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.

£15 in a card, £20 bar spends, £1.60 parking today. Fil still in but looking better. No sign of discharge though.

Nice pram Italian, good of your parents to help too.
Liking the box art wreck. Hope your aches go soon
Girlie do you have a builder's merchant nearby. Could you get a big bag delivered? Think our front garden took at least a 1 ton bag and it's not huge.

Well I thought dinner was Dh. Dh said it was 'fine' and the dc only ate it when we fed them

girlie yeah. It should be included in your rent. But email anyway as they can sometimes take years to employ a management company. We still don't have one allocated to our development! £114 in credit is amazing!

Must do our meter readings. scared

Girlie £114 in credit, that's amazing, perhaps ask them to reduce you DD.
Italian, lovely about your pram and so kind of your parents. You can always sell the other one when DD no longer needs it, if you have room to keep it that is.
Wreck, hope you get better soon
This was going to be NSD 2, but I had to buy fuel £63.52, but will get quite a bit back in mileage. No choice as would have run out on motorway and I am never buying fuel on the motorway.
Came home tonight to find another bucket of apples by my front door. These are the best of my neighbours' windfalls. Damaged but still good. I am going to peel, cut and freeze them.

It's been a long day! Returned some items to B&Q for a refund and bought a spirit level and a plug socket which cost considerably less than what we returned so that was good. Nipped in Sainsbury's for a few things we'd forgotten/run out of. We've been so disorganised with food lately, I've always been good at meal planning, sticking to a list and making one shop last all week but lately we've been doing at least one top up shop a week, it's really not good.
Need to get lunch and other things ready for work tomorrow but can't face it yet.

£70 on rings being resized
£45 on new jackets for ds1 and Dh
£22 on bin bags (100)

We've moved to the cheaper aldi dishwasher tablets and they are brilliant. In sure someone here told me they were better than the more expensive ones and they are! I was a finish quantum girl but these are absolutely fine.

Got myself some new nail polish in boots using points. Nice free treat!

Dinner was slow roast pork shoulder and I'll get two more meal out of it. The hardest bit is stopping the family eating the lot today! I also made a German Apple cake that will last us s few days.

£7 lunch and coffee.
£17 takeaway.

We had to do a dash to a+e at 7am hence spends. Luckily mil paid parking.

girlie Well done on the electric bill. Yy to lowering the DD at your new house. Cats wee outside the tray if their stressed, suffering with a uti or if you change the litter and they don't like it.

Hope everything is ok fluffy

Yes thank you life. It seems to be quite the week for it.

Oh dear, Fluffy. Not a good start to Sunday morning.

girlie, yes, it comes out with the rent :)
italian, love the pram, it's fab!
wreck, are you ok?!
fluffy, hope everything os ok :)

Apples!!! Yum! I am going back to work tomorrow, hope one of my colleagues is going to brong apples in again. I love bramleys!!!
Is that what you have, mummy , trying and Lilac?
snuggly, go now so then you can watch Poldark!
collie, I only just discovered which meters are mine

Oh my life I blew the budget!!!! £178 in flippin' Ikea, that place is dangerous.
I needed shades for hallway and DD's room. I bought frames for my artwork, they will go up this week (6 frames!). I bought DD a sheepskin for her chair, a magnetic board for her room, some collapsable shelves, a couple of boxes for the kallax to hide the shoes and handbags, cereal boxes, a lunch box, some lightbulbs, napkins, shelves for my mugs, some candles, a couple of flower pots...looking back, it's all stuff to make the house a bit more homely, it is a bit sterile at the moment.

I also went and bought DD hockey equipment and a couple of pairs of trainers for PE, £80.
Beans on toast for the rest of the month!!!

Oh no Fluffy hope you are o.kay?

Yes I wondered about those reasons, the litter is the same as it normally is, don't think its a UTI as no blood or other symptoms which leaves stress as a possibility I suppose. Although God knows what he has to be stressed over will keep an eye on him (am 99.9% sure it would be my boy cat!)

Thank you Collie and 8 that would make sense!

8fence ..half of mine are Bramleys and the other half are mongrels ( lovely though) . The village seems full of apples at the moment and everyone is giving them away. I have put three dwarf apple trees in the garden, which won't fruit for about another 18 months or so. Don't think I should have bothered.
Hope you're ok Fluffy, not a good start to the day, but as long as it works out well it doesn't really matter.
8fence...IKEA should come with a health warning. I have never yet gone to IKEA and only come out with the things on my list. The problem is the layout of the shops where you have to go one way. It's worth it for the food though.

When ours has uti there's no symptoms apart from weeing on stuff. There's no lethargy or loss of appetite. Or blood.

But if he's never done it before it could just be an accident.

Hope everything's ok fluffy

8 I bloody love ikea always spend loads especially in Southampton as I have to go to west quay and TGI's too

Thanks for the well wishes my whole left side hurts and 60mg of codeine hasn't helped but I'm sure it's all just muscular

Last day of the summer holidays tomorrow so haircuts for the dc. Have a friend coming for lunch but forgot to get anything specific hope I can russell something up.

Hope all is ok fluffy.
Lovely pram italian!
Great news about your electric bill girlie

NSD here. Spent day with the PIL which was lovely. Now just catching up with chores and doing a few surveys, then heading for an early night - both DC were little monkeys last night so am shattered!

Jealous of all the local Ikeas. Our local IKEA is up in Bristol - a 340 mile round trip. When we lived nr IKEA we frittered SO much money. It's probably best I stay living down in Cornwall.

Hope you're OK fluffy

Just ate 3 cookies that were 114 calories each. it was far too easy!

Did the meter readings and we're £60 in credit! Not bad at all.

So this week's plan is
Monday: NSD
Tuesday: LSD £10 budget
Wednesday: LSD £10 budget / Weekly shop £65 limit
Thursday: NSD
Friday: NSD

Term starts tomorrow here. I asked ds what he is looking forward to most and he said "Christmas". That's going to be a while coming then.

Term starts here tomorrow too. I dsrent ask Wilf what he is looking forward to! I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine and getting used to not using my car unless absolutely necessary. This week I'll drive tomorrow as ds2 has swimming, Wednesday I have to go to physio in another town and Wednesday evening I will need to do a food shop for ds2's birthday. Dh is going to cycle to the station on Tuesday to trial that. Usually i would drive to and from preschool or nursery every day and just get in the car for anything. Really need to stop being so reliant on cars.

All our savings currently are towards Dh having to go into London every day. We will have to pay for a season ticket for £5-600 a month. I'm trying to find a way of doing that without us really losing a lot of quality of life or saving. Cutting my monthly fuel bill from £150 to £75 and considering going to one car would be a good step.

Nsd!! Wooooo!!

Brilliant about your electric girlie
Your walk on beach sound lovely collie
We went for breakfast with some friends at local cafe(it's closing soon as we live in a tourist spot) owed brekkie to one person & her daughter was there too so €40 spent it fed us up to dinner time though. We went to playground & spent some time looking at waves too.

Batch cooked after that so now have a roast chicken, slow cooked cheesy bacon potato cubes, mashed carrot, potato & sweet potato, and sausage stew. And have some chicken & chorizo stew left from yesterday plus a portion of beef stew from today's dinner.

Agreed to purchase a river island clutch bag from Facebook on Tuesday for €8, it will match my dress & shoes for wedding in a few weeks.

Forgot to post meal plan when I shopped on Friday but will do if I get time tomorrow.

Can't remember who posted goals for the month but totally pinching the idea:

September Goals

• packed lunch at least 9/10 days for myself, DH and eldest DC (though will be aiming for 10/10).
• no more than £5 on midweek food top up
• collect £10 from opinon surveys (on £2.35)
• collect £20 from topcashback (on £13)

-stay out of (charged) overdraft. -Have saved £150 by end of month. -make £30 from selling unused things (made £6 today)

Would be great to hear all of your goals for September.

September

Stick to budgets for fuel / food / other spending
No unnecessary driving
No Christmas spending until spreadsheet is updated
List coats and dresses on eBay
Start doing opinion polls again.

Meal plan

Sunday - roast pork
Monday - pork hash
Tuesday - fish fingers
Wednesday - pork fajitas
Thursday - squash risotto
Friday - chicken satay and rice

I can't remember if I set my September goals (doesn't bode well, does it?)
20 days till payday.
I'll try and do 10 NSDs in these 20 days.
I had a NSD yesterday and I think one on Friday too, but I can't remember. Must do better!!!!!

We start school on the 8th, yay!!! In with a chance of training her to wake up before 11 am!!!

Menus

Monday: lunch- pasta with tuna and whatever was in the fridge. Dinner omelette (got some fresh eggs from a farm nearby).
Tuesday falafel with pitta bread and salad (enough for lunches on wednesday too)
Wednesday lunch sandwiches and curry (dahl) with naan bread for dinner
Thursday macaroni cheese (from the freezer)- lunch quiche
Friday home made pizza
Saturday soup with croutons and parmezan
Sunday homemade chips and some sort of meat for DD