Frugaleers chatting and saving even further into August...

[AGenie]

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.

€8.30 on mixers for a night in with dh's sil, his sister in law to be, dh & his oldest two sons. I've got everything else I need here, the boys will need beer they can get it themselves

I am determined to be mindful of my expenses.
I have friends for lunch tomorrow, I am making a courgette and baby toms quiche with salad and new potatoes.
For brunch on Monday I am serving pancakes, fruit, omelette and fresh bread.
And for afternoon tea I am making buns with 'something' (not sure what) and several cakes.

All this without spending anything. I hope.
I had an NSD yesterday, I am hoping for 72h NSD.

Trying I think you're right about Tesco. I'm keeping shopping there because I've been a regular since I was born and I want to see them back on their feet. They've been good to use over the years.

So far, NSD. An old friend and her DS are coming to spend the weekend, so excited about that. We might go to a park that has a cafe today or they might just want to chill, in which case it'll definitely be an NSD.

Goodness, 8FencingWire, that sounds great. I wish I had more talent/patience for baking.

Good result on the chest freezer, Trying.

I just tried to haggle with a car dealer and asked if he could match the best quote I'd found online. He just told me that it wasn't on for me to ask for a test drive with him and then go and buy cheaper elsewhere and he wouldn't stand for it. He said they are a small dealership and they couldn't match the price and that was that. I thought we were meant to haggle in car shops. I'm confused now.

The car is £3000 cheaper online than in my local dealer. Dh said maybe it didn't matter but I think £3000 really does matter.

£3000 would matter to me too. Salesman are utter cunts.

Car shopping is so complicated. The LED lights on the dashboard disagree with my eyes, and the spring triggers on the auto gear stick mess up tendonitis in my wrist. If, by some miracle I find a car that I can drive without actual bodily injury, it's such a faff dealing with the salesmen. Maybe I should just stick to a bicycle.

€8.30 on mixers for a night in with dh's sil, his sister in law to be, dh & his oldest two sons. I've got everything else I need here, the boys will need beer they can get it themselves

£3000 is a massive difference, was the mileage similar?

I've test driven two cars recently- one the salesman could do enough for me & the other didn't really even try sell the car to me. Oddly though the latter is probably who I'll end up buying from

Met preschool teacher, she has a space for ds in January
He'll go 5 days per week term time until sept 18 when he starts school my baby's growing up

agenie I'd always haggle with car people. Always.

Over here we basically have one place to buy cars. There are loads of garages but are all owned by the same company iyswim. So there is no real pricce comparison to be done.

My car is clean. Sort of. Cleaner than it was. I hoovered it

Bloody phone just made me lose my post...again!
Have made it out to the shops, spent £35 in Sainsbury's on top up stuff plus our "takeaway" for tonight. Then went to Next and finally bought the ceiling light we've been eyeing up for months. It was £120 plus another £6 for bulbs. We now need an electrician to sort out the hall and landing light switches which don't work and he can put it up for us. We also need to change the light fitting in one of the bedrooms so it would make sense to buy that light too and get the electrician to do the whole lot in one go.

Am in bed having a cup of tea and a rest. My head still hurts. DH was surprised I got up at all today as I was so ill overnight, he was planning what to do with DD. If I'd known that I'd have had a duvet day!!

They grow up quickly Lilac...sadly..

I agree, £3000 is an awful lot of difference in price. Was it the same car? Significantly younger, higher spec, lower mileage? Or simply a small dealership. And you did nothing wrong at all AGenie, of course you should have had a test drive. Prat.

Car sales people are there to be haggled with. DH is undisputed King of Deals for cars.

I've dropped DD and DH at Leeds Fest and have been busy turning the study into a snug. DH and neighbour carried the existing furniture into the garage for me.

Spends were £40 on 3 ornamental goblets for said room, and I gave DH some cash for the festival. It's exceedingly wet, and awfully muddy and DD has made DH go into the mosh pit

Your menu sounds lovely 8. I have carrot and orange soup on the hob, bubbling away for DS and me to eat for tea. Homegrown carrots too.

AGenie £3000 is a lot of money to most people. of course you should haggle. Maybe you should save the £3000 and spend it on getting a car adapted specifically for you. He sounds like a moron.

Right, am buying clothes online tonight. I look ridiculous in clothes far too big for me. And they are uncomfortable too.

Hello been a busy weekend working and have had family things on in the evenings, all lovely but quite hectic! Seems to be quietening down now though finally.

Ystd was a NSD and today spent £10 on some fresh foods to top the fridge up.

Have been paid thank God! August was so expensive what with the house, going away and the summer hols, in theory Sept should be a bit better. Although have just remembered that my registration fee's are due so thats £120 I think.

What clothes do you fancy Collie?

Are you enjoying being a home owner Girlie? You seem to have been sooo busy lately!

Off to the beach for BBQ. Have bought burgers and a spiral sausage. And some beers for Dh.

I'm not drinking until October. So have packed some delicious berry water could murder a cold San Miguel right now

Spends today £19 in the coop for BBQ things

£25 riding lesson

Agenie

You can get autos with the gear shift on the steering column, it's odd at first but you get used to it. You just flick up for reverse, down for drive and push a button at the end for park. Much easier.

It is totally fair to have test drives, people order high spec cars and cancel them literally a fortnight before they arrive leaving dealerships with over specced cars in unfortunate colours.

Spent £60 on food today but got £7 coming back from checkout smart. There was a free cheese offer on in sains.

Collie Boden clearance has an extra 20% off this weekend.

Girlie Do you claim the tax back on your professional fees?

Aphrodite Thank you for the codes. I'm considering a lamp too. Must be the day for lamps.

I've earned my first £10 voucher for John Lewis from valued opinions. I have enough now for half a lampshade now.

AGenie, I always haggle when I'm buying a car. I haggle so much that DP won't come with me. I think they expect you to haggle. He's just having a bad day or is a twit.
NSD here, except for chest freezer that DP is paying for. I bought it and he will give me the money.
I have half a ton of courgette and potato soup cooking at present.
If my area is snowed in for a month I will be able to feed everyone soup!
AGenie, TESCO do seem to have cut their range a lot. I shop in ALDI and go to TESCO for stuff ALDI don't sell and recently they have not had what I wanted.
8fence, I like the idea of courgette and baby toms quiche. Think I'll give that a go, thanks

Agenie- I think you are totally right to haggle, especially for £3000 difference! That is a life changing amount for some people (like me).

Today was £87 on Aldi food shop- well under budget but aware I'll need to top up but didn't want to get too much as hopefully borrowing brother's tent to go camping for a night or two. Christmas/birthday gifts came to about £50 but all were bargains so really pleased with that.

Mega bonus was I rang Lloyds to complain about something and they gave me £33 to compensate. Unexpected bonus , sadly issue still not resolved and department who deals with it is closed until Tuesday.

Went to an arts family festival today it was really good, I had already paid for it ages ago, and took a picnic, so essentially a nsd.
Dh went to Lidl using our budgeted envelope money and spent £20.
Leaves us £40 for the week till Friday.

Spent £30 having lunch at Wagamama with DH. We haven't seen much of each other as he's been doing lots of overtime so it was a treat.

Then we had some vouchers (some from our wedding three years ago!) and got a radio for £5 from John Lewis - had £20 of wedding vouchers and got £50 of vouchers as a present. But JL is sooo dear we couldn't decide what to get. Anywho thought a digital radio would be good while cooking.

Going to swim tomorrow, but otherwise a NSD.

girlie, you can pay it quartery from this year. Splits into sept, december, march and july. £30 each. A bit better than £120.

trying, I used onion softened in butter, then the courgette sliced, I added a red pepper, some sundried tomatoes, a handful of chopped basil, a bit of thyme, eggs and some feta and cherry toms on top.
In the pastry I put some grated parmesan in one and poppy seeds in the other one. You can put sesame seeds, or chilly flakes, whatever you fancy.
A bit fiddly and I love the higgidy quiches that you just buy, but I stole lots of ideas from the higgidy book.

I cracked (had no drinks in the house) so I did a Lidl £29.46. One bottle of prosecco, lots of soft drinks, a huge greek pastry, butter, flour, apples, onions, grapefruits, a honeydew melon.
I figured since it's so hot, I can chop it and serve it cold after the quiche.
And for the brunch on monday, I can serve some cold chopped grapefruit.

I am making a brownie, a lemon drizzle and a flapjack tomorrow.

Not long till they go back to school. I've actually really enjoyed having DD at home, feel like she's growing too fast. We've been playing with the kitten and just took it easy, saw friends, first time ever we didn't go abroad, but we enjoyed the peace and quiet and the pottering.

Please tell me off if I spend any more money this week!

NSD for me. Have stayed in, friend came round and we played board games :o

DD was playing out lots, and at bedtime it spilled out that one of the neighbours has been nasty to her again (yes, it's the one I've mentioned before). This time including repeatedly asking her why we don't have more money so we can get a car etc. I thought a 9yo would've outgrown that TBH. We have always made it clear to the DCs that money isn't the most important thing, that actually spending time with each other and just being happy and loving each other is what counts, and in our family we have that in droves! So DD wasn't upset by it IYSWIM, more like "why is she so bothered" etc.