Fearless Frugaleers Finding Their Feet in February

[SpottyTeacakes]

I've got fruflu

Audit that seems a tad unfair as they were closed when you went!

Ah Collie that sucks. That (1250) seems about average here too. I told DH, he was surprised as well. I think we will just stick where we are for now, obviously staying on the housing register just in case. When DD is 10 we can rethink, as then we would definitely qualify for 3 bedrooms and so would be covered with HB (obviously if DH gets a better paid job that will be irrelevant!).

The advantage is that we don't need to worry about moving costs, and also it means I can continue building up my tuition business (I keep wanting to put the word business in quote marks but I wonder if maybe I'm doing myself a disservice?!) in the immediate area and hopefully have more pupils before we need to move area (as we will have to move out of the immediate area regardless of whether it's council or private).

In other news, I am going ahead and buying the bed, including mattress, off a friend for DS (well actually DD I think, as she hates her cabin bed but he likes it, so they can swap). Feck knows how we'll fit it all in their room. It's a full sized single, it does have two big storage drawers though. I guess their bookcase (non-fiction - the stories are all on the cabin bed shelves) can come back downstairs (somewhere?!) which is probably better for home ed purposes anyway, but their Trofast unit with their clothes, I don't know! But it has to be done somehow, DS is getting quite tall (he's looking so grown up lately, my baby :() and he can't have another small bed.

fuzzy do you have room on your landing for draws? DD3 has her clothes draws 2/3 in, 1/3 out of their room, its not ideal, but there is nowhere else for it. I shall take the jigsaw to the top soon so it fits more snugly against the wall (no door after a nasty finger/slam incident).

Am gearing up for a rare trip to Ikea next monday for storage for all of us. We have a clothes mountain here, all clean but there is no space left to put it all away. I haven't been since the dogs were tiny (I remember as the blighters chewed all the arm rests and the electrics in the boot while we were in there) and they'll be 5 soon. It will be very expensive.

Just £2.84 today in tesco for sweetners and kitkats.

laska so pleased for good news, hopefully all will just get better and better from now on

need wow! Great eBaying!!

laksa pleased for good news!

id I love ikea but fortunately for my bank account we don't have one here. The island isn't big enough for it. I'm not meant to look at the website either....

Payday tomorrow thank god am -£16 in bank account. First time in overdraft for about a year.

Today should be nsd. Will need to find something for lunch in the fridge.

NSD this whole week so far. But have done an awful lot of overtime. I am still aiming for £800 a month savings. Can't remember if I told you, but I went and opened a regular saver with Nationwide. £500 a month. It's the maximum, but I am strange like that and got it into my head this is how much I should put in.
My First Direct regular saver comes to an end in April. Have been putting £300 every month. I thought I'd look for another account like that and found the Nationwide one. Perfect. So in all £800.
But: I forgot about the £280 standing order towards other savings, so untill April when the FD saver finishes, I am, in fact, having to save £1080. Good little incentive to do overtime till april, when the weather gets better and I won't want to be stuck at work. Or that's the theory.

I have saved so much money with MSE it's unbelievable. I did the switch, saved me £480 in electricity and gas (used to pay £64 for gas and £45 for electrics a month). I took their advice and opened a nationwide credit card, £25 as a thank you and I get money back, made £18 already.
Called BT and got my unlimited broadband and calls down to £9.98 form £18 something a month.
My insurance renewal arrived, they wanted £378. I went through MSE and found an insurance for £193.
I found out from MSE about help to buy ISA and opened one, 25% interest from the govt and 4% interest from Halifax.
I unearthed old ISAs and moved them into 5% accounts.
Saved £10 on a family and friends railway card.

And with this thread's help I've become rather frugal and I'm on my way towards my goal for this year. So, not bad for the first 2 months of the year.

Spendy day today. Dh taking kids on train to city museum. I'm shopping for tubs, run to the tip needed and will pass clothes weigh in place so give that a go.
Then more eBay/ sell stuff

Mse is a great site isn't it allguns.

Should be nsd. Going to a friends for coffee then dd has swimming lesson later.

laska so leased for you re your granddaughter!! May she continue to thrive and improve.

Couple of nsds last couple of days. Today will spend as its ds' birthday! He's 8!!

£16 doesn't seem so bad em.

Happy birthday NKDS!

babs Half term can be expensive can't it?

Allguns fantastic savings, in terms of actual money and saving made from MSE too, well done, frugaleer of the day me thinks

I am a bit at the rent prices. I don't think I've ever rented. Our mortgage is £180k (or thereabouts) and we pay £1100 pcm. Well we pay over this, but I think that's the actual figure.

Property is such a luck of the draw thing. Our very first house was £90k and was a 4 bed detached in a small and affluent village, bought in a recession from folk desperate to move, so DH hammered them down (20 years ago now!). We sold it just 6 years later for £250k. This one thing, right at the start of our property journey has enabled us to jump up the ladder significantly, through no judgement of our own. Ok, we really pushed for this particular house, and I think there are certain aspects that make it highly sellable (location, huge garden, large kitchen) which are considered aspects, but the first, pure luck.

I worry for my own DC. I've already started an HTB ISA for DS.

Spends today will be a lesson at £7. And seating being delivered for the horse box, circa £200. I've allocated some savings to 'finish' the horse box, but should add value.

needa I know what you mean about luck with property. I sold the house I shared with exP in 2008, literally the week before the bottom fell out of the market. I still thank my lucky stars. Bought for 205, sold 6 years later for 440. After the mortgage was paid back my split (I took less than half) bought my present house (ex bought a jag and a boat), moved here with my dd's including dd3, then 3 days old; and have been happy ever since. But here we stay. The other half of our semi sold recently for about half what I paid for mine. Such is the market here now.

NSD day today.

Tesco just sent me two letters / leaflets to tell me I have £0.00 to spend in vouchers. er, cheers Tesco!

I've been grinding my teeth in my sleep and they ache so much! My whole face hurts. Something has triggered my anxiety. I think a pricey trip to the dentist is imminent. Frugal fail!

All this talking about rents gave me a weird dream last night where we sold up and HAD to go for a £1000per month house to rent. which crippled us. A nightmare no Frugaleer needs!

Sadly knitting our landing is as tiny as the rest of the place! :)

£45 Lakeland, £15 the range, £15 asda, £6 asda, £5.50 home bargains, £26 Amazon but will get most of that back as for mil.

It is expensive £14 train as have railcard. They have decided to go to the free museum rather than the costly one, chinese buffet for their lunch.
Dog walk and tip next

Great news about your granddaughter laska
NSD today
Sun is out after rainy morning so dc are playing with bubbles in the garden
Sausages with Yorkshire puddings, crispy potatoes and veg for dinner tonight - my ds doesn't like traditional toad in the hole so instead I make small puddings in my muffin tin
Do you need to defrost the meat before you put it in the slow cooker and if you can put it in frozen do you put it on low/medium/high?

Expensive day today.. sigh.

530 dental bill.
25.50 for Ice skating lesson.

Apart from that no other spends.

I need your advice frugaleers!

Our car is slowly dying. The central locking has gone and I can only get into the drivers side, ds is still rear facing so this is a nightmare. Also can't get in the boot. It's done 96k. There's lots of advisories and the revs are going up and down in neutral. I'm sure a few hundred could sort this out but we don't have any spare money so it would go on an interest paying credit card.

We are currently paying £175 a month off of a £5k credit card 0%.

I'm considering getting a 5 year loan of £10k at £180 a month to clear the credit card and buy a car (can get a decent low mileage one for what we would have left which would be cheaper in fuel and tax).

Can I have your thoughts on this? Dh and my jobs both secure.

need no -£16 isnt so bad. It's annoying that I've let it happen. I've been so good for ages. But never mind.

One day to go until payday!

wreck what's the interest % on the loan? And the capital repayment?

Clothes weigh in - don't bother

It'll be about 3.4% £860 ish

Hi all spendy day so far

£50 for horse riding fun day and next Sats lesson.
£10 for cake and coffee for two - my turn to treat a friend.
£84 to check and send my passport forms off - finally got it right!!

Eek loadsa money! No more spends today please.

Needa well done on your ebaying.

Whats MSE? I feel like I should know about this brilliant frugelleering Allguns

Laska am so pleased your Granddaughter is improving

Mse = money saving expert. It's a website