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.

NSD.

snuggly The DIY course sounds good. We still regularly mess up things. Usually because we have the wrong drill bit or the wrong rawplug.

Need oh dear maybe there's something in it then. Mind you for that price they ought to be good.

all I see. I will put it on my list of things to achieve. I really want Roman blinds not wood venetians like we have now.

NSD & we used our New Zealand national trust cards again. Totally in credit with them now because we did pack wood and baddesley Clinton yesterday.

No surveys today apart from one Ipsos survey

NSD and no fuel today or yesterday. I'm getting much better at not just popping out in the car and staying local.

Risotto for dinner. I made the stock from scratch and the chicken will do us four meals. Roast yesterday, risotto, fajitas and then chicken fried rice. All will be more vegetables than chicken but that's not a problem for us.

Swedish dish was lovely and there's leftovers for dh tonight and s portion for the freezer...

Please could someone explain Nectar points to me? We don't have a card as we don't usually shop in Sainsburys. But I'm intrigued by the eBay thing, and surveys.

I'm going to sign up for the other survey sites too. I need a lot of rest time, so I may as well do something that brings in a few pennies. :)

You guys have made me feel grateful for having a dh who can turn his hand to almost any diy task because of this we did most of the work when building our own house and only had a blocklayer, electrician, plumber, roofer and plasterer as tradesmen, everything else we did ourselves. Blood, sweat and tears were shed by the bucketload but it was worth it.

All these natural remedies are interesting. Honey is good for such a lot of things and thyme is also good for coughs.
Disappointing blackberrying trip this afternoon, they are not quite ready here yet but we had a nice walk and an ice cream.

Making pasties and sausage rolls for lunches.

Radio blaring. Dh came into the kitchen and caught me dancing. Bloody radio 1. At least he got a free frugal laugh.

The jam sounds yummy em. DH has also caught me bopping around the kitchen on occasion! We're listening to Kerrang mostly at the moment. It used to be Xfm but that went rubbish when they rebounded to Radio X.

More rubbish DIY'ers here! Fortunately FIL is very good and really enjoys it so will lend a hand.

£12 in Sainsbury's on meat for tonight and tomorrow, plus fruit and green waste recycling bags. Quiet day mucking about in the garden with the DC and picking up the car roof box for our hols in a couple of weeks. Must meal plan for the rest of the week later.

We almost never listen to radio 1. Or the radio for that matter. The only time is in the car in the mornings. I can't stand Nick grimshaw. So we don't listen to the breakfast show and are at work all day.

Today however has been pretty much one continuous mix of tracks. Dance drum n bass hiphop chart stuff cheesy classics all mingled in together. Love love love.

The jam sounds fab! We'll go blackberrying next weekend when the wellies arrive!!

We spent £12 on drinks, pasties and a carpark. It's been a lovely day!

I had a badly infected wound and it wouldn't clear up for months. It was getting worse and when I went to the walk in centre - the nurse smothered the wound in manuka. It cleared up soon after. I'll never forget lying there thinking "oh ffs! the NHS are taking the piss now!" happy to have been proven wrong though.

Turns out DH is away with work for 2 days this week and we both totally forgot. It means I bought far more food than was required. Oh well!

Hi all lovely sunny day here, have done 3 lots of washing and got it all dried which always pleases me

Spent most of the day sorting out the front garden, dd helped loads which was really nice. She is quite a good little gardener! We went to The Range in the end and spent £64, that includes 4 bags of slate, tons of bulbs, lots of plants, compost plus stuff like weed killer and fly killer. Have since realised though that I still need some under layer type thing to put down under the slates will add that to the to get list for Thursday (my next day off.)

Did you make jam today em? Sounds delicious.

Yes manuka honey is fab for all sorts of things but not very frugal, it costs loads!

Going to sit and watch The Amazing Spiderman for a bit now

I mix boiled brown rice with peas and sweetcorn and chorizo and stir it round in a pot until the chorizo makes the rice a little bit coloured and a little bit tasty. Ds liked it a lot right up until he got completely bored with it and refused to eat it ever again. :-)

I just got an email from the boss of that car salesman who told me a couldn't have a test drive the other day. He said how were things going and I told him, as nicely as I could. I wonder if that will help unstick the situation.

I seem to have given myself food poisoning by my own batch-cooking stupidity. Definitely a frugal fail, that. oh well.

Thanks for all the rice dishes. I'll save the suggestions to a word document and then have a look when I'm doing my next meal plan.

Oh dear, Agenie, what did you poison yourself with? Hope you feel better soon.
Just remembered I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow so I need to get cash out, she doesn't take cards.

Gws agenie. Hope you feel better soon.
Well done on the Jam em.

Yes the Dracula was outdoors and excellent. They used different areas of Whitby abbey to tell the story, 3 actors played all the parts and really involved the crowd. There was lots of ad-lib and it was hilarious some of the things the kids came out with. They are back for evening performance at half term so we are going back. If anyone is near Whitby then I would defo recommend it.
£10 ice cream, £5.50 parking and £8 chips. Almost bought a sea salt coat for £90 but not sure. Does anyone have the seafolly short jacket? Or any other

I'm back to work tomorrow, will me luck! At least I don't spend anything when working.

Free wild flower seeds found on Money Saving Expert

Get well soon AGenie

genie feel better soon! X X

Work tomorrow here too. Am being a bit daring tomorrow. Leopard print skirt. Run the risk of going a bit pat butcher...

Ugh have realised that I woefully underestimated how many bags of slate I will need I thought four bags would do it but now realise it will be more like sixteen!!!

Will have a bit of a sop around to see if there is anywhere selling it cheaper.

Place marking
Loving the talks of traditional remedies

Today was a NSD

Hope you feel better soon Agenie
Well done on the jam making Em I'm going to make some damson jam this week with fruit from the freezer.
lifelong the play at Whitby Abbey sounds great.

We've been back from holiday a couple of days now and feeling properly back in the frugal spirit! We were going to go out for a meal with my parents tonight but instead I made a lasagne, dd made a cheesecake and we entertained them here, lots of money saved and just as lovely time had. When I made the bolognese for the lasagne I also did a big batch of chilli which will get frozen.
Inspired by some of the chat earlier on this thread and by the stats always quoted on EWFL I'm going to try to work out what our daily food and drink spend is over the next quarter. I think just knowing I'm monitoring spending so much will bring out the competitor in me and motivate me to be yet more frugal.
Dh goes back to work tomorrow so I'll be making sure he takes food in for his lunches. I'm signed off for another week but just waiting to find out a date for my repeat angiogram & then will decide when is best to go back.
Work on the loft is progressing slowly as the weather has been hampering the builders, but hopefully things will pick up again this week.

Well done on the jam Em, and the sausage rolls.
Natural remedies....the problem with Manuka Honey is that officially the UK imports significantly more than NZ produces. It is not all Manuka even if it is labelled Manuka. It has been proved that local honey from a local beekeeper is just as good, and cheaper. It has all the anti bacterial so I. It and local pollen which is great for hay fever. I use my own honey on wounds and it works a treat.
Bees also collect propolis from trees. It is the sticky stuff on "sticky buds". It is soluble in alcohol (ethanol from the chemist but vodka will do) . It is then called propolis tincture and it is the best thing ever for mouth ulcers. You don't swallow it( unless it's in vodka), just rinse your mouth and spit it out.
Comfrey rubbed on bites, stings and the like is also good. You can buy propolis tincture but just rubbing the leaves on is just as good.

I have got a new freezer, YAY! Have cooked apple pies and an apple crumble from all the apples I was give n yesterday and got lots left. Going to make apple and blackberry jam next week when the blackberries are
ready.
Spent £10.30 at local village fete ( some sponsoring a friend), and £3.19 in co op on milk and soy sauce for courgette soup.

A bit annoyed with myself today. Took a picnic to place we have a voucher for but spent £7.50 on sweets (very expensive traditional sweet shop and lovely eldest DS offered to wait in huge queue for his younger siblings so didn't want to grumble at cost- £1.25 for a small stick of Edinburgh Rock!) Then just spent £36 on Boden sale. Free postage and returns, bought one t-shirt I have in 3 other colours but I wear them pretty much everyday! The other is a bit of a gamble-a pair of trousers. They are potentially the type I've been after for a while but we'll see. Will take top out of my personal budget as not 100% required and trousers (if kept) from clothes budget as do need some for work as only got about 4 pairs on rotation.

Today most likely NSD as I lick my wounds from today although need to renew car tax in next couple of days so might get that sorted.

We have a thing in Europe called "honey laundering". Chinese honey is laced with antibiotics which they feed to their bees as a prophylactic. So it is regularly banned from entry to the UK (probably the EU), but the Chinese send it to a third country, currently Vietnam and it arrives here as Vietnamese honey. But it is analysed and destroyed. A lot of cheap supermarket honey is from China.