Austere April Advances (even though it's mid March.....). Frugaleers Unite

[needastrongone]

New thread. Can't link.

Oh!
I watch so many.....which are Pixar? I'm sure I've watch em all :)

I wish I was handy then I could make dial blinds myself and save £1500 :(
We've had this damn glass roof for 3 years now (my lovely late dad paid for it for us :() and we still can't use it in Summer as we can't afford roof blinds
The £1500 quite is the cheapest I've found.
We could just do half - just the side that gets most sun but I'm worried that will look a bit...naff?

X post Wreck yes we do pay for official classes when we miss them, and if I do a regular group class (I may be doing a recorder club kill me now and an art class) I would ask for payment for the full course as that's much cheaper per pupil and if hardly anyone turned up it wouldn't be worth it.

I will be stepping up the officialness of it all very soon so may write out a policy etc. I still need to register I know that sounds awful - but I have checked with HMRC info and due to the time I started my deadline is October this year. I'm being really paranoid and am worried about registering while I'm still on sick leave IYSWIM? :( Even though technically I am only signed off from my 'proper' physically demanding job, it's not that I can't work, it's that I can't do THAT job because of the manual handling. If that makes sense. Aaargh. Am I being daft?!

Pixar is Toy Story, Cars/Planes, Wall-E, Monsters inc, Up, Ratatouille and a few others :)

I think it sounds fair enough from what you put makes sense for you

That's a bummer badders

£3.99 on some washing tablets, I stupidly forgot to call at Aldi so these are from the local shop.
£60 tack shop on various shite for the pony.

DD is back from snowboarding tomorrow, I've missed her like mad, Messenger is not the same.

The pony has been a good boy and was used for a lesson today, I was a bit like 'you want to take HIM out, of all the ponies you could use?', but he was obviously pleased to be out of the field.

Risotto for tea.

I think we're going to be out of this thread by the time April starts :o

Forgot yesterday's spends -
£4 DH got some snacks, and a birthday card for his stepmum. Already had a stamp.

Hello. H and I are about to move into separate houses & have the kids 50/50, and it's going to be really tricky financially. I'm in a strong position, I know - no debt, interesting FT job with promotion prospects, looking to buy a house - but I'm still not sure how I'm going to make ends meet. I also want to start saving again. (We have savings, but they will all go in deposits).

I don't think I'm frivolous and I'm already doing all the obvious things - no takeaways, no booze, no coffee out, no branded products etc (except for Yorkshire tea!) - but I'm going to have to make much bigger cut backs.

Is this the right thread for me to be asking for your top tips, or should I be looking elsewhere? Thanks in advance!

This is definitely the right place! This is a perfect time to join topcashback and quidco if you haven't already as you'll be buying new things/opening new accounts for broadband etc/new insurance policies and you may well be able to get a fair amount of cashback. Also a good time to switch bank accounts for £100-£150 cashback depending on which one you go for.

How many dc do you have? Must be a difficult time for you but you sound positive

Do you have a budget in place for things like food etc and know exactly what all of your direct debits will be?

Someone will have some much better advice than me I'm sure!

Totally the right thread Light The links in this op are useful. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/a2270347-Frugal-January-everyone-welcome?msgid=51923238#51923238 There's lots of really good tips on those zombie threads. If you're setting up new utility accounts you're in a good position to open a topcashback account and get lots of cashback.

Badders Panda 3 is already on 123 movies.com some people have already watched it. What are dial blinds?

£8 on zylkene tablets for the cat.

Need Has she been homesick?.

Thanks, wreck! 2 dc, aged 10 and 13. It's difficult, but both H and I are more than ready to move on! Thanks for the links, fluffy. I'll check them out right now.

I'm planning on switching to Nationwide, if it's still offering cash back. I have a draft budget based on what we're currently paying for utilities, etc. I'll look into Topcashback and Quidco.

This is my newbie-frugallista plan so far: meal planning; make do and mend; packed lunches; flask; NSDs; Aldi for shopping; washing clothes on lowest temp; turn appliances off; utilities switching; growing tomatoes & herbs; recording spending; using slow cooker; soup; batch cooking; cycling/running to work (saves £67 pcm & there's a shower there); using vinegar/bicarb for cleaning; trying SkintDad's 1p saving challenge...

I have subs for Audible, Amazon Prime, National Trust & English Heritage - I'm assuming I'll be ditching all of them, except NT if I can make the numbers work, as we do use that throughout the year. (Oh my god. I am ridiculous. I'll walk to work & patch my clothes, but don't make me surrender my National Trust card! ).

At the moment Yorkshires offering £150, the deal expires tomorrow though. I'm with them until another deal comes up.

Then soon as you have the £150 you can switch to another bank, then another.

You can join new zealend heritage, it's £46 for joint, and that gets you in nt and eh but some sites charge parking. There's a rumour they might change that but I can't find solid info anywhere.

Hotukdeals is a good site, I found it a bit random at first but it's fab.

If you buy a nus card I heard primes only £59. Yet to do that . Before you surrender it buy a 1200 bag of Yorkshire tea if they do it. I think I've seen it in Costco before now.

Welcome Light! Agree it's totally the right thread :o

I'm really curious about switching banks. How does it even work? With direct debits and online stuff? I'm so I've never switched - I've been with NatWest since I opened my first account age 11ish... I'm nearly 30 FFS

Pm me if you want to join E-Rewards, I get all my nectar points off them.

It's a non ref link but it's usually invitation only.

www.ybonline.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/switch-offer?icid=INT_000032

Quick do it now. Or later. But before tomorrow night.

They do the switch, you just have to fill a form out that they post to you. They'll send you new cards and Internet log in details.

It's so easy.

Quidco Premium or just Quidco? I could be buying white goods from AO via Quidco, so I could be spending a fair bit.

Hi all!

Today was not a nsd. I paid for the car service. £404. Gulp. But it's done and it needed doing. And we had savings to cover it.

fluffy I'm not sure if you're question re work/total refurbished was directed at me and my bathroom. But in case it was, yes. Total refurb.

We've been here for 5 years and I hated the icky blue tiles when we moved in. So those are going. We want to move the things about a bit (swap toilet to where bath is and vice versa). And put in a more eco friendly toilet and towel heater. And more storage.

It needed doing before it leaked to be honest. It's half gone (Dh had a go last year at removing it and got bored...) and I'm dying to have a bath (he took away the pipe thing connecting the bath drain to the floor drain. So if I was to have a bath and then drain it we'd end up with wet floorboards. Again). I've budgeted £6k all in which I think is doable.

Today's dinner is freezer chilli (I think. It's either chili or a spag Bol...must buy a sharpie to write on the boxes...)

I'm looking. To see if I actually need to do a good shop tonight or whether we can eak it out until next Tuesday. Hoping for the latter.

Welcome newbies!! I've learnt loads from this thread and have managed to get my spending under control. The best advice I was given was to print the last few months bank statements and to really look at them to see where your money is going. I had a shock.

Walked home today. 252km into my 1000km this year. Must ramp this up!

Balances £130 my ac. £1945 joint ac (Dhs money went in) and £0.00 credit card.

Welcome Light I am going with Nationwide for my mortgage and its giving me £500 cashback

Dd has just watched one of the films I got on Amazon called House of Magic which she really enjoyed, it cost £3! link for anyone interested.

Need I am like that when ever dd goes any where, its just too quiet without her here!!

We have had a nice day, kind Gp has signed me off with family related stress for 2 weeks which is great as covers all of the Easter hols! I emailed the holiday club dd was meant to be attending this week and they have agreed to refund the cheque i sent them. Was pleased as they had said originally it was non refundable, thats £95 so worth having.

Spent £8 at the post office, sent a parcel off bought a load of stamps and a birthday card for my friends mums 60th!

Rest of the day spent at my mums playing board games and having a nice walk down to the park, so nice to see dd slowly getting back to her old self

Hi light and welcome.
£11 in sainsburys and 30p on mini eggs
Exciting times girlie.
Ah need it will be good to have DD back.
Speaking of nectar points the double up started today to 5 April

Girlie that's all good news

Em I'll be very jealous of your new bathroom!

Cag switching banks is easy peasy they do it all for you within a week you don't have to do anything apart from change the account that you/dh get paid into

Light I think I'm just normal quidco? I usually find topcashback have the better deal but it's always worth checking both. Topcashback costs £5 a year.

Oh no badders that's rubbish
Light I suspect you don't need all of those subscription until you are on an even keel at least. NT are doing a 12 months for price of 9 at the moment and are quite regular offers.

Yes, the subs are all going to be ditched, babsmam, but NT doesn't renew till Sept (& we paid it in one go last year), & Amazon Prime not till next year (also paid in one go on 1 March), so I'll make the most of those while we still have them, since we wouldn't be able to get £ back if we cancelled now. However, I can easily ditch Audible (£7.99 pcm).

I already feel like I've learned a lot just this afternoon.

Ooh ok I think you may have persuaded me

So is it ok even if I have direct debits in the meantime? And the stuff I've ordered recently that hasn't left my account yet?

And also do you think I can still claim back PPI and packaged account fees after I leave?

Sorry for all the questions I am SO clueless

Lightroom Welcome to the thread. I only joined a few days ago myself. You seem really positive and are doing all the right things. Think I'll also go back and check out the links in the post that Fluffy links to above.

Cag I was under the impression that you had to register with HMRC as soon as you start earning money from your business, so you might want to double check that. I registered about three weeks after going self employed as I'd brought some money in. Also, if you're concerned about registering while on sick leave, can you check your contract to see what your employer's rules are? With my old employer, employees weren't allowed to undertake work in any capacity while on sick leave (I checked as it was a possible option for me). Double check - you don't want to get into trouble. Sounds like a really exciting business though!

Badders That's rubbish that you don't get paid in the holidays and really tight of them to not give you a contract until after Easter.

I've spent £2.55 today on milk, a loaf, reduced price sausages and reduced price Warburton's toasted teacakes. I've put the milk into Shopitize so I'll get 25p back from that further down the line.