a nightmare as I don't drive so walk there and back.

Tomorrow will hopefully just be bus fare to my mums £2.60.

Sorry for epic post!

£8 something on drinks at the bar before the show.

£7 on two dinosaur grabbers

That was it so not too bad I don't think annoyed I paid for four hours parking. And could have got away with two, that's why I hate pay and display

Chorizo risotto for dinner have also bunged in the small amount of roast chicken that was left.

So I was talking to a friend the other day about just accepting the fact we will never get housed, and trying to move to another private rental. We've known for ages that we wouldn't be able to move within this part of town, and I've just confirmed that - identical house to us (2 bed back-to-back, no garden) in the next street is now £995pcm, we pay £800! (as the LL has kept our rent at the same rate for the last 7+yrs)

Anyway we'd been talking about how we might move to her area, as it's much cheaper. I just looked and actually it's not that much cheaper at all. Absolute minimum is £1050pcm for a 3 bed. The only one within our price range is a 2 double bed (our current 2nd bedroom is a box room) for £865. Bollocks. I really didn't know it would be that high everywhere in town.

Guess we are stuck then!

Gah, just had to empty my baking cupboard as infested with crawlies. Trip to aldi to restock but Amazon or Lakeland first for lock and lock tubs . I've been resisting getting them but this is the second time in a year we've had them. Grrr
Dh spent £27 at climbing and bounce, £3 happy meal, £23 in sainsburys.

Fuzz are u entitled to any housing benefit at all?

I know what you mean about high rent we live in South east and its really expensive here. Our rent is £925 for a 2 bed house - the second room fits a double bed and wardrobe that's it!

Fuzz is south east too. It's ridiculous. Three bedroom houses around here range from £1200-£2000pcm.

Babs I've had weevils before too

We will be getting housing benefit, yes, if DH doesn't get a job straight away :(

I don't think we can count on that if we move though? I don't know I am clueless really.

3 bed houses are going for under £300k. Which doesn't seem so steep compared to the rental prices IYSWIM?

I'm wondering if housing associations are available without the housing register - I know I've seen HA properties come up on the bidding system but wondering if there are other ones you can just apply for.

Shit though I really thought we'd made a good decision by saying we should just accept the lack of housing and move somewhere else.

Oh no fuzz that is expensive.

We had weevils last year, awful. I now have bay leaves dotted round the baking cupboard as they don't like the smell apparently. Cinnamon helps keep ants away too (I've tried and tested this with great success and cucumber works as a barrier to cockroaches (a friend tells me this works )

I was comparing to my friend who is looking to buy where we grew up, she's looking at 500K for a 3 bed they are much bigger though.

Hmm think actually there's no point in looking until DD turns 10 as then the DCs have to have separate bedrooms (they increased the age a few years ago). When we first went on the register, we could only bid on 3 bed properties, but then they changed it and now we can go for 2 bed as well.

According to a calculator thingy at the moment our maximum HB would be £185pw, if DD was 10 it would be £222.

Found some sites that tell you what properties accept DSS. Not a lot as it turns out!

That's great that you like christmas carols too Fuzz. They're some of my favourites. My FIL explained to my how to make up the left hand accompaniment and I've been really enjoying it since then. I can only do that really properly for things with no flats or sharps. I gather that I need to learn the left hand scales for the keys with sharps and flats in order to accompany those tunes but I haven't managed it yet. It kind of melts my brain. ds loves it though. He has just learned to play and sing his first piece.

That's quite pricey renting isn't it? I'm amazed that more people don't move to the north for the cheaper housing. I wish they would get more jobs and industries up there. It seems silly to have us all crammed in in the south like this.

I noticed that somebody has written to the agony aunt in the ft today to ask what to do when a man in his 50s can't get a job after a gap in his cv because of a broken leg. I'll try to catch the answer when it comes out next week in case it is useful.

Hope it's going well there.

We're talk-talk-talking here. Marble runs and piano playing. :-)

I had weevils once before - they are gross! Didn't realise until i saw all these little black things in the pan with the pasta everything is now in tupperware containers and touch wood not had them since.

Fuzz that is so expensive. Don't give up on getting a council place, keep bidding every week as they have to allocate a certain amount of homes to each band afaik. I was on silver band and it took 3 years to get this flat!! I'm still waiting to hear whether i have got the shared ownership house, do they do any schemes similar where you live?

Gonna cost me a bleeding fortune in tubs, also need a new icing set and oven gloves too. Ba

Sadly (but understandably) they do it by band and then by registration date, so all A+ first (with longest wait going first), then all A, then all B which is where we are (due to overcrowding). When we registered they said that if you get band C or D you will not get housed, ever. We've been on the list 3.5yrs.

We'd got up to 30th or better on most properties but suddenly dropped down into the 70s again, as the town is housing over 200 refugees. Obviously I do not object to this BTW! They need it far more than we do, at least we have a roof over our heads - just explaining why we are (quite rightly!) further down the list now IYSWIM.

It was suggested we try and move up to A band because of medical reasons but I doubt that would happen because I can manage stairs - I might have to crawl up them sometimes but I can manage. And given what's going on with PIP and everything I'm not holding out hope for that one either - with my condition it is very very hard to prove sadly.

Evening all!

Dear me fuzz those house prices sound v steep :( I remember when I was a student in london we had a 2 bed ex-council high rise flat in a dodgy estate for £1000 a month (thankfully between 3 students - we used living room as a bedroom) and that was 12 years ago. I just dont know how people are supposed to afford to live in the south of england. I'd keep trying for council in the meantime. My best friend back in London has not long bought a 'bargain' - an ex council 3 bed in need of complete (and I mean complete!!) renovation, tiny yard, no off street parking... for nearly 500k. I nearly fainted when she told me.

Weevils yuk we've not had them but I think most people do at some point :/

wreck I love that you just casually type '£7 on two dinosaur grabbers'... what on earth are those lol!?

for your friend need

Wolf I also desperately need a haircut

£41 on grocery order this morning.
Then banked DS & DDs birthday money for them - £120
Exchanged a toy that we already had for a duplo set which I will put away for later in the year as they got a lot of toys and I want to have them appreciated so will bring out slowly.

Tried to go clothes shopping as I am down to a single pair of jeans, 2 jumpers and a few work things. DS was having none of it and tantrumed so much we had to go home. £5 in dorothy perkins sale got 3 lovely necklaces to start me off. If any one has any size 16 apple shape tips I'd appreciate them as I think I'll have to shop online!

Renewed car insurance, boo. It wasnt cheaper anywhere else for the first year so felt like a huge waste of time. £692.

And it looks like we're going to need a new fridge so god knows how much that will be!

Booked my dental work for next wed so that will be £61.

Au revoir savings, it was nice knowing you!

We were a band A when we got housed (five years ago). We were in lovely top floor flat in a converted Victorian house but I couldn't carry dd up all the stairs so my lovely consultant wrote me a letter to get us housed. The rent in our tiny flat was more than this house though. Some of the HA houses round here are still £800pcm to rent though.

Blue it's one of these!