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.

Sounds like a nice recipe unescorted, I might borrow that one, haven't made a curry in ages.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend, great to hear you and DD are home Italian.

Apologies for double post; my phone told me that the first one hadn't posted.
Is rice food poisoning terrible fluffy? I reheat rice all the time, didn't realise till recently that I wasn't supposed to!

Spends today:
€65 in hairdresser
€6 coffee and scone, far too expensive and the scone was far too sweet, I won't go back to that place again.

Still have to buy a voucher for DSIL's birthday, and something from deli for lunch.

Fluffy you have a good memory for rice. I'd forgotten all about that article. I'm still buying massive bags of Tilda rice. Oddly, I get on really easily with cooking rice 'till it's fluffy, but I just boil it for about a decade. To be exact here's what I do:

• fill a pot with water
• bung in the rice
• heat it until the water is just boiling and there's a worrying looking grey scum floating on the top.
• pour all the water down the sink and keep the rice
• fill the pot with cold water and pour the water down the sink over and over until the water comes out clean
• Fill the pot with boiled kettle water
• simmer the rice on the hob for a long long time until it looks like a sheep.

Totally unfrugal probably but tastes nice. Sorry for the energy wasting.

My rice always comes out okay too. I rinse it with cold water, chuck it in a pan, pour boiling water over it, bring it to boil, turn it down and let it simmer for 10-12 minutes, drain, rinse with hot water (what's left in the kettle from boiling earlier), fluff with a fork and serve. This is based on Basmati; obviously, brown rice needs longer.

On my way to meet old friends for lunch. £9.70 for my bus ticket and I'm putting Costa lunch on my card, as I have less than 50 pence cash until Monday.

At least there's method in your rice cooking, DM just bungs it in without measuring and boils it.

Bertie Apparently rice food poisening is awful. I think that's why the recipe says to rapidly cool with cold running water in a sieve.

That's right Fluffy. When I did microbiology at University they taught us never ever to reheat rice. They said there's a special bug that comes in rice and that all rice is tested for the bug when it's imported. They said that in spite of that, we really must not ever reheat it.

I really wish that photo of the poor wee syrian kid was not in the mumsnet side bar. He looks just like ds's best friend and it's freaking me out.

It's an awful picture isn't it? The worst bit is that that kid is one of the lucky ones.

Yes I suppose so. I've moved mumsnet to a different browser and resized the window so I don't see it. I figure that making me sad is not helping that kid.

£25 for riding lesson.

£44 at coop for things for dinner.

Sesame slow cooked chicken is in the slow cooker and is doing its thing.

I've also just realised I have no rice. Bugger. So will have to go back to the shop. Sigh.

Hi, I've not been well today and have missed my best friend's dd's birthday party, her dd is same sort of age as my dc. Dh went along and will no doubt come back tipsy.
I bought a newspaper so only spent £1.50

That bat is mental...

Love the bat!
Also loving the sounds of everyone's dinner. My friend is an environmental health officer and says rice is almost always the culprit when people get food poisoning from take aways. She said virtually every take away batch cooks rice and reheats it for each order so never to reheat rice from a take away as it will have been reheated once already.
Spent £63 in Sainsbury's mostly on warmer clothes for DD plus DH bought a lovely shirt, all 25% and I got £5 of Nectar points with a voucher. I'm planning to use my Nectar points this year to buy Xmas presents when the October toy sale is on.

I just noticed that Tilda brown rice in 5kg bags is only £11 in Ocado, for an amount that would be £25 in Tesco. I did the whole order and then got to the last page and they were out of the rice, so I had to cancel. Ratso.

Thanks for reminding me to buy rice Em.

Annoying, AGenie. Had a good time with my old friend and her children. She paid for lunch in Costa and then I paid for coffees for us and cakes for everyone. £11.60, as I had points worth £2.45 on my Costa card to use.

Then it all got a bit spendy. I had a pair of trousers my mum bought DS in Primark to exchange, which I did, and somehow spent £39.30 in there. Then £3.99 on a new make-up bag in New Look, as the zip on mine is broken and £13.65 in Wilkos. Total: £68.54. Ouch!

That would annoy me too Agenie

NSD

£3.67 on rice and haribo and £11 on beers for later. I'm sure people will bring beera but didn't want to not have any just in case. Dh has cleaned the house. I found a video on Fb this morning about a guy who thinks his washing basket and coffee table are magic because they clean for him. I tagged Dh in it.

He also wanted to know was there any washing he could do "for me". have let that one slide. It's his birthday on Wednesday. So he's buttering me up for a present....

I always buy booze just in case people forget to bring a bottle.

Had ds1 6th bday parties today was a sports day party in the garden just about missed the rain great fun had by all kinder eggs for egg and spoon race was great, cheap water bottles labelled with names instead cups def do again. I made the cake it was v v chocolatey - triple layer choc sponge with butter icing in each layer, choc fudge sauce rou d edge to stick choc fingers on and dairy milk melted on top then decorated.

Everyone had great time

That cake sounds amazing!

Ok, I think I need to start being more careful with rice

£3.50 on swimming, not bad for a Saturday.

I am considering buying a mooncup but can't decide if I'll get on with it. Feels like a big investment when I spend 45p on pads in aldi. I don't know if you remember me (under another name) posting about saving money on sanitary products. I've been using the aldi night towels and they are fine and don't appear to be fragrances but I still get sore these days.

Snuggly I haven't had any I can still smell choc from making it and cutting iit for guests today I used 1lb butter on icing and fudge sauce! It was made to my almost 6yr old instructions

Wow!

mummy If it makes you comfortable then buy one. You can't be sore several days a month until you hit menopause.

That cake looks lovely East. Your ds obviously knows his own mind when it comes to cake.

I've made dhs pizza with pastry by mistake.