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.

Argh flying ant day!

Snuggly What an exciting result from your scan! I'm thrilled to hear it. Looking forward to hearing more as the days roll on.

Was supposed to be a NSD but last minute back to school purchases came to £26.45 and £10.56 on picnic food for a morning at the the beach.

Going for a NSD tomorrow...

Love the little organiser Katinkka, my sort of thing, rather than YNAB. Might indulge.

I agree Cag, surely your DH's mate will understand, £100 is an awful lot of money, I can't imagine he would want you to go short for his sake?

I've been sorting furniture etc too. Well, I have worked as well, so since I came back. Ton of DH's warhammer on Ebay, and an old camera of DH's. Dog guard for the car on Facebook, and lightshade ordered for the new snug, which was the study. Had an offer of £25 already for the Warhammer.

Will free-cycle the furniture left, it's cheap MDF.

Spends today.

£30 M&S. It's the fruit, the soft fruit in particular that I would rather spend money on than crisps, chocolate and crap.
£90 John Lewis light fitting. Hoping to negate this with the sales mentioned above.

Yes need. I downloaded Ynab and was overwhelmed from the start. I do have an app I generally use to keep track of income but that's it at the moment.

Spent some time today working out a budget. This will be easier to implement when I get my student loan in October. I'm a psychology student atm.

Kept on with writing everything down and happy so far!

Today £8 on lightbulbs and £4 on some bits in Sainsbury's. Have a wedding next week and none of my old clothes fit after DC2 I've lost most of my baby weight, I'm just a completely different shape now! Have some vouchers for various high Street shops so plan to go and look for something tomorrow!

em your holiday sounds like it's been amazing! Hope the flight's ok tomorrow. Welcome all newcomers!

Having budgeted for £100 for dd's school trews ( she is 170cm tall & 61.5 cm around the waist) We managed - after several months (since Xmas) found the holy grail, and only paid £32.... I was prepared to remortgage to get trousers that fitted her & school's regulations. If you have a long tall skinny twig of a dd go to New Look. I am soooo happy - I spent half of the saving on "stuff" in Superdrug.

Kat - try the app/programme called ontrees its pretty simple. And good luck with not spending your student loan!

sierra what size are you - one of us may have something that is suitable. I know I have a dress that I have worn too many times ( 3 times) that I ccould send you if you are a size 12. It is satin turquoise blue, knee length halter neck. Suitable for a wedding, low key day at the races or works christmas party (if you don't mind being a bit cold))

this may out me. So if you do know me...sssshh.

We went to Pisa today. Mostly just for this.

Had a wander round. Had another spritz (prosecco and aperol). Went to h&m bought some new comfy trousers, pj shorts and a dress with panthers on it....it's hilarious and I may have been tipsy when I bought it

€30 dinner - bowl of pasta with lemon zest olive oil and black pepper (yum) and a glass of prosecco and Dh had a veggie pasta.

Cannot wait to be home tomorrow. Really looking forward to sleeping in my bed.

NSD today for me, but DH spent €5 in shop.

NSD today for me, but DH spent €5 in shop.

Great photo em, you look very strong holding up the building!
Sierra, I'm size 10 if you need a dress.

Only spent £5 on parking, and £3 on a birthday present. So very pleased with myself.

Welcome newbies, sorry should have said earlier but twins and kittens took my mind off things.
Italian, I hope your DD is better soon, but better to stay in hospital until they are sure she's ok.
Today was going to be my 6th NSD until I went to the post office. £6.65 for small parcel and 6 2nd class stamps. They are 55p each! When did that happen?
Cag, I agree with the others, can't DH explain to his friend that he made a mistake ?

Em you look gorgeous.

Aww thanks for the dress offers ladies. That's really kind . Tbh, I'm not really sure what size I am. About a 14 on the bottom and I used to be a 12 on top, but I still have bigger boobs with breastfeeding . Have been doing Slimming World and lost almost a stone but my body shape is definitely not how it used to be! Need to rediscover what styles suit me now. Really would like to get back into a size 12 comfortably.

Gorgeous photo em

Fab, Em.

Sierra theres loads of sales on at the moment! I completely understand. I've dropped 2 dress sizes in 6 months. I was saying to DH last night that I have no idea what clothes to wear anymore. In fact, I have been returning clothes all week because nothing I ordered fits. I won't risk buying online again.

Em that's a lovely photo!!

Love the photo Em!

Thanks all, I will see if DH wants to take another look and talk to the friend. It's a bit of a weird situation as DH has been helping them fundraise by approaching companies (kind of an unofficial manager) to get them abroad for this championship thing. It's up to DH really - it's coming out of his budgeted 'personal spends money' (we both have £20 a month each for frivolous spends - DVDs, books etc, he just hasn't bothered spending his for a while unlike me ) so it is 'there' IYSWIM, it's not family money (would be absolute hell to pay if it was!). We don't have any say in each other's use of it (so he can't complain when I buy YET ANOTHER board game that we clearly don't have space for ...) so I'll suggest it, but if he would prefer to use his money to support his friend more than he'd planned, it's his choice so I'll respect it - this would be totally different if we didn't have this personal money and it was coming out of rent/bills money etc.

I actually left the house today, yay! Lovely dinner with a couple of friends. £27 including tip (our waitress was SO funny and nice!), I didn't have a starter, and only one happy hour cocktail (purple rain. OMG. Le Yum. Le. Fecking. Yum.) Spent ages just chatting after. Then taxi home but getting half back from friend. I am achy again now though.

Also booked my birthday thing. I am 30 this year :o and found out today about a play adapted from the book behind one of our favourite anime films! Amazingly the 'preview' tickets were only £12 each, so we're going to opening night (us 4 plus my anime buddy DSD) as it happens to be the day after my birthday! So excited.

I had a bit of an earning day today, which was nice. A neighbour paid me £40 to fix her computer and the bank gave me £25 compensation for the banking error earlier this month. I was quite pleased about that. I'm going to try to pay it into my pension before I get tempted to spend it.

Oh! My pension paying in website is shut at night. Who knew!?

Unescorted great result I love coming in under budget and immediately spending the rest in superdrug.
AGenie love an earning day.
Cag Sounds like a great day and they are of course priceless!
Em You look fabulous.

3rd nsd in a row here, doing that big Aldi shop is really paying off for me.

Up early this morning to see DP off on his 2 ball banger rally, 9 countries in 4 days in an elderly car. Not my cup of tea but he's really excited. I'll be glad to have him home in one piece.

We've managed to keep our joint account out of OD this month last month we paid £84 in un arranged borrowing fees! So if we had not been in OD last month we could have saved £400 this month. Something to aim for next month. ----
I'm keeping a closer eye on all my bank accounts through the phone app and it has helped so much. I didn't really want to "know" before iyswim?
Have a great frugal day all.

Aw you guys thanks!

cag 30ths seem to be celebrated by a theatre trip. We went to London to see the Book of Mormon for mine, and loads of friends did the same (although not the same show).

Home today. I'm secretly glad. Had a nice time but will be nice to be home.

Oh my, I just caught up with the thread properly! TWINS!!!!! Massive congratulations!
Em, enjoy the last day of your hols!
Cagli, which anime is it?

I thought I'd manage an NSD but I changed my address for the car insurance and they charged me £52. Yes, I moved from the country to the town centre (pretty much) but I didn't like it. I have off road allocated parking, we're within a walled development, if anything it's safer here than where we were before. So, come march, I'll be switching and not looking back!
Oh, and I have ordered an organised mum diary, oh my word, how come I never heard of it? Thank you for the recommendation. I am not sure about the spring spine, I don't really like them, but I am very excited about being able to do all my organising in one book. And I think it will help me slow down a bit. Normally, I'd have my moleskine in my bag and whip that out straight away and go scheduling. But if I keep the diary at home I can ponder whether I actually want to etc. This goes mainly for overtime at work!!!

Last night it finally hit my DD that she won't be seeing her old friends from school (we changed her school too) and she was very upset. We're lucky we've known them and their parents for years, we're good friends, so we'll see them often! But she was quite sad!

Yesterday was very nearly NSD. Went for picnic at park (again) but needed two items of food to top up meal planning (£1.40) then bought a football for DS1 in Argos sale (£8).

Today I'm not quite sure of our plans but possibly spending £25 on ready beds (second hand) for camping trips with the kids.