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.

Wow, I had really fallen off this thread!

Spends today:
€2 canteen
€40 pre holiday waxing
€4 coffee for work as I forgot to buy it in weekly shop.

Spends yesterday:
€12 lunch for Dsis and me.

Yikes I don't go on MN for one day and have loads to catch up on! DS' birthday yesterday, had a lovely time :)

The sleepover was good thanks except hardly any sleep! Lots of gin and no hangover

I've got so much washing to do as have had to do all the bedding etc in case of fleas. I really don't think we have any in the house though as we had them ears and years ago with a cat and we definitely knew about it.

Today we met up with a work friend who has dc the same age and picked blackberries, had a picnic, walked around the polo fiends and went to the playground.

The dc have been much better behaved today thankfully

NSD. My first for ages!

Nsd here too!

That's a lovely treat north to have spending money like that. I have a Husqvarna sewing machine and it's fantastic and never snags the thread. I got it used from a sewing magazine for-sale page. I love it.

£7 odd in post office, it was Special I needed, not Recorded.
Nearly £15 in Holland and Barrett, I'm trying their walnuts to see if they are fresher than supermarket. I've been spoilt by proper fresh nuts while living abroad and really miss them.
£2.35 in coffee shop as I have escaped come out with DH or DDS
£9 worth of Boots points spent on more cold sore cream. The Boots Antiviral cold sore treatment is fantastic, IMO.

Oh collie, what's up?
That's fab north. Let us know how you get on as I keep thinking of saving my spends for a sewing machine or a kitchen aid/ kenwood but keep spending it.
Sounds fab wreck, are you still drunk or does gin agree with you.

LSD, less than£10 at the post office.
Toying with keilder winter wonderland but it's £££££

I'm trying to sort out home insurance for next year and wondering whether to include accidental damage or not? Does anyone here have any opinions? It's unlikely we would claim against insurance for a small claim anyway so I'm not sure we would ever be in the position of claiming for accidental. Thanks in advance for any opinions!

I'm OK I'm no longer a grump :)

I would LOVE to go to Kielder Winter Wonderland. Trying to stop myself from Googling it.

My Nectar balance is already £10.43 already. I've done a few surveys and took part in the bonus Nectar scheme. My balance should increase to £16ish in the next few weeks.

Spent £70 on my weekly shop online but a lot of that will be carried over to the week after so I shouldn't need to buy as much next week. Got the free feta cubes, free squash and the free something else.

That's good collie. Step away from Google. It's a 2 hours drive from us which we could do in a day as the dc are fine in the car. £36 each just for entry x4, £135 for b&b nearby. £195 for the cheapest 1 night on site lodge......££££££

Bertie I do. What if you drop the iron on the carpet? The kids break the tv? You trip over the oven door and it breaks and you end up cracking your kitchen floor tiles? not that I'm a worrier

bertie

We have accidental cover for things like dropping a pan on the induction hob or dropping an iPad.

I don't have it for the building, just contents.

Are you using a cashback site? I did ours the moneysaving expert way this year, it's on their website. It's boring but we got buildings and contents, £25k in valuables, my ring and dhs watch insured outside the home, legal cover and accidental damage for £130, £100 after cashback.

£15 on McDonald's
£5 on coffee and parking
£14 on top up shop. I might try and squeak that to last till the weekend and then do another tiny shop.

£30 of that is covered by Dh so not too bad.

Anyone know where is best value for dishwasher salt? I bought the cheapest aldi tabs but j need some salt.

Thanks for the responses; I know that all these accidents can happen but I also know (from experience ) that claiming against house insurance only pushes up the premium so you don't save much money in the long run, therefore if an accident happened, we would probably suck up the cost. Obviously we would claim if it was thousands but the accidental damage seems to cover more minor incidents. But I'm afraid I'm wrong about that and maybe should include it.

I'm trying to get a good quote but I'm in Ireland so could only find one company that did cashback and their quotation was v expensive. I'll look up money saving expert though, thanks for tip

Collie, sorry you had a shit day. Hope things improve.
Methen ..I post my frugal goals because I know I will look at them and can't ignore them and feel obliged to report on them here at the end of the month. I helps to keep me motivated.
Lifelong ...hope Fil is better soon.
Just been blackberrying. They are not quite ready yet but I picked what I could. Just 3/4 lb.
I hope to go again next week as a friend with a large field with blackberry hedges has said to help myself......but now I have been called to mind DGCs for three days. So I will be away. Then up to Scotland working.

I have some cooking apples that I want to freeze. I will probably use them to make apple and blackberry jam, or use them in chutneys. Do you think it is better to cook them and then freeze them or, freeze them uncooked?

NSD! Been to see the in-laws, had a lovely day and they gave us lunch and bought us all ice creams in the park. Very tired now, will catch up on thread later.
GBBO tonight - yay!!

bertie that's precisely why we don't have accidental damage cover. In fact, we now get the highest excess we can as we would only claim if the damage was £600+. A few years ago some water was leaking in to dd's room and so I rang the insurance company to ask whether it would be covered by our policy. We decided against claiming as it turned out the repair was simple and not expensive. The following year our premium was hiked right up because we had made that phonecall, we were then considered "high risk". At that point we had been homeowners for 15 years and had only ever made one small claim. Can you tell it still annoys me?

I'm at the cost of the Kielder Winter Wonderland. These things only really started when our two were getting older so we've never considered them but I wouldn't at that price. Love the area though so I can imagine the setting would be stunning.

Dh has been sent to get sugar for jam making on his way home from work, I need space in the freezer!

Well, most excitingly for me, the deed is done and I have ordered a sewing machine. I had already got a shortlist and tried them out in the shop a few months ago when I knew the money was a possibility. So I am getting a lovely, sparkly, new Janome machine, This is it. There was a more expensive one but I would have needed to add money to get that and I'm not at all sure I'll use the 60 stitches on this one never mind the 400 on the other so plumped for this one. It will be delivered on Friday so I'll report back then.

lifelong how's your FIL doing? Well done on the NSD's everyone.

£1.50 on bus into town, £12 in Boots (mostly for nipple shields). Bought some jeans in Next for DC1 and a swimming costume for DC2 for holiday but used a voucher for both.

We always get accidental damage on insurance - we DH cracked our bathroom sink recently and had to claim for that.

Hi all

Collie do you need some I always find that lifts my mood some what

I finished work a bit early today as had a banging headache, have gone to bed for an hour and feel a bit better although slightly spaced out!

Had some drama here last night, one of the houses out the back of mine was on fire everyone was hanging out of their windows to watch what was happening. Gutted for the poor people whose house it was but from a purely selfish point of view I did get to watch lots of firemen doing their thing for a couple of hours Am hoping one of my neighbours might find out what happened and what started the fire, its your worse nightmare really isn't it afaik no people were involved or hurt.

NSD today.

September is the month when I start to think about Christmas, am really struggling with what to get dd this year. I did wonder about a keyboard, any one know anything about them? Cag?

Need can you remember when your dc started to wear deodorant? I think dd probably needs something as have noticed her clothes are starting to smell a little bit by the end of the day am not sure what to start her with, might go and have a look in Boots tomos....

Oh gosh Girlie, that sounds awful for the poor family. I wonder what started the fire. I think maybe about Y7 for DD, although it's hard to remember. And it was so kind of Impulse type thing, ie deodorant rather than antiperspirant. She uses a sporty one now, but shaves her armpits, which probably helps, although your DD is way off that.

How's your FIL life?

Boo to the crap morning collie

I don't use dishwasher salt Mummy, never have. My pots are clean!

Frugal win indeed North on the meat, well done. Farm shop meat is often so much nicer too.

Spends
£10 M&S, half price chocolates for Christmas.
£45 Nails, toes, and eyebrows, lovely autumnal rust colour.
£13 joining running club.

Ooh Need, picture of the new nails please. That rust colour sounds fab!

Creme....

Creme....

We have accidental because we've got stuff we can't afford to get replaced if it gets damaged. Tv, sofa, footstool, glass table...

Dishwasher salts to clean the resin in the water softener in the dw, if it gets too limescaly the dw can break down, you can check the water hardness on your water providers website. If it's low you don't need salt.

I'm Midlands so our water is basically liquid limescale. North England's got lots of soft water areas, as has Wales and south Birmingham.

try You can do either because the freezing will break down the cells in the apples making them mushier. You could buy one of those aldi pie makers and have lovely apple pie all winter.

I'd be wanting to know the cause of that fire girlie.

£70 nail tech supplies. Nails are expensive.

£10 Aldi but £3 was dhs.

Butcher was closed but found lots of frozen chicken in the freezer so frugal win.

The £4.49 aldi cava is really nice. Nicer than the proseccos you buy. It stays fizzy with a bottle stopper for 3 nights too. I keep drinking it and thinking it can't be nice for that price. I'm testing it for all of you. Next time you need cheap fizzy that doesn't strip your stomach lining you'll think of this cava.

www.free-stuff.co.uk Jus rol bake it fresh on this page. £1 off. I haven't printed mine but if Sunday morning pain au chocolat are wrong I don't want to be right.