Frugaleers chatting and saving into August...

[ipsogenix]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

Useful links 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.

Allthebest a great help is to go over your previous bank statements to see where you've spent money up to now & keep a spending diary & also record where you thought of spending but didn't eg took picnic instead of spent x on lunch at day out and that might show you where the money is going. Are you including any bank fees & charges? Expenses that don't occur regularly eg new tyres/can of gas/beauty treatments

Ursula love that our dc are still young enough to get excited about special food at home!
Mine think it's great that I prebook cinema tickets online & print out tickets it's loads cheaper

Dh says he's going to treat me to a night away next month out of his meal allowance cheque which he gets monthly but says we'll need to eat at one of your deal places cos I can't afford the whole hog yeah he's finally getting it

We adore our slow cooker here and when our twins were little I used to love batch preparing/freezing meals so all I hade to do was put in frozen meal the night before (defrosted overnight), turn on in the morning and that was it. I used to prepare a week's worth of food in about 40 minutes.

Gutted as got tax credits letter today and overpaid last year so this year they will be reducing our payments by £100 each month which is a huge amount for us.

Tonight my parents our watching 2 of our 4 littles so I am going in loft to get out eldest DC's old toys (playmobil etc) to see what can be given to younger dcs for Christmas to save some £££. Enough of an age gap that they never saw them so will be new to them.

After that I am logging onto YNAB to scare myself with some figures. Talked to hubby and scary thing is that we don't really have a lavish lifestyle so are going to really have to cut back on little things like buying a sandwich out etc.

Spent what we expected today more or less -£85 on new rabbits (and hutch/run etc), no £ on parking for walk but hubby got drink and snack from shop in morning for £2 which is what I'd thought parking would be.

Ursula how much is diesel per litre?
Just comparing to € price

NSD, we went to the zoo using our annual passes and I took snacks with us. We bought the passes for ds1's birthday for the second year and it is so worthwhile. I'm going to start budgeting monthly for it as I suspect we will keep getting them for a few years yet. Knowing there is somewhere to go for "free" is so helpful. We have national trust and a forest pass too (covers parking at the local forest which is otherwise very pricey). It's an initial outlay but cost per use is low and stops me just doing something and paying for it.

Maggie I think writing down/keeping receipts from all your spends for a month is the best way to see what everything gets frittered away on. It is quite scary when you look at it in detail! And both you and DH need to be on board with it. My DH is still a bit of a pain with random spends, but they mostly come out of his personal spends money now.

Maggie sandwiches out don't seem extravagant but when you compare them to how many you could make at home for same cost they are & it's all relative to what you can afford.
Lunch just a sandwich & a drink from shop here comes to €6 so just twice a week is €624 a year that's more than my car insurance costs or it's a brilliant shopping trip.
Being part of this thread & ynab have really helped me become aware of the little things adding up, but also shown me that budgeted or saved for expenditure is far more enjoyable than guilty splurges

I'd go back through your online banking and separate it out. Better to start now and see where the big things are than wait a month. If it is cash or large amounts at the supermarket you can't see precisely but you quickly see how much you are spending on things.

If you have the patience look back over 6/12 months for spends over £100 to see if you're missing annual expenses that are coming out.

Maggie sandwiches out don't seem extravagant but when you compare them to how many you could make at home for same cost they are & it's all relative to what you can afford.
Lunch just a sandwich & a drink from shop here comes to €6 so just twice a week is €624 a year that's more than my car insurance costs or it's a brilliant shopping trip.
Being part of this thread & ynab have really helped me become aware of the little things adding up, but also shown me that budgeted or saved for expenditure is far more enjoyable than guilty splurges

Creme your coach trips sound lovely

Thank you lilacleary it will take me a little time to get used to it I think but It seems like a great way of keeping control of my spending

It's amazing, I'm really starting to realise how spendthrift we've been. On the way home from clinic I went to Morrisons to get a bottle of wine and bunch of sunflowers to take to friends - DS asked for a comic. Usually would have bought it without thinking, but today I said no. He slept in the car on the way home and didn't miss it at all - £4 saved + £15 lunch out. Also went into supermarket and came out with only what I went in for, normally would have spent at least another £15 on random bits.
So today have saved an estimated £34!!!

That makes sense whataboutwhat. I will go through it all properly tonight when DD is in bed.

Argh! Just sorting stuff from loft and lovely doll I bought DD for Christmas has been nibbled by mice! What a waste of £15. Was one of her main gifts to go with charity shop pram etc I bought her. Gutted.

Oh no :( I was gutted when attic-stored stuff got ruined (all my old Enid Blyton books went mouldy)

Argh here too, the bus journey is nearly two hours each way! Damn train strikes! If we hadn't already paid for the workshop we'd leave it, but an opportunity to do this kind of thing doesn't appear often. Need to print maps and make sure we have all vouchers etc. Also need to buy a stamp and post some forms for forest school.

Oh no me that's shit.

Booked ds party, nerf war, £80 need to get party bits but all saved for.

NSD here, hopefully it will be for the whole week.
I got into bed after lighting a candle, putting the fairy lights on, some jazz on and I'm just chilling for an hour or so.

Thank you very much for the dishwasher tablets etc advice, I wouldn't have known what to get, now I have salt and rinse aid as well as tablets. Might seem unimportant, but I's been a great help, I've been thinking and researching and deciding so much, it was nice to just get given the info.

Creme those trips sound fab, Lincoln is supposed to be lovely, somewhere we keep saying we must visit.
I'll keep out of the YNAB chat as I've never tried it, but I agree that to get to understand your spending properly you need to keep a full record of spending for a few months, it can be quite an eye opener.
I've had 2 visitors today, both work colleagues, one brought beautiful flowers, the other a colouring book, felt tips & chocolate.
£36 at Booths & aldi, should see us through to the weekend.
Scaffolding went up today ready for loft conversion to start in the morning

I was actually planning on going through all our monthly spends after the holiday. I tend to do it once a year and it gives us an idea about where we are drifting at... Dds room close to done, only need to put her pictures paintings and stuff up on the walls.

Those coach trips sound great. I have only been to Lincoln twice and the last time I got a speeding ticket. It was a bout 5 years ago though so I have forgiven Lincoln. It was very nice place though. The cathedral wonderful.
Love York though. Have booked to take DGD there for 2 nights later t his month. I have booked the Dig which is connected to Jorvik, so even though Jorvik is closed we will still enjoy it. She's into archeology at the moment.
Collie, please can I have the recipe for the chickpea curry.
And the treacle pudding which sounds wintery and warming I tried the NBC website but I think they have closed it.
Oh, I have started using my dishwasher more and am using only half a tablet, so thanks for that tip.
NSD Monday here....2nd NSD this month. I am trying for 15.
Am trying to get through my frugal list from the last thread.
Hope everyone is enjoying sunny weather. It's very hot here.

Thanks guys. I'm looking forward to them too. It was only £13.50 for Lincoln and £20 for both me and DS for York, so much cheaper than the train, even having the family railcard.

Fluffy, I think it's £800 for the Co-op account, not £850.

Italian, lovely room. The colour the walls look with the light shining on them is similar to the colour on my kitchen/diner walls. It really warms the room up.

I spent another £1.77 in the Co-op after Pilates, on salad leaves, cherry tomatoes (both reduced) and crisps. They had no bananas left, which is what I originally went in there for!

North, hope you're taking it easy there. It's good that your colleagues are thinking of you.

I'm wrong, it's £800

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/debbie-andrew-sausages-free-plus-1-50-profit-after-coupon-cashback-1-50-morrisons-2492721

£1.50 profit for eating sausages.

trying I use this recipe as a basis www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/sweet-potato-chickpea-amp-spinach-curry/#g5UiVlOD5uhSDRid.97 (without the oil) but you can switch it to suit whatever curry you fancy if you have spices / pastes in the cupboard! I use frozen spinach. I nuke the sweet potato first to make sure it's lovely and soft. I probably don't need to. Then I just bung all the other ingrediants in the slow cooker uncooked & it comes out lovely!

The risotto, I just fry up the onion (frozen onion) & risotto very briefly. So that it's a little soft then bung it all in the slow cooker with mushrooms and veggie or chicken stock (about 600ml).

I'm a very lazy cook the less dishes to do after - the better!

Oooh off to check out sofas. I'm getting another chest infection :(

Thanks Collie, that recipe looks entirely doable. I will go and check cupboards for what I have in. Didn't know you could get frozen spinach.